I first came across this celebration cake as an alternative Christmas cake for diabetics.  (The portion details are given below.)

The only sugars in this are in the fruit.  If you’re used to very sweet Christmas cakes,. then this might taste a little odd, but once you’ve got used to the taste of the fruit without the mouth-cloying sugary confections that are usually passed as Christmas cakes, it’s hard to go back.

I have been told that this can be made dairy-free if margarine is used instead of butter.   However I have not tried this variant, so I can’t attest to its taste.

Portion Sizes

This cake makes 64 equal servings.

Each serving provides approximately: 1.5 Carbohydrate choices, 0.5 fat & oil choice, 13g carbohydrate, 1.5g fat, 2g dietary fibre, 71 kcal (100kj).

Continue reading Celebration Cake (Alternative Christmas Cake) →

Cocido is popular dish in Spain, and now that it’s getting colder, it makes a great evening meal in cold London also.  From this you get a very satisfying meat-y drink (or you can add some vermecilli to get a satisfying soup also) and a hearty meal of vegetables and meat.  Here is an easy cocido recipe.

This is cooked in a pressure cooker, so you can use cheaper cuts of meat, and they will become very tender after cooking.

Here is a recipe I was shown; It’s easy and and this one serves 3~6 people.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried chick peas (or you can use tinned ones)
• 1 potato
• 1 carrot
• 1 leek
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 Garlic Clove
• salt
• olive oil
• vegetable stock (cube or about 1 teaspoon of powdered stock)
• Meat.  I’ve used brisket and shin.  Shin tastes the best. about 750gm to 1kg
• 50gms tocino.  This is a Spanish cured pork belly product (If you can’t find tocino, you can substitute with either streaky bacon makes a good substitute; use 3 or 4 rashers, or some pork belly)

Continue reading An Easy Cocido Recipe →