{Project 25 Recipes} Updates and recipes you MUST try

Golly gumdrops!

I checked back and my last recipe update post was for April! April!!!

Anyway, as at the end of April, I'd tried 18 new recipes.

WOOHOO.

Let me just say that the Korean beef and Jamie Oliver's (spinach) flatbread are often made around these parts. Everyone loves it.

In May, I tried 

19. cauliflower fried rice (horrible!)
20. apple bread (not great)

In June, I tried

21. lemon bars (a total hit!)
22. no-bake cookies with peanut butter, chocolate and I added pretzels
23. potatoes done like this (a hit, the 3 of us who eat potatoes like it and Connor will have at least 1 before asking for toast with peanut butter)

In July, I tried

24. cinnamon pull-apart bread
25. lemon pull-apart bread

(both divine but way too much work for me - I really like quick and easy)

In August, on the spur of the moment, I made

26. Laura's peanut butter cupcakes (I obviously did something wrong - mine were hard and no one except Connor liked them, and even he stopped after the first day)
27. Chicken and tomato casserole (D said it was okay, the kids hated it - I had to promise the kids that if they just ate their food that night, I would Never Ever make it again...)

All of those except the chicken and tomato thing are on my Pinterest cooking board ---->

So you see, it's been lean recipe-wise since April except for the lemon bars and the no- bake cookies.

This month, I've already made the apple pie from this post (28) and I made Barb's chicken divan (29)

So on Sunday we went for lunch to MIL. I felt so bad for her because the kids wouldn't eat anything except rice and carrots. Even I left the cauliflower because it was overcooked and too tasteless.

She makes a nice green beans and tomatoes stew with potatoes. Now I'm not a fan of green beans at all (we never buy them). I really only ate them when my gran used to do a stir-fry with green beans and steak strips in a soya sauce (YUM! I can still taste it). Other than that, green beans are for the birds :)

D mentioned this dish (he never learns!) and so she made this "specially for him" (and for us). Of course, the kids didn't want it and I didn't either but I took a little to show my appreciation for the effort. She told me she'd send me the recipe (!) but I had to confess that there was no way I'd be making it because D would take about 6 evenings to get through it all since I'm not keen. 

I really hate things going to waste so the other day there was a bit of broccoli left and so I quickly stir-fried it with a few chicken strips. Then on the weekend I cooked some pasta and
did a pasta with chicken dish and tossed it all together.

Well, Connor especially LOVED it. He announced that broccoli is now his favourite food.

Success as a parent right there!

So I've been maximising the broccoli thing and that's when I decided to make the chicken divan.

I've been using Barb's recipe since the babies were born. I remember cooking it for the first time one Thursday night. I know it was a Thursday because the night nanny would come on a Monday and Thursday and she was looking after the babies while I cooked.

Try it - you will not be sorry. I only use half the mayonnaise and I always buy low-fat. And the kids both ate it :) :)

By the way, I'm linking straight to the blog - there are tons of delicious recipes and crafts - she was one of my favourite bloggers for many, many years.

I want to make some of these 30-minute rolls again. I made them twice before - LOVE them. We even say "you can only have another one" (even the kids) so it's good!

Go have a look at my baking board - yes, there is a TON of apple stuff and fudge. So sue me. I love apples and fudge :)

A huge pity I can't do fudge (oh I've tried - it just NEVER sets.)

(I just made the mistake of searching for apple fudge... don't do it :))

I also want to make those lemon bars again and try a new pasta dish off my board.

So which of these recipes are you going to try next?
Anything you've tried lately that is good enough for me to try?

The teacher had to phone to remind me & 4 new recipes for {Project 25 recipes}

I'm not going to lie - I've been less than my usual organised self in the other areas of my life for the last 3 weeks.

I didn't return a form plus money that was due on Monday... so today Teacher C phoned me just to remind me that my kids are the bakers on Thursday.

What this means is that each of them has to take 12 cupcakes to school so the other kids can buy them....

Yes, makes no sense to me too. But over here I focus on the big picture.

I'd planned to just pay to get the school baker to do ours but I suddenly got a bee in my bonnet.

I asked Connor (mistake - he is ALWAYS game for anything food) if we should bake cupcakes tomorrow and of course he said YESSSSSS.

He was quite specific - they need to be banana cupcakes - but I told him I don't have bananas so we'll have to use whatever's in the pantry.

And so I've been Pinteresting (like googling, but on Pinterest).

I think I'm going to make some vanilla cupcakes with a peppermint crisp pudding "frosting" - let's see how that turns out. If it's a flop, I'm dashing to Pick and Pay for some of their cupcakes.

Hopefully there'll be time to take some pics tomorrow but don't hold your breath, I usually have no patience for pics while cooking and baking.

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Speaking of Pinterest, Project 25 recipes is going swimmingly.

This month I made 3 new things so am now up to 17.

Recipe post 1
Recipe post 2
Recipe post 3


15. Cinnamon roll in a mug

I love any "in a mug" recipes because it makes the perfect amount of cake for two (with two kids having a forkful each) and there's nothing left to tempt you the next day.

This one needed an extra 30 seconds to cook in my 1000 W microwave but I suggest checking every 15 seconds with a toothpick.

Was delicious but I preferred the other mug recipes I've tried.

I want to try a mac and cheese in a mug and a meatloaf in a mug - sounds perfect for lunches in winter, right?

 

 

16. Kidney bean burritos 

Well, I made my normal kidney bean sauce. 

Onions, garlic, coriander, some red chilli flakes, salt, pepper, SUGAR, at least 2 cans of tomato, about 200 - 300 g kidney beans. Cook together for about 20 - 30 minutes.

I portion these out usually and have on pasta or baked potatoes for lazy nights - the latest batch was DELICIOUS. I put lots of garlic (for immunity in winter). 

I'll have to make another batch on the weekend because the last batch I made about 3 weeks ago is now done :(

Back to the burritos.

I put the sauce in wraps, rolled them up, added cheese and baked them. The kids weren't fans but D and I loved them. In fact, we still have two in the freezer so we can have those tomorrow.

(I don't fuss with the kids - all I said was "yippee, more for Daddy and me!")


17. Korean Beef

HUGE hit. Thanks again, April.

I added the broccoli into the dish after partially cooking it in the microwave. When the kids saw the broccoli mixed in, they said they don't want it.

Again, WOOHOO - more for Daddy and me :)

Next time I'll have to use two broccoli cubes ;)



18.  Jamie Oliver's flatbread

(with a Marcia twist)

I just added 150 g spinach. That's a lot (just weigh it) but Nanny S slices it nice and fine so I could add to the dough easily.

DELICIOUS.

And the recipe makes a TON!

(I hid some in the freezer :))

So tell me, are you getting hungry??? :)

Who has a lovely, EASY recipe for me to try in May?

{Project 25 Recipes} Fish cakes, beef curry and sausage & corn pasta

So I've blogged 11 recipes so far.

This is 12. Sent to me by Julia one day, I made it the next (Good Friday) and it's a success!

Have I told you before I really wasn't ever domesticated... but I took Home Economics at school solely because I didn't want to do needlework. Anyway, the first thing we learned how to make in HE was fish cakes. But we used mashed potato which is even more delicious - I may try it to get some potato in Connor. He really doesn't eat any form of potato.

I just thought of something - I should try potato gnocci because pasta is his favourite ... and he might overlook the potato :)

Nevertheless, here is the recipe for fish cakes. I used tuna instead of pilchards.

I had some on wholewheat toast with sliced tomato for lunch... but for the main meal, I made a tomato sauce (the quickest way to get veggies into my body for Weigh-Less - canned tomato, herbs, salt, sugar) and we had them over rice with carrots on the side.



Laura, this is the blue casserole dish I bought at Mr P Home and mentioned on your blog

Delicious - highly recommend!

13. Beef curry

I just use all my Weigh-Less portions and multiply it by about 4.

Recipe

100g onion
400 g can of tomato
100 g carrots
240 g or thereabouts beef strips
Curry, etc....
320 g lite coconut milk

makes 4 Weigh-Less serves = 1 protein, 1.5 veg, some fat serves

Serve with complex carbs portions of your choice - for me, that's 140 g rice.


14. And last but not least, the sausage and corn pasta

This was a throw it together meal, which I specialise in.

Huge hit with all family members especially Connor. We had some on Easter Sunday for lunch and then Monday supper.

An exchange with Connor:

Mummy, please keep some of this food for our supper tomorrow. (this would be the 3rd time for him)

Baby, what about our supper?

You mean if the parents have supper there won't be anymore left? (this is how he speaks "the parents")

Yes.

Oh... oh no. He looked very disappointed.

Of course, D and I "sacrificed" our supper and had something else so that Connor could have one more day of the pasta :)

Really, it was just a creamy pasta with 2 carrot cubes (shhh, don't tell them), I cut up some cooked chicken sausage from Woolworths and added about a cup of frozen sweetcorn. Salt, pepper, some chili flakes after the kids' portions were served.

Clearly they liked the combination of chicken sausage and sweetcorn?

Try it and tell me if your household also likes it.

What have you cooked up recently?

PS There's a nice lemon bread I pinned recently that I'm waiting to try... look on my sidebar --------->

Seven Sunday Snippets ;)

1. I've just made Kendra a ring and she is over-the-moon delighted with it. Old beads (I'm still decluttering) plus some wire I bought at our plastics shop (similar to Westpack) = 3-year-old happiness.

That was my attempt to bring some happy back. I haven't had the best day in the world. I was already screaming this morning...

2. Thought it would be fine once I got to church but there I heard that one of our pastors' wives died last night. These things are always kind-of glossed over as in "she's with Jesus now" and yes, she is, but I heard NOTHING of the message after that. Nothing.This woman was 36 with two little kids. I don't know what happened but I keep thinking about him and the kids.

Which reminds me - don't wait to do anything. Just do it - we all don't know how much time we have left.

3. I had some fantastic news yesterday though... and I think Connor is kind-of perceptive because he very randomly asked me about this person yesterday morning and then I got a phone call from her about an hour later!

4. My kids flat-out refused my soup yesterday which is very strange - they love soup - so they went to bed hungry (or maybe not since it was after the party).

Today I asked them, "what was wrong with the soup? Why didn't you want it?" Kendra says, "it was too yellow. We only like brown soup" which means the ratio of butternut was too high???

I dumped all the little soup portions into a big pot, added some Worcestershire sauce and a can of tomato and it was brown enough. They both gobbled up a big bowl tonight. Success.
 


5. I'm in a weird place at the moment in that I feel totally caught up with life. Isn't that weird? Usually I can list about 20 things I want to do on the weekends and at the start of this weekend, i battled to think of things beyond the usual errands...

That's good (I lay reading for a couple of hours this afternoon) but it also makes me feel like there's some Big Thing I've forgotten to do. I'm even caught up with photos. About an hour or two on the zoo pics and I'll be totally caught up!

6. I'm noticing a lot of usage of the word "ain't" on the blogs. Now call me a language prude but I cringe a little every time I read it :) What's the deal with "ain't" for the South Africans? Is this part of some twitter speak or some other pop culture I'm not aware of??? :) (I mean no disrespect if you use that word!)



7. OH, I have a soup recipe for you. This is recipe 11 in the 25 recipes in 2013 project.

It's a Weigh-Less one.

The portion size is 80 g sweet potato (1 complex carb), 200 g butternut (2 veg), 45g low fat feta cheese (1.5 proteins)  and whatever soup spices you like.

I put garlic and coriander in everything so that's what I added and I also made enough for about 7 portions (just because that's how the butternut quantities worked out).

I didn't add the cheese to the soup; only just before serving because I want to be sure I get the right amount of protein.

Delicious! I also add some chilli flakes as a garnish - yum!


I have it just like that and D has some bread with his.

How was your Sunday? Better than mine, I hope?

Any new recipes for me? I'm looking for easy chicken recipes and remember I only buy chicken breasts - deboned, no skin, etc :)

PS playing with pics for Superhero Photo

{Project 25 recipes} A food blogger I am not

I've been having the worse time in the world with iBurst.

Crikey -  the most I can get in my house at the moment is 60% IF I stand at one spot in the kitchen.

Right now, I'm typing this out and then when I'm ready to publish, I'll go stand at that spot and publish, quickly send all my emails and then go plug the laptop back into the bedroom.

Very, very annoying.

On the bright side, my house is Super Organised (because what is there to do if no computer???), I've cooked 3 meals this weekend alone (double portions of course) and I've been crafting - some of you will get some things from me soon... and playing with pics. My photo goal is to be 90% done with my Feb photos on the 28th.

But again, this is all very annoying because I can't stand and comment on blogs so that's waiting for Monday lunch time at work.

Anyway.


I've also realised that I have zero patience for food blogging. First of all, I cook from 6.30 onwards (my kitchen is a furnace in summer) but then the light is terrible for taking photos. Afterwards I also don't feel like taking the time to style photos.

That's my disclaimer for no pics or iphone-ography :)

Remember in January I posted my first 3 recipe attempts?

Then the weekend before we went on holiday I made a (4) mince (ground beef) hotpot. It was terrible. I don't ever throw food away so I had to rescue it and while it was passable, we were all glad when we were done with it all so we never had to see it again :)

On holiday for lunch one day I made (5) nachos with baked beans and pita bread - a recipe from the Pick & Pay magazine. Delish but a bit too high maintenance for me for just a lunch.

I also made this spicy sausage pasta while we were on holiday - since I first tried it, it's a firm favourite.

That was all in January.

(Yes, I realise I need to post more regularly - it's the photo thing. I keep thinking I can't possibly post without a pic...)

In February I also tried 5 recipes.

1. Thai mussamen chicken curry

This was from a paste they sell at Spar. Totally delicious. If you shop at Spar, get a sachet - it is divine. I even made it for guests - it was that good. And yes, this gets a star from me.

(just pretend there's a pretty pic)

2. Taco mince

Another one from a Pick & Pay branded sachet. My work colleagues tease me because when anyone talks about something to do with food, I say, "can I get it at P&P?" If not, it kind of doesn't exist for me. (The Spar curries are from the Ballito Spar!)

Easy-peasy. Onion, mince, can of tomato, sachet (tiny sachet about R9), 200 g black beans/ kidney beans. Of course I had black beans from my supplier :) :)

DIVINE - we've had it twice already in .... P&P tortillas :) Good thing I made a HUGE pot - there's still one portion for me and D.

3. Fish pie

Again from the P&P magazine :)

Very easy and tasted good but I don't think I will make again as Connor wasn't a fan (I think because of the potato). He normally eats anything so I let this one go. I do want to try make a chicken pie though - something I have also never made.

4. Sausage pasta

click to enlarge and try if you want :)

Again, from the P&P magazine. It's actually ridiculous. But now you can at least see I'm working through them all.

This one was a weird recipe - as I was cooking I could see there was too much spinach (150 g is a LOT) so I halved it - was still too much as my children told me.

They also had only one can of tomato - I put two in and the sauce still seemed skimpy to me.

Or maybe I should have only cooked half the pasta. Recipe called for a whole bag of fusilli (500g) - I probably should have used half.

5. Indonesian chicken curry

Today I cooked this recipe, yet again from the P&P magazine. However, this one is a readers' choice one so it is actually excellent.

Oh man, just the smells are DIVINE.

I've tasted and it is good but it's for a week-day meal.

I added 1 tsp coriander paste (I use John West minced coriander) and 1 very flat tsp salt, no pepper. When I read recipes, I consider 1 chicken breast to be 100g so this is for 600 g chicken breast cubes.

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So there you are all caught up.

10 recipes done of project 25 and I promise I'll try to do better :)

The asterisks are the ones we love and will repeat.

So what have you cooked lately? Any good recipes to share? 

PS Strongblonde, I'm making your recommendation next weekend :)

{25 recipes in 2013} My first time making meatballs!

I mentioned briefly in my goals post (haha!) that I want to try 25 new recipes this year.

When I sorted through my stash on Christmas night, I tossed any "ambitious" ones because I'm really not an ambitious cook at all.

I'm a quick and easy cook.

 

I'm doing well so far - I've made three new recipes.

Meatballs

I'd never made meatballs before - ever.

I know they're easy but it's the part where you have to use your hands to roll the little meatballs. Do you know I don't touch meat at all?

I use a ziplock over my hand if I have to touch anything...

Also, my mother makes the best meatballs ever (Connor's favourite meal is my mother's meatballs)

This recipe is a definite winner - it was amazing - and I was left wondering why I hadn't done this before. 

From the April 2011 ToysRUs magazine :)

500 g lean beef mince (ground beef)

2 rashers rindless bacon, finely chopped - I left this out totally

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chutney/ BBQ sauce (I used sweet chilli sauce)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 small onion, diced (about 80g)

1 cup breadcrumbs (I used oats)

1 egg

Fry bacon and onion, add other ingredients, dust a surface with flour and roll into 20 mini meatballs.

Fry in a small amount of oil.

My way

I used Spray and Cook (Pam) on a baking sheet. Added my mini meatballs without any flour and baked in the oven for about 25 - 30 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.

That's it! Easy-peasy.

We had some with rolls for lunch one day and then I made a tomato and onion sauce and we had the rest with rice and carrots for a main meal.

DIVINE!

Let me know if you try it, either the original way or my way.

The Chinese fried rice was okay, but really not great (about a 5 out of 10) so I chucked the recipe straight afterwards.

Mind you, the kids and D ate without complaint so there was some success.

Shayne's sausage and bean stew

I've had this recipe printed for at least a year if not longer!

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

8 pork sausages (I used Renown cheese bangers)

2 tins chopped tomato

1 Tsp brown sugar

1 tin butter beans

1 tin chickpeas

1 tin lentils

salt and pepper to taste

Ina Paarman rosemary and olive spice (I just threw in anything on my spice rack)

seasoning

1 Tbs paprika (I don't cook with paprika so I left it out too)

1 410 g tin yields about 240 g drained mass of beans so I just cooked up 1 cup white and 1 cup red kidney beans. That was 750 g.

By the way, I must tell you this. Ever since I moaned on the blog about how I can't find red kidney beans (or black beans for that matter), the lovely Mrs FF brings me beans every time I see her. I LOVE IT!!!! I still have not found red kidney beans in the shops. Mrs FF told me last time that I don't have to ration myself with the black beans (I still have half the pack she gave me in Aug last year) - she will be my supplier :) I'm going to take her up on that! But isn't it hilarious?! Like my other friend Kirsten who always buys me lovely vanilla tea (SUCH a treat!).

This is how I did it. Differs a bit from Shayne's method but I don't like fussing with meat (see above!).

I grilled my sausages in the oven til done, cut them each into 5 little pieces and then started the recipe.

Fry onion and garlic, add sausages. Toss in tomatoes, brown sugar and stir. Add the beans, lentils and chickpeas (I only used kidney beans, remember). Season with salt and pepper, and all the other herbs and spices.

Cook over low heat for 45 mins. Serve with crusty bread.

It was very tasty but a little too salty for me (I don't eat very much salt at all) because I think I went too heavy on all the spices. It's also very bean-heavy. I love legumes but if you don't, then maybe only use 2 cans instead of 3.

It would be perfect for winter - of course I made it last night :) - and we had ours with pita bread.

The kids will have some this week. Remind me to tell you if they eat it.

What have you cooked that was new recently?

Do you have any quick and easy, healthy summer recipes?

PS forgot to take any pics so using an old food pic but I'll do my best to be a proper food blogger next time.