School Holiday Menu

I am pretty excited.  I had tamarind and lentils on the menu and it didn't look right as a main meal.  This lead on to other things.  I learnt that you can make corn chowder with sausages instead of bacon.  I think that would be very nice.  Now to find a recipe.  I was going through magazines that my husband brought back from America in 2000.  I looked for the magazine titles on facebook to be able to follow them and found a Pumpkin Cheesecake.  

Tuesday ~ Middle-Eastern Beef & Chickpea Wraps with Sumac Cream (uses mince)
Wednesday ~  Taco Salad
Thursday ~ Chow Mein
Friday ~ Sausage Corn Chowder trying to use beef sausages
Saturday ~ Chicken Fried Rice with Egg & Boc Choy
Sunday ~  Baked Gnocchi Spanakopita with Currants & Pine Nuts
Monday ~ Char Sui Chicken Wraps

Baking:  Pumpkin Cheesecake

Interesting recipes:  Apple Crumble Cheesecake (uses pie apple from hampers)
Polish Sausage Corn Chowder
Broccoli Corn & Bacon Chowder

Another combined menu

I am going to pick up something at the shops, so I can buy some things that we may need to cook, that is if I have any money left.

This menu is bothering me, I am tempted to start again.  In the meantime we went to a bulk meat place and got some sausages, sausage and mince.  We bought potatoes and cabbage.  It was all so we had the money to pick up a freezer and get some clothes while we were at the regional centre, it takes all day to do this stuff. 

To start things off, we had on Tuesday ~ Chow Mein
Wednesday ~ left overs
Thursday ~ Chicken & Lentil Hotpot, with very few ingredients bought from the shop
Friday ~ Left-over Hotpot
Saturday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise
Sunday ~ Bigos
Monday ~ Moroccan Shepherds Pie
Tuesday ~ Chilli Con Carne (uses passata)
Wednesday ~Chow Mein
Thursday ~ Sausages
Friday ~ Sausages
Saturday ~ Japanese Pancakes
Sunday ~ left-over shepherd's pie
Monday ~ Party Pies & Sausage rolls


Tuesday ~ North African Chicken & Kidney Bean Soup (uses Ras El Han Hanout)
Wednesday ~ Warm Creamy Pesto Chicken Potato Salad
Thursday ~ Butter Chicken Pizza (uses chicken mince) or Japanese Pancakes
Friday ~ Chicken Fried Rice with Egg & Boc Choy
Saturday ~ Aloo Tikka (uses tamarind & besan flour) tikka masala
Sunday ~ Savoury Mince Ragout
Monday ~ Mince Chow Mein (uses bok choy)
Tuesday ~ Baleadas with Red Beans & Feta
Wednesday ~ Lentils with Tamarind Sauce
Thursday ~ Silverbeet with Lemon & Olive Oil
Friday ~ Silverbeet, Currant & Pinenut Pie (uses feta)
Saturday ~ Baked Gnocchi Spanakopita with Currants & Pine Nuts (similar recipes :/)
Sunday ~ Silverbeet Sourdough Gozlemes
Monday ~ Easy Cranberry Chicken & Brie Pizza (uses cranberry sauce maybe good for using up hampers)

Interesting recipes:  Easy Chicken Chow Mein (uses chicken mince)
Chicken, Bacon & Spinach  Bolognaise (uses chicken mince)
Another pastitsio with beef mince
Nana's creole pecan bars

Italian Sausage, Tomato, Mixed Leaves & Potato Salad

This is an adaption of another recipe, but this one is more what we usually have in the cupboard.  


Italian sausage tomato mixed leaves and potato salad

Preparation Time  10 minutes
Cooking Time  20 minutes
Ingredients (serves 4)
* 650g baby coliban (chat) potatoes
* 375g (about 8) Peppercorn Extra Lean Sausage Italian Style
* Olive oil spray
* 1 x 200g punnet grape tomatoes, halved.
* ¼ cup sour cream
* 1 tbs wholegrain mustard
* 1 tbs white vinegar
* 1 tsp honey
* 1 garlic clove, chopped finely
* 4 celery sticks, ends trimmed, thinly sliced
* 60g (1/3 cup) stuffed green olives
* 100g mixed salad leaves
Method
1. Cut the potatoes into size for salad and steam. Put in large heatproof bowl.
2. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan on med-low,  cook sausages and slice about 1 cm thick, when partially cooked. Cook, turning occasionally, for 12 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
3. Place tomatoes in pan on med-low, season with salt and pepper. Cook, turning occasionally, for 2 minutes or until tender.
4. Whisk together the sour cream, mustard, lemon juice, honey and garlic in a small bowl.
5. Roughly chop the salad put into bowl with sliced celery and olives.  Add the sausages and  tomatoes, gently toss to combine. Pour over the dressing and toss to coat. Serve.

Adapted from:  Italian Sausage, Spinach, Tomato & Potato Salad

Combined Menu

Combined menus from both fortnights.  To make things easier, as I had left overs from last week and have gotten ahead of myself.  Makes it easier to order vegies.

Tuesday ~ Bigos
Wednesday ~ Beef Sausage Minestrone
Thursday ~ Italian Sausage, Spinach, Tomato & Potato Salad
Friday ~ Mushroom & Pancetta Spaghetti
Saturday ~ Cheesy Zucchini & Bacon Slice & Chips
Sunday ~ Salmon & Brie Pizza

Monday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise

Tuesday~  Rocket Pesto & Sun-dried Tomato Fettuccini 

Wednesday ~ Creamy Mexican Bake (uses four bean mix) like Greek Lasagne, very nice

Thursday ~ Aloo Tikka (uses tamarind & besan flour) tikka masala
Friday ~ Greek Style Macaroni Cheese 

Saturday ~ Tuna & Pasta Salad 

Sunday ~ Creamy Lentil Soup

Monday ~ Leek, Bacon & Silverbeet Baked Macaroni

Silverbeet Menu

On facebook I put up a post about what we were having for dinner.  It was actually a complaint, cause I think some people don't like posts about what others are having for dinner.  I don't get any of those in my feed, except one friend used to mention her meals, and I like those posts actually.  So I said, yes I really did want to know!  At the time I was having silverbeet and mince, Mince with Silverbeet & Turkish Spices.  I am bored with mince you see.  I nearly bought a mince AWW cookbook, I wish I had actually. My husband adapted this recipe it really doesn't need chickpeas, and I think we had it with rice, it would be good with brown rice too I think, if that was the same recipe.  I don't often say something would be good with brown rice, it was suggested in the original recipe and it is true.  Here is out adapted version:

Mince with Silverbeet and Turkish Spices

Serves    4
Ingredients
500g of beef mince
1 x bunch of silverbeet – finely chopped
2 x large brown onions – finely chopped
2 x garlic cloves – finely chopped
2 x carrots – finely chopped
3 x tomatoes or 1 x can of tomatoes
1 x tablespoon of tomato paste
1 x teaspoon of ground coriander, cumin and smoked paprika
1/2 x teaspoon of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste  ½ tsp sugar
1 cup rice (uncooked)

Method

1. Brown the onion in olive oil in a large, heavy based pot and let sweat. After a few minutes, add the garlic.
2. Once the onion is translucent, add the mince.
3. When the mince is cooked through, add all the spices, salt and pepper and stir through. Taste to make sure the balance of flavours is good.
4. Now, add the tomato paste, tomatoes and carrots and stir through. If you’re adding chickpeas, now’s the time to throw them in as well. Cover and turn down heat, leaving to simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Once the 30 minutes is up, open the lid, throw in your washed and chopped silverbeet and keep uncovered for another 5 minutes or so. Serve with brown rice (or white) and enjoy!


Anyway my friends, one says he has silverbeet with lemon, it fixes silverbeet.  And the other one suggested silverbeet with pinenuts and another ingredient.  I was not sure what she was thinking exactly, but both of them got me off on a tangent and I found some what I think are nice recipes.  Some people are very talented.  So much scope for us all to be individuals and eat nice homemade food.  So I ended up on the Sydney Morning Herald site, and Good Chef, Bad Chef again.  Lovely, both of them.  I have found though with all these ideas I am ahead of my menu planning by about a month? I will add recipes to this post as I either need them or find other ideas from SMH.

In the meantime I have gone off on a tangent about cranberries and chicken, as suggested by my friend regarding silverbeet,  and found another good site morning television in New Zealand.  Yum.  

We were given some quince paste.  I found a recipe for Vintage Cheddar Scones, that you can serve with Quince Paste.  Yum.  Usually I use the paste for a Thai Lamb stip recipe, but can't get that easily.  

Tuesday ~ Baleadas with Red Beans & Feta
Wednesday ~ Lentils with Tamarind Sauce
Thursday ~ Silverbeet with Lemon & Olive Oil
Friday ~ Silverbeet, Currant & Pinenut Pie (uses feta)
Saturday ~ Baked Gnocchi Spanakopita with Currants & Pine Nuts (similar recipes :/)
Sunday ~ Silverbeet Sourdough Gozlemes
Monday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise left over from menu before last
Tuesday ~ Bigos left over from menu before last
Wednesday ~ Beef Sausage Minestrone left over as well
Thursday ~ Italian Sausage, Spinach, Tomato & Potato Salad (left over)
Friday ~ Easy Cranberry Chicken & Brie Pizza (uses cranberry sauce maybe good for using up hampers)
Saturday ~ Mushroom & Pancetta Spaghetti (to use up mushrooms)
Sunday ~ Cheesy Zucchini & Bacon Slice & Chips (uses 80g vintage cheddar that we have)
Monday ~ Salmon & Brie Pizza (uses left over pesto)

Baking:
Vintage Cheddar Scones, served with quince paste
Nutmeg Slice (uses pecans)
Apricot & Coconut, Choc Cookies (uses pecans)

Baking with quince jam:
Shortbread

Interesting recipes:
Chicken & Silvebeet Rissoles (uses chicken mince)
Sauteed Silverbeet with Hommus on Toast 
Corn Fritters with Pesto Roasted Tomatoes
Ham & Potato Cakes with Wild Rocket Pesto (for hamper left-overs)

Preserving:
Mandarin and Kiwi Fruit Jam

Butter Chicken Wraps

Butter Chicken Wraps

Serves 4, prep time 15 mins
Cooking time 20 mins

Ingredients
500g chicken mince
1X25g Butter Chicken pkt (we used Maggi but originally the recipe is from another brand) 
Plain flour to thicken.
1 pkt (8) Chapatti flat bread (maybe flour tortilla)
½ lettuce, shredded
1 cucumber finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup natural yoghurt

Method
1:  Heat oil in a frypan on medium heat.  Add chicken mince and cook breaking lumps up with a spoon.Cook until golden.

2:  Add 1 tsp salt and Butter Chicken pkt, mix and cook for about 5 mins.  Add enough water to make a wet paste and then add enough flour to thicken.  Chicken needs to look like it has a thick gravy.

3:  Place Chapatti on plate and top with lettuce, chicken, cucumber, tomato, cheese and yoghurt.

4:  Roll up chapatti.

From Coles magazine.  

Inspired Menu

I got a bit carried away going through two sites by hand.  The first Nestle because I found an interesting recipe on a can of  Bear Brand evaporated milk.  Interestingly it wasn't on the site, but I have published it in case any one else has the same problem.  Then the Coles one.  I found that good for me because I use their different minces when they are cheap at the shop I use.  It is hard to find interesting pork mince recipes for example.  Coles are modern yet traditional, so you expect to see some new styled recipes on their site.  I was absolutely wrapped to find a split pea recipe for besan flour and tamarind.  Very excited, it will taste amazing.  It uses up a paste I already have in the fridge, so I am lucky I can make it, or my husband can, he is getting really good at these recipes.  I am also excited to find another recipe using chicken mince and butter chicken by Maggi.  We also found a can of Always Fresh sauerkraut in the local supermarket, I think I can still make Bigos,

Tuesday ~ North African Chicken & Kidney Bean Soup (uses Ras El Han Hanout)
Wednesday ~  Rocket Pesto & Sun-dried Tomato Fettuccini
Thursday ~ Warm Creamy Pesto Chicken Potato Salad
Friday ~ Creamy Mexican Bake (uses four bean mix)
Saturday ~ Butter Chicken Pizza (uses chicken mince) or Japanese Pancakes
Sunday ~ Aloo Tikka (uses tamarind & besan flour) tikka masala
Monday ~ Chicken Fried Rice with Egg & Boc Choy
Tuesday ~ Sausage & Pumpkin Lentils (uses beef sausages)
Wednesday ~ Greek Style Macaroni Cheese
Thursday ~ Tuna & Pasta Salad
Friday ~ Savoury Mince Ragout
Saturday ~ Creamy Lentil Soup
Sunday ~ Mince Chow Mein (uses bok choy)
Monday ~ Leek, Bacon & Silverbeet Baked Macaroni


Interesting recipes:
Classic Chicken Burger (uses chicken mince)
Dry Lamb Mince Curry
Freeform Moroccan Lamb Pie (uses lamb mince)
Glazed Mini Meatloaves
Lamb & Lentil Cottage Pie (uses lamb mince)
Lentil Stew with Spicy Sausage (uses Italian sausages)
Another Pastitso (uses lamb mince)
Pork, Sweet Potato & Bean Curry (uses pork mince)
Spicy Chorizo (Sausage) & Vegetable Casserole

Bear Brand Spicy Sausage Casserole

Spicy Sausage Casserole

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time  30 mins

Ingredients

6 spicy sausages

1 rasher bacon, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

400g can whole tomatoes, roughly chopped

300g can red kidney beans, drained

1 tbsp tomato paste

¼ cup chopped parsley

30g butter

1 tbsp plain flour

1 cup evaporated milk

¼ tsp dry mustard

1/3 cup grated tasty cheese

1 tbsp tasty cheese, extra

Method

1, Fry sausages in large fry pan until cooked, remove from pan, slice sausages diagonally, drain fat from pan.

2, Add bacon to pan, fry one minute, add onion and garlic, cook 2 min.  Add tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato paste, parsley and cooked sausages to pan.  Stir until mixture comes to boil.  Remove from heat, place in casserole dish.

3, Melt butter in small pan, add flour gradually, stir in evaporated milk.

4, Stir over medium heat until sauce boils, simmer 1 minute.  Add mustard and cheese, pour over sausage mixture, sprinkle with extra cheese, place under grill 3-5 mins until brown.

More Meat Menu

I just found an interesting Rookwurst or Rookworst recipe called Dutch Pea Soup.  It has too much meat for my liking but what an amazing blog, Almost Bourdain.  I have only used Rookwurst in Bigos and finding it hard to find sauerkraut these days. 

The meat I bought at a the regional centre, at a special meat place, turns out to be a good thing.  $100 for a months worth of meals, about $3 a day.

Tuesday ~ Creamy Tuna & Pea Pasta Bake
Wednesday ~ Savoury Glazed Meatloaf
Thursday ~ Kransky Hotpot
or recipe from this blog with same name
Friday ~ Rookwurst Minestrone or Dutch Pea Soup or Bigos?
Saturday ~ Spaghetti Bolognaise
Sunday ~ Mince with Silverbeet & Turkish Spices
Monday ~ Italian Sausage, Spinach, Tomato & Potato Salad
Tuesday ~ Italian Sausage Potato & Rocket Salad
Wednesday ~ Warm German Sausage & Potato Salad (uses bratwurst)
Thursday ~ Sausage & Spinach Pasta (uses bratwurst)
Friday ~ Chorizo, Tomato & Feta Tortilla Pizza
Saturday ~ Corn & Bacon Chowder
Sunday ~ Green Chilli Chicken Stir-fry
Monday ~ Beef Sausage Minestrone

Baking:
Chocolate Banoffee Pie

Interesting Recipes:
Speck & Sour Cream Macaroni Cheese
Kransky & Borlotti Bean Soup 
Risotto Bake with Italian Sausage & Peas
Italian Sausage & Pea Pie

Meaty Menu

I went to pick up my son from the bus stop and decided to do a diversion down the road to the regional centre to try on clothes and go to a meat place.  The prices were not as cheap as I had hoped.  They did have a special on chicken and bacon.  Also they had things I hadn't seen here for awhile because I don't travel to shop and I think one IGA has changed what meats they get in, so has the other IGA actually.  So I was able to get things I enjoyed buying from a couple of years ago.  I spent just over $100.  Still I use meat sparingly to make it go further.  Although I am going to have veal campagnola as a treat, as it is a family tradition.  The mince was a price from a couple of years ago.  I find the Coles at the regional centre's meat is a little expensive atm, so went to this meat place instead, and the sausages were still cheap like I would have paid a couple of years ago.  I am wondering how many menus I will get from this meat, I am hoping three.  I have had this can of green peppercorns for ages, when I find another silverside I will use them for that.   The chicken pie recipe was from a facebook update from the taste site.  It is similar to a pie we made a couple of months ago that we really enjoyed.  The pork sausage and silverside, I'll have to wait until I find the ingredients.  I bought a couple of pre-made meatloafs as my youngest daughter can't remember eating meatloaf and has asked twice about it.  I have two extra kids home on the weekend, my second and third children.  So there will be six of us, hopefully we can make the chicken burgers and veal as they are special for them, well me and I have the extra meat.  I got the dog a rather large bone that I haven't been able to do for ages either.  There have been some special recipes with lamb mince I've seen, now to find them.

I am concerned that my use of rookwurst predates this blog.  I used to use it for bigos.  I have an older blog and my other blog and I am using it to work out what I did with it, since I bought one.  It is very hard to find sauerkraut now though, one upon a time my local shop always had it, but you couldn't rely on it having other things except chicken mince, but it doesn't now. 

Pork Sausage & Cherry Tomato Bake (like the rocket one we use, see below)
Silverside with Green Peppercorns
Tuesday ~ Chicken, Leek & Lemon Pie
Wednesday ~ Chicken Schnitzel Burgers
Thursday ~ Lamb Mince Pasta Bake (pastitsio, like a Greek lasagne flavour)
Friday ~ Meatloaf
Saturday ~ Rigatoni Milano (uses Italian sausages)
Sunday ~ Veal Campagnola
Monday ~ Beef Keftedes with Tzatziki & Tomato Salad
Tuesday ~ Beef Sausage Minestrone
Wednesday ~ Pumpkin & Bacon Pasta
Thursday ~ Lamb, Feta & Herb Pasta
Friday ~ Beef Sausage & Lentil Casserole
Saturday ~ Fettucine Carbonara
Sunday ~ Taco Salad
Monday ~ Bratwurst with Lentils & Salsa Verde or Butter Chicken


Recipe by Cooking Company Noosa via Facebook

Jamie Oliver's Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Bake - slightly adapted by me !

• 2kg lovely ripe cherry tomatoes, mixed colours if you can find them or x2 400g tins of cherry tomatoes
• 2 sprigs each of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 red onions roughly chopped
• 12 good-quality Cumerland or coarse Italian pork sausages
• extra virgin olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5.
Get yourself an appropriately sized roasting tray, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer.
Heat up a splash of olive oil and sauté the onions until soft.
Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a shake and turn the sausages over.
Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages.

PS Any leftovers can be chopped up and made into a wonderful chunky pasta dish, using penne or rigatoni, the next day.

Once it’s cooked, you’ll have an intense, tomatoey sauce. If it’s a little too thin, lift out the sausages and place the tray on the hob to cook it down to the consistency you like – I tend to make mine quick thick – then put the sausages back in.

Interesting recipes:
Huey's black lentil recipe:  Bratwurst with Lentils & Salsa Verde

Retro Apricot Chicken

I had typed this out when I was a teenager

Apricot Chicken

Put pieces of one chicken, 1 can of apricot nectar, and 1 packet of French Onion Soup mix into baking tray and bake until cooked.

Notes: Heat apricot and soup, flour chicken. 1 1/2 hours at 350oF.