Slice, dice and bake. Recipe for an easy dinner.

Something simple for Sunday night. Picnic food. Lunch at the office… the possibilities are endless for this yummy slice. I’m sure we’ve all got a variation of this in our recipe collections, I know I have.
I had not thought of this dish for years until I found it in a new magazine I bought and as I do, decided I would make it.
I did change it slightly as I didn’t have everything, but it won’t make much difference really.
As mr 9 said, “pastry less quiche”. That’s about it.

Carrot, zucchini and bacon slice

4 rindless shortcut bacon rashers, chopped,
1 red capsicum chopped,
1 each carrot and zucchini grated
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup SR flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1) Fry bacon and veges (I added onion and extra capsicum as I didn’t have zucchini) til tender or 5 mins and cool.
2) Whisk eggs and milk together
3) add flour and cheese to mixing bowl with cooked bits and mix
4) add egg mixture and fold in til just combined.
5) pour into greased and lined tin – 20x30cm (I used a square one instead) and bake in 180C oven, 30 mins or until cooked.

Cut and serve.
For a vegetarian version swap bacon for 100gr feta cheese.

I had mine with extra veg and a salad, while I cooked other meat for the kids to have with theirs.

Bacon and veg:

Milk and eggs:

Adding flour and cheese, with a good handful of parsley and pepper

In the pan ready to bake:

Baked:

And ready to eat, it smelt so good I just had to try a piece, or two

Here is a link to another version on my favourite cooking site, Taste.com.au.

Do you have your own version of this, or something similar?
No? Then give this a try, and enjoy, as it only takes around an hour from start to finish.

Jen 🙂

Tasty Tuesday

It’s starting to look like a week of ‘things’ for each day.
And today I was baking again. Being Tuesday I head out to town with Mr 13 so dinner is prepared early – something that is good to reheat.
Today, I started with Tuna pasta bake. Basic and easy. Tuna, pasta and a cheese sauce, baked in the oven. Did I say how easy it was?

A friend on FB was doing her own baking and that got me thinking. I wanted to make some mixed berry muffins, and decided that with my mini road trip on Thursday, mum and I can take some with us. Hopefully there will be some left. So I made blueberry and raspberry muffins. With patty pans, and not bits got left behind this time.

I was well in the mood to bake by this time and decided that I will spoil my boys make sure they eat something halfway healthy on Thursday when I’m not there and hubby has to feed them. So a savoury tart was baked as well. Quiche, tart, either or.
The muffins were done while the pasta cooked and I prepped that and all the dishes and bench tidied while the quiche was cooking.
And then the boys arrived home. Peace and quiet no longer.

Wait there, is that one missing I see…? Yes, it was good too.

Ahh… Dinner, yum.

And dinner for my boys on Thursday…

Who likes Coleslaw??

Granted, most people don’t, it’s the whole cabbage and flatulence thing.  I love it!  Just gotta be careful when I eat it though, and today, the day before hubby gets home, probably not the best decision.. lol.  Damn, it tasted good though.

I’m on a bit of a health and fitness weight-loss kick now, after the last few sludgy weeks,   (there’s along term goal there, but I wont bore you with the details).  So after my 4k walk with dog and mr 8 I wanted something nice and light for lunch.  No more carbs, and I can’t eat eggs without toast, so that ruled out a nice poached or scrambled egg for lunch.
The dregs of the vege drawer produced a cabbage in both white and purple,  red onion, cos lettuce and some avocado.  If bacon had been present anywhere it would have made a brilliant addition.  Thus turning it into a Ceaser-slaw.  Now there’s an idea… maybe next time.

After thinly slicing my cabbage, lettuce and onion, I found the dregs (yep, my fridge is disgustingly bare presently) of a regular mayonaise and some Potato-salad dressing (this one is lightly herbed, but I think some coriander and parsley would do the trick otherwise).
Mixing in just enough to combine the slaw mix I then helped myself and added some chopped avocado on the top.

Crunchy, sweet, mellow, a bit of bite with onion… I went back for seconds, then thirds – hmm, I just demolished the lot.
Mr 13 sat at the table with his toast and I asked him would he like some… “no, don’t like purple food…”
So that got us (with mr 8) talking about coloured foods and what was  yummy or otherwise.

Once I helped myself to the last serving mr 8 said “…mum, one day you’re going get sick…”  Ok, “why”, Apparently if I eat too much healthy food I’m going to get sick.  Can’t say much to that except laugh.

My slaw mix.
Quantities are about equal with the veges.  Amount – depends on how many are eating.
I had a 1/4 each of cabbage & onion and only used a very small portion of each + 1 whole baby cos lettuce.  I love avocado, so I could have eaten the whole thing with it, but I restrained myself, used about 1/4 or less on each serve.
If adding bacon, I would allow 1 rasher per person, and chopping into strips, fry it til crispy, then add into the veges.

Red & white (or is it green) cabbage.
Cos lettuce, I like the baby ones.
red onion.
Dressing of your choice – should be creamy. Just enough to coat ingredients.
Herbs.
Avocado – not too soft, not too hard.

Thinly slice, cabbage, onion, lettuce.
Add dressing/s and herbs if using.
Place into a bowl and top with about a 1/4 of the avocado chopped.

Happy munching, eat well 🙂
jennifer

soup or chowder… chow on down.

Ok, can someone tell me please what makes a chowder different from a soup?

Regardless of the difference I am making this for dinner tonight.
I could just do some veges and heat the roast chicken from last night but with the weather coming in chilly I wanted to make yummy food that is filling, healthy and warming.
A good thick soup is just the answer.
My recipe has corn, bacon and potatoes, I have chicken so it’s going in there aswell.   This is a recipe that I got from my favourite recipe site (Taste.com.au) with a few slight changes due to pantry options.

Have we got everything ready… ? Yep?  Then, let’s cook!

ingredients:
butter, 2 onions diced (i used 1), 1/4 cup plain flour
250gr bacon (i made up the weight with a combination of chicken and bacon),
3 cups milk, 2 cups chicken stock,
1 kg corn kernels (i used a 400gr tin creamed corn)
500gr potato

yes, this is one 500gr potato...

what to do:
cook onions and bacon (i added some garlic here aswell)

add the flour and mix together.
Add the milk and stock and stir to combine.

Bring to the boil then add chopped potatoes and corn.

Cook for 15-20  til potatoes are soft and soup is thickened.
I added my creamed corn halfway through the last stage of cooking.  This made it a thick creamier coup.

Bowl up and serve with bread of choice.

Yeah, a little parsley would make it look so much better.

I did have a problem while cooking this soup… what can that be you ask..?
Yesterday one of my hot plates died.  Not just any hot plate. But the one I use the most, and the only large one – the one I use for my soup pot.
So cooking a thick soup which needs to simmer proved difficult.  Part of it burnt while the rest struggled to boil.  So stood and stirred instead of walking away (and reading  my new cooking magazines).
It tasted really good and is so easy anyone could make it.  Whichever version you want to make.

keep warm 🙂
Jennifer