Easy dinners

Kumara, Bacon & Corn Chowder recipe

  • Soup

kumara bacon and corn chowder recipe

We adore this tasty kumara bacon and corn chowder.  I made some a couple of weeks ago and, upon the family whip around of “I’m going grocery shopping, does anyone need anything?  Speak now or forever hold your peace” question, my husband pipes up and asks if I can get the ingredients to make “that chowder” again. Yes, it’s a winner and the perfect weekend winter soup as well as being hearty enough to suffice as an evening meal.  It’s also a flexible recipe that lends itself into both the dairy free and Paleo camps:  Biff out the butter and use coconut oil.  Done.   Lastly, I feel like I say this a lot, but it’s an easy recipe to make too: Bonus! (more…)

Eating Clean – Living Paleo (Cookbook review)

Clean Living Paleo review Photo from http://www.cavegirl.co.nz[/caption%5D

Do you know, I don’t think I’ve done an entire post on a book review before… I don’t think I’ve done a proper cookbook review either [shakes head]. 

I was rapt to be sent a copy of Rachael Devcich’s ‘Eating Clean – Living Paleo’ to have a good squizzy at, ahead of it’s launch this week. Suffice to say I’ve been busy in the kitchen giving it a jolly good road-test before…. I GIVE IT AWAY! I know, madness, I don’t know what’s possessed me because, I’ll cut to the chase: This cookbook is a beautiful thing and one lucky person is going to be pumped to be receiving this via my Facebook giveaway (click here for my Facebook page – The Giveaway will start on 8 August 2015).

I won’t beat around the bush, this is a paleo cookbook.  Paleo, in case you aren’t familiar, is the trend in eating that’s been growing steadily overseas and in NZ and is ideal for people with food intolerances to gluten and/or dairy, or who want to cut refined sugar out of their diet.  It’s at this point I need to mention, I am NOT a paleo convert!  Don’t get me wrong, I actually love paleo food and, if you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ll know I’ve blogged a few paleo recipes.  My position is that I totally get the paleo philosophy. I reckon there’s some top notch fooder from the paleo bandwagon, but I’m not a, well, paleo nut.  I’m more of a “I eat everything in moderation” kind of chick. That said, I reckon sugar is fairly evil and I try to avoid refined sugar and highly processed food as much as I can (read this post) and, more recently, I’m playing around with the LCHF (low carb high fat) concept.  With that spiel out of the way, I do own a few paleo and clean eating cookbooks and, currently, these are some of my more well-read and reached for cookbooks when I need a burst of inspiration. But, I am not, I repeat, a paleo cheerleader/convert.

Anyway, Eating Clean – Living Paleo is NZ’s guide to paleo and is jam packed with over 100 gluten, grain, dairy and refined sugar free recipes.  It’s the brainchild of Cave Girl Rachael Devcich who, after changing her diet to exclude grains, dairy and refined sugar, found that her general health and energy improved so much that she’s become a massive advocate of sharing the message.  I’m slightly in awe of Rachael, not only has she pumped out a stunning cookbook with drool-worthy recipes, bugger me, she’s taken all the photos and done all her own graphic design. I thought she was superwoman (and I needed some serious up-skilling) until I discovered she was a was originally a chef turned graphic designer and photographer. Lucky her: It’s an award winning combo (I said it here first).  

What can you expect to find in this guide?  Lots of recipes from breakfast and brunch, through to desserts and sweets. There’s a wide ranging repertoire of family-friendly fodder here – including fare that even the fussiest of kids won’t turn their noses up at (I should know, one lives at my house…). (more…)

Warm Chicken Salad with Ranch Style Dressing

warm chicken salad with ranch style dressingI made this winter appropriate salad for dinner on Saturday night and both my vege-dodging husband and super-fussy friend scoffed this.  In fact, my husband ate so much he complained “I’ve eaten too much” for the rest of the evening. However, this might have something to do with the chocolate fudge self-saucing pudding I made for the kids… That he tucked in to.

When I made this I marinaded the chicken breasts for a couple of hours. That said, I make versions of this salad on week nights and, not being a particularly organised creature, thinking ahead to put the chicken on to marinade is in the too-hard basket. So, as I do when I’m in ‘quick-cook mode’ simply pan fry the chicken sprinkled with some of your favourite seasoning (I love Masterfood’s Tuscan Seasoning, Moroccan Seasoning, or Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning).  Actually on that note, this whole recipe, like many of mine that you’ll find on my blog, is very much of the ‘improvise or get creative’ type. No kumara? Use pumpkin. No green beans?  Use capsicum.  No cashew nuts? Use almonds. No bacon? Leave it out.  Lastly, the ingredients look like a lot – I get that. Take some shortcuts if you like, hell buy a pre-made Ranch Dressing to speed things up (Paul Newman’s is a goodie). 

If you do make the dressing though – save the recipe, you’ll want to use it over and over…

Note: Usually I use a special feature on my blog to layout my recipes, but this app I use is misbehaving itself and I’ve admitted defeat for now. So if you are reading the recipe below and moaning at the layout (and lack of a print button) – sorry! I’ll try redoing it next week,b ut for now, my patience has, errr, expired… Lou x

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Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch sauce

sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce

There’s nothing ‘good for you’ about this pudding. It’s wicked. It’s also a crowd-pleaser, easy to make (you can whip the pudding up after your main course in ten minutes, rejoin your guests and dazzle them with your inner domestic goddessness) and you’ve probably got most of the ingredients on hand already. I do LOVE recipes where “nothing special is required”. Just distance yourself from the butterscotch pudding: It’s addictive.  

By the way, in the (unlikely) event that there’s some left, it freezes fine for the next time you want to dazzle your dinner guests. (more…)

Slow cooker BBQ Pulled Pork with Kicked-up Slaw

We’ve been having a fair bit of pork in our house, largely as I’ve been doing a bit of dinner prep in the morning and engaging my slow cooker in an attempt to eradicate ‘6.00pm dinner madness’.   So, as a lover of my slow cooker, pulled pork, and anything with a BBQ sauce (coz everything is better with a sauce, as I’m sure Manu from MKR would agree) I’ve been trying to perfect a slow cooker pulled pork recipe, accompanied by a BBQ sauce that’s got no refined sugar (Sugar Free September last year has changed how I view sugar for life).

Anyhow, I’ve been faffing around in my kitchen trying to perfect this recipe to get it to the point where it’s blogworthy. TAAA DAAA:  My kitchen play time is done: This is a mighty fine dinner I’m rapt to be sharing with you!   Bonus too: The delicious BBQ sauce is ‘sugar free’, though I have used honey to sweeten it (I wonder if apple puree would work? I’ll try that next time).   The addition of kicked up slaw is a must in my opinion: I can’t get enough Broccoslaw (as mentioned in my recent March favourites blog post) or Sriracha Hot Sauce at the moment.

Give this a go – I reckon you’ll rate it as much as we do!

PS: Do I need to mention that a great mayonnaise to use in the Kicked Up Slaw is this one?

PPS: This meal is delicious with cauliflower mash, roast potatoes, or good old fashioned mashed spuds.  Knock yourself out.

slow cooker pulled pork with kicked up slaw

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Zucchini & Tomato Bake

zucchini tomato bakeI used to make this deliciously simple zucchini bake dish all the time but I forgot about it until I was gifted a sh*tload of zucchini last month…I had zucchini coming out the wahzoo. I beavered away in the kitchen making zucchini salad, zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini curry, zucchini fritters (anyone else thinking of Forrest Gump right about now?) when something jolted my memory and a little voice in my head said ‘hang on!’ – what about zucchini/tomato bake? And I’ve made it three times since in the last few weeks, it’s that good.

Note, it might look a tad dry on top, but trust me: Once you cut into it, the moist goodness of the melted zucchini and tomato hits you. I love the crunchy topping as a contrast. Mmmm.

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Pesto Crusted Salmon

Pesto crusted salmonI’m a little bit excited about this recipe. Salmon is easily my fish of choice – I just can’t get enough of it. It definitely is a wonder food which is why we should be promoting sustainable aquaculture to ensure that we still have access to this amazing fish! Add pesto into the same sentence as salmon and you’ve got me grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Bonus too – this has sod all ingredients (I know my recipes can get a tad lengthy – so enjoy this!). This definitely falls in the ‘easy mid week’ dinner category – despite looking like it’s something you’d cook for a flash dinner party (that’s my kind of dinner!). (more…)

Speedy Spaghetti and Meatballs

spaghetti and meatballs recipeI put a call out on my Facebook page a while back to see what recipes you lovely blog readers would like to see: Speedy savoury dinners seemed to be a bit of a popular theme! Well, you said, I’m delivering.

This speedy meatball recipe totally fries my burger as I can get this dinner on the table within 25 minutes, while multi-tasking with those those tedious domestic activities like supervising homework and getting lunches ready for the following day.    This recipe is also really versatile: Haven’t got pesto? Add a sauce (sweet chilli sauce, tomato paste, BBQ sauce, hell, tomato sauce if you like). Don’t like/haven’t got cheese? Leave it out.  If you want to speed things up, use a pre-made pasta sauce (I make pasta sauce in bulk from scratch and keep it in the cupboard in sterilised jars…  Since Operation Sugar Reduction I find pre-made pasta sauces like Dolmio far too sweet).

Lastly, here’s a tip: Make double the meatball recipe (get the kids to help you with the rolling) and keep them to cook the next night. Stuff them into wholemeal pita breads, or roll them up in tortillas. Add salad and your favourite sauces/dressing (mayonnaise, pesto, hummus, sweet chilli sauce, you get the idea). This is another speedy, popular, tasty and healthy mid week dinner.

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