A Recipe Blog

Okay, so it’s been a while! Let me explain briefly; Master in Teaching = Over! Julieanne = Casual Teacher getting lots of work atm luckily. Woo!

Anyway, here is a healthy simple soup recipe. I’ve been on a bit of a health kick lately and this one is good for you and uber tasty.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 4 large broccoli heads (with stalks), coarsely chopped
• 3 large cauliflower heads (with stalks), coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup of a mixture of green shallots, garlic chives and sweet basil, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup light cream cheese (I used Kraft Philly, the 80% less fat one)
• 1 cup of cold water
• 2 tsp garlic (can be more or less, your choice)
• 1 tsp Masterfoods Season-All (can be more or less, your choice)
• 6 tsp white chia seeds
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Corn chips to serve

Directions

1. Boil water with the broccoli and cabbage in a pot until a little soft (approx 10 min).
2. Drain the broccoli and cabbage and rinse immediately in cold water. Place in a blender with a sharp knife.
3. Add the cup of water, chopped herb mixture, cream cheese, season-all and garlic to the blender. Process until smooth.
4. Simmer the soup mixture in a pot over low medium heat for about 10 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with corn chips and 1 tsp of white chia seeds sprinkled on top per serve. Enjoy!

Tags: blended, boiled, dairy, food-processed, gluten free, quick, soup, vegetarian

My garden’s been going nuts lately (good thing!), and I found myself needing to prune a whole lot of herbs. Aside from mint, which I made into tea, I had shallots, garlic chives and sweet basil to use up. So I thought… hmm… time to try making homemade pesto! This recipe has similarities to another pesto pasta recipe of mine. My hubby chowed all his plate down with compliments to the chef :-) I’m glad I made enough for leftovers later!

Note that whilst I need to use gluten free pasta, any pasta would be fine.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

For the pesto sauce….

• 1 cup of a mix of silvered almonds & pine nuts
• 1/2 cup of a mixture of green shallots, garlic chives and sweet basil, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp Masterfoods Dill tips
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

For the pasta and vegetables bit…

• 2 large vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
• 100g of coarsely chopped shitake mushrooms
• 300g of uncooked gluten free pasta (I used tri-coloured spirals)
• 1 tsp Masterfoods Season-All
• 1 tsp of butter
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Boil water in a pot and get the pasta cooking over high heat. Add a little extra virgin olive oil to the pot if pasta is sticking together (thanks hubby for this tip!)
2. In the meantime, combine all ingredients for the pesto in a food processor. Process until well combined, light green and thick (paste-like in texture).
3. Drain the pasta and rinse immediately in hot water. Serve onto plates.
4. Rinse the pot and place the butter & mushrooms inside. Heat until golden brown over low medium heat.
5. Add pesto, tomatoes, season-all, water and remaining extra virgin olive oil. Simmer over low medium heat for about 3 minutes.
6. Serve the pesto and vegetable mixture over pasta and enjoy!

Tags: boiled, dairy, food-processed, gluten free, nuts, pan fried, pasta, quick, vegetarian

I’ve been in the mood for lighter dinner meals lately, and came up with this tonight. :-) And it’s easy as! Doesn’t need dressing either; there’s enough flavour in there as is.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• 1 Desiree potato, washed & unpeeled
• 100g fetta, diced (get the ‘real’ stuff; e.g., no cows milk! Sheep and goat milk only.)
• 100g shaved deli ham, diced
• 1 handful cos lettuce, chopped coarsely
• 12 button mushrooms, diced
• 1 tsp of dill, finely chopped
• 1 small firm avocado, diced
• 1 tsp season-all (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Place the potato in a swallow bowl with a little water. Pierce in two places with a fork. Cook in microwave on high for 5 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the butter in a pan over medium-low heat.
3. Cook the mushrooms in the pan over high heat, seasoning with dill and season-all. Stir frequently until they are cooked golden brown.
4. Remove mushrooms from heat and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain off excess oil.
5. Turn over the potato over and add a little more water to the bowl. Pierce again in two different places with a fork.
6. Heat the potato in the microwave again, on high, for 5 minutes.
7. Cut the cooked potato into cubes.
8. Toss the potato, mushrooms, fetta, ham, lettuce and avocado together in a salad bowl. Enjoy!

Tags: dairy, ham, microwaved, mushrooms, pan fried, quick, salad

Okay, so strictly speaking this isn’t a recipe post. Or an about me post, either. But I came across these pictures on my computer and thought they were too cool NOT to put up here. They’re of edible carrot figurines that I photographed years ago at a 2008 dinner for my dear late Gran’s birthday. We went to a local Chinese restaurant.

Carrot duckie :)

A tower. Of carrot. In all it's carroty glory!

Carrot birdie!

Speaking of my beloved Gran, she really did teach me a lot about all sorts of things, including cooking. I really miss her… She passed away on the 22nd of January this year. I have such fond memories of her and frequently think of how she taught me to make a pizza from scratch when I’m making my own nowadays.

January was a difficult time… Gran’s passing was a great loss, and I’m so glad I got to spend lots of time with her. We spent hours chatting during visits to her hospital room. Bless her. I’m so glad she got to see her grand-daughter get married too, and to such a loving man :-) Yay for the photographers capturing her lovely self on the day too!

Heh, this has become quite a stroll down emotional memory lane…

My thoughts now turn to another loss that also happened in January. My family cat, the beautiful and affectionate 20 year old Jess, also passed away in January on the 6th. She was very sweet and well-liked by family & friends (and randoms!), including Gran who had cats of her own over the years. I’ve made a little photo album in memory of Jess; it’s on my coffee table. Some photos of her below…

Hehe, she always loved my bed. And taking it over :-P

I was just 4 when we got Jess. I ADORED her.

A recent snap of my lovely little girl and me.

Well, that was a post and a half!

As for new & tested recipes, I realise I’ve been a bit slow on posting them lately. I totally blame uni :P Luckily the Easter break is coming up, so *hopefully* I’ll break this lull then!

And as always, thank you for reading :-)

Tags: memorial

I’ve been going through some Old Time Bakery frozen gluten free pizza bases lately, and can highly recommend them (as can my non-gluten-free hubby). I had some left over satay sauce from a previous cooking adventure and thought… hmm… I’ve seen satay pizza in restaurants enough. Time to give it a shot!

This was a really quick recipe to make; I did have help chopping the mushrooms and jobs like this (thanks James!), but it wasn’t hard. I even made my own dinner from leftover chicken & sauce at the same time! The pizza turned out to be very yummy.. if I do say so myself!

Note: Pizza base in photo not Old Time Bakery base.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• 1 gluten free Old Time Bakery brand pizza base (100g), or any other kind you might prefer
• 100g Yackandandah peanut satay sauce (or another brand; NOT concentrated paste though)
• Small green capsicum, seeds removed, and cut roughly into 2 cm strips
• 4 button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1 small brown onion, diced
• 150g chicken breast, sliced into small strips
• 1 cup of frozen-fresh grated pizza cheese (I used Perfect Italiano Pizza Plus Cheese)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cook onion, garlic and chicken together on a frypan with a little oil. Remove from heat with chicken is sealed and onion softened and brown.
3. Spread satay sauce on pizza base with the back of your spoon.
4. Place the sliced mushroom and capsicum on the pizza base evenly.
5. Place the chicken, onion and garlic on the pizza base evenly.
6. Spread the cheese over the entire pizza base evenly.
7. Heat the pizza for about 20 mins (depending on desired crispiness of base).
8. Cut into 6 pieces with a pizza cutter, serve and enjoy!

Tags: chicken, gluten free, oven baked, pan fried