Crock Pot Steak Fajitas

I found this recipe here.
I, of course, didn't cook it to the exact recipe instructions.

Here's what I did ...

500g round steak or beef flank steak
2 medium onions, cut into strips
1 large jar of medium salsa
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of 2 fresh limes
4 cloves garlic, minced
A pinch of ground chillis
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 small green bell peppers, cut into strips
2 small red bell peppers, cut into strips

For serving: chopped avocado, shredded cheese, chopped tomato, chopped spring onion, sour cream and flour tortillas, warmed

Cut steak crosswise into thin strips; place in slow cooker. Combine onion, 1 cup salsa, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt in slow cooker. Cover; cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours.

The original recipe said to ...add bell peppers. Cover; cook on LOW 1 hour. BUT we didn't. We sauteed them in a cast iron skillet instead.

I first posted this recipe in 2009 but tonight I added something new to these tonight so thought I'd repost it with the addition ...

Garlic ... as much as you's like, diced

Jalapenos and assorted red chillies out of my garden, also diced

Fry these two in olive oil til garlic is browned.  

Remove from oil to paper towel and set aside.  Pop this into the fajita when serving.  So tasty!

Quinoa Black Bean Salad - Combined

When I was planning my menu this week, I knew I wanted to make Quinoa Black Bean Salad.  But I discovered that there were two yummy looking recipes on the blog to choose from.  So I took a little from one and a little from the other - and this is what I got!

mine didn't look exactly like this...but you get the idea

INGREDIENTS

1 cup quinoa, washed and drained
1 ¾ cups water
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 2 fresh limes
1 teaspoon cumin

1 clove garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half (optional - I didn't use any this time because fresh tomatoes are on "baby no like" list since I've been pregnant)
1 red bell pepper (I like it cut small)
1 avocado cut into chunks
5 green onions, finely chopped
Salt (pepper – optional) to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1 Wash and rinse quinoa. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Once hot, add the rinsed quinoa and toast for a minute or two.  Add water, stir once, cover and simmer with a lid on for about 20 minutes.  Watch it though and turn it off as soon as the liquid is absorbed!

 2 In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, cumin, salt, and garlic.

3 Combine cooked quinoa, beans, red pepper, tomatoes, and green onions in a large bowl.

4 Drizzle dressing over salad.  Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.  Can also add cilantro and/or red pepper flakes.


As a note - this is great as a side dish to a meal (one of the boys declared it tasted like guacamole), but also keeps well in the fridge for a healthy, protein packed lunch or snack. 

Roasted Bell Pepper Salad

I tried this recipe ages ago ... I'm pretty sure I clipped it out of a magazine.

It's another of those with no real measurements.  

Roasted bell peppers (capsicum), I love all three colors but here I just used red and green.  Sliced.

Red onion, thinly sliced

Black olives, sliced

Feta cheese, crumbled

Olive Oil
Sherry Vinegar
Sea Salt
Pepper

Spread the bell peppers on a plate.  Top with red onion, black olives, feta cheese.  Drizzle with the oil and vinegar.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Let set for 30 minutes. 

Delicious.

A New Challenge & Pearl Cous Cous

I mentioned in my post on Sunday that I was going to start feeding us out of what we have here.  I said it like this:

Every now and then I decide that we need to try and eat out of our pantry, freezer, fridge and garden. There are often a few factors that go into my deciding this. One is that sometimes when we are extremely busy, I feel like planning a menu and then going to the grocery store could send me over some sort of imaginary 'edge' ! Two is when we've made a large purchase (like putting solar panels on our house!) and not shopping for a week would help pay for them. Three is when I look into my pantry and freezer and see that what's in there could probably feed a family in Africa for a month. And so, I get creative .... 

Then yesterday I was looking around on the internet and I stumbled upon this challenge ! It starts Monday and I'm going to join them !  It goes for four weeks and basically it's about eating out of your freezer and pantry in an effort to save money.  Tomorrow I will make an inventory of what I have in the house ... I will share that with you.  At the end of each of the weeks (I'm going to do the whole four week challenge) I will share with you what we ate (as per usual) but I will also share with you what I had to buy (I do plan to keep feeding my family fresh fruit, veg, milk etc ...)  and how much I spent each week.  My grocery budget, including toiletries, is $350 a week.  I do pretty well keeping within that most weeks.  I'm very interested to see how much I can save over the four week challenge !  And also what interesting meals we will come up with ...

Tonight's meal was just something I threw together in a hurry.  It was nice.  Simple. Easy.  I had all of the things in my fridge, pantry and garden.  I made it in the afternoon and refrigerated til we were ready to eat.  It was only the kids and me tonight.  Had Rory been here, I probably would have grilled some chicken to go with it.

Pearl (Israeli) Cous Cous

1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper, chopped small

1 Tomato, chopped small

1 Spring Onion, sliced

A couple spoonfuls of sliced black olives

A small handful of salted capers

Garlic, chopped,  to taste

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (or more to taste)

Boil cous cous according to package instructions.

Sautee garlic in olive oil til golden brown. (maybe 1/2 tablespoon of oil)

Drain cous cous.  Mix cous cous with other ingredients, including oil you cooked the garlic in.  Squeeze lemon juice on top and mix. 

Can be served hot or cold.

PS ... If I'd had feta in the house, I would have put that in too ...

Fresh and Delicious Quinoa

I found this delicious looking recipe on pinterest and had to try it. I'm glad I did too ! It's amazingly delicious !  I did almost everything the same ... really, the only things I changed were that I roasted the red bell pepper, how I added the garlic, a few measurements and a bit of the how to assemble.  Here's my version ...

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 tbsp coconut oil (but I think any oil would do)
1 & 3/4 cup water
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado, chopped into chunks
a punnet of cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper
small handful coriander/cilantro, diced
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt, to taste

Roast your red bell pepper, set aside.  Here is a little tutorial on how to roast peppers, if you need it.

Put the coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the rinsed quinoa and toast for a minute or two. Add water, stir once, cover, and simmer with a lid on for about 20 minutes.  Watch it though and turn it off as soon as the liquid is absorbed ! (I like my glass lid for this !)

Mix the lime juice, oil, cumin, minced garlic and salt. Stir. Set Aside.  This is the dressing.

In a big bowl ~ tomatoes, beans, & onion.  Remove skins from red bell peppers, chop and add to bowl. Chop avocado but don't add it yet.

When the quinoa has finished cooking, remove it from heat and fluff with a fork. Let cool for a few minutes, then add to the bowl with the other ingredients and stir.  Add dressing.  Stir.  Add avocado and coriander/cilantro, gently stir.

Chicken Florentine

In an attempt to find yummy recipes that fit the diet we are currently one - we redesigned a chicken florentine recipe...it was SO yummy that we put it on the menu for a second week in a row! This is an easy, must try!

Chicken Florentine






Chop red peppers into tiny pieces (about the size of pimentos). I used 1 1/2 peppers because we had a half that needed using, but it wasn't enough. 1 would probably be fine though.

Layer fresh baby spinach into a baking dish with the red peppers. We use a round, glass baking dish. The spinach will cook down a lot, so pack in as much as you can (if you like spinach as much as we do!). The layers go: spinach, red pepper, spinach, red pepper, sprinkle of feta cheese, spinach, red pepper, spinach, red pepper, sprinkle of feta cheese.













Trim fat from five, boneless chicken thighs. Lay the chicken pieces on top of the spinach layers. The five pieces are enough to completely cover the top of the baking dish, basically sealing in the spinach layers. Spinkle the chicken with seasoned salt.











Cover the baking dish with foil and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes (or until the chicken is done), uncovering the dish for the last 20 minutes.










The spinach will cook down to almost half the size and there will be LOTS of yummy juice. Serve over rice or eat as is. This serves 3 to 4.

Jono's Roasted Pepper and Chicken Pasta Salad

We have a guest blogger today ! My boy Jono, who is nine, almost ten (!) cooked dinner for us last night. He got the recipe out of a cookbook he was given for is his birthday, but he made a few small changes.  I asked him this morning if he wanted to write a blog post about it and he was pretty excited to do it ! So ... here you go, in his words ...

hi i am jono and i am going to tell you how to make a roasted pepper and chicken pasta salad

you will need:

2 chicken breasts

1 yellow bell pepper

1 bag of any pasta

1 red bell pepper

a handful of rocket

for the marinade:

2 tbls olive oil

lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 clove garlic, crushed

salt and pepper

for the dressing:

4 tbls olive oil

3 tbls rice wine vinegar

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbls green pesto

a bunch of chives

a handful of chopped parsley

first boil some water then get your two chicken breasts and wrap them in cling film. then bash the chicken with a mallet until flat put the chicken in a container and mix in the olive oil lemon juice garlic salt and pepper put in the fridge for 20 minutes. cut the peppers in half and take out the inside then put them under the grill until skin is black. then soak then in water until ready to pick up then pull off the skin and slice them. cook pasta according to packet heat a frying pan to a medium high heat put chicken in and pour marinade on top. once cooked cool for a couple minutes while cooling chicken put pasta in a bowl with peppers and rocket slice chicken and put into the bowl pour the marinade on and mix and it is done. 

Notes from Mom : I didn't want to change any of how he wrote his instructions so here are a few tips (translations) from me ...

bell peppers = capsicum

rocket = arugula

cling film = glad wrap.  saran wrap.

grill = broiler

We made the pesto for the dressing.  We used sweet and greek basil, just a handful or so.  Then added maybe a tablespoon of pine nuts, maybe the same of freshly grated parmesan, added a blub or two of olive oil.  A bit of salt and pepper.  We used the stick blender on that.  Then we just added the rest of the dressing ingredients to that and blended it some more, again ... with the stick blender.

This was DELICIOUS !!!  It served four of us for dinner, and there were three small portions left over for lunches .... luckily I didn't need a packed lunch today since it's my day off !!  Wooo Hooo !!!

Bell Peppers Stuffed with Salsa, Rice & Beans (Crockpot)

4 large bell peppers
2 ½ cups cooked brown rice
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomato salsa
3 scallions, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon sugar

Cut the tops off the bell peppers, save for later use, and remove and discard the seeds and membranes. Arrange the peppers upright in a 5 ½ - 6 quart slow cooker.
(My Crock Pot is only 4 quarts and they turned out fine.)
In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the rice, beans, salsa, and scallions and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
Fill the prepared peppers evenly with rice mixture, packing it lightly. Replace the pepper tops. In the same mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, cumin, oregano and sugar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour over and around the peppers in the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on Low for 4 hours, until peppers are fork-tender but still hold their shape.
Serve hot.

Note: Adapted from a recipe from the book titled: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Salad w/Alioli

Here you go ... a Bonnie original.
Just threw this together out of leftovers in the fridge.

1/2 a baby cos lettuce
1/4 of an avocado
1 hard boiled egg
proscuitto left over from burger night
roasted red bell peppers (capsicum), left over from ... can't remember now !
aioli ... leftover from burger night

Throw it all together.
Add a bit of water to the aioli to make it a dressing consistency.
DONE.

Aunt Jo's Stuffed Peppers ~ my way.

My rendition of Aunt Jo's stuffed peppers.
We are not overly fond of cous cous round here so I substituted quinoa.
I also mashed the chickpeas (garbanzo beans) as I don't like them whole.
It's a foible.
One of my many.

The verdict.
A bit dry.

But ... we ate it as leftovers with this chicken and topped with the sauce
and liked it much better. Next time ... we have a sauce with it !!

{Couscous Stuffed Peppers Photo}

The recipe for these beauties is here.
I can attest to their extreme deliciousness!

{bonnie's black bean chili soup photos}

have you all tried my sister ellie's black bean chili soup ?
i had never made it before the other night
i had eaten it
cooked by ellie while we were in denver
but never cooked it myself

i decided to double the recipe so i'd have leftovers to freeze
and i'm glad because it was freakin' delicious !!!

here's the onion, red/green/yellow capsicum (bell peppers) all chopped up

and now with the garlic

oh man, my mouth is watering ...
good thing i'm having leftovers for lunch !

i didn't serve this on rice
just as is, with corn chips
and topped with avocado, homemade greek yogurt
and grated cheddar cheese

go get the recipe ... it's on this blog already ... and try it

try it ! try it !
and you may.
try it and you may, i say ...

like it that is
green eggs and ham ... if you haven't read it, you need to.

Hors D'Ouvers

Lunch at our place today.

Yeah, you get more than one ...

I'll bring you a whole post on this lunch later in the week.

And tomorrow ... I'll be back with Menu Plan Monday after two weeks AWOL.

One week I had no plan.

Last week I had a plan but forgot to post it.

This week, no plan yet but I will make it tomorrow !!!

Orzo Veg Salad

I got the original recipe for this from
"Moosewood Restaurants Low Fat Favorites"
... a cookbook I'd love to own.

I've modified the recipe and am posting that modified recipe here.
(if you want the original ... get the book !)

1 package of Orzo pasta (called Rissoni in Australia)
1 tble sesame oil
1 cup chopped red bell peppers (red capsicum)
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
grape or cherry tomatoes
mushrooms

Cook the orzo, til al dente. Drain. Rince with cold water. Toss with sesame oil and set aside. (I've just realized I didn't do that !! -- oops)

Chop all the veggies and add to the salad.

Top with this dressing :

3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chili paste (I used Korean chili paste as I didn't have Chinese)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root (I used the stuff out of a jar)
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced (again, I used the stuff out of a jar)
salt and ground pepper to taste

Serve hot or cold. Delicious both ways !!!

Asparagus Hash

This is not my recipe...I tore it out of the February 2008 issue of Oxygen Magazine.
I made it for the first time this evening and we loved it. Very yummy and a great "one-dish-meal." I took the skillet right to the table on a hot pad.

1 tbs. olive oil
2 red potatoes
1/2 bundle asparagus
1/2 med. yellow onion
1 small red bell pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Add olive oil to a frying pan, on medium heat.
2. While the oil heats up, wash and shop the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Scoop them into the pan and place the lid on. Remember to flip them regularly.
3. While the potatoes are cooking, chop the asparagus, onion and red bell pepper into small 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Check to make sure that the potatoes are partially cooked before adding the other ingredients. This should take about 10 to 15 minutes from the time you put them in the pan.
5. Once you have added all the veggies to the pan, sprinkle on the garlic, rosemary, basil, and salt.
6. Let the hash browns cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

*I added real minced garlic instead of powdered. I also used my mortal and pestle to combine the dried rosemary and Himalayan sea salt.
Very yummy dish!

No Menu

And my grocery budget is reflecting it.

Ugh.

I just could NOT get a menu done this week !

Lots of reasons that I won't go into.

I will be back on track next week ... I hope !

Inspired ...

As promised ... here are the two recipes for the yummy meal we had Sunday night.

They are both from The Inspired Vegetarian by Christine Ingram

I served them as the main dishes ... not eating meat right now.

Stuffed Mushrooms ( the adapted by Bonnie version )

I used:
6 big mushrooms
olive oil
garlic
fresh parsley
fresh breadcrumbs
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F

Take the stalks out of the mushrooms. Don't throw them out. Put the mushrooms in a pan with baking paper on the bottom.

Heat a bit of oil and briefly fry the garlic. It called for 2 cloves, use what you fancy.

In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs (I used two pieces of bread ... chopped in my food processor), parsley (3 tbls), and chopped mushroom stalks. Add garlic, salt and pepper and 1 tbls oil.

Fill mushrooms with mixture. I then poured a bit more oil on top as it seemed a bit too dry.

Cover with baking paper. Bake 15/20 minutes ~ depending on size of mushrooms.

Remove paper at last five minutes to brown the tops ... I also added a bit of feta cheese before I put them back in for these last five minutes !

Italian Roast Peppers

4 small red peppers, halved, cored and seeded
2-3 tbls capers ~ I used baby capers so I didn't need to chop as the recipe called for
10 - 12 black olives, pitted and chopped
garlic, finely chopped
50 - 75 g mozarella
25 - 50 g fresh breadcrumbs ( I used two pieces of bread )
1/2 cup white wine
3 tbls olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped fresh mint
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 C / 375 F.

Place the peppers tightly in a dish - lined with baking paper of course.

In a bowl, mix capers, olives, garlic, mozzarella and breadcrumbs. Pour onto the peppers.

Pour wine and olive oil (I mixed them first) on top.

Sprinkle with herbs and pepper.

Bake 30 - 40 minutes until the topping is crisp and golden brown.

I checked mine after 20 minutes and it was already crisp and golden brown but the peppers weren't cooked. So .. I covered it with tin foil for the remainder of the cooking time ! I might start out with the tin foil on top next time and then take it off towards the end !

Roasted Red Capsicum Soup

I got this recipe from Everyday Vegetarian ~ a book I checked out from the library. I searched and searched on line to try and find the book but couldn't find a picture of it anywhere. Must be old. Anyway ... here's a photo for you. I know it looks like it's called "yadyrevE nairategeV" but it's not.

I am wondering why I always make my eyes so big in photos. It's weird. I don't walk around like that in real life !! Oh well ... at least my mouth isn't open. That's often the case in photos as well !!

Anyway, here's the soup recipe.

4 large red capsicum (red bell pepper)
4 tomatoes
2 tbls oil
1 red onion ~ chop it up
1 clove garlic ~ I added more
4 cups veggie stock
1 tsp sweet chili sauce

Roast the capsicum. Don't know how ? Lucky for you, I've done a little demo on this very blog. (if you haven't worked it out yet, the colored words in my posts are usually linked !!) Once the cap is roasted, peel the skin and chop the 'meat' up.

For the tomatoes, score a small X on the bottom of each one. Pour boiling water over the top of them. Leave for a minute. Plunge into cold water and then peel the skin off. Chop ( the recipe says to take the seeds out first )

Saute onion and garlic. Add capsicum, tomato and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat. Simmer 20 minutes.

Puree in food processor. Return to pan to reheat gently and then stir in the sweet chili sauce. I think I'll skip the s.c.sauce next time. I don't know that it added anything.

The recipe in the book says to serve topped with pesto and parmesan. We did neither.

Black Bean Salsa

As with all my GREAT recipes, I got this recipe from Shay. We are going to a BBQ tonight and so I made this to take. Thought since I was making it, I'd take some photos and post the recipe so you all can enjoy it too !
~

In a big bowl, whisk the following:
crushed garlic
2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls lime ( or lemon ) juice
salt
southwest seasonings ( chilli powder, cummin, oregano)
~
Add:
1 red bell pepper ( capsicum ) - roasted and chopped
2 cups cooked black beans
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/3 cup fresh cilantro ( coriander )
chopped shallots ( spring onions )
~
Mix.
~
Better after sits for a while.
~
Serve with corn chips or veggies or on top of baked potatoes !
~

BONUS PEPPER ROASTING LESSON ...
Just in case you don't know how to roast capsicum (bell peppers), here's how you do it. Cut the pepper into big pieces and lay on your tray in the broiler ( grill in Australia ). Turn on to high.

Broil until the skin looks like this ...

Now, I have seen recipes that say not to do this but I do it anyway. I transfer the broiled peppers into a bowl of water. It cools them off and helps the skin come off EASILY !

Peel the skin off (just using your fingers) and you'll be left with the "meat" (left) and the skin (right). Throw the skin into the garbage !

Easy, eh !? I love peppers done this way !! I will eat them just like that, add them to a salad, put them on a pizza, on a sandwich, serve with hors' d'ouvres ... whatever !! I used to put them in a jar with garlic and olive oil to store in the fridge. THAT IS DELICIOUS !! Great to put on pizza !!
~

Quinoa with Red Peppers

Found this recipe in"From The World's Finest Pasta and Grains" by Anne Marshall

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Serves 4

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Ingredients:

3 red bell peppers (capsicum)

1 cup quinoa

1 tbls virgin olive oil

1 onion, cut into 12 wedges

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped. (Do I even need to say that I used more than this ?!)

1 large tomato, cut into 12 wedges

1/4 black olives, pitted and sliced

2 tbls capers

1 tbls chopped fresh oregano

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbls balsamic vinegar

oregano sprigs, for garnish

~

Preparation:

Preheat the broiler (grill)

~

Cut the peppers into wedges, following the natural indentations. Remove the seeds and white membrane. Place, skin side up, under the hot broiler and heat until the skin bubbles and starts to scorch. Place the peppers in a clean plastic bag, seal and cover with a cloth for five minutes. (I don't do this. I put the peppers in a bowl of cold water ) Remove the skin for the peppers with your fingers, then cut into long, thin strips.

~

Cooking:

Coook the quinoa according to package directions. Keep hot.

~

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over low-medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes.

~

Add the tomato and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the peppers and heat through, about 2 minutes.

~

Add the olives, capers, oregano and salt and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the vinegar, then remove from the heat.

~

Spoon the quinoa onto a warm serving platter, spoon the pepper mixture into the venter, garlnish with the oregano sprigs and serve immediately.