After a few blissfully cool days, I'm back :) I know I haven't made an appearance since the day before our power was cut for several hours, but may I say- the day remained gloriously cool and no food spoiled. The power came on after four and a quarter hours, not the whole five predicted. Relief all round.
As always, I shall begin with some snap shots...
A beautiful sunset taken from my upstairs bedroom window a few days ago. I had to crop it to remove the screen blur, but what a gorgeous sight :)
A rare capture- my regular morning visitor. I say rare, as with a phone, this little guy isn't easy to snap.
The past few days have given the most golden sunrises, like above.
I have been experimenting with different things lately. One random experiment was making lamb mince meatballs with my natural fibre as a binder. I also added some dried rosemary, salt and pepper, and rolled them into balls. See below.
These balls were placed on a rack sitting in a baking tray before grilling. This allowed for some of the fat to drip away.
The result: tasty, high fibre lamb meatballs perfect for lunches or snacks. I am a bit of a carnivore sometimes :)
With cooler weather has meant comfort meals. A family favorite is the good old cottage pie. It's fool proof really, and has protein and veg all in one dish :)
Cottage pie is the easiest family dish. To the mince, I add about a third the amount of chopped veg. Then I season it and also add gravy powder and some water after the meat and veg has cooked.
To mash the potatoes, I add butter, cream (or milk) and use the stick blender to make it smooth. After I have placed the potato on top, I add some grated parmesan for flavour before popping it in the oven for 30mins.
Had to add this- a perfect scene- golden morning sun and a fairy wren hen on the fence. I am so grateful for this view, and these birds.
And now, onto my vegan friendly, gluten free bread. This recipe was one my non teen recommended. I'm so glad she did. I made it today and it turned out, and tasted so good. As it's my first time using quinoa, i'm even more chuffed it worked. The recipe was originally from here.
Vegan Friendly, Gluten Free Bread
Makes 12-15 slices
Ingredients:
300gms whole, uncooked quinoa, soaked at least overnight
60gms chia seed
250mls water- 1/2 to soak the chia seeds and half for the food processor
60mls olive oil
1/2 teaspoon bi-carb
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice from half a lemon
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Oil and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
After soaking chia seeds and quinoa, at least overnight, or for 2 days like I did, drain quinoa well, and add it, and chia gel into a processor with the remaining ingredients. I added a little less than the 125mls of water due to the fact my quinoa was a little wet still.
The original recipe states to process for 3 minutes. As I did this at 7:30am, I did it for only 1.5, without affecting the result.
I baked mine for 1 hr 20 minutes, not the full 1 hr 30 the recipe stated.
I let it cool slightly, turned it out, peeled the paper off and sliced it carefully after 30mins. I got 15 slices, but the crusts were thin, so i would say 14 to be fair. It was delish. The rest is frozen individually.
And the result :)
Remember our garden make over? Well, it hit a bit of a road block. Hubby and I aren't friends with the weather bureau of late. The last bit of paver laying and concreting saw three days of torrential rain hit. Needless to say, that completely ruined work done. Today, hubby checked the weather and decided it was safe to trust them. Hmmm.
After I removed the pavers and useless cement, which was surprisingly easy as the concrete had disintegrated in the rain, hubby relaid the pavers on top of new coarse sand, and re-cemented around the whole lot.
Look below to see why we feel some disdain for the weather mis-information...
Then the rain came :(
I used our BBQ cover, then hubby put the tarp on top, and then the baby pool, to try and protect the still unset concrete from losing round number two to the open heavens.
One day, we will have this job done!
Lastly, let me show you tonight's dinner. Our newest teen seems to prefer healthier meals. I am trying to incorporate everyone's taste here, so this was my compromise...
Very Veggie Rolls
Ingredients:
serves 4-6.
100gms of dry coleslaw mix
1 small potato, grated
1 small sweet potato, grated
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 rasher bacon, chopped
3 sheets puff pastry
seasoning: salt/pepper/sweet paprika/ 1 tsp massel veggie stock powder, 1/2 tsn curry powder
1 tbsp each butter and olive oil
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
On medium/low heat, saute dry coleslaw mix, potatoes, bacon and onion in olive oil/butter.
Add seasoning, continue cooking on low heat til all veggies are soft.
Allow to cool slightly.
Place in a bowl. Add cheese, bread crumbs and egg. Mix well.
Place equal amounts of the mix in the middle of the defrosted pastry sheets.
Roll up like a sausage roll.
Place onto a well greased baking tray.
Seal ends with a fork.
Bake for 35 mins, or until lightly golden.
The veggie mix here with the cheese, breadcrumbs and egg, ready to mix.
The mix placed in the centre of one of the sheets of pastry.
The pastries ready to cook
And the result- this is hubby's serve. the teens felt satisfied with half each.
I confess, I haven't tried these. The general consensus was too much veg but they ate every last bite. I will tweek these the next time I make them, but pretty happy with this result :)
There you have it, another few days done and dusted. I hope this offers some inspiration. Until next time, thanks for reading :)
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