Chicken sundried tomato basil patties with potato rosti

Makes 8 patties

Ingredients

1kg of chicken mince

30g sundried tomatoes, chopped

¼ cup of chopped basil, chopped

100g fresh breadcrumbs. I save my bread crusts and then when I have a lot I blitz and make bread crumbs and freeze them again for when I need them.

20g parmesan cheese

Method

Mix the crumbs and cheese together.

Mix the chicken mince, sun dried tomato, basil and salt and pepper until sticky. Form 8 patties. Then crumb in the breadcrumb mix. Keep in the fridge until you need them. Fry off in a large pan with some oil on a medium heat. Cook 2-3 minutes each side, watch they don't burn.

Potato Rosti

Serves 6-8

900g washed potatoes, grated and excess liquid squeezed out.

Mix in some herbamare or salt and pepper plus 30ml oil- you can use half butter half oil if you like this is what I did.

On a lined roasting tray spread the potato mix out so it's even and about ½ cm thick. Bake at 180c for about 45-55 minute or until golden brown and nice and crispy.

Oat-free bircher style muesli

If you saw the apple and strawberry bircher on facebook the other day, I was requested a lower carb higher fat version, so here it is!

It contains half the carbs as the original, 3 times the fat and nearly half the protein.

If you want to further lower the carbs you can leave the fruit out and if you are dairy free you can replace the yoghurt with coconut yoghurt or just use 1/2 cup of you prefered "milk" and leave out the yoghurt altogether.

You can replace the nuts/seeds with other nuts/seeds if you wanted. The chia seeds is what thickens the muesli up.

Let me know what you think!

10g hazelnuts, chopped

10g slivered or flaked almonds

10g chia seeds

10g pumpkin seeds

10g coconut flakes

50g full fat greek yoghurt

50g strawberries, chopped

50g grated apple

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Stevia or preferred sweetener to taste

Method

Mix altogether and add about 1/4 cup of water (you could use extra milk but will change the stats)

stats

1638 kJ

25g carbs

30g fat

12g protein

Protein pancake mix

Makes 6 serves

Each serve uses ½ cup or 57g protein pancake mix

Ingredients

200g oat flour- this is just oats blitz up until fine like flour

120g vanilla protein powder

Optional 1 x whole vanilla bean- chop roughly and blitz when you make the oat flour

5 tsp baking powder

Method

Mix well together and store in an airtight container.

To make; mix ½ cup (57g) protein mix and whisk with around 80ml water or until you get a thick batter. As an alternative you can use milk or use an egg + a little water or milk.

In a pan spray some olive oil and heat.  Spoon in your batter into 3-4 pancakes. When it bubbles and the bottom is golden brown underneath and flip over, Cook a further 30 seconds or so or until cooked.

Per serve (½  cup of powder)

886 kJ

Carbs 17g

Protein 19g

If you want to use a waffle make take 45g of the protein mix add 1 egg and a little water to make a thick batter. Cook as per instructions for your waffle maker.

I had this with a strawberry cheesecake sauce.

For one serve take 100g strawberries, chopped. Cook in a pot until they breakdown-this only takes a couple of minutes. When cool take half the strawberries and mix with 1 tbsp softened cream cheese. Serve the other half of the strawberries to get this two toned effect.

Slow cooker lasagne

Serve 8

Ingredients

1 batch of lentil spaghetti bolognese

500g ricotta- I have used low fat ricotta

100g cheese, grated- I used a lower fat cheese

¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)

150g vetta high fibre pasta- raw- or use lasagne sheets

50g parmesan cheese, grated

Method

Mix the ricotta, the 100g of cheese and nutmeg in a bowl, season well with salt and pepper.

Spray your slow cooker with oil. Place in 2 ladles full of the mince, then dot over ½ cup of the ricotta mix, swirl a little then place half the pasta over (75g) then another 2 ladles full of mince, then ½ cup of ricotta mix, then the other half of the pasta, then the rest of the mince, then the rest of the ricotta mix.

I did not have my shit together for this and only had this on at 3.30pm,  so I put this on high for 1 ½ hours, although it did take a little less than that, check after an hour or so to make sure the pasta is cooked. On low would take about 2-3 hours. You can also bake in a 180c oven for around 45 minutes.

At the end I sprinkled over the parmesan and put the whole insert under the grill for 5-7 minutes to get golden brown on top.

You could add veg in place of the pasta or as well as. Things like thinly sliced pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, spinach etc..

Spaghetti & lentil bolognaise

I like the addition of lentil to stretch this out as well as adding extra fibre. The good thing about using red lentils is that they break down and you don't even know they are in there! You decide if that is a good thing or not! I like to double this and freeze half of it. If you make double, 1 batch is 1.5kg in weight.(3 kg's altogether)

Serves 6

Ingredients

600g lean mince

1 brown onion, chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic or as much as you like, minced

150g red lentils

2 ½ cups of beef stock

210g tomato paste

2 tsp each of dried basil and oregano

Method

In a large pot heat a little oil and fry off your onion and garlic for 2 minutes, then add your mince and cook until it has changed color. Then add your tomato paste, lentils, stock and herbs and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are nice and soft. Add more water or stock if needed. Serve with cooked spaghetti and parmesan cheese plus salad or veg.

For 6 portions I cooked 300g spaghetti in boiling salted water.

Stats- including 10g parmesan cheese (164 kJ) and 50g raw weight or 100g cooked weight spaghetti

Each portion should be around 250g.

1963 kJ

51g carbs

9 g fat

40g protein

Mandarin cupcakes

Makes 8-12 depending on size

Ingredients

125g butter, softened (the softened butter should be easy to cut through)

1/3 cup of sugar (70g)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup of spelt or gluten free flour

175ml mandarin juice- zest them first if you can using a micro plane-for me this was 4 mandarins- plus you need 1 extra mandarin (squeezed) for the icing

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C

In a medium bowl with a hand beater, cream butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Then one at a time your eggs. Continue beating until eggs are incorporated. Sift your flour, and baking powder into the butter mix, then zest and juice and fold into until combined, make sure there are no lumps, but don’t overmix. Spoon into 8- 12 holed greased or lined muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes. I use a silicone one then they just pop out.

Leave in tin to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out and leave to cool completely on a cake rack. Ice with your favourite icing when cool.

I used the juice of one mandarin with about ¼ cup or so of icing sugar and a heaped tsp of soft butter until you get a reasonably thick icing. Feel free to color with food coloring to make it orange- 2 drops yellow and 1 drop red. Sprinkles optional!

If you don’t want to ice you could add in some chocolate chips into the batter or on top for Jaffa cupcakes. You could swap mandarin for orange, lemon or lime.

Apple and pear anzac tart

Pastry dough

1 ½ cups spelt flour

125g cold butter, diced

1 tbsp rapadura sugar or another sugar

1 egg yolk (reserve eggwhite for the crumble)

Couple of pinches of salt

Ice cold water

Fruit filling

3 apple and 3 pears, peeled cored and 1 cm dice

1 tbsp rapadura or other sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

Optional 1 tbsp calvados

1 tbsp of corn flour

Crumble

½ cup oats

¼ cup of desiccated coconut

1 tbsp rapadura or another sugar

30g cold butter, finely diced

1 egg white

To make the pastry

In a food processor pulse the flour, salt and sugar, then add egg yolk, pulse again, add a tbsp. of iced water at a time, pulse until the dough comes together. Take the dough out and knead a couple of times to get the dough together, wrap up and let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

When the dough has rested roll out between 2 pieces of baking paper. Roll out to a circle big enough to cover to tart tin (about 30 cm diameter) it should be nice and thin about 2-3mm. Take off the top piece of paper and have your hand underneath and then quickly turn it over onto your tin. Then peel off the paper and press your dough in. You should have a little dough leftover that you can use in your crumble topping. Put back in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160 fan forced or 180 c normal. Blind bake for 15 minutes using uncooked rice/chickpeas/blind baking beads on top of baking paper. When cooked take off the paper and weights and bake a further 1-2 minutes to dry it out.

For the fruit cook your fruit in a pot with the rapadura, vanilla, cinnamon and calvados (if using) simmer for 7-10 minutes or until soft. When cooked sprinkle over cornflour while stirring, this will thicken up the juices in the pot and help stop your filling leaking too much into the pastry. Add a little more cornflour if your fruit very extra juicy!

For the crumble mix

Stir together the oats, coconut and sugar and using your fingers squish through the butter and any leftover pastry, leave some little chunks. Then stir through your egg white.

Fill your pastry shell with the cooked fruit and then dot over the crumble mix and bake for 20 minutes at 160 c fan forced or 180c normal. Serve with ice cream or cream, hot or cold.

Poached chicken in a coconut, lime, lemongrass and ginger broth

I made this the other day, in mind I was thinking a beautiful poached chicken in a lemongrass, ginger and lime broth. After I made it I realised I had pretty much made Tom Kha Gai! lol

This is pretty easy and you don't need to make a paste or anything, its really just infusing the flavors into the coconut.

It is a sexy soup:)

In a large pot or wok ( I am using Aus-Ion wok made by solidtekniks)

Everything goes in chunky

To serve 4

Ingredients

Put in 1 x 270ml can coconut milk and 1 x cans worth of water.

1x bruised stalk of lemongrass

6 slices of ginger (or galangal)

1/2 red onion, thick slice

6 cloves of garlic cut into half

A handful of thai basil if you can get it

A few lime leaves if you have it, I didn't use any

1/2 lime, cut in half

1-2 red chillis, always optional here

Method

Simmer all this in a large pot or wok for about 20 minutes to infuse.

Then put in your chicken to poach. I have used 2 chicken breast, each cut into 3.(700g) This included chicken to have as a leftover to make salad or pulled chicken burgers etc

If you are in a hurry you can just cook the chicken the same time you start the infusing.

You can use any vegetables you like, I did some whole button mushrooms, asian leafy greens and bean sprouts.

The chicken should simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Check the flavor and use some fish sauce to taste. I serve up with noodles on the bottom, the veg and broth plus the poached chicken on top with some extra lime. You can also garnish with coriander and extra chili if you like.

Slow cooker Spanish chorizo, tomato and bean soup

Ingredients

2 carrots, small dice

2 stalks celery, small dice

1-2 zucchinis, 1 cm dice

1 red and 1 green capsicum, 1 cm dice

1 brown onion, diced

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp paprika and 1 tbsp smoked paprika (or use 2 tbsp of one if you don’t have both paprikas.

700g tomato passata

2 x 400g can rinsed and drained mixed beans

1-2 chorizo, small dice

Water

You can add chopped chili if you would like it spicy, add in with the onion

Method

Put your passata in a large measuring jug and make the total liquid 1200ml (1.2 litres) by adding water. You can adjust how liquidy you want your soup at the end.

Starting in a cold pan, fry off your chorizo to start rendering the fat out, after about 2-3 minutes you can add your paprika onion and garlic and cook for about 1 minute until softened.

Then add your chorizo mix plus your other veg, passata/water to your slow cooker, give it a stir and leave on low for 8 hours. Adjust consistency by adding more water at the end if you need to.

If you want stove top method cook the chorizo in a large pot instead of a pan and carry on with the rest of the recipe. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until all the veg is tender.

Curried red lentil soup

Trying to increase my legume intake and I am finding that you can eat a smaller amount of calories yet be so full. 

I have not been able to eat much of it because it's so filling, so good for managing your appetite:)
I think lentils are quite underutilised which is a shame as lentils are high fibre, packed with nutrients and dirt cheap and that's why I am loving them! Anyone else??

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 cup of dried red lentils

1 brown onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 carrots, small dice

3 stalk celery, diced

3 bay leaves

1 x 400g can tomatoes

Enough chicken of vegetable stock to add to the tomatoes to make 1200ml liquid altogether. You can also use come coconut milk as some of the liquid.

This amount of liquid will yield a very thick casserole style soup, you can adjust the consistency when it’s cooked. I added about 200 ml of extra liquid at the end.

For the curry bit this is pretty flexible you can use any Thai or Indian style paste or I used a mild curry powder. Use as much or as little as you like anywhere from 1-2 tbsp, up to you! Just add a little, taste and add more as needed.

Method

In a large pot heat some olive oil and fry off your onion, garlic, celery, and carrot for 1-2 minutes until softened. Then add your curry powder/paste and fry a further few seconds until it smells good! Then add stock, tomatoes, bay leaves and lentils. Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes covered. Check soup and make sure everything is tender. Season with salt and pepper. If you like you can blend this soup.

For the bread, using small wholemeal pita breads, brush over some garlic butter/olive oil and sprinkle with either pizza cheese or grated parmesan cheese and bake in a hot oven for 4-5 minutes.

Slow cooker Italian chicken and vegetable soup

Dinner or lunch doesn't get much cheaper than this!
This soup mix by itself is just $1.70 for 500g!
It's nutritious, delicious and very filling!!...and did I mention cheap!?!?!
Utilising nutritious legumes this soup mix contain dried peas, barley and lentils. Barley is not gluten free, you can use the italian soup mix which contains, beans, peas and lentils which is gluten free.
This mix contains 18% protein and 15% fibre which is great!
You can make this vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock.

Serves 6

Ingredients
3 carrots, ½ cm dice
3 stalks of celery, small dice
1 brown onion, small dice
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 bay leaves
1-2 tbsp dried basil
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock-this amount of liquid will make a souper thick soup, more like a stew. If you like it soupier you can add more liquid to taste at the end.

4 chicken lovely legs- You can find 'lovely legs' in most supermarkets. They have the skin and part of the bone removed. If unavailable, use chicken drumsticks, just be sure to remove the skin first or you will have bits of soft skin in the soup which doesn’t taste great. You could also just use 4 skinless chicken thighs, large dice.

250g or half a packet of dried soup mix- you can get this near the soup section at the supermarket and its really cheap!
Salt and pepper at the end.


Method
Put everything in your slow cooker and put on low for at least 8 hours. Everything should be nice and tender. When done you can take the chicken legs out, take the meat off and put the meat back in the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.

Apple, cinnamon & date muffins

Makes 10-12

Ingredients

1 cup of oat bran

1 cup spelt flour (or gf flour)

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 apples, peeled, cored and small dice

2 eggs

6 dates, pitted

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup of oil (neutral oil) or melted butter

1 cup of milk

Topping (optional)

¼ cup of rolled oats

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp oil or melted butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix together.

Preheat oven to 160c fan forced or 180c normal oven

Line or grease well a 12 holed muffin tin. I use silicon so they don’t stick.

Blitz up dates, oil, vanilla and eggs until smooth, then add the milk and mix in.

In a large bowl add the oat bran, flour, baking powder and cinnamon, mix in wet ingredients and apple. Combine well and then spoon mix into 10-12 muffin holes. Then sprinkle topping over each muffin. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Roasted warm vegetable salad with basil crème fraiche vinaigrette

Ingredients

600g sweet potato and potato-you can use a mix or just 1. Keep the skin on and chop to a 1 cm dice.

1 large broccoli, cut into florets

½ large cauliflower, cut into florets

300g green beans, top and tailed

Method

This is the timeline because the veg takes different times.

In an oven tray toss the potato/sweet potato in some olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast this at 200 c fan forced for 20 minutes. In another roasting tray toss the broccoli and cauliflower in olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then put the broccoli and cauliflower in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.

Throw the beans on top of the sweet potato and give them a toss through the oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast a further 15 minutes. Everything should now be cooked at the same time.

You can serve hot if you like but I served mine as a warm salad.

Add your protein, I had mine veg and did hard boiled eggs and pan fried haloumi. If you want vegan you can heat some lentils, chickpeas or cannellini beans.

So the sweet potato takes 45 minutes. The broc/cauli take 25 minutes and the beans take 15 minutes.

Basil, crème fraiche vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lemon

A handful of basil leaves

1 small clove of garlic

1 tbsp crème fraiche- or you can use sour cream or cream, or just use oil

2 tbsp mild tasting olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Pulse in a food processor until combined, Taste and adjust your seasonings.

Or finely chop the basil and garlic and mix by hand.

Honey, soy, garlic pork belly with asian slaw and crackling

Do you ever feel like pork belly but don't want to make a roast cause its too hot?!?!
Yeah, me too!
Check out this honey, soy, garlic, pork belly salad with asian slaw and cracklin!

For a super quick version you can use a normal pre cut pack of coleslaw plus any extra salad stuff like bean sprouts or thinly sliced capsicum, snow peas. Plus you can use pre made jars/tubes of chili, garlic and ginger. No judgement here:)
You could also to make it quicker by just stir frying the pork belly plain.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
500g piece of pork belly- I have used the precooked one at woolies. Take the skin off.
1-2 red chilies, finely chopped-optional, if you are cooking for kids who don’t like chilli keep the chilli separate and look in the recipe to see where you can add it.
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tbsp ginger, finely minced
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp tamari

For the slaw
This makes 4-6 serves
½ daikon- if you can’t find this use a bunch of radishes and grate them
½ small red cabbage, mine was really tiny-use ¼ of a bigger cabbage, finely shredded
2 carrots
3 stems of spring onion, thinly slice the white part and the green part and keep separate- put the green part in the slaw and put the white part with the garlic and ginger and chilli
Coriander, as much or as little as you like, it’s up to you! I always cut 4 cm or the root and stem and freeze for when I make curry pastes.
Very simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil- about the juice of 1 lemon and 2 tbsp olive oil.

Method
Cut the pork belly into a manageable size (in half) and then slice into ½ cm strips across the grain.
Slice the skin into ½ cm slices- cook this on a low heat with some salt and oil if needed until golden brown, the fat will render down and they will go crispy. Takes about 15 minutes.
The daikon and carrot I used a spirooli to make very thin noodles, you can also grate them. Then add this to the red cabbage, spring onion, coriander and dressing. Combine well, add more lemon and olive oil if you need to.

Stir fry the pork belly in a large pan or wok for 5 minutes until golden brown, then add the white part of the spring onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. What I do- If you are cooking for kids leave out the chilli at this time and add it later.

Cook a further 1-2 minutes and then add your tamari and honey, stir and take off the heat. At this stage I would take the kids meat out and put on their plate. Then add the chilli, put back on the heat and cook for a few seconds.

Serve up your slaw and top with pork belly and crackling, plus you can garnish with extra chili, coriander and spring onion. You could also add some roasted chopped peanuts too. Another suggestion is you can put some cooked noodles in the slaw such as vermicelli, soba, egg noodles, rice noodles etc

Cajun chicken, chickpea and avocado salad with lemon and chive crème fraiche dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients

400g chicken breast or thigh ( I always do extra to have for lunches)

1 x 400g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

180g bag of mixed lettuce- You can use cos lettuce, rocket, baby spinach, chopped kale or coleslaw, whatever you like!

2 tomatoes, diced

2 lebanese cucumber, diced

1 small red onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced thinly

1 avocado, diced

1 portion of crème fraiche dressing (below)

Cajun spice mix (recipe below)

Method

Slice your chicken into 4 or so pieces and then rub some of the spice on both sides. It is up to you how much you would like to use. Heat a pan with a little oil and cook 4 minutes on each side or until no longer pink in the middle. At the end of cooking put in your chickpeas and heat through for 2 minutes.

To serve place your lettuce mix, tomato, cucumber, red onion and avocado onto 4 plates. Top with chicken and your crème fraiche dressing.

Crème fraiche, lemon and chive dressing

Ingredients

¼ cup of crème fraiche- or you can use sour cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped chives

½ tsp Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Method
Mix together well. Add a little water to make a nice dressing consistency.

Cajun spice mix

Ingredients

¾ tsp salt

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp chili powder (or to taste)

Method

Using a spice grinder or similar and grind to a powder. Keep in an airtight container.

Use to rub on beef, pork, chicken, fish and prawns

Apple fritters with an almond and coconut crumb

Well, you know I like to crumb things so last night I thought, what about crumbing apple and making apple fritters?!
The result was great!
Here is the recipe


Ingredients
2 large apples
¾ cup of almond flour
¼ cup of desiccated coconut
¼ cup of corn flour
1 egg, beaten
Cinnamon sugar to dust in when cooked. Use a ratio of 1:3 -1 tbsp of cinnamon to 3 tbsp of a granulated sugar such as panella.


Method

Peel your apple and using an apple corer, take the core out. Cut each apple into 4 rings, trim each end a tiny bit so they will cook evenly.

Mix the almond flour and coconut together.

Toss the apple rings in the corn flour, then the egg and then the crumb mix. Press the crumbs in well.

In a large pan cover the bottom with oil. Heat on a low to medium heat and cook the apple fritters 1-2 minutes each side until golden brown. Do not have too high or the outside with be too dark before the apple is cooked through. When done take out and put on paper towels if needed and then coat in the cinnamon sugar. You can serve with cream/ice cream/crème fraiche if you like!

Mexican spiced fish with capsicum salsa and baked potatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 fillets of fish (1245g-200g) I have used orange roughy here

Mexican spice mix (recipe below)

4 x 150g potatoes, scrubbed of dirt

Crème fraiche/sour cream and chives as an option to put on the baked potatoes

Method

Dry the potatoes and rub with oil and salt. Make at 180 c for 1 hour. To check if the potato is cooked you can pierce with a small knife -it should easily go through. To serve do a criss cross cut on the top and squeeze the bottom to spread out the potato, top with sour cream and chive or butter and salt.

Sprinkle over some spice mix on each piece of fish, I tend to use less on the kids fish.

Heat a little oil and butter in a large pan and cook your fish, thin fish will only take 1-2 minutes each side, thicker fish will take longer, it is done when the fish flakes easily.

Serve you fish with your capsicum salsa and baked potato- I also had a handful of rocket under the salsa.

Capsicum, tomato and avocado salsa

Serve 4-6

Ingredients

½ a red yellow, red, and green capsicum, chopped 1 cm dice

 2 tomatoes, diced

1 lebanese cucumber, diced

1 avocado, stone taken out and diced

½ red onion, fine dice

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Optional chopped coriander

Salt and pepper

Method

Put everything in a bowl and mix to combine.

Mexican Spice Mix

This can be used for taco, burritos, as a rub or a marinade for various meats such as beef, chicken and prawns. Use as a base for a slow cooked casserole; add some tomatoes, some stock and serve with salsa, avocado, sour cream, coriander etc…

Ingredients

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander seeds

1 tbsp mild paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp chilli powder (optional)

Method

Mix altogether and store in an airtight container.

Chicken, garlic and parmesan patties

Really simple dish with a few ingredients, so perfect for a week day meal. You can do these as balls or sausage shape, use as a burger pattie. Do extra to use for lunch the next day 

smile emoticon

You can have fun with these and make faces for fussy husband or wives, the kids like them too!

Makes 8 patties to serve 4

Ingredients

500g chicken mince

50g parmesan cheese, grated

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup (100g) of fresh bread crumbs-I made mine from saving my sourdough crusts- this is about 3

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Knead the mince until sticky and then add the rest of the ingredients and combine well.

Form into 8 patties, you could also do balls or sausage shape, adjust the cooking time as needed. Cook with a little oil in a pan on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes each side or until cooked through.

I served this with sweet potato mash, peas, broccolini and asparagus.

Chocolate chip muesli bars with seeds and goji berries

Ingredients

1 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of puffed rice

¼ cup of desiccated coconut

¼ cup of sunflower seeds

¼ cup of pumpkin seeds

¼ cup of goji berries

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp honey

2 eggs

1-2 tbsp chocolate chips to press down on the top

Method

150 c fan forced or 160c normal oven

Line a 20 x 20 cm cake tin. A really good way to do this is to dampen and crumple up the baking paper, makes it easier to line your tin.

In a small bowl add your eggs, vanilla, honey and goji berries, whisk together. This helps rehydrate the goji berries a little.

I briefly blitzed the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, but you can leave them whole if you wanted. They were still chunky though, not crumbs J

In another bowl add your rolled oats, puffed rice, seeds and coconut.

Pour your egg mix into the oat mix and combine.

Press firmly into your tin and top with optional chocolate chips. Press them down into the mix.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, should be firm to the touch. 

Leave in the tin for 5 minutes then lift out and cut in half and then cut into 12 bars. You can do squares or smaller ones, whatever you want to do. You can have these in the fridge but I think the texture is better left at room temperature.

Mint, coriander and pecan pesto

Ingredients

1 bunch each of mint and coriander (or close to 1 bunch- I used about ¾ of a bunch)

60g parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of olive oil

½ cup of pecan nuts

Method

Blitz up your herbs, garlic, nuts, cheese and olive oil.  Then add enough water until you get your desired consistency. I used about ¼ of a cup. Check seasoning.

Tandoori fish curry

Ingredients

4 fillets of fish

2 tsp each of finely chopped fresh garlic, ginger and turmeric (optional chilli)

1 x 270ml of coconut milk

1 tbsp of tandoori spice mix

Method

In a large pan or wok, heat a little oil on a medium heat and fry off your garlic, ginger and turmeric (optional chilli) Cook for 30 seconds and then add your spice mix and cook for a few seconds more until fragrant. Should smell pretty good right now!

Then add you fish and push down, add a little water if it is too thick. Simmer for 5-8 minutes, this will depend on the thickness of your fish. It should flake easily when done.

Serve with brown rice or basmati rice. I also had with steamed cauliflower, broccoli and green beans.

Tandoori spice rub

Makes 1/3 cup

Use this for beef, lamb or prawns

Ingredients

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons garam masala

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons white pepper

½ teaspoon cayenne or chilli powder

Method

Mix together and store in an airtight container.

Banana and carrot loaf

Ingredients

100g butter, room temperature

¼ cup of granulated sugar such as panella, white, brown, rapadura etc…

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 large carrot, grated

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder

½ cup of LSA

1 cup of wholemeal spelt flour- you can use wholemeal wheat, white spelt or gluten free flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180 c

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs and beat in well. Then using a wooden spoon stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, flour, carrot, baking powder, banana and LSA until combined. It should be quick thick, if it is too thick add a little milk. It’s not a pourable mix. Then spoon your loaf mix into a loaf tin and bake for 30-35 minutes. A skewer should come out clean. When cooked leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool. 

Serve sliced with butter or hot as a dessert with ice cream. 

You can ice with a lemon cream cheese icing also, yum yum!

You can make these as muffins but will take less time- about 15 minutes or so.

Corn fritters

Makes 8-10

Ingredients

The kernels from 3 cobs of cooked corn, this should be about 2 cups. You can use frozen corn that has been defrosted or canned corn. Whatever suits you.

¾ -1 cup of rice flour

2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup of milk

Method

Mix the corn, salt and pepper, eggs, baking powder and ½ a cup of the rice flour, mix well. Add more flour as needed the mixture needs to be really thick.

In a large pan heat a little oil. Spoon your mix in, about 4-5cm in diameter. Cook on a medium heat until golden brown underneath, then turn over and cook the other side. They don’t take long!

You can make these the night before and just heat in the morning. They are good in a child’s lunch box.

This is your basic mix- this to add to the mix include grated zucchini, diced red capsicum (which is what I used in there) diced mushrooms or other cooked vegetables like sweet potato, broccoli, grated haloumi, herbs like chives, parsley, basil. You can add jalapenos, diced olives, sundried tomato, cooked diced bacon…so many thing you can do here!

To serve you can do bacon, avocado and tomato. Just cook your bacon and tomato together in the pan. You can top with smoked salmon, sweet chilli sauce and sour cream. Top with poached, fried or scrambled egg and wilted spinach.

With your mix just remember that whatever you add it may have a higher water content which will make the mix more watery- when you are ready to cook you need the consistency to be really thick, if it’s not just add more rice flour. Easy as.

corn and capsicum fritters with smoked salmon, sweet chilli sauce and sour cream

With bacon, avocado and tomato

Lentil and vegetable bolognese sauce/nachos

I made this the other day and i'm using 1/4 of it for nachos and I still have another 1/4 to use up!!

The sauce is vegetarian which you can have without the meatballs if you prefer. I blended the sauce at the end so the kids could not see what was in it. I was delighted to tell them when they finished dinner that their most hated vegetables were in there, mwahahahaha! (zucchini, mushroom and pumpkin)
Lentils are a great addition to bolognese sauces as they break down and add extra nutrients plus extra fibre.

You can serve this with rice or mash or use it as a savory mince dish. Use as a baked potato topping with melted cheese, or jaffles, pies or shepherd's pie.
When you use the rest you can fry some more onion and garlic add some cumin and paprika and as well as some kidney beans and chopped tomatoes and simmer until really thick. Use for burritos, tacos or nachos.

Lentil and vegetable bolognese sauce
Ingredients
1 brown onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 zucchinis
300g pumpkin
150g broccoli
150g mushrooms
1200 ml tomato passata
½ cup of red lentils
3 tsp each of dried oregano and basil
Salt and pepper

Meatballs is just 500g mince, kneaded until sticky with some herbmare or salt and pepper. Roll into balls and fry in a pan for 6-7 minutes. You can either add the sauce to the meatballs in the pan and simmer a few minutes
- or you can stir the sauce through the pasta and serve the balls on top. If you do it this way you can set any leftover balls aside and make a meatball salad or stuffed into some pita bread and salad.

Method
I used the grater attachment on my food processor but you can finely chop by hand. It gets blended up at the end anyway (although you don’t have to).
Fry off onion and garlic for 30 seconds and then add everything else. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Use a stick mixer to blend until the sauce is to your liking. Serve with pasta like spaghetti, penne, rigatoni or whatever you like. Instead of parmesan cheese I used some feta.

Another idea to use this up is nachos

For the spaghetti above I used half the recipe then I used 1/4 to make nachos. (still have 1/4 of the mix left!)

In a large pot add 1 chopped brown onion, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, fry off in some olive oil for 30 seconds, then add 3 tsp paprika and 2 tsp ground cumin, stir again until fragrant. 

Then add on 1 x 400g can of rinsed and drained kidney beans, your leftover mix and 3 chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 25 minutes stirring occasionally. it should be nice and thick.

Now you have yourself some vegetarian nacho mix. You can also use for burritos or tacos or on a bed of brown rice.

Serve up with corn chips, melted cheese, guacamole and sour cream, so good!!