Simple Songs

This song about simple living is by Josh Turner called I'll Be There. It gives a new meaning to simple living doesn't it?

Roasted Pumpkin, Boc Choy, Miso & Lentil Soup

Roasted Pumpkin with Bok Choy Lentil Soup


½ small or medium pumpkin (say kent or butternut)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil for coating pumpkin, plus 2 tablespoons for sautéing
1 cup dried lentils (orange)
2 litres water, 4 teasp stock powder
2 teas miso paste (shiro), some dulce seaweed (1/2 handful chopped with scissors)
1 teas salt,
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 button mushrooms, chopped
1 pound bok choy, washed and hard ends sliced off (also slice 1/3 lengthways- easier to eat)
1 teaspoon paprika

Wash the rind of the pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and, wish a sturdy knife; cut the squash into 20 cm slices (angled). Toss the pumpkin in olive oil, salt.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lay the pumpkin slices on a trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, turning the pumpkin over halfway through, until tender (and well roasted).
At 25 minutes before the pumpkin is done, bring 2 litres of water to boil. Add dried lentils, and cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Add miso, salt (1 teasp) seaweed and stock powder.

While lentils are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet. Add onions, sauté, when nearly transparent and beginning to caramelise add the garlic. After a while add mushrooms, sauté for 5 to 6 minutes. Put into soup mix. Turn heat up on pan and add a bit more oil, add bok choy (keep stirring the greens) and cook until beginning to brown in places and obviously well cooked. Transfer vegetables to soup pot.

Divide soup into individual bowls. Serve with pumpkin slices on the side, can slice pumpkin into bite-sized pieces and add to soup.

This recipe my husband adapted from appetite for China's recipe, Roasted Kaboucha Squash with Bok Choy

Anyone like dates?

I just came back from taking my daughter to gym. She was talking about dates and then muffins and I was intrigued, as I am a date scone lover from way back. Love sticky date pudding as well. Came home and found the recipe on my computer desk. She was talking about people eating them and offering them to the school head and someone asking for butter. Dates, butter, you get the picture. (Date Loaf?)

I found two nearly identical recipes online:

Date Muffins with Caramel Sauce

this one had extra spices and they both had different sauce

Ginger Date Muffins with Caramel Sauce

but this is it!

Ginger Date Muffins with Caramel Sauce

I figure if the kids liked it it must be good.

You guys have probably seen the Australian Woman's Weekly recipe in print?

Very Exciting

Kim at Green Momma has given this blog an award. Wow, that is very exciting. Looking at Green Momma's menus that is a compliment. Thank you Kim. Please go over and check out her blog. I also love her memes that she participates in, will have to check those out further. I started this post on the 14th, sometimes my speed slows down making it hard to choose blogs.



“The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogging world.”

Here are the rules for the Sunshine Award:

Nominate 12 other bloggers

List the award in either a post or on your sidebar

Link your nominees within your post

Let the nominees know you have passed this on to them by commenting on their blog

Now the Hard Part...
I Nominate...

1. Green Ness always something interesting over there, no pressure lol
2. A Tapestry of Life for the layouts, very pretty
3. Ganeida's Knots for the lovely quotes at the beginning of each post
4. Foodie Wanderings, wow lovely, a fun blog

I am going to finish this when I can, but want to acknowledge now the wonderful award I received.

Soup Kitchen ~ Budget Vegetarian Menu

Last fortnight we had two nights of left-overs and a couple of swaps

~ Spicy Chickpea Casserole with Feta
~ Kransky Soup, we shouted ourselves some sausages for this meal as it is a favourite

so some recipes left over:


Monday ~ Roasted Pumpkin with Bok Choy Lentil Soup
Tuesday ~ Tomato & Borlotti Bean Soup
Wednesday ~ Indian Spiced Red Lentil Soup
Thursday ~ Perfect Potato Gnocchi
Friday ~ Curried Lentil & Pumpkin Soup

and so on to recipes made with this:

Saturday: Polenta & Corn Bake
Sunday: Vegetable Spring Rolls
Monday: Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes
Tuesday: Vegetable & Noodle Stir-fry (uses vermicelli noodles, red capsicum for the list, with snow peas, broccoli)

I may leave it there. I am unable to go shopping myself as my husband has to go out that day to go to the dentist, and I have to be home for the kids, as the dentist is over two hours away. So we may top up the food on the Wednesday, if it fits in with my bills. I will make up a list for the essentials and he will do his usual milk, cheese and washing powder run, and I will order bread to be delivered online which I usually do. Turns out I have ingredients for these recipes, just need a small amount of extras like mayonnaise and gerkins etc. I will be able to have the list ready from this menu for Wednesday.

Wednesday ~ Penne with Pumpkin Sauce
Thursday ~ Spaghettini with Smashed Buttery Peas
Friday ~ Country Bean Risotto
Saturday ~ Spicy Beans
Sunday ~ Potato & Egg Salad
Monday ~ Classic Pumpkin Soup


Interesting recipes: Cabbage Vadai Fritters (made with red lentils) I have been paying better attention to the food blogs on Belinda's sidebar. Also Creamy Jerusalem Artichoke Soup a bit like the one we used to make, will have to check mine one day. My husband had the recipe out to show his friend, here it is:

Cream of Artichoke Soup

80g (3oz) butter
2 large onions, sliced
1kg (2lb) Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and sliced
1 1/4 cups water
3 1/2 cups milk
salt, pepper
3 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons extra milk
1 egg
5 tablespoons cream
paprika

Melt butter and fry onion until soft but not brown. Add artichokes, water, milk, salt & pepper. Bring to the boil and cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until artichokes are tender. Put into blender, blend until smooth and return to pan. Mix flour with extra milk and stir into soup. Bring to the boil while stirring, simmer 2 minutes. Beat egg and add cream. Stir this mixture into soup, and reheat but do not boil. Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve immediately. Garnish with paprika.



An interesting preserve recipe if I ever get a cumquat tree. Pickled Cumquats

Simple Songs

I haven't put one up in awhile, have been thinking about them. Dancingonabladeofgrass mentioned this song. Not sure I have heard it before, lovely



Dan fitz had a lovely meaning here for that song... "appreciate what IS with all you have. appreciate every effort a person makes for another; every song a bird sings; nail a carpenter drives, egg a creature lays. dont waste your breath on the irrelevant, on negativity, on ill feelings, on a quest for money. appreciate that which has real value, that which is important, for it is all there really is and needs to be."

Broccoli & Potato Soup

Broccoli and potato soup


Ingredients (serves 6)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1kg broccoli, cut into florets (can chop stalks and use these)
• 1 to 1 ½ Kg potatoes, peeled, chopped
• 1.5 litre vegetable stock (3 teas veg, 2 teas chicken, 1 teas beef powder)
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt

Method
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and
garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft.
2. Add broccoli, potato, stock and 2 cups cold water. Cover. Bring to
the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring, for 10 to 15 minutes
or until potato is tender. Remove from heat. Process until smooth.
Return to pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through. Season with
pepper. Serve.


An adaptation of a Taste recipe.

Cheap & Vegetarian

What I have really been noticing lately after eating no meat, and with diminishing things in the pantry in the effort to balance the books (hopefully this week things will ease, either that or the books will be in very good shape or we will be outfitted well in clothes for the winter), is that the simple things are more appealing, like bread and butter. I want to get the ingredients to review my new paella pan too! Making things stretch is really not as cut throat with only three kids here most of the time, we had left-overs again recently.

Tuesday ~ Broccoli & Potato Soup
Wednesday ~ Pies, Peas, Chips & Gravy
Thursday ~ Paella
Friday ~ Tuna Casserole
Saturday ~ Middle Eastern-style Lentil & Spinach Soup
Sunday ~ Simple Chickpea & Silverbeet Curry
Monday ~ Italian Vegetable Risotto (needs basil leaves & parmesan cheese)
Tuesday ~ Creamed Brussels Sprout and Chestnut Soup (needs cream)
Wednesday ~ Roasted Pumpkin with Bok Choy Lentil Soup
Thursday ~ Tomato & Borlotti Bean Soup
Friday ~ Indian Spiced Red Lentil Soup
Saturday ~ Perfect Potato Gnocchi
Sunday ~ Curried Lentil & Pumpkin Soup
Monday ~ Indian-style Potato & Pea Curry (needs cauliflower)


Interesting Recipes:

Jerusalem artichoke potato cakes

Wish List:

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Success from last week:

I had to find something else to make with the pumpkin we had, thankfully (and rarely) only two of us were home, so it worked out well. Also we make the muffins with the ingredients we had left to stretch the bread and the Weetbix. The kids liked them.

Pumpkin Noodles
Parmesan Muffins

Challenge for this week:

Finding a vegetarian silverbeet recipe.

Paella Pan Review

A few weeks ago I took delivery of my new paella pan from buyster. It was a blogging thing, in other words free! My husband thought it was well made and he was impressed with the strength and the little dipples in the base as he said the oil would sit in those. We have been waiting until we had the ingredients to make our paella which is a recipe from McCormicks.



Back in January I mentioned that I was getting a paella pan from buyster in this post. Here is where it is advertised.

A Simple Vegetable Garden ~ So Important in History

How many of you learnt about genetics at school? I was so amazed today when asked to type out some information for my son about Gregor Johann Mendel from our encyclopedia so he could use it in his project. He isn't near the book hence the typing.

Gregor Johan Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian botanist and monk, formulated the basic laws of heredity. His experiments with the breeding of garden peas led to the development of the science of genetics.

Mendel was born in Heinzendort, Austria. His parents were poor peasants. Mendel was an excellent student, and he decided to become a teacher. Many teachers at that time were priests. Therefore, in 1843, at the age of 21, Mendel entered the monastery of St. Thomas in Brunn, Austria. He came a priest in 1847.

The monastery was a scientific as well as a religious centre, and Mendel was exposed to many scholars there. In 1851, the monastery sent him to study science and mathematics at the University of Vienna. He returned to the monastery in 1853 and taught biology and physics at a local high school for the next 14 years. Mendel's fame came from his research in the monastery garden during those years.

In his experiments, Mendel studied the inheritance of seven pairs of traits in the garden pea plants and in their seeds. These pairs included (1) rounded or wrinkled seeds and (2) tall or short plants.

Mendel's results were published in 1866, but they remained unnoticed for 34 years. (World Book Encyclopedia)

Recipes using Pork Mince

I started this post in the middle of February. It ties in with the post I started today as follows:

My son found some pork mince in his freezer that he shares, or rather it is his brothers, today. He bought it in March and it has to be used up. I thought of one of his favourite recipes. I linked to it a lot last year when we were making it regularly, he was still doing his VCE and lived with us then. The link from the New Idea magazine site is gone now and I was worried, but found my paper copy. Lovely recipe. I even have a can of champignons in the cupboard ready to make it. Sadly I have been to a shop that sells pork mince with an eski or cooler lately. But soon, hopefully.

Here is the recipe I sent him followed by what I wrote earlier.


(Pork) Mince Stroganoff

500g pasta
2 tblsps oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
300g pork mince (ground?)
40g packet French onion soup mix
2 tblsps tomato paste
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (we used the can of mixed vegetables)
400g can whole champignons, halved
200g carton light sour cream (about 6-7oz?)
Fresh parsley leaves, to garnish, optional

Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water until tender. Drain. Cover to keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add onion and crushed garlic. Cook, stirring, until soft. Add mince. Cook stirring, for 5 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.

Combine soup mix, paste and water in a small jug. Stir into mince mixture. Bring to boil. Add vegetables and champignons. Cook, over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Stir in sour cream. Remove from heat.

Serve stroganoff over pasta. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Either beef or chicken mince can be substitued for the pork mince in this recipe. Stroganoff can be made up to two days ahead. Keep covered in fridge. Reheat before serving.



I had collected up my favourites, but lately found some much better.

Japanese Pancakes

My son brought be some Kewpie mayonnaise to try next time I make this, but normal mayo works just as well, well so far anyway. I loved the real packaging. You can see it on this blog.

Stir Fry Noodles with Pork & Boc Choy with extra wombuk

Pork Chow Mein Noodles (we had them already) are absolutely gorgeous even without the special Chinese wine in the sauce, and with more plain vegetables. They have a similar taste to each other.

One of the old favourites below:

Pork Chow Mein