Bean Salad 2



Too many cookies during the day again today made me feel like something light. I ended up having poor mans bean salad - a can of four bean mix with dressing of equal parts vegetable oil, white vinegar and sugar. Missing chickpeas, corn kernels, chopped, blanched, fresh green beans, diced capsicum.


So if you want the REAL, family recipe bean salad, then put it all in. It's a winner!

Cookies and Vegetable Curry





Seriously. I ate so much dough and so many straight out of the oven (you know, "testing") I decided to eat a full dozen (or so) and make it a meal.


But I fed the kids something decent. This DELICIOUS vegetable curry. When I ate it earlier today for lunch I kept hoping that the next chunk would be chicken, even though I knew it wasn't. But it was good. My base sauce: a can of tomatoes, coconut cream, cashew milk (made by blending cashews in water. I don't know if other people do it, but I know that's how you make almond milk so I gave it a shot), regular milk. Then a ton of spices that I'll never be able to replicate, but it was good. Yummo! So glad there's leftovers!

Tomato and Basil Spaghetti 6





Still good on the third day :).

Pizza 2



My sister and her kids came for dinner tonight. Pizza night!


Pizza Base - for 2 pizza's (I think this is from my mum's JOY of Cooking cookbook, with some of my own modifications)

3 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup semolina (or just use 4 cups flour, I do all the time)
1 Tbsp of yeast in
1 1/3 cup of warm water
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

1. Add yeast and oil to water and stir briefly. Leave for 10 mins or until foamy.
2. Mix all ingredients.
3. Knead.
4. Optional: Rising time. The dough can stretch to make two, cookie tray sized pizzas even if it doesn't have time to rise.
5. Roll out on a greased tray, turn up edges and add toppings.
6. Bake at 200 degrees Celcius for 15 (no rising time) -25 (risen to twice the size) minutes or until done.

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Pretty simple and easy! Can anyone tell me how to insert a degrees symbol on here?

Savoury mince and veges



I thought about just calling this "dinner" but I've learned from experience if I can't give something a definite name then it's not going to be good.


And this was good. Even though it's a bit-of-a-mess looking. I was focussing my energy somewhere else today.

Chicken Drumsticks



a la Jamie Oliver. Cooked with potatoes, tomatoes (meant to be cherry tomatoes), garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and chili flakes/chopped chili. And there are meant to be basil leaves, I used dried basil. Really you shouldn't make that substitution unless you absolutely have to. So simple and so delicious!




We had some other veges as well but they were freezer veges and didn't look good on the plate, so didn't make it into the photo shoot.

Stir fried vegetables





I'm really not making anything that flash lately, am I?


Spaghetti Pie



This is a good one. A friend made it for Erika post-partum baby #2 a year and a half ago, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. It's been included in my family meal arsenal ever since. Don't give it a miss just because it's a bad photo.



Spaghetti Pie

500-600g Vermicelli
50-75g butter
2 small/1 large egg
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
250g cottage cheese
Prepared tomato sauce
Grated cheese

Cook your vermicelli in salted water (I used regular spaghetti in the photo above. But vermicelli is just so much nicer for this). Cook your tomato sauce how you like it (mine: oil, onion, garlic, mince, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock, salt, pepper, dried mixed herbs, canned tomatoes, tomato paste). When vermicelli is cooked, drain and immediately put in the butter, egg and parmesan cheese and stir to mix. Press the vermicelli into a dish, cover with the cottage cheese, then the tomato sauce, then the grated cheese on top. Bake in oven till heated through.

Tortilla Pizza 2






This has got to be the fastest meal start to finish.

Pan-fried Duck Legs



Nat spent his last voucher from Christmas yesterday on luxury food items that he will lord over me as he consumes them one by one over the next FOREVER. He's one of those. He makes things last for AGES.



Tonight he made duck legs with his own invention of berry sauce and salad. Looks good! But I wouldn't know how it tasted.

Pasta Salad 2



My secret to a good pasta salad: Paul Newman's Balsamic vinaigrette. I use that and mayonnaise as my dressing and it always turns out well. I just throw in whatever pasta I have on hand, anything else that looks like it could work, and stir through the gold. But actually another tip I have is to stir through little cubes of cheese and eat the salad warm. Some cheese will be melted and some not and it's just a nice surprise every now and again while you're eating it to get a little cheesy bite.


What's in this salad? Penne - cooked; oil, onion, garlic, ham, mushrooms, salt, pepper - all fried in a pan; tomatoes, spring onions, cheese - all fresh/raw/uncooked; corn - cooked separately, mayonnaise and Paul Newman's Balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious!

Pork and Bok Choy 2





Nat made this delicious meal again tonight. I think I'll have to post the recipe next time because it's SOOO GOOD!

Penne with Peas



A variant of Midnight Spaghetti tonight worked well.


Oil, shallots, garlic, salt and pepper in pan as usual. Skip the chili, add rosemary and butter instead. After a few minutes add some cream (1/4 cup maybe) and stir to combine. Add peas and then cooked penne. Yum! It was nice and subtle, and really good.

The kids loved it and ate it really well, the penne is perfect for little hands and they've always loved peas.

Pizza




I don't normally make pizza because I'm always lacking in toppings I thought. Then I asked a friend what she was putting on her pizza and she said she just does tomato and cheese. And for her tomato she just whizzes up a can of tomatoes*. How simple is that? It's so liberating to know that I can do something that simple, because if she can, I can. So I tried it tonight, and it was good! I whizzed up a 400g can of tomatoes with a bit of salt, pepper and oregano in the blender, topped with chopped ham and grated cheese. I really could've gone without the ham though. Yum! And the kids liked it too! We had some cooked carrots on the side as well to ease the mother guilt.

So one can did two full tray sized pizzas nicely, but probably could do three.

*My friend said she also uses canned tomato soup or even plain old tomato sauce/ketchup when she's really going it easy.
 
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