My Friend Ben

This week marked a significant milestone- one of my co-workers and good friends spent his last staff meeting with us. I'm not one that's really great at goodbyes so I decided to bake. Creating cakes often helps me process- It helps me pray for and think of "that" person through the whole process.
Ben has been such an amazing inspiration to me and our team.  I can learn a lot from him. He always goes over and above- giving 100%, has time for every person no matter the age, is always looking for ways to improve (himself and our ministry) He is hilarious. Fun. And extravagant in his care and ministry.

That's why I made this cake.

It's decadent. Over the top. Exteme. I felt like I almost couldn't bake something extravagant enough for him. This marbled Oreo chocolate cake went down a treat. And expressed perfectly my inner turmoil of "letting this friend go" as well as "celebrating" this next amazing chapter in his life.

Ben you have been such a good friend to me. A great challenger. An amazing co-worker.
I pray for rich and glorious  adventures.
I will miss you friend!

Quick & Easy Wholemeal Pizza

It was a particularly difficult day to think up something amazing for dinner- but I still had some leftover homemade pasta sauce from earlier in the week to get rid of (see previous post) so I opted for quick homemade pizza.

There's nothing fancy to this recipe and this is one I often throw together when I don't know what else to make.

Pizza crust:
Put
4 tsp of yeast in
1 cup of warm water and
1/4 cup oil and set aside.

In the meantime:
Put 2 cups of wholemeal flour in your mixer
With a good pinch of salt
And I also added garlic salt to ours cause it's yum!
I mix this at this point to help make the flour lighter as I'm lazy and don't sift

Add the liquid mixture until it just comes together
You don't want to beat it too much as it will make it tough

Dump dough into lightly floured surface and knead together.

Divide dough into 4 mini pizzas or two large bases and flatten into circles
place on baking paper on baking sheet.

Add your favourite pizza sauce

And whatever toppings you like!  Get the kids involved - they love making their own!

Bake at 180C for 15 min or until cheese on top is golden

Homemade Pasta Sauce

At our last anniversary we really didn't have a lot of money, so finding a gift that was thoughtful and inexpensive was difficult. In the end I settled on a packet of 6 small tomato plants. 

I know many of you may not find tomato plants a very meaningful gift, but Leigh and I both love gardening and cooking and to my husband this would be something He would appreciate. 

We planted the tiny plants and only a few months later we found ourselves managing a tomato jungle- if this was reminiscent of our love life - than boy what a flourishing romance!

This first crop is the beginning of many more- so I knew that I'd have to be creative in using up all our tomatoes.  I decided to try my hand at making a pasta sauce. 

Here's what I created

 Tomato Vegetable Pasta Sauce

1- Boil water in a large Sauce pan and add about 2Kg Of tomatoes (with the stems cut off) only for a few seconds. 

2- Immediately place tomatoes in an ice bath and remove skins.

3- use Tupperware Extra Chef to dice: 

2 -3 onions

8 garlic cloves

2 carrots

1/2 red capsicum

 4- Empty boiled water from large sauce pan.  Add 1/4 olive oil and place over medium heat.

5- Add diced Veg and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

6- Add 2 tsp of vegetable stock, some salt,  and herbs (I used 2 oregano stalks from my garden and 1 stalk of thyme) 

7- Add the peeled tomatoes and 1 tbsp brown sugar. 

8- turn heat down and simmer for 1.5-2hours stirring occasionally. 

Tip: In the last half hour of cooking add a peeled carrot (I've found this helps remove some of the acidity)

9- Let cool- and blend until smooth in your blender. 

10- Enjoy your homemade Pasta sauce over your choice of pasta! Create a bolognese by browning mince in a sauce pan and then adding the pasta sauce to simmer for 10-15 minutes afterwards. 

11- Keep leftover sauce for about a week in the fridge! You can also bottle it per canning instructions. 

Saucy Homemade Wings

One of the things that I miss from Canada is going out for all you can eat 25 cent (buffalo) wings. I'm not sure they still serve them that cheap but I'm sure you can still find them for a reasonable price. There are only a few places here that you can get wings, and they tend to be expensive. It's not particularly healthy or anything but there's some sort of achievement when surviving through eating wings so hot that you sweating, crying and burning from all orifices. In saying that while I watched my friends graduate from flame to inferno, I would chose instead to opt for BBQ... every time- and I could eat a stack.

So in my nostalgia- I decided to attempt to make them myself...

In an effort to make it a bit healthier I chose to bake them rather than deep fry.

Here's how I did it...

BAKED BUFFALO WINGS

1-Wash and pat dry 2kg of chicken wings

2-Cut into 3 pieces at the joints

(keep the drumstick and wing, throw away wing tips or use in a soup)

3-put wings in a plastic bag with 1.5 cups of plain flour, salt, pepper, 1tsp paprika and shake till covered in flour

4- place in fridge for 1 hr

5- place floured wings on greased baking tray a few cm apart and place in a heated oven (180C)

6- Bake one side 20min

7- Turn over and cook on other side 10min

8- warm up BBQ sauce (or whatever sauce you like) on stove or in microwave. If making a hot sauce- use hot sauce melted with butter to cover the wings.

9- pour sauce over wings until lightly coated and place on a plate with celery sticks carrot sticks and ranch dressing. 

10- eat and enjoy!

Miracle Soup

A number of years ago we had to put Malakai in hospital while he fought a particularly awful infection. After 10 days and an emergency surgery we finally saw some relief.

Through it all Malakai only asked for two things - one was daddy and the other was mommy"s homemade vegetable soup.

As a mom who loves to cook it was my pleasure to bring him his most desired meal. I also loved that his favourite recipe was mine...It was helpful to give my hands something to do as we waited for him to get better.

The kids love to help me make it - and it's so easy we make this a part of our weekly meal plan.

 The recipe is easy:

Sauté
1 minced onion
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 stalks of diced celery
In a large knob of butter

Add 1/4 cup of wholemeal flour
Add 4-5 peeled diced potatoes
3 peeled diced carrots
Add any other left over veggie bits you find in the fridge- this time I added shredded cabbage. In the past I've used pumpkin, zucchini broccoli and cauliflower. Your preference

Sprinkle with 4 teaspoons of chicken stock powder
Add 4 cups of water

Bring to boil and reduce and simmer  for 20-40 minutes until potato is fully cooked through

One trick I always do for  the kids dishes is add frozen peas or corn to cool it down without watering it down.

There is never any left over! It's so yummy! Hope you enjoy this miracle soup

Mmmm MUFFINS!

There's something so warm and comforting about Warm Banana Muffins. On a cool morning they totally hit the spot. The kids love them and they are relatively healthy.

I usually make them if we want a break from toast and cereal for breaky.
And I make them without recipe- it usually includes some form as below:

2 cups wholemeal SR flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
Cinnamon
Salt
Nutmeg
3 bananas
About 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut

I love the silicon Tupperware moulds as they are 100% natural sand product and have no yucky fillers in them. They are so easy to use and CLEAN!
I hate cleaning muffin tins so these have been amazing!