A Quickie Fruit Platter

I made this for a morning tea we went to this morning.
I forgot we needed to bring a plate,
so an hour before we were meant to be there,
I hit the shops.
This was the result.
Rock melon, strawberries, kiwi fruit, blueberries and bread.
Sour dough.

Torn up and topped with nutella.

Grace's Rice and Bonnie's Spring Rolls

My friend Grace made us some dinner last night.
This yummy Korean fried rice ...
I am going to have to learn how to make it because it was soooo good !
It's got Kimchee in it !
I LOVE KIMCHEE !!!
Grace is going to teach me how to make it !
I can't wait !!

Since I didn't have to cook the main dish last night, I decided to make spring rolls.
I used to make them a lot but haven't made them in years.

AND ... when Grace was here dropping off the rice,
I realized I hadn't bought any sweet and sour sauce.
We love our spring rolls with S & S sauce !
Anyway, Grace told me how to make it and
since I had all the ingredients in the house, I gave it a whirl.
IT WAS GOOD !!

Ok ... so here's the how to ...

You can really put whatever you like in your spring rolls. Mine are always different. Last night I used chinese cabbage, bean sprouts, shredded carrot, garlic, spring onion, and I think that is it. Cook up the ingredients in a fry pan. Just to soften and get the flavors going. Then rolls in the spring roll wrappers. I make a whole bunch at one time and freeze them for later. We usually fry them in our tamago pan.

For the sweet and sour sauce. Fry up some onion, add chunks of pineapple and some of the sauce. Add ketchup and a bit of rice vinegar. Grace said two parts ketchup to one part vinegar. It really is to taste. I just kept adding this and that 'til it tasted like I wanted it to. As you can see in the photo, mine was quite chunky. Lots of pineapple. It was really yummy !

Lasagna a la Bonnie's Mom !

Preheat oven to 180 C (375F)
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Mix 2 cups cottage cheese with 1 egg. Add parmesan cheese til the mixture is no longer goopy. (maybe 1 cup or a bit more ... varies everytime I make it !)
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Brown 500g (1 lb) mince ( ground beef ) with 2 cloves (I use about 6 cloves ! ) finely chopped garlic and 1 finely chopped onion. Take off heat. Mix with a jar of Ragu ( or any tomato based pasta sauce), a big can of chopped tomatoes, basil, oregano and parsley to taste. Set aside.
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Also need ... Shredded mozarella cheese & Instant Lasagna Noodles.
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Start with a bit of sauce on the bottom of your baking dish. Not heaps ... just so noddles don't stick.
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Then do layers ... three is good, four is better !!
Noodles
Sauce
Cottage cheese mixture (just do blops ... don't try to spread flat or you'll run out !)
Mozzarella.
Last layer should be Noodles, Sauce, Mozzarella.
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Bake 35 minutes covered ( or til noodles are tender), remove cover and bake additional 10 minutes.

Rory's Carbonara

This is a favorite around here ...

My husband Rory made this recipe up when he was studying at University. Every Friday night he would have this carbonara and a bottle of wine for dinner ....

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I love it because it is equally as easy as it is yummy. I keep most of these things in my house so usually just have to buy the bacon if I haven't got any in the freezer.

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We had it last night ... needed something I could cook without thinking. You Mom's know how that goes right ? Sick kid ... long day ... what to do for dinner ?!?! Plus, Jono said he would like to have bacon for dinner ... perfect meal for all of us !!

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The Recipe ....

Ingredients:

• bacon - roughly 250g (1/2 lb) - chopped
• 1 onion - chopped
• garlic - slivered ( you can put as little or as much as you like. I use a whole head of garlic when I make this but we are HEAVY on the garlic eaters !! )
• fresh rosemary - 1 or 2 sprigs
• pasta - I like vermicelli or thin spaghetti. Rory likes fettucine. The kids like spirals.
• parmesan cheese

Put water on to boil. Cook pasta. (when finished, drain and run under a bit of cold water so it doesn't stick together)

While pasta is cooking. Put a bit of olive oil in a frying pan - or you can leave it out if your bacon makes lots of grease. Cook bacon 'til almost done ( we like it crispy but you can do it to your desired taste ! ) Add garlic and chopped rosemary. Cook 'til garlic is just starting to brown. Add onion. Cook 'til soft.

Put pasta back in pan (or in serving dish). Add bacon mixture. Add parmesan cheese. We probably add a cup - at least. Mix to coat. Serve with salad and nice bread.

Rory has been known to add black olives and/or sliced mushrooms to this dish as well.

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EVERYONE in our little family LOVES this meal ! No complaints !

Posting Old and Not Necessarily Extrememly Healthy Recipes ...

Since I don't have my simple beauty blog open to the public anymore, I thought it might be a good idea to re-post the recipes from there to here. I know they do not necessarily comply with the "EXTREMELY HEALTHY" part of this blog but they definitely comply with the "DELICIOUS" part so let's call it good ! I'll be posting over the next couple of days and I am hoping to start up my MENU PLAN MONDAY posts again starting on Monday !!! How 'bout you, Khris ? You ready to start that up again !? I've missed seeing what is on the menu at your place ... Ok ... I was going to post the first recipe in this post but I think I'll give it it's own ...

Vegetarian Curry

I was watching my favorite cooking show the other day (America's Test Kitchen) and they made the yummiest looking vegetarian curry. So I pulled out my notebook and a pen and wrote down what they did as they did it. We made it last night and it was amazing! Enjoy!

Vegetarian Curry

1 or 2 T curry powder
1 T garam masala
Oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 or 4 medium potatoes
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 serrano chili, seeded and finely diced
1 T fresh ginger, grated fine
1 T tomato paste
1/2 head of cauliflower, in bite sized pieces
14 oz. can of diced or crushed tomatoes, run through a blender (I guess you could sub tomato sauce)
1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/4 c. heavy cream

Toast the curry powder and the garam masala in a dry pan on high heat for a minute or two until it smokes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Heat some oil over medium heat and add the onions and potatoes. Let fry for about 10 minutes until they get some nice color.
Add in a little more oil. Throw in the ginger, garlic, chili, tomato paste and the toasted spices. Let the spices bloom for a bit in the oil then add in the cauliflower. Made sure the cauliflower gets coated with the spices. Add in the blended tomatoes, about 3/4 cup of water (more or less depending on how much sauce you like and how thick you prefer it to be), the chick peas, and the salt.
Cook for 15 minutes over medium heat until the veggies are done.
Add the frozen peas and the cream.
Take off heat.
Done.

Serving suggestions: Serve with basmati rice and your favorite chutneys or relishes. We had sag paneer and nan with our curry and rice.

A Wee Bonnie Wrap ....

We have wraps quite a bit around here.
This was was particularly yummy so I thought I'd post it.

All I did was cook some basmati and wild rice. Chopped up fresh coriander ( cilantro ), tomatoes, black olives, purple cabbage, spring onion. Add to rice. Add a can of black beans. Add some lime juice. This is yummy to eat just like that.

But I cooked some chicken as well.
Chopped up and added some chipoltle chili powder and cooked in fry pan.

For the wrap. Used flour tortillas. Added avocado, shredded cheese and a bit of sour cream.

Toasted in sandwich press.

YUMMMY !