Turkey Burgers

I love turkey mince. T hates it. I cook, so I win. We had home made turkey burgers the other night. I was super proud of my effort, I thought the burgers were delicious.
The mince was mixed with mustard, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, an egg, chopped parsley, salt and pepper (I think I might have added something else too but I can't remember what).
Once the patties were cooked I put them between pieces of bread with a little garlic, cheese, tomato, beetroot (I love beetroot), lettuce, avocado and cranberry sauce.

I even had a burger for lunch the next day. There are advantages when T doesn't enjoy his dinner!

Hoisin Chicken Stirfry

Dinner on Monday was nice and easy, just how I like to start the week. I bought some hoisin marinated chicken skewers, removed the chicken from the sticks and fried it. I then stir fried some frozen vegies, mixed through the chicken, a little extra hoisin and served it over basmati rice. Dinner in a flash!

Rocket & Walnut Penne

I've seen an ad on TV for a very simplistic pasta dish lately and I thought I'd give it a go (or something like it). I cooked up some penne and the other ingredients were just stirred through.
Lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, chilli sauce, salt and pepper were whisked together and poured over the pasta. Rocket, toasted walnuts and parmesan were mixed through too.
I think it was nice; fresh and light. Something different.

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Vegies (including brussel sprouts!)

I haven't eaten brussel sprouts in many, many years but considering their cheap price and high nutritional content I decided to give them a go. The sprouts were drizzled with butter and wholegrain mustard. I also fried some onion and tomato, boiled some corn on the cob and stuffed a chicken breast. The stuffing for the chicken was ricotta cheese, lemon zest, a tiny bit of yoghurt and some oregano. It was a really nice meal and the brussel sprouts were actually pretty enjoyable!

Chicken Filo and Cous Cous

I bought some discounted cheese and spinach chicken filos yesterday so that's what T had for dinner. I wanted a quick side dish so chopped up some zucchini, tomato, capsicum and spring onion to stir through a packet of cous cous. It was served with some chopped lettuce.

I didn't want to deprive T of the filos so I had something else. My dinner was a small tin of chicken mixed through the cous cous.

Poached Chicken and Asparagus Spaghetti

Another Friday arrives and again I am asked to cook a pasta dish. A trend is emerging....I knew I needed to visit the supermarket so I did a quick internet search for a low fat, easy pasta recipe using spaghetti and chicken. I settled on this one because I just happen to have many of the ingredients already, things I don't usually have handy.

Poached chicken & asparagus spaghetti

• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
• 1 leek, cut into quarters lengthways
• 1 lemon, cut into thin slices
• fresh continental parsley sprigs
• 3 chicken breast fillets
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 tbs chives
• 400g dried thin spaghetti pasta
• 1 bunch asparagus, halved diagonally
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
• Shaved parmesan, to serve

1. Combine the stock, wine, leek, lemon and parsley in a large frying pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Add the chicken and reduce heat to low. Cook for 10 minutes. Set aside for 30 minutes to develop the flavours. Remove the chicken to a clean work surface and coarsely shred.
2. Strain the poaching liquid through a fine sieve over a jug. Discard the leek, lemon and parsley. Return the liquid to the pan over high heat and bring to the boil. Boil for 25-30 minutes or until reduced to 80ml (1/3 cup). Cool for 5 minutes. Stir in the ricotta and chives. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large saucepan. Add the asparagus and peas in the last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain. Return to pan.
4. Add the chicken and ricotta mixture to the pasta and toss until well combined. Divide among serving bowls. Top with parmesan to serve.

I had to make a few small changes from the original recipe but I had high expectations because I would never normally put in such a lot of time to create a pasta dish. This was also the first time I have EVER used wine in cooking. Neither T or I drink wine but we happen to have a small collection of wine bottles in the house (they are all gifts which we are yet to re-gift). I decided to follow the recipe and include the wine, I was interested to see the results.

After all the time (+1 hour, rather than the 15mins I usually spend making pasta) and effort I was really unhappy with the final result. Alas, it was my own fault, I must have cooked too much pasta because there wasn't enough sauce to add sufficient flavour to the spaghetti. The chicken was also a little bit dry. Oh well.

Carrot & Cumin Soup

Carrot & Cumin Soup

I found the original recipe after a google search.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 medium carrots, chopped 
• olive oil
• +1 tsp cumin seeds
• pinch chilli flakes or powder
• ~600ml vegetable stock
• coriander, chopped

Fry the onion in a little oil until it softens. Add the cumin and chilli and cook for a minute then add the carrot and stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for until the carrot is very soft, then whizz in a blender. Add some more stock or water if the soup is too thick and reheat if you need to. Spoon into bowls, stir through the coriander and season well. Add a spoonful of crème fraîche to each bowl to serve, if you like. 

Pasta Pasta Pasta II

T needed to carb load over the weekend, which means only one thing. Pasta. I made three different dishes and lucky for him, all of them were pretty nice, no flops here.


Pumpkin, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni
Oh the effort! I had to boil the cannelloni shells first and then try to stuff them. I had forgotten why I don't make this more often. I cooked and mashed the pumpkin and mixed it with ricotta, spinach and some finely chopped jalapenos. Unfortunately this mixture turned a bit watery and was hard to stuff into the tubes. After covering the cannelloni with pasta sauce, some cheese and spring onions I baked it in the oven. The stuffing shrunk somewhat but the dish tasted great and T had nothing but praise for it.

Spaghetti with Mushroom Sauce
This was easy. I simply fried some mushrooms, added a jar of creamy mushroom pasta sauce and wilted baby spinach to spaghetti. Yum!

Agnoli
This was another winner. I used Latina Eggplant and Ricotta Agnoli, Heinz spicy tomato soup and some chopped marinated char grilled vegetables. It was tasty served with asparagus on the side and cheese sprinkled on top.

Turkey Mince with Vegies and Rice

I was feeling pretty uninspired about making dinner tonight. While searching through the fridge for inspiration I discovered some turkey mince close to its used by date in need of cooking.
Next I found a recipe for Thai Turkey Mince, however was missing some major ingredients so my turkey was more Thai 'inspired' than authentic Thai.
With the mince I cooked an onion and garlic. I then added some chilli sauce (hot as well as sweet), hoi sin sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar and coriander.
I served it brown rice and steamed vegies; capsicum, broccoli, bok choy and the remainder of a packet of frozen vegies.
It was rather bland so I added a little soy sauce just before serving.

Unfortunately it was a rather unexciting meal. Maybe it will taste better for lunch tomorrow.

My New Favourite Sandwich

I have discovered a new favourite filling combination for rolls or sandwiches. I was being lazy when making my lunch last week and thought, "What can I put between these pieces of bread that will be tasty, nutritious and require zero cutting up?"
This is what I came up with:

• Vegemite spread on one piece of bread
• Avocado spread on the other slice
• Hommus spread on top of the vegemite
• A slice of cheese
• Crunch lettuce
• Baby spinach leaves

The vegemite gives saltiness and tang, the avocado adds a creamyness, these cheese is smooth and the hommus and lettuce add texture. Perfect!

I have eaten this 3 times in the last 4 days!

Indian for Mother's Day Dinner

Although not actually on Mother's Day, on Saturday I served my parents up an Indian feast to celebrate the occasion.
It was Dad's request for Aloo Gobhi (Potato & Cauliflower) that led me to cook Indian.
Aloo Gobhi had to be on the menu of course, plus there was Channa Masala (Chickpeas) in the freezer from the other week. I also made Kheema Matar (Lamb with Peas) because it was so delicious last time and Bindi (Okra).
To accompany the dishes and soothe Mum's sensitive palate, I made some Raita (yoghurt).

Aloo Gobhi
I was very careful not to let this burn itself to the bottom of the frying pan. It wasn't particularly strong in flavour which could be seen as a good or bad thing. The taste of the cauliflower and potatoes was still noticeable. I'd say it was average.

Channa Masala
When we ate this straight after it had been cooked, it wasn't very impressive. This time round, because the spices had plenty of time to strengthen I had higher hopes and I am thankful it was tastier than last time.

Kheema Matar
I followed the same recipe as last time, all apart from adding fresh chillies. The absence of the chillies meant it was unfortunately lacking a 'kick.' It was still tasty, just not as good as last time.

Bindi
I love bindi. I had never tried the ingredient before my mother in-law prepared it. It definitely isn't a common vegetable in Australian households. This was nice.

Raita
I just mixed natural yoghurt, fresh coriander, cucumber, garlic and lemon pepper together.

The spread:

Because the meal was rather heavy and filling, we had fruit and ice-cream (or yoghurt) for dessert.

Happy Mother's Day Mum!

Potato and Leek Soup

I used only five ingredients to make this delicious soup. It consisted of butter, 1 leek, 1 onion, 3 potatoes and vegetable stock (plus salt and pepper but I add them to nearly everything!).

What I love so much about this soup is that it tastes creamy and rich but really is almost guilt free!

Morning Tea at Work

***Sorry about the crazy fonts. I don't know what's going on!

It was my turn to supply some morning tea for the staff at work today so I busied myself yesterday and the day before making a range of goodies. 

I made:

• Mini Toblerone Muffins 

  

  These were packed with chocolate. I used dark, normal and milk Toblerones.

• Mini Cumin and Pea Muffins

  

  I thought these were lacking something but there were none left after morning tea!

• Snickers Brownies

  

  This was a winner! I was even asked for the recipe.

• Hommus Dip

  

The hommus I have now made many times before and the recipe is already on a previous blog post.

Mini Toblerone Muffins 

I added a little extra chocolate and used wholemeal flour.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 60g butter, melted, cooled
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 100g Toblerone milk chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease two 12-hole 2-tablespoon capacity mini muffin pans or line with paper cases.
2. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre.
3. Whisk butter, milk and egg in a jug. Pour into well. Add chocolate and gently fold until just combined. Three-quarter fill muffin cases with mixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand muffins in pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Cumin and Pea Muffins

I used wholemeal flour and added a little curry powder. The first batch was also sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Before baking the second set I stirred through some tomato sauce and fresh coriander.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 brown onion, grated
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease twelve 1/3-cup capacity muffin holes.

2.     Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add cumin and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool.

3.     Sift flour into a bowl. Combine butter, egg and milk in a jug. Mix well. Pour into flour. Stir gently until almost combined. Fold in pea mixture. Spoon mixture into muffin holes until three-quarters full.

4.     Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Serve warm.

Snickers Brownies

I found this recipe on another blog. It was originally for Mars Bar Brownies. I used a loaf tin which was definitely the wrong shape but all my other tins were too big. Because of the tin I used my brownies took much longer than 20mins to cook. The author of the original recipe used a 8"x8" tin.

Ingredients

½ cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ cup all self raising flour
3 Snickers Bars, chopped

Method

1. In a saucepan melt the margarine, remove from heat.
2. Add the brown sugar and stir until smooth. Check to make sure that the mixture is now cool enough that it won’t cook the egg, if it is too warm let it sit for a minute.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
4. Add the flour and cocoa powder, mixing until just mixed.
5. Pour just enough batter to cover the bottom of your pan, make a layer of Snickers and top with remaining mixture.

6. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, they will still be very gooey when removed from the oven, don’t worry about it. Let cool in the pan for 5 -8 minutes them remove to a wire rack (I like the parchment paper for this as you can just grab the sides and pick the brownies out of the pan.).
7. Once the brownies are cool, cut into pieces.

Simple Chicken Stirfry

Another weeknight, another 4 Ingredients recipe.
This was super simple.

2 chicken breasts
~2 tbs soy sauce
~2 tbs hoisin sauce
~2 tbs sweet chilli sauce

I didn't even marinate the chicken, simply stir fried the chicken with the sauces to coat it well.
It was served with brown rice and defrosted Asian vegetables (from a freezer packet).

Chicken with Rice and Beans

I tried something new today, Chicken with Rice and Beans. I came across the recipe on a blog I follow. You can see Cristine's experience with the recipe by following this link. 

 

Chicken with Rice and Beans

• 2 chicken breasts cut into chunky pieces
• 2tspgarlic
• 1tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 400g can diced tomatoes
• 3tbs green chilies from a jar
• 1 & 3/4 cups stock
• 1 cup black beans
• generous amount of cheese

Season chicken with garlic and pepper.
Heat oil in a large skillet. Place chicken in the skillet and cook it over medium heat until browned. Remove chicken.
Save any chicken juice, add rice and brown over medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add tomatoes, green chilies and stock. Mix well. Place chicken and black beans on top of rice. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.
Sprinkle the cheese on top.

I enjoyed the dish but it wasn't particularly exciting. It definitely needed the cheese to add some flavour. I also needed to serve it with vegies to add nutrition, texture and colour.

This photo was taken before I added cheese

I will try it again but may add some onion, capsicum and other goodies next time.

Sausage Rolls

I had been looking forward to making last night's dinner for a while because it was a healthy take on a not so healthy treat. Sausage rolls.

The stuffing that was wrapped in lower fat puff pastry consisted of turkey mince, an onion, dried parsley, whole grain mustard, grated carrot, celery, egg, seasoning and herbs.
I can't remember how long they baked for in the oven but it was set at about 200 degrees.

Considering I paid only $4 for 500g of turkey mince it was a nice and cheap meal!

Grocery Shopping Online-Delivery

Last night I was eagerly awaiting the delivery of my groceries. My window for delivery was 6:30-9:30pm and I answered the knock on the door at 6:28. The delivery lady was very nice and offered to bring everything inside and unload the boxes for me. Nice service!

My main concerns were that the fresh items (milk, meat, juice etc) would be close to their used-by dates. They weren't. I was also worried that the fruit and vegies might not be the ones I'd chose; they might be bruised or over ripe. They weren't.
I was really happy with the whole experience, the only thing I found disappointing was the excessive use of plastic bags. At a time when the shops (and the community) seem much more environmentally conscious, I would have expected some other form of bagging the groceries.
As much as I dislike grocery shopping, I am looking forward to my next online shopping experience, just a little.