Turn up Some Turnips.

12 year old daughter grew these at school.  She found a recipe for turnip chips which we tried, using curry powder, tumeric and paprika with olive oil and baked in an oven.  They were tasty.

12 year old daughter tells me that these are radishes and that there was one turnip in the bowl.  Can you spot it?  It is slightly purple and longer than the radishes.

Siba's Salad.

There is a new show on TV, a lady from South Africa has a cooking show.  Her name is Siba.  Here was her recipe for a salad.

Grate ginger, add to cooked bacon and onion.  Chop some garlic and then add diced capsicum, mushrooms and corn.  Remove from the heat, add some soy sauce and coriander.

I used the leftover salad with cheese and made pizza pockets.
Here is the original recipe.

Roast Vegetables.

Roast vegetables have become a favourite part of a roast meat meal for me.  They smell so good.  I sprinkle rice oil over them and scatter salt and herbs.  Delicious.

Popeye.

... quite delicious with garlic, parmesan and a little cream.

Zucchini=pasta bake.

I had many zucchinis left over, so made a sauce with zucchini, carrot, beans, tin tomato, garlic, some sugar, stock and corn flour. It was tasty and then the next night, mixed with pasta and some cheeses and baked. Quite good.

Sharpening .... a Carrot.

The best kitchen gadget from sister in law A. Makes lovely, curly carrot shavings.....

Eaten out of House and Home.

Our mammoth fruit/veg stores are depleted, ready for tomorrow's order. All we have left are the 2 lemons (from the basket full that we were given), 1 zucchini, half a bunch of English spinach, 1 apple, half a bag of carrots, I have not used the celery yet and 2 cherry tomatoes (for the children's lunchbox tomorrow). I have even used the potatoes that were in stock before the delivery came. Luckily tonight the family will have bolognaise with lots of zucchini and carrot already grated into it.

Friday's Fresh Produce.

Well the weekend is almost done but I thought that I would talk a little about our fruit/veg delivery that comes on a Friday.

Our local fruit/veg shop kindly deliver an order to me that I phone in on a Friday morning. This week, there was quite a lot on special and I also needed to factor in a large salad for a bbq for today (Hospitality Sunday at church) and dessert-some fruit.

My order included: 6 loaves bread, 1 x 3L milk, 2 buckets of apples, bucket mandarines, bucket kiwi fruit, 2 bunches English spinach leaves, 2 heads lettuce, 1 cucumber, green capsicum, a Spanish onion, 4 loose tomatoes, 3 punnets cherry tomatoes, 2 punnets strawberries, a large wedge of watermelon, 2 bunches asparagus, 5 zucchini, half a celery, bulk bag of oranges, 1 kilo carrots and 2 dozen eggs. I had already bought a bunch of bananas the day before. We will not throw out one item from this list! The cost of this amount is about $70 AUD. Now imagine if we grew our own.........I have stuck the lettuce roots into the soil and I see that the cherry tomatoes from last year are resprouting. Our avocado tree is growing very well, but I have heard that it probably won't bear fruit here in Sydney. Our passionfruit vine surprises us after Christmas, so that will be nice.

PS I have loads of oregano growing and it will be time for basil soon.

Looking.

This green juice is spinach, apple, carrot, ginger and açai berries. The above library bag is for 7 year old daughter.

Pumpkin Soup with Bite.

I added a tablespoon of Thai red curry paste to the pumpkin soup recipe. YUM.

Home Industry.

Green.

Amidst the smoke here tonight, I am glad that I captured these images today and yesterday. I have been pouring the water from washing vegetables over this fern and it has responded with new growth.

Our neighbour also gathers rain water and run off and waters her vegetables with a bucket. She dropped off another bounty on our doorstep this afternoon.

There are bushfires to the north of us and there is smoke in the valley. Tonight we will sleep with our windows closed. The Rural Fire Service men and women are our heroes.

We have also found our first green tomato in the garden!!

Juicing.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Dr-Oz-Green-Drink-Recipe-Intructions

A great recipe for my new juicer.

January Juice.....

I am increasing my intake of vegetables and to do this I am making vegetable juice. My sister in law's friend did not need her juicer anymore, so I am enjoying it. I had my first today: a handful of baby spinach leaves, a large chunk of ginger and an apple. It was delicious. 10 year old son had carrot juice with a slither of ginger. Nice too.

I am also drinking peppermint tea instead of normal and I prefer it. I usually like my tea with milk and sugar. I think that should reduce my intake of sugar in a day. I find the peppermint tea to be much more refreshing.

Spinach and Feta Pide.

I attempted to make a spinach and feta pide today after enjoying one last night whilst doing the grocery shopping. It was tasty, but next time I will use a Turkish bread dough, not a pizza dough.

First I washed the baby spinach leaves. Then I par cooked them. I squeezed the excess liquid out and then spread some on the dough, already rolled out. I crumbled feta on top, then some mozarella cheese. I also sliced mushrooms and added them. I made a package with the dough and baked it in the oven.

Serving it with cottage cheese and lemon was delicious.

On the Side...

If your meal won't quite go the distance then a potato bake is the answer. I have had many at BBQ's in South Africa and Australia. We had one for dinner tonight when my meat pie was not quite enough for us.

Potato Bake
Peel and slice potato and then microwave in oven/microwave proof dish. Pour some french onion packet soup on top (I only use a tiny bit as I don't like flavouring). Pour some mozarella or any other cheese you fancy and cream to cover. Mix it all up. Sprinkle some cheese on top and then put in an oven till bubbling and golden.