Sandwich Special

Nice fresh bread is one of life's true pleasures. Even the most simple spread or fillings can become something special when placed between two soft, fresh slices of bread. My favourite breads are Safeway's Four Seed Loaf and Bakers Delight's Cape Seed Loaf. Mmmm, look at all those grains!

Here are a few sandwiches I have prepared lately.

This beauty contained the following ingredients from the base up; avocado, cucumber, smoked trout, mayonnaise, mixed lettuce leaves and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Here is a sandwich/burger. I had fresh bread but no fresh rolls so the chicken burger turned into a sandwich. As well as the chicken patty there was cheese, bacon, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, lettuce, tomato sauce and mayonnaise.

BBQ marinated chicken pieces, cheese, cucumber, mixed lettuce and pepper.

For this sandwich I used fresh Wholemeal Country Grain Loaf with sesame seeds from Bakers Delight. In the sandwich was avocado, sliced chicken meat, tomato, yellow capsicum, cheese, lettuce, salt, pepper, mayonnaise and tomato sauce.

Mum and I made focaccias for the family. T loved his and I have to say, they were yummy. Mine was filled with cheese, tomato, sliced turkey breast, spinach leaves, avocado and cranberry sauce. We toasted the focaccia in a sandwich press so they were nice and crunchy.

Banana Bread Recipe

This is definitely my favourite recipe for using up over ripe bananas.

I have made this recipe many times and often add some extras like dates, sultanas, sunflower seeds, pepitas or walnuts. I have the recipe in a magazine but it is also available on taste.com.au.

• Melted low-fat dairy spread, to grease
• 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour *I use wholemeal flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup, firmly packed brown sugar *I always use less sugar
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 50g butter, melted, cooled
• 2 overripe medium bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease loaf pan.
2. Sift the combined flours and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Place the milk, eggs, melted butter and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well combined. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes *it always seems to take longer for me or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
   

It is especially enjoyable straight out of the oven!

Biryani and Veg Madras Curry

Easy Indian is never as good as slow cooked, freshly spiced, authentic dishes but can still be quite enjoyable. Tonight I made Chicken Biryani and Veg (Eggplant & Sweet Potato) Madras. The Biryani is from a jar I find at my local Indian grocery store and the vegetable curry recipe is from the Fast, Fresh & Healthy 4 Ingredient cook book (this recipe also requires a jar of sauce).

The  store bought biryani mix.

The main meal.

The biryani rice wasn't quite as dry as it should've been and the Madras curry base was from a jar, but hey, if a meal is quick, easy and tastes this good, I can hardly complain!

Honey & Soy Chicken Stirfry

For a convenient, fresh and tasty dinner it is hard to go past a stir-fry.
Tonight's dinner was Honey and Soy chicken (pulled off skewers), stir fried with broccoli, sugar snap peas, green capsicum, red onion and garlic. I also added a little extra honey, soy sauce and chilli sauce and served it all on top of some Maggi noodles. Yummy!

Womans Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book

I grew up with loving book. In the lead up to every birthday I would take it off the shelf and slowly flick through its pages until I found the perfect birthday cake.
The original book was so popular with kids of my generation that a comedian, Josh Earl, even performs a comedy routine about his love of the Woman's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. T and I watched his routine as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival last year and it reminded me of many happy childhood birthday memories.
So, when I saw the book for sale today at the local newsagent for only $15, I couldn't not buy it!

Here are a few cakes that Mum lovingly made for my brothers and I as kids.

This was made for my brothers. Instead of having the water as a pool, Mum put little shark toys on top of the cake.

I used to love pigs.

Perfect for a little girl!

 

Now when it comes time for me to create special birthday cakes, I know just where to turn for inspiration!

Chicken Parma with Wedges and Salad

T loves a good parma. He even likes frozen Steggles 'Chicken Breast Fillets-Parmigiana.' That is what I served him for dinner last night with homemade wedges, sour cream & sweetchilli sauce and a simple salad. I was very proud of the wedges and T enjoyed them.

It was a whole lot of food but he made his way through it and enjoyed his meal.

Salads

Here are a few salads I have enjoyed lately.

This one had butter beans, corn, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, avocado and canned salmon. For the dressing I whisked together some white vinegar, Gourmet Garden Mediterranean herbs, mayonaise, salt and pepper.

This salad consisted of a packet of pre-prepared 'Citrus Salad' from Safeway and some marinated honey and soy chicken strips on top. Simple, quick but very nice. The packet salad came with the salad mix, a citrus dressing and some tiny croutons.

This was a meat-free meal. My (soon to be) sister in-law told me about a salad she'd made recently using three coloured capsicums, roma tomatoes and fetta. That inspired me to make this. I used red, yellow and green capsicum, tomato, capsicum, fetta and coloured cos lettuce. I dressed it with a mixture of white vinegar, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce, Gourmet Garden Italian herbs and olive oil.

                                                        

BBQ, Chickpea & Green Salads

Thursday was the perfect night for a home cooked barbecue, so that is exactly what we had! I had a BBQ Chicken pack to cook and made two quick salads to accompany the meat.

The meat was chicken sausages, BBQ chicklets and BBQ marinated chicken kebabs. We had our sausages in bread with plenty of tomato sauce.

The first salad was just lettuce mix, tomato and cucumber with a dressing of white vinegar, Garden Fresh Mediterranean herbs, olive oil and chilli sauce.

The second salad was just as simple. It consisted of chickpeas, capsicum, spring onion with Yumm Original dressing.

Our barbecue meat is usually bought from Leonards but this batch wasn't and T could tell from the quality. Nothing beats Leonards chicken!

Dinner at Cafe Lecco

Cafe Lecco 

Address: 14 Atherton Rd, Oakleigh

Phone: 03 9569 0661 

Last night we decided on Italian for dinner and headed to Cafe Lecco in Oakleigh. It is a quiet little place and we had our choice of tables even though it was a Friday night, we chose to sit outside.

T ordered the Calabrese Fettucine with salami, onion, olives, hot chilli & tomato sauce ($17). He said the first few mouthfuls weren't very flavoursome, but he thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the dish.

I chose a Marinara Pizza with tomato, cheese, seafood, garlic & olive oil ($12). It was quite nice. I'm used to vegies on my pizza so this was very different for me. The crust was fabulous!

T also wanted some Garlic Bread ($6.50), he almost ate the whole thing. It wasn't really browned on the top, nor was it cut far enough through but it was tasty.

I wanted a Bowl of Vegetables (7.50) to have with my pizza but it was also overlooked and wasn't brought out until 15-20 mins after the other dishes, by which time I was nearly finished my meal. When this came out it appeared very unexciting but, looks can be deceiving! Whatever was used to season/dress the vegies was great and I really enjoyed these.

 

Service was average. We were given two glasses of water once we'd ordered but no one ever offered to fill them up, we had to ask. The delay in bringing out our vegetables was also disappointing.

The food was nice but we will look for a different Italian restaurant next time.

ANZAC Biscuits

After the debacle with today's muffins I headed for a fail safe recipe, ANZAC Biscuits.

• 1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup or treacle
• 150g unsalted butter, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. 
2. Place the flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a large bowl and stir to combine. 
3. In a small saucepan place the golden syrup and butter and stir over low heat until the butter has fully melted. Mix the bicarb soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons water and add to the golden syrup mixture. It will bubble whilst you are stirring together so remove from the heat. 
4. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together until fully combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking trays lined with non stick baking paper, pressing down on the tops to flatten slightly. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Winner!

Egg-Free Berry Muffins Recipe (not a winner)

I was meeting up with a friend for afternoon tea today and wanted to take muffins. I had some canned berries and  stewed apple I wanted to use but I was all out of eggs so I went in search of an egg-free muffin recipe. The original recipe would have created 12 big muffins but I halved it.

Some of the quantities listed below are approximate because when I halved the original recipe it was WAY too dry. Before spooning the mixture into the muffin tin it tasted delicious but after they were cooked the muffins were really disappointing. Perhaps my quantities were off, maybe self raising flour would've been better (or not wholemeal flour, like I used) or perhaps if I had have added 2 eggs this would've been successful. Unfortunately though, this was not a batch of muffins I wanted to take to share at afternoon tea. ~3/4 cup berries 1 1/2+ cups wholemeal flour 1/3 cups sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4+ cup oil ~1/2 cup apple sauce Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease muffin tin. Sift flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl, add sugar and mix well. Mix berries, apple sauce and oil. Add berry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Fill each muffin tin. Bake until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in tin on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from  tin and cool completely or eat. Maybe you could have more luck by tweaking this recipe. With the ingredients, I'm sure there is some potential.

Valentine's Day Dinner plus Frozen Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and we weren't heading out so I prepared a nice dinner and dessert.
Dinner definitely wasn't gourmet but it was somewhat indulgent because it was more unhealthy than a regular weeknight meal.
The main meal consisted of a Leonard's Chicken Baguette, green beans with a drizzle of Yumm dressing and a tasty baked potato. The potato was topped with butter, tasty cheese, sour cream, spring onion, bacon, coleslaw, salt and pepper.

Dessert was the Pièce de résistance. I am so proud of how it turned out because I had big plans and high expectations. I made a Frozen Chocolate Mousse, a heart shaped Frozen Chocolate Mousse! And it was v-e-r-y tasty!
I served two heart shaped mousses on a rectangular serving plate with grated dark chocolate. Between the hearts was some ice-cream and canned berries (I didn't have fresh ones).

This is what our individual plates looked like when served up.

Valentine's Day is all about sharing the love, so with that in mind, here is the Frozen Chocolate Mousse recipe. (The original recipe is from taste.com.au)

• 60g good-quality (70% cocoa) dark cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
• 60g unsalted butter, chopped
• 2 teaspoons liqueur (I used berry syrup)
• 2 eggs, separated
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• cocoa OR finely grated chocolate, to serve

1. Lightly grease two 3/4-cup capacity ramekins or moulds. Line base and sides with a piece of plastic wrap. Allow plenty of overhang.
2. Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on MEDIUM (50%) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, or until melted and smooth. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Add liqueur/syrup and egg yolks to chocolate mixture. Stir until well combined.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat eggwhites and salt in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat well. Stir a third of eggwhite into chocolate mixture. Gently fold remaining eggwhite into chocolate mixture. Spoon into prepared ramekins. Fold over excess plastic wrap to cover. Freeze for at least 3 hours or overnight, if time permits, until firm.
5. Using the plastic wrap, gently ease mousse from ramekins. Turn out onto chilled serving plates. Dust with cocoa (or grated chocolate) and serve.

BBQ Lunch

Today's lunch was the traditional Aussie Barbie. My favourite!
There were eight hungry mouths to feed and two girls doing all the preparation. I cooked the barbecue (Dad relinquished the tongs just for one day) and Mum made the salads and kebabs.

She served up a colourful garden salad, baby beetroots and our family favourite, coleslaw.

On the barbecue I cooked chicken sausages (kiev and spinach & pinenut varieties), onion, beef sausages and Mum's beef kebabs.

 Yum, Yum, Yum! Family and food, there really is no better combination!

Baked Beans, Egg & Cheese on Toast

When I'm not eating Bircher Muesli for breakfast, I'm eating this:

It certainly doesn't look very special but T and I love it! Underneath the baked beans is a double fried egg, a slice of cheese and a piece of toast. Because the other ingredients are hot, the cheese melts perfectly and the toast softens a little. It is a quick, simple breakfast (and sometimes lunch or even lazy dinner) that is tasty and nutritious.

Here you can see the melted cheese and egg. Yum!

Oven-Baked Corn Omelettes

In addition to making Weet-Bix Cookies today, I made some savory muffin-like snacks. I found a recipe for Oven-Baked Corn Omelettes while searching for a healthy snack to take to my parent's house.

As usual, I changed the original recipe to suit my own tastes and what I had in the fridge. Here is my modified recipe:

• 1 red onion, finely sliced 
• 6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 tomato, finely diced
• 1/3 cup red capsicum, finely diced
• 400g cans corn kernels, well drained
• 3/4 cup grated tasty cheese
• 8 eggs
• chives
• tomato sauce (to taste)
• Worcestershire sauce (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease or line an 8 x 1/2-cup capacity muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onions then mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Remove from heat. Stir through corn, tomato and capsicum. Cool for 10 minutes.
3. Stir cheese into corn mixture. Spoon evenly into muffin holes. Beat eggs in a jug with a fork until well combined, add chives and sauces and beat a little longer. Pour evenly over corn mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until light golden and set.
4. Stand for 5 minutes in pan. Carefully lift out.
   
   This is what the inside looks like.
   
   
   
    
   **I actually added two more eggs, so that I would have a few mini muffins aswell.
   
   

   

   10 eggs made 12 smallish muffins and 12 mini muffins (I ate a mini one before taking the photo).

   
   
   

Weet-Bix Cookies Recipe

 I found a recipe on the Woolworths website titled Chocolate Weet-Bix Cookies and was inspired to make some biscuits of my own but I changed the recipe a little.

The original recipe calls dried apricots and choc bits but I omitted the chocolate and used sultanas instead of apricots. I also used half a cup of loosely packed sugar rather than 100g. I wasn't impressed with the finished product, I didn't find them very morish and won't make them again but hey, it's always good to try out a new cookie recipe!

• 4 Sanitarium Weet-Bix, crushed
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup wholemeal plain flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup sultanas
• 3 Tbsp margarine
• 2 Tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC. In a bowl mix Weet-Bix, rolled oats, flour, sugar and sultanas until well combined.
2. Place margarine and golden syrup in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted.
3. Mix bicarb soda and water together then pour into margarine mixture. Add to dry ingredients and stir to combine.
4. Roll tablespoons of mixture and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on tray before serving.