Oats, PB, honey, and a shot of Whiskey

You know you’ve got a good thing going when you come home from work to find freshly baked homemade cookies ready for your return.  

Here are some delicious (and thoughtful!) oatmeal, peanutbutter, and honey (and shot of whiskey!) baked by Mister:  

  

  

Leftover Baked Eggs/Shakshouka

Getting to the end of our grocery week – we were running very low and ingredients to choose from.  Thankfully for the 5kg bag of potatoes and 2kg bag of carrots I’d bought a couple of weeks ago, I was able to whip up a meal using some of the ingredients we had in our fridge and pantry.

Here’s a modified version of baked eggs/shakshouka:

• 4-5 small potatoes
• 1 onion
• 4 lamb kidneys
• 1 carrot
• 4 eggs
• 1 green chilli
• 1 red chilli
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1-2 tbsp of tomato paste
• spices: paprika (use lots!), oregano, black pepper, dried chilli flakes

This dish was made without a recipe and was mainly used using what I could find leftover in my fridge/pantry.  So feel free to modify as you feel necessary.

Method:

1. Firstly – peel and quarter the potatoes.
2. Heat the oven up to 240 degrees celsius
3. Boil potato and onions in a pot – then drain once cooked through
4. In a frying pan, fry some diced onions and diced lamb kidney
5. Add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes to the pain
6. Stir well and season with spices to taste
7. Slice the fresh chillies and add to the mixture
8. Then in a large baking dish: add the potatoes and carrots, then cover with the tomato/lamb mixture
9. Crack 4 eggs on top and place in the oven
10. After about 10 minutes sprinkle some cheese over the top and add some oregano and black pepper
11. Continue to bake until the eggs are cooked through to your liking

Shepherd’s Pie

There’s nothing more wonderful than waking up to the smell of a delicious meal cooking in the kitchen.  After working a series of night shifts I was completely and absolutely exhausted.  I’d promised Mister than I would cook dinner but wound up falling asleep.  To my surprise,  I woke up to him making a Shepherd’s pie (definitely some Brownie points there!).

What other thoughtful things have your partner or significant other done for you?

Wholemeal Loaf

I have always wanted to have a go at making my own bread.  So last night, after realising that we were out of bread (and also that I was too lazy to go to the supermarket again just for bread), I thought I’d give the homemade bread a try.  And surprisingly, it was a success!

 

The recipe I used was extremely simple and I will definitely be doing this again!  There’s something satisfying about creating your own food, that you know exactly what ingredients have gone into it, and you can modify it each time as you please.   

To add a bit of flavour and a golden crust to the load, I brushed the top of the loaf with a light coating of olive oil and sprinkled some oregano for the last 15mins of baking.

Ingredients:

• 500grams of wholemeal flour
• 60grams of butter
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon of honey 
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 sachet dry yeast
• 300mls warm water 
• 1tsp salt

  

Wallaby Mince Pizza

Living in a regional town means that takeaway options are much less readily available.  No more MenuLog or getting home delivery from an option of at least 10 different restaurants in your locality.  But, that is why I love living here.  For lazy nights in, we make simple cheap meals which are are much healthier and economical option that the ‘convenient’ takeaways.

Wallaby mince was on cheap for $4.50 for 500grams today so we decided to make some wallaby mince pizza.

 

For extra flavour I added some birds eye chilli to the mince whilst cooking and some jalapeños on top.  Firstly, I cooked the wallaby mince with onions and added some spices to taste along with the chilli. 

   I used a pizza dough recipe from taste.com substituting plain flour for wholemeal (which I find gives it more flavour).

 This ended up making 2 pizzas with some mince still to spare.   A much more economical (and still very easy option) than takeaway delivery for a lazy Sunday night!  

Assorted stew

We flew back late into town the other night after our flight got delayed.  By the time we got home, it was chilly and we definitely needed some warming up after a fews day away in warmer temperatures. 

I decided to chuck a few ingredients together and managed to make a hearty warming stew for dinner.  Surprisingly, despite the random combination of ingredients, it worked out tasting pretty well.

 

• 500grams minced beef  
• 1 capsicum 
• 3-4 carrots
• 2 potatoes
• Cayenne peppers (I used 3 – one red, green, and yellow for variety)
• 1 broccoli 
• 1 can of red kidney beans 
• 2 onions
• 3 gloves garlic 
• Vegetable stock 
• Tomato paste (to taste)
• Paprika (to taste)
• Curry powder (to taste)
• Pepper