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!

Thai/Vietnamese Inspired Chicken Salad

I wanted to try an asian style salad I saw in a magazine. I did change it alot as there didn't seem to be that many things they had in their salad to make it filling enough.

After eating it I comfirmed that I don't like this type of asian sauce. Give me soy, honey, ginger, garlic. But not fish sauce and lime and coriander and mint. But hey, you might like those things! If I were to do it again I would use a different type different type of dressing. Maybe balsamic, or lemon, or even soy and honey.

What you will need:

I was lazy and used a bag of mixed lettuce and spinach leaves...

half red capsicum (pepper)

1/2 cucumber

cherry tomatoes (around a punnet)

1 carrot cut into matchsticks

1 stick celery

handful snow peas

1-2 chicken breasts

handful of fresh mint

handful of fresh coriander

dressing:

1/3 cup lime juice

1/3 cup fish sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 chilli finely chopped (I didn't add the chilli).

Method:

1. place chicken breast in pot and cover with cold water. Place on medium heat and when it starts to boil, turn it down to simmer, cover with a lid and let it simmer for around 10-12 mins or until cooked. Once it is cooked shred the chicken.

2. Cut all the salad ingredients and place in a bowl

3. Put shredded chicken into salad bowl and pour over dressing.

Menu for the week

Our menu for the week

Monday- Lamb Yiros
Tuesday- Honey Lemon Chicken with Rice
Wednesday-Beef stroganoff
Thursday- left overs
Friday-Vietnamese inspired Chicken Salad
Saturday-???
Sunday-Taco's