Chicken Salad

It's a gorgeous, warm sunny day here in Adelaide. I felt like something a little different for lunch, and so instead of my usual sandwich, I decided on a salad.

I cut all the vegies and then went looking for a piece of fruit to add. You see, I really like fruit in my salad. I found a lovely peach, and added that to my usual salad ingredients.

This salad also has pan fried chicken (I sprinkled it with a little celery salt before cooking), red onion, fetta, cucumber, lettuce, red capsicum and avocado. I dressed it with some white wine vinegar and a little olive oil. Yum!

Anyway, as I added the peach, it got me to thinking... do other people put some fruit in their salads, too? Or I am the only crazy one?

Some other fruits I like to add instead are grapes or sliced apple. Fresh dates are also nice.

I would love to know what your favourite salad is.... and do you ever add fruit?

Christmas Tree Biscuits

To keep us busy today, I thought we'd get in to the kitchen and make some biscuits.

I had this idea at the beginning of December and have been waiting to try it out, but just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

I searched for ages to find a decent sized tree cookie cutter. Somehow, I didn't realise that this cutter is actually giant though!

Oh well, it will be useful for something else...

Anyway, all we did here was colour some cookie dough green (we used this recipe again from here and added a little extra flour, so that we could roll the dough) and use smarties to decorate our trees with 'baubles'.

If you have a smaller cutter, perhaps mini m & ms would be much better.

We had a lot of fun making these.... and then when we realised how giant these biscuits are, we switched to the old favourite!!!

I had also bought an angel cutter in the same size, and didn't fancy making GIANT angels as well, and so Madeleine had a special christmasy lunch today!

Christmas Crafts - Hand print wreath

I love Christmas. It really is my favourite time of the year.

I just love decorating the house. I love the evenings, when we light the fairy lights on the tree... I could look at them twinkling for hours....

Over the weekend, we got our Christmas tree and decorations out of storage, so that we have them ready for December 1st, when we always put up our tree.

We have also started our Christmas crafts now, as there are quite a few decorations that I would like to make, and so I want Madeleine to start making them now so that we can enjoy them for all of December.

Today's craft was a lot of fun. We made this cute little wreath using Madeleine's hand prints.

I just made lots of prints of her hands.Then I cut them out and then glued them to a paper plate that I cut the centre out of.

Once we'd glued all the hands on, Madeleine decorated her wreath with some stars.

This was such a simple craft, and it looks great hanging on our wall.

Time saver Tuesdays - Flavoured Oil

This is one of my favourite tips.

Keep the oil that you get in sundried tomatoes, roasted capsicums or eggplant - anything that's preserved in oil to use later on in sauces etc.

There is so much flavour in the oil, so why waste it?

I store mine in a jar in the fridge and add to it as we have more. You need to keep it in the fridge, so no nasties grow!

I use this oil sometimes when I am making bolognese or risotto. You could even use it in a salad dressing.

Use it wherever you would use ordinary oil, but want a bit of extra flavour.

The Simple Things.... Pesto Chicken Lasagne

This lasagne is SO yummy! It's great with a fresh green salad.

I love its simplicity. You see, we love lasagne in this house, but I'm not keen on all the washing up! I have a dishwasher, which makes life easy, but sometimes I just don't feel like making bolognese and bechamel as well...

So, this super easy lasagne is just right for those times when you want lasagne but without all the work and the pesto gives this lasagne such a lovely flavour.

To make it you will need...

2 cups of tomato passata
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small carrot, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
500g chicken mince
1/2 cup water
3 tbs basil pesto (I use the Coles brand from a jar)
1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets
Small tub (250g) of ricotta cheese
Up to 1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and spread half a cup of passata over the bottom of your dish.

Heat your oil then add onion, carrot, zucchini and garlic and cook, stiring for a few minutes until the vegies have softened.

Add the mince, stiring to break up any lumps and cook until it changes colour, then reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining passata and water. Simmer, uncovered - stiring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Then remove from the heat and stir in the pesto.

Place a single layer of lasagne sheets over the base of your dish and then top with a third of the sauce. Repeat two more layers finishing with pasta sheets on the top layer.

Whisk ricotta and enough milk together in a bowl until you have the consistency of a traditional bechamel sauce. The amount of milk you will need will depend on the ricotta you use. I buy the extra light version and so less milk is needed.

Spoon the ricotta and milk mixture over the lasagne sheets and smooth over. Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked through and the cheese is golden.

Stand 10 minutes before cutting into pieces. Serve with a green salad.

** This lasagne serves 6

Time Saver Tuesdays

I thought I might start posting some hints and tips each week, that might save you some time or money - or even both! Who knows?

I thought I'd post these each Tuesday for you...

To kick off this week, I'm sharing a tip I learned from my grandmother to keep tomato paste fresh in the jar, so you don't get that awful mould forming on the top.....

It's such a simple tip, and works well.

Just store the jar in your fridge... UPSIDE DOWN!

No yucky mould forms on the top!

I buy always buy large jar (in the cheapest brand available) and store it this way in my fridge and it seems to last much much longer than if it was stored the right way up.

Just be careful to screw the lid on tightly, as you can sometimes get a messy leak...

Mini Masterchefs...

There are lots of benefits in having your children help you in the kitchen.

I think teaching your children to cook is an important life skill - when they eventually leave home (I know, I know it's a long way off for me...) they will be able to look after themselves... In the process of cooking, they are learning maths and science, using fine motor skills and following instructions.

We tried something a little different with dinner tonight, and something I think we will do more often.

Tonight we had pizzas for tea. I cut everything up, and Madeleine assembled our pizzas. She had lots of fun arranging all the toppings on the pizzas and sprinkling on the cheese.




We used Pita breads for our bases this evening, but we do like to make our own sometimes, too. You could even use english muffins as a good size for the kids. You can top your pizza with anything you like, and so the beauty of a meal like this, is that everyone can make their own depending on what their tastes.


You could also do something similar with wraps or tacos as well...

Pumpkin and Apricot Cake

Do your kids eat their vegies? No? Previously I've talked about Madeleine not eating veg and how I hide vegies in food, like most Mummies do....

Like all kids, Madeleine eats cake though, and will eat this one that is full of pumpkin without any problems.

This recipe was given to my by a friend, who got it from one of our other friends, but I don't know where she got it from!

I thought I'd share it with you today, because it is so yummy, and really really healthy as well.

This cake has only 1/2 a cup of oil in it, and it makes a lot of cake! There is only 1 cup of sugar for the whole cake as well.... Orginally the cake had 2 cups, but I have reduced it by half, and have found it to be sweet enough. I use Jap Pumpkin as it is my favourite. The other great thing about this cake, is that it is dairy free, so a great one for people with allergies. It freezes well, and because it makes so much, I freeze individual portions for lunch boxes.

So here's the recipe:

Pumpkin and Apricot Cake

100g dried apricots

500g pumpkin

4 cups plain flour

2 teas baking powder

1 teas bicarb soda

2 teas ground cinnamon

1/2 teas salt

2 cups caster sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Cover the apricots with boiling water and leave to plump up for at least half an hour, then drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the water.

Puree the apricots until smooth, adding the reserved water if needed, to make 1/2 cup of puree.

Peel, seed and chop the pumpkin. Steam until very tender, then drain thoroughly and mash to make 2 cups of puree. Set aside to cool (about 20 mins)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and grease your pan. This mix will fill a baking dish, but I have also made it in loaf tins - you'll just need more than one.

To a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, bi carb soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Make a well in the centre and then add the eggs, oil, apricots and pumpkin and mix until just combined.

Transfer to a baking dish, smoothing the top and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

I'd really love your feedback if you try this... You can leave a comment below.

I'm Dreaming of a.... White Kitchen!

Our build is taking forever.... Sigh....

We sold our house over 12mths ago and we are now on to our second builder.

The planning process is dragging on and on.... The big problem for us is that our original house plan didn't meet 6 star energy efficiency requirements. We've had to go back to the drawng board and start again.. After meeting with management, we finally seem to be getting somewhere, and they tell us that our plans should be finalised within the next week. We are hoping that we might be able to submit our plans to council before this year is out... Fingers crossed!

We have moved twice now - the last time when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Christian! And I have been cooking in tiny little kitchens... The kitchen I have now is actually back and white, but has NO PANTRY! A lot of my kitchen stuff is in storage because there is just not enough room. So you can imagine how much I am looking forward to my new kitchen...

Cheese and Onion Muffins

This is another staple in our house. I make these savoury muffins and freeze for David's lunches... Cheese and onion are David's favourite at the moment, but you can change what you put in these to suit your tastes..... Here are some other ideas for you -

red onion, zucchini and cheese

ham, corn and cheese

semi dried tomatoes and fetta

Cheese (fetta or parmesan, even tasty - or a mix!!) and Olives

Fetta, Olive and Chargrilled Capsicum

Spinach and Fetta Cheese

So for the Cheese and Onion ones you will need:

2 cups SR flour

3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup cheese (I use half a cup each of parmesan and tasty)

One onion finely chopped

Some curry powder or Cayenne pepper to taste

Pinch of salt

Start by preheating your oven at 180 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper cases if using (I find these savoury muffins stick to paper cases, though, so if you have a silicon pan then it would be ideal for this)

Place onion, cheese, cayenne pepper, salt and flour in a bowl and stir to combine.

Then in a jug - whisk eggs, milk and vegetable oil.

Carefully combine wet and dry ingredients - Don't mix too much so you end up with a light muffin.

Spoon in to cases and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until muffins are lightly browned and cooked through when tested with a skewer.

This will make approximately 15 muffins. The number of muffins you make will depend on what you put in them.

Happy Anniversary

Tomorrow David and I celebrate our 6th anniversary...

It was the perfect day. Like every bride, it was the happiest day of my life.


We have achieved so much together in the last 6 years, including welcoming these two gorgeous little people in to our lives...

Happy Anniversary, Honey! I know that we will have many more happy years together xx

Chicken and Vegetable Pie

The days are certainly warming up now, but the nights are still a little cool, so we are still eating some comforting meals...

I first made this chicken pie when I was pregnant with Christian, and it has been a bit of a staple for the rest of the winter.

I have adapted this recipe from one I found on taste.com.au and have changed it up a bit to make it my own. You can use any vegies you like in this pie. The original recipe had mashed potato on the top, and sometimes I do that, but here I have used a sheet of puff pastry instead. You could even make this in to little individual pies if you wanted to...

So, to make this you will need...

Olive oil

500g Chicken thighs, trimmed and diced

1 onion

1 clove of crushed garlic

1 carrot, diced

1/2 cup of corn

1 zucchini. diced

4 florets of brocoli, chopped

4 florets of cauliflower, chopped

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard

1 pkt of french onion soup

1/3 cup light cream

1/2 cup chicken stock (I use half a cup of water and a bit of stock powder)

1/2 cup of white wine (optional)

Puff pastry to cover your pie dish, 1 -2 sheets

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.

Add a splash of oil to the pan and cook the chicken in batches until golden.





Set aside.

Heat another splash of oil in the pan, and add onion and garlic. Cook until softened, then add the other vegies. Cook for 5 minutes or so, then add the wine, if using, stiring to remove any browned goodness off the bottom of your pan. Reduce wine to almost nothing, then add the soup mix, stock, mustard and cream. Stir together.

Return chicken to the pan and cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.

Place in to a pie dish and cover with puff pastry. Pierce a hole in the pastry to allow steam to escape.

Bake until pastry is golden and crispy.

I'm back!

Okay, so I have been pretty slack in posting of late, so I thought today I would share why....

It's been a busy few weeks in our household. Madeleine turned 3 at the end of August. She had a lovely Rainbow themed party with her friends. I had help from some of my lovely friends to cater for her party, and I made her this cake...



It was a time consuming cake to make, involving three cake batters to create the layers... It was rewarding to cut the cake and see those vivid colours, though!


David had his birthday in the first weekend of September. We had a cake at our Father's Day picnic to celebrate. I made a red velvet cake for that... But have no photos of the cake to share....

Then the weekend before last, our little boy was baptised. Christian's christening celebration was a lovely afternoon tea shared with family and close friends. I was lucky to have my family help prepare the sandwiches on the day. But beforehand, I had prepared a few things, as I like to get as much cooking done before an event as possible.

I made these yummy and oh so simple cookie pops using Bianca's tutorial from here!





I also made these cupcakes... I made two flavours - orange and almond and white chocolate.



The christening cake was my biggest challenge, though. It was my first time working with fondant. It was a very moist chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream between the layers.





So, that's what I've been up to... I have a yummy recipe to share with you tomorrow...

Vanilla Cupcakes

This basic Vanilla cupcake recipe is a favourite of mine, because they are SO easy to whip up - just melt the butter and mix everything together.... and of course they taste SO good, too!

Madeleine and I make these often. They are great to make with her, because there is no mixer required, so the she can help measure everything out, and mix it all together as well.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

You will need;

1 3/4 cups SR Flour

2/3 cup caster sugar

125g butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Combine the flour and the caster sugar together in a large bowl.

Whisk butter, eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a jug.

Now, your wet ingredients to your dry ones and stir gently until they are combined.

Divide the mix between your paper cases and bake for 15 - 20 mins or until your cakes are cooked through.

Then transfer your cakes to a wire rack to cool.

When they are cold, decorate!

When we are making these ourselves at home, we usually just spread with some icing, but for a party, why not pipe some icing on the top to make these look extra special! With all the different pretty cupcake cases and toppers that you can buy these days, you can match these to the theme of your party.

You can also use this recipe to make mini cupcakes if you like. Just use a mini muffin tray lined with mini muffin cases. Your cakes will take about 10 minutes to cook.

Very Vegie Bolognese

I needed to throw dinner together quickly this evening. It was a busy day out, and I arrived home at 4:30 by myself with my two littlies. I had nothing defrosted, and no plan for dinner.... I decided on bolognese.

This bolognese is packed full of vegetable goodness. Eight different vegetables in total, and you would never know.... I use only a small amount of good quality beef mince in this bolognese so the bulk of the dish really is vegetables.

You will need:

A splash of Olive oil
An onion
A clove of garlic
Some dried herbs
A teaspoon of beef stock powder
An assortment of vegetables. You can use whatever you have to hand. I have used Mushrooms, Carrot, Zucchini, Brocoli, Cauliflower, and a small cube of frozen spinach. In total, I use about 3 cups of vegies.
A 400g can of tomatoes
A tablespoon of tomato paste
200g of good quality beef mince
Salt and pepper to taste.

I chop all my vegies quite small and saute in some olive oil.





When the vegies have softened, I add the mince and stir to break up any lumps, until the mince
has browned.
Add the tomato paste and cook, stiring to coat everything, for a minute or two. At this stage you can add your dried herbs.
Pour in the can of tomatoes, then fill the empty can with water and add to the
saucepan with the teaspoon of beef stock powder and salt and pepper to taste.




Simmer uncovered until the sauce reduces.


Now, if it were just David and I eating this, we would eat this just as it is, but to hide the vegies from Madeleine I pop the bolognese into my food processor and blitz. The vegies become completely undetectable!

Meal Planning

I have been meal planning for years - even before children! I love going through my cook books looking for new recipes to try - I will try a few each fortnight, depending on how busy I am.

Now that I am on maternity leave again, I seem to be trying a new recipe almost every night! I find meal planning makes evenings easy for me - I don't have to think about what to cook. It also helps with the budget (I only buy what I need for meals).

I only meal plan for our evening meal, and the way that I do it, is that during the week I will go through some of my cook books when I have time, and list the recipe I want to try - the book it is from, and the page number. I use this list to help me to write my meal plan and create my shopping list as I go.

I like pretty things, and searched the internet to find a nice meal planner to use.This is the meal planner I have been using for some time because I like the way that the shopping list is included on the side, so everything is together http://www.theprojectgirl.com/2009/01/19/menu-planning-form-free-download/

Super Organiser Mum also has a free printable that includes the shopping list together on the same page also http://www.beyondthebaby.com.au/superorganisermum/organising/clipboard-station-and-menu-planning/

Do you meal plan? Do you have a system you use? I would love to hear about it!

Chicken Meatballs and Spaghetti

I am always looking for ways to add hidden vegetables to our meals.... Madeleine has been going through a rather long stage of not eating vegetables. It can be stressful, and of course we still offer vegetables at all meals, and suggest that she tastes them... And sometimes she will suprise us, but other times we have no luck at all!

For those nights where you have a little time on your hands to spend in the kitchen, this Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe is perfect! You can hide some extra vegies in the meatballs. (It's funny that Madeleine doesn't consider tomatoes a vegetable!!!) In the batch pictured, I have just added one carrot and no other vegies to the meatballs.

It's quite simple to make, actually, and it's even something that the kids can help cook - Get them in the kitchen with clean hands to roll the little meatballs for you. They will have fun!

To make the tomato sauce you will need:

1 onion
1 stick of celery
2 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of dried thyme (or a sprig of fresh)
2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes plus 800ml of water (just fill the cans with water once you've emptied them)
1 teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

and to make the meatballs:

500g Chicken mince
1 egg
3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of onion and garlic
1 teaspoon of worcestershire
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
For the vegies - I like to add half a carrot and half a zucchini but you can add whatever you like




To start the sauce, finely chop your onion and celery. Put 2 tablespoons of this aside to add to the meatballs.

Warm the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, celery and thyme and cook over a medium heat, stiring every now and then for about 10 minutes.

Then add the cans of tomatoes and the water to the pan. Season with the sugar, salt and pepper and then bring it to a simmer while you make the meatballs.




To make the meatballs, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. It's best to use your hands to combine everything. Then take small amounts of the mixture (about a teaspoon worth) and shape in to balls. If you wet your hands slightly, they will be easy to roll. You will need to put these aside as you want to add them all in to the sauce at the same time, so place them on a tray that you have lined with some baking paper.





Once you have made all the meatballs, you can add these carefully in to the sauce. They will need about half an hour or so to simmer.

We cook a 500g pack of pasta for this quantity of sauce, and it feeds us (two adults and a 3 year old who usually goes back for seconds) for two meals! It freezes well and you can just defrost when you need and reheat.

Don't forget some Parmesan cheese on the top!

Spinach and Cheese Scones

You will need:

250g packet of frozen spinach, that has been thawed and all the excess moisture removed. Chop finely.

2.5 cups SR flour

1 tbs caster sugar

50g butter, chopped

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

3/4 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 240 degrees or 220 degrees for fan forced.

Oil a cake pan. This recipe calls for a deep 20cm square cake pan. I used a slice tin, and it worked fine, so use whatever is easiest for you.

Sift the flour into a bowl with the caster sugar, then rub in the butter. Stir in the cheese, spinach and milk. Mix to form a soft, sticky dough. Turn the dough out on to a floured bench top and knead until lightly. Press the dough out to about 2cm thick and cut into 16 rounds. Place the scones (they should just be touching each other) into the pan and bake for 20 mins.

These are nicest warm from the oven.

Cheap and Easy Biscuits

I found this recipe over here and thought I might give it try.

I had thought that with the condensed milk and the sugar, these might be sickly sweet, but they are not at all... in fact, my basic biscuit recipe is sickly sweet in comparison!

All you need is

500g of butter
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 cup of caster sugar
5 cups SR flour

To make the biscuits, its as easy as preheating the oven to 180 degrees and lining some biscuit trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter, condensed milk and sugar in your mixer, and then add the flour.

Then you can get creative by adding whatever you like.

We made half the batch as choc chip and the other half as 'polka dot' biscuits with smarties.



We had a fun afternoon, and now the biscuit jars are full again!