I have to say, I am fighting back the urge to pour a glass of wine - yes I know it's only 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon, but in my defence, it's hot! And, it's just been one of those days. Any of you parents out there will probably understand what I mean. In a bid to be healthy (trying to lose that extra baggage I somehow acquired over the summer holidays) I decided to take my lovely children for a walk today. A rather long walk. I wanted to stop off in a store and have a quick look for something - this was my mistake. I should have known it would not end well. Let's just say I left the store without what I intended on buying, with two screaming children. One in particular, kept it up for 20 minutes straight. Not a word of a lie. (The other managed to sleep peacefully through it - go figure). Whoever came up with that saying "Ignore the bad behaviour, praise the good", obviously never had children!
Anywho, I digress. What you really want to know about is the food! I've made so many things lately I don't even know where to begin! Some of them, I made up as I was going and intended on writing this soon after, which alas, did not happen, so I may be a little sketchy on the ingredients.
I'll start off with the Lemon Cupcakes I just made. Yes, I came home from a long walk and core exercise (thanks Tegan and Mum), to make cupcakes - this may be why I have that excess we were discussing earlier!
This is a recipe I used to make years ago. I think it's an Alison Holst one from memory. I have changed it a smidge, but not heaps.
Lemon Cupcakes
Grated zest of 1 large lemon
3/4 C sugar
juice of 1 large lemon
1/4 C oil
1 egg
1 C vanilla yoghurt
pinch of salt
2 C Self raising flour
Preheat oven to 190C
Sift flour into a large bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine sugar and zest. Mix. Add the remaining ingredients one at a time and mix each time.
Pour the wet into the flour and fold together, until combined.
Spoon heaped Tablespoons of mix into trays lined with cupcake cases - I managed to get 12 regular cupcakes and 12 mini's out of this recipe.
Pop in oven for 10-12 mins, until starting to brown.
When cold, dust with icing sugar.
I also made some date scones yesterday, using the Edmonds cookbook. Surprisingly I have never used that one before. It's actually pretty good :) A few too many ingredients I think though, so I may work on a new recipe. Watch this space!
Let's see, I've also made several dinners that were A-maze-ing!
The first one is a mince and potato dish. I cut my potato into small cubes, and in a large frying pan with a bit of butter, I cooked them until nice and golden, seasoning with salt and pepper.
In another pan, I cooked up some onion slices with garlic, added mince and browned it. Seasoned with salt and pepper, and added a decent splash of soy sauce. To this I added some edamame beans, and just before serving, some fresh chopped tomatoes - I used cherry tomatoes.
To serve, heap potatoes on plate and top with mince mix. Grate a little cheese on top.
Delicious!
Sausage and Egg Pie (without the pastry)
Now I make a mean sausage and egg pie with pastry, but decided to do one without for once - yea ok, I forgot to get some and couldn't be bothered making it, but it turned out fab anyways!
Those of you who are my age and went to Ashburton Intermediate, may recognise the first part of this recipe, as it's the same ingredients as "Mock Chicken Legs" that we did back then!
500g sausage meat
1 cube chicken stock (1tsp)
1/4 C tomato sauce
4Tbsp wholemeal flour
Pinch of mixed herbs
Eggs
Peas
Cheese
Hash browns
Ok so the first lot of ingredients you mix together - get in there with your hands, the best mixing tools there are!
Press into the bottom of a greased pie dish or casserole dish.
Sprinkle a wee bit of cheese over top and then some frozen peas.
In a separate bowl, beat enough eggs to cover the sausage meat - I used about 5/6 eggs. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour the egg mix over top of the peas. Sprinkle a smidge more cheese. Top with hash browns and another sprinkle of cheese.
Pop in the oven at 180C for at least an hour, it may take a bit longer, depending on how thick the layer of egg is that you use.
It should be nice and golden on top.
I was going to share a coffee cake recipe with you, but decided to put it in the cookbook, but I'll show you a sneak peek of what it looks like :) Sooooo good!
Ooh, I almost forgot my Chicken Salad!
Chicken breasts - baking paper, season with five spice, salt and pepper, fold over paper and bash until thin. Heat a frying pan with a little oil. When hot, cook chicken until crispy on each side. Set aside.
Cook up some pasta - I used macaroni - however much you need. I made this as an entire meal so I used quite a lot. I also added a couple of eggs and broccoli florets to the pot.
Drain pasta and pop into your bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil and toss to coat. Chop eggs and add with broccoli.
Drain a can of corn kernels and add those with some chopped capsicum and cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Add a couple of Tablespoons of mayo and mix through.
Slice up the chicken and add to the bowl. Toss together.
Devine!
I know there have been more recipes, but I can't seem to think of them right now. So I'll leave it at that, and hopefully they'll come back to me for next time! Have a great rest of the week guys! Happy cooking!
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