Man I worked hard at this one.  I took photos to document each stage of creation and had a special blog entry all planned out.  But that ain’t goint to happen because unlike the previous pumpkin and chickpea curry I made this one is all BAD BAD BAD.

Hubby and I think the mistake was that I put the coconut milk in the curry itself.  Last time I made coconut rice to go with the curry.

So I’m pressing the reset button and trying again.

In the meantime seek out some of this stuff for it is the most super doooper secret ingredient for curry ever.

We’ve been having many of these meals lately.   This was a quick and easy stir fry.

What I wanted to note about this was the sauce.  I purchased a bunch of Canton sauces when they were on special recently but I find one bottle of sauce is waaaaaaaaaaaay too much for our stir frys.  Struck by inspiration I used half the bottle and emptied the other half into a ziplock bag which I have frozen.

Further struck by inspiration I plan to slice up a variety of stir fry veggies and put them all together into a ziplock bag to freeze along side the sauce.

That way when the need for dinner of desperation next strikes I have the ingredients standing by ready to go.

Smiley Saturday time again. If you want to join in then click on the Smiley Saturday link above and head over to Lightenings to enter your Smiley Saturday link.

This made me smile

The first time I’ve used all 4 burners on the stove at once.

Back Left – corn on the cob

Back Right – tinned spaggetti (or noodle soup according to my youngest)

Front Left – fried carrot and zucchini sticks with bacon strips

Front Right – whole baby red potatoes (peeled)

An odd evening meal to be sure but I’m determined to use everything we have in the house and not buy any extras.  I can’t seem to go into a Supermarket these days and walk out having spent less than $30, so I just don’t go in at all.

I’m also Smiling about the things kids say.

I was so happy with the way my scalloped potatos turned out that I decided to use the same white sauce for a broccoli – cauliflower Gratin.

I used a whole head of cauliflower and a bunch of broccoli, the same amount of sauce as in the potato recipe.  Cook the cauli and broccoli in the microwave first then put into an oven proof dish. Cover with the white sauce and bake in 180C oven for 20 minutes.

The corn I put into a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes.

And the steak was my luxury item – Scotch fillet steak, fresh from the butcher.   I did cheat and cook it on the George Foreman Grill but it was delicious anyways.

The Verdict – This was divine.  Yummy veggies, the cauli and broccoli gratin was even nice reheated for dinner the next day.  And of course steak, yum.

I feel like I’m racing against time trying to use up the veggies from last week before they die a mouldy death and also get to this weeks veggies whilst they are still crispy and fresh.

I used this fabulous Scalloped Potato recipe to make Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes in the Slow Cooker / Crock Pot

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Nuttelex
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/2 cups soy milk
• 1/2 Onion sliced finely
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups cheese grated*
• 5 medium potatoes, thinly sliced

Preparation:

Turn potatoes into a buttered slow cooker, layer the sliced onion about halfway through. Combine butter, flour, salt and pepper together in saucepan over medium low heat. Whisk in milk gradually until no lumps remain. Heat and stir until bubbly and thickened. Stir in cheese to melt. Put sliced potatoes in crockpot; pour cheese sauce over. Cover and cook on low 5 to 7 hours.

Serves 4.

I needed the full 7 hour cooking time so these were not ready for my girls dinner but were for hubbys and mine.

No picture as it was white potato, in white sauce on a white plate and did not photograph well at night with a flash.

* we are lucky that Heidi can tolerate cheese, the process that turns it from milk to cheese seems to remove whatever dairy thing she is intolerant of.  If I was to make this for my dairy allergic relatives I’d use a grated soy cheese.

The Verdict – This was yummy, I had extra white sauce left over that I used on my corned beef sandwiches, I think that was yummier even.

Heidi – “ooooh goodness”

pause while Heidi peers across the kitchen bench with her finger binoculars on.

Heidi – “What is this”

Me – “Pink Mashed Potato”

Heidi – “NO! IS EVIL!”

I scoop a small spoonful out of the bowl and offer it to her

Me – “You try?”

Heidi – “No. Maybe white potatoes?”

And really who can blame her?

I scrubbed a beetroot clean, roasted it in the oven (180C for 1 hour) and the skin just rubbed off after it was cooked. Then I pureed it in our blender and mixed in with the mashed potato.

You will need these:

I think I ruined it by cheating and using frozen mashed potato – don’t they look appealing. NOT.

The Verdict – This was interesting, the chemical taste of the fake mashed potato ruined it.  I added too much beetroot so it turned a rich purple red colour rather than pink.  I’m going to make this again but use real potato and less beetroot.

I love Spaghetti Bolognaise but have always thought it tastes better when I eat the leftovers the next day. So last night I made up a big pot of the bolognaise sauce to have with spaghetti for dinner tonight. What goes better with Spaghetti Bolognaise than some garlic bread? Not much in my opinion so I made up a loaf of bread as well.

Bolognaise Sauce

500g beef mince
1 600ml bottle of tomato pasta sauce
1/2 onion finely chopped
2 small carrots grated
1 cup of finely chopped cabbage

I heated up a little olive oil in the pan, then added the onion and mince and cooked until the mince was brown.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients and left to simmer for 10 minutes.

Once the sauce had cooled I put it into the fridge ready to re-heat for dinner tonight.

Homemade Garlic Cheese Bread

3.5 cups Laucke Flour Mills Crusty White Bread Mix
2 teaspoons Yeast
1 cup Parmesan Cheese – grated
2 teaspoons of crushed garlic
350ml warm water.

Preheat oven to 200C*
I mixed the ingredients up in the bread maker on its dough cycle.
Then put the dough into my bread tin to rise for 30 minutes – I sit it on top of the oven at the back which is a fairly warm spot with the oven pre-heating.
Put in oven and reduce heat to 180C, cook for 45 minutes.

Mmmm yummy. The garlic is a little overpowering (yes I’ve tested it already), if I did it again I’d use half the garlic.

* I usually use this time to roast vegetables I’m going to use for something else or bake some cookies. Last night I roasted some pumpkin which you will find out more about in my next blog post.

Add playing with knives to your list of “Things not to do at 5am when you’ve had 4 hours sleep and no coffee.”

Thankfully I only sacrificed a fingernail to the God of Sharp Stuff before I came to my senses and had lots and lots of coffee .

I must digress for a moment to state my deep love of my Mundial Knives and thank my brother-in-law Peter for suggesting them.  They are perfect for my needs, well after sleep and coffee when I’m less prone to injure myself.

My contribution to the in-laws Fathers Day lunch was:

2 Roast Chickens (roasted with pears inside them instead of stuffing, they were very moist)

Coleslaw

Potato Salad.

Coleslaw

3 Carrots

2/3 of the half a cabbage.

Kraft Coleslaw dressing (not the low fat kind as that has dairy in it)

I grated the carrots and the cabbage using the fancy machine my mother-in-law gave me.  Very quick and easy once I cut everything down so it fit in the machine.  Which of course meant waiting for the coffee to hit my nervous system and make using a knife less dangerous.

Mix it all together, I like to be pretty generous with the dressing. Yummy coleslaw ready to go.  Plus if you are lucky you get leftovers to eat on sandwiches with the left over corned beef from dinner the other night.

Sorry about the shocking photo it was pretty early and I was a little sleep deprived.

Potato Salad

This is a recipe I got from my mum and of course modified a little, I just can not help myself, I have to change something.

2 kg bag of smallish potatoes

250g Middle Bacon

1 dozen eggs

1 red onion

Super Secret Ingredient Shhhh don’t tell anyone else – Aioli Mayonnaise.  I’ve been buying the Neil Perry Fresh brand from Safeway but looking up the recipe online I think I could make this myself.  It is also dairy free.

Peel potatoes and quarter.  Boil until just cooked.  Drain and tip into large salad bowl. Yep ‘tip’ I’m all about technical cooking terms.

Boil the eggs until they are hard (I give them about 10 minutes to be sure). Peel the eggs and quarter them.  They can go into the large salad bowl with the potato.

Finely dice the onion and the bacon. Saute together in a medium hot fry pan (I don’t add oil, just let the bacon fat do) until the bacon is a little crispy and the onion is translucent.  They get a really nice smell happening about the time the are ready to finish cooking.  Tip them out onto some paper towel to drain the fat.

Then add the onion and bacon into the large salad bowl also.  Pour in all the mayonnaise and mix together gently.  You have to be gentle or else the eggs fall to pieces.

Another bad pic sorry.

The potato salad was a massive hit and we only had enough left over after for hubby and I to have a spoonful each.

The Verdict – This potato salad is TEH AWESOME! Coleslaw was good, not stellar but good and very tasty the next day on sandwiches which I think is the best use for coleslaw after spreading on hot chips. The chicken with pear stuffed inside it was also really nice and moist, my chickens usually roast too dry which is why I avoid roasting them, maybe pear is the secret. Overall a successful contribution to the family lunch.

Corned Beef

I make my corned beef in the crock pot / slow cooker.

1.5kg Silverside (that is the uncooked corned beef)

1 stick of celery – broken into about 4 pieces

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 bay leaves

1 onion roughly chopped

1 cup brown vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Put everything into the crock pot – my silverside was still frozen solid so it was an interesting task trying to unwrap it.

Fill the crock pot with water.

Remember to turn the crock pot on (I forgot) and cook on low for about 6-8 hours.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Gratin

I wasn’t sure what to do with the Broccoli in this weeks box but when I saw that I had some Cauliflower Gratin mix in the cupboard I decided to pick up a little Cauliflower at Safeway and cook the two together.  It was delicious.  I used a Maggi packet mix for the sauce but instead of mixing it with milk I used half milk and half cream.  Sinful but very yummy.  Knew it would be alright to use dairy products as there was no way Heidi would touch it anyway.

Sweet Potato

I saw the Roasted Sweet Potato in Dinner with Julies blog a while back, when this weeks box arrived with a sweet potato in it I knew what I wanted to do with it.

I scrubbed my sweet potato clean, poked some holes in it and then wrapped it in foil and put into a 200C oven for 3 hours.  It was only going to be 2 hours but Heidi had a meltdown at Kinder and I raced out the door to rescue her and forgot about the oven being on.  No damage was done.

Julie was right the sweet potato skin just lifts away after it has been roasted.  I mashed it up with some butter and mmmmm heaven.

There was enough food to make dinner for myself and both girls, plus fill two Tupperware lunch containers for my husband.

Even better I still had half the corned beef left and so we can make one of my fav. sandwiches for lunch tomorrow – corned beef and mustard. Which I think will be really nice with some of that freebie chive and onion philly cheese from Coles Online. Mmm.

The Verdict – A very successful dinner and super easy to prepare.  Sadly there was a fair bit of washing up afterwards but that is somewhat mitigated by the fact I got a couple of lunches for hubby and sandwiches for the girls and I out of it.  Corned beef is always a hit at our house but the mashed roasted sweet potatoes was a huge improvement on mashed pumpkin which I usually find too watery.

Apologies for the terrible photo, I was too hungry to spend time trying to take a good picture

We had one of my all time favourite meals for lunch today, steak and baked potato.

I scrubbed the outside of the potatoes clean, cut an x on top of each of them, wrapped the potatoes in foil and then baked them in the oven for 75 minutes at 200C.  Both girls were very suspicious about the baked potatoes and hesitant to try them.

However some butter curls and their choice of sprinkles (Parmesan cheese or salt) sealed the deal.

I used itty bitty sandwich steaks and fried them for about 1 minute either side and they were delicious.

The Verdict – A very successful lunch, my girls ate it all and didn’t ask for any extra food for almost two hours. The itty bitty sandwich steaks are perfect size for pre-school aged children, not too big but large enough to fill their bellys.

And if you are unsure how to cook a steak then here is the definitive guide, scroll down about 4 posts until you hit the post by Fenris.  Trust me on this – once you have cooked steak this way you will never ever look back.  Mmmmm steak.