Barbeque Lunch - Tygum Lagoon

Its been a little while between posts! Not that there has been a lack of cooking, or eating, just a lack of posting! Shall try to rectify that situation


We decided that we would like to have a barbeque lunch, and since we deposited our bbq on the footpath during a council clean-up, we had to find a bbq in a park!  Janet hit the computer and Googled up Tygum Lagoon, at Waterford.  Armed with our google map, an esky of food and a happy dog, we set off!

We managed to not get lost, despite there seeming to be a lack of street signs.  We even managed to find a bbq that was not being used!


its quite a nice park, with a walking track all the way around the lagoon (there is also exercise equipment all the way around if you are so inclined)


I cooked up our lunch, while Janet kept Shadow entertained.  I had Tofu & red capsicum kebabs (marinated in soy and lemon) and some salad.  Janet had sausages on a bread roll.  I managed to forget to bring the sauce! oops!)



This rather magnificent model sail boat was being sailed on the lagoon!


Now we know this park exists, I am sure we will be back another day!

Australia Day - Lunch

As is traditional, we gathered for lunch on Australia Day (26th January) at my parent's place (see  last year's post!)


Once again, the meat eaters enjoyed pies - this one was chicken (see the little pastry chicken on top! - cute!)


And this one was mince!


There was mashed potato


and some delicious sweet, buttery peas


My contribution was this Passionfruit and Mango Pavlova Ice-cream!  Very simple to make - (if I was more organised I would have made my own ice-cream, but using bought ice-cream makes this super easy and quick!!)

Simply soften 2L of vanilla ice-cream, and split into 3.  To one third add the pulp of about 5 passion fruit. To another third, ad the pureed flesh of 2 mangoes. Keep the other third plain.

Line a fluted ring tin (or container of your preference!) with glad wrap.  Into the base spread the pulp of 2-3 passionfruit and some diced mango.  Then, add your passionfruit ice-cream, followed by half of your vanilla ice-cream.  Then add a layer of mini meringues (I bought mine from Woolworths), and cover the meringues with the remaining vanilla ice-cream.  To complete, the final layer is the mango ice-cream.  Put the whole container into the freezer to set. When ready to serve, simply remove from tin, peel off the plastic and cut into slices!




We finished with these delicious lamingtons - surprisingly, the light fluffy cake under the icing - was chocolate! Brilliant alteration!

Christmas Day 2011!

Our day began at home with some gift opening....

Shadow managed to destroy her toy in about 2 minutes....

Monty was slightly interested in the tree



And Jaspa had a ball playing in the paper!

And then we headed off to Pam & Sid's for breakfast....



We began with some delicious fruit salad!


Sid cooked up some ham, tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms and toast on the bbq

and Pam made some scrambled eggs. This was my plate!

oh, and there were also croissants! A great way to start the day!!

then we headed off to my parents place for lunch....


 


sparkly bon-bons made by my cousin! These bon-bons gave us all a sparkle for the rest of the day!



Prawns for entree


this sesame seaweed was amazing!


instead of prawns, I had this quinoa salad with walnuts and cranberries

and then we filled the table with an amazing array of food!

A crunchy noodle salad made by Jill -


 I made this Cous Cous and sprouted Chick Pea salad.  I saw how to sprout the chick peas on Scandie Foodie's blog.  TO the cous cous and chick peas, I simply added some roasted pumpkin, sweet corn (from our garden) and tossed through a dressing made from lemon juice, garlic, chilli, olive oil and a splash of soy sauce.

I made this potato salad - for the dressing I mixed equal parts of Birch & Waite Aioli Garlic Mayo and EasyYo Greek yoghurt. Then I just mixed in some chives and some cooked bacon (I also set aside some without bacon for me!)


there was also roasted chicken

ham

this magnificent, and massive green salad

and a tomato salad!


Were we full yet? possibly, but there is always room for pudding!

fruit mince pies!


Berries! The berries are my highlight of the Christmas lunch for me! Its not Christmas until I have had a lovely bowl of juicy berries!

There was also a Christmas pudding, but it was chopped up and dispersed to plates before I had a chance to take a photo! believe me, it was yummy!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

out for lunch - Sizzler Redcliffe

for Janet's birthday, I caved in and said we could go to one of her favourite dining destinations - Sizzler.  I chose Sizzler at Redcliffe so we could go for a nice walk along the water as well as eat!

We both had the salad bar for lunch - and below are our first plates.....its probably not too difficult to work out which is which...



Janet's plate (hmmm a little bit of green seems to have snuck on there...)




and here is my plate.  I was a little dissapointed they didnt have a tomato based vegetarian sauce for the pasta - I ended up putting some roasted capsicum soup on it! Sizzler salads always annoy me, because so many of them have meat in them! But it ended up being a fairly tasty lunch - I managed to make my own salads anyway!




and the "famous" Sizzler cheese toast. I let Janet have half of mine, because I am very nice :-) and because I wasn't really all that fussed on it! oops!




then it was off for a wander along the water! (we drove to get to the water)

food court lunch - oporto mt ommaney

I wonder if you can guess which lunch is mine?  haha

We were at Mt Ommaney, so had lunch in the food court there. Janet loves Oporto, and since it made life easier, I decided to get something from the same place for a change!


Janet had the Chicken nuggets (I think they are called something else, but they are fairly chicken-nugget-like!)



I tried the veggie burger, and unfortunately, my no-deep fried food rule went a little off balance, because they deep fried the vegie pattie, which stupidly didn't occur to me!

Weekend Lunch - Mountain Bread Nachos

Janet often has her version of nachos for lunch on the weekends.  The Janet Nachos involves Corn chips and cheese. The Ali version of Nachos has a few more ingredients, but is still very simple!

I begin by making the chips from Mountain bread - I cut 2 pieces of Mountain Bread into triangles and bake in a hot oven until crispy (only takes a few minutes)

I make the "meaty topping" by mixing Quorn mince with taco sauce or tomato salsa (sometimes I substitute Kidney Beans for the Quorn Mince- just dont make it too wet, or you will Have soggy chips).  I warm this mix up in the microwave before dolloping on top of the crisp Mountain bread chips, topping with grated cheese and baking in the oven until the cheese is melted. Yummo!!

Australia Day 2011

Australia Day 2011 - found us doing the usual things, wearing the flag, fake tatoos and eating :-)

We went to my parents place for our "traditional" Australia Day meal - Pie, Mashed Potato and peas!


Deliciously fluffy potato mash! I have now decided I need a potato ricer!


peas!


some of these beans came from my garden. Although I was a little disapointed that purple beans turn green when cooked.  I have been eating them straight off the vine, so didn't know this little fact!


Meat Pie - there was also a chicken and mushroom pie. Pies came from my Mum's "Good Butcher" James' Connoisseur Meats Address: 4/2069 Moggill Rd, Kenmore, QLD, 4069

(I had the vegies and a Quorn Southern Style Burger)


For dessert - a pavlova, which was topped with icecream, mango, peaches, grapes and cherries!

Then we rolled home and relaxed!



We even managed to get Jeya & Shadow to pose together for this photo (and to look happy about it!)!