It seems something in blogger ate this post so I have had to republish – just in case you missed the easiest baked dinner ever, here it is again!
Our slow cooker has been a much loved winter necessity in our house for a number of years for its ease of se and the way it can magically transform cheap, tough cuts of meat into tender, warming comfort food. I just loved turning it on in the morning before work and returning at the end of a long day to a house warmed with the smells of delicious casseroles like mum had snuck into the house and been cooking up a storm all day. As much as I loved the convenience of a crock pot, I was never particularly adventurous with the meals I created in it. My standard crock pot fare was usually some kind of gravy beef casserole such as “lamb” ragout or beef goulash but that all changed a couple of weeks ago when I discovered that you can cook a WHOLE FROZEN CHICKEN in your slow cooker and it turns out just like the rotisserie style chickens you buy from the supermarket! I KNOW! Is that the most exciting thing you have ever heard??? OK, OK, I know this is not new to many of you, but just in case there is anyone else out there who was not privy to this information, I just have to share.
Technically I think it might be my Gran’s Potato Salad which we have tweaked a little but in any case, its a favourite around our place. If we are having any kind of occasion (including Christmas lunch) I can almost guarantee it will be on the table. It’s super easy and the sauce comes out of a bottle so I promise anyone can make it.
Its quick, easy and just about everyone loves it. I don’t follow any specific measurements but here is a basic guide to my favourite Bruschetta recipe.
Adjust the quantities to your own taste, I like to be pretty heavy handed with the Basil Paste.
I like to make this ahead so the flavours can develop before serving on freshly baked garlic bread.
Always a winner at our place and perfect for a laid back BBQ!
About 6 years ago when Clever Baker Friend and I worked together we thought it would be a great idea to make some baked Christmas gifts to give to the people we worked with. At the time we had about 6 people to hand our treats out to and since then it has become a tradition. At its peak we made 35 packs for people but fortunately we have down sized a little since then. Something that hasn’t changed in that time is the joy we get from giving these boxes of hand made goodies to our friends and family. They seem to enjoy them too because each year we get asked if we will be making them again – we couldn’t stop now even if we wanted to!
Originally we would spend 1 or 2 whole days together baking and packaging while we listened to Christmas Carols, but with 3 children under 4 between us we find it easier to divide up the cooking and packaging to do it at home. Not nearly as fun, but far more practical than trying to coordinate it around naps, feeds and other activities. The packaging changes each year depending on the best bargain available this year, we opted for white cupcake boxes with simple baking paper so the food is the star. Our core menu consists of:
Like I said earlier, we decided to not have a big birthday bash for Skye this year, we thought it would be a bit much for her (and me) to have a big production when she would be just as happy with a few family members and a mountain of presents to tear through. I figure I have a lot of birthday parties ahead of me so I better pace myself now. Since the weather was so unkind and we woke to heavy rain I was glad we hadn’t arranged for 30-40 people to sardine themselves into our lounge room, we would have had to run something of that scale in shifts. That’s not to say that I didn’t get carried away with the catering anyway…
Carbohydrates have been getting a pretty bad rap lately. It seems that whenever someone embarks on a weight loss mission the carbs are one of the first things that get cut. There are a whole range of fad diets such as the Zone Diet and the Atkins Diet that advocate the restriction of carbohydrates. I can understand the appeal, so many people appear to have great success in reaching their goals by using this approach, but I just don’t understand how it can be a long-term eating plan for anyone. Many nutritionists will tell you that cutting out any major food group will help you to lose weight in the short term, but it is not a feasible long term lifestyle change to cut something as vital as carbs out of your diet. Your body NEEDS this fuel to function.
I thought that it was about time I shared a little tutorial on making push cakes. The process is no more complicated than making cup cakes for a party but the benefit is that these treats are already portioned out and wrapped in an airtight container for easy storage and transport. This batch had to travel in the heat for an hour up to the Hunter Valley on the weekend and were still as fresh as when I first made them.
I have no grounds for taking any credit for this delicious and simple cake except maybe to say that I discovered it goes amazingly well with cat poo coffee. I don’t know if Ms Hay would approve of the pairing, but I am confident it would make any of your favourite hot beverages feel a bit special. I found the recipe in a Sunday paper and managed to find a link here.
To keep things nice and easy for everyone I have also detailed the ingredients and method below:
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 160C. Place the water and tea bags in a bowl and allow to infuse for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, add the sultanas to the bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well to combine. Add the flour, mixed spice and milk and beat until just combined. Add the sultanas and tea liquid and beat until just combined. Spoon into a lightly greased 20cm x 30cm tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Serves 8-10.
Actually our weekend was great, my mum and dad came over and finished installing the lighting in the garage and carport, we caught up with many of our friends and Sunday afternoon eased into a relaxing session of hot chips and beers, but the best part for me was the chance to sample some of the exclusive Kopi Luwack (or cat poo coffee) at a friends house. Baby Crisis friend’s husband recently had a surfing holiday in Sumatra where the beans are produced which meant that the asking price was far cheaper than the $1400 per kilo tag it usually has here. Mr Bond wanted nothing to do with it, the whole concept totally grossed him out but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I have to admit I was a bit taken in by the wanker factor too!
I don’t know about you but there never seems to be enough fruit in our house. Well, not enough for me to get much of a share anyway. Skye will pretty much choose fruit over any other food stuff offered to her (including Tiny Teddies) and it is normal for her to consume 3 – 4 servings of fruit over the course of a day. I am proud of her healthy and varied diet and put a lot of effort into ensuring that she gets a good balance of not just fruit, but vegetables, meat, dairy and whole grains while having a place for the treats too. I am sorry to say that my own diet does not enjoy the same level of fresh options.
Here is the first in hopefully a series of Fix It Friday posts. This week I am focussing on making some adjustments to how I keep my recipes. Earlier this year, I bought this very pretty recipe binder from Typo. Super cute, lots of divider sections, a pocket for loose recipes and takeaway menus and a notepad for writing any special handed down recipes. But as sweet as it looked, it just didn’t work for me.
I have a new favourite super lazy pasta dish. It hardly qualifies as a recipe but it had never really occurred to me to use a Latina pasta sauce on anything other than some stuffed variation of Latina pasta so I got excited and took some photos, which means I have to share.
All it took was boiling some spiral pasta, microwaving a little broccoli, peas and corn and stirring through a container of Latina Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta Sauce, too easy!
The sauce was so tasty all over the fresh broccoli courtesy of the Mother In Laws garden that I could have just eaten that on its own. I think this one is definitely a keeper.
I tried to resist, I really did. If you had told me at the beginning of this year I would be a regular Aldi shopper I would have told you that you were off your tree. My first grocery shopping experience left me feeling harassed, confused and desperate for a glass of wine – at 10am! It was brutal. I returned home and swore I would never bother putting myself through the chaos again just to save a few dollars. After sharing my experience with you all I received so much encouragement and handy tips that I decided to give it another go. With a little more preparation I could see my naivety in jumping in and assuming I would be able to just suddenly start shopping at Aldi as if it were like switching between Coles and Woolworths. It is a different world filled with unknown brands, haphazard product placement and of course the frantic race to get all your gear back into your trolley at the checkout before it avalanches. But the numbers don’t lie and after some nerdy spread sheet tweaking I discovered that we had spent $1000 less this quarter on groceries than we had the previous one. Winning!
Something I remember quite vividly from those first few weeks and months of being a new mummy was how annoying it was to have to think about what to have for dinner and then finding the motivation to cook it. Fortunately I had been organised enough beforehand to cook some meals and have them ready in the freezer for those “I just can’t muster cooking a meal tonight” moments and they really helped to take the pressure off.
For my 2 friends who recently came home with their new babies I thought this would make a great welcome home present. It didn’t have to be anything complicated, just something that could be pulled out of the freezer and reheated, the only cooking required would be to add rice or pasta and you are ready to go. I chose to make Spaghetti Bolognese (minus the onion for breastfeeding) and Lamb Ragout in the slow cooker because I knew they both froze well and the flavours shouldn’t cause any protests by the newborns. Thank you to everyone on Twitter who offered suggestions for suitable meals too!
This week I tried a new easy dinner option and was pleasantly surprised by how easy yet tasty it was! Sometimes I find bottle simmer sauces to be a bit overpowering and plastic in flavour, but this one had just enough flavour without being overpowering. I will be keeping a jar of it in the pantry at all times from now on!
Ingredients
Jar of Honey Mustard Chicken Simmer Sauce (Aldi brand)
500g diced chicken breast
Half a Bag of Frozen Stir Fry Mixed Vegetables
Boiled rice to serve
Method
1. Heat oil in large frypan over high heat.
2. Brown chicken
3. Add vegetables and simmer sauce
4. Simmer for 15 to 30 minutes
5. Serve with long grain rice
The fiddliest bit was cutting up the chicken which of course could be eradicated by buying pre-diced, or using a BBQ chicken if you are really in a hurry. It made enough to serve 4, but I made a double batch and took some down to my friend who had arrived home with her new baby on the same day (cos I’m awesome like that).
In the constant pursuit of saving money on the weekly groceries I have made a number of changes over the last few months such as making a weekly menu plan, cooking in bulk and freezing future meals and on a couple of occasions attempting to convert myself to Aldi, which you can read about here and here. All of these tactics have given us some relief both financially and in time saved so I thought I would take it a step further and try to plan a whole month of meals buying as much as I can in one transaction. I have found a number of great pages that do this as a standard procedure, especially Stay At Home Mum, the secret to living on one wage.
Here is my plan of action for the next 4 weeks:
10 points for imagination for me today sharing our Father’s Day celebrations over the weekend but I just have to! Thanks to our lovely Family Day Care we had the mandatory hand made card, I know they are often daggy and even an bit ugly but I really love this one. It’s the first hand print we have of Skye – what have I been doing?!?!
We love a bit of Mexican fare around here, be it Taco’s, Burrito’s, Enchilada’s or Chicken Wraps its pretty regular on our meal plan. We even like turning the leftovers into Pizza when we get the chance, but every now and then I look for something equally easy but slightly different in flavours. When I spotted the Souvlaki Wrap Kit at Aldi recently I thought it might be just what we were looking for.
