Weekend Cooking: Steak with Mushroom Sauce

We interrupt the recent cake fest on my blog to bring you something savoury!!

It may be a bit hard to tell from all the cakes I have been posting lately but in theory we are still trying to eat a bit healthier. This is a recipe we have made a couple of times now so I wanted to save it somewhere we can find it!!

This week I am sharing a recipe that is not only delicious but it includes a fair amount of vegetables too. It comes from the last edition of Diabetic Living. I do still buy this magazine, I just haven't quite been cooking out of it constantly as I have been in the past. I possibly am paying the price for that weight wise, but never mind.

Steak with Mushroom Sauce

500g lean rump steak, trimmed of fat, cut into 4 pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tspn olive oil
1 bunch broccolini, trimmed, diagonally halved
290g (2 cups) frozen peas
250g Swiss Brown mushrooms, sliced (or a selection of other mushrooms)
250ml (1 cup) salt-reduced beef stock or gluten-free stock
1 tbspn wholegrain mustard
2 tspn cornflour or gluten free cornflour
1 bunch baby carrots, trimmed, scrubbed, steamed, to serve
500g small potatoes, halved, steamed, to serve

Preheat over to 180C (fan forced). Rub steak with garlic and pepper. Heat oil in a large cast iron or stoveproof frying pan over medium-high heat. Add steak and broccolini. Cook for 2 minutes, turning steak once. Place peas around steak. Add pan to oven and cook for 5 minutes, or until steak is cooked to your liking.

Transfer meat and vegies to a platter. Cover with foil to keep warm. Add mushrooms to pan and cook over medium-high for 3 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Whisk stock, mustard and cornflour together. Stir into pan. Cook, stirring, until sauce comes to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens.

Slice the steak. Return steak and peas to the pan. Sprinkle with pepper. Serve with the steamed carrots and potatoes

Serves 4

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Lasagne

I am going to unashamedly admitting that I am posting this recipe for me, and for no one else. To be honest, I can't quite believe that I haven't posted it before as this is my go to lasagne recipe, mainly because I like to kid myself that it is a relatively healthy version that isn't too difficult to make and it tastes pretty dam good. I have been making it for a few years now after finding it in one of the Symply Too Good to be True cookbooks when I first bought them.

It is the kind of meal that I make a full 8 portions of, rather than scaling the recipe down, because I know that I can take some for lunch during the week, put some in the freezer and eat leftovers and it will still taste really, really good.


As I was typing this recipe up, I realised that I have become one of those people who make a recipe but then say, this recipe was really good, but I did this and this and this differently. At least I keep the key ingredients the same. I do find it amusing when you read a review of a recipe on a website, say for something raspberry and the commenter says I changed the raspberries for banana and this for that but it was really good. It may have been really good but it wasn't really the recipe that you are leaving a review of!! Anyway.....

For this, I always cook the onion and garlic first until it softens a little and then add the mince because I don't want to end up with not quite cooked onion. When it is all browned I just add all the other ingredients in and simmer. I also tend to add in basil as well as oregano.  I also cook the white sauce more thoroughly over the heat, stirring until it thickens rather than setting it to one side and hoping it thickens enough.

Lasagne

 

 Meat Sauce

750g very lean mince
Cooking spray
2x425g cans tomato puree
1x 140g can no-added-salt tomato paste
1 cup water
1 onion finely diced
2 tspn crushed garlic
2 tspn salt-reduced beef stock powder
2 tspn oregano
pepper to taste

White Sauce Mixture

1 tbspn light margarine
3 tbspn plain flour
2 1/2 cups skim milk
pepper to taste

8 instant lasagne sheets
1/4 cup reduced fat grated tasty cheese

To make meat sauce: Brown mince in a large saucepan that has been coated with cooking spray, drain well and remove to a plate. In same saucepan add all other ingredients, bring to boil, simmer 5 minutes. Return mince to pan, cook a further 5 minutes, leave to one side

To make white sauce: Melt margarine in a medium size saucepan, add flour, mix well with a whisk to avoid lumps. Slowly add milk, stir constantly until sauce boils, pepper to taste. Remove from heat, leave for a few minutes to allow sauce to thicken.

Preheat oven to 180C fan forced.

To assemble lasagne: Spoon 1/3 of meat sauce over base of lasagna dish, cover with 1/2 of white sauce. Top with 4 lasagne sheets. Spread 1/2 of meat sauce over lasagne, cover with remaining white sauce, top with remaining lasagne sheets. Spread with remainder of meat sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil (coat foil with cooking spray to stop cheese sticking). Bake 40-45 minutes, remove foil, cook a further 5-10 minutes until pasta is cooked and cheese is golden brown.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Triple Berry Jellies

You wouldn't think so if you so me chowing down on dumplings last night, but I am still trying to eat a bit healthier. That also means that I have gone back to doing the things I was doing when I lost all that weight before I stopped doing all those things and put it a lot if it back on.

So, what are the things that I was doing, stopped and now I am doing again.

On the food front, it is to watch what I eat (so make better food choices), how much (portion sizes) and, in theory, move more (exercise), although I am not doing so great on that one.  For the other aspects, I have gone back to keeping a food diary, studying (yes, studying) food magazines and diet related cookbooks. The most important aspect is planning and preparation, having some idea of what food we are going to be eating for lunches and dinners rather than having takeaway several nights a week.

Sttudying food magazines mean getting ideas for snacks and new recipes. Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that strikes a cord. For instance, because I was a bit slack and didn't get to the shops in time, I ended up just having egg, ricotta, spinach and tomato on toast for dinner. Simple, but tasty. And something I saw in a magazine as a breakfast suggestion. Breakfast for dinner. Yes please.

This is definitely a simple idea, and one that really should have occurred to me before. I mean, when we were kids it was a treat to have canned fruit set into jelly, but because the boy doesn't really like jelly I don't make it very often. This time instead of making a giant bowl of jelly and fruit I have made the individual serves as suggested and I am hoping that will mean that,  for this week at least, if I fancy something sweet I can just grab one of these and maybe have some yoghurt with it. Or ice cream maybe.

Oh, and expect to hear more about dumplings because I had two of the best dumplings I ever ate last night and I am so going to go on a quest to eat more egg custard dumplings. You have been warned. Not part of the plan but oh, so good.

This recipe came from the January/February 2017 issue of Diabetic Living.

Triple Berry Jellies

125g punnet blueberries

125g punnet raspberries

125g punnet blackberries

4 strawberries, cut into thin wedges

9g sachet raspberry diet jelly crystals

250ml (1 cup) boiling water

250ml (1 cup) cold water

2 Tbspn strawberry liqueur (optional)

500g extra berries, to serve

Mint leaves, to serve (optional)

Divide berries evenly between 4 185ml (3/4 cup) capacity glasses.

Put jelly crystals in a heatproof jug. Pour over boiling water, stirring until jelly crystals dissolve. Stir in cold water and strawberry liqueur, if using. 

Pour jelly evenly over berries. Put glasses on a tray and refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.

Serve topped with extra berries and mint leaves, if using.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Cherry tomatoes!!

Last weekend my son turned 18 years of age. 18! Can you believe it?

For those of you who have followed my blog for any length of time, he started out as the boy, and then was the little chef but I guess now he's an adult (legally anyway) and so I should call him something else. Maybe the young man or something.

We had a family event for Sunday lunch and it was a veritable hit list of dishes that I have posted as part of Weekend Cooking over the years but there were a couple of new recipes too.

This is the menu:

Barbecue lime and chilli prawns (with lemon instead of lime)

Thai Pork Burgers with pineapple relish

Barbecued chicken (marinated in lemon and olive oil)

Sausages

Greek style roast beef

Tomato, bocconcini and spinach salad

Roasted vegetable salad

Apple and custard crumble

And my sister did another amazing job with the cake.

Anyway, the title of this post is cherry tomatoes, so I guess I should talk about the delicious red orbs that are cherry tomatoes.

If there is one thing that I love the flavour of it is cherry tomatoes. I like them in salads, not only because they are so easy to chuck in a salad (I don't even chop them up) but my favourite way to eat them though, is cooked, say in a recipe like Pasta Pomodoro but  especially roasted. There's something so delicious about taking a bite and have a burst of deliciousness fill your mouth as you get the full roasted flavour. I have been known to roast them just by themselves, but also as part of a bigger dish.

Whilst I did go back to some of my favouirite recipes for the barbecue I did also want to try a couple of new recipes and so when I saw that this recipe was for a salad that included cherry tomatoes, I couldn't resist. Because I was making a few other dishes I only did half the vegetables. 

I was trying to be very organised and not stressed for this lunch, so in the end I roasted all the vegetables the night before and just cooked the ricotta that day but I would say if you are going to do this it is probably best to also make the dressing the night before as I suspect the garlic mixes in a bit better if it is still warm. There is a note that this salad can be served warm or at room temperature.

Roasted Vegetable and Ricotta Salad

2 red capsicums, cut into chunks (peppers)

2 large zucchini, cut into chunks (courgette)

1 eggplant, cut into chunks (aubergine)

2 red onions, cut into thin wedges (red onions as far as I know!!)

2x 250g punnets cherry tomatoes

3 Tbspn extra virgin olive oil

1/2 head garlic

200g piece low-fat ricotta, drained overnight in the fridge on paper towel, covered in plastic wrap

Olive oil cooking spray

1 Tbspn balsamic vinegar

Freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 190C (fan forced). Line 2 large roasting pans with baking paper. Divide vegetables between prepared pans. Drizzle over oil and toss to combine. Wrap garlic in foil and add to 1 of the pans. line a small ovenproof dish with baking paper. Add ricotta and spray with cooking spray.

Roast vegetables and ricotta for 25-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove vegetables from oven and set aside. Continue to cook ricotta for a further 15 minutes or until ricotta is golden brown around the edges. Set aside.

To serve, squeeze garlic into a small bowl. Add vinegar and lemon juice. Whisk to combine. Drizzle over vegetables and toss to combine. Transfer to a serving platter, crumble over baked ricotta and serve.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Mini strawberry tarts

I am feeling very pleased with myself today! I did something today that I have never done before which is make a version of jam,  and it turned out amazing. A-MAZE-ING!!

One of the things that I do quite regularly when I am feeling relatively strong mentally in relation to eating properly is spend time looking through cookbooks and magazines, specifically the ones that are for weight loss or have a focus on being diabetic friendly. Often I am looking at the recipes and seeing all the same ones I have thought I might try but every now and again a new one jumps out. In this case, it not only jumped out but I also got a hankering to actually make it and make it soon. This recipe comes from the September/October 2015 issue of Diabetic Living.

The only problem was that when I did go to make the recipe I realised that I didn't buy enough strawberries and I didn't have any lime so in the end I had to improvise a little. So instead of using all strawberries I used half strawberries and half blueberries, and I used juice from a lemon I just picked off the tree.  And oops!! I also used the puff pastry I had in the freezer rather than shortcrust pasty. Only just realised this!

The other issue I had is that I have only got a mini muffin tin and a muffin tin, not the patty cake/small cup cake tin mentioned so my pastry cases were a bit littler. I think next time I am going to use bigger circles from the pastry so that I can get a more gently curved larger pastry cases. And I will be doing it again. I think I will be making these to take to work for morning tea in a couple of week's time.

The jam is actually so good, not only did I use it for this recipe, but we also had it on pancakes this morning, served with vanilla flavoured greek yoghurt. I am also thinking it will taste really good stirred through oats or through yoghurt for breakfast. The last week I have been having roasted rhubarb with oats or yoghurt. This week, it will be this jam. Luckily, there is a lot left over.

Mini strawberry tarts

1 sheet 25% reduced fat shortcrust pastry
1 1/2 Tbspn vanilla bean yoghurt, to serve

Quick strawberry jam

375g strawberries, chopped
3/4 cup Equal Spoonful (sugar replacement)
80ml (1/3 cup) water
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 large lime

To make quick strawberry jam, put strawberry, Equal Spoonful, water and lime juice in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to a simmer over a high heat. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove lid and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 20 minutes or until mixture has reduced and thickened to a jam-like consistency. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced). Lay pastry sheet on a flat surface. Using a 6.5cm round cutter, cut 12 rounds from pastry sheet, discarding excess pastry. Use rounds to line 12.30ml (1 1/2 Tbspn) patty pans. Prick bases using a fork. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, to chill. Add to oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cook for 10 minutes.

To serve, spoon strawberry jam evenly between pastry cases. Top each tart with 1/2 tspn of the vanilla bean yoghurt. Serve.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Curried Sausages with Herbed Mash

I don't know why it is, but every time I say I am making this recipe the reaction I get from whoever I am talking to is I love curried sausages but I haven't had it for ages. And, to be fair, it was the same for me. I first made it and enjoyed it just over a year ago and then completely forgot about it. It was only after I spent some time going through all the magazines I had that I rediscovered the recipe and made it again Now, I want to share it here so that I can find it easily when I want to in future.


I have actually shared a couple of recipes from this particular issue (Pulled Pork Ragu and Green Chicken Curry Pie which is one of my regular dishes now). Just like with the pulled pork my son wasn't all that keen on the posh mash potato but it still tastes good with normal mash

Curried Sausages with Herbed Mash

2 tspns olive oil
1 brown onion, cut into thin wedges
375g packet of low fat beef sausages
2 tspn curry powder
1 tspn salt reduced chicken stock powder
250ml (1 cup) boiling water
1/2 x 400g can no-added salt tomato puree
200g carrots, halved lengthwise, diagonally sliced
8 brussel sprouts, trimmed, halved or quartered**


1kg low GI potatoes, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
130g (1/2 cup)low-fat Greek-style plain yoghurt
2 tbspn chopped chives
2 tbspn chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tbspn chopped dill
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon


** I can't stand brussel sprouts so I generally use broccoli cut into florets



Preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced). Heat oil in a large heavy based stoveproof and ovenproof dish over a medium heat. Add onion and sausages to pan and cook, stirring often for 4-5 minutes or until sausages are browned. Add curry powder and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes

Add combined stock and water, tomato puree, carrot and brussel sprouts to pan. Cover and bring to a simmer. Add pan to oven and cook for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender

Meanwhile, to make herbed mash, put potato and garlic in a large saucepan. Cover with plenty of cold water Cover and bring to the boil over a high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until potato and garlic are tender. Drain. Mash until almost smooth. Add yoghurt, herbs and lemon zest. Beat with a wooden spoon until well combined

Divide mash between serving plates. Add sausage mixture. Serve.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Open Cannelloni with Pork Meatballs

We love a good lasagne in this house, but unless you buy a pre-prepared one, it is a bit of work so it is more a weekend kind of meal, with plenty of leftovers for during the week. Making it from scratch, there's the making the meat sauce, and the white sauce and layering it up and cooking it. It is something that I do semi-regularly using a lower fat recipe which is quite tasty but I have also tried a couple of different recipes for making during the week. One was a slow cooker lasagne which I don't think we need to say much more about because it was truly awful. This recipe, whilst not technically lasagne, is a fair substitute and doesn't take too much time or effort to prepare.

The recipe once again comes from an issue of Diabetic Living, but this time is from a celebrity chef by the name of Michael Moore. Now, to be fair, I don't remember hearing about Michael Moore before, but there was a bonus lift out in the March/April issue. There weren't a lot of recipes that I could try because he used a lot of almond meal in his recipes which don't work with our allergy issues but I was impressed with how simple this seemed and then when I had made it, with how tasty it is.

I would say to make sure that you spread your sauce enough to ensure that the lasagne sheets all have sauce on them otherwise you end up with some crunchy bits. Unless you like crunchy bits of course!

No idea why there is so much talk about lasagne in this post when it really isn't a post about lasagne at all!

Open Cannelloni with Pork Meatballs
Serves 6


485g lean pork mince
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 tspn crushed black peppercorns
Sea salt
1 egg white
Cooking spray
300ml bottled Napolitana pasta sauce
350g fresh egg lasagne sheets
60g grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix mince with garlic, onion, black pepper, salt and egg white in a bowl. Dip your hands in cold water. Roll mixture into 14 even meatballs and set aside.

2. Grease a large baking dish and spoon a little Napolitana sauce over the base

3. Trim lasagne sheets into squares and place a meatball into the centre of each one. Place into baking dish; repeat with remaining lasagne and meatballs.

4. Pour over remaining Napolitana sauce to cover and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake in over for 45-50 minutes.

In other news, I had to make chocolate cake this week (yes, had to) but wanted to do something a bit different than just ice it. I made my standard chocolate cake, but rather than using icing I bought a couple of tubs of low fat chocolate mousse from the supermarket and stirred it until it was smooth and then used that as icing! Sprinkle with a crushed up Flake or grated chocolate and voila.

Have to say, I will definitely be doing that again. Easy and very tasty!!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Pulled Pork Ragu

I am trying to be a bit more organised, and if there's one thing I can do it is to cook up something big that we can have for dinner on a Sunday night and some leftovers during the week.

Last year I made this when a friend came around for dinner, but it was only as I was looking through all the back issues of Diabetic Living that I found the recipes again. I think that this particular issue (July/August 2015) is the issue that I found the most recipes I wanted to try since I subscribed to the magazine. I have previously shared a recipe for Green Chicken Curry Pie which also came from this issue and that is a recipe that I still make regularly, and I have got another recipe that I might post later.

This week though I want to share a recipe for Pulled Pork Ragu, a perfect recipe for cool winter afternoons!! When I first made this recipe I was surprised at how simple it really is. So long as you allow enough time for the slow cooking then there is a bit of work, then leave it and when you come back you get this tasty pulled pork. Yum

The actual recipe for this is Pulled Pork Ragu which is served with celeriac, parsnip and parmesan mash but the posh mash part wasn't a hit last time, so now I just cook normal plain mashed potato. Still tasty!!

Pulled Pork Ragu

1 tspn extra virgin olive oil

1.5kg piece pork leg roast, skin removed, trimmed of fat

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 sticks celery, finely chopped

2 thin slice prosciutto, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

125ml (1/2 cup) red wine

400g can no-added-salt chopped tomatoes

400g can no-added-salt tomato puree

2 sprigs rosemary

2 sprigs oregano

Flat leaf parsley leaves, to serve.

1. Preheat oven to 140C (fan forced). Heat oil in a large heavy-based stoveproof and ovenproof dish. Add pork and cook, turning often, for 6-7 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Add onion, carrot, celery, prosciutto and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Increase heat to high. Add wine and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add tomato, puree, rosemary and oregano. Bring to a simmer. Return pork to dish. Add to oven and cook, covered, turning once, for 4 hours or until meat starts to fall apart. Transfer pork to a plate, reserving sauce in dish. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Using your hands, pull pork into long shreds. Bring reserved sauce in dish to a simmer over a medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until sauce reduces slightly. Stir in pork.

3. Cook mash potato

4. Divide mash between serving bowls. Spoon over pork ragu. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Green Curry Chicken Pie

In my last Weekend Cooking post, I talked about how I find looking through relevant magazines and cook books really helps in getting and keeping my head into the right place for weight loss. Each time I receive a new magazine I spend a long time reading through the recipes and the stories and then go through it again and again. Eventually I will actively choose recipes that I think I want to try. This is one that jumped out pretty quickly from the July/August issue, and just like last week's recipe it was one that I made twice within a few days because it was such a hit. Well, and also because I had all the ingredients on hand and only had to buy an onion to make dinner. In fact, when I had the discussion with the boy to determine what he might like to eat for this week, this was the only thing he asked for again which would make it three times in less than two weeks.

Confession time. Until a few weeks ago I had never made any kind of green curry from scratch. I recently made a recipe from the Symply Too Good to be True cookbooks which I might share another time but having made that I felt that I could try and make this version without too much difficulty. It is actually a pretty easy recipe although preparing the filling does take a little time. The other recipe is probably lower calories but I must confess that I have really enjoyed being able to have some pastry without feeling too guilty.

Green Curry Chicken Pie

1/2 tspn olive oil

1 brown onion, cut into thin wedges

1 tbspn green curry paste or gluten-free curry paste

2 tbspn wholemeal plain flour or gluten-free flour

2 tspn Massel Salt Reduced Chicken Style Stock Powder**

250ml (1 cup) boiling water

80ml (1/3 cup) Trident Light Coconut Milk

2 tbspn skim milk

250g skinless chicken breast fillet, cut into 2cm cubes

200g broccoli, cut into small florets

50g (2 cups) baby spinach

1 sheet 25% reduced-fat puff pastry or gluten-free puff pastry

50g egg, lightly whisked

40g (1 1/2 cups) mixed salad leaves, to serve

**I used the reduced salt chicken stock powder I had in the cupboard

Preheat oven to 210C (fan-forced). Line an oven tray with baking paper. Put a rectangular 750ml (3 cup) ovenproof dish on prepared tray.

Heat oil in a medium non-stick saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes or until onion begins to soften.  Add curry paste and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add flour and cook stirring, for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and gradually whisk in combined stock powder and water until sauce is smooth. Add coconut milk and milk, and whisk to combine.

Return pan to stovetop and cook, stirring over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture thickens and comes to a simmer. Remove pan from heat, Add chicken, broccoli and spinach, and stir to combine. Spoon mixture into the prepared dish.

Lay pasty sheet on a clean surface. Cut 4 x 1 cm thick strips of pastry from the perimeter of the sheet. Brush rim of dish with a little egg and press pastry strips around the rim. Brush with egg. Top with remaining pastry, rolling out slightly, if needed, to fit. Trim edges. Brush with a little egg. Cut a few small slits in the top of the pastry. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

Serve pie with salad leave.

Serves 2

There is also a suggestion that you could make a fish pie by replacing the chicken with boneless fish fillets and the green curry past with red curry paste. The teenage boy would not be a huge fan but it might be something I might try in future.

I will say that the pie actually looks huge so it isn't like it isn't a generous serving for two.

The first time I made this I stuffed up the pastry so I had some leftovers. Just because I could I made a really quick free-form apple pie using fresh apple. By free-form I mean that thing was messy, messy, messy but it tasted good. This was a hit with the boy, and during the course of the week he made himself another couple of pies. I did laugh though because, when I made it, it was some apple and cinnamon shoved in the middle of some pastry with the uneven sized edges folded in. His pie was beautifully presented with plaited pastry and looked very professional.  Then the second time he made a pie this is what he presented. I would point out that this was all for him though!!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Pork Nachos

My quest to find recipes that are healthy, tasty, acceptable to the teenage boy and diabetes friendly continues, and I have to say I think this recipe is a winner!

One of the things that I have noticed in my weight loss journey is that I am more likely to be successful when I am spending time looking through the Diabetic Living magazines that I am subscribed to and the cook books that I have (the ones that focus on weight loss and diabetes only) even if I am not picking recipes to make. It's almost as though it is part of training my brain to think differently. I study the magazines as soon as I receive them and then again and again. Luckily this is a magazine that I do find lots of tasty looking recipes in.

This recipe is one that I found in the May/June issue of the Australian version of Diabetic Living magazine.

I actually cooked this twice in the space of week. The first time was on a Sunday night when I asked a friend and her kids around for dinner at short notice. Everyone liked it but the 3 year old was particularly enthusiastic, even coming back for seconds. Mum was also impressed when I told her how many vegetables there were hidden in it! The second time was at the request of my teenage son. Again, I am not going to tell him how many vegies there actually are in it.

Pork Nachos

1 brown onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
1 zucchini, roughly chopped
1 red capsicum, roughly chopped
1 tspn olive oil
400g Heart Smart pork mince (very lean)
1 tbspn salt-reduced taco seasoning or gluten free taco seasoning
400g can no-added-salt chopped tomatoes
1 tspn Massel chicken style salt reduced stock powder
185 ml (3/4 cup) water
400g can no-added-salt red kidney beans, drained
80g Macro Original Corn Chips**
40g (1/2 cup) reduced-fat grated cheese
1 large tomato, chopped to serve
Coriander leaves to serve
2 tbspsn extra-light sour cream

**I couldn't find this particular brand so I just used ordinary corn chips

Put onion, garlic, celery, zucchini and capsicum in a food processor and process until finely chopped.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add vegetable mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until vegetables soften. Increase heat to high. Add mince and cook, stirring often, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for 3-4 minutes or until mince is browned.

Add taco seasoning to pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add canned tomato, stock powder, and water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add beans and cook, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes or until mixture is thick.

Preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced). Spoon mince mixture into a shallow ovenproof dish. Arrange corn chips on top, pushing slightly into mince. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Top with tomato and sprinkle with coriander.  Serve with sour cream.

Serves 4.

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Weekend Cooking: My mousse problem

We have a chocolate mousse problem in my house. This weekend, I am determined that I am going to come up with a solution that might not solve the problem, but at the very least means I get some mousse occasionally. Let me try to explain.

As I have mentioned numerous times, I am in the process of losing a lot of weight. Most of the time I am doing this just by eating sensibly but every now and again I need a treat so that I don't feel as though I am completely depriving myself. Sometimes that means a couple of squares of dark chocolate, sometimes a couple of biscuits but sometimes I want something desserty.

In the interests of trying to have some low fat but tasty treats on hand, I started buying twin packs of low fat chocolate mousse, and for a few weeks it was all good. I would have one tub of mousse, which conveniently comes in a size that is enough for the taste of a treat but also means that I don't overeat because it is a single portion serving. Then, a few days later, I would have the other tub and be content. That all changed after my son, the not so little chef, tried one of the mousses....and liked it a lot.

It started getting to the point where I would buy two twin packs and put them in the fridge and then come home thinking tonight I am going to have a mousse only to find that they were all gone. On occasion there might be one left for me but all the others would be gone because he was hungry. Yes, I have a typical STARVING teenage boy in the house. And that's fine. I don't mind that he wants to eat them because of the cost. Usually it is about $1 for a serving, but it's the fact that I am eagerly anticipating a treat and then they aren't there!

The other week I thought I would try to buy some non low fat mousses as well as the one that I like for me, but that didn't quite work out as I had hoped because he likes mine better than he liked the other ones so he ate all of his and all of mine too!

So, in the interests of trying to have the occasional serving of chocolate mousse I think I have no choice but to try and see if I can find a recipe for chocolate mousse that can fit into my eating, that I can portion out so that  I am not eating too much, and that the boy will still eat. These days, when I am looking for a recipe that will fit these criteria then it is the Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks that I refer to, and once again I have not been disappointed. So, this long weekend seems like a good time to try making it myself.

This recipe is actually for Chocolate Mousse Pie but I am not sure that I will be making the pie part, not least of all because I am not familiar with the brand of biscuits that are mentioned.

We'll see if the boy likes this mousse shall we.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

BASE
12 low fat choc chip cookies (Paradise Lite®)
1 tablespoon (15g) Flora Light® margarine melted
¾ teaspoon skim milk
cooking spray

FILLING
24 squares (100g) dark cooking chocolate
1 x 375ml can CHILLED evaporated light milk
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons gelatine
¼ cup boiling water
2 x Jarrah Choc O Lait® sachets

Before starting make sure your evaporated milk is CHILLED. Place chilled canned milk into freezer for 1 hour before making filling.

To make base: In a food processor crumble biscuits. Add melted margarine and milk, process until combined. Coat a pie plate with cooking spray then spread biscuit mixture over base, pressing firmly. Refrigerate.

To make filling: In a small ceramic bowl melt chocolate in microwave on high temperature for one minute. Leave to sit in microwave while you prepare other ingredients. Make sure evaporated milk is very cold. In a large mixing bowl beat chilled milk and vanilla essence until really thick, using an electric beater. Add melted chocolate and blend well. Dissolve gelatine completely in boiling water then add Jarrah sachets, mix well. Pour mixture into milk, beat continuously until well combined. Pour mixture over biscuit base, refrigerate until set.

VARIATION: TO MAKE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE, OMIT BASE AND REDUCE GELATINE DOWN TO 1½ TABLESPOONS SERVES 8.

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Weekend Cooking: Feeling Saucy

I did something new to me a few weeks ago. I made a tomato pasta sauce from scratch, and it really wasn't that hard. The thing that has excited me about this is how versatile this sauce was once I had made it. I had never really thought of how many different ways you can use a sauce. So in this week's Weekend Cooking I am going to talk about the different ways I used this Tomato Pasta Sauce.

First though, I posted the recipe as part of my most recent weekend cooking post for Garlic Prawns, but I am going to repost it here too.

Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 kg ripe tomatoes, chopped

Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion, carrot, capsicum and garlic. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until onion softens.

Add tomato. Increase heat to high. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 30 minutes or until tomato breaks down and forms a sauce. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Transfer sauce to a food processor and process until smooth. Return to pan. Use immediately or either freeze or store in sterilised jars.

I originally found this recipe in the most recent Diabetic Living magazine. I really liked that the magazine not only posted the recipe but also that it then used it in other recipes through out the magazine, like the Garlic Prawns recipe.  One of the suggestions on how to use the sauce include to toss through cooked pasta with chargrilled chicken and seasonal vegies and then top with basil leaves, parmesan and pepper. It was mentioned that you can either bottle this in sterilised glass jars or freeze in 1 cup portions. 

Another suggestion is to use the sauce on pizza bases and top with vegies, prawns and some low fat cheese.  Whilst I didn't follow this suggestion exactly, I did make a pizza on wholemeal pita bread using this sauce as the base and topped it with poached chicken breast, red onion, red capsicum, baby spinach leaves and topped with some baby bocconcini because I had most of these ingredients left from the salad that I made to go with the prawns I posted recently. It looked and tasted awesome!

One of the recipes that the sauce was used in in the magazine was a Cheesy Tomato Gnocchi which sounds delicious but I am not the biggest gnocchi fan so not sure if I will make it.

There were two other things that I did with the sauce after I had made it. I was pretty excited with the idea of actually using the pasta sauce as exactly that. I was going to have proper pasta for the first time in months. The only way I have been having pasta for the last nine months is in lasagne. There is actually no reason why being diabetic stops you from having pasta as long as you watch your serving size which according to the recommendations should be around a cup of cooked pasta. The biggest issue is that most of the time we eat way too much and then we top it with lots of tasty but not necessarily all that healthy other ingredients. 

I had my dinner all planned out. I was going to have some chicken with pasta and tomato sauce and some steamed vegies. Only problem was that my teenage son, who loves to eat raw pasta, has eaten all the pasta in the house. The only type that we had left was risoni, the rice-like pasta. Good low GI food but not precisely the pasta dinner I was looking for! It ended up being a bit of an odd dinner all round.

The final way I used it was in the following recipe which I originally found in Symply Too Good To Be True book 2. This has fast become one of our favourite meals to eat. I am always amused by the dietician's comment which is "At last a chicken parmigiana that tastes like you find at the pub but without it being high in fat". Now, it is good but it doesn't taste like a great chicken parma from the pub! Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Parmagiana

4x125g skinless chicken breasts

Cooking spray

75g 97% fat-free ham slices

4 tblspns no-added-salt tomato paste

1 cup 25% reduced-fat grated tasty cheese

Preheat oven to 180C fan forced.

Flatten chicken breasts using a meat mallet. Place on a baking tray that has been coated with cooking spray. Place ham slices evenly on top of each flattened piece of chicken, spread 1/4 of tomato paste over each breast, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake 25-30 minutesor until chicken is cooked through. 

Since I started making this I have done it as described above but I have also made it just using canned tomatoes that have been strained and using Tomato Supreme (which is a mix of tomato, capsicum and onion) but this time around I used the pasta sauce and it was definitely super tasty! One thing is that I don't tend to flatten the chicken breast all that much as it stays nice and moist. I also tend to only have half a chicken breast and use the rest the next day or for lunch.

Just from this one time of making this sauce from scratch I am definitely inspired to make it again, to freeze some servings ready for those days when I just need something quick and tasty and to make some of these things again as well as maybe trying something new! It also sounds super organised which is something new and unusual for me.

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Weekend Cooking: Garlic Prawns

Last week I talked about a memorable meal and I am going to touch on that theme again this week. This time I am going to go back even further to a trip to Perth when I was maybe 19 years old. Yes, that far back!

This time my trip down memory lane takes me back to a day when I went to Fremantle. I happened to be in Perth at the same time as a friend from work so we met up and went down to Freo and did touristy things. It was getting to the point of being past lunch time when we decided that we were hungry and we decided to eat at a somewhat kitschy restaurant.

I chose garlic prawns which was served with white rice and oh my goodness, so good, When I think back it was probably a pretty simple version of garlic prawns. There seemed to be only prawns and lots and lots of finely chopped garlic. There must have been something else in there to aid the flavour but I have no idea what that would have been.

Unlike the dish I mentioned last week, after a couple of failed attempts a long time to ago to find another garlic prawns dish that I like I have stopped trying garlic prawns if I go out for dinner.

I seem to be a bit obsessed with eating seafood at the moment. My go to weekday dinner at the moment is pre-packaged steamed fish in a Thai coconut sauce with brown rice and baby broccoli. I am using the precooked rice so not only does this meal taste good but it also takes approximately 5 minutes to cook. I had this a couple of times this week. Then yesterday I had prawn pad see ew from the Thai restaurant near work yesterday and I bought sardines to have for breakfast tomorrow. And then there was the new recipe I tried tonight from the current Diabetic Living magazine. There are a number of recipes I am keen to try in the current magazine but as soon as I saw it I knew this would be the first recipe I would try.

There are actually three components to this meal, but the hardest thing really was chopping the vegetables for the sauce. Other than that, it is pretty simple really. And I have to say the salad was a winner! I don't usually do the dressing thing but this was quick and simple and tasty.

Garlic Prawns

2 tspn extra virgin olive oil
2 tspn light margarine
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 kg (500g peeled) green prawns, peeled and deveined, tails intact
500ml (2 cups) tomato pasta sauce (recipe below)
4 slices (250g) sourdough bread or gluten free bread, to serve

Spinach, tomato and bocconcini salad

100g green beans, blanched, diagonally sliced
50g (2 cups) baby spinach leaves
1 small red capsicum, cut into thin, short strips
3 egg tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
50g bocconcini, torn into wedges
3 tspn red wine vinegar
1 tspn extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper, to season

To make spinach, tomato and bocconcini salad put beans, spinach, capsicum, tomato, onion and bocconcini in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Whisk vinegar and oil in a small bowl. Season with pepper and set aside.

Heat oil and margarine in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium high heat until foaming. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the prawns and cook, turning often, for 2 minutes or until almost cooked.

Add sauce and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes or until prawns are tender and sauce is heated

Drizzle dressing over salad and toss to coat. Divide prawns between small serving dishes. Serve with bread and salad

*For a variation, you can replace the beans with sugar snap peas or snow peas, and the bocconcini with low-fat ricotta.

Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 tbspn extra virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 kg ripe tomatoes, chopped

Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion, carrot, capsicum and garlic. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until onion softens.

Add tomato. Increase heat to high. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 30 minutes or until tomato breaks down and forms a sauce. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Transfer sauce to a food processor and process until smooth. Return to pan. Use immediately or either freeze or store in sterilised jars.



I think you are probably going to hear more about the sauce next week!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.