A Couple of Easy Ideas for Christmas

Here are a couple of easy ideas for Christmas! (and delicious!!)

First up, a simple Pumpkin, Spinach & Feta Salad!

To make this, you simply cut up some pumpkin, sprinkle with the herbs/spices of your choice - I used a pre-mixed "Moroccan Spice Mix", toss onto a baking tray with half a sliced red onion and 2-4 cloves of garlic.  Spray with a little olive oil spray, and bake in a 180c oven for about 40 minutes. You can allow to cool (as I did) or use warm.

Mix together 1tablespoon of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and add 1-2 of the previously roasted cloves of garlic (chop them up or mash them!).  Take your spinach leaves (or any other salad leaves that take your fancy - I actually used a bag labelled "Aussie Salad" which also had some slithers of grated beetroot in it), and toss with the dressing. Then its just a matter of adding the roasted pumpkin & onion, some chopped feta cheese and some chopped walnuts! 

The second Easy Christmas creation is a fruit salad Christmas tree!

To do this, you take a carrot and a cored apple, and put the carrot into the centre of the apple.  You then toothpick your chosen fruit to this structure until it resembles a Christmas Tree! I used Watermelon, Kiwi,  Strawberries, Grapes and Cherries.  Next time, I will be trying to add some slices of stone fruit as well (to cover more of the gaps!!)

Vegie Dumplings!

I usually have a box of frozen Coles Vegetable Dumplings on hand in the freezer - they are quick and easy to get ready after I get home from training on the days I train in the evening. Quick dinner is good dinner!! Anyway, I decided it would probably be just as easy to make up a batch of my own!

To make the filling, I was lazy, and whizzed up various vegies in the food processor, as well as some firm tofu. in the interest of extra laziness, I threw in half a bag of pre-grated vegies from Woolies.  I then fried the chopped up vegie and tofu mix with a little oil, and added some soy sauce, garlic, ginger and chilli .  I then left the mix to cool down.  Next step was to fold up the dumplings. Of course, I used wrappers I bought from the supermarket! I put a little filling in the centre of each one, lightly wet the edges with a little water, and then tried to fold them up neatly.  I don't think I did a bad job actually!



The dumplings were then pan fried in batched until golden, then thrown back into the pan with about half a cup of water and a lid on to steam for a couple of minutes.  We then ate way too many, which defeated my intended  purpose of having leftovers to keep in the freezer!  Will have to make MORE next time!!

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!

Out for Dinner - Bean To Cafe Regents Park

This is our local cafe http://www.beantocafe.com.au/ - we recently were invited to their "Bubbles & Bites" event, where we were treated to samples from their new menu. So we were keen to get back for dinner! (we had been previously, but not with their new chef!) (they are only open for Dinner on Friday & Saturday nights)


We started with the garlic bread, because we like it! Delicious toasty bread with garlicy butter!


Janet had the Chicken Schnitzel with Creamy Mash & Lemon sauce.  She actually had this last time we went for dinner, but this time, it was much better - the mash was not runny, and it came with vegies! (or salad)


I had the lentil patties with roasted capsicum vinaigrette and salad. I loved this! It is nice to get a vegetarian meal with some protein in it! And the Capsicum sauce was delicious! Thumbs up for this one!

We love the friendliness of this cafe, and we also love the fact we can walk here from home! Next time, we will be going in the morning to try out the Breakfasts!

Dinner from the Garden - Kataifi Pastry Corn Fritters

The goody bag I received on the Christmas Bus Tour contained a packet of this Kataifi Pastry.  We were given a recipe to make some haloumi wrapped in the pastry.  I decided to be a little experimental and put it to use with these fritters....because I din't have any haloumi, and too lazy to visit shops!

To make the fritter mixture, I raided my vegie garden...

In a small food processor, finely chop 1 onion, 1 red chilli, 1 small red capsicum and a handful of fresh herbs.

In a bowl beat together 3 eggs, with a splash of soy sauce, about 1/2 a cup of wholemeal flour and half a teaspoon of baking powder.

TO the egg mixture, add the chopped herby onion mix and the kernals cut from a cob of corn.



Then, with your pastry, make small round rings, and place into a lightly oiled pan.




Put a spoonful of the fritter mix in the centre of the pastry ring



flip over when browned on one side, and cook until done




You end up with a fritter surrounded by nice crispy pastry strands.

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!!!!!

Christmas Creations

I have been making a few different things in the lead up to Christmas.....




Easy Christmas Cupcakes - I made my stand-by vanilla cupcake recipe, and iced them in green and red icing, topped with stars I made by colouring some fondant icing, and cutting with cookie cutters





Iced Christmas Cake - I made the cake as per the recipe here at the 120 dollar food challenge blog and had my first go at icing a Christmas Cake.  We are yet to crack the cake open, but I was quite impressed with how it looks! (I did not use brandy or rum - I only had vodka)





Chilli Jam -  I used up some of the chillis that are growing quite prolifically in my garden and had my first attempt at bottling something! I used the recipe from Nigella Christmas, the only change I made was that I added some garlic to the recipe.

Garden Goodness Pasta Sauce

A nice simple dinner that begins with a walk around the garden to gather ingredients!!

In a saucepan with some olive oil, saute a chopped onion and fresh herbs from the garden (I used sage, parsley stalks, oregano, thyme and basil).

When the onion has softened, add some vegies from your garden - today, I added zucchini and silverbeet stalks at this stage.  I also added some firm tofu which I diced quite small.  After the vegies had softened and the tofu was nicely covered in herby goodness, I added a tablespoon of tomato paste, which I allowed to cook for a minute of two before adding a can of diced tomatoes. (if I had any I would have used tomatoes from the garden, but none are ready yet!!).  Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add a splash of Worcestershire sauce.  I use Spring Gully brand because it is VEGETARIAN (no anchovies!!).

A couple of minutes before you want to serve this, add the chopped silverbeet leaves and some more fresh basil & parsley.


boil up some pasta - I used small shells in this instance - the chunky sauce fills up the shells quite nicely! Serve the sauce with the pasta!


serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan and some more parsley if you like!

Janet likes to eat from a plate

whilst I like to eat from a bowl!

and dinner is always nicer with some fresh flowers on the table!

If I was making this dinner for just myself, I would have added a tin of 4 bean mix to the sauce! In fact I might just do this with the left overs!