Plug aside, here is what my weekly menu plan looks like.

(Click on it to see it in a new tab!)

As you can see, I write down everything I am going to have for the week, because this keeps me focussed and I remember not to just drink tea / eat fruit / eat crackers now that I seem to be allergic to everything. Writing down every meal is kind of a hassle, so not for everyone, but if you even just planned out the weekly dinners you will be saving yourself time and money!

I also have my key at the bottom for ‘processed’ foods and whether I ate out of the house. This is mostly so I can see at a glance whether I need to cut back on either of these things. It works well for me, I eat a lot healthier when I’m being brutally honest with myself like this.

Ours was honey and vanilla. It was nice

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Tonight was meant to be a night for left overs but then I saw a recipe for baked risotto and I knew that was what I wanted. I used rice instead of farro (which was what the original recipe calls for) and so had to adjust the liquid levels slightly. I don’t think I got it totally right, there was some slightly crunchy rice in the mixture. It had a good flavour though and I think I’ll make it again.

Baked Risotto
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

INGREDIENTS
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
2 1/2 cups rice
500g tomato sauce
600ml water
1 tbs herbs
Salt and pepper, to taste

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 205C, with a rack in the top third. Rub olive oil across an 8×8-inch baking dish.

2. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat combine the olive oil, onion and garlic. Cook until the onions soften up and begin to become translucent, a few minutes.

3. Add the rice, stir until well-coated, and cook for another minute or two. Stir in the tomato sauce and the water. Bring just to a simmer, remove from heat, and stir in the salt, pepper and herbs. Carefully taste a bit of the brothy liquid, and adjust the seasoning if needed.

4. Transfer to the prepared baking dish, cover with foil, poke a few slits in the foil, and bake for about 45 minutes or until the grains are cooked through. You can uncover in the last few minutes to get a bit of color on the top of the rice.

This recipe serves 6.

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Today I made sorbet. I had plums and nectarines which were just on the verge of going off. I had a recipe for plum sorbet. And I had a sugar replacement which I wanted to try out.

The sorbet was a great texture so I think the recipe is good. It was way too sweet for my tastes though and I’m not sure whether this is due to the sweetener or the recipe simply calling for too much sugar.

Plum and Nectarine Sorbet
Adapted from Jaime Magazine Recipe Yearbook 2010/11

INGREDIENTS
8-10 plums, stoned and quartered (I added 3 nectarines as well)
200g sugar (100g of mine was sweetner)
1 egg white
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

PROCEDURE

1. Combine the plums and half the sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Cover tightly with clingfilm and set over a pan of simmering water to release the plum juices – about 30 minutes. Sieve the plums, gently pressing down, to give about 300ml juice – top up with a little water if need be.

2. Make a sugar syrup by dissolving the remaining sugar in 100ml boiling water. Pour the syrup into the plum juice and stir to combine. Chill the mixture.

3. Beat the egg white until frothy, then squeeze in the lemon juice and stir into the plum juice. Taste, add more syrup if necessary. Churn in an icecream maker according to the instructions.

This recipe makes 750g sorbet.

Yes, I’m back with a vengence. Well .. back anyway. It will just be a short post today as I’m going out this evening and I’m rushing to put this up before I get ready! I made this delicious and simple Quinoa Vegetable Soup today for dinner. I really liked it but it’s a little on the plain side. I might add some more spices next time I make it, possibly some turmeric or a tiny bit of curry powder.

Quinoa Vegetable Soup
Adapted from Celiac Teen

INGREDIENTS
150g mushrooms
2 medium potatoes
1 large sweet potato
4 cups chicken stock
1 medium zucchini
1 tin diced or crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup canned kidney beans
2 tbs mixed Italian herbs
Salt and pepper, to taste

PROCEDURE

1. In a pre-heated pot or dutch oven over low to medium heat, heat the olive oil. Chop the mushrooms and zucchini and dice the potatoes and sweet potato at a medium dice.

2. Saute the mushrooms, zucchini, potato and sweet potato until the veggies have softened, about 8 minutes.

3. Rinse the beans. Add the stock, tomatoes, quinoa and beans to the pot.

4. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for about 20 minutes, until the quinoa is cooked and the beans are heated through. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

This recipe makes 6 serves.

I’m so glad I did. This dense savoury loaf is perfect for a snack if you have one piece and as a meal if you have several. I had a few pieces warm right out of the oven and a few cold pieces when I got home from work and it was good either way. I think next time I make it (and there will be a next time) I would make a few changes so I’ll let you know when I update the recipe.

Lentil Loaf
Adapted from Eat Me, Delicious

INGREDIENTS
11⁄2 cups cooked lentils (or one can of lentils)
2 cups rice (or oats, millet or bulgur)
2 cup grated cheddar or mixed cheese
1 cup tomato sauce (or barbecue sauce or salsa)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup chopped spring onions (parsley, cilantro, chives or mix)
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoon garlic, minced (or garlic powder)
4 teaspoon dried oregano

PROCEDURE

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour mixture into oiled loaf pan or casserole dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

This recipe makes 24 serves.

It being the New Year I wanted to tidy up the blog and get some fresh stuff up. I updated my Food Philosophy page. I think it now reflects my feelings about food and cooking a lot better. I will continue to edit my pages and I will let you know each time I do.

This is one of the dishes I have made for myself recently. It’s simple but good!

Chicken and Quinoa

INGREDIENTS
1 chicken breast
2 tbs tomato paste
1 carrot
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
frozen peas
all-purpose seasoning
paprika
salt and pepper

PROCEDURE

1. Rinse and start cooking the quinoa based on packet instructions. Chop up the carrot and boil with the peas.

2. Cook the onion and garlic in oil in a pan. Once they are browned add the chicken and fry until cooked through.

3. Once the chicken is cooked add the tomato paste, paprika, seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.

One of the reasons for this is that I am now gluten free. After a bunch of health complications it has been decided that my body is rejecting gluten and so far tests have shown that removing it from my diet makes me feel 100% better. I need some time to get my head around this change to my diet.

I hope I can retain the followers I have already even though I’ll be substituting ingredients now.

Thanks for your continuing support

Omg I loved this challenge! Doughnuts are one of the things I promised myself I would make this year in this list, so when I saw they were the challenge for the month directly after making the list I was super chuffed!

As we did last month, Emily and I did the challenge together! I think this is going to just become something we do together, it’s heaps of fun having someone to balance out the stress! (Plus someone to share the food with!) That’s my new kitchen you can see behind Emily. It’s got a lot of space!

The thing I was most nervous about was the oil. I’ve never deep fried anything before and I really didn’t want to get hot oil on myself or all over the kitchen. I am happy to report that the frying went really well! If anything my oil went a bit cold for awhile but I turned our stove up and it remained at the requisite temperature for the rest of the frying process. (Omg, look how disgusting our stove is! The oven is horrible too! *sadface*)

While I was fussing with the oil Emily was smoothing out the doughnut mix on the table. This stuff was soo sticky!

Here are the doughnuts lying on the table waiting to be dropped in the oil. We got about 25 odd out of the mix and then the doughnut holes so it went a nice long way.

And this is the finished result! I’m really pleased with them, we just dipped them in sugar and cinnamon. They were delicious and really not that hard to make! I’ll probably do this recipe again.

Great challenge this month!

I was going to write about a cake I attempted to make yesterday to celebrate the blogoversary, but our oven is being lame and wouldn’t heat up properly so my cake didn’t rise. So, instead of the cake I’m going to share a link to the blog of Emily’s sister, Tara. She gave me a shout out as one of her top 5 food blogs and that’s awesome! Thanks Tara!