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!

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!

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!

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 :-)

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!

]]> http://patmore.net.au/blog/2011/03/satay-chicken-pizza/feed/ 0 http://patmore.net.au/blog/2011/02/new-zealand-yoghurt-with-toasted-pine-nuts-condolences/ http://patmore.net.au/blog/2011/02/new-zealand-yoghurt-with-toasted-pine-nuts-condolences/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:26:18 +0000 Julieanne http://patmore.net.au/blog/?p=344 This isn’t really a recipe as it only involves plonking some toasted pine nuts in your favourite yoghurt, but hey! It was yum, so I’m sharing.

Basically, I just realised it past midday and I hadn’t really eaten anything substantial yet and was VERY hungry all of a sudden. You may know the feeling I mean, when you’re so hungry that you feel drained and don’t want to do anything complicated? I get like that after a big teaching day sometimes. Anywho, this is a quick solution to that!

I used “Apple & Rhubarb” flavoured yoghurt from New Zealand; the brand’s called The Collective Diary. Yummmm. Speaking of New Zealand, I know words will never suffice here but just cannot imagine what the people of Christchurch are going through right now with the devastation caused by recent earthquakes… I’ve visited Christchurch in the past, and it was such a beautiful city of amazing people and sights. I sincerely wish them all the best. I taught a student on Wednesday who has close family over there, and she was completely heartbroken and teary over it all understandably; luckily her family members are safe and sound.

All the best with your various adventures in cooking and otherwise everyone!

The recipe calls for a wok. Thank you to James’s grandparents for the awesome Scanpan brand Wok I used, it’s a dream to use! Very easy to clean too.

Ingredients (Makes 4 small serves, 2 large)

• 500g fresh tapioca noodles (rice noodles will also suffice, available at some Harris Farm Stores & Asian Grocery Stores – see note no. 2)
• 1.5 tbsp sesame seed oil
• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 250g snap frozen Coles Malaysian-style Stir-Fry Vegetables (e.g., Broccoli, Yellow Beans, Water Chestnuts, Sugarsnap Peas, Capsicum)
• 1 small bunch of baby bok choy, coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 100g portbello mushrooms (chopped into small chunks)
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp soy sauce (I use fountain brand as it’s gluten free; most soy sauce has wheat flour in it)

Directions

1. Soak the noodles in boiling water for about 10 minutes, then drain and leave aside.
2. Heat the peanut oil in a wok. Cook frozen vegetables & mushrooms until frozen vegetables are defrosted over medium heat (about 5 minutes), seasoning with mint leaves, 1 tsp garlic, salt & pepper. Stir occasionally.
3. Add noodles and stir well.
4. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, bok choy and remaining garlic. Simmer for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently to coat the noodles and bok choy in seasoned oil mixture.
5. Remove wok from heat and serve dish immediately (see below picture for the meal in wok before serving ^_^).

Note

No. 1: A lot of people only confirm they have food tolerances, and what exactly they are, after ruling out a lot of various preservatives, colours, fructose, lactose, etc. I don’t appear to be intolerant to anything but gluten (which I discovered by completely removing it from my diet), but I thought it would be interesting to try and make a meal with less ingredients than I’d normally use to see what the result would be. Conclusion = Can still make a very tasty and easy meal!

No. 2: Unfortunately I’ve noticed that more and more of the fresh tapioca noodles and rice noodles available at the moment have ‘wheaten cornflour’ listed as an ingredient (gah), therefore they are NOT gluten free if this is a concern for you. There’s always dried rice noodles though, such as Chang’s brand gluten free ones. Fresh are better if you can get them though; tastier.

Ingredients (Serves 3-4 – can be prepared the day before and heated in oven later)

• 200g shitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 1 250g packet of Uncle Ben’s Wholegrain Mediterranean Express Rice (see note below for other options)
• 250g of chicken, sliced into thin strips
• 1 can of pureed tomatoes
• 2 tsp butter
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp season-all (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp dill, finely chopped (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 1 tsp basil leaves, finely chopped (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 1.5 cups of frozen-fresh grated pizza cheese (I used Perfect Italiano Pizza Plus Cheese)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Lightly spray a fry pan with oil and lightly brown the chicken strips all over on medium-low heat, stir occasionally and seasoning with dill and season-all.
3. In the meantime, heat the express rice for 90 secs and put aside.
4. Put cooked chicken aside. Spread cooked rice onto the bottom of a deep casserole dish with a lid.
5. Fry shitake mushrooms with the butter and 1 tsp salt over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
6. When mushrooms are browned, pour in tomato puree and add remaining salt, pepper and basil. Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
7. Take tomato mixture off heat. Add chicken and stir, then pour over rice in casserole dish.
8. Pour all of the stock into the casserole dish and mix well.
9. Top the casserole with pizza cheese, spread out evenly to cover the whole dish.
10. Place lid over casserole dish, and cook in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes.
11. Serve, with a light salad if desired.

Note

Instead of the packet of Uncle Ben’s Wholegrain Mediterranean Express Rice, you can use another kind of tomato-flavoured rice (e.g., tomato & basil instant rice), or just plain brown rice.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 4 large flat portobello mushrooms
• 1 250g packet of Uncle Ben’s Wholegrain Mediterranean Express Rice (see note below for other options)
• 250g of chicken, sliced into thin strips
• 1 over-ripe avocado
• 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cracked pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp season-all (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 1 tsp dill, finely chopped (I used Masterfoods brand)
• 2 cups of frozen-fresh grated pizza cheese (I used Perfect Italiano Pizza Plus Cheese)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Lightly spray a fry pan with oil and lightly brown the chicken strips all over on medium-low heat, stir occasionally and seasoning with dill and season-all.
3. In the meantime, heat the express rice for 90 secs and put aside.
4. Mash the avocado well and mix in lemon juice, salt and pepper to make a light paste.
5. Mix cooked chicken with cooked rice and put aside.
6. Wipe mushrooms with a damp cloth/paper towel, and cut out stalks. Spoon out some of the black gills and underside of the cap to make the mushrooms look like little bowls with depth for stuffing (see wikipedia image for definition of gills).
7. Spread avocado mixture on inside of mushroom ‘bowls’. Top with rice and chicken mixture.
8. Top the mushrooms with about 1/2 a cup of pizza cheese per mushroom.
9. Cook in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
10. Serve, with a light salad if desired.

Note

Instead of the packet of Uncle Ben’s Wholegrain Mediterranean Express Rice, you can use another kind of tomato-flavoured rice (e.g., tomato & basil instant rice), or just plain brown rice.

Ingredients (makes 12 slices)