Meal Plan Monday {week 16}

Monday: Chorizo Pasta
Tuesday: Steak and Vegetables
Wednesday: Chicken and Leek Pasta
Thursday:  Jamie Oliver's Hit'n' run tray baked chicken
Friday: Rice Paper Rolls
Saturday: BBQ
Sunday: Spaghetti Bolognese 

Baking: Candy Cane Bark, Choc Peppermint Slice and another batch of Peppermint fudge

What's on your meal plan this week?

Meal Plan Monday {Week 15}

I missed week 14... not from lack of having a meal plan, but from lack of having the time to share it here...

And there were some good meals too. We had Rice Paper Rolls, A Jamie Oliver Chicken dish (It was good and will be on the meal plan again this week!) and Spaghetti Bolognese just to name a few.

Never fear, week 15 is here!

Monday: Jamie Oliver's Hit'n' run traybaked chicken
Tuesday: Salami spaghetti carbonara
Wednesday: Capsicum and Leek Quiche
Thursday:  Pasta fagioli
Friday: Burritos
Saturday: BBQ
Sunday: Roast Chicken

Baking: Candy Cane Bark, Rocky Road, Peppermint fudge

What's on your meal plan this week?

Mexican Chocolate Cheesecake

Over the weekend I tried my hand at my first ever baked cheesecake. And it was a chilli chocolate cheesecake too. It turned out great.

 

Next time I might only use a 1/4 of a tsp of chilli powder instead, but other than that I would stick to the recipe again.

Recipe is from Betty Crocker

{Recipe} Orange Cake

Ingredients:

250g Sugar
Juice and rind of 1 Orange
170g Butter
4 eggs
50g Milk
250g Plain Flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Thermomix Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celius
Place sugar and rind into TM bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 8.
Add the butter and eggs and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5.
Add milk, juice, and flour and mix for 30 seconds on speed 6.
Add baking powder and mix for 5 seconds on speed 6.
Pour cake mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm cake tin.
Bake in a pre-heated over for 45-55 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

Standard Instructions:

Grate the rind of one orange and add to sugar. Mix well with a hand mixer.
Add butter and eggs and mix well until 'creamed'.
Add milk, juice and flour and mix well again. Finally add baking powder and combine well.
Pour cake mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm cake tin.
Bake in a pre-heated over for 45-55 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

Day 1: Banana Smoothie

I thought I would start the 31 Days of Smoothies off with a tried and true favourite! One that is familiar with pretty much everyone. But with some extra's that you probably haven't tried.

Banana Smoothie (serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Bananas
2 cups Low Fat Milk (500g)
1/2 Cups Oats
1tsp Chia Seed
1tsp Flaxseed/Linseed Meal

If you do try this, please let me know how you go. If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, feel free to add some honey or even maple syrup.

 I'll meet you back here tomorrow for another yummy smoothie recipe.

31 Days of Smoothies

Over the next 31 days I am going to be sharing 31 Smoothie recipes as I create, try and tweak them to make them just right. 

There will be fruit smoothies, vege smoothies and a variety of both. I love smoothies as my breakfast food. 

I can't usually stomach breakfast (I am so not a morning person!) but found that if I had it in a liquid form it was able to consistently have a filling and quick breakfast to start my day. 

Not to mention that my kids love pretty much all of these smoothies too. So that means I am able to up their fruit and vege intake without them even realising. 

I hope you join me on this journey and maybe even share some of your favourite smoothie recipes. 

Day 1 starts tomorrow! 




Please remember that I am NOT a nutritionist or dietitian, nor do I have any experience in these fields. These are just recipes that we enjoy in this house. 

 Edit: For all Smoothie recipes click here.

Milo and Coconut Cookies

We are the midst of a big back to school bake off at the moment. I am madly stocking the freeze with sweet and savory lunch box items that will hopefully last us a few weeks if not a month.

One of the things we baked were Milo and Coconut Cookies (or biscuits). I used an old Chocolate biscuit recipe I had scribbled in my recipe notebook and instead of cocoa powder I used Milo.

I think they turned out great. If you try them, please let me know how you went. 

Ingredients: 

• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup shredded (or desiccated) coconut
• 2 tablespoons Milo
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
•  3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup choc chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Melt butter
3. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl
4. Create a well in the middle of dry ingredients and add melted butter, egg and vanilla essence.
5. Mix well
6. Roll dough into table spoon size balls and place a lined baking tray. Remember to allow space for the cookies to expand. 
7. Cook for approx 10-15 minutes depending on your oven
8. Hide from the kids or you won't have any left for school lunches. 

I am linking up here:
Thriving on Thursdays

{Recipe} Prawn and Crab Linguine

Another meal we enjoyed for our anniversary dinner was Prawn and Crab linguine.

Please note some of the amounts are a guess as I hardly ever measure when I am making a savoury dish. Sorry!

Ingredients:
400g crab meat (can use fresh or tinned)
200g Peeled cooked prawns
olive oil
Dry Linguine
1x large Red Onion
1 small red chilli- seeds removes
1 small green chilli
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
2 cloves of garlic

Method: 

Put large pot of salted water on to boil and follow packet instructions to cook linguine.

Heat olive oil in pan and add minced garlic cloves and diced red onion. As soon as onion starts to turn transparent reduce heat and add crab meat and cooked prawns. Since the crab meat and prawns are already cooked, you only want to reheat them slowly. Add drained linguine.
Mix well and season with salt, pepper and chopped parsley.

{Recipe} Vol-Au-Vents

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, we opted to stay in and have dinner with the kids instead of having to get a babysitter and going out.

One of the things I made were Vol-au-vents. Yes they are so very late 80's/ early 90's, but I still love them, I remember my Mum making them for us all the time. Anyhow, last night I tried out two different filing types. A Prawn and Crab and a Mushroom.

I had never tried a mushroom filing before, but I think I will be doing it again, and soon!

Mushroom Filling:

5  button mushrooms
1-2 teaspoons of Dijon Mustard
Salt
Pepper
1 tbs olive oil
Bechamel Sauce

Heat oil in pan, add sliced mushrooms. Once mushrooms are cooked stir through Dijon mustard and bechamel sauce, salt a pepper.

Spoon into Vol-au-vent cases.

(The above filling fills about 8-10 medium vol-au-vent cases)


 Prawn and Crab filling:

300-400grams of crab meat
1 tin of cocktail prawns (175g)
salt
pepper
parsley
olive oil
bechamel sauce

Heat oil on a low/med heat. Pour in crab meat and prawns and mix through. Add bechamel sauce, season with salt and pepper and add a small amount of chopped parsley as desired.

Spoon into vol-au-vent cases

(The above filling fills about 8-10 medium vol-au-vent cases)

 
Bechamel Sauce (1 serve):
15grams butter
15 grams flour
1 cup milk

(adjust above qty's as required)

Melt butter and add flour stirring continuously then gradually add milk whilst continuing to stir over a low heat.


I am linking up over here

{Recipe} Tropical Mocktails

{This post was published elsewhere previously, it is now being published here as it is no longer available on the other site}

It is pretty cold here at the moment, well for Queensland any, but I thought I would re-post this anyway for my readers in the northern hemisphere. 

To beat the heat last summer,  we frequently indulged in Tropical Mocktails that the whole family could enjoy.

And today I am sharing the recipe with you so you can too.

What you need:

1 fresh Mango or if fresh isn’t available, 1 tin of peeled and sliced Mangoes

1 Banana, peeled and roughly chopped

110ml of Tropical Juice

50g of Coconut Milk

200g of Natural Yoghurt

150g Ice Cubes

Fresh fruit to garnish if desired.

What you need to do:

Here is the simple part, pop it all in a blender and combine for about a minute or until it is all well combine.

Pour into cocktail glasses and garnish with fresh fruit.

I will let you in on a little secret. I didn’t bother with the garnish as it was just for myself and the kids. But if you want to get all fancy go right ahead.

Gourmet Garden Blog Off: Spaghetti Marinara

Ingriedents:

1kg Marinara Mix
500g of Spaghetti
2 tablespoons of Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic
Olive Oil
300g Cream
100g White Wine
1 teaspoon of vegetable stock
Onion
4 shallots

Method: 
Dice onion and shallots and set aside. Heat small amount of olive oil in frying pan or pot. Add diced onion and gourmet garden chunky garlic. Cook until onion turns translucent and then add marinara mix. Cook on medium heat until prawns start to change colour and then add white wine, cream and vegetable stock. Cook on low/medium heat for about 10 minutes. You need to make sure that the heat doesn't get to hot or you will over cook your seafood.

Whilst doing the above bring to boil a pot of water and cook spaghetti. Once spaghetti is cooked drain and add to marinara sauce. Combine well and then add shallots, combine again.

It is now ready to serve.

Remember that I normally cook enough to feed our family of 5 and have enough leftover for B's lunches. The above quantities easily feed our family of 5 and provided 2 lunches for B.

Gourmet Garden Blog Off: Basil and Bacon Pasta

Some nights I only have a few minutes to get dinner cooked and on the table and since I had some yummy gourmet garden herbs at my disposal this week I thought I would give them a whirl and make a quick (and cheap) pasta dish for us all.

Ingredients:
Onion
4 rashers bacon
300-500g pasta (depending on how many you are feeding)
1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic
1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Basil
800g tinned tomatoes
Olive Oil

Dice bacon and onion. Heat small amount of oil in pan and add onion and 1 tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic once oil is hot. Cook onion until it turns translucent and then add in bacon. Once bacon has cooked through pour in tinned tomatoes and tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Basil. Bring to boil and then let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Whilst you are doing all the above put water on to boil for the spaghetti. Once the spaghetti is cooked add to the pasta sauce and mix through.

Now it is ready to serve!

These quantities were enough to feed our family of 5 and have 2 portions of left overs to freeze for lunches.

Chicken and mushroom casserole with cider

I am really loving the River Cottage Everyday cookbook that I got last week. I only got it on Thursday and we have already had two main meals from it and have planned many more.

On Saturday night we had the Chicken and mushroom casserole with cider. It was great, it is not a meal I would make during the week, but definitely on a weekend.

Here is what my version ended up looking like

And the cookbook version

Different, but the same. Kinda.


The recipe can be found here.

Are you a fan of River Cottage? You already know I am!


I am linking up here.