We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THERE IS A special kind of panic that sets in when you’ve last minute guests coming for dinner, and no time to spend getting ready.
But don’t fear – there are many meals that can be whipped up in less than an hour from scratch, and will still impress your guests.
Having veg in the freezer can really speed up a last minute meal (and perhaps even more importantly, save on the washing up). Frozen peppers can be used to make a quick ratatouille, and a bag of frozen chopped onion can also save time.
Whether you’ve been sprung with some last minute guests for dinner, or just want to spend less time in the kitchen while you’re entertaining, we’ve rounded up five recipes that require minimal prep and cooking time.
Baked hake with a parmesan crust: To make the crust, mix together a handful of breadcrumbs with olive oil, seasoning, dried herbs and grated parmesan. Place the hake fillets on some tinfoil on a baking tray and top with the breadcrumb mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes until the fish is just cooked, and serve on a bed of spinach with boiled baby potatoes. Almost any type of fish would work well in this recipe – The Resourceful Cook uses salmon and some extra herbs in her version.
Baked chicken with Mediterranean sauce: This is a beautiful recipe for summer time, and using frozen vegetables can really speed up prep time if you’re in a hurry. Heat some oil in a frying pan to brown a few chicken thighs and once browned, set aside. In the same pan, fry peppers, onions and garlic until soft, then add in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a handful of olives (and a splash of white wine if you’ve a bottle open).
Simmer for 10 minutes and remove from the heat. Place the chicken thighs in an ovenproof dish, pour over the sauce, and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 200°C. Serve with a side salad and some garlic bread.
Spicy prawn linguine: Cook linguine according to pack instructions (or use any other pasta you have in the press). While your linguine is boiling, heat some olive oil in a pan and fry off crush garlic and sliced chilli. Fry for a minute, then add in king prawns, cooking until they turn pink. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, add a handful of halved cherry tomatoes and some baby spinach, and stir through the drained linguini.
If you’re a seafood fan, any shellfish would make a great addition – we love how Hey Modest Marce uses mussels in her recipe. Season, toss to combine, then finish with some fresh basil and grated parmesan.
Asparagus risotto: Asparagus is in season here from April to July, and a risotto is a fantastic way to enjoy it while at its seasonal best. Steam some asparagus spears for a minute until al dente, then drain and set aside. For the risotto, heat a knob of butter in a saucepan and gently fry finely chopped onion and garlic. Heat some vegetable stock in a separate pan and keep on a low heat.
Start cooking the rice a spoonful at a time, adding a ladleful of stock and stirring until fully absorbed. Continue repeating this process and, when all of the rice is almost cooked, chop the asparagus and stir this through for another 2 minutes. Finish with a generous helping of grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil – or why not take inspiration from Eat Like a Girl and top with feta cheese?
Halloumi, courgette and pomegranate salad: This is a really summery meal and full of fresh, fragrant flavours. Start with the salad dressing, by mixing together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a small squeeze of honey and a drop of orange juice. Add mixed leaves to a large salad bowl along with the pomegranate seeds, and toss through the dressing.
Chargrill sliced halloumi and courgette on a griddle pan, and serve these on a bed of dressed leaves, seasoned with some black pepper. This is delicious served with a few slices of lightly toasted ciabatta.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
And what happens to the person responsible for the animal, nothing.
@cryptodon: you can beat a dog to death in front of a park full of children in Ireland and you won’t even get jail time, hell the judge won’t even ban you from owning any dogs in future!
“One witness saw Liam Dowling (44) swing the Jack Russell dog overhead by its lead and smash it to the ground up to 30 times as he crossed a park area by Clonliffe College.”
“He said he would not impose a ban on Dowling keeping animals, as he didn’t want to deprive the man’s child of having a dog.”
https://www.thejournal.ie/dog-court-violent-killing-animal-2240201-Jul2015/
Given the high dogh ownership in Ireland you’d think there would be at least strict setencing for beating a dog to death in such a monsterous way, so there’s zero chance the owner of this horse will be held responsible sadly.
@Barry Somers: god that’s disgusting & of course look who the judge is , so not surprising!
@Barry Somers: judge martin nolan . Theres a shocker
@Lindsey O Connor: although judicial discretion is enshrined in our constitution there are times when one has to question that discretion……whilst he may assidiously apply the letter of the law when it comes to discretionary matters you have to ask questions
@Barry Somers: Martin Nolan. Again.
I am a real animal lover. What happened Tue horse is terrible. The commenters here though are trying to vilify the owner. There’s a possibility this was just an accident. It’s a young enough horse. It may have slipped on newly disturbed mud and gotten caught. There was a lot of rain lately. Also, the fall might have spooked the animal and caused him to panic. Up to the incident he may have been galloping around a fifty acre field. Don’t vilify the owner on public social forums until you know the facts. Nothing in the article refers to cruelty. The owner might have been away…
@Shane McGrath: of course it could have been an accident but it’s simply not good enough to put a horse in a field at this time of the year without at least a rug and some supplementary feed and it should be checked on twice a day. Horse does look thin and neglected have to say even before the supposed accident.
@Shane McGrath: I hope you don’t own too many animals. The owner is responsible for its care even if he was away. Animals out on grass should be looked at twice a day especially this time of year. Gates should be secure so they dont fall down, and horses especially should have companions keep them calm and stop them doing stupid things like fooling around gates.
@Shane McGrath: I agree entirely. There is no evidence in the article to suggest there was any form or cruelty or neglect involved.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: of course there is evidence of neglect where is the owner? Horse there for hours. No microchip. No responsibility. Maybe you should read the article again or go to the MLHR Facebook page so you can see the evidence of neglect there. And take your blinkers off.
@wondermiss: Climb down off your pulpit! I’m commenting on the information in the article, which I read carefully, not on any other sources. There is in fact no mention of owners or microchipping so any reference to either is nothing other than conjecture.
@Johnny Rielly: so let’s say the owner was checking on the horse twice a day, that gives the horse 12 hours to get into trouble, which is entirely possible. I had a young horse here a few years ago that did the exact same thing but luckily I heard the racket and got him out before any harm was done. You can’t always blame the owner.
@Seamus Murphy: Precisely. They get themselves into the most awful trouble so quickly.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: look at the horse for god sake, its so thin and dried mud all over it no head collar before it ever had the accident it was neglected
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: sure believe what you want if it makes you feel better
@Loretta stiletto: The majority of good horsepeople won’t leave headcollars on horses wintering away from their property as they’re a safety risk. The mud is clearly as a result of the incident, and even if it has been there longer a bit of mud is no harm. Mine practically swim in it for a hobby! No statement that this young horse is underweight and the fact that the horse is wet is deceptive. My point is people are making stuff up to suit their agenda. It’s incredibly sad and if this turns out to be a case of sheer neglect I’d be the first to condemn it, but knowing just how quickly horses can get themselves into trouble I prefer to react to the facts presented in the article and give the owner the benefit of the doubt before jumping to conclusions.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: oh stop, I wouldn’t like to be your horse. I’ve had horses all my life. Its neglect end of.
@Loretta stiletto: Resorting to personal insults from behind an anonymous profile…stay classy!
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: is that the best you can come up with? Where was the personal insult directed at you. The horse was neglected as far as i am concerned whether you agree or not I really don’t care. The poor thing is dead.
The poor horse, it must have been terrified.
This drives me fukkkin mad.
someone must know who owns this poor animal – speak up and name them to the gardai or even the charity ‘my lovely horse’ ! then again it will probably only mean a small fine and a telling off — when it should lead to a ban on keeping ANY animals for life !
@Eric Davies: I doubt there would even be a fine.
My lovely horse rescue are all volunteers. They are the ones pulling horses from canals in the dark, feeding horses in the snow drifts and going out to horrific cruelty day or night. Where are ispca, gardai and dept of agriculture officials, the ones actually paid to protect animals and their welfare?? We need to follow the Netherlands example and bring in dedicated animal welfare police and strict sentencing for cruelty. If you read the post about how the Netherlands now have zero stray dogs on my lovely horse Facebook its amazing. We can stamp out this cruelty, it starts with voting out all the politicians who see no cruelty. Please donate to my lovely horse, they get barely zero help from government but do all the work. Please help horses and lurchers, they are the most abused in Ireland. please feed any horses who need help
@marianne ryan: agree totally
People have no idea of the lengths the volunteers, and I stress volunteers, go to to rescue animals. People need to realise that the humans involved see so much trauma and cruelty and as much as the charity need monetary support, they also need emotional and social support. All acts of kindness help to build up resilience..So please support the animals and also the amazing humans who help them
Shocking, all horses are supposed to be micro chipped owner should be charged and jailed. There are no excuses for the conditions this horse was kept in. Disgusting and disgraceful .
Burns my eyes…..what cruelty
Its a sad indictment of this country that we pushed through a bill on Circus animals where no cruelty was apparent but do nothing about this or puppy farms and sulky road racing
@Dnom: there is ALWAYS cruelty involved when ‘training’ wild animals for circuses, it’s against their nature to perform for people so their spirit is broken. On top of that then is the confined spaces, inability to express their natural nature. It’s not a competition, all forms of animal abuse and neglect should be tackled.
The poor thing
Oh thanks to the volunteers who went to help . Thanks for trying
And who owns this wonderful animal?? Why was she not missed or checked on?? Have the owners been identified??? Are they going to be prosecuted?? This is disgraceful and pure ANIMAL NEGLECT & CRUELTY. Please punish these owners to the full extent of the law. A HUGE THANK YOU to the rescue group for finding and helping this wonderful animal
Not really the actual image I was hoping to see
( in the main view of the topics )
@Peter: that’s the reality
Sickening to see ane sickening that nothing will be done about it .
We have no laws in Ireland to protect man or animal you can do what you want it’s a lawless country and it’s the politicians and judges fault who wont enforce the legislation .
The do gooders are always on hand to protect the offenders in this country and God forbid mention the !!!I wont say it or I’ll be accused of been racist . Do what you want in this country but dont get caught with 2 pints worst crime going .
@Michael Mcloughlin: I think the ‘do gooders’ in this case are the volunteers who spent hours of their own time in the cold trying to save this poor animal. How exactly are they being protected? The horse and greyhound industries receive €millions of taxpayers money each year but it’s rescues and volunteers who pick up the pieces when the animals are abused and neglected.
We have animal welfare legislation but until it’s properly enforced this kind of tragedy will continue to happen.
@EillieEs: theres a difference in Ireland in people who do good and do gooders most of the people who will be knocking on doors shortly looking for votes are do gooders
Remember! Put this on your agenda for the next Election. Nothing is being done for animals in country. So shameful.
@Anne: oh there’s lots being done it’s one of the only industries that’s vat free for one
A lot of farmers are just lazy cruel, greedy sods that should never be allowed near an animal in my view.
@TamuMassif2019: have you ever worked a farm? Lazy is not a word i would associate with farming in my limited experience.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say