Recipe - Mustard Bread

Mustard Bread

This bread is used to accompany a meal and I absolutely know you will love this!!

You will need: 

Ciabatta loaf or similar

Butter

Wholegrain mustard

Shaved Parmesan cheese

Slice loaf of ciabatta in half lengthwise.

Mix some butter with wholegrain mustard. 

(I guess the measurements)

Spread over loaf and top with shaved parmesan cheese.

Place under grill and remove once lightly browned.

Use a pizza cutter to slice into triangles and serve.

Delicious!

Recipe - Apricot Chicken Curry

I found this recipe on a site called "Be a Fun Mum". Amanda shares some awesome recipes over there.

Apricot Chicken Curry

You will need:

spray oil

1 onion sliced

500gm chicken breast fillets thinly sliced (I coated in cornflour)

2tsp curry powder

1 tsp mustard powder

1/4 cup tomato sauce

2 tbspns apricot jam

1 tbspn fruit chutney (I used Mango chutney)

1/2 cup mayonnaise (or Greek yoghurt)

1/2 cup of cream

In a frypan over medium heat, spray with oil and cook until onion is soft.

Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes or until cooked through

Add curry powder, mustard powder, tomato sauce, jam, chutney and mayonnaise.  Stir until combined.

Add cream and bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.  Eat immediately or cover and refrigerate until required.

Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

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. 

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!

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!

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?

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.

Mrs. Smart's Scones

You probably have your favourite recipe for scones, but I thought I would share mine with you all.

 Mrs. Smart (Audrey) lives next door to my parents and is a great friend of theirs and a fantastic cook.  One day when we were visiting for a cup of tea she brought out these yummy scones. I was really impressed so I asked her for the recipe. I have made these many times now and these are definitely the best scones I have tasted and baked. 

SCONES

Makes approximately 12

4 Cups of Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 -3/4 cup of Cream (I added one cup)

1 or 2 eggs (I added two eggs)

Milk to help mix to a soft dough

  Place flour and baking powder in bowl. Add cream and beaten eggs. Then add some milk and mix into a soft dough. Knead a little. Roll out and cut into rounds and place on oven tray.  Brush top with milk.  Bake in hot oven 220 - 240C. 

Enjoy!

***
Place flour and baking powder in bowl.

 I use a whisk to stir together

 No need to sift flour if you stir with a whisk.

Beat eggs together.

Make a well in the centre of flour and add cream and beaten eggs. 

 Using a knife, mix together

 Add enough milk to make a soft dough.

Knead slightly. 

Press or roll out 

Take a glass or scone cutter, dip in flour and cut into rounds.

Place on tray.

Use the leftover bits of dough to make some extra scones.

 Bake in hot oven 220 - 230C (400 - 450F)

Wrap in a tea-towel until ready to serve. 

We enjoyed ours with homemade apricot jam and whipped cream.

What is your favourite scone recipe?

Beef and Vegetable Curry

This recipe started out as a Curried Vegetable vegan meal I had planned for myself. I made it several times and every time the aroma wafting through the house would get noses twitching. They (son mostly) would say, "that smells nice, what is it?" When I would say vegetables they turned their noses up a bit, but in the end it got the better of them and they asked for a taste.  They liked it but said it would be so much better with meat!

 So I decided to give it a try with meat to see how it went.  Let me say the plates are always empty.

 ~The original Curried Vegetable recipe (just take out meat) would make a great meatless meal if you have those through the week. It really is flavoursome. I think the type of curry makes this recipe. This is one of my favourite vegan meals. Edited: To this recipe, I add one tin of drained and rinsed chick peas at the same time I add peas. This my personal preference.

I cook this meal in a pressure cooker for 15-20 minutes (10 minutes for veggies only), but I think it could be done in the slow cooker/crock pot with equally good results. 

As I haven't tried it, I am not sure how this would go on the stove top or oven with the meat in it.  It takes 45 minutes with just the veggies on the stove top.  The pressure cooker and slow cooker cause the meat to be very melt in your mouth tender.

Beef and Vegetable Curry

Gather your ingredients;

One onion, chopped

2 potatoes, chopped into chunky pieces

2 carrots, chopped into chunky pieces

2 large mushrooms, sliced(I add four because I like them) 

Some cauliflower and broccoli florets (about 2 cups?)

1/2 cup of peas

500 grams of stewing meat

1 -2 tablespoons of Massaman Curry Paste Thai Style (or favourite curry to taste) 

1 teaspoon of Garam Masala

1 tin of diced tomatoes

1 cup of water

1 teaspoon Vegeta stock powder (use other if desired)

Coriander to taste

Dice meat if required and fry 

 together with onion until onion is soft and meat browned.

Add remaining chopped veggies except peas.

Cook together for a few minutes.

Now add curry and garam masala and cook for one minute to enhance the flavours.

(I added the peas by accident this time)

Add the tin tomatoes, water, stock powder.

Bring to the boil and pressure cook for 15 - 20 minutes. 

Or place in slow cooker if that is what you use and cook for recommended time.  Last of all add peas and let sit for five minutes to heat through. Thicken with cornflour/water if needed. 

Garnish with coriander.

Serve with buttered toast, naan bread or warm bread rolls.

Enjoy!