Easy and moist apple and banana loaf

Toasted banana and apple bread - delicious

Easy and moist apple and banana loaf

Ingrid and I were catching up at the beach for a relaxing morning (hmmmm not sure relaxing was the right word) with our kids to enjoy the beginning of the warm weather. We usually make all sorts of bits and pieces for our kids to eat and often I feel for the time I spend, things only get nibbled and they come home again with me and can't really be eaten at a later stage. This time I decided to use up what I had in the fridge and just make one thing, a moist fruity loaf.
The recipe came from the magazine Recipes+ however as always, I have changed it a wee bit.
The great thing about this recipe is it is very adaptable. I added all the leftover apple slices that were browning in my fridge and cooked it in a square dish rather than a loaf tin.
The loaf was divine, very moist and Ingrid as I scoffed nearly all of it whilst sorting out the numerous arguments our boys had over toys and ignoring the pleas of "mum ma push me, push me" on the cute tree swing we sat besides...
The photos is what was leftover, toasted in my panini maker and spread thick with butter and eaten for breakfast.

What you need
125g melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups banana mashed
1 cup chopped apples
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
How to make 
Oven 180 regular 160 fan forced
Grease a loaf or cake tin
Melt the butter and stir in the sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla and cinnamon.
Sift the flour and baking powder and stir through until combined.
Add the chopped apples
Pour into greased tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer or knife comes clean.

Cheap Eats - Poor Man's Parmesan

Poor Man's Parmesan with olive oil, lemon and edamame beans

Cheap Eats 
Poor Man's Parmesan (Pangritata)

I can't remember where I saw this idea but its been one on my list of things to do for a while. I love Parmesan cheese but as a weekly ingredient with all the other expenses these days (nappies and baby stuff) its not a regular feature. This recipe gives pasta texture and crunch and a lovely garlic flavour.

All you need for the basic mix some bread - any will do fresh, frozen or even stale and some garlic, Olive oil and salt.  To bump up the poor man's Parmesan you can add herbs such as parsley, chives, basil, oregano, rosemary or chili

Other ideas with poor man's Parmesan

 with grilled asparagus, capsicum (peppers) or aubergine
 with a fried egg
 with crispy ham, bacon, shredded corned beef
 with peas or edamame beans
 with garlic sauteed spinach
 with tinned tuna, salmon or sardines
 with rocket or baby spinach topped with walnuts
 with fresh or grilled cherry tomatoes
 with a marmite sauce (Nigella)
 with vegetable ribbons (carrots and courgettes)
 with lemon, chili, olives and anchovies
 with crumbled feta or blue cheese
 With steamed mussels
 with flaked smoked fish or a firm white fish

How to make 'EASY'
Toast 4 slices of bread (or similar)
In a food processor blitz the bread with 4 cloves of fresh garlic, salt to taste and I added a handful of parsley from my garden.
Toast in a pan with olive oil until lightly browned.
Stir through steaming hot pasta with a good splash of olive oil. I added lemon and edamame beans to the photo above.
Simple, cheap and delicious
Vanessa X

Honey and banana buns with cream cheese icing

A while ago Vanessa and I created a range of recipe cards that are selling throughout gift and food shops around New Zealand. This is one of the recipes that proved to be popular. It's a great recipe that's not too sickly sweet like some 'kid's birthday cupcakes, so it's loved by not only the kid's, but the adults will get stuck in as well. You can omit the icing and hundreds and thousands, if you just want these buns as a great snack or for a morning tea, just serve with lashings of butter. Ingrid

Honey and banana buns with cream cheese icing

Makes 12

What you need:
100g butter, softened
1 banana, ripe
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup fruit yoghurt
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tsp cinnamon

How to make:

Preheat oven to 200C. Cream butter and add honey. Beat in eggs, yoghurt and banana. Fold in sifted flour and cinnamon. Don't overmix. Spoon into muffin trays and bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Serve with icing for a treat, but they taste great as is.

Cream cheese icing
175g cream cheese, softened
50g butter, softened
2/3 cup icing sugar

How to make:

Beat all ingredients until smooth but thick consistency. spoon into piping bag and get creative.

Cheap Eats: Mexi Macaroni

Can you feed four for under $5?

When Sweet Living Magazine, gave us a challenge to come up with a meal to feed four for under $5, we have to admit, we didn't know what we were going to end up with. Easy enough to throw together a packet of pasta and a can of tomatoes, but making something tasty, flavorsome and appealing is quite hard on a budget. Whilst walking up and down the isles of the supermarket many protein and meat options were off limits as they blew out the budget. However beans and pulses fill you up, are cost effective and versatile. I know you are probably thinking that these ingredients are more suited to vegetarians or people who don't have a huge appetites but believe us, both the men and the kids in our lives were impressed. The beans were the star of the show, they thicken the sauce without needing to add more expensive ingredients such as tomato paste. They came from the "Delmaine" range and were large butter beans in a rich sauce and even better they were on special. 

Top tips for budget shopping

• You need to get products on special, our butter beans were 69c, reduced from $2.35. Quite often tins of tomatoes are on special, so buy up in bulk as they are useful in all sorts of budget dishes (pastas, stews, soups, slow cooked meals). Also seek out the largest tin as they are often cheaper and the excess can be frozen.
• When checking out the food on the shelves ALWAYS look to the bottom of the shelf - that is where you will find the cheapest options, generic brands or less common and reasonable products.
• It's hard to make a cheap meal that contains meat, but if you can get some cheap sausages, they would be great chopped up and mixed in with this meal. 
• Make more than you need, so it can be frozen and used for another family meal at a later date.
• Dried herbs and spices might seem expensive to buy at the time, however they can go a long way for many meals if you choose right. We added a teaspoon of smoked paprika, that gave this meal a real gutsy kick. Other good spices to buy are chili powder, great for bean or meaty dishes and if you like your meals to have a kick. I often use premixed Moroccan seasoning which contains garlic, turmeric, paprika, chicken extract to name a few, I shake it over chicken, potatoes, or roast vege, or even to season rice or couscous.

Toasted breadcrumbs and garlic sprinkled on top (poor mans parmesan), 
would work brilliantly with this dish.

Mexi macaroni 
Serves 4 adults
What you need:
1 onion (16c)
1/2 can of 800g homebrand tomatoes (80c) 
1 can of corn ($0.95)
2 cans of Butter Beans (69c x 2)
1 x packet of Macaroni (95c)
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika 
2 teaspoons of Moroccan seasoning (or similar, or even just a whole chili simmering in the sauce) 
2 teaspoons of oil ( we used olive because thats what we had, but any cooking oil will do) 

= $4.24 (+ spices and oil would make this up to $5) (NZ Dollars)

How to make
1. Chop and sauté the onions until soft and add the smoked paprika and Moroccan seasoning. 
2. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes on low.
3. Add the beans and simmer for another 10 mins on low. 
4. Add the corn and warm through. 
5. Don't over cook the sauce as the beans will go mushy.
6. Boil the water and add salt and cook the macaroni according to the packet. 
7. Stir the sauce through the pasta and serve. 
8. Garnish options - grated cheese (if you are feeling flush), chopped green herbs such as parsley, chives or coriander or toasted breadcrumbs and garlic which is actually called poor mans parmesan.

Cheap Eats - leftover chicken

Cheap Eats 

Since doing a "feed a family for $5" guest post for SweetLiving Blog I have been thinking more about what I spend on food. Ingrid and I are both on maternity leave and down to one income so the reality is something has to give. Gone are the boozy foodie nights out, random clothes and makeup purchases, the gym membership and expensive bottles of chardonnay. 

Chicken and cannellini bean pate - a great way to use up leftovers...

When I shop I look for things I can stretch further without compromising on taste. For example I would never buy cheap mince but rather bump up the premium mince with beans. I bought 2 cooked chickens the other day for $20. They made a fantastic meal that night and the thighs were the first things to go, the next day I made Ingrid chicken wraps with lettuce, mayo and anchovies. The day after that the left over breast meat (it's never my favourite part) was looking a little sad, and unappetizing but with a little creativity I made this spread/pate. The beans, like with the mince stretch it out further  especially if you don't have that much leftover and the mayo and lemon moisten it up.

Other ways to serve this would be in crusty rolls, on crackers, in lettuce cups, in a tortilla wrap, a rice paper wrap or mixed through shredded lettuce and carrot.
Never throw away leftover chicken again!
Vanessa X

Lemon and Sour Cream Loaf

Lemons ideas part four 
The problem I have is whatever I make, I am tempted to eat. I decided to make these loaves for my mum and dad, my auntie and a family friend. There is no calories in licking the bowl is there?

All ready to give to my lovely dad... 

I ended up making 3 smallish loaves so sandwiched them together with a bit of the icing and topped them with the candied lemons in from my last post.

Topped with candied lemons - will tell you how in the next post!

Lemon and sour cream loaf 
Lemon and Sour cream loaf from ECook

125 grams butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 grated rind lemons
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4-1/2 cup mixed peel
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp lemon juice

1.  Beat the butter, sugar and lemon rind to a cream. Add the egg and beat well.

2.  Beat in the sour cream. Fold in the sifted flour and peel alternately with the milk and lemon juice.

3.  Spread into a well-greased and floured 10 cm x 20 cm loaf tin.

4.  Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes until cooked when tested.

The sour cream icing was amazing!

Sour cream icing 
All I did for the icing was follow the same method as a cream cheese icing on a cheese cake. Sour cream is not as thick as the cream cheese so beating it with icing sugar made it on the runny side so I decided not to add any lemon juice. In hind sight lemon peel would have been nice. Refrigerate before you spread it on the cakes.
Enjoy X

Candied Lemons

Candied lemons on baking paper 

Lemon ideas part three
Lemons or oranges done this way are really really addictive. They make a fantastic garnish on cakes/cupcakes and would even be cute as a garnish to lemon tea at a tea party. A  celebration ham topped with sliced oranges and lemons coated in a sweet whisky marmalade syrup/ golden syrup/brown sugar also works well.

You could even pack them into a preserving jar and keep them for when you need a sweet and sour sugar rush, I imagine they would last quite a while...

All you need to do is slice up the lemons, place on baking paper and add a teaspoon of sugar to each slice. Bake them in a moderate oven for around 20 minutes. Do keep checking them as they can go from soft to crispy pretty quickly.

I used my ones on a lemon and sour cream cake (below) with sour cream icing - delicious.

Lemon and sour cream cake with candied lemons and spring flowers 

Lemon Syrup Yoghurt Shake

Hundreds and thousands bring back childhood memories...

Lemon ideas part two 

My last post was like making pancakes, the first one is never the best! The recipe is great but I wasn't happy with the images or the font. Last night I had a 3am moment (well to be honest it was 5am and I was up with bubba #2) thinking about lemon syrup...

I thought about all the lemony things I love. Tip Top lemon yoghurt ice-cream and Puhoi lemon yoghurt  being two of the best I have been indulging in for a while and you cant go past a good zesty lemon curd on your toast. This sparked my imagination for a lemon yoghurt shake and I couldn't wait to get out of bed and make it...

With an abundance of lemons check out the previous post to make the syrup. It lasts for ages and has many uses, this being one of my favourites. Its reasonably healthy other than the sugar and a great way to get your kids to drink milk and yoghurt. To thicken it up you could add vanilla ice-cream or for the healthier option throw in a banana.       

Preserving jars make great milkshake containers

In a blender add 1 pottle of yoghurt, 2 pottles of milk, 1/2 -1 pottle of lemon syrup and blitz for a minute or so. To make the hundred and thousands stay on the jars, dip them into the shake (just the rims) and agitate in a saucer of hundred and thousands. I tried chocolate hail but it wasn't very successful, it just wouldn't stick!

Easy pizza dough

A play on words for our two boys who got stuck in rolling the dough,
however the name also means maori dumplings.

Making your own pizza dough REALLY is easy! Too often we perceive making things by scratch to be difficult and end up spending way too much money to buy a sub-standard product. Time is also an issue, even more so now, as Ingrid and I have just added a baby each to the mix. However pizza dough  really is easy and so much more delicious than anything you can buy. All it takes is a little organisation and a hot water cupboard!

Jake was methodical in placing the toppings, Rhys was more concerned with eating the toppings.

The first stage involves the yeast sitting in your hot water cupboard or a warm place for about 15 mins, the second stage is where for give yourself an arm workout for about 10 mins and the third stage is when it proves in your hot water cupboard again until it doubles in size.  The time for this varies but I have experienced success every time I have made it even though I have left it for different amounts of time!

Thin and crispy, perfect for little hands.

Easy Pizza Dough

You will need

2 tsp yeast (instant dried)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup warm water

How to make

• In a bowl add the warm water, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil. Leave for about 10 minutes until its activated and a bit bubbly. 
• Add the yeast mixture to the flour by making a well in the centre and mixing it with your hands to form a dough ball. 
• Knead it until its smooth - this takes about 10 mins - using the heel of your hand works well and you get in to a rhythm. Great exercise!
• Put into a bowl coated in a bit of olive oil and place some where warm to let it prove (rise) to double its original size. I leave it for an hour or so. (I used the hot water cupboard)
• When ready, punch the dough as its quite light and re-work it into a ball. 
• Its now ready to use. 
• Roll it out to the desired thinness/thickness - I always go thin.
• Place on to a floured pan or pizza stone and add toppings. TIP: Uncooked pizza dough can be frozen in balls or flat between baking paper.
• Bake at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

...the best bit is always the tasting at the end.
Ham, cheese and pineapple was the toppings of choice for these kids.

Interesting toppings and hints.
Use a base of tomato sauce or pesto, you can even use store bought pasta sauce.


TIP: Be careful with ingredients that have a high water content such as fresh tomato, mushrooms, pineapple or frozen spinach - this can make the pizza soggy if you add too much.

• Prawns, capers and anchovies
• Spinach, Parmesan and Cracked egg
• Jalapeño and spicy salami
• bacon, blue cheese and leek

Apple puffs with passionfruit custard

FLAKY PUFF PASTRY has to be the best pastry to have on hand in your freezer. It's so simple to use, you can make a multitude of different dishes - fruit pies, custard squares, vanilla slices, danishes, Vanessa's peach pastries, and savoury dishes such as Vanessa's smoked fish pie, pinwheels, turnovers, empanadas or my leftover's mexican pie but I find the best thing about this type of pastry is you don't feel like you've eaten a whole load of fat. It's light and airy and fools you into thinking, you could get away with eating more than one! Ingrid

NO TIME? USE STORE BOUGHT CUSTARD AND MIX THROUGH PASSIONFRUIT PULP

APPLE PUFFS WITH 
PASSIONFRUIT CUSTARD
MAKES 12
WHAT YOU NEED
400g flaky puff pastry (thawed and rolled out flat)
3 egg yolks (separated from the egg whites*)
1 egg (for egg wash)
100mls milk
25mls cream
75g castor sugar
4 passionfruit (pulp of)
1 apple (sliced thinly)


HOW TO MAKE
APPLE PUFFS:  Set oven temperature to 200C. Roll out pastry on a floured surface. Using a cookie cutter or a glass, cut 12 circle shapes. Brush each circle shape with egg wash (1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water). Add 2 slices of apple to each circle. Bake in oven for 15-20mins until pastry has puffed up and is golden. Serve hot or cold.


PASSIONFRUIT CUSTARD: In a saucepan bring milk and cream slowly to the boil. Take off the heat and reduce element to a low heat. In a bowl whisk three egg yolks and sugar until pale. Add egg mix to hot milk and stir quickly. Put saucepan back on low heat and stir until it thickens. Take off heat and add passionfruit pulp. Mix through. Pour over apple puffs.
TIP: If your stretched for time, just buy store-bought custard and mix through passionfruit pulp.


*WHAT TO DO WITH THE LEFTOVER EGG WHITES?
FREEZE: Pour into freezer bags for future use, make sure you label the bag so you know how much is in there. Alternatively you could store each egg white in an ice cube tray so you can pop one out when you need it.
MAKE: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chocolate macaroons or Pistachio Baked Meringues from foodblog Cannelle Et Vanille

1 BEATEN EGG + 1 TBSP WATER = EGG WASH

MORE PUFF PASTRY RECIPES FROM FOODOPERA

NO FRESH FRUIT? Check out Vanessa's recipe using puff pastry and tinned peaches. 

"when you can buy pastry for about $2.00 (NZ) a block who would bother making it?"
www.foodopera.peachpastries.com


GREAT USE OF LEFTOVERS Turn leftovers into a simple mexican puff pastry pie
"So I ended up going around in circles, stressing out about cheese all week, (who does that?) only to end up whipping up a puff pastry Mexican pie using leftovers from the night before. "
www.foodopera.mexicanpie.com


HEALTHY PIE No milk or cream
"A change from the usual fish pie with mash and chock a block filled with healthy green veges, its a pie using half the amount of pastry."
www.foodopera.smokedfishpie.com

Banana and Weetbix muffins

I love it when you feel like doing a spot of cooking or baking and you have next to nothing in the cupboards, but you pile all the odd bits of this and strange end bits of that and somehow you have a recipe! This is what happened one weekend en route to a mum and bubs coffee group. I didn't have much time, so I always fall back on muffins as they are so easy to make and take only 12 mins to bake. 

Best eaten when still warm, with melting butter.

The only trick to making muffins work (and I'm always learning the hard way) is NOT to over mix them - in fact you bearly mix the ingredients if you want them light enough not to break your molars.

So ripe(ish) bananas it is, and a few weetbix made a very nice combo for our morning tea. The only problem was, clawing my 2 year son away from them (He had four before I realised the crumbs around his mouth and the look of gluttony peering up at me). The pictures show the muffins before I took them to our morning tea, and before a little boy mouse had nibbled little scallop shapes around the top. Enjoy. Ingrid

Banana and Weetbix muffins

Makes 12

What you need

1 cup self raising flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup of sugar (brown, white or raw - whatever you got)

4 weetbix (crushed) or 1 cup bran

1 Tbsp golden syrup

1 Tbsp butter (or margarine)

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 egg (beaten)

2 bananas (ripe, mash one)  Slice up one banana for garnishing

Golden syrup for drizzling

How to make

Set oven temp to 220C.

Sift flour and salt into bowl, add sugar and weetbix.

Melt golden syrup and butter together. Dissolve baking soda into the milk, add beaten egg.

Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients. Mix only to combine. Don't over mix. Add mashed banana. Grease muffin tins and spoon mixture evenly. Add sliced banana to the tops and drizzle golden syrup. Bake in oven for 12 mins or until golden.

Stone Fruit Pie

Summer loving and the trees are heaving with luscious treasures...

Peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots - stone fruits that are synonymous with summer. If you are lucky enough to have mature fruit trees or neighbours with tress loaded with fruit, the possibilities are endless.

My neighbour has plums but you have to be quick, firstly the birds get stuck in and with no sense of respect take a few pecks out of each plum.  Secondly its the neighbours on the other side with their big blue bucket! I hope they drop off what ever treasure they are making...

I am loving these colour combinations 

I took a trip to the local Asian market for my colourful array and for no more than $3.99NZD per bag picked up apricots, white peaches and nectarines. I guess with many things "use it or lose it applies" and this certainly applied for the apricots. I like my fruit crunchy, even on the sour side and once its ripened and gone soft it really doesn't appeal to me. Cooking with fruit is a fantastic way to use up fruit past its best by or even fruit fallen from trees. Apricots with pork or chicken, chutneys, fresh salsa, fruity sauces for ice-cream and smoothies, cakes, loaves, muffins, cup cakes and of course desserts.  

Endless possibilities

My first attempt using stone fruit in a cake was OK, it was basically a carrot cake type mixture (oil not butter) and loaded with cinnamon and ginger. I cooked it in a cute paper cake mould BUT whilst watching "one born every minute" I totally forgot and it had about 15 Min's more time than it needed. Also I couldn't resist cutting into it to try so as far as blogging and photographing it - it just didn't happen!

Colourful, sweet and tart

My second attempt was a lot more successful...
I was asked to make a birthday cake for my partners mum as we were having a birthday BBQ, so using what I had in my fridge - stone fruit pie was my idea. to save time I bought a big 700gram tin of cooked apples and already had the pastry packets in my freezer. For the price and convenience, these are so handy!

The easiest pastry in the world

All I basically did was roll the pastry out and made it fit the base and sides of the spring form dish, mix the chopped stone fruit with a couple of generous tablespoons of brown sugar and mix it with the tinned apples. I used apples mainly because I thought the stone fruit alone was a little bit adventurous for my guests and to stretch it a bit further. 

I lined the bottom of the pie dish BUT in hindsight - don't do this, there is no need with the buttery pastry and the wetness of the fruit and the paper didn't mix!  

All that's missing is the icing sugar...

I used 2 packets of pastry and with the excess made some cute little jammy parcels. These were a hit with both the adults and kids alike - really easy and have that homemade feel to them. I used Ingrid's rhubarb jam from a previous post and it was perfect melted into the crunchy, buttery and sweet pastry. 

Perfect for small hands and adults love them too

What you need

2 packets of shortcrust sweet pastry (I used Edmond's and its found in the freezer section)

Uncooked stone fruit - chopped up and of course stoned

1 tin (large 700grams) of cooked apples

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Spring form pie dish

How to make 

Chop the stone fruit and mix with apples and brown sugar 

Roll out the pastry and fit to the pie dish (I didn't blind bake BUT it may pay to do this?) 

Put the fruit into the pastry and cover with a lid, strips of pastry or even a crumble topping. 

Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes - keep watching the pastry so it doesn't over brown. I put some tinfoil on the pastry edges to stop it browning whilst the rest of the top cooked. 

Delicious with ice-cream

Quick and easy lasagna

What a great feeling to have healthy and delicious meals waiting in your freezer

After 7 wet days camping with a super organised friend, my mission for 2012 is to attempt to have nutritious and delicious meals in my freezer for my son. We are both working mums and find the 5pm kids dinner hour a bit of a challenge. Over the holiday break there has been a lot of snacking going on, chips and dips, fish and chips, easy camp meals and of course ice creams and ice blocks. The kids have loved it, such a change from their regular healthy daycare lunches and snacks.

Both Ingrid and I are due to have second babies and be on maternity leave in about 10 weeks so the thought of life with two kids is quite daunting. An even better reason to get organised!

I have been reading a book called “Economy Gastonomy” by Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merret. I bought it cheap somewhere and about a year later saw their show on TV. It’s a great read and a fabulous introduction in to being organised and stretching your dollar. It motivated me to start with basics like mince and tinned fish. My first creation was Lasagna, kids love pasta and adults can spice it up with a bit of Tabasco and crisp salad. A few things I discovered along the way…

• Add a tin of beans (baked beans, chili beans, butter beans) , it makes the mince go further.
• Ensure the lasagna has a far bit of liquid/wetness in the sauces, the pasta really does soak it up.
• Add vegetables such as carrots, aubergines, courgettes, mushrooms, peas even a puree of vegetables – the kids will never know.  

Make it fun for the kids! 

The recipe I am giving you is not exact, its very forgiving and with a bit of planning is pretty easy to create an impressive dish.

What you need

Meat sauce

Mince 500g-1kg

Tinned chopped tomatoes x2

1 tub/tube tomato puree/concentrate/paste

Olive oil

Salt/pepper

1 onion

6 cloves of garlic (its really mild cooked)

1 tin beans

Vegetables – anything goes really

Cheese sauce

Butter

Milk

Flour

Tasty cheese or what ever leftovers you have in the fridge

Lasagna sheets OR any other pasta you have in your cupboard

Add cherry tomatoes for a splash of colour and vitamin hit

Firstly make the meat sauce.

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, add the mince and brown it. Then add the chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and about a tin of water. Simmer uncovered for a while and you should notice the water evaporating and the sauce thickening. Add the vegetables and paste and simmer until they are soft. Finally add the beans. You will have to monitor the sauce by adding more water if needed or simmering for longer if not thick enough. Also watch the meat doesn’t catch the bottom of the pot. (keep tasting it and adding more salt if needed, you can even add a teaspoon of sugar to sweeten the tomatoes)

Whilst the sauce is simmering get stuck in and make the cheese sauce.

Now you need to make a roux, this is a mixture of flour and butter that acts a thickening agent. Melt about 2 large tablespoons of butter in a pot, add a similar amount of flour and mix to a paste. You may have to take off the heat if its cooking a bit fast. Add milk ½ cup at a time, only adding more when its thick. When you have the sauce to the consistency you need add the cheese – grated, cubes, chunks or leftover pieces. Set aside.  

In an oven proof deep dish add a layer of lasagna sheets or dried pasta shapes. Add a thick layer of meat sauce, cheese sauce and more pasta. Keep repeating the process until you have nothing left. Basically you need to make sure the pasta has moisture to cook in from either sauces. It doesn’t really matter what you finish with as long as the pasta is covered with meat or cheese sauce. I also added some tomato slices on top at the end for a bit of colour.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes at about 200 degrees, you can usually tell if its cooked by putting a knife into it and it should pierce the pasta easily.  

Let it cool down before you slice it and portion it up and put in to freezer suitable containers or tin foil. I used tin foil and the only disadvantage is you can’t defrost in the microwave if the tin foil sticks to the frozen lasagna.

Sit back, relax and enjoy knowing you have family dinner or kids portions waiting to impress. 

Vanessa 

Extras

I also made a fish pie, check out previous post, add a mash and cheese top, cool and chuck it in the freezer. 

http://foodopera.blogspot.com/2011/02/smoked-fish-ans-greens-pie.html

Rice - yes you can freeze it, cook it and cool it fast by laying it our on to a baking tray. when cool bag it or put into containers and place in the coldest part of your freezer. Not the door or by the front. 

Heat in the microwave ensuring its HOT! 

Chicken and Asparagus Rolls

Ok, so the weather has been pretty unpredictable, ok it's been absolute pants and summer ain't been showing it's face around here enough, but it's still hot (ok, muggy) and we have flys and ants taking over our house, so it got me thinking about picnic food, and bits of this and bits of that - all thrown together, food designed to mesh quite happily together. So this is the result of what I found in my cupboard one unpredictable wet summers day, when a picnic was made in the backyard just as a glimpse of sun broke through.

ALSO TRY: Lemon juice and ground peppercorns make a great rub on roast chicken

QUICK IDEA: If you don't have tortillas, just roll one asparagus spear and spread the chicken mix in a slice of fresh sandwich bread, and bake in the oven for a twist on asparagus rolls.

Lemon Pepper picnic tortillas
Serves 4

What you need:
Bunch of asparagus (4 per tortilla approx)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 x lemon
cracked peppercorns
2 tbsp butter
1 x onion (chopped finely)
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 Leftover roast chicken (ripped apart and chopped roughly)
4 x tortillas

How to make:
Prepare chicken

On a medium heat, add butter to a frypan, fry onion until soft, add flour to make a paste then add milk slowly, allowing to thicken. Add leftover chicken to heat through. Squeeze half the lemon and cracked peppercorns.


Prepare asparagus
Chop hard stalks off asparagus. Lay on a baking dish, drizzle olive oil, squeeze half the lemon and cracked peppercorns. Grill both sides. Remove from oven.

Assemble:
Set oven to bake 200 C. Bake tortillas for 3 mins, lay on a plate and spread chicken sauce mix down the middle. Add asparagus. Fold the bottom up then fold each side of the tortilla inwards and tie with a piece of string.

Christmas Fudge

Christmas is for giving FUDGE!

I am a fudge fanatic, I love the stuff. Its strange because after dinner I am usually the one who opts for the cheese board BUT when it comes to fudge, I can't help myself.

I think it all started at intermediate school when I showed an interest in cooking. I would come home from school, raid the pantry for sugar, turn to the back of the Edmonds cookbook and make batches of chocolate fudge. Unfortunately it took a long time to perfect. There were many occasions when it didn't set and frustration would set in however I usually went back for round two if there was enough sugar left. Of course Mum would arrive home and the 1kg bag of sugar would be non-existent and there would be no fudge to show for it either...

Russian and chocolate fudge

Because of my fudge fascination, school fairs and street stalls would ignite my appetite. I would hunt out the homemade packages, buy a few and scoff the lot! Now I am a teacher at a school that has a regular school fair. The first year I jumped at the chance to make and sell the homemade sweet treats. I encouraged the students to make fudge and even sent home recipes. Pity though, many families are too busy to attempt making homemade sweets or deemed it too difficult. I was disappointed as lots of shop bought sweets rolled in!
The Russian fudge I made came from a friend Johanna who bought it along on a camping trip. OMG it was so good sitting outside on a balmy evening tucking into the huge chunks of heaven! She of course passed on the recipe which comes from another food blogger. Its a microwave fudge and probably the best no fail recipe I have tried. 

Parcels of joy!

The other fudge recipe I made was a random one I found on the Internet but had chocolate and peanut butter for a change. It was the traditional one, made on the stove and had more bite ability than the creamy Russian one. Either way they both worked and tasted great. I ended up taking it all into work so I wouldn't be tempted... 

Its important to keep a jar at home! 

So the reason of this post of course is making edible gifts to give for the festive season.
The glass jars came from the warehouse ($2.99 each - so cheap), the clear bags and netting (wedding favours) came from spotlight as did the red noodle boxes.
Get creative and make some sweet fudge for your loved ones - its such a nice personal touch that is seriously dying out!


Russian microwave fudge
You will need

100g butter

1 cup white sugar

1 can (400g) sweetened condensed milk

1 tbsp golden syrup

2 tsp vanilla essence

How to make
In a microwave proof bowl (very large as the mixture rises up) add everything except the vanilla essence.
Microwave on high for 1 minute then stir, then for a further 2 minutes and stir.
Repeat this process until 10 minutes is up. (I actually did it for 12 minutes).
The mixture will darken in colour, if it hasn't  zap it for a bit longer. Be careful as it can burn! 
If you use a candy thermometer, it should be 120 degrees or you are looking for the soft ball stage when you drip it into cold water (I have never used a candy thermometer and the soft ball concept has never really worked for me)
When its done  add the vanilla and beat with an electric beater for about 4 minutes. (It should lose its shine and start to thicken)
Pour onto baking paper that is in dish (anything will do, I used Tupperware)
Cut into cubes when nearly set and leave to cool. 


Recipe from http://www.thinkingaboutfood.com/2008/02/fudge-and-coffee.html


Chocolate Peanut Fudge

What you need

2 cups white sugar

2 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
30g butter
2 tbsp peanut butter

How to make
In a med saucepan, stir together the suger and cocoa, combining so there are no lumps. Add milk, butter and peanut butter. Heat genlty, stirring constanly until ingredients have melted. Boil to the softball stage (about 7-10 min). 

Stand to cool for a couple of minutes, then beat with a spoon until thick.Pour into a well greased sponge roll tin and set in fridge.

Recipe from http://www.chelsea.co.nz/baking-and-recipes/966/peanut-choc-fudge.aspx

Vanessa