Protein Shake

Hubby is a keen cyclist so we go through a fair bit of protein powder at our place. We have a vanilla flavoured powder and it is pretty darn tasty. He likes a shake after his rides, I'll sometimes make myself one for afternoon tea. The other morning, however, I felt like a different for breakfast so made myself a nice big glass.
I added heaps of goodies into the blender; protein powder, banana, yoghurt, chia seeds, All Bran, cinnamon and two types of milk. The finished product was thicker than normal due to the All Bran but I wanted the fibre hit.
Overall not a bad breakfast.

Dinner at Moods, Berwick

Last night I met up with my gorgeous girlfriends for dinner in Berwick. We have visited Moods before as a group and were happy with the food. The restaurant accommodated a pram without any fuss and the menu was quite lengthy, there was plenty of choices. There were many drool-worthy cakes on display but none of us ordered any dessert this time round.

The customer service could be a little more attentive but most of our dinner choices were yummy. I ordered Mediterranean Salad with Lamb. For $24.90 it wasn't a cheap salad, nor was it hugely filling but it was enjoyable.

Where to (re)start?

Where to (re)start? Why not with breakfast....?
On my birthday morning last year, my niece and nephew happened to be at our house after a sleep-over the night before. Pancakes are not really my thing but i thought it would be a fun breakfast. My aim was actually to make a pancake but that was the mother of all disasters so we won't talk about that!
I put out a range of toppings for the pancake stacks; maple syrup, wipped cream, strawberries, bananas, sprinkles and nut mix. 

The pancakes were just from a packet, nothing exciting but it was a fun and novel breakfast for the kiddies.

I'm back!

After a short hiatus (ok, maybe not that short!) I am back to blogging. I return with renewed motivation, new inspiration, a new house and new camera! More recipes to try out and plenty of new meal ideas. Yay!
Keep tuned.....

Vegetarian Enchiladas

I love beans, not the green variety (though I do like them too), but legumes. They are incredibly versatile, nutritious, satisfying and tasty.
I use beans in salads, Indian and Mexican cooking. In Mexican dishes I generally use beans instead of meat.
For this meal I soaked some dried beans over night (kidney beans and another variety which I've forgotten) then boiled and processed some, I left some whole for the texture. I was using an Old El Paso Enchilada meal kit so I mixed through some Mexican spices and half of the tomato based sauce. I filled the tortillas with the bean mix, rolled them, placed them in an oven tray and covered them with the remaining tomato sauce and some cheese, as per the instructions. As a side to the enchiladas I made some guacamole and a salad.
I really enjoyed this meal, however eating lots of beans can tend to have a bad side effect....

Kangaroo and Salad

I recently needed some read meat, not because I like it, but because I need to look after my iron levels. I had some kangaroo meat in the freezer and cooked that up. Apparently kangaroo meat is very good for you, it's lean, low in fat, high in iron and it's quite cheap. That is all good and well, but I feel very strange about eating the national animal of Australia. I'm caught in a mental struggle; I know the meat is good for me but I feel some moral conflict when eating it. I don't think i'll be having any kangaroo meat again anytime soon but I will explain a bit about this meal.

I cooked the meat just enough because it has a tenancy to be chewy when even slightly overcooked. I then mixed it with some Worcestershire and tomato sauces and made a runny gravy with the pan juices and some Gravox.
The salad was really tasty. I recently bought a jar of gherkins and have been adding them to most of the salads I'm making. The are a tasty addition. Along with the gherkins, the salad had some tomato, capsicum, lettuce, olives, celery and cucumber.

Agnolotti and Ravioli Two Ways

I recently bought some Ricotta and Spinach Agnolotti and Chicken and Mushroom Ravioli on special. I don't eat a great deal of pasta (T does) but I consider this kind if pasta a real treat.
I decided to cook both pastas together, make a big batch and have enough for leftovers. I prepared two different 'sauces,' both of which were delicious!

The tomato based sauce was made up of onion, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, chopped tomatoes and some tomato paste. Simple but yummy.

The other 'sauce' was a new one I tried out. I visited taste.com.au and found a recipe for Avocado and Rocket Pasta. The flavours were fresh and delicious. I definitely recommend this recipe to anyone.