Carrot and coconut cake (a holiday baking experiment)

We have just returned from a holiday down the coast. I will post some photos of our adventures later this week. Today, I wanted to share a cake that I cooked. I made up the recipe, based on my basic fruit muffin recipe. It was so yum that I cooked it again (also, I measured the ingredients second time around, so that I could record it).

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
2 cups grated carrot
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I think the first cake I made had a little more coconut than this, which was nice too)
3/4 milk
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Grease and line a ring pan.

Ask a willing assistant to grate the carrot (this is Mr Sociable's favourite job!).

Combine ingredients in a bowl. The mixture is quite thick. 

Scoop the mixture into the prepare ring pan. Cook at 180˚C until brown on top & cooked through* - insert a skewer to check (it should come out clean).

* The oven in the holiday house was very slow (it took over an hour to cook). I think in a fan-forced oven, it would take about 40 mins at 160˚C.

Chicken Maryland Pot Roast

A while ago, I tried making a whole chicken pot roast for the first time and everyone loved it! Success!! Mr Fun, who normally will not eat roast, ate the chicken and the rice (tonight he ate the potato too, because I said it was "just like chips"). But the whole chicken was a bit of a pain - I found it hard to cut the chicken up into pieces when it was hot and covered in liquid.

So tonight I made the same meal, but with chicken marylands instead (a chicken maryland is the drumstick and thigh, with skin on). It was much easier, because the chicken was already in pieces, ready to serve - I just separated the drumstick from the thigh when serving. I think next time I would add in a few different cuts of chicken, to provide a mixture of leaner and fattier meat.

Ingredients
4 chicken marylands
6 medium potatoes, cut into large pieces
4 carrots, cut into large pieces
1 large onion, chopped into small pieces
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine (I used sweet, but you could you dry if you prefer)
4 bay leaves

Method
1. Preheat the slow cooker. Spray the bowl of the slow cooker with oil.
2. Add vegetables, then chicken and liquid.
3. Cook for 4-6 hours on low, stirring once, to ensure all of the chicken/veg gets cooked in the yummy liquid.
4. Serve - either by itself or with bread/rice (season with salt/pepper to taste).

Yummy Low-fat Meatloaf (with hidden vegies)

Did you grow up eating meatloaf? Mum used to make it with sausage mince, which is apparently how Nana used to make it too. It was very yummy! (but, not very healthy...). This week, I set out to make a healthy meatloaf for dinner, with lots of hidden vegies. It was well-received by my family (even Franky, who was a bit dubious about meatloaf).

Ingredients
500g lean beef mince (eg heart smart mince)
500g lean pork mince
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 packet french onion soup mix
2 carrots, grated
2 zucchini, grated
2 cups fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (whizz up stale bread with the food processor)
2 eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line a loaf tin. Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl. Empty into the loaf tin and press down to smooth out the top.

Cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. Test to make sure it is cooked through by inserting a metal skewer into the centre for 3 seconds. Pull the skewer out and check to see if it is hot. If the skewer is hot, the meat it cooked through. If not, cook for longer.

Leave the meatloaf resting in the tin to cool a bit before slicing (this will stop the meatloaf from crumbling when you cut). A serrated knife makes cutting easier. Serve with steamed vegies and/or salad.

The meatloaf recipes, from which I drew inspiration:
* Vegie Smugglers: individual meat loaves
* Taste: healthy meatloaf
* Fab Food: Retro Classics (2002), p108

Weekend Adventures: Oatley Park & Drinking a Coconut

Yesterday we took the boys to Oatley Park for my sister's birthday brunch. I've got great childhood memories of Oatley Park (and it's actually where Franky proposed to me). So, it was really nice to be able to spend time their with our family and share this special place with them. The boys enjoyed playing on the playground equipment and exploring the Steamroller. Franky taught Mr Sociable how to light a fire, using wood that they collected in the bush. Mr Sociable was pretty pleased when another group of people asked us if they could use our fire to cook their food!

The Steamroller

After brunch, we took the boys to "The Castle" (a sandstone building in the park, used for parties - there are BBQs, tables and chairs inside). We saw lots of kookaburras (which Mr Sociable was excited about!). We also taught Mr Sociable about sandstone - he is now desperate to grind up stones to make "paint"!

Today Franky introduced the kids to drinking from a coconut. Mr Fun loved it (I was a little surprised, since he has never even had juice before....). Mr Sociable was a bit unsure at first, but eventually decided that it was nice. Between the two of them, they drank the whole coconut!

What have you been doing this weekend?

One of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days when you want to go and hide in a cupboard, or lock yourself out in the garden and pretend you can't hear the noise inside??

Yesterday was one of those days!

Mr Fun has been Mr "Not-so-Fun" for a few days now. It started last week (maybe Wednesday or Thursday?) - pretty much all-day grizzling (interspersed with pleasant periods when he is distracted by a toy or a new person). I think it's his teeth - all four canines have cut through & he has a slight temp. But then again, he could be coming down with something - time will tell!

Anyway, by the afternoon, I was starting to lose my patience. I looked at the clock, noticed it was only 2pm and realised it was another 3 hours until dinner! I had been planning to take the kids grocery shopping in the afternoon, but there was no way I was going to subject myself, my children & the rest of the shopping centre to that torture! So instead I gave Mr Sociable some painting to do at the table, gave Mr Fun some extra cuddles and eventually took them both out to the garden. I let Mr Sociable "water the garden" (which mostly involved putting lots of water in his dirt put to make mud). I left the boys to get dirty while I made some low-stress dinner.

Since I hadn't gone grocery shopping or menu-planned for the week, dinner options were a bit limited. But, I decided that 2 minute noodles were a good solution for "one of those days". I added some grated carrot, frozen corn & stirred through some egg - just so it felt a bit more nutritious as a dinner!

The boys LOVED it. They both ate two bowlfuls and Mr Fun even ate some of the vegies :). But the best part was that they were so quiet at the table. After a day like yesterday, it was BLISS!!

What easy meals do you make on days like these?

Recipe Remix (reusing leftovers)

A little while ago, I wrote about how have started to menu plan our weeknight meals. I like to cook big meals that will do two dinners (and two lunches for Franky to take to work). But I find it boring eating exactly the same meal two nights in a row, so I like to re-invent the leftovers from the night before to make something new. I've got some regular big meals that I can make every second night and easy "remixes" that I make the next night.

I'm going to share some of the reinventions that I make - and I'd love to hear some of your ideas too!

Chicken & mushroom pasta sauce --> chicken & mushroom pie
I cook the chicken mushroom pasta sauce with pasta on the first night. Leftover pasta is used to make lunches for Franky (with the sauce). On the second night, I make pies. We have a pie maker - so this is really simple. I just put the pastry in the pie-maker and fill with sauce. Can serve with vegies or salad (or chips, if I'm looking for a really easy dinner).

Burritos --> savory mince
We eat tacos/burritos on the first night, with the usual fillings - salad, meat, cheese, etc. The second night, I add some extra vegies to the meat (peas, carrot, etc) & serve it with rice or pasta & top with shredded cheese.

Spaghetti sauce --> lasagne
We eat spaghetti bolognaise the first night, then use the leftover sauce to make lasagne for the next night. Just requires layering the sauce with lasagne sheets and topping with cheese (I don't worry about béchamel sauce!).

Roast chicken --> roast chicken pizza
This one doesn't save much time (because it requires cutting up all the leftover chicken) - but it is very yummy!

 

Sausages & salad --> curried sausages
Ok, a bit daggy - but such a yummy reminder of my childhood! Use leftover sausages to make curried sausages. To make curried sausages, I use 1 onion, a few cloves of garlic, curry powder (I use a couple of tsp of Clive of India), flour and water. Add vegies as required (when we were kids, vegies were on the side, but now I add vegies into the sauce).

So, now it's over to you - I would love you to share some ideas for remixing leftovers! I need some new ideas :)

Better than bread...

I've written before about my love of pancakes. I've recently tried making savory pancakes for the boys & they both love them! They are pretty filling, so they make a nutritious lunch (with hidden vegies). I'm planning to spread vegemite on some of them and freeze them as sandwiches for Mr Sociable to take to Prep.

Pancake sandwich with vegemite

Wholemeal Savory Pancakes*
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 large carrot, grated
1 large zucchini, grated
1 big handful of shredded tasty cheese

Combine all ingredients. Spoon out blobs of mixture onto a non-stick frypan (low heat). The mixture is thicker than regular pancake mixture, so I spread the blobs out in the frypan. Cook one side, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with savory spread or toppings. So far my kids have eaten them with vegemite and with tomato sauce. Today I am sending Mr Sociable to prep with avocado and cheese on a pancake sandwich. I think ham, cheese & tomato would be nice too!

You could substitute the carrot/zucchini for other vegies (eg corn) or meat (eg ham/bacon).

* This is a modified version of a recipe I received from Sarah. Thanks Sarah!

Pea and Bacon Tart

I made this recipe all the time in 2010 and then forgot about it... Until my mother-in-law was coming over for her birthday dinner this week. I spent a long time trawling through old copies of Delicious magazine trying to find it. I've decided to record it here* (with my own modifications...) so that you can enjoy it (and I will know where it is next time!).

2 sheets shortcrust pastry (but in the photos it is puff pastry)
300g bacon (I usually buy the pre-shredded stuff - and in the photos it is actually ham because I picked up the wrong packet)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
8 eggs
385g tin evaporated milk
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped 
1 cup cheese
2.5 cups frozen peas (defrosted)

Grease a pie tray and line with defrosted pastry.

I bought this one from IKEA & I love it!

Cook the bacon, onion & garlic with a little oil.

Combine the evaporated milk, eggs, cheese and mint. 

Add defrosted peas, as well as the cooked bacon, onions and garlic .

Fill the pie dish.

Cook at 200˚C (170˚C fan-forced) for 40mins. Check that it is cooked by cutting the centre with a knife, to see if it has set.

Serve with salad.

*The original recipe was "pancetta, pea & cheddar deep-pan tart", Delicious, March 2010, p. 118.

Taming the pantry

I've never been much of a menu-planner. I tend to buy what's on special/in season, then just decide each day what I will cook, based on the ingredients we have. To make this cooking style work, I have always had a well-stocked pantry - full of ingredients to make a wide range of dishes (eg. on any given day, you would be almost guaranteed to find long grain rice, arborio rice and brown rice; penne, fettuccine and spaghetti; red lentils and yellow lentils; coconut milk, powdered milk, evaporated milk and UHT - just in case).

I also have a tendency to buy multiples of everything when they are on special & to have a spare of each open item, ready for when it runs out (eg. spare tomato sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, mayonnaise, flour, sugar - you get the idea!). Sometimes buying multiples (that are not on the shopping list) results in this:

 

Then, a few months ago, I realised how many mums actually menu plan for the week & shop accordingly (eg The Useful Box, The Organised Housewife, Passionate Homemaking). I thought it was a bit restrictive - especially since I prefer to experiment with food than to closely follow recipes. But I gave it a go & I have really found it useful. I have actually found we actually have more variety this way - as I can see on the calendar what meals we have had over the past few weeks & try to do different things (I can also keep track of how many red meat, white meat, fish & vego meals we eat, to ensure balance across the week). I still buy whatever is on special - sometimes I go with a few dinner options in mind, sometimes I make up the week's menu based on what we have.

Meal-planning calendar - on the fridge

But, with a menu written for the week, I really don't need to keep 8 tins of tomatoes "just in case", or 5 packets of lasange sheets! (I found Glorya's post about "Just in Case" helpful in thinking about this!) So now it's time to tame the pantry! Over the coming weeks, I want to menu plan based on the things in my pantry/freezer - using up all the excess stuff that has been lying around. I started tonight with a chicken & mushroom risotto* (using the arborio rice & stock that have been in the pantry for ages....).

Although my pantry shelves are already pretty organised (everything is categorised - eg all tinned vegies together, legumes together, sauces together, pasta together etc) I'm hoping that in a few weeks, my pantry shelves will be a lot emptier! Maybe I could even move some of the boxes off the floor! ;)

Pantry (9/2/12)

* This is the recipe I used as a base - with substantial modifications. I deleted the butter and halved the oil. I doubled the mushrooms and added frozen peas (maybe 1/2-1 cup). I substituted the thyme for about half a cup of fresh parsley. I substituted tasty cheese for the parmesan. I used sweet white wine instead of dry (because that's what was open - and I prefer drinking that while I am cooking...). I used chicken mince instead of thigh & I actually cooked it all in one pot - ie. I didn't fry the chicken & mushrooms separately before adding it to the rice mixture.

To my morning cup of coffee:

We've been apart for almost 3 weeks now and I haven't missed you at all. I haven't missed the way that others sometimes made you bitter and unpleasant to be around. I haven't missed the way that you turned cold whenever my children wanted my attention. I haven't missed the drain you placed on my budget and the queasiness you gave me first thing in the morning. I haven't missed lying awake at night or and feeling like death in the mornings.

But today I have missed you. Today, when I face the consequences of staying up too late last night and being woken far too early this morning by my precious boys. Today, when I struggle to be nice and my early-rising boys are likewise grumpy. Today, when the hours creep by slowly and just want to go hide in my room until Franky gets home. Today I miss you.

 

Linking up with Jess @ Diary of a SAHM