It has been a few days

It has been a busy few days with Australia Day long weekend and then discovering that my prepaid wifi has run out of credit and I had no ability to actually log on to get more credit... Then there was the really long wait at Telstra to get the help... But that is in that past and now I have an even bigger adventure... A cyclone.. Well just high winds, high tide and rain as the cyclone is happening about 400km north of here.. But it is an adventure none the less. I took the boys to the local dog park and I could not believe how fast the lake (it is tidal) was rising. I did 3 loops and each loop I did, when I got to the water it had raised by 10 meters... WOW!

Ok, so I have also been cooking up a storm. I have made 2 desserts (with glucose powder) and Salsa Verde/Roast Sweet Potato, green beans and steak! My husband is trying to be good by not having sugar, only glucose powder. I have made coconut banana bread (unfortunately not Tenina's) and then coconut rough which was Tenina's.. The main meal mentioned was also Tenina's. I think people are starting to see a theme here... I like Tenina's recipes...

So today I am going to talk about the main meal I made last night which was super, super good!

I made fresh salsa verde - from Keeping It Simple - Recipes for a Thermomix as well as Smash Hit Potatoes which were AWESOME!!

Need:
2kg sweet potatoes (I used 1kg as it was for 2 people)
1L water for steaming
Generous amount of EVOO
Other fat (I used duck fat yummmm)
Thyme Spring
2 - 3 cloves of garlic, crushed (I actually used 5 so no vampires will be interested in me)
2 tbsp pink salt flakes
1 lemon, sliced into wedges
Salsa Verde

Do
1. Prepare potatoes by peeling & cutting into long wedges. Place into steamer dish
2. Add water to TM bowl & set steamer into potatoes. Cook 30min/Varoma/Speed 3
3. Meanwhile preheat oven to as hot as it will go without the grill function, 220 degree C if possible
4. Line a large oven tray with baking paper
5. When potatoes are cooked (they should be a little hard and hold their shape well), spread on baking paper, top with EVOO, dollops of fat of choice, a few thyme springs, garlic and salt. Squeeze lemon wedges over the potatoes and then add the wedges to the tray.
6. Roast until potatoes just start to change colour. Remove from oven and using the MC, push down on the potatoes, smashing them without fulling mashing (I missed this step.... Opps...)
7. Stir so they are well coated with all the flavours until totally golden and crunchy (it took 40 minutes)
8. Serve drizzled with Salsa Verde and extra salt on the side....

The ingredients

Place cut potatoes into steamer dish - varoma/speed 3 for 30 minutes

Should be a little hard, but the fork should be able to pierce it easily

Into the oven it goes

This is when you should really smash the potatoes..then put back in the oven
I forgot that step... :(

Yumm, steak, green beans,smash hit potatoes with salsa verde!

There was enough left over for me to have for lunch today... Man, it was YUMMMMM! The salsa verde was just so yummm.

Happy Thursday all! I am looking forward to trying the Coconut Rough recipe and will let you know how it went!

A morning at the beach with my boys!

Today was a morning at the beach with the boys. We are very lucky were we live as we have a FANTASTIC dog park within a 7 minute drive of us and we have a SPECTACULAR dog beach about 20 minutes away. This beats the dog beach in Port Melbourne and the Brisbane River in New Farm hands down. My furry boys go crazy running around and the younger one spends his entire time chasing birds. My husband and I just laugh as he had no muscles when we rescued him from a life of show business... Now he bulked up and just loves chasing the birds... I hope he never catches one! I know the boys had a great time as they ended with a happy roll...

Anyway, here are some of the photo's of our day... 

The bird..it is over here...

The old guy - I am so happy! 

The young one - so am I!

The young one's version of up face dog.. :)

After the beach we drove the boys home and they crashed and burned. So we decided to head out and do the food shopping. We went to a very good veggie/fruit stall on the side of the road - again another think I LOVE about Central Queensland and picked up a tray of honey gold mango's for $15 and they are amazing. We also picked up other things that were picked fresh that morning but the mango's...Yumm!  Woolies also featured in our day and I finally found my organic store so I am a very happy person! Even better, my Naturopath actually stocks Rapdura sugar.. I could not find it anywhere in Brisbane...

I made this incredible Tom Yum soup from Tenina's Keeping It Simple cook book. I am not going to publish any photo's of it as I used green curry paste instead of red but all I can say is... Don't just automatically put 100g of curry paste into it. I used 50g of green curry and it gave me the hiccups... I had to add extra water just to dilute it so make sure you know your curry paste. I thought I did....

Have a great night. Li Na just one the Women's Open, I am very happy about that!

Mexican food & such

My husband is currently having a love affair with chorizo and I am having a love affair with Mexican food. Actually, Tex-Mex food... But I suppose I should call it Oz-Mex as I am here in Australia and am constantly finding replacements for ingredients. Being in a smaller town also makes it challenging but that is all part of the adventure.  Last night, we had some left over chorizo from a meal last week so I decided to make Tenina's Chorizo Quesadillas (I also made her Flour and Duck Fat tortilla and her tomato and avocado side salad). Before Christmas, I treated myself to her second cookbook called Keeping It Simple - Recipes for a Thermomix. It had only just come out so I ordered it from her website. You can purchase it in Dymocks but I am not sure if it is for all of Australia or just in Perthy. I decided that while I was being a lady of leisure, I would cook my way through my cookbooks (which I have many) and this was the first one I decided to conquer.

I love Tenina's recipes. I find them full of flavour and very simple. I will be upfront and say that they aren't exactly low in calories but I cut back on the cheese or eat smaller portions with bigger servings of salad! She has 2 cookbooks, a few eBooks and a great phone app called "Spin a Dinner." She is also on Facebook and the great thing with that is that she answers any questions you might have. It is called Cooking with Tenina. She is also on Pintrest, my other favourite site!

Below are some photo's of my meal last night... I am not sure how Tenina managed to flip them without them falling apart as mine just went every where. 

Chorizo Quesadilla's

Ingredients

Handful of coriander and oregano
120 - 130g each parmesan and chedder, cubed
140g Chorizo sausage, chopped in large pieces (I also added left over spicy pepperoni)
1/2 red onion, quartered
3 garlic cloves
3 spring onions, chopped
3 cherry tomatoes per quesadilla, halved
1 green capcisum, diced
1 avocado
Kernels cut from 1 ear of corn (I used frozen corn)
200g crumbled feta (I used only 100g)
Olive oil for frying
8 - 10 flour and duck fat tortillas or purchased tortilla

In the Thermomix

Place coriander and oregano into TM bowl and chop 3-4 sec/speed 7
Place cheeses into TM bowl and grate 10 sec/speed 7. Transfer to a bowl and set aside

Place sausage, onion, garlic into TM bowl and chop 5 sec/speed 6. 

Cook for 7 min/Varoma/speed soft (the one that looks like a spoon mixing).

Prepare the remaining toppings and set aside

Layout each tortilla and spread with the avocado, grated cheese with herbs, sausage mixture, and a little bit of the other toppings finishing with the feta. Top with the second tortilla.

Meanwhile heat a large frypan on medium heat for around 6-7 minutes. The pan should not be smoking but fully heated.

Drizzle a little olive oil and place the quesadilla into the pan, cover and cook for around 2-3 minutes... Turn over carefully and repeat.

Note - I did not have a cover for the frypan and it still worked

Slice into quarters and serve with fresh lime wedges and additional coriander leaves.. You will notice that I did not... I served it with a tomato, avocado and spring onion salad. You could also add a dish of sour cream, guacamole and fresh red chillies.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. It made a total of 4 tortilla's so there was enough for lunch the next day!

Next time I think I will try it without the feta as it made it a bit salty.

One pot meal and other things

I recently moved from Brisbane to Central Queensland with my husband and 2 beautiful cocker spaniels. It has been a quite an adventure, and after 1 week, I am starting to enjoy this lady of leisure business. I am spending time walking my dogs, meeting new people and cooking... Lots of cooking!

It has taken me a while to get internet connection, but now that I have it, I should be able to post more frequently, until I decide that I need to start working...

Anyway, last week I made this amazing meal that I found on Pintrest. I LOVE Pintrest and just love browsing through the site... I found this recipe through Pintrest (a blog called apron strings) and it is called, "One Post Wonder Tomato Basil Pasta." It is so easy, almost too easy and the results YUMMM!

Ingredients are as follows (serves 4 - 6)

500g linguine (I used fettuccine)
1 can diced tomato and liquid (I used organic)
1 onion (the original recipe suggested a sweet onion but we don't have that here so I used spanish) cut into julenne strips
4 (or more) garlic very thinly sliced
1/2 chili flakes (or more if you like it hot)
2 tsp dried oregano leaves
4 1/2 cups stock (I used chicken) NOT the low sodium variety
2 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 bunch fresh basil, diced
Parmesan cheese


Place pasta, tomato, onion and garlic into a large stock pot

Pour in stock and sprinkle on top the chilli flakes and oregano. Drizzle top with oil.

Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and bring to a low simmer, keeping it covered for 10 - 14 minutes (testing the pasta until it is cooked to your liking), stirring every 2 minutes or so to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan. (I know..it isn't covered but I wanted to show it simmering)..

Cook until the liquid is almost evaporated.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the basil leaves and stir the pasta several times to distribute the liquid in the pot evenly through out the pasta as you are serving...

Add the parmesan cheese and vola! A pasta meal in less then 15 minutes!!!

I personally would wait about 10 minutes for it too cool.. I ate it too quickly and burnt the roof of my mouth..

I hope you enjoy it like we did. I am sure you could probably add some sliced chorizo, bacon, pancetta or anything else that strikes your fancy!