Foodie

Zucchini Slice

Zucchini sliceI love hearing about recipes that get passed down  through generations. This savoury slice of goodness was made for me by my friend Emma, who whipped this up for dinner when I was staying with her recently. This recipe has been in her family for ‘donkey’s years’ and she and her sisters all make it, with their own unique twist on the recipe.  

Bugger changing the recipe, I’m sticking to what’s below: It was fantastic and talk about easy.  (Hmmm, then again, this would be good post Christmas to use up my leftover Christmas Ham!).

 Anyhow,  as a full-time working Mum I’m a big fan of ‘biff it all together and cook it’ type food, especially when there’s likely to be leftovers for lunch.   We had this for dinner with roast chicken, homemade wedges and salad.   Guess what Emma served on the side as an accompaniment?  My Chilli Jam.  That made me smile!   (more…)

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Prawn, Pita and Salad Pile Up

Prawn Tostada Gordon RamsayYou might not know this: I really do NOT enjoy week night cooking. I find it an absolute chore: Time is limited and everyone wants my attention – and I’m so hungry after a full day of work that I’m eyeing up the corn chips and the hummus (and the baking) and my willpower is waning.  So, to get week night dinners on the table FAST there’s two ingredients I’ve just got to have on standby: Large wholemeal Lebanese Bread (of the ‘pita’ variety) and frozen prawns.  Both are super versatile and assist with getting dinner on the table in record time. (more…)

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Quinoa Salad with Chargrilled Veges and Garlic Yogurt Dressing

Quinoa Salad with Chargrilled Veges and Garlic Yogurt DressingI think this Quinoa Salad with Chargrilled Veges and Garlic Yogurt Dressing could be my best quinoa salad recipe yet. This is actually the third salad recipe on this blog featuring this yummy and healthy ‘wonder grain’ on this blog.  Seeing as the other two recipes have been super popular I thought “why not?”  Indeed, this dish is high in WOW factor. Get in quick and rustle this up before the price of capsicums and eggplants skyrocket Downunder as we scurry into autumn.

Low in fat and high flavour this salad ROCKS as a lunch dish on it’s own, or, it is the perfect accompaniment to a beautifully cooked piece of meat (we’ve had it with steak as well as roast chook) and there’s always lots left for lunches for the next few days (this recipe feeds 6-8 but we are a family of three!).
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Mars Bar and Baileys Cheesecake

Mars Bar and Baileys CheesecakeI’m not a big fan of dessert, I’m a savoury tooth girl – dessert? Or a cheeseboard and a Port? I’m the latter, every time.  However, there’s an exception. Put this cheesecake in front of me and I’m there, with bells on!

This is probably my signature dessert, I’ve been making it on on and off for at least a decade since my friend Marissa gave it to me!  It makes me warm and fuzzy inside when I go to my friends’ houses for dinner and this comes out as dessert. It’s tried and tested and I reckon one day when I’m an old lady, I’ll rock up to my son’s house for dinner and he’ll make it for me (he loves it – don’t judge me on letting a seven year old eat cheesecake with Baileys in it!). Anyhow, back to the recipe… You’ll see from the photo below that you can also make this in individual dishes, as opposed to being made in a cake tin (which is what I usually do) This is the sheer brilliance of my colleague Kelly who made this (kindly) for her team as a special treat and, lucky me, I got one too!  I shared this photo on my Facebook page and loads of you asked for the recipe. Sure thing! Here it is, complete with the photo of Kelly’s wonderful creation.  Big picture, make the cheesecake however you like, whether that’s in a springform cake tin, or Kelly’s way, in individual containers (it would be nice in red wine glasses!)  Either way… You’ll have your dessert goers begging for the recipe!

mars bar and baileys cheesecake recipe

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Avo Smash Recipe

Avo Smash recipeIf you’ve read my Eating Like a King in Palmerston North blogpost you’ll recall that I raved about Avo Smash, the absolutely fabulous breakfast we had at Palmy North’s Tomato Cafe… I have shamelessly recreated their recipe and it rocks.

I’ve made Avo Smash a good number of times for breakfast/brunch since our Palmy trip and I’ve made variations* with great success! Here’s the recipe for you. Oh, it is great as a dip too! (more…)

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Eating like a king – In Palmerston North (NZ)

Barista – This was a Monday night!

A few weeks ago a colleague and I went on a work trip to Palmerston North. I have to fess up: Apart from the opportunity to catch-up with lovely colleagues and partake in some mall-based shopping, a visit to Palmy doesn’t usually make my heart soar with excitement. John Cleese was much less diplomatic when he visited in 2005. He said ‘If you ever do want to kill yourself, but lack the courage, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick.’ Ouch. Incidentally, Palmy North town got their own revenge by naming a rubbish dump after him.

Well, after our visit my foodie colleague and I reckon John got it wrong. He can’t have gone out for dinner. Nope, he must have eaten in his hotel room and ordered tough steak and soggy chips from room service. By contrast, we were blown away by the eateries we experienced in Palmerston North. Actually we are trying to engineer another few days in the good ‘old Manawatu to sample more splendid tucker. (more…)

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Super Fluffy Pancakes

super fluffy pancakesIt was Shrove Tuesday this week and, for the first time ever, I remembered. My boys were jumping for joy at the thought of having my super fluffy pancakes for dinner as a special treat!  

I’ve made a lot of pancakes in my time – these are the best. No contest. These got demolished this week with our favourite accompaniments:  Bacon, banana and maple syrup.  Although I’ve been known to have these with cheese, bacon, jalapenos and hot sauce, as, apparently, I’m a bit odd.   No matter what the topping, these super fluffy pancakes are seriously light and fluffy as a result of egg whites folded into the batter.    We reckon these are the ultimate weekend breakfast and, according to my Hubby, my pancakes are better than those he pays $16 for from our local cafe. He’s not a man prone to compliments, so I’ll take that, thank you.    The kid reckons these are as good as McDonald’s Hot Cakes.  Sigh.

Oh – These are also the perfect treat for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Or just on Saturday or Sunday.  Yeah, just try ’em. (more…)

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Mexican Eggplant Salad

SAMSUNG CSCI went to the gorgeous Mamacita Mexican restaurant in Havelock North.  I can’t decide what I like best… Their food, their service, or their decor:  All top notch, go check it out if you are in the area!

Anyhow, we ordered the most fantastic eggplant salad. It was so good I took a photo, made mental notes and tried recreating it the next night at home. The result? I was chuffed with how it turned out (just quietly, I reckon my freestyle version with the addition of mint and feta took it to a whole new level!).

So, here’s what I did (the photo is my version, by the way, not Mamacita’s!)

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