Saturday 25 March 2017

Cooking with Dolmio Sauce.

One of the pleasures I find in life is cooking, I have always enjoyed it and also use it as stress relief. But like many other people I am also a busy person.  I often tend to make more than one meal with the same ingredients to save time and make my own life easier so that on days I get in late I am less tempted to eat junk food or pick up a take away on the way home.

So when I received  an offer to work with BritMums along with Dolmio who challenges you to create a #ThankGoodness mid-week meal from a hamper of good things delivered straight to your kitchen. The goal: A simple, good-for-you meal including a jar of Dolmio Bolognese sauce which contains no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or sweeteners. I willingly said yes please.

 Many people are busy during the week with work and or child commitments and it can be hard to find the time to cook, but I am sharing a few of my own recipes with you to show how easy it is. All my meals can be made on a day you have more time and will keep in the fridge for a few days, or they will freeze so you just take them out the freezer in a morning and reheat when you get home.


some of the items I received to create meals with 



So first on the menu last week was oven cooked chicken and vegetables serve with Dolmio sauce and jacket potatoes. For me the preparation is what makes my life easier. So I peeled and chopped onions, peppers, courgettes, an aubergine, mushrooms and some carrots. I have oral allergy syndrome and cannot eat raw, or al dente fruit and veg, so for me the carrots required a bit of pre cooking to make sure they fully cooked in the oven. I half cooked the jacket potatoes in the microwave while I was prepping the meat and vegetables so they can just go in the oven with the rest when we got home.




Oven cooked vegetables and chicken

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Serves: varies

Ingredients

  • Onion
  • Carrots
  • Peppers
  • Courgettes
  • Mushrooms
  • Aubergine
  • Chicken breasts


Directions

  1. Peel and chop all the vegetables
  2. Par boil the carrots for five or six minutes
  3. Meanwhile chop the chicken into smallish pieces. If preparing this for later in the day put the chopped chicken into a freezer bag, add some oil and seasoning of your choice and mix well. Place in the fridge until required.  
  4. Spread chopped vegetable and parboiled carrots onto an oven tray and stir through the marinated chopped chicken
  5. Cook at 180 oC for approx 35 minutes until cooked through and browned.
  6. Serve in a bowl. Pour over some heated Dolmio sauce and serve with a jacket potato on the side.

Note I have not specified quantities and this is adaptable to feed as many or as few as you want.







So as I already had the part cooked carrots and a pile of peeled and chopped vegetables I decided to make a vegetable lasagna. So I fried off some peppers and onions to part cook them as well.

Vegetable Lasagna



Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves: varies


Ingredients

  • Onion
  • Carrots
  • Peppers
  • Courgettes
  • Mushrooms
  • Aubergine


For the cheese sauce


  • margarine
  • plain flour
  • cheese
  • milk


  • Lasagna sheets
  • Jar of Dolmio sauce.


Directions

  1. Peel and chop all the vegetables
  2. Par boil the carrots for five or six minutes. Fry the chopped onions and peppers for 5 minutes.
  3. Starting with a layer of Dolmio sauce layer vegetables, lasagna sheets and cheese sauce in a loaf tin until the tin is filled.
  4. Cook at 180 oC for approx 45 minutes until cooked through.

Serve with oven chips or garlic bread.

I personally prefer my lasagna on day two as I feel the flavours are more intense. This is a great way of getting vegetables eaten by the people who are not so keen on them. If I was to present this amount of vegetables on the side of the plate to my husband he would scrap 90% of them into the bin, but he eats this willingly.

So while you have the oven on for the lasagna why not cook some meatballs in the oven at the same time?

layering it up and served with chips 






The meatballs will reheat the next day, or freeze either raw or cooked.

Meatballs in tomato sauce



Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 Onion chopped
  • 1 green pepper chopped and deseeded
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • 1lb minced beef
  • seasoning



Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until onions and peppers are broken down.
  2. Transfer mix to a floured chopping board and shape into 24 small meatball with your floured hands.
  3. Place into a large casserole dish and pour over a jar of Dolmio sauce.
  4. Cook at 180 oC for approx 45 minutes until cooked through.

Serve with spaghetti and vegetable of your choice.


the ingredients, in a bowl, and served with spaghetti and green beans




I actually made double quantities and shaped some into beefburgers, these were oven cooked while the oven was on anyway. Very nice they were too.

So not only are you saving time you are also saving on power by cooking more than one meal at a time.



beefburgers shaped on a floured board

Dolmio Bolognese Original 500g sauce is 100% natural.


In each jar, you’ll find at least 10 juicy diced tomatoes, a dollop of tomato puree, half an onion, a tablespoon of sunflower oil, a couple of cloves of garlic, a handful of herbs including basil, a teaspoon of cornflour, a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper, two teaspoons of added beet sugar for taste, a squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of water and nothing more. In fact, a jar provides a family of four with one of their 5-a-day each and that’s before you add any further veg to the meal!

For more information visit www.dolmio.co.uk/thankgoodness or if you’re looking for mid-week meal inspiration check out the label on Dolmio jars.


This post is an entry for the #Dolmio #ThankGoodness Challenge, sponsored by Dolmio. www.dolmio.co.uk/thankgoodness.”



5 comments:

  1. Dolmio is such a great sauce to keep in the cupboard! The lasagne sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x

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    Replies
    1. the lasagne was very tasty indeed. thank you for running #CookBlogShare

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  2. blimey you made a lot of tasty meals Elaine and I loved how you made them so easy to prep and make. When you are busy and have a family to feed (who, lets face it are always starving by tea time) you don't want too much faffing about. Great ideas x

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    Replies
    1. that was my aim, quick and easy, nutritional and filling.

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  3. Great uses of the product. Tasty! Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part.

    ReplyDelete

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