Review Recipes+ Magazine

When I went to Melbourne early this week, we stopped by my Mum's to drop off the girls as I was having surgery. On the way home Mum gave me a magazine stack including three copies of Recipes+. If the recipes are as good as the ones we usually use, these are a gold mine! They are similar to the recipes I used before our vegetarian super budget kick, which were budget already. Familiar ingredients are chorizo, chipolatas and different sausages. Also my favourite types of dishes, but different to the ones we already have, which I am getting sick of really because I like to find new exciting recipes with those ingredients, as they are a limited set of ingredients in some ways.

You can have a look at what it looks like here.

You all know I am very dependent on the Taste site and love it as well. I love the magazine too. But I find the recipes+ magazine better in that it is less offensive by the way of materialism. Also everything is very positive and doesn't favour any particular type of people. Very practical, helpful, and uplifting, and cute. The ads are even nice. As I said, they are not materialisic, they are for everyday things, not too many and entertaining in a nice way. Thank you recipes+ for brightening up my week. Only trouble is that when I take all my favourite recipes out, I may as well just put the whole magazine in the marbig, there won't be much left, or much room left in my marbig.

New Menu with Soft Food

I don't know where my brain was when I made up the menu except I didn't want to be having to do it after surgery. I had surgery yesterday and I am supposed to be doing the fruit and vege order now. Well I won't order yet, I am going to make up a new menu tomorrow. It should be OK, my internet is fast, though it seems like my girls seem bent of fixing that lol. I know what we are having tonight, as I have pesto which was bought for a rainy day, and left over pumpkin. I just hope it is soft enough. Really I just don't want food stuck on my teeth, hopefully if I avoid greens and some meats?

Wednesday ~ Roast Pumpkin & Pesto Risotto
Thursday ~ Savoury Mince with Soft Polenta (maybe we can puree the sauce)
Friday ~ left-over risotto for me, and Bacon & Cheese Burgers for those who are home this Friday night
Saturday ~ Chili Con Carne
Sunday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise (maybe I could have mine with cous cous?) or Savoury Mince & Potato Wedges
Monday ~ Cauliflower Soup
Tuesday ~ Curried Sweet Potato Soup
Wednesday ~ Spicy Pumpkin Soup
Thursday ~ Smoked Cod & Mashed Potatoes
Friday ~ Thai Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup
Saturday ~ Pumpkin & Asparagus Risotto
Sunday ~ Smoked Fish Risotto with Poached Eggs
Monday ~ Oven Baked Tuna & Tomato Risotto

Swap recipe: Tuna Mornay with Cherry Tomatoes
Cherry Tomato Bologanise with Tagliatelle
Tomato Soup with Parmesan Meatballs

Interesting recipes: Mushroom Rosemary Polenta Bake
Perfect Pumpkin Soup (includes homemade pesto)
Tray backed Sausages with Potatoes & Cherry Tomatoes (uses pork sausages)
Potato & Egg Bake (uses pancetta)
Tunarani an Indian meal made from tuna and cherry tomatoes!

I can see there are lots of fantastic new recipes using ingredients I haven't bought for awhile on the Taste site.

Cleaning Out the Pantry Menu

You will notice some repeats from last week. One night we had left-overs and another night Mushroom Burgers as we got mixed up with the list and didn't get ingredients for what we had planned. This came about by the late night my husband was working and couldn't get to the shop, to plan out work for someone else to take his classes while we are away, which we had tea out.

My menu seems very heavy on feta, three recipes.

Tuesday ~ Japanese Pancakes (another new recipe with BBQ chicken & canned prawns)
Wednesday ~ Turkish Pizza
Thursday ~ Sausage & Egg Muffin Burgers
Friday ~ Bacon & Cheese Burgers (uses stuffing mix)
Saturday ~ Easy Chicken Chow Mein (uses Singapore styled noodles I have already, still cleaning out that pantry and chicken mince)
Sunday ~ Zucchini & Bacon Slice with Chips
Monday ~ Zucchini Burgers and maybe Savoury Mince & Potato Wedges
Tuesday ~ Pesto Pasta with Zucchini, Feta & Tomato
Wednesday ~ Pumpkin & Silverbeet Penne
Thursday ~ Spiced Beans with Roast Pumpkin Wedges
Friday ~ Tuna & Corn Burgers with Olive & Parsley Salad
Saturday ~ Lentil & Spinach Lasagne
Sunday ~ Thai Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup
Monday ~ Spicy Meatlovers Pizza with Salad

Possibly next pay I can shop in Coles and try something different, if I feel I can lift things.

Success from last week:

Polenta with White Bean Salad I can't say enough good things about this recipe, great if you love basil fresh from the garden!

Japanese Pancake (with bacon) gorgeous like going to a cafe (an old-fashioned one)

Simple Fun

My girls got this trampoline at the tip, so it was free fun as well.

Melinda Schneider Does Doris Day

Japanese Pancakes, Tonkatsu Sauce & Our Fortnightly Menu

Tuesday 10th ~ Chicken, Corn & Risoni Soup (uses silverbeet)
Wednesday ~ Bacon & Cheese Burgers (uses stuffing mix)
Thursday ~ Easy Chicken Chow Mein (uses Singapore styled noodles I have already, still cleaning out that pantry and chicken mince)
Friday ~ Greek Lentil Soup (uses left over dill)
Saturday ~ Vegetarian Pancakes (for left over cabbage)
Sunday ~ Corn Quesadillas with Bean Salad (hopefully I will get the tortillas this time)
Monday ~ Japanese Pancakes (a new recipe includes bacon & potato)
Tuesday ~ Polenta with White Bean Salad
Wednesday ~ Japanese Pancakes (another new recipe with BBQ chicken & canned prawns)
Thursday ~ Sausage & Egg Muffin Burgers
Friday ~ Zucchini & Bacon Slice with Chips
Saturday ~ Zucchini Burgers
Sunday ~ Savoury Mince & Potato Wedges
Monday ~ Spicy Beef Noodle Stir Fry (uses rice stick noodles which we have)

My son offered to go to the Hub while he was practising taking the bus to uni. He is buying me some Kewpie mayonnaise and hopefully will be able to find some Tonkatsu sauce which we haven't tried. But unfortunately the shop was closed. We usually use Worcestershire sauce for our Japanese Pancakes which we love. We love the pancakes and the sauce lol. Tonkatsu is a Japanese Worcestershire sauce. We tried something like HP Sauce once and it was very nice, which makes sense as Tonkatsu seems fruity as well. Here is a place to buy it online. Buying one or two or three items online like that has worked well for me in the past. I found two new recipes for the pancakes, which I will add to my post on them here. Here is the basic idea behind Japanese Pancakes.

My son was making a family recipe of zucchini slice and has left over bacon which he bought English muffins for. Hence the recipe for muffin burgers. He only wants bacon and eggs, but I thought I would try this for a meal.

Swap recipe: Stir fried Beef & Vegetable Chow Mein (uses Singapore styled noodles and mince, in case we can't get the chicken)

Success from last week: Beef & Vegetable Bolognaise still rich like normal bolognaise

Bacon & Avocado Burgers, we did this on the fly, I think to use up the avocado. One of the best Turkish bread burgers we have made, I love them!

Frekkah

This health food was mentioned in the August edition of the Australia Woman's Weekly along with quinoa in an article on fibre, which I forgot to show my husband last night as it relates to cholesterol amongst other things. I have had quinoa twice. I thought I'd do this post as the actual spelling is Freekeh. I found this Australian video about it.

Laura's Crocheted Winter Bonnet

LI think at one stage I wanted to make one.

Budget Menu

Tuesday ~ Egg, Tomato & Spinach Pizzas
Wednesday ~ Mexican Pinto Bean cakes
Thursday ~ Taco Salad
Friday ~ Mee Goreng
Saturday ~ Spicy Pumpkin & Lentil Tagine
Sunday ~ Pumpkin, Barley & Miso Soup with Fried Wakame
Monday ~ Crab & Corn Omelette
Tuesday ~ Zucchini & Corn Pancakes with Roasted Tomatoes & Dill Cream
Wednesday ~ Vegetable Pancakes
Thursday ~ Corn, Bacon & Zucchini Soup
Friday ~ Corn Chowder with Garlic Croutons
Saturday ~ Bacon, Tomato and Rocket Spaghetti
Sunday ~ Tuna & Mixed Bean Salad with Lemon Dressing (heart friendly)
Monday ~ Beef & Vegetable Bolognaise (heart friendly)

I found this quote for one of the recipes: "...When vegetarian food is good, you don’t miss meat. This miso soup fits the bill; here it’s been “beefed up” with some hearty pearl barley and pumpkin."

Successes from last week:

Middle Eastern Chickpea & Vegetable Salad with is also heart friendly which I think was an accident. I loved all of it, the ingredients work well together so nothing seems hard or whatever.

Fragrant Egg Curry has excellent left-over potential as a spread on toast

Four Bean Chilli with Tortilla Crisps this was a swap recipe

I got a free booklet from Santitarium in the mail. I was very happy the meals are online as well. I saw a lovely recipe that contains sumac, spicy pumpkin & lentil tagine.

Miso Paste Recipe

Vegie Patties

425g tin chickpeas
5 carrots, grated, lightly steamed
2 cups brown rice, cooked until soft
3 tablespoon tahini
2 teaspoons miso paste
2 spring onions, chopped
4 sheets nori seaweed, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Whiz chickpeas in a food processor until broken up. Stir in carrot, rice, tahini and miso. Knead well. Mix in spring onion nori and parsley. Form into balls and flatten slightly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and cook patties until golden both sides. Makes 12.

From House & Garden AU Feb 2008. This is a recipe we have used many times.

Miso Pastes

I am totally learning as I go along with miso soups and miso pastes.

I had an opportunity when I went to my hometown to the chiropractor this Thursday to buy some miso. That is where I got my last packet. It is so easy, even opened it keeps, well I think it does. We had shiro miso before, which I remembered as rice. The shop didn't have a lot of misos so I bought a rice one. However, they are different.

The first one I had was shiro, my first packet ever, and it means sweet rice. The one I have now is kome, which is just rice miso. Shiro smells like Vegemite. And I would deny anyone to tell me that Aussies have been tricked lol. We live in South East Asia after all lol.

So hopefully I will use this packet in recipes and maybe try a different miso next time until I get the hang of this lol. The brand I got was spiral miso.

OK, I think it goes something like colour. Rice is white I think, then there are red ones. Help! The trick is that mine doesn't look very white lol.

I found some useful notes on the saltiness of miso here. There are pictures of the coloured misos here. But still I am unsure if my new miso replaces my old one.

I just found that Janella Purcell has a shop so you can find some of these lovely ingredients. It is here.