Beef Curry

I saw this on the Biggest Loser the other night and thought I would give it a go. Never made one before as I thought they were too "hot" but this one was mild, it had a bit of a kick to it and the kids ate it too. Its good because it doesn't have very many calories at all and has more veggies than alot of other curries out there.

Serves 4 adults or ( 2 adults, 2 small children and some leftovers)

500g rump steak or chuck steak
1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin (butternut is best, but whatever you can find), cut into rough pieces
1 1/2 cups cauliflower (just cut up into pieces)'
1 cup peas (I forgot to add these!)
1/2 onion chopped finely
2 cloves garlic chopped
juice and rind of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon coriander (ground)
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (ground)
olive oil
3 1/2 cups to 1 litre of salt reduced beef stock (salt reduced only so it has less salt therefore better for you) you made only need around 3 cups of it, just see how much you think as you are cooking.


Heat oil in a large saucepan and brown off meat.
Add the onion, garlic and spices and heat for a minute or so.
Add the pumpkin and cauliflower, lemon rind and juice, and the stock.
Stir and let come to the boil then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Just before serving add in the frozen peas until they are heated.
Serve with basmatti rice (the healthiest rice)

Mexican Style Chicken

This is adapted from a recipe I found in a magazine. They added some rice and red kidney beans, and chicken stock (to cook the rice) I did not. ( I will post a picture when I am on next)

Preheat oven to 180 fan forced or 200 celcius.

Serves 2 adults 2 children (2-3 drumsticks per adult)
Chicken drumsticks
olive oil
jar (around 300 mls) tomato salsa (I used a mild one)
1 capsicum (pepper) sliced
300-400ml tin tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion diced
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp pepper

Place all ingredients into an oven proof dish and cook for around 50 mins, turning the chicken over half way if you want both sides to be crispy.
I served with what I had which was potatoes but you could serve it with rice (or put the rice in the dish and into the oven).

Was simple to throw together, and very very tasty.

Stuffed Zucchini

We have an awesome veggie garden and the zucchini are growing so well. I have had to find other ways to use it other than just in the normal way I would. I stuffed these with other vegetables and cheese. My husband REALLY liked it which was great. The kids didn't like it, but they are going through a "we don't want anythign new phase".

preheat oven to 200 celcius (390 F)

What you need

1 large zucchini or 3 medium sized
2 garlic cloves
1/2 brown onion
1/2 red pepper (capsicum)
3 mushrooms
pulp of zucchini
one tomato chopped
handful parsely and oregano chopped finely (or use the dried stuff, 1 tablespoon each)
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
cheddar/mozzarella/paremsan (I used a mixture of these as this is what I had already in the fridge)

Chop all ingredients. Place some butter in a pan and cook the garlic and onion til soft, add in the capsicum, mushrooms, tomato and pulp and cook for a few mins. Leave to cool.
Once cool add in the bread crums, egg, herbs and salt and pepper and mix well.
Spoon into the zucchini, sprinkle cheese on the top.
Place in oven and remove when zucchini is cooked and the cheese has melted or around 30 mins

Baby Shower Cupcakes

My friends and I made some cupcakes for my sister in laws baby shower. I wasn't that happy with the actual cake, so I won't use that recipe I found, so I won't be posting a recipe for the cake, but pictures of the way we deocrate them.

We went with a "rubber duck" theme for the evening, hence the rubber duck patty pans but we also made it animal/bugs too.

For the icing we used a creamed cheese/icing sugar icing, and we also did another batch of butter and icing sugar. We used different food dyes to change the colour of the icing.



The butterfly was made using "freckles" for the wings, smarties for the body and pieces of licorice rope cut into antannae.


The dragonfly was made using jellybeans as the body, "banana" lollies cut into wing shapes and a smartie for its head.




For the ducks we cut out 2 "v" shapes from licorice allsorts for the beak and used smarties for the eyes (you could use M&M's etc).


These are "babies" we used writable ink that comes in a little tube for the outer part of the dummy (pacifer) and a jelly bean in the middle of that. The smile was made with some licorice as was the eyebrows. Smarties were used for the eyes.

Mango Salad

I made this salad to go with some grilled lamb chops that had a mango/curry sauce on them. It was so light and delicious. Was able to use the spinach and spring onion from our veggie patch.

You will need

Packet of baby spinach leaves (or around 5 cups) or your other favourite leafy vegetable.
2 spring onion stalks chopped
1 mango sliced (I added a tin of mango slices too to cut down on cost, but you could add another mando instead)
juice from tin mango
handful snow peas chopped
1 cup cucumber- finely cut
1 avacado cut into slices

prepare it all and put into your salad bowl, pour the mango juice over at the end.

Chicken and Broccoli pasta

Quick and easy meal that used our home grown broccoli!

You will need
2 chicken breasts diced
2 cups broccoli pieces
2 spring onions chopped
handful parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 cup grated parmesan (or shaved)
250 mls cream (I used light thickened cream)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 chicken stock cube and 1/2 cup hot water or half-1 cup of chicken stock

1.Cook chicken in pan until nearly cooked
2. Add in garlic and broccoli
3. once the broccoli has been cooking for a few minutes add in the onions, cream and let it simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in the parsley and cheese at the last minute (saving some cheese to put on once you have served into bowls).
5. Serve with your favourite pasta, I used linguine. Top with some extra parmesan cheese.


Kids loved this, I have made it again and I didn't use stock but put some chicken seasoning on the chicken instead, still tasted pretty similar. I have also added mushrooms. Asparagus would be great with this too, and some bacon!

I'm still here

Hi all, I'm still here, just been a little snowed under lately and haven't experimented as much. I have made a broccoli (home grown!!) pasta and a chicken mango salad that I need to blog about. And I will hopefully next week!