CROCHET AND SOUP IS THE BEST MEDICINE

I have been absolutely pooped this week.

Thought it might have been just an overload and a few good night sleeps and all would be good.

Unfortunately not!

My throat feels like it has razor blades inside of it and my nose is red raw from blowing it all day long.

I had big plans for heading to Perth Brown Owls Sunday afternoon, was oh so looking forward to it.

Anyways,

what more is a sick girl to do but throw a big pot of veggie soup goodness on and 

sit and crochet.

This is one of those chop it all up and throw it all in kinda numbers.

Firstly I sauteed onion, garlic and a leek.

Then threw in the chopped carrots, potatoes, celery, zucchini, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and capsicum.

Added lots of water, a can of crushed tomatoes, lots of freshly cracked pepper, a great big shake of mixed herbs and some Buddah's Brew Seasoned Salt.

I let that simmer for a while and then about 15 minutes before serving time, I added

• a can of lentils, rinsed
• a can of chikpeas, rinsed
• some freshly sliced beans, and
• about a cup and a half of freshly rinsed quinoa

and Wah - Lah!

The most delicious chunky veggie soup, EVA!

And, even better, I have enough left over for dinners throughout the week.

All of this was followed up with a crochet chaser!

Just what the Doctor would order I reckon!

Mx

More awesome veggie dishes here!

MEATLESS MONDAY (even though it is Saturday)

I think I may have already mentioned this but I bought this awesome cookbook a few weeks ago.

There are some delicious recipes in there,  both for meat eaters and veggie lovers just like me.

Being the only vegetarian in the family,  I really love to cook dishes 

that will get me through a few days.

And now that Perth is cooling down a little, 

this was a must do!

 

Nothing beats a bowl of delicious ratatouille with a sprinkling (maybe even a handful) of parmesan.

Super duper easy and really a dish where you can use up all sorts of veggies out of the fridge.

I cut up an eggplant, a zucchini, some cherry tomatoes, a red capsicum, and had a little bit of pumpkin there I wanted to use up, so threw that in as well.

I cubed the eggplant, threw it into a bowl, added some olive oil and coated the eggplant with the oil.

Laid the eggplant out on a baking tray, with some cracked pepper over the top  and 

roasted it for around 20 minutes.

Cut up an onion, and crushed up around 4 cloves of garlic, threw it into a deep fry pan and cooked it for a little while, until soft and fragrant.  

Threw the rest of the veggies in, cooked them for a wee while and then added a can of tomatoes.

Rinsed about a cup of quinoa, popped that into the pot with a little extra water.

Let it cook a little longer, and once the quinoa and veg was just about done,  

I added the roasted eggplant and voila.

 

Delicious ratatouille!

Check out some more awesome veggie recipes here.....

Cooking Up A Storm!

I picked up this awesome cookbook the other day.

And have been cooking up a storm every since.

This materpiece was a chickpea, mushroom and spinach curry.

De-Lish

And lots of leftovers for me tonight.

And a treat for the boys, Lamb with garlic, cummin and peas.

All full of lots of quinoa goodness!

Mx

Sunday Snippets

The day started with a little procrastination, major exercise was the order for the day but.... secretly pooping my pants and no sure if I could do it. So got my will power together, threw a little strength in to stir the post and decided I had to JFDI. So the end result, 14 km cycle, DOH! thought the route I had picked was 6 - 8 kms how wrong was I and the a 2.5km jog, done and dusted and quite proud of myself I must add.

Then it was a baking fest......
Mint choc chip cookies, followed by peanut butter and choc chip cookies, and then last but not least the most magnificent rocky road (even if I do say so myself!)

A perfect Sunday..... How was yours?
Playing along with Tinnie Girl.

Banana Choc Chip Muffins

One of my favorite recipes to make for the kids, very, very easy and I seem to always have 1 or 2 blackish bananas left over at the end of the week. So soft, sweet and perfect to make muffins with.
The ingredients are :
1 large ripe banana
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter/margarine
1 1/2 cup self raising flour (I use W/Meal S/R flour)
1/2 Cup caster sugar
3/4 cup choc bits (I don't use the whole lot in the mix, I leave some to sprinkle on top)

In a mixing bowl, mash the banana, mix with the milk, egg and melted margarine.
Stir in the flour, sugar and choc bits until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into well greased muffin tins.
Bake in oven 190degrees Celsius or 370 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 20 minutes.

Delish!

An update on the babies.

Well, the babies are now around 2 weeks old and all are growing tremendously. All 11 are eating well, spending lots of time exploring the back yard and driving their poor mamma nuts!

Max (our dog) is enjoying them as well and tends to be a little overprotective at times which annoys Spunky Girl, being the ever so protective mother she moves him on when he over steps the mark.


You may have noticed Spunky Girl has no feathers on her neck, there is a good mix of babies like their Dad with feathers all up their neck and some like their Mother but I think they are all just so beautiful :)

The best thing is they are all alive and well, I was a little worried we might loose some being such a novice at this chicken stuff but even our little runt has come along way and of course I am spoiling them with porridge for brekkie and lots of their favorite treat - watermelon!

I've been spending a little time in the kitchen this week and one of my favorite treats for the boys for their lunch boxes is these very easy chocolate truffles.
The recipe is ever so easy. All you need is a packet of milk arrowroot biscuits, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 tbsp cocoa and around a cup of desiccated cocoa. I place all the biscuits in a large lunch bag and crush them into a fine mixture by rolling a rolling pin over the bag. Place the crumbled biscuits into a mixing bowl and then add the can of condensed milk to the bowl and the cocoa. Mix all the ingredients up and then roll it into balls, roll the balls into the coconut to coat the outside and then refrigerate a while. Yummy chocolate truffles, I love 'em!

Chocolate Spiders

I almost forgot....
I wanted to share this cute little recipe I found the other day called Chocolate Spiders.
Dont they look yummy and they are so easy!
Get a 100g packet of fried rice noodles. Melt 200g of cooking chocolate with 2 tblsp crunchy peanut butter, once melted add the fried rice noodles and mix together. Place spoonfuls onto a tray and refrigerate until set.
Enjoy