Home Made Soup and Bread

Last weekend we had my parents over for lunch. It was a humble meal of soup and bread but was totally delicious. I made Potato and Leek Soup and asked mum to bring along her signature Pumpkin Soup.

To accompany the soups I made Beer Bread and Damper. My dad doesn't drink beer at all but he loved this bread. He especially liked the sweetness and the crust.

Beer Bread
(from 3 Ingredients)
1 can of beer (375ml)
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups Self Raising Flour

Mix ingredients together and transfer into loaf tin. Bake for 1 hour at 180 degrees. 50 minutes into cooking time drizzle loaf with a knob of melted butter (I forgot to do this but it still turned out nicely).

I couldn't get enough of the damper! The base recipe is the same as I used some months back and wrote about on a previous post, Monday Night Dinner. This time however, I stirred through some garlic and herbs It was absolutely scrumptious!!

Potato and Leek Soup

This soup is quick and easy and tastes great!
55g butter
1 onion
3 leeks
225g potatoes cut into cubes
850ml vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add onion, leek, potatoes and saute until soft. Pour in stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 15mins. Blend in a food processor until smooth. Re heat and enjoy!!

Chocolate Weet-Bix Slice

It was my turn to take morning tea to work on Tuesday so I decided to make a chocolate Weet-Bix slice. I stopped by the local milk-bar to pick up some icing sugar and cocoa but as my luck would have it, they didn't stock cocoa! Arrgh! I rushed home and turned to my trusty search engine for an alternative. Milo was a suggestion and thankfully I had a large tin of that in the cupboard. I knew the Milo would be a poor substitute but I had no other option. So, in the recipe below I used Milo instead of the cocoa and a greater quantity than suggested. While the slice wasn't a blow-your-mind delicious, it was nice (but would have been better with cocoa).

Chocolate Weet-Bix Slice 
Ingredients

• 12 Weet-Bix, finely crushed
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 200g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• chocolate icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 18cm x 28cm (base) slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, allowing 3cm overhang on all sides.
2. Combine Weet-Bix, cocoa powder (Milo), sugar, butter, coconut and egg in a bowl. Press mixture over base of prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until firm to touch.
3. Meanwhile, make icing according to packet instructions. Using a hot knife, spread icing over base. Set aside for 2 hours or until firm. Cut into squares. Serve.

I also made my regular muesli slice (with a little more sugar than usual).

Delicious Gluten-free Biscuits

This is a favourite biscuit recipe of mine. I especially love the texture, because the recipe calls for rice flour rather than standard flour. The original recipe uses nuts but I add a variety of dried fruits too, or you could add choc chips. It is a pretty flexible recipe.

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 firmly packed cup (100g) brown sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs natural yoghurt
• 1 cup (150g) rice flour
• 1 cup (150g) unsalted mixed nuts with sultanas, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Using electric beaters, cream butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and thick. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat to combine. Fold in yoghurt, flour and nut mix. Roll slightly rounded tablespoons of the mixture, flatten and place on trays. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Quick Chicken Pie

Last night I made a quick and easy chicken pie. I found the recipe in one of my 4 Ingredients cook books and had been looking forward to giving it a go for some time.
The success of this recipe, I think, depends greatly on the quality of the chicken soup used. My pie was nice but I think it could have been more impressive if I used a different brand of soup.

Quick Chicken Pie

1 can of condensed chicken soup
1 cup cooked chicken pieces
~500g frozen vegies, defrosted
2 sheets of puff pastry

Mix soup, chicken and vegetables together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Grease pie tin and line with one sheet of pastry. Pour in pie filling. Top pie with the other pastry sheet and seal the lid by pressing it down with a fork. Cut two slits in the lid and brush with butter. Cook in a 180 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Simplicity Chocloate Cake (not so simple!)

My family recently got together for Grandma's birthday and it was my job to take afternoon tea and cake. I cheated a bit. Afternoon tea was store bought dips and biscuits as well as super simple tomato, cheese and kabana bites. I also made a beetroot dip using baby beets (from a can), 200g chickpeas, lemon juice and cottage cheese. It sure didn't look pretty but it was healthy and well received.

I put all my effort into the cake. Simplicity Chocolate Cake was the recipe name. Simple it was. Cake, not so much; it was more crumble. As the picture suggests, it didn't turn out so great!

It was Friday night and the last thing I wanted to do was bake, but I couldn't let Grandma down so I tried a different cake recipe. Nigella's Old Fashion Chocolate Cake was perfect because I needed to use some sour cream I had in the fridge. My luck was not so good this Friday night. Cake number two turned out quite flat. I cannot quite convey just how frustrated I was with my cooking but I chose to stick it out and do what I could with my two 'cakes.'
I covered Nigella's cake with Nutella and salvaged what I could of the Simple cake to make a top layer.

The layered cakes

Next I made the frosting. I didn't have quite enough icing sugar so the icing was runny. Atleast it tasted nice. I stuck a few TV Snack biscuits on top. I was so embarrassed by the cake but at least Grandma would know lots of love went into the preparation

My brother said it looked like a cow pat. He's not wrong!

Any way, I apologised to my family, we sung Happy Birthday and then served up the cake. I held my breath while waiting for a response and I guess the saying is true; don't judge a book by it's cover (or a cake by it's cow pat appearance).
This is what the layers looked like once cut into.

Simplicity Chocolate Cake

• 2 eggs
• 75g butter, melted
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g milk chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• Nutella for icing

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Thoroughly grease 20cm round cake tin.
2. Beat all ingredients together by hand for 3mins. Spread into tin.
3. Bake for about 45mins or until cooked. Allow to cool in tin before turning out.
4. When cold spread Nutella over cake. Serve with Cream.

Nigella's Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake

Follow this link for the cake recipe

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. 

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.

Lemon Chicken with Pilaf, Zucchini and Carrots

I had a few lemons I wanted to use and found an interesting recipe for Lemon Chicken in a 4 Ingredients cook book. I wasn't really sure what to serve with the chicken with but finally decided on pilaf, steamed carrots and zucchini pieces. The pilaf was average, the zucchini was yummy but the chicken was the best thing on the plate.

Once it was cooked I was very impressed with the look of the chicken. I didn't use a whole lot of oil but it was still crispy and golden on the outside.

 

Lemon Chicken

2 chicken breasts cut into strips

2 lemons, juiced and zested

~1/2 cup corn flour

oil to fry

Marinate chicken in lemon juice and zest for about 2 hours. 

Remove from fridge, add corn flour and mix to form a batter.

Heat oil in frying pan. Fry chicken in batches until golden.

Place cooked chicken pieces on absorbent paper to soak up excess oil.

Serve and enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken & Eggplant Parmigiana

Thursday night's dinner was very enjoyable. I made Balsamic Chicken (recipe from one of the 4 Ingredients cook books) and Eggplant Parmigiana (adapted from Guy Grossi's Easter Feaster recipe). I served these with steamed broccoli and green beans. The eggplant dish was fantastic. I really do love the texture of eggplant and it was wonderfully tasty in this recipe.

Balsamic Chicken

2 Chicken breasts
4tbs balsamic vinegar
2tbs brown sugar 
1 garlic clove

Mix together vinegar, sugar and garlic. Place chicken breasts in marinade and refrigerate for about 2 hours. Pre heat oven to 180°C.  Roast (or grill) until cooked through and sauce has caramalised.

*The sauce didn't caramalise in my case because I covered it when it was in the oven. I have used a similar sauce over carrots and roasted them. The sauce did caramalise in that instance and it was DELICIOUS!

Eggplant Parmigiana

Olive oil 

1 large or 2 medium-sized eggplant 

1 Jar of pasta sauce 

Parmesan, Ricotta and/or Mozzarella cheese

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

Pre heat oven to 180°C

Cut the top of the eggplant/s. Slice eggplant ½cm thick lengthways.

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.

Fry eggplant in batches with a sprinkling of salt for 2-3 minutes on both sides or until golden brown, adding more oil when required. Place on absorbent paper and leave to soak up excess oil.

In a baking dish, line the bottom of the dish with some pasta sauce, then eggplant, cheese and a sprinkling of herbs.

Repeat with 1 or 2 more layers. Top with cheese.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Kheema Matar, Channa & Halwa

I spent today slaving over the stove, ok well not quite slaving, I enjoyed it. The bit I didn't enjoy was all the washing up!
I made an Indian feast and didn't cut any corners this time, hence the food was delicious (even if i do say so myself!).
The Kheema Matar recipe was from a book I have, A Taste of... India. The list of ingredients is rather long, but here is the recipe:

Kheema Matar
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
5 cm piece of ginger
4 green chillies (I only used 1 red one)
2/3 cup oil (I didn't use quite this much)
2 Indian bay leaves
500g minced lamb
2 tbs tomato puree
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2 tbs ground coriander
2 tbs ground cumin
2 tbs thick plain yoghurt
3 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 cup peas
1/4 tsp garam masala
5 tbs chopped coriander

Put onion, garlic, ginger and 2 chillies in food processor and process until finely chopped.
Heat the oil in frying pan over medium heat. Add onion mixture and bay leaves, fry for 4 minutes or until golden brown.
Add the lamb mince and fry for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up any lumps.
Add the turmeric, chilli powder, coriander and cumin, stir for 1 minute. Add the yoghurt, salt and pepper and continue frying for 5 minutes.
Add 3/4 cup of water a little at a time, stirring until it's well absorbed.
Add the two remaining chillies, stir then cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add peas and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Add garam masala and chopped coriander, stir for 1 minute before serving.

This was an absolute stand out dish. It was so good I ate so much I nearly had no room left for dessert!

The Channa Masala recipe I found online. I chose this recipe rather than my mother in-laws because I never seem to get her's quite right. Unfortunately this didn't turn out as good as I would have hoped either. The search continues for the perfect channa masala recipe......

I decided to make Carrot Halwa because I bought a bag of carrots and wanted to use some of them. Plus I love carrot halwa and this is a low fat recipe!
The recipe I was following is supposed to be cooked in the microwave but I chose to cook it on the stove instead, I also added sultanas and omitted the powdered milk. I'm a bit weary about microwave cooking but I guess I shouldn't really knock it until I try it. Anyway, it took a long time for the milk to evaporate but thankfully the halwa didn't stick to the base of the saucepan so in that regard this was a success. It was also very tasty but the texture wasn't quite right, the milk had separated so that affected the final product. However, it was still a nice way to finish off a tasty meal

Once served up, this is what T's plate looked like.

Clockwise; kheema matar, prantas, raita, channa masala, pickles.

And here is dessert.

The day spent cooking was worth the effort. Overall, we both really enjoyed our dinner.

Falafels for Dinner

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at making falafels from scratch. It was a long but satisfying process.
I started the night before by placing 2 cups of dried chickpeas in a bowl of water and allowing them to soak overnight. I then simmered them yesterday afternoon until they were soft and edible.
I made a delicious batch of hommus with half of the chick peas. Some of this was served with the falafels and of course, there is still plenty left over to enjoy.
I spent quite some time searching for the perfect falafel recipe yesterday. Because I had not made them before, I didn't know which one would be best so combined the common element and created my own. Here is my recipe:

Falafels
Ingredients:
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion, chopped
3 tsp garlic (3 cloves)
1 cup peas
350g chick peas
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 tbs tahini
1 egg

Method:
Fry spices and allow them to cool.
Lightly fry the onion and garlic.
Combine ingredients and process until they form a chunky paste.
Roll into balls, place on oven tray and spray with oil.
Cook in 200°C oven until brown, turning every 10 minutes.

Once they were browned, it was time to 'plate up.' I'd prepared the rest of the meal while the falafels were cooking so everything was ready to go.
I made a salad inspired by tabouli, only it had no bulgur. It consisted of cucumber, tomato, spring onion, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I also made a simple garlic yoghurt by mixing those two ingredients together.
On T's plate he had garlic yoghurt, falafels, mixed lettuce leaves, hommus, tabouli minus the bulgur  and warm Afghani bread. He really enjoyed it and went back for seconds.

Rather than having mine as a platter with Afghani bread, I wrapped the same ingredients in half a pita bread.

Before wrapping the pita bread this is what it looked like.

It was an enjoyable, fresh and nutritious meal and well worth the effort.

Oaty Tahini Cookies

I now have plenty of tahini in the cupboard after buying a jar to use for the hommus recipe. The brand of tahini (Mayver Tahini) I bought actually provides a free recipe book online so I went searching for something else to cook containing this new and interesting ingredient. I came across a cookie recipe that looked straight forward so I did a little baking.
The recipe was for Oaty Tahini Cookies. The book link can be found on the Mayvers website and contains about 20 recipes.

Unfortunately I didn't have as much coconut in the cupboard as I thought so I had to substitute most of that for more flour and oats. By choice I also used less sugar. I wasn't watching the clock closely so the biscuits came out a little darker that they should have (oops!). They tasted ok, but if I had have followed the recipe exactly I'm sure they would have been very nice. They really are just ANZAC biscuits with the addition of tahini.

Dad's Birthday Nibbles

Yesterday we had a family get together for my Dad's birthday. I was responsible for organising the nibbles and pre-dinner snacks. I took along the cashews and some strawberries (for dessert) from last night as well as a store bought dip, chips and crackers. But I also prepared:

• Hommus dip with carrot and celery sticks 
• Spinach and Ricotta dip in a bread bowl
• Kabana toothpicks; kabana, cheese and cherry tomatoes

My aunty had given me a very large bag of chickpeas recently and I know Dad is a fan of hommus so made a big batch of dip as a treat for him. I also serve up some hommus and vegie sticks for a snack.

The bread bowl dip is something i've enjoyed many times before but never made myself. It was super easy and so moreish. This was definitely the family's favourite.

Kabana toothpick are just fun.

The cashews, store bought dip and strawberries were also served up.

Two of the recipes were from taste.com.au. I actually stuck to the proper recipe for both of these! No wonder they turned out nice.

Spinach and Ricotta Dip

• 500g frozen spinach, thawed
• 300g fresh ricotta
• 300g carton sour cream
• 1/3 cup chopped chives
• 30g packet spring vegetable dried soup
• 1 round cob bread loaf

1. Squeeze and discard all liquid from thawed spinach. Place into a large bowl. Add ricotta and sour cream. Stir until well combined and smooth. Add chives and dried soup. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Mix until well combined.
2. Using a serrated knife, slice a 3 to 4cm-thick slice off top of loaf. Set aside. Remove soft white bread from centre of loaf to form a bread 'bowl'. Spoon spinach and ricotta mixture into loaf. Replace bread lid. Serve immediately.
   
   

   Classic Hommus

   • 1 cup dried chickpeas
   • 2 tablespoons tahini
   • 1/4 cup lemon juice
   • 1 garlic clove, crushed
   • 1/4 cup olive oil
   • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
   • Paprika and extra-virgin olive oil, to serve

   
   

   1. Place chickpeas in a bowl. Cover with cold water. Cover with plastic wrap. Stand overnight.
   2. Drain chickpeas. Place in a saucepan. Cover with cold water. Cover. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup liquid.
   3. Process chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, oil, salt and reserved liquid until almost smooth.
   4. Spoon into a bowl. Sprinkle with paprika. Drizzle with oil. Serve.

   
   

Country Pear Cake

My Grandma's pear tree was still producing plenty of fruit the week before last so I had an abundance of pears that I needed to find a use for. I went searching and came across a lovely looking recipe for Country Pear Cake. I decided to give it a go with a few small changes to the original recipe.

• I didn't have enough walnuts so added some pepitas too
• I used less sugar and butter, adding a splash of oil to the mix
• Pear juice was swapped for another juice I had in the fridge
• Wholemeal flour was used instead of plain

Country Pear Cake

Ingredients

• Melted butter, to grease
• 150g butter, at room temperature
• 270g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 225g (1 1/2 cups) plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 60ml (1/4 cup) pear juice
• 3 (about 450g) packham pears, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped
• 55g (1/2 cup) walnut halves, coarsely chopped
• 65g (1/3 cup) sultanas
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tbs honey 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and side with non-stick baking paper.
2. Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and sugar in a medium bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition until just combined. Sift together the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and gently fold until just combined. Add the pear juice and fold to combine.
3. Add the pear, walnut, sultanas and mixed spice and stir to combine. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4. Brush the cake with honey. Set aside in the pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into wedges and place on serving plates. Drizzle with extra honey and serve with creme fraiche, if desired.

 
When I added the pear to the cake mixture I was more than a little worried because there appeared to be far too much pear! Due to the enormous amount of fruit in the cake, I was also unsure if it would need the whole 90minutes cooking time the recipe called for. In the end I cooked it for probably about an hour.
When it had cooled slightly, I drizzled plenty of honey over the top and enjoyed a nice warm piece of cake.

The cake truly is delicious. It's bursting with pear and is fabulous hot or cold. I'm keeping it in the fridge so I can enjoy eating it all week long.
Next time I have a few excess pairs, this will be the first thing I make. It is fabulous!

Mustard Chicken with Pea and Potato Mash

Last night I turned to my 4 Ingredients Cook Book collection for a little inspiration and found two recipes that were just what I was after. Mustard Chicken is something I have cooked before and enjoyed, I decided to serve it with Pea and Potato Mash and some roast pumpkin.

Mustard Chicken

• 6tbs corn flour
• 4 chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 2tbs wholegrain mustard
• 1 cup chicken stock

Season flour with salt and pepper. Toss chicken in seasoned flour to coat. Heat a non-stick frying pan and fry on all sides until lightly browned. Stir in stock and mustard and bring to the boil. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the sauce is thickened.

Pea and Potato Mash

• 700g potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 140g peas
• 50g sour cream
• 25g parmesan cheese

Boil potatoes for about 10 minutes. Add peas, cook for 4 minutes then drain. Mash together before adding sour cream and cheese, season and serve.

The mustard chicken was a real winner but I think I'll stick to regular mashed potato in the future.
In addition to being easy, I love that these recipes are budget conscious too.

Tomato Tart

I finally made the tomato tart I was looking forward to and it was received well by my family.
I wanted to make a bigger tart than original one in recipes + and I couldn't be bothered making my own pastry so this is  my recipe:

• 1 1/2 sheets puff pastry
• 250g tub ricotta cheese
• 250g tub flavoured cottage cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tbs capsicum & eggplant stir through pasta sauce (pesto would be better)
• 6 button mushrooms
• handful of spinach
• range of tomatoes (I used cherry, roma and some of my grandma's tomatoes)

1. Preheat oven to 160 and place tart pan in there to warm up. 
2. When pan is warmed up, lay in the pastry and return to oven for approx 10mins. (I did this because I usually find the base of puff pastry just goes soggy, rather than crisping up. Cooking it a little in the pre-warmed pan seemed to work.)
3. Saut'e mushrooms and wilt spinach.
4. In a bowl whisk ricotta, cottage cheese and eggs. Add parmesan and pesto.
5. Chop tomatoes.
   Remove tart base from oven and line bottom with mushrooms and spinach.
6. Pour egg and cheese mixture into base and arrange tomatoes on top.
7. Place in the oven and bake until set. (I wasn't really paying attention to the cooking time but I think it was between 30 and 45 minutes.)

If I were to make this again I would definitely add more kick to the egg mixture, it was rather bland. Perhaps some chilli and Worcestershire sauce, maybe some basil and a good quality pesto would have made this more exciting. That being said, I do like strong flavours but my family prefers more subtle tastes and they enjoyed this.

It didn't look too pretty once it was served up but straight out of the oven I thought it looked appealing, quite rustic.

Muffins using Pear and Apple Puree

I decided I'd bake muffins to use some of the puree I prepared earlier today.

I went in search of a muffin recipe using apple puree and yoghurt, I couldn't find the perfect one so I adapted. Here is my recipe:

1 cup wholemeal SR flour
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
<1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
handful of sultanas
handful of walnuts
1 1/4 cup natural yoghurt (+ a few drops of vanilla essence)
1/2 cup pear & apple puree
2 eggs
100ml light olive oil
***consider adding cinnamon for a little extra flavour

Preheat oven to 180°C and spray muffin tins with olive oil.
Sift flours and baking powder. Add sugar, oats, sultanas and walnuts. Stir together.
In a seperate bowl mix yoghurt, eggs, oil and puree.
Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine.
Transfer mixture to muffin tins and bake in oven for about 25mins.

11 muffins minus the one I ate

I made 11 muffins, some of which were heat shaped, though you can't really tell once the muffins have risen.
They were nice but not very flavoursome. A stronger flavoured yoghurt, extra walnuts, sultanas and some cinnamon would've made these fabulous. Next time.

Pear and Apple Puree

Two weeks ago my Grandma gave me about 16 brown pears. Every year I look forward to this time of  year when my favourite fresh treat is ready to be picked from her trees. I love to eat the pears before they are totally ripe; crunchy and delicious!
As usual though, I couldn't eat them all before they ripen so I had 4 pears that I needed to do something with. I also had 2 over-ripe apples so I decided to stew them all.

I quartered each piece of fruit, cut out the core and roughly chopped them then popped them in the saucepan. I didn't remove the skin because Grandma said she doesn't and I was happy not to go to the extra effort. Into the saucepan I also added about 1tbs of water, 6 cloves, some cinnamon bark, 2 cardamon pods and a sprinkling of sugar. My last attempt at stewing apples was ruined by my over enthusiastic adding of water to the saucepan so I was careful this time.

After the fruit had stewed for quite a while, I let it cool a little, removed the cinnamon & cloves (I forgot to take out the cardamon pods) then pureed it with the bar mix.

I love the extra texture and look of the skin in the puree.
Now all I need to do is decide what to do with the puree. Muffins perhaps or fruit crumble? Hmm...

Middle Eastern Chicken with Chickpea, Herb & Feta Salad Recipe

In the November 2010 issue of delicious magazine I found this recipe and finally I cooked it! I was not looking forward to typing up the whole recipe, so I was very excited to see another blogger had done the hard work for me http://adeliciousyear.blogspot.com. 

I used 2 large chicken breasts and lemon pepper instead of sumac but other than that, I followed the recipe pretty much as it appeared in the magazine.

Middle Eastern Chicken with Chickpea, Herb & Feta Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp lemon pepper (I couldn't find sumac as the recipe suggested)
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil 
• 1 lemon, sliced, plus juice of 1 lemon
• 4 x 200g chicken breast fillets 
• 40 g unsalted butter
• 1 round Lebanese bread, cut into wedges
• 400g can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
• 2 cups flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 
• 1 red onion, sliced 
• 75g  Persian feta, drained

Method: 

• Combine sumac, 1 tbsp oil, lemon slices & lemon juice (reserve 1 tbsp  of juice for dressing). Add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes. 
• Pre-heat oven to 180 C. 
• Heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil in large oven proof fry pan over medium heat. 
• Cook chicken for 3 minutes each side and then place in the oven for 8 minutes or until cooked.
• Loosely cover with foil and let chicken rest for at least 2 minutes. 
• Fry bread (I did this in the oven) OR Melt butter and 2 tsp oil in another fry pan over medium heat. Season bread and cook for 4 - 5 minutes turning regularly until crisp. Remove and keep warm. 
• Add chickpeas to pan and warm through (I also browned the lemon at this stage).
• Slice chicken and toss with lemon, chickpeas, bread, parsley, onion, feta and drizzle with reserved marinade. 

I served it with lettuce, tomato and cucumber on the side.

It was a really nice dinner and there was enough left over for lunch. Woohoo!

Coco Pops Oaty Cookies Recipe

I found two tiny packets of Coco Pops so I went in search of a recipe that wasn't Chocolate Crackles. I found this recipe; Kellogg's Coco Pops Moons and Stars Oaty Cookies. I used regular Coco Pops and roughly converted the weights to cup measurements because my scales are a little tricky to read. Probably due to my rough conversions I needed to add an egg which the original recipe didn't call for. I also used a combination of butter, margarine and oil because I didn't want to use up all my margarine. Here is what I baked:

• 50g (~1/2 cup) rolled oats
• 50g (2 single serve packets) Kellogg’s Coco Pops
• 80g (~1/2 cup) wholemeal self raising flour
• 50g (~1/4 cup) sugar
• 80g butter/margarine/oil combination
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Crush Coco Pops.
Combine Coco Pop crumbs with oats and flour.
Melt butter/margarine/oil and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat stirring until sugar has dissolved.
Take off heat and add to dry ingredients, stir, add egg and thoroughly mixing together.
Press mixture into balls (approx 1 tbsp) and space well apart on baking tray, flattening slightly.
Bake in oven at 180°C for approx 10 minutes or until lightly golden.
Leave on tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

They are tasty, quick and easy cookies.