Chicken and Vegetable Pastries.

We needed a dinner that could be eaten in shifts and which was portable.  This worked well.

500g minced chicken
2 carrots and one zucchini (both grated)
4 T Indonesian soy sauce (or use Hoisin sauce)

Mix.

5 sheets puff pastry, cut into halves.

Lay a 'sausage' of mixture in the middle of each pastry half.  Roll up and make sure that they are sealed close.
Lay on seal on baking tray.  Brush with milk.  Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

These were enjoyed by the children but a tad bland.  Next time I will use beef mince.

Sun Dried Tomato Casserole.

This is a post as much for readers of this blog as well as for me.  Sometimes you stumble upon a delicious meal or it happens accidentally.
Last night's casserole in the crockpot was quite delicious.  I have not had crockpot success in a while.
Gravy beef, left over jars of sundried tomatoes, large jar of tomato pasta sauce and some sugar.

picture from http://www.taste.com.au/how+to/articles/1127/sun+dried+tomatoes

Just before serving, I added some cornflour and stirred the casserole on the stove.  I also added small handfuls of pasta.  It was rich and delicious.  Mrs K.B. gave me the inspiration.

Moroccan Beef and Carrot Tagine.

This recipe comes from the "Australian Good Food" magazine.

Moroccan Beef and Carrot Tagine.

1 T ground cumin

2t sweet paprika

1t ground ginger

1kg beef chuck steak, cut into chunks

butter

2 onions, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 large carrots, cut into large chunks

400g can chopped tomatoes

2/3 cup pitted dates, halved (I used sultanas)

2T honey

1 cup beef stock

1 cinnamon stick

Cook garlic and onion till golden with butter.

Coat beef with cumin, paprika and ginger.

Cook in the garlic/onion mixture till browned. Add carrots.

Add tomato, date, honey, stock and cinnamon. Bring to the boil. Reduce to low and cook for about one and three quarter hours, till the beef is tender and the sauce is a rich colour.

I served mine with mash, couscous would be more authentic.

I doubled the recipe.

This was so good. Not such a hit with the children though, but give it time......

Crockpot Lasagne.

You are not going to believe it, but I made a delicious crockpot lasagne. Kind Mrs B gave me a recipe, I tweaked it a bit in true lazy style:

Preheat your crockpot on high.

Brush olive oil onto the sides and base.

Lay some lasagne sheets or sprinkle some small pasta to cover the base.

Mix your mince, tomato sauce, vegetables (I grated zucchini and carrot). Spoon this mixture over the pasta. Lay another lasagne sheet or sprinkle some more pasta. Keep going till almost to the top of your crockpot.

In a jug, mix one egg, 1T flour and one cup of milk. (This is to 500g mince). I doubled this as I have a large crockpot and used 1kg of mince.

Pour over the top. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Put the lid on, cook on low for minimum five hours. Turn off and let sit for 5min before serving. Delicious!!!!!

I love this recipe as it is a complete meal and there was no need to cook pasta separately. We served ours with salad.

Dinner.

Dinner was pretty good tonight; lasagna. A Better Homes and Gardens recipe, without bechamel sauce. I love bechamel sauce, but it does add to the cooking time. I did not make meatballs like they did.....

Make your mince/sauce/vegetables.

In lasagna dish layer meat sauce, pasta sheets, mozarella cheese. Then pasta sheets, meat sauce and mozarella cheese.

Bake and enjoy. I snuck many,many vegetables into ours tonight, including the pulp from my juice machine today.....

Bobotjie.

I have just made a Cape Malay dish that we enjoyed in South Africa. Husband E's brother in law was born in South Africa too, so I make it once a year for his birthday. I make enough to share around....

Bobotjie:

mince

onion

bread soaked in milk

apricot jam

chutney

curry powder

tumeric

mixed herbs

sultanas

nuts

milk and eggs to pour over

bay leaves.

I have just done the grocery shopping as well and now we will wrap presents.....11:08pm

Dinner in December.

Dinner still needs to happen. Our lovely neighbour gave me a huge bunch of basil from her garden on Friday. We have had homemade pizza (with tomato and mozarella) and today Thai Basil Beef.

1kg thin steak

1 cup chopped basil

2 T soy sauce

4 T fish sauce

2 T sugar

1 T garlic

olive oil

broccoli

zucchini

Stir fry and serve with noodles.

Tonight's dinner was wonderful. We then had homemade lemon gelato for dessert.

Back to the clock

We are back to watching the clock. 4 year old daughter has gone to preschool and the older two will go to school tomorrow. 9 year old boy is sick with a fever....

Lots of washing to put away today, floors to clean and a bedroom to dust.

Yesterday's brunch was very nice, the smell of bacon chases thoughts of dust bunnies and laundry to be done and makes one feel like the hostess with the mostest.

We had blueberry muffins, Winter fruit and fritatta.

Winter fruit

Can of plums (large)

Can of strawberries

sultanas

cinnamon

orange rind

Heat on stove or microwave, serve with yoghurt

This recipe just happened.

Fritatta

bacon, onion (chopped and fried or done in microwave in quiche dish till onions soft and you can smell the bacon)

Grated zucchini

parmesan cheese (shaved or grated)

8 eggs

Mix altogether, bake in oven till set.

You could basically add anything that takes your fancy.

This recipe is an altered version that Mrs H gave me.

Tonight we are having the leftover roast in a casserole which we all love served with rice:

Leftover roast casserole

Cut roast into diced pieces

a few tablespoons of corn flour and stock dissolved in cold water

herbs

vegetables

Bake till gravy thick. YUM