Spaghetti and Meatballs 4

Spaghetti and courgette meatballs - after making the stuffed courgette the other night I had tons of leftover filling and froze a tray full of meatballs. They didn't turn out the best, because courgette flesh that I'd included in the meatball mix became watery as they were cooked and so a few fell apart. But other than that it was a good meal.

The sauce tonight: a large splash of olive oil, 2 onions, 4 cloves garlic, 1 can tomatoes, 1 beef stock cube dissolved in 3/4 can of water, salt, pepper, generous shake of worcestershire sauce, 2 pinches dried sweet basil.

It turned out quite nice! A little bit different than what I normally make for a tomato pasta sauce.

Steak and chips 2

We actually had KFC for dinner tonight. But it's pretty much impossible to make that look good, and I'm quite embarrassed about it actually (even though it was real tasty). Here's steak that Nat made sometime last week served with roast cherry tomatoes, chips, brocolli and bread.

Delicious!

Pork Chops

Camera = found. It's embarrassing where it was.

We used to eat pork chops all the time. It was the first meal Nat cooked for me. We haven't had it for AGES because Nat advises me it got real expensive there for a while there. So tonight's dinner was a real treat.

Pork chops with crackling, rice and roast tomatoes.

MIA

I've misplaced my camera so posts will be sparse for a bit while we find it. Sorry guys.

Stuffed courgette with spaghetti

This was ok, I'd make it again, but no one else in the family liked it. It's not good enough to post the recipe. The kids just ate the meat out and left the courgettes and most of the spaghetti.

Tomato and Basil Spaghetti 5

Look familiar? What's one of your old trusty go to's?

Birthday Dinner!

This is the table before half the food was out. I was more taking pictures of the cakes. But yes. This is what we had for dinner tonight.

Party food. It was great.

Fish and Chips

Sorry, no inspiration today.

Nachos 2

Easiest. Meal. Ever.

Nachos

Corn chips

Chilli beans (from a can)

Grated cheese

Sour cream

Put the first three ingredients into an ovenproof dish in that order. Grill till heated through and cheese is melted (5 minutes maybe?). Serve with sour cream.

Ever.

Chicken Nibbles

A recipe we pulled from my in-laws book. I'm not sure where it originates.

Honey Chicken Nibbles

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 Tbsp honey

3 Tbsp malt vinegar

3 Tbsp ketchup

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 onion finely chopped

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Chicken nibbles

Combine all the ingredients to make the sauce and marinate the chicken nibbles for a while. Cook at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes, then turn and baste. Cook for another 10-30 minutes. If you need it fast(er) up the temperature to 230(ish) and take the early time, or else leave at 180 for the full 30 minutes (or any variant in between).

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The sauce (that's not on the chicken nibbles) reduces down to something really tarry, not good to spoon on the plate. Make things easier for yourself, get that roasting pan soaking as soon as you can, the tar softens right down (and eventually completely dissolves) in water!

Marzetti

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is Marzetti just some sort of pasta with a tomato sauce, mince and cheese? That's what my upbringing has told me.

Marzetti

500g macaroni pasta

1 Tbsp oil

2 onions (finely chopped)

5 cloves garlic (minced)

300-500g mince

2 x 420g (ish?) chopped tomatoes

1/2 can water

1 oxo beef stock cube

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp salt

A few cracks of pepper

1 cup grated cheese

Heat oil in a saucepan. Cook onions and garlic. Add mince and brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until thick. Cook pasta. Stir the grated cheese through the pasta and then pour over the sauce (I used most of the sauce, all but about 1 cup). Stir until well mixed and the cheese is all melted and making the sauce nice and cheesy. You want it to be the consistency of mac and cheese, not that cheesy, but not too saucy.

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Addendum: Turns out it's Marzetti not Marsetti. Check out my sister's comment and link on this post if you want more info. (And why not click through to her blog too? It's great)

Rachel's Roasted Sausages

We had sausages tonight, cooked in a way inspired by Rachel's comment on my last post.

Roasted Sausages

5 sausages

2 large potatoes

2 onions

5-10 cloves garlic

2 roma tomatoes

Generous drizzle olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp tobasco sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius. Slice sausages diagonally into 4 pieces each. Slice potatoes in half and then into wedges, skin on. Peel and slice onions into wedges. Peel and slice garlic cloves in half. Quarter the tomatoes. Toss all in a roasting pan.

Drizzle with olive oil. Season with all the seasonings listed. Mix with your hand in the pan until all pieces are well coated.

Cook for 1/2 an hour, remove from oven and turn with a large spoon. Cook for another 15-30 minutes until all the potatoes are cooked.

(The mix, sans potatoes, which I put back in the oven for a few extra minutes.)

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I served this with a salad and really liked it. Thanks Rachel! I'll be doing this again. Hopefully I'll have some capsicum (what we call bell peppers in NZ) next time to toss in as you suggested as well.

Steak and chips

Nat cooked himself another perfect steak tonight. And he made those shoestring fries himself, from potatoes. Pretty impressive.

Bangers and Mash

Saucy sausages (like devilled sausages but without the apples pretty much) from an Alison Holst recipe with mashed potatoes, peas and corn. Nothing special.

What do you do with sausages? Tonight while eating dinner I said to Nat "How do you make them taste good?".

Any ideas?

Tomato and Basil Spaghetti 4

Good ol' trusty. I had wholemeal, everyone else regular. Lately I overcook my wholemeal spaghetti by about two minutes over what the packet says. It's way better that way I reckon.

New York Angus Porterhouse Steak

Perfectly cooked steak, sauteed mushroom and shallot on top (my favourite part. DELISH), oven roasted cherry tomatoes and rice. Perrrr-fect!