Curried Veggies and Red Lentils Soup

We have been having some terrible cold weather lately, and I had intended on doing this yesterday but the plans got shuffled. Anyway, today was the day, and I am so glad I did this. This soup was healthy, hearty and delicious and was inspired by The Veggie Mama. It is vegan / vegetarian friendly and would work perfectly for No Meat Mondays!

Ingredients

1 large potatoe

1 slice of a large sweet potato

1 slice of pumpkin

1 brown onion

1 stalk celery

1/2 zuchinni

1.5 cups red lentils

1 teaspoon of each mustard seeds, tumeric, cumin, chilli flakes, parsley and Caraway seeds

2 teaspoons / cloves of garlic (or to taste)

2 cups veggie stock

2 cups water

a splash of oil and a tea spoon of butter.

Method

1. Chop all vegetables into small bite size pieces. In a saucepan, add a little oil / butter and the onions.  After a few minutes, add the spices and garlic, cooking until the onions are translucent and the spices are aromatic. Add the remaining vegetables, and saute until they are covered in the oil / spices.
2. Add the lentils and vegetable stock. Mix well. Cook until the vegetables are cooked and the lentils are tender. On a moderate heat, this should only take you 20 – 30 minutes. You can adjust the texture of the soup to suit yourself – add more water for a thinner soup or reduce for a thicker, heartier soup.
3. You can either serve it chunky, or use the stick blender for a smoother consistency like I have here. A warm crusty roll will work wonders, but this soup is hearty and filling!

Observations

• Diabetics please note: I added potatoes and sweet potatoes to this dish to up the carb content, but my sugars were quite low after an hour. I would definitely recommend a slice of bread or bread roll to lift the carb content to 3 exchanges (45g carbs)

• Don’t be tempted to add all the water at once as the soup will be too thin and reduction may inadvertently burn the soup.

• Adjust the herbs and spices to suit your own tastes, but the 1 teaspoon measure for each spice creates a mild tasty soup.

• My family would be tempted to add sour cream to this dish. Suit your own tastes.

 

Curried Veggie Parcels

I must admit, this is one of those dishes I only make a few times a year. I am not sure why I wait for so long between servings, as my family adore them. They are not even particularly hard to make, but it can be time consuming.

Ingredients

1 large potatoe

1 slice of a large sweet potato

1 slice of pumpkin

1 cup frozen peas

1 brown onion

1 stalk celery

1/2 zuchinni

Sprinkle of mustard seeds, tumeric, cumin, ground coriander

garlic to taste

Jug full of hot water or vegie stock.

sesame seeds

Packet of puff pastry

Method

1. Chop all vegetables into small bite size pieces. In a frying pan, add a little oil and the onions.  After a few minutes, add the spices and garlic, cooking until the onions are translucent and the spices are aromatic. Add the remaining vegetables and cover with water. Cook on a moderate heat with the lid on until the potatoes are cooked. You will need to monitor it carefully and add water as needed – you don’t want them to dry out, but you don’t want to make it into soup. Towards the end of the cooking process, reduce the water content without letting the vegetables burn.
2. Defrost the pastry until it is easy to work with, but not totally thawed. Using a knife, cut each sheet into quarters. Turning the sheet on the diagonal (to form diamonds instead of squares) spoon some mixture into the bottom corner of each quarter. Fold the top down to form a triangle, and seal the edges with a fork. Stab the top layer in the centre with a fork to create a steam vent before placing on the oven tray.
3. Carefully coat each triangle with a milk wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds before placing in a moderate oven for 20 – 30 minutes.
4. Allow to cook slightly before serving. My family loves a range of sauces with them (tomato, curry, sweet chilli) but I have to admit I am partial to mango chutney – nom nom

Observations

• Be very careful not to over cook the vegetables. You want them to retain their shape and integrity and not collapse. See step 2 photo above for guidance.

• Care should be taken while they bake as they go from white to burnt in a heart beat! Keep an eye on them and adjust the times as needed.

• Taste the vegie mixture while cooking (prior to making up the triangles). Adjust spices as needed.

• My Nana made a similar dish when I was a child which she called “cottage pie”. It was nothing like cottage pie, and I think she struggled to find an Australian word to do it justice. As is typical in Maltese cuisine, she would add a tin of “Hamper Corn Beef” and allow the beef to spread through the mixture.  It adds a delicious unique taste that is quite typically Maltese and I recommend giving that variation an attempt!

• I have to admit that tonight’s dinner was made so much easier by the help of my truly awesome husband. To speed up the process, he peels veggies while I chop, and he does the milk washes and sesame seed sprinkling while I construct the triangles. This makes life a lot easier if you can organise a sort of construction line. (We actually do this quite often – its a little quality time that we both enjoy.)

 

Weapons of Choice

We decided that no medieval event would be complete without the usual array of weapons. Below are our “weapons of choice”, so to speak.

Lances

The lances were the easiest of all the weapons to make. We went to spotlight and asked them for old fabric rolls. They gave us three at no charge. I gave them a very quick and rough coat of brown to make it look like grained wood. Joe made the lance tips by making a cone out of cardboard which I spray painted with silver paint. Then all I needed to do was affix the lance heads onto the shafts with the aid of a hot glue gun. Easy and effective!

Axes

Our axes were a little trickier to make. Joe found a template on the internet for the flat axe head shape. He used lots of tape to fold then into shape and to secure the front and back together. He used newspaper to stuff into the middle to hold the form and made sure he left enough room in the centre for the shaft to go through.

To give them a little more strength, we paper mached the axe heads with a few layers of newspaper before giving them a coat of silver spray paint. We were able to score a cheap piece of metal tubing (like a curtain rod) for the axe handles. To finish them off I just used the hot glue gun to glue the handles in. They are still quite simple and will make very effective decorations for the wall.

A similar template to our axe heads can be seen here. 
http://www.stormthecastle.com/Things/make-a-cardboard-battleaxe-or-polearm.htm

 

Pageantry Pennants

The hall we hired for our event was so large, that the thought of trying to decorate such a large space was overwhelming. When we looked for various events, we found that brightly coloured pennants displaying various pageantry coats of arms are often used by conversationalists. With this idea in mind, we set out to make some pennants that would help set the theme and mood.

I used cheap bits of felt which we purchased from Spotlight for $1.50 per pack of 3. I purchased several packs with various colour options.

Using good quality scissors , I cut the bottom of each length into an arrow shape, and using a hot glue gun, glued the tops back to from a loop which our raffia rope would later go through for hanging. To save time, we did several backing pennants at once, and put them aside for later use.

Joe spent a good deal of time researching images that would make good icons for the pennants, and would often strip out the colour and resize them for our needs before printing them off. We often thought about what colours we would want our icons to be that would be good contrasts to the backing pennants. This process was aided by a colour wheel. A piece of felt was placed over the printed icons and either held up to the light or to a window, the design of the pattern could be seen through the felt. Drawing them onto the felt was easy. A light box would have been awesome, but a window was a good substitute. Once they were traced on, we just cut them out, and used a black felt texta to etch on any design highlights or details that were needed.

Finally, a hot glue gun was used to glue the icons onto the backing pennants, and a raffia rope was threaded through the looks for easy hanging.

 

Coat of Arms

For the murder mystery night, we decided that coat of arms on the walls would be a good way of covering up existing wall features within the hall that were not removable, and were not theme orientated. Additionally, it would be a fantastic way to set the mood. We stalked the local supermarkets to get large packing boxes that would suit our purpose, and using a stanley knife, Joe cut out the shapes of the cardboard for me. We scoured the internet for various designs for coats of arms, and the colours used for general pageantry. With these designs in mind, I set out to create my coat of arms.

Using cheap poster paint, I gave each piece of cardboard two – three coats of white base paint, and laid them flat to dry. I had to be careful, cause the drying cardboard had a habit of wanting to curl.

Next, I would use a sheet of artists carbon paper (not as messy as normal carbon paper) to sketch my template into place. I would also draw on any line work at this point.

Once I was happy with the design placement, I would use my old and dying Jo Sonja paints (omg, what a travesty!) to paint the design into place.

Finally, Id use my Jo Sonja vanish to add that gorgeous gloss finish, and let them dry a good 48 hours. IF they were still curling at all, I used heavy books to flatten them for a few days.

 

Baked Gnocci

Brittany is back from Melbourne, and as a welcome home treat dinner, I decided to make one of her favourite dishes – Baked Gnocchi. I will admit right up front that I use a lot of pre packaged ingredients, but even having said that, its pretty delicious!

I used:

1 packet of gnocchi

1 jar of Dolmio cabonara sauce

1 good handful of diced bacon / ham

1/2 – 1 cup of bread crumbs

1 cup of cheese.

Cook the gnocchi as directed on the packet. Drain and place into a suitable oven proof dish. Add the jar of sauce, the bacon and about 2/3′s of the cheese. Mix well. Top with the breadcrumbs and sprinkle the left over cheese on top. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 – 30 minutes until the top is crusty. Serve and devour!

 

Pumpkin and Chicken Quesadillas

This is a variation of a recipe originally posted by one of my favourite foodies, The Gourmet Goddess. It was absolutely delicious, and Joe and I enjoyed it immensely.

Ingredients

Fillings

4 large (or 6 medium) Tortillas (We used the delicious wholemeal ones!)

2 chicken breasts

1/3   –   1/2 butternut pumpkin

1 Spanish onion

2 cups grated tasty cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella

Marinade

pinch of chili

teaspoon of garlic

juice of one lemon

a splash of oil

dash of maple syrup

Method

1. Mix all items for the marinade in a small bowl. Cut your chicken into thin strips and put into the marinade and refrigerate for a few hours.
2. Cut the pumpkin in bite size pieces and slice the onion into chunks. Separate the onion and place both the onion and pumpkin in a non stick oven dish. Sprinkle with a little oil, some garlic salt and some paprika. Cook in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown. Allow to cool and mash using a fork.
3. Fry your chicken strips in a pan. We use a grill pan for that awesome smoky flavour.
4. In a bowl, mix the two cheeses together. Lay one tortilla on a chopping board (this will help you to move the tortilla into the pan later!) and sprinkle with some cheese mixture, but do not go right to the edge – leave a 3 cm edge as the cheese will melt. Add the cooled pumpkin / onion mash to your tortilla stack and press in some chicken before topping with even more cheese mixture. Top with another tortilla to form a sandwich. I would be tempted to add some fresh parsley at this stage, but I didn’t have any on hand.
5. In a large frying pan  spray with cooking oil to the edges. (I used my large square electric frying pan cause it was the largest, easiest way of doing it!) Carefully slide your tortilla sandwich into the frying pan and cook until golden before performing a feat of strength by turning the tortilla over without it falling apart. Cook until brown, ensuring the cheese has melted to a gooey goodness.
6. Slice your deliciousness into wedges and serve with some salsa and guacamole. Nom nom!

 

Roast Pumpkin and Grilled Haloumi Salad

I have seen two variations of this recipe lately (The Veggie Mamma and The Gourmet Goddess), and after trying them, came up with this variation. It is certainly a winner with this family now!

Ingredients

1/3 large butternut pumpkin cut into bite size pieces
3 tomatoes cut into sixths
3 handfuls of baby spinach
1 packet haloumi cheese
handful pine nuts
splash of olive oil
drizzle of maple syrup
sprinkle of chilli flakes
teaspoon of garlic
Juice from one lemon
salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon

Method

In a non stick oven tray mix the pumpkin and tomatoes. Add some olive oil and a good grind of salt, paprika and cinnamon and mix until all ingredients are coated with oil and seasoning / species. Cook in a moderate oven for about thirty minutes until cooked. I like mine to caramelise slightly, so leave it a little longer if you like that flavour.

Cut your haloumi into 1cm stripes and place in a heated skillet with a little olive oil. Ensure they dont stick. We like to use a grill pan to gain a smokey flavour to the cheese.

Wash your greens and set aside in a serving bowl. Add your cooked pumpkin and oven dried tomatoes and grilled haloumi.

In a cup mix your lemon juice, splash of maple syrup, add (or omit if desired) some chili flakes and garlic. Add any liquid left over from the grilled pumpkin and mixed well. Sprinkle through pine nuts, and dressing before mixing through. Serve while warm and enjoy!

 

The Joey

I decided to start a blog. I’ve blogged before, but its been a long time. I decided to do this, mostly for myself. I want to remember – to never forget.

After two lost babies – Charlie at 9 weeks and Tyler at 22+5 weeks – we thought numbers had to work in our favour. Its November, 2011, and its our second last cycle of clomid. I have had troubles ovulating since losing Tyler 2.5 years before. Despite recent history, we conceived a baby on Sunday 27th of November  2011. An ultrasound on 15 December dated us at 4+5w – smack on according my dates.

Eight days later, (23 Dec) things did not go as planned at the Obs. No foetal pole was scene, and worse, the sac only measured 4+6w. How could the sac have only grown 1 day over an 8 day period? There were no answers, only questions. We were told that it could be a conflict in dating between the two different type of ultrasound machines, and we would need to wait a week to check the viability of the foetus. The problem for us was that there were so many holidays over the Christmas period.

Finally, 13 days later on the 3rd of Jan 2012, we were able to go back for a follow up scan. Instantly, she said the most magical words ever – “Ahh yes!, There is a heart beat!”. I cried with joy. I was relieved. The numbers were starting to work for us. It had to be ok. It just had to be. Discussions were entered into about the possibilities of a cerclage, progesterone shots and other measures to ensure the longevity of this very special passenger who we had come to nickname “The Joey”.

Our follow up was on the 18th of Jan 2012. I was 9+4w pregnant, and felt good. I had morning sickness, fatigue and all the right sort of symptoms for a healthy pregnancy. I had allowed myself to relax and enjoy the process, certain that this would be our “happy ever after”. How wrong we were. The ultrasound showed no heartbeat, and the Joey measured 9+2w. It had died within the 48h prior to the ultrasound.

The D&C followed two days later. Thirty blood tests were conducted along with the surgery to try and determine why this is happening to us.

There are no words. Perhaps at almost 41, this is just beyond me, and I will not be able to give Joe babies. The sense of loss is ever present. There is no escape. The realisation that yet again there will be no baby is gutting. I just can not describe. I just want to breath.

All we have to remember the Joey is a hand full of ultrasound photos, and a hospital identification bracelet.