Spicy slow cooker chilli con carne

I managed to put this together in the 30 minutes that Sophie napped yesterday - yes!

Preheat slow cooker. Dice an onion. Fry with a little oil and 400-500g minced beef until the beef is browned. Transfer to cooking pot and add a chopped red pepper, four sticks of chopped celery, a tin of chickpeas, a tin of kidney beans, and generous sprinklings of hot chilli powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, and dried basil. Cook for 4-5 hours on high, or 6-7 hours on low. Eat with rice, tortillas, or jacket potatoes.

Christmas 2012 - stuffed turkey leg for two

Christmas 2012 was special for us: it was our first Christmas at home, and our first as a family of three. We had a lovely day of presents, relaxation, food, walking, and remembering the wondrous and amazing truth that Jesus was born as a tiny, vulnerable baby, to save and to rule and to reign.

For our Christmas lunch, we created a delicious and easy stuffed turkey leg. I bought an organic turkey leg from the butcher and had it boned. We chopped a handful of dried apricots, and mixed them with two de-skinned pork and leek sausages to make a stuffing. We placed the stuffing down the centre of the leg, rolled it, tied it with string, and roasted on a roasting rack for 1 hour 45 minutes with lots of thyme on top, covering with foil for the last 30 minutes. It was so juicy and delicious that we did not need gravy. We served it with roasted sweet potato, carrot and parsnip, and brussels sprouts pan-fried with smoky bacon. Yum.

Recently

Sophie's first lunch with mummy and papa in M&S Cafe

Learning to lift my head

This year's Christmas cakes

And our Christmas Day desserts

A hand-knitted present for baby James

Our Christmas reindeer!