Rule #3 – always eat good food

My Saturday night was spent at home, in my pjs with a lovely glass of wine, while my husband spoilt me with one of his delicious three course meals! It’s become a little bit of a tradition for us… every now and then, he’ll buy a bunch of ingredients, pour me a glass of wine and I’ll sit on the breakfast bar while he cooks. We tend to eat while he cooks as well – which is the fun part

This time the courses were:

1st – Tomato & olive bruschetta

2nd – Garlic prawns in a white wine sauce – SO GOOD!

3rd – A perfectly cooked medium rare peppered steak, with asparagus in a mustard vinaigrette & roasted peppers stuffed with mushrooms

It really was a perfect way to spend an otherwise extremely busy weekend.

I will eventually post the recipes for these delicious meals – if not here, then on my food blog (I have a list of recipes that I  have been meaning to add to it, but haven’t found the time!). I am actually thinking about merging the two blogs together – so we’ll see what happens with that!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!

Pasta-less Spaghetti!

This one was all down to my delightful husband Such a brilliant idea and oh-so-very yummy!!! It is perfect for those who are always counting calories and trying not to eat carbs It’s also very delicious and easy to make!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 large Spaghetti Squash
• 1 pound of Minced Meat (chicken, lamb or beef – all of them will work – so it’s upto you! In the photos below we used beef, however have used chicken too)
• 1 small Onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves Garlic, chopped/crushed
• A piece of Ginger, chopped/crushed (roughly 1 tbs)
• 1 green or red Chilli, chopped/crushed
• 2 Tomatoes, liquidized – or 1 small can of crushed Tomatoes
• 1 tsp Madras Curry Paste (Pataks)
• Salt to taste
• Olive oil/Cooking oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. While the oven is heating, cut the spaghetti squash in half and remove the seeds and pulp.
2. Once the oven is ready, place the 2 spaghetti squash halves into an oven try and bake for 40-45 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and once hot add the onions and cook until brown.
4. Add the ginger/garlic/chilli and allow this to cook with the onions for a few minutes.
5. Add the minced meat and cook this through thoroughly.
6. Add the tomatoes and madras curry paste and mix well. The meat and tomatoes will give off water, keep cooking this until the water starts to evaporate.
7. Ensure the meat is thoroughly cooked before serving.
8. Remove the spaghetti squash from the oven – and allow this to cool. Once cool, gently scrape the tines of a kitchen fork around the edge of the spaghetti squash to shred the pulp into strands. (Look here for more info on cooking spaghetti squash)
9. Pour the minced meat over the spaghetti squash and there you have it

You can sprinkle some grated cheese over it if you like.  We had it with our (still) favourite wine, Apothic Red. It’s healthy and really yummy – you can’t get any better than that

Veggie Tuesdays: Falafel Wraps

Sorry for being so quiet – we have been travelling around Canada and been extremely busy. We have actually done a fair bit of cooking, but unfortunately silly old me accidentally lost all the photos of the delicious food we made! (Yes – I could have posted without the photos, but it’s not really the same is it?) SO we started again

Last week for Veggie Tuesdays, my husband was craving falafels – something I have never ever made before, but I figured it couldn’t be that difficult. So after looking up a few things online – I got to it

Here’s what you need:

• 1 15-19 oz can Chickpeas, drained
• 1 small Onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of Garlic, chopped/crushed
• 2 tbs All Purpose Flour
• 1 tps Coriander
• 1 tps Cumin
• 1/2 tps Baking Powder

1. Drizzle olive oil evenly in shallow baking dish. Preheat oven to 350.
2. While oven is preheating, mash chickpeas  in food processor. Add onions and garlic and blend.
3. Add remaining ingredients to make a thick paste-like consistency.
4. Shape into ping pong size balls and place in preheated baking dish.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, turning halfway through cooking.

We had the falafels stuffed in pita with salad (lettuce, cucumbers & tomatoes), with a yoghurt dip and chilli sauce.

For the yoghurt dip you need:

• 1/2 cup Plain Yoghurt (Greek Yoghurt would work too)
• 1/2 a Cucumber, grated
• handful Cilantro/Coriander, chopped
• Salt to taste

1. Mix all the ingredients together Easy!

It turned out perfectly! Make sure you let the falafels cook through and get crispy and brown on the outside. It was truly scrumptious – definitely a meal that will be a regular for us on Tuesdays! Enjoy

Veggie Tuesdays: Rajma – Red Kidney Bean Curry

Every Tuesday for us is veggie day! One day a week we are purely vegetarian – I’ve been doing it with my family for as long as I can remember and my husband has agreed to do it with me now too. SO veggie tuesday will be for all the vegetarians out there

Last night we made Rajma – an Indian red kidney bean curry and had it with rice. It was truly delcious! You can have it with naan or roti if you want to subsitute the rice – it works well with both!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 can of Red Kidney Beans
• 1/2 an Onion (diced very small)
• Mushrooms (optional)
• A piece of Ginger
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 1 Red Chilli
• 1 can of Crushed Tomatoes (depending on how large the can is – if it’s a large can, you only need half) OR 3 tomatoes crushed/blended
• 1/2 tsp of Tomatoe Puree
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp Madras Curry Paste (Pataks)
• Coriander / Cilantro
• Salt
• Olive Oil / Cooking Oil

 

1. First thing you want to do is prepare the ginger, garlic and chillis.  Add the ginger, garlic cloves and red chilli to a blender and blend into a paste. (You can use ginger or garlic pastes, crushed ginger/garlic etc)
2. Heat the oil in a pot and once hot add the onions and cook till brown.
3. Add the ginger/garlic/red chilli mixture and allow this to cook with the onions for a few minutes.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, garam masala, madras curry paste and salt to taste – let this cook for about 5minutes.
5. Rinse the kidney beans and add these to the pot along with the mushrooms.
6. Add 3 cups of water to this – this will ensure you get the right curry consistency. The curry should be saucy but not took thick.
7. Add more water if you feel it’s needed and let this cook for a few minutes to ensure the mixture cooks through to the beans and mushrooms.
8. Chop up a small bunch of coriander/cilantro and sprinkle this on top just before the dish is served.

 

The mushrooms are a completely optional addition – I’ve never actually had mushrooms in rajma before, however my husband swore by it and insisted I added them! It was actually a very nice combination!

We had the rajma with hot basmati rice, a fresh green salad & an onion pickle! It was yum – my husband had seconds (yay!) Enjoy!

Related Articles

• Just Married: My Experiments with Rajma (mysoulsongs.wordpress.com)