Roasted Garlic, Cauliflower and Mushroom Quinoa

I made this the other day to take for lunches.  I didn't take a photo until I was halfway through eating it ... sorry!

I had found this recipe on pinterest.  But ... I was tasting as I went along and I decided that it didn't need the balsalmic dressing and goats cheese ... it was nice just like it was.  And even better the next day after the flavours had developed over night!

Here's what I did:

1 head of cauliflower, broken into small florets

a few cloves of garlic, cut into slivers

mushrooms, button and oyster, quartered

1 cup quinoa

1.5 cups water

1 chicken stock cube 

thyme

salt and pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F/200C

Toss the cauliflower, garlic and mushrooms in olive oil.  Add salt and pepper and thyme.  Mix.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until starting to brown.  Don't let them burn!  Stir half way through ...

While the veggies are cooking, make the quinoa.  Place quinoa in a small pot with the water and the chicken stock cube (break it up and stir it in) (or just use ready made chicken stock/broth) Bring to the boil.  Reduce heat, cover and let simmer ... about 15 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Fluff up quinoa with a fork and let sit til veg is ready.

When veg is ready, mix into quinoa.  

Easy.

And like I said, delicious the next day too!

Apple Streusel Muffins

In an effort to make a dent in the
12 kilos of apples that I ordered accidentally,
I made these muffins.
They used ONE APPLE.
Oops.

I'm glad I made them though,

they were tasty.

I combined portions of two recipes to make these.

Cinnamon Suger Donut Muffins

and
Apple Crumble Cheesecake

This made 18 muffins.

For the muffins:

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

2 large eggs
1 cup plain yogurt, I use greek
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 tbsp oil, I use canola

1 tsp vanilla

1 or 2 granny smith apples, chopped

For the streusel topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup butter, softened
In small bowl combine all ingredients

Position oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 200C / 400F. Line a standard muffin pan with paper cups.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix with light strokes until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Don't over mix; batters should not be smooth.  Add apples.

Divide batter among the muffin cups, top with streusel topping and bake until top in golden and a toothpick inserted in one or two of the muffins come out clean, 12-15 minutes.

Baked Chocolaty Marshmallowy Deliciousness

My parents brought us Graham Crackers, Hershey's Chocolate Bars and American Marshmallows when they came to visit in April.  We decided we'd try baked s'mores ... We'd been to an event where we'd eaten them ... the lady who made them used the recipe over at Wit and Whistle.  

I pretty much did it exactly as she did except that I had to make my own graham cracker crumbs ...

1/2 cup butter,  softened

1/4 cup brown suager

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 and 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (or just bash up some graham crackers in a ziplock)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

milk chocolate bars

1 and 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff

Preheat oven - 350F/175C

Cream together butter and sugar until light.  Add egg and vanilla.  Beat. 

In another bowl, mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.  Add that to the butter mixture and mix on low until combined.  Put half of this bowl into a prepared 8inch square baking pan.  Press it down.  Cover this with chocolate bars, breaking bars if necessary.  Top that with marshmallow fluff. 

Roll out the remaining dough in small segments and place on top.  

Bake 30/35 minutes or until lightly browned.

She said to let it cool completely before cutting into bars.  Yeah, that didn't happen here.  We cut that sucker up and ate it!  

So good.

Mushroom Quesadilla

This was a great way to use the leftover mushrooms from our burgers the other night ...

I just grabbed a flour tortilla, spread mushrooms on half of it.  Topped the mushrooms with thinly sliced Gruyere cheese.  Threw that all under the grill (broiler) for a couple of minutes til the cheese melted.  Folded over the tortilla and that's it.

I loved every bite of it.

I can't wait til the next time we have those mushroom burgers so that I can make this again!

Anne's Waffles, with or without the butter ...

I've been meaning to post this recipe for some time now.  I've made these waffles a few times now and they are always delicious!  Always a hit!  One time I even forgot to add the butter and they were still good.  That's the butter-less ones you see in the photo above!

You'll need:
2.5 cups self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 TBLS sugar
3 eggs (separated)
1.5 cups milk
125gm (4.5 oz) melted butter

To make them:
Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add egg yolks, milk and butter.  Mix well.  Beat egg whites til stiff and then fold them into the batter.  Let batter sit for at least 30 minutes.  Cook in pre-heated waffle maker.

We top ours with a wide variety of toppings.  Maple syrup and powdered sugar is a favorite.  Jam ... any flavor!  Apple Butter.  Delicious!  I've also tried strawberries and ice cream ... YUM!!

Burgers with Mushrooms and Spicy Ketchup

 

These burgers were fabulous.  

We used our normal burger meat, with an aged white cheddar cheese.
But then we topped it with these delicious mushrooms, 

a chipotle ketchup and kewpie mayo!

Served on turkish buns, spread with butter, sprinkled
with season all and then toasted on the BBQ.

So ... I got the idea from this Food Network recipe .... 

I did my mushrooms like this:
5 punnets of mushrooms.  (I used shitake, button, swiss brown, enoki and shimeji)
fresh parsley and thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt

Slice mushrooms.  Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pan.  Add mushrooms and a pinch of salt.  Saute to desired tenderness.   Stir in parsley and thyme.   They were pretty juicy, but it didn't matter.  We just used a slotted spoon to scoop them out of the pan.

And the chipotle ketchup:
I used the leftover homemade ketchup.  There was about 1 cup of it.  Add to that some chipotle in adobo that I pulled out of the freezer.  Maybe 3 tablespoons ... but it was pretty spicy, I'd maybe only do 2 tablespoons next time.  Salt.  Pepper.  Zoop Zoop with the stick blender and that's it. 

So ... to assemble to burger.

Toasted Turkish bun
Burger Meat with Cheese
Mushrooms
Chipotle Ketchup
Kewpie (Japanese) Mayo

I'm not kidding, this burger was gooooooooooooood!

GP's Hot Chips and Homemade Ketchup

These hot chips were EASY and delicious!  I found the recipe on Pinterest ... they are out of Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook.  I didn't follow the measurements at all and reading through the recipe again now, I realize I skipped a couple of steps too ... like peeling and drying the potatoes.  

Here's how I did mine.  I just cut up as many potatoes as fit on my two big baking trays.  I put them in a big bowl of cold water and let them soak for an hour or so. 

Ten minutes before I wanted to cook them, I turned the oven on to 230C/450F

Then I drained the water, added a tablespoon or two of olive oil and a good sprinkle of coarse sea salt.  I shook that around in the bowl, then transferred the potatoes to my baking trays that I had lined with baking paper. 

I baked them in the pre-heated oven until they were golden and cooked through.  The first time it took about 40 minutes, the second time it only took about 30 ... I set my time for 20, stir them and then check them every few minutes after that.

When they come out of the oven, I sprinkle with a bit more coarse sea salt.

  

I've been trying to make some more things from scratch.  You know, eliminating additives and preservatives one at a time.  Last night, I decided to tackle ketchup.  I found this one on pinterest and was pretty happy with the results, although it did have a slight honey taste.  But only very slight.  The whole family liked it.  I have a couple of other ketchup recipes pinned that I want to try though before I decide which one is the best. 

I just realized too that I didn't print (or read through) the recipe completely so I missed the bit about cooling it.  We ate it warm and it was delish. 

I won't share the recipe with you here ... the link is above.  Like I said, I want to try a few more ... probably in the end I'll adapt a few of the recipes and then print you my favorite. 

Apple Butter Granola

 

My Mom's comment on my sugar free, crock pot apple butter recipe the other day was a story from her childhood.  I'll share it with you.

"Apple butter reminds me of my Grandpa Templin. Every day that I can remember when we were visiting he had apple butter for breakfast. My Grandma would make him 2 slices of toast and put them in a shallow soup bowl. At the top of his spoon (because yes, the table was always set for breakfast, complete with a napkin in a ring beside the fork, and the Daily Bread devotional book there too) would be a little dish of apple butter. (At the top of his fork would be a dish with stewed prunes, but I digress!) When we were all at the table, Grandma would come in with a little pan of hot milk and pour it into the bowl onto his toast. His spoon would dip into the apple butter, then cut off a bite of the toast, along with a spoonful of the milk, and it would then pop into his mouth. An eminently fascinating scene for this little girl, every day!! So I double love apple butter..."

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the memory that she has and the way she tells it!  She does that a lot, my Mom, she had a very memorable childhood!

I got to thinking yesterday morning that maybe milk and apple butter would be alright together.  I got out a scoop of homemade granola, topped with with a bit of milk and then a few spoonfuls of apple butter.

Mmmmm.  The spicey-appley-taste added a little something special.  I loved it.

Even better was that each time I dipped my spoon into the milky, apple butter goodness, I thought of my Mom and my Great Grandpa.  And I smiled.

Camo Cupcakes

 

Growing up my birthday cakes involved things like pink flowers, rabbits, and Raggedy Ann...but when making birthday confections for gun toting, sports loving, tree climbing boys pink just isn't going to cut it.  Enter AK's Internet discovery CAMO CUPCAKES!!!  Super easy - super fun! 


You'll need a box of white cake mix, a box of chocolate cake mix, and some green food coloring (preferably dark green rather than neon)

Follow the box instructions and mix up the two cake mixes in separate bowls.  Divide into the following:
1. one bowl with just white
2. one bowl with a little white and a little chocolate
3. one bowl with all chocolate
4. one bowl with some white, a little bit of chocolate, and enough green food coloring to make it a green you like. 

Mix each bowl until the colors are combined and then spoon the batter into ziplocks (I found that quart sized bags were perfect).

 

 

Snip the corner of each bag and blop (very technical term!) a bit into lined muffin tins.  The nice thing about camo is it's random...so no set order to blop the batter in.  Just make sure you're being random in your blopping!

 

Bake cupcakes according to the box directions...and...

 

HOW AWESOME ARE THOSE?!?!

   Even Camo on the inside!



The instructions for the camo icing said to do the same thing with chocolate and vanilla icing and green food coloring, putting each color in a separate disposable piping bag and then putting all four bags into one big piping bag.  This did not turn out very well...(if you try it and figure out how to make it NOT look like poop...please tell me what you did!)

 I ended up just writing on the cupcakes with the different colors...turned out ok!

 I wish I would have thought of this though :-)  For the next birthday I made (upon request) vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing, then topped them each with a green army man and green sprinkles.  FUN!



Sugar Free, Crock Pot Apple Butter

A little disclaimer here.  I am not an apple butter expert.  I have probably only eaten it once or twice in my life.  But, I bought 12 kilos (26 pounds!) of apples by accident the other day.  Yeah, it was on line and I thought I was buying 12 apples ... SURPRISE!!!  12 kilos is a LOT of apples!!

So ... I've made crock pot apple sauce.  Apple strudel muffins (recipe coming).  Apple crumble.  And now apple butter.   I'm in love with the apple butter.  You'll have to try it though and tell me if it can be called apple butter or if we should just call it "spiced apple thick sauce."

I peeled the apples for this apple butter but I've since read that you can do it without peeling them.  I'm going to make some more and try that, because not peeling them would make this way less time consuming!  Not that it's super time consuming, but you know .... WAY LESS! 

Here's a little video about a little gadget that helps make things a lot easier too ...

Ok ... so, this was super simple. I filled my crock pot with peeled chopped apples. I used 2 kilos of granny smiths and 1 kilo of royal gala. Next time I will probably do two kilos of the sweeter apple ... On top of the apples I sprinkled 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of the following: ground ginger, ground allspice, ground cloves and ground nutmeg. I then poured about 1/4 cup of water over the top and then gave it a stir. I put the crock pot on low and let it go for about 14 hours.

When I came back, the apples were totally cooked.  I just stirred them with a spoon and they broke down.  I got out the stick blender and blended it right in the pot.  I left it cook on low for another hour or so but I'm not sure that was even necessary.

And that's it. 

I hear you can eat this stuff on toast.  So far, I've just been eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon ...

AFTER NOTE :: I made this again and didn't peel that apples.  Did it make a difference? The only notable difference was that I didn't have to peel the apples!  This easy recipe just got a bit easier!!  There was no change to taste and as I understand it, it's desirable to leave the skin on as it contains a lot of great nutrients.

ALSO :: when I originally posted this I said to use 1/2 tsp of all the spices (other than cinnamon) but then last night when I was putting the spices in the crockpot, I realized that it was actually only 1/4 tsp.  I imagine it's probably a bit to taste and it wouldn't really matter if you put in 1/2 tsp but I've changed it in the post to 1/4 tsp because that's the way I do it ...

Mariposa Palmiers

 

The other night I made fruit salad for dessert but we wanted something to go along with it. El had one piece of puff pastry in the freezer so we made mariposas!  You may know them as Palmiers.  I don't know why we called them mariposas growing up ... maybe because they look like butterflies?

Anyway ... these are super easy. 

Preheat oven to 200C/400F

You will need:

Puff pastry

Sugar, we used caster (fine) sugar

Baking tray lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle sugar onto a flat surface.  Lay puff pasty on top of flat sugared surface. Sprinkle a good layer of sugar on the top of the puff pastry.  Roll pastry from each side to meet in the centre.  Slice into 1/2 inch slices.  Lay slices on baking tray.  Bake anywhere between 10-15 minutes.  Keep and eye on them though ... burned sugar is not nice. 

Orange Creamsickle Drink

I'm learning lots of new and delicious things since my sister moved to Australia!

This is one on my favorites.

Orange Soda, 1 can

Vanilla Vodka, 1 shot

Cream, a couple of teaspoons

Fill a glass with ice and orange soda.  Add vanilla vodka and cream. Stir.  Drink and remember the days of childhood ... in the form of orange cream-sickles.  Yum.

Simple Avo Tom Salad

 

The other night I was trying to throw together a meal from the fridge since I hadn't planned anything and I needed to shop.  I had made Japanese mince and rice as the main but I needed a veggie side. I found a few cherry tomatoes, an avocado and a spring onion.  I thought of the  simple cucumber salad that my sister taught me to make and decided to do a little variation.  This is it ...

Cherry tomatoes
Avocado
Spring Onions
Rice Wine Vinegar
Sesame Seeds

She added sesame oil to the cucumber salad, I didn't add it to this one. 

I'm not sure you need instructions but all you do is chop your veg, sprinkle with vinegar and sesame seeds. 

Delish.

Bacon Salad. With Bacon.

 

So, the other night, Ellie was cooking a putanesca (not this one but if you want to try one, this is a good one to try) for dinner.  I was tasked with making a salad.  Ryan had seen a salad he wanted to try that was topped with bacon and pumpkin seeds.  Turns out the salad he was thinking about was actually a soup so we never did find a recipe.  No biggie though.  I threw this little beauty together and it was DELICIOUS!

There aren't really measurements ... it's a salad.

Bacon, however much you like.

Red Onion

Garlic, I think I used about eight cloves

Spinach
Avocado

Mushrooms
Mixed seeds (my mix was pumpkin, sunflower and pine nut)
Fresh Parmesan cheese

Dry toast the seeds in a small frying pan until just brown.  Just enough for a topping.  You don't see my seed topping in the photo because we had to change platters while we were assembling the salad so my seeds are actually on the bottom!  Anyway ... set the seeds aside.

Chop bacon, dice onion, sliver the garlic and saute together.   While that is cooking, slice the mushrooms and add to bacon mixture when it's just about done.

On a large platter, lay spinach.  Top with bacon mixture.  Chop avocado and lay on top of salad.  Sprinkle with seeds and grate parmesan cheese on top.

I didn't add any dressing. 

I like to think that the bacon was the dressing. 

But, you could add dressing if you like ...

Simple Cucumber Salad

My sister made this the other night. I loved it.

I tried my hand at it the other night. A different other night. I loved it, again.

Here's the 'recipe' ...

cucumber

sesame seeds

rice wine vinegar

sesame oil

  

I peeled strips off the whole cucumber to get the striped effect you see in the photo.  You can do that or peel the whole thing or don't peel it at all.  Slice cucumber.  Sprinkle with rice wine vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

That's it. 

Easy. 

Delicious.

Block vs. Grated Cheese

A few years ago we tried to go totally unprocessed.  We did really well for about 5 months, then I had to go back to the States for a funeral.  I was gone ten days and when I got home, I just couldn't get back into it!!  It was so much work!

Looking back, because I want to start again, I think part of the problem was that I tried to tackle EVERY SINGLE additive & preservative at the same time.  As well as cutting out all the white stuff ... you know, flour, sugar, rice etc .....

It was too much at once.

But, there are things I still do regularly that I learned back then.  Like ... making my own mayo - so easy!  (watch this video!)   And grating cheese. 

I'll admit, I don't do these things exclusively but I'm going to head that way.  I'm going to try to replace one processed product in my pantry/fridge with an unprocessed version each week.  I'm hoping that trying to tackle this on a smaller, more gradual scale will be easier. 

I'll share what I find.  

So, what's with the grating cheese thing?  I need to find where I read it and come back and reference it, but apparently, grated cheese contains an anti-caking agent and block cheese doesn't.  Grating your own cheese is an easy way to eliminate one preservative from your diet!

It's easy.  And you can freeze it. 

Start with a block ...

Pop it in your food processor.  Or grate with whatever you use to grate.  Do the whole block!

 

Into the freezer and ready for when you need it!

So quick.

So easy.

Ellie's Asian Chicken with a Simple Side of Quinoa Salad

One night I rocked up at my sister's house to pick her up, maybe for the Keith Urban concert? Or maybe it was before we went to Zumba?  In any case, it was dinner time for her family and she had whipped up this beautiful chicken dish which I tasted on the way out the door!  It was delicious and I immediately wrote the 'recipe' in my phone.  Last night, I was thinking about what to cook and I remembered ....

She didn't give me any measurements, just ingredients so last night I wrote down what measurements I used.  I think that you could do them to any measure and it would be good but here's what I did to serve four of us.

2 chicken breasts, sliced

Marinate in:
Soy sauce, 4 Tablespoons

Honey, 2 Tablespoons

Lime, juice of one

White wine or sake, 4 Tablespoons

Garlic, 6 cloves

When you are ready to cook, dredge chicken in flour and fry in batches.  I shallow fried in grapeseed oil.

Trying to use up some of the veggies that are leftover at the end of a weeks worth of cooking, I make this simple side to go with it.  It's not got many strong flavors, really it's just the fresh taste of veggies and a little bit of lime juice.  You could totally dress it if you wanted it a bit more punchy. 

 

Again, there are no real measurements for this salad.  I'll tell you what I did but you can add whatever you like, really!

1 cup quinoa, cooked (I used a tri colored one)

2 roma tomatoes, finely diced

2 spring onions, finely dices

1/2 a red capsicum (bell pepper), finely diced

1/2 a yellow capsicum (bell pepper), finely diced

1/2 an avocado, finely diced

a large chunk of cucumber, finely diced

juice of half a lime 

sprinkle of sea salt

mix all ingredients. serve.

Savory Muffins: Mexican

 

The kids, finally, talked me into letting them take sandwiches to school for their lunches.  At the beginning of the school year, I relented ... instead of leftovers, they could make sandwiches.  I guess they grew tired of them real quick because now we are looking for other options!! (just not leftovers!) I have been thinking that savory muffins might be a good bet.  Jono is home sick today and has taste tested these and given his thumbs up.  We will see what Alia thinks when she gets home in a bit. 

I tried to make these a bit 'mexican' ... will play around with different flavors and ingredients in subsequent batches.  I think the options will be endless!

what i used.

'dry' ingredients

4 cups self raising flour

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup grated cheese (I used half mozzarella and half tasty (white cheddar))
1 spring onion, chopped

1 cup canned corn, drained

1 (4oz) can green chiles

1/2 cup sliced green olives

a hand full of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

salt

pepper

 'wet' ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil

2 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

what to do.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/375F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake papers ... or grease.  Whichever is your preference.  I use the papers. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Then add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Gently stir until just combined.   Don't over mix or your muffins will be tough.  (but make sure you get all the flour down at the bottom ... no one likes a bite of unmixed flour in their muffin!)  Bake in oven until golden.  Mine took 25 minutes.  In hindsight, I'd probably leave them another 5 minutes next time ... they are cooked but only just! 

I'm going to freeze these in individual ziplocks so they are easy for the kids to grab when they pack their lunches!

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.

Moroccan Quinoa in Cucumber Boats

Preparing for a Moroccan Tapas Night that we hosted at church, I googled something like Moroccan finger food and this recipe immediately caught my eye.   I'm glad it did ... it was delicious!  There are no real measurements on her page so I imagine it's a pretty forgiving recipe.  I did mine pretty much like hers but I couldn't find the Sambhar curry powder she calls for so I made substitutions.  Here's what I did.  You can adjust each element to taste.  I'm not kidding, I tasted after each ingredient I added! Also, I cooked this for 100 people to have one each.  When I make it again, I'll probably 1/2 the amount of filling and just eat whatever is leftover.  This amount filled four long continental cucumbers.

I used ...

4 big continental cucumbers
1 cup quinoa (I used a tri-colored one)
3 cups water
2 preserved lemons
4 or 5 sun dried tomatoes
2 spring onions
1 small jalapeno that I picked out of my garden
a small handful of fresh mint
1/4 of a bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)
handful of pine nuts
olive oil
sea salt
moroccan seasoning
cumin, ground

What I did ...

Cook quinoa.  I did it according to the package instructions which said one part quinoa to three parts water.  Bring to the boil, cover and cook until water is gone.  It took about 20 minutes.

In the meantime ... finely dice the preserved lemons and sun dried tomatoes.  Chop the spring onions small.  Get rid of the seeds and membrane in the jalapeno and finely dice it.  Chop herbs.

After quinoa is finished and has cooled a little bit,  add all of the above that you've just chopped/diced to it.  Drizzle with olive oil and then season with sea salt, moroccan seasoning and cumin.  (or the Sambhar curry powder if you can get it.  I'd love to try that as it is cinnamon based and I think it would really change the flavor .... ) Season to taste ....

For the cucumber boats ... peel down the outside of the cucumber (as you see in photo above) in long strips.  Cut into 3/4 inch 'slices'.  Scoop out the centre with a melon baller and then fill the hole with quinoa mixture.