Massaman beef curry

My kids aren't the only fussy mouths in this household.  My husband has very definite food likes and dislikes.  And generally curry would be firmly in the dislike column.  We had a Thai meal recently with friends (Thai food is also generally in his dislike column but he was out-voted on this occasion) and he really enjoyed the massaman beef.  So I decided to try it out at home.  At first I was going to make it from scratch, but time is precious at the moment.  I seem to be struggling to get meals on the table at reasonable times so I decided to try a packet mix first.  Not to mention I didn't have to outlay money on some of the more pricey but necessary ingredients when cooking it from scratch.

This is the second time I have used this Kantong Massaman Curry meal base.  Of course I didn't quite follow the instructions.  I used chuck steak so chucked it all in the casserole dish in the oven (with triple the number of potatoes and double the quantity of meat) for a couple of hours.  **Wondering if this is why it is called "chuck" steak??**  It makes the house smell lovely and cosy whilst cooking and has become a firm favourite for the adults in the house.  Its a great flavour especially for those unadventurous people who don't like things too spicy.  I'm looking forward to eating tonight and enjoy a nice glass of white wine.

Osso Bucco

We always need ready to go meals for one in the freezer.  When someone in your household is a shift worker you need a good variety of meals on hand because any given day he might be after breakfast, lunch or dinner to take to work.  Apparently taking a full heated dinner doesn't go down very well for breakfast.  Of course you can always buy your meals at work, but if there is one quick way to save some money, its to take meals, snacks and drinks from home.  Even if it means you splurge on some special drinks and snacks at the supermarket, I guarantee its cheaper than buying it later from a takeaway shop.

Today I made up some Osso Bucco.  I have never made it before, I used this Best Recipes version and it came out smelling pretty yummy.  I didn't use quite as much meat as it said so cut down a little on all the other ingredients too. Unfortunately it did overflow out of the casserole dish and made a bit of a mess of my oven :(

Doges eye

I love making meat pies, sometimes I avoid it because of the two-stage cooking process.  Its not that hard really, but sometimes I just don't have the time to cook the filling then bake the pie.  I had a big 1kg pack of mince in the freezer and no hankerings for spag bol or lasagne, so meat pie it was.  I have included the recipe for this one below, it was a small pie, with half the filling going into the freezer for another pie at a later date.  I often would add about 500g diced chuck steak and simmer the meat mixture for a couple of hours (if you do this you need more gravox and water).  But if you just use mince like this one, you can make it much faster.

• 1kg beef mince
• 1 sheet frozen shortcrust pastry
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
• 1 jar vegetable baby food (or if your hungry mouths are not so fussy just use chopped up carrots and peas)
• 1 brown onion diced
• 1 cup water
• 3-4 tablespoons gravox powder
• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• Milk for brushing the pastry

1. Preheat oven to 180 C
2. Spray a small baking dish (if you use a pie dish you can probably use all of this filling)
3. Line with the shortcrust pastry, trimming the edges and making sure it fully covers the dish
4. Line with baking paper and put in pie weights (or uncooked rice if you haven't any)
5. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes
6. Meanwhile in a large fry pan, brown the onion 
7. Then add the mince and cook through
8. Pour in baby food/vegetables
9. Sprinkle in the Gravox
10. Add the water bit by bit, let it simmer for 5-10 minutes adding more water if needed to get the perfect meat pie consistency (just a bit runny)
11. Add the 1/2 the pie filling to the pre-baked pastry shell which is still in the dish and the other half goes into a container ready for the freezer for another time
12. Sprinkle the cheese over the top
13. Cover with the puff pastry, sealing the edges roughly with a fork
14. Using the fork poke a few steam holes in the top of the pastry
15. Using a pastry brush, paint the top of the pie
16. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the pastry on the top of the pie is golden and crumbly

A busy midnight kitchen

I have been a bit slack in posting this week, but that doesn't mean there haven't been yummy things happening in the kitchen.  I have had a couple of late night baking sessions.  Plenty of mouths to keep fed: not just the boys but the builders too.  This week I have made Anzac slice (Mr 3 loves this one, its the only slice that I make which he eats), Passionfruit slice and also a new Apple and cinnamon slice I wanted to try (I had sour cream to use up).

If you haven't already made this Anzac slice, you really need to.  Its so quick, no fancy ingredients, makes the house smell lovely, keeps really well and is great with a cuppa.  I leave off the final sprinkle of coconut.

This passionfruit slice, in the picture on the right below, is a regular from my kitchen.  I have a recipe handed down from a girlfriend that I use.  But it is almost identical to this one on the Taste.com.au website.  Only I gave the lemon a miss and used half a tin of John West passionfruit instead.

The apple cinnamon slice ,pictured on the left below, was nice, but not sure it makes it high on the list of ones to make again.  It just was hard to cut and crumbled easily.  Still yummy but didn't quite make it on to my favourites list plus none of the boys liked it.  Also the fact you need to use a cake mix doesn't rate highly with me.  I like baking from scratch so I know exactly what is going in.  If we are going to eat sweet treats, they can at least be made from "wholesome" ingredients and free from additives.

Tomato and fetta couscous

What a great dish.  I made this one last night from the July issue of Recipes + Budget meals section.  It is called Sausage, Pea and Fetta Couscous.  Only I made it with the sausages on the side.  I can't believe all the boys ate it and enjoyed it (no gagging even!).  Hubby and I enjoyed the leftovers with some grated cheese on Lebanese bread and toasted in the sandwich press.  I'd even go so far as saying it was worth buying the magazine for...

Weeks 21 and 22

Exciting progress this fortnight with the frames beginning to take form at our new house.  Also good news that the fortnightly groceries came in at $347.92.  Although maybe hubby snuck in a couple of extra take away meals that I wasn't informed of!  I'm doing the groceries tonight, a couple of days early, because I think it may be the only chance I get this week.  Here is the plan for the next 2 weeks:

Wednesday -  Meat pie, mash and veg

Thursday – Dinner with friends, I'm contributing Gluten Free Lemon Meringue pie using my easy recipe but with GF biscuits

Friday – Leftovers

Saturday - Baked lamb chops, Moroccan cous cous and vegetables

Sunday – Marinated chicken with lemon risotto

Monday – Bacon and leek risotto

Tuesday – Leftovers

Wednesday – Massaman curry and rice (keep your eyes out for this recipe, it was yummo last fortnight!)

Thursday - Sausages and cous cous

Friday - Chicken cacciatore risotto

Saturday – BBQ, wedges and salad

Sunday – Spag bol

Monday – Leftovers

Tuesday – Chicken wings and quiche with salad

Mexican Canneloni

Thanks again Sue for passing on another great recipe idea.  This time a friend of hers shared her mexican canneloni recipe.  I made it today and it is almost identical to the burritos I often make, only with mince instead of chicken.  I think it probably works out cheaper though as I usually buy a burrito "kit" which no doubt is probably an expensive way to do it.  I increased the quantities and added a couple of finely chopped veges to mine, always trying to get the kids to digest them by stealth measures.

• 500g (ish) mince
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• half a dozen mushrooms finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
• Just under a cup of water
• Packet of small wraps
• Jar of mild salsa sauce/dip
• 1 cup grated cheese

1. Preheat oven
2. Brown the mince in a large frying pan and combine onion and mushroom
3. Dissolve taco mix in water and add mixture to pan, simmering until the mince has a slightly saucy consistency (but not too runny)
4. Spray a large baking dish with olive oil spray and assemble the mince mixture evenly in the wraps, rolling them up to look like a burrito/canneloni
5. Line the rolled and filled wraps in the baking dish
6. Spread out the salsa over the wraps
7. Sprinkle the cheese over evenly
8. Bake for about 20 minutes

I put mine in containers and into the freezer for later in the week, but will serve with rice and salad.

Interestingly, someone mentioned to me the other day that they make their lasagne with the same type of wraps instead of lasagne sheets, I am definitely going to have to try that out.

Another blog to follow

Take a look at this beautiful blog I found through a friend of a friend.  I love looking at the great pictures.  Not to mention that I am going to love anything with the words *messy* and *kitchen* in the title.  Do you have a great cooking blog you love to follow? Make sure you post me a link. 

http://messygattokitchen.tumblr.com/

Leek and bacon risotto, so good I didn't take a photo!

Hey blog readers!

Last night I made (for the second time) a beautiful oven baked leek and bacon risotto sent to me by some great friends, Sue and Noel, who are always full of fantastic recipe and meal tips.  I must admit I have modified their recipe (which also included artichoke hearts and sage being mixed in towards the end) to be more appealing to the  eating quirks of my children.  I have tried to find the source of the original recipe however Google yields no results even close to matching this.  So here is how I make it:

• 60g butter
• 200g bacon – thinly sliced
• 1-2 leeks, washed, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic – crushed
• 300g arborio rice
• 100ml white wine (plus 1 glass for you whilst cooking!!)
• 600ml vegetable/chicken stock
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese plus extra to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 150 C.
2. Melt butter in large frying oven proof dish over medium heat, add the bacon and cook for 2 minutes until it begins to crisp.
3. Add the leeks to the pan, reduce heat and sweat for 3 – 4 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
5. Add the rice and stir to coat.
6. Pour in the wine and allow to simmer for a few minutes, then add the stock and stir to     combine.
7. Put on an oven proof lid and bake in oven for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and stir in extra stock if needed (if you are like me your probably didn't measure out all the ingredients exactly and may need a little extra liquid) and cheese.
9. Return to oven for 15 minutes.
10. Serve with extra parmesan.

The best bit, besides it being super yummy, is that the kids ate it happily.  The leeks all but disappear into the risotto when cooked as long as you sliced them thinly.

Thank you Sue and Noel! This is now a family favourite...

Pineapple cake

I love the 4 Ingredients pineapple cake and have posted about it previously.  But the other day I found a version of this that only required 3 ingredients.  It was super easy, didn't even require the mixer.  I didn't make the icing and had run out of caster sugar so used white sugar instead, I think it worked just fine. 

One of the reasons I haven't made pineapple cake for a while is because Aldi don't sell tins of crushed pineapple.  It took me longer than it should have to work this out, but last week I bought the pineapple chunks and used my stab mixer to crush it up.

Love Food Hate Waste

I was excited to visit the NSW Government Love Food Hate Waste stand on the weekend at the show.  I was amazed to see that there is such a great resource and interesting information for all of us on this website http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au/ . There is even a whole section on menu planning with some printable lists/templates for you to use.

Even more excited to see that I seem to be doing most things right!  I really hope that I can keep up this pace for our family in the years to come and not succumb to ridiculous levels of expenditure and consumerism that we used to achieve.  I do think I can learn more about storage of food, so I'm looking forward to reading through this website.

You, like I was, may be startled to learn the following facts quoted on the site:

"In NSW, we throw away $2.5 billion worth of edible food a year.
Here is what we are throwing away:

• $848 million of fresh food
• $694 million of leftovers
• $371 million of packaged and long-life products
• $231 million of drinks
• $231 million of frozen food
• $180 million of take-aways"

There is just so much interesting, relevant and useful material on this one site, I highly recommend you all take a look.  If you find something you think I should check out, please remember to post me a comment.

Menu plan for weeks 19 & 20

Drum roll please.....   the fortnightly expenditure has come in at $372.37.  So it obviously doesn't pay not to have a plan.  Lesson learned, back to the drawing board.  BUT my secret weapon is a freezer full (and I mean bursting) of meat.  I am overloaded with recipes to try out and magazines to review.  I need to pace myself and not get carried away.  So here goes:

Wednesday -  Pressure cooker pork spare ribs, rice and baby bok choy (peas for the kids)

Thursday – Baked lamb chops, cous cous and vegetables

Friday – Leftovers

Saturday - Bacon and leek risotto (keep your eye out for this recipe in the coming week!)

Sunday – Marinated chicken with lemon risotto

Monday – Sausages, pesto pasta and corn

Tuesday – Leftovers

Wednesday – Massaman curry and rice (does anyone have a good recipe for this?)

Thursday - Sausage, pea, fetta and cous cous

Friday - Mexican canneloni

Saturday – BBQ, potato bake and salad

Sunday – Meat pie, mash and veg

Monday – Leftovers

Tuesday –Rogan Josh and rice (frozen meal from the freezer) for the kids

Modified carbonara

One of these mixes is usually hiding in my cupboard.  Some people think meal bases are just not "real" cooking, or a healthy meal option.  Sometimes I think those people forget that if there are not quick and easy dinner options many of us will instead have tinned spaghetti on toast or call in a takeaway.  Neither I think are probably as nutritional as a "meal base" meal like this.

This is the Dolmio Italian Meal Base mixes - Carbonara.  Here is what the packet says:

Here is what I did with it tonight

• 300g beautiful, fresh ham off the bone, sliced in narrow strips
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• small handful of parsley, diced finely
• drizzle of olive oil
• 3/4 pack spaghetti
• Not quite 300ml of light thickened cream (only because this is all I had)

1. Set the pasta to cook in a saucepan
2. Meanwhile, in a fry pan drizzle some oil and lightly fry the mushrooms and ham
3. Once the pasta is cooked, combine everything in the fry pan and heat through
4. Add the parsley at the last minute
5. Serve to the kids and cross your fingers no one whinges about the mushrooms tonight!

We've all gone Batty

It was my lovely husband's birthday this week, so we made a hasty Batman cake with a packet cake on special ($2 - surely I couldn't buy the ingredients for that much?).  It was a winner with the boys!

On a different note, it is nearing the end of the fortnight, but we have eaten with family and friends so often in the last week that the freezer is still super full.  Hopefully I get a chance on the weekend to do some cooking and work it all out.