Easy Fruit Cake ~just four ingredients

I shared this recipe over five years ago on my other blog. 

 I remembered about this fruit cake after reading Annabel's posts on Christmas gifts this week. This really is a great recipe,  so simple with not many ingredients.

FRUIT CAKE

750gms mixed fruit

2 cups of orange juice

Mix together and leave overnight.

Add 2 cups SR flour and 1 tspn mixed spice.

Mix well and bake for 1-1.5 hours in a moderate oven.

Enjoy!

* Edited to add: This cake can be made using different juices, chocolate milk, cold tea, cold milk coffee.  Go here for the recipe. 

On the Menu this Week

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Monday: Chicken curry using leftover chicken

Tuesday: Schnitzels, vegetables and gravy

Wednesday: Chow mein and vegetables

Thursday: Chicken Pasta slice and salad

Friday: Calamari, chips and salad

Saturday: Hamburgers and chips

Sunday: Roast Chicken and vegetables

Desserts:  Chocolate Pudding, banana caramel pie

Baking: Chocolate cake, Hooty creek biscuits

CEREAL CRUMB SLICE ~ Cheapskates Recipe

This recipe is fantastic for using up leftover crumbs from the bottom of your cereal  box.  Normally I would put them in the chook bucket, but then I discovered this recipe from one of the members over at the Cheapskates site. 

I needed to make something quick for hubby to take to work today, so this slice is great when time is short...

Yum, yum!!

Cereal Crumb Slice

Ingredients:

2 cups of dried cereal crumbs ( I save them from the bottom of the Weetbix, Weetbix Crunch, Mini Wheats etc and put them in a zip lock bag until I have 2 cups) 

1 cup of any flour(self raising, plain or wholemeal) 

1/2 cup coconut 

2/3 cup of any sugar (brown or white) 

1 cup of any choc bits (Homebrand is good) 

1/2 cup of any dried fruit 

4 oz melted butter or marg 

1 or 2 tablespoons of milk

 Method: 

Melt butter in microwave or on stove. Add all other ingredients and enough milk to get a slightly moist consistency. Press into lined slice tin and bake in moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Make up a simple icing (about 1 cup) such as lemon or chocolate and smooth over slice while still warm. Sprinkle with coconut to decorate.   

Enjoy!

Back in time for dinner - 1950's

Thank you to my lovely friend Sue who shared this You Tube link on Facebook.

"One British family embark on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure to discover how a post-war revolution in the food we eat has transformed the way we live." BBC Two

   

There are more in the series if you are interested J
I love You Tube!

Enjoy!

Easy Peasy Pineapple Chicken

PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

8 Chicken drumsticks

3 tablespoons seasoned flour

3 tablespoons oil

450g crushed pineapple

435g cream of chicken soup

Place drumsticks and seasoned flour in a plastic bag and shake to lightly and evenly coat the chicken.  Discard excess flour.  Heat the oil in a pan and brown the chicken.  Add pineapple and chicken soup, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until chicken is tender.

Serve over rice 

Serves 4-6

*I used diced chicken breast for this recipe and prepared it as described in this post. I tossed in cornflour, dipped in beaten eggs and fried in oil. I drained the oil then added pineapple and chicken soup.

Enjoy!

On the Menu this Week

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Monday: Braised Steak and onion with vegetables

Tuesday: Chicken and pasta slice

Wednesday: Beef stir fry

Thursday: Hamburgers and chips

Friday: Pineapple chicken and rice

Saturday: Whiting, chips and salad

Sunday: Shepherds pie and vegetables

Desserts:  Golden syrup pudding

Baking: Banana cake and Leftover cereal slice.

I didn't stick to last week's menu plan because we were away Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This is what my life is like, it seems I can never plan anything lol....I should be home all this week though, which is good because I need to get cracking with my spring cleaning and gardening.

Something different for menu planning

One of my friends posted this on facebook recently.

Seven tubs for seven meals.  

Place ingredients for each day in the tubs. 

Wonder if this would work?  

What do you think?

On the menu this week.

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Monday: Lasagne, salad and chips

Tuesday: Apricot chicken, stir fry veg and rice

Wednesday: Steak and mushroom casserole with veggies

Thursday: Chicken Strogonoff

Friday: Savoury chops and veggies

Saturday: Calamari, chips and salad

Sunday: Schnitzels, veg and gravy

Desserts:  Golden syrup dumplings, chocolate pudding.

Baking: Olive oil Chocolate cake and Hootycreek biscuits.

My latest fridge menu list and pantry grocery list. 
These and others can be downloaded from here

What's on the menu at your place this week?

Frugal Meal - Savoury Mince Bake

I have been using some of my old time recipes lately as they always seem to be enjoyed more than the modern ones I try.  

They are made from the simplest ingredients that I always have on hand. Of course you can add extras to suit your own tastes.   This type of meal you can sneak some vegetables in and no one will notice.

Savoury Mince Bake

1 large onion, pinch of herbs, 1 lb mince, 1 tin tomato soup(16oz), 1 cup macaroni, grated cheese and breadcrumbs.

Chop onion and fry until brown.  Add mince, salt, pepper, pinch herbs and tomato soup. Simmer for 3/4 hour, adding a little water if necessary. Cook one cup macaroni according to instructions in salted water.  Drain and add to the mince mixture, mixing well. Turn into a flat dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and place in oven or under griller until brown.

*I added mushrooms, a little capsicum, grated carrot and zucchini to the mix. I also added a little more noodles.

This bake was served with even more vegetables J

This recipe can be found in the 1967 CWA Fingers and Forks cook book. 

As you can see this book has been well used.

Cooking away on the stove....

Combined with noodles and added to dish.

Topped with grated cheese and breadcrumbs.

Baked.

Enjoy!

Do you prefer modern or old fashioned recipes?

On the Menu this Week

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I am a bit late this week with my menu plan.  

I did get busy last week and made a list of recipes that my family love and then added them to a monthly meal plan.  Life is so much easier now that I am organised and know what I am having each day.  My freezers are full so we will be eating from there for the next little while, and my pantry has been stocked up. Hopefully I wont need to spend any money this week. A whole week without spending...woohoo!

Monday: Schnitzels, veggies and gravy

Tuesday: Shepherd's pie and veggies

Wednesday: Chicken tenders, chips and salad

Thursday: Fish chips and salad

Friday: Going out to tea for my dad's birthday

Saturday: Beef stroganoff and fetticine

Sunday: Ooey gooey cheesey meatballs and veggies

Desserts:  Golden syrup pudding, fruit and ice-cream.

Baking:  Banana cake for dads birthday

Living Simply @ gDonna's

My simple life has been featured on gDonna's blog. 

Go here for a look see J

Tania's Honey Chicken Recipe

This recipe came about by a bit of experimenting and mixing up a couple of recipes I had tried. I changed them here and there and came up with this now family favourite. Serves four.

500gms of cubed chicken breast

3 heaped tablespoons Cornflour (approximate, may need more)

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 eggs, beaten 

oil for frying

1 packet low salt French Onion Soup

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder

1 cup of water

Combine cornflour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Toss the cubed chicken into the cornflour. (The chicken pieces should have a nice coating of cornflour on them).

Beat the eggs in a small bowl, then add quite a few pieces of the chicken at a time, I would say ten to twelve pieces. Coat well with the egg.

Preheat oil over medium heat and brown the chicken. 

Once browned (this doesn't take long, a couple of minutes each side), remove the chicken to drain. Then remove the leftover oil from pan.

Next whisk together the soup mix, honey, stock powder and water.

Put chicken back into pan and add the soup mixture.  Bring to boil and then turn down heat and cook for about five minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

Main ingredients.

Frying the chicken, using a wok.

Draining the chicken.

 I serve my honey chicken with stir-fry veggies and rice. 

I use any veggies I have on hand.  This is what went in tonight; diced potato, carrot, onion, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, broccoli and sweetcorn. I think that's all lol! 

Stir-fry the veggies in a little oil (coconut or olive).  Once they start to soften add some soy sauce and a small dollop of sweet chilli sauce. Stir to combine, then serve.

Stir fry vegetables

 Whoops, silly me forgot to take a photo of the served plate. 

So here is one one half eaten lol!

This is very tasty. Not too hard to cook and not too many ingredients.  I sometimes add a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top of chicken when serving. 

If you have any questions about this recipe please ask, I am only too willing to help.