Meatless Monday: Mexican Inspired Vegetable Dish

 MrB and I are trying to eat vegetarian once a week (as the regular readers would know) and we have decided to join in on the Meatless Monday revolution. A dedicated night of no meat. I also love how this follows the indulgent weekends - it just feels lighter and healthier.

I love Mexican style food. With limited Mexican products and restaurants in South Africa this is a real challenge. Not all stores carry tacos, nachos and torillas. Even fewer stores have refried beans. But I love how vegetables and chillies with a nice dollop of guacomole just go together.

 

Recently we were dead set on making vegetable taco's only to find out that our tacos had been crushed. So instead we had to be creative and a Mexican Fiesta. I hope you try this recipe as this was just too delicious

Mexican Vegetable Fiesta

 

Vegetable Oil

Selection of vegetables, chopped into equal sizes (we used mushrooms, mange tout, green beans, carrots and baby corn)

Bottled Tomato Salsa (this is to add a sauciness to the veggies, you can use a mexican sauce if you can find one. Or make your own tomato salsa style sauce)

Tacos (broken into chips) or Nachos

Guacomole (blend avo, lemon juice, chopped onion, chopped tomato and coriander, season to taste)

Cheddar Cheese

 

Heat your oil in a large non stick pan. Fry your vegetables for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato salsa and cook until the vegetables are soft.

Set out your broken tacos on a plate
Top with the fried vegetables
Add guacomole and sprinkle cheese on top
Optional: add chillies to your vegetable mix

Dig in and enjoy!

 

 

For a laugh, go check out this video of a a guy that photoshops ads using people while they are waiting for the bus - too funny!

Happy Valentine's Day, Stud Muffin

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

So I know I said I wasn't going to do anything too big for the cheesy LURVE day. But I couldn't resist making these cute Jam filled Muffins. I found a cute little saying to go with the muffins (see here) and decided that I just had to do it for MrB for his lunch box.

The leftovers went to the office and I do believe they were a hit. A bit too sweet for a morning treat but very yummy and I would make these again.

For your Stud Muffin - Jam filled heart muffins

 

Yields 12 standard size muffins

 

2 cups cake flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup jam - i used strawberry but you can use mixed berry, raspberry or any red berry

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper lines

 

Sift together flour, baking powder and sugar. Mix well.

Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Mix well but do not overmix. Lumps are fine. You don't want to let the air out of the batter. If you overmix the muffins will be ahrd.

Pour batter into the prepared liners.

Bake for 18 -20 minutes or until the tops are nice and brown. Use a toothpick to test whether the muffins are done (toothpick will come out clear)

Remove from the oven and set on a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.

Set up a dipping station - fill a saucer with the melted butter and a second saucer with the sugar.

Dip the top of each muffin in butter, shaking off the excess. Dip in the sugar. Repeat until all the muffins are done.

Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut into the top of each muffin. Push in firmly and wiggle to remove the heart. You should be left with a heart shaped hole and a piece of heart muffin. (MrB snacked on these!)

Fill the hearts with jam

Enjoy!

 

I wrote messages of love on edible hearts.

 

Christmas Cookies - that are great all year round!

I did a little bit of baking just before Christmas despite the heat of the kitchen.These biscuits were inspired by a Pin on Pinterest but a complete experiment. They were so easy and visually pretty (although the photos do them no justice). I would love to make pastel colours for Easter, pink ones for Valentine's day just for fun for the house.

 

 

 

Sugar Cookies

this recipe yields about 150 cookies so it's economical for gifts or a house with lots of visitors)

 

250g butter at room temperature

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

6 cups flour

2 tsp Baking powder

2tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Food colouring - preferably gel

 

Cream butter, sugar and eggs together. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together. Combine the dry ingredients with the egg mixture to a reasonably soft dough. Divide the dough in two (or more if you want more colours). Add the gel food colour (the gel keeps the bright colour and doesn't influence the consistency of the dough) to the dough you want to colour, until the desired colour is reached.

Cover the dough and rest for 30 minutes (or longer if you want)Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Lightly grease baking trays.

Sprinkle flour on a clean dry surface.

 

Roll out one colour of dough. Try to keep it in a neat square.

Roll out the second colour to the exact same size.

Brush the first square with a bit of milk. Place the second square on top of the first square. Now roll the big square into a roll. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into thin cookies. You can reshape them to stay round (I was happy with my oval shape)

Place on a baking sheet. You can brush a sugar and egg mixture if you want sweeter cookies.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 8 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

 



 

The next batch I make I want to try rainbow cookies!



Jolly Cookathon: Singapore Chicken

Recently we decided to enter the Yuppie Chef Jolly Cookathon and today I am sharing our main course Singapore Chicken

 

This dish was actually really easy once the components were complete. It's one of the best things I have ever tasted and I highly recommend trying it. It's also worth going to an Asian market to get the spices as there is just no substitute.

 

Singapore Chicken

Chinese Spice Salt

2tbsp sea salt
1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns (these smell amazing when you cook them!)
2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

Pre-heat a small pan. Mix the salt and peppercorns together. Dry-roast over a gentle heat until fragrant. It's worth doing this for the unbelievable smell of the peppercorns. Once fragrant, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Grind to a fine powder and pass through a sieve. Refrigerate until ready to use. Add the five-spice powder just before serving and mix well.

Togarashi Dressing

2 tsp ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
1½ tsp sesame oil
2 tbsps peanut oil
Juice of 1 fresh lime
1½ tsp soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tsphot chilli powder

Add all the ingredients together and mix well (I gave them a good shake). Set aside until you're ready to serve, allowing the falvours to develop.

 

Chicken

1 whole chicken

3lt chicken stock

3 cloves garlic

2 sticks ginger, peeled

2 whole spring onion

6 white peppercorns, crushed

1/2 tsp salt

2tsp sesame oil

 

Wash and clean the chicken and place in a heavy-based pot. Cover the chicken with the chicken stock and add all the remaning ingredients, except the oil. Allow to simmer for about 45minutes and then turn off the heat. Leave to stand for 15 minutes. Test the chicken to ensure it's cooked (use a skewer, insert it into the thickest parts and the juices should run clear).

Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside for 10minutes. Rub the chicken with the sesame oil. Remove the legs and breasts from the bone and slice into even pieces. Set aside until ready to serve

Rice
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbspn sesame oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
400g long-grain rice
600ml chicken stock (from the poached chicken)
A pinch of salt
1 small bunch coriander (for garnish)
1 cup spring onion, finely sliced (for garnish)

Heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil together in a large pan. Saute the shallots, garlic and ginger. Rinse and drain the rice. Add to the pan and stir until evenly coated. Pour in the the chicken stock and season with a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a low heat.
Simmer for about 20minutes.

Bring it all together by spooning the rice onto a platter and arranging the chicken on top. Garnish with the coriander and sliced spring onion.
Serve with the dressing and the spice on the side

 

The Jolly Cookathon - Yuppie Chef

I am so excited! But also so sad....

Why am I sad? It's not going to well with my friend who is ill. We're going to see his wife tonight. We need a miracle.

Excited? Yuppie Chef are hosting a cookathon! I cannot wait!!

How it works?

1.Choose two of the six Jolly Cookathon recipes
2.Stock up your pantry and invite some guests

3.Cook your meal and snap some photos

4.Submit your entry (photos and story) in our entry form

5.Et voila

I showed this to one of my friends and she is also going to participate. We're going to have our own mini cook off before we submit our entries to the competition.

Anyone else keen to join?

Please continue praying for a miracle for Mr G (hope, friend)

Spring Cake Pops!

Favourite foodie online store, Yuppie Chef, hosted a Spring Cake Pop Challenge recently. I had to bake a birthday cake for my friend at work so I decided to take up the challenge and make these cute cake pops for her. It's really easy to do and it's so much fun!

What you need:

1 x firm baked cake (I did cheat and used a vanilla cake box mix)

125ml of icing

cake pop sticks

Chocolate (I used the compound chocolate which can be reheated and has a glossy shine)

Colouring

Icing flowers

A block of styrofoam or a colander

Optional - brown flower pot & mint green vermicelli

What you have to do:

Start by breaking your cake into crumbs. Yes, the cake you just baked. You can get in touch with the child in you and use your hands, or use a food processor. Mix the icing with the cake crumbs to form a firm yet moist texture.

Roll the mixture into little balls. You can use a melon baller or small ice cream scoop if you wish. I am terrible at using any of the two and my balls are funny squares, but they looked good in the end! Stick a stick into each ball.

Pop your cake balls into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. I added a bit of pink colour to the white chocolate to create the palest pink. After every 10 pops, I added more colour to darken the pink. Try to have your chocolate deep so you can dip the entire ball into the melted chocolate.

Dip the balls into the chocolate and stick into the styrofoam to dry. Before the chocolate sets you can attach your flowers or sprinkle your sprinkles. Repeat until complete

For the flower pot, I cleaned the pot and MrB cut a piece of styrofoam for me to fit the pot. Using food glue I attached the vermicelli (I went for the school craft method of spreading the glue, sprinkling the sprinkles and dusting off those that didn't stick). That was the pot and green grass done. I then stuck pops into the styrofoam and that completed the flower pot look.

To see some AMAZING pops, please go have a look at Bakerella's page. WOW!

Flowers up close

Cake pops in display on my friend's desk

All the entries for the challenge on on the Yuppie Chef #cakepopchallenge board in Pinterest. View is here and see the amazing entries. I had fun doing it but based on the amazing creations out there, I have no chance of walking away with a gift voucher. And that's ok, my friend was happy

Wakaberry fun

A frozen yoghurt bar? Yeah, ok, sounds cool.

A frozen yoghurt bar where you serve your own yoghurt with a selection of flavours? And with tons of toppings to choose from?

HEAVEN!

We recently discovered Wakaberry - so much fun! I felt like a kid.

You help yourself (yoghurt is priced by weight).

Select from the awesome toppings - there are healthy fruit options and sweet treats too

Pay

Enjoy!