Quesadillas

Quesadillas are an easy food for leftovers. Roast chicken as it was with these. For George I use Gluten Free tortillas, and wheat based ones for the rest of us. If I have time I make my own with Masa. Which is a roasted corn,  flour. That way you get corn tortillas for all, and no gluten.

I add anything that will fit in really. Chicken, chorizo, tomato, baby spinach, capsicum, red onion, chillis, refried beans,cheese. George has very little cheese in hers. Fry them in a pan and you have instant dinner, couldn't be easier or quicker, and you know what's in them. Healthy fast food with leftovers.These also make a good lunch for school too.

Ginger Crunch

Waiting for the snow to come, decided to do some baking.

For the base
2 cups nuts I used almonds and cashews
1 cup soft pitted dated
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp ginger

For the icing
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp ginger

Process the nuts in a food processor until they are coarse but flour like. Add the dates, water and ginger and blend until it all comes together.
Press into a baking tin and bake at 160 deg C until golden. Let cool.

Gently melt all the icing ingredients together, take off heat and whisk until thick and caramel like.Spread topping over cooled base. Sprinkle with cut up crystalised ginger.

Set in fridge, cut up and eat. Keep in fridge.

Yum.

Rugby and Homemade Pizzas

The first All Black test of the season was a couple of weeks ago now, and last Saturday night after a very cold and wet afternoon standing on the sideline of my son's rugby. He plays for and captains the Christchurch Boys High School 3rd XV. They beat Christ College 2nd XV 22- 0. A great game.

We decided to have pizzas for dinner in front of the TV watching the 2nd All Black test Vs France. Which we won 32-0.

We bought the bases, I know cheating really, but it was easy. Gluten free for George, and normal for the rest of us, including extra boys that Harry always has here.

Toppings were

meat lovers, goes without saying in this house, made up of chorizo, ham, salami, precooked sausage on top of tomato sauce, capsicum, red onion. Sprinkled with alittle cheese and BBQ sauce. George can't even let up on the cheese with pizza, even though it plays merry hell with her skin.

The other pizzas all had tomato sauce, capsicum and red onion then cooked chicken, ham, and cheese. and one that I did for those who can eat cheese, cooked chicken, brie and cranberries and cheese.

Nothing quite like homemade pizzas on a cold night with the fire on and rugby to watch.

Fresh Juice

Fresh juice is an absolutely wonderful way to start a winters day. It is a great opportunity to boost the immune system without to much thought or effort. Tim doesn't have an immune system like the rest of us, so a daily dose of vitamins is very helpful for him, and it will help keep all the winter bugs at bay for the rest of us.

I use a mixture of carrot, apple, pineapple, pear, lemon and ginger. It changes everyday depending on what I have on hand each morning. My kids aren't that fond of lemon or ginger, but a little put in just gets lost in the rounding. I use whole lemon too.

My lemon tree produces these tiny hard dry lemons, so its a good use for them. Clearly the tree hasn't been fed or watered much in the past. I will change this, to start getting good fruit coming on.

This mornings juice was pineapple, carrot, pear and lemon. 4 large glasses for $3.50 and the wash up duties on the juicer. Not a bad return really, considering what the juice bars sell these for. An average of $7.50 each.

No added sugar, preservatives etc, etc.

Spicy Chickpeas.

Following yesterdays note an salads, I'm making a chilli chicken dish for dinner tonight and decided to have a warm chickpea salad and green beans with it.

I made a spice paste then added chickpeas, capsicum and baby spinach. Yum.

Here's the spice mix recipe I used,

6 cloves garlic, crushed
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 chillis, chopped finely
3 Tbsp finely grated ginger
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp gr cumin
2 tsp gr turmeric
2 tsp paprika
2 cinnamon quills broken
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix in a bowl the garlic, lemon zest and juice, chillies and ginger.

Heat oil in a frypan and fry the cumin, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon quills for about 30 secs to release the aromas, DO NOT burn.

Add the garlic and ginger mix and cook for a further 30 secs.
Remove from heat and add sugar, salt and pepper.
Allow to cool.

This is enough for several meals so put in an airtight jar and store in the fridge. It will keep for weeks.

This can be used as a rub on meat before cooking or in a vege salad dish as I did.

I used a large spoonful of this spice mix for my salad.
I also used Low GI sugar.

Winter Warming Dishes.

Well winter has hit  very suddenly, with sleet and hail last week, so it's time to break out all the winter warming dishes, beans are a must for this.

I recently made a chilli, chicken and bean casserole, which went down a treat with all,as I have had friends staying from Auckland, it was nice to have a big pot of warm food, when it was cold outside.

I also like to add hot lemon sauces to greens like broccoli or green beans, helps keep the winter bugs at bay.

Another very yummy dish is homemade baked beans. Mine always lots of chilli, a few different varieties to really get a good depth of flavour as well as spice.

I have been making the leftovers of pulled pork, or casseroles into little pies for the freezer, Harry can take these to school and heat them up for lunch. A nice warming treat for him in the middle of the day.

I'm going to try and make more salads to be served hot this winter, as I tend to only eat salads cold and in the warmer months. Watch this space, I will share as I make them.

Chilli Chicken and Bean casserole

Tomatillo Chutney and Sauce

I found some tomatillos at the local farmers market, and had a play around with a sauce and chutney. The chutney is my fav by far.

The sauce is a bit thick for my liking but very tasty all the same, could do with some tweaks.

I used Low GI sugar in the chutney, and some home grown chillies, both mine and my sister in laws too. I use an organic apple cider vinegar with the mother (cloudy) bug in it. It has more potent qualities to it.

We eat a

lot of cheese, pickles and crackers around here as sometimes this is better for Tim to eat small amounts of tasty food, rather than a meal. Particularly if we do not have children around. Also nice to have with wine of an evening with friends. I know what's in my condiments, so I feel relaxed knowing that Tim can eat them without the worry about what maybe hiding in the ingredient list.

Homemade Sauces

I have been busy making Ketchup and BBQ sauce for a school fundraiser.
This I have been doing for a year or so, previously for the College Netball Girls, to enable them to fund raise for a netball trip to Australia, and National tournament. My daughter has been involved in netball for the last five years, and as any parent will know there is always money required to enable them to get the most out of their chosen sport. However George has finished the netball season and soon to be finishing college too.

So this leaves me with who to make the sauce for, well my son Harry plays 1st XI cricket and I have decided to give the fundraising opportunity to the boys for cricket, so as you can guess I now have to make lots of bottles of sauce.

I make two varieties Ketchup and BBQ, the later being a little spicy. There are 20 ingredients in these sauces and it has taken me a few years to develop the recipes. The sauces have become firm family favourites and with hundreds of bottles already sold they are making a real mark in the community.

It is a great fundraiser, as everyone already buys sauce and this way the money goes to the kids rather than the local store.The sauces are a premium product that you would normally pay up to $15 a bottle for, these sell for $8 a bottle, making  them a great deal, so it is a win win for everyone.I take out the costs of making the sauce and the rest goes to my chosen sport, this now being cricket.

My husband had fun designing the labels you see below.

"MEMBERS OWN  First Class Ketchup"

and

"STICKY WICKET  BBQ Sauce"

I make it in batches of 22 - 24. Most people buy at least 2 at a time so as you can imagine, I'm busy keeping up with demand at the moment.

Amazing Tricks With Cauliflower

I was fortunate to be given 2 very large cauliflowers recently and after a few meals everyone was getting very tired of cauli. I went on line and found an amazing recipe to make Cauliflower pizza. This I had to have a go at just to see if it would work and if it would be yummy.

Firstly you blitz up the cauli in a food processor to a fine crumb,until you have about 4 cups, then I microwaved the crumb for 8 mins. There are a few ways to cook the cauli, but you want to maintain a dry crumb. I thought the microwave would be good for this and it was.

You then cool the crumb down and add 1 egg, 1/2 a cup of cheese(I used goat chevre), some finely chopped fresh herb(parsley).Mix this with your hands to get it well blended. At this point it is nothing like pizza dough.

Spread the mixture onto a pizza tray lined with baking paper to about 1-2 cms thick. Bake at 200 degs C for about 35-40 mins, until golden.

Now spread with pizza sauce and your favorite topping. I used red onion, capsicum, Chicken tenders that had been dusted with a spice mix I make and  pan fried, and some cheese (only on 1), so George could enjoy some dairy free too.
Bake for a further 5-10 mins until topping is hot.

I cooked the bases ahead and they cooled and then reheated when we were ready for dinner, this gave my pizzas a soft base. They were very yummy. I would not do this next time. I would have liked the bases to be firmer.
Neither George or Harry could work out what the bases were made of. They were tasty and left you feeling fulfilled. A nice alternative that is gluten free and dairy free if you watch your toppings, and could also be vegetarian.