Turkey Quinoa Loaf

My version

This recipe appealed because it had turkey and quinoa. Seemed like a healthy meatloaf alternative.
It had a pretty good flavour but I think it needs something like egg to bind it more.
I wouldn't call it a total success but I will certainly make it again with a few modifications.

Turkey Quinoa Meatloaf

From the recipe...oh well...

Ingredients
1 ½ Tbsp. safflower oil
½ cup white onion, finely diced (I also used 2 cloves of garlic)
½ cup carrots, finely diced ( I grated them)
½ cup celery, finely diced ( I missed this out)
½ cup red pepper, finely diced (I used a whole pepper)
½ cup yellow pepper, finely diced  (I used a whole pepper)
½ cup orange pepper, finely diced
1 cup kale, blanched, shocked and finely diced  (missed this out)
2 Tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped (I used basil and thyme)
1 pound white meat turkey, ground
2 cups quinoa, cooked (I cooked with chicken stock for flavour)
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
¾ cup barbeque sauce ( I used a mixture of tomato, teriyaki and plum sauce)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large sauté pan, sweat onions in safflower oil, until translucent. Add carrots, celery and peppers and continue cooking until soft. Set aside and let cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine turkey, quinoa, cooked vegetables, kale and parsley. Season with sea salt and pepper. Mix by hand until thoroughly combined.
4. Shape mixture into two loaves, 9 x 4 inches.
5. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Brush with your favorite BBQ sauce and bake for 45 minutes.
7. Let cool. Slice and enjoy!

Chocolate Chia Puddings - diary free

My last experiment with Chia seeds went well. This time I wanted to give them a try substituting milk with almond milk to make them dairy free. Almond milk is not a regular ingredient in our house so I froze the half I didn't use.
I worked on the theory that there were so many recipes around, I could just play with ingredients and get an ok result.

It was ok...not amazing but better than feeding my family ice cream!

The recipe I used was...

Chocolate Chai Puddings
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
4 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons of maple syrup (or honey or stevia)

8 tablespoons of black Chia seeds

Mix the almond milk, cocoa and maple syrup. It takes a while to get them really combined.
Add Chia seeds and mix.
Go back and stir several times over the next couple of hours.
Leave for a few hours for the seeds to absorb the liquid and thicken.

Banana Oat Cookies - Healthy Lunchbox Option

I'm still on the look out for really good, healthy lunchbox items for Isabella (now 5 years) that can be made in advance and frozen. I like putting frozen items in her lunch box over summer so that they keep the rest of the contents cool as they defrost. I'm not professing to creating the perfect totally homemade lunchbox, but I do want to try to have the majority of it being really healthy. Luckily I have a little girl who loves fruit and is a reasonably adventurous eater.
I came across this recipe and thought it was well worth a try as the ingredients look pretty healthy and there is no sugar or flour at all in it. The sweetness comes from the bananas.

The final product is not a crunchy cookie, more a cross between a cookie and a cake...kind of soft but in a cookie shape. I really liked them and Bella gobbled a few before I got them to the freezer. The test will be checking out the lunch box next week to see if they have been eaten.

Oh and I almost forgot...they were super easy to make. Especially with a little helper to mash the bananas for me.

Banana Oat Cookies

• 1/3 c. butter, softened
• 1/4 c. milk
• 2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. raisins (I used chopped dried apricot and cranberries)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Let stand for 5-10 minutes allowing the oats to soak up all the milk. Drop by tablespoon full onto a cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees*. Allow to cool. Makes 2-3 dozen.

*NOTE: I baked the first batch at 350 for 15-20 minutes, but they didn't seem cooked all the way through, but they were getting too dark on the bottom. I did the next 2 batches at 325 for 25 minutes and they were much better. I would suggest this temp, but all ovens vary, so you'll just have to keep an eye them.

These are not your typical "cookies". They don't contain flour or leavening, so they won't rise or spread. They taste very much like banana bread. Even the texture is the same. I was pleasantly surprised by these "healthy" cookies. The family loved them.

Other additions (add 1/4 c of any of these to batter):

• mini chocolate chips
• chopped nuts
• dried chopped fruit (cranberries, apricots, cherries)
• shredded coconut

Quinoa Salad with edamame, corn and capsicum

I have been using Quinoa as a substitute for rice, pasta and couscous as often as I can due to the high nutritional quality of the quinoa. Its pretty easy to cook and is a great base as a salad.

I always cook my quinoa with stock - usually chicken. The ratio is 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of liquid. Cook for about 20 minutes at a simmer, watching near to end to make sure it doesn't boil dry.
Allow to cool and then add vegetables.

I added frozen edamame bean and frozen corn and
chopped capsicum. To add interest a stirred through about 2 teaspoons of black sesame seeds.
The quantities are really what looks and tastes right - a good excuse to taste as you cook!

I made a dressing with half a cup of olive oil, the juice of two limes and toasted and ground cumin seeds.

Simple, easy, quick, tasty and healthy.

Cherry Tomato and Pesto Tarts

I needed a quick starter for a meal with guests and our garden is producing loads of cherry tomatoes of all colours and shapes. A quick tart seemed like a great simple idea. My only mistake was not pricking the pastry inside the border!
I used frozen pesto  and pre- made and rolled frozen puff pastry.

I cut the pastry sheets into 6 rectangles and folded over the edges of the pastry to form a border.
I then spread the pesto over the inner part of the tart and placed halved cherry tomatoes on top.
I sprinkled with salt and pepper and they were ready to cook.

I baked for about 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees C.

Simple, quick and tasty.

Simple Sugar Cookies

Isabella came home from school on Friday (end of her second week at school) talking about making rainbow cookies in class and wanting to make them. She was adamant that we should use a packet mix to make them but I eventually managed to persuade her that we had all the ingredients so didn't have to.
I wanted a simple recipe for plain cookies. This one looked pretty simple and had a good write up about the reasons for not over mixing.
The cookies are really nice. I will use this recipe again as a base for cookies that are going to be decorated for some theme.
I didn't bother chilling the dough down. They didn't spread too much in the cooking process.







Simple Sugar Cookies

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup fine granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
scrapings from one vanilla bean
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
icing sugar for rolling

MAKE IT
IN LARGE BOWL, cream together butter and sugar on MED speed for no more than 1 minute.
ADD egg and mix only until combined
ADD vanilla bean and vanilla extract, mixing until blended
SIFT in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
MIX on low speed until the dough starts to form together; no longer than 45 seconds
PLACE piece of waxed paper on work surface
DUST it with icing sugar
PAT out dough into a disc and place on waxed paper
SPRINKLE lightly with icing sugar
PLACE another piece of waxed paper on top of dough
ROLL out dough between the waxed paper to 1/4" thickness
PLACE cookie dough, still in waxed paper, onto a cookie sheet and let sit in refrigerator for 1-2 hrs

PREHEAT OVEN 350F
LINE 2 cookie sheets with waxed paper
TAKE COOKIE dough out of fridge and place back, still in waxed paper, onto work surface
REMOVE TOP LAYER of waxed paper
DIP cookie cutter edges lightly into icing sugar
CUT out desired shapes and with a hard edged spatula, lift and place on cookie sheets
BAKE 8 -10 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown
ALLOW to cool on baking sheet 5 minutes then gently remove with spatula and place on cooling rack.
ALLOW to cool completely (approx. 30 minutes)

Leave plain or ice with royal icing.
A great base cookie - a blank canvas - ready for decorating!

Super Healthy Banana Ice Cream

There seems to be a bit of a frozen dessert theme happening in my home at the moment...maybe because we are in the middle of summer.
I'm always aware that ice cream has a lot of dairy and sugar in it, so when I saw this recipe I was interested...dubious but interested. It contains no sugar and is predominantly banana.

I'm always a bit reluctant to buy too many bananas...we either go through a banana grazing phase wher they disappear so fast I can't believe it or sit untouched and get less and less appetising.
 I had a few bananas that were getting a bit old so decided to give it a go. Usually older bananas get made into banana cake or banana and blueberry muffins in my house but this recipe was so good and easy it might be a tough decision next time.

I chopped the bananas into 3-4 cm slices and froze in a snap lock bag (overnight is good...but possibly a shorter time would be ok too.
I used crunchy peanut butter and it was fine. I'm sure this could be left out of the recipe if you didn't want to use nuts.


Banana Ice Cream

4 bananas, just slightly overripe (brown spots good, completely black not so good)
2 tbsps creamy peanut butter
2 tsps cocoa powder (Dutch process),

DO NOT FREEZE THE WHOLE BANANA, you’ll have a heck of a time blending that beast.

Peel the bananas and slice them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick disks. Place the banana slices in the freezer for about an hour or until they are frozen solid. 

Put the frozen slices in a food processor and pulse. First they will start to resemble gravel, but keep going. The bananas will soon turn into a frozen mush – at this point, start scraping the sides down (you will do this a lot). Or you could add a dash of milk since the liquid will help the blending. After a few minutes of stopping to scrape the sides down, the banana begins to blend into a creamy texture. 

When the bananas look like whipped ice cream, you can add your mix-ins like peanut butter and/or cocoa powder, chocolate chips, toffee, raspberries, anything goes! Straight out of the food processor, the ice cream is like soft serve. You can also freeze it for a firmer texture. It’s pretty hard (and therefore, brittle) when I scoop it immediately after removing it from the freezer. Just give it a minute or two to soften up. 

Lemonade Scones - sweet and savoury

I've got my standard cheese scone recipe that we use a lot but my little person wanted sweet scones so I hunted out this recipe that seems to be a bit of a kiwi favourite.
These were for lunch so I halved the recipe and left one lot plain (and slightly sweet) and mixed in capsicum, sundried tomato and a hunk of brie (left over from snacks on a previous day) chopped up.
A great way to meet the tastes of all of the family.
I discovered I didn't have enough self raising flour so hunted out the recipe for a substitute...it's included after the scone recipe.

Lemonade Scones

Ingredients

• 4 cups self-raising flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 300 ml cream
• 300 ml lemonade or soda water
• 
  
• Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well. Pour the cream and lemonade or soda water into the dry ingredients and mix together to form a soft dough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured bench, dust lightly with flour and gently roll out into a rectangle. Cut into approximately 12 pieces and lift each onto the baking tray.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool inside a clean tea towel to help keep their freshness.

Self Raising Flour Substitute

1. Using a dry measure, measure the desired amount of flour into a separate container.
2. For each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
3. Mix to combine.

Tips:

1. You can use self-rising flour in yeast bread recipes, but you'll need to omit the salt.
2. If you use self-rising flour as a substitute for all-purpose flour in a quick bread, omit salt and baking powder.

Plum Sorbet

I've had a huge number of plums in my Ooooby boxes recently and we don't seem to be getting through them.
This sorbet is amazing. It is really intense - both the colour and the flavour.
I didn't use my ice cream maker, just froze the cooked plums, then blended them and froze them again.

Plum Sorbet
2 pounds ripe plums, pitted and sliced (1kg)
1 1/2 cups (325 ml) water
1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
2 Tablespoons vodka

Prepare plums and place them in a medium sauce pan with water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until plums are soft, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and add sugar.  Stir until dissolved.
Pour plum mixture in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth (small pieces of plum skin may still remain, that is okay because it will make the sorbet look pretty). 

Cover and place in refrigerator to fully chill. Once chilled, add vodka and stir to combine.  Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Place plastic or parchment over sorbet (to prevent ice crystals) and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

My garden is going along well now that I am back from holiday and watering it regularly. I've got several varieties of cherry tomatoes growing up along a wall and Roma and Beefsteak in my gardens. The Roma are ripening well, the beefsteak will be a bit longer.

Today I picked about 20 small Romas and decided to give oven drying a try. I used the following recipe and pretty much stuck to it apart from substituting dried thyme with fresh.

The recipe says they only last for about week in the fridge...I don't think they will get the chance they are so yummy.
I'll be adding them to salads and any recipes I can find for the next little while.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

20 firm but ripe plum tomatoes 

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons dried thyme

pinch of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Trim the stem ends of the tomatoes, quarter them lenghthwise and remove and discard the seeds. (I left the seeds in)

Place the tomatoes in a large bowl and add the olive oil, vingar and dried thyme.  Toss well to coat.  Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper.

Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 3 hours or until all the liquids have evaporated and the tomatoes are shriveled and dark on the edges but still rosey.

To store, place the dried tomatoes in glass jars, seal tightly and store refrigerated for up to 1 week.