Got some nice fat ‘old english’ sausages from Island Bay butchers – mix of beef and lamb, and they boys favourite pork and maple.
Chopped pumpkin, zucchini, small sweet peppers, rubbed in oil, honey and rosemary leaves – roasted for about 30 – 40 mins.
Cooked broccoli and fresh corn and cut the cobbs off – shaved some parmesan over with a lug of olive oil.
So now term time is underway again the baking dilema presents itself – the most successful gluten free baking I’ve done is based around ground almonds – but can’t send nut products in lunchboxes. The fruit bowl had some sorry looking over-ripe bananas perfect for baking so began making a banana loaf for tomorrow’s lunchbox but just before adding the flour had a moment of feeling a bit bad that G wouldn’t be able to have any so separated some batter off and made 4 gluten free muffins and 8 plain.. colour coded the cases although turns out to be pretty clear that the big fat puffy muffins are the ones with gluten in – although appearances can be deceptive because the gf ones actually tasted pretty good, I actually prefer the nutty taste of the almond ones.
Started with 3 ripe bananas, mashed up with a fork, added a large spoon of honey and about 50g melted butter, at this stage spoons about 1/3 of the mix off into a separate bowl. Added 1 egg and 1 cup ground almonds and a handful of roughly chopped milk chocolate to the small bowl and roughly mixed – made 4 muffins.
Added 2 eggs, 2 cups self raising flour and a bigger handful of chocolate chunks to the big bowl. Made 8 muffins. Took about 15 – 20 mins to bake.
Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, zucchini, button mushrooms – cook down for a few minutes in olive oil with salt and pepper, added good beef mince and brown then a jar of passata (400g) cup of red wine, cup of veg stock – cover and simmer for an hour and half, add a cup of milk and simmer uncovered for another 30 mins.
Had with spaghetti and lashings of parmesan
The lamb was a bit of a mish-mash of flavours as had no clear plan when I started throwing it together but it all came together really well. Onion, garlic, a little fresh ginger, fresh mint, lemon verbena leaves, tumeric, seared the lamb, added a tin of brown lentils, sultanas, veg stock and carrots and a slow cooked in the le creuset (lid on) for about 2 hours.
Chopped the pumpkin into chunks, thew in some whole garlic cloves, plenty of salt, olive oil a spoon of honey and some sage leaves, munched the whole lot around so everything coated in the oil and honey and roasted for 30 mins. This was a winning way to cook pumpkin as think probably the first time D has liked it outside of soup.
Steamed green beans on the side which T likes to open and eat the tiny baby beans from the inside.
Cut potatoes into chip shapes and covered in a lug of olive oil, salt and baked in hot oven for about 40 mins. Coated the fish in egg and crumbs – quick fried in lots of butter. Salad of avocado chunks, some salad greens, cherry toms, shaved cucumber. Lots of lemon all round.
Have made a few versions of this soup over the last month – it’s a perfect summer lunch – even young J had a bowl today. This time I put more ginger and more orange in – about a 2cm sq chunk of grated fresh ginger and the whole zest and pulp / juice of an orange. Also added tumeric.
Soften onion and garlic in coconut oil, added grated ginger and orange zest and tumeric, add chopped carrots and a sweet potato, cover with veg stock and simmer for 20 -30 mins then add a tin of coconut milk and blend. Served with oil drizzle and parsley.
The sticky chicken was so successful last week (thanks Jaime Oliver) decided to make another version. This time just used breasts (3 big ones skin on) roasted for about 40 mins with a lemon (cut in two and squeezed over) and 4- 5 garlic bulbs. Meanwhile cut 2 big orange kumara and 2 beetroot into chunks, sloshed over some olive oil , salt, rosemary leaves from the garden and but them into roast too.
Cut the chicken into chunks , squeezed the garlic out of the skin and mashed it into the cooking juice, scooped out the lemon and chucked away the skins, added a couple of big spoons of honey and mixed the whole lot so the chicken chunks coated. Put back in the oven for another 10 mins to go brown and sticky. Kids had theirs on sticks and we had ours mixed with the kumara and beets and some crumbled feta. Greens on the side.
this ended up as a merger of two of my favourite chocolate cake recipes, in part due to the ingredients and partly because just messing around. Used 8 sqs dark and 6 sqs milk choc and 60g or so of butter melted over hot water. Meanwhile whisked 4 eggs with half a cup of soft brown sugar and 1 tsp of gf baking powder, 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and 1 cup ground almonds and 3 spoons live yogurt – mixed it to a smooth batter then added the melted butter and choc – baked it for 20 – 30 mins (didn’t time it just got it out when it looked good). Popular all round.
Garlic, onions, carrot, mince, chili powder (about half a tsp to keep it mild enough for the kids) half a jar of passata, tin of chopped tomatos, kidney beans, tomato paste, cup red wine, cup veg stock .. more liquid than usual but wanted to keep it simmering while took the kids to the beach so being cautious not to let it dry out).. an hour or so later after a paddle came home to a fine chili.
Quick dinner tonight as full on day and late home. Put the sausages under the grill and some quinoa on to cook then chopped some orange, mint from garden, shaved a zucchini (a little too small to pick really but decided to anyway) carrots, cucumber, crumbled feta. Added the cooked quinoa and dressed it with olive oil mixed with honey and red wine vinegar. Fresh corn on the side.
