NUTELLA BANANA TARTS

(for those members of the family that don't like cheesecake pie and you don't want to spend all day cooking something else for them)


1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits
jar nutella
2 bananas
300 mls cream, whipped
chocolate sprinkles


heat oven to 175 c
1/2 round patty tins needed.


place biscuits over holes of tins and place in oven till soft.

press biscuits into holes to make tart shapes. cool.

store biscuits in an air tight container till needed.

when ready to serve......

place a teaspoon of nutella into each biscuit.

cover nutella with 3 - 4 slices banana.

pipe or spoon on cream.

sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles.

refrigerate left overs.

*NOTE..If you don't have the 1/2 round tins, or you're in a hurry, you could just spread the nutella straight on to the biscuits, followed by the banana and cream. Doesn't look as pretty, but tastes the same.

CHOCOLATE BANANA CREAM CHEESECAKE PIE

1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits, crushed
120 grams butter, melted
600 mls thickened cream,
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pkt cottees vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup cold milk
250 grams cream cheese, softened
1 can nestles condensed milk
6 ripe bananas
1/2 cup toasted coconut

line bottom of 22 cm spring form tin with baking paper.  lightly grease sides.

mix the biscuits and butter together and press into  bottom of tin and 1/2 way up the sides. refrigerate while making filling.

whip the cream with the 3 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla.  set aside.

using an electric  mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy.

In a separate bowl, mix the instant pudding and milk until combined

quickly add the pudding mix and condensed milk to cream cheese. beat until smooth.

fold in 1 cup of the whipped cream.

remove biscuit base from refrigerator and cover  bottom and sides of biscuits with a thin layer of cream cheese mix.

slice 4 bananas and evenly cover cream cheese,  bottom and sides.

cover with rest of filling, then the rest of the cream.

cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

when ready to serve, decorate with the other 2 bananas, sliced, and toasted coconut.

To toast coconut, sprinkle on baking tray and place under griller set at medium temperature, stirring occassionally until brown.

......CHICKEN TOMATO PESTO PENNE.......


1 kilo chicken breast fillets, diced
500 gram packet penne pasta
4 tablespoons tomato pesto
600 mls cream
200 grams mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
100 grams spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, blitzed - optional


cook penne according to directions on packet.

in a large non stick frypan, on medium heat,  saute the chicken until cooked but not brown.  remove from pan.

in same frypan, saute the garlic and mushrooms until the mushrooms are just cooked.

return chicken to frypan with the garlic and mushrooms.

stir in the cream, the pesto (and the optional sundried tomatoes) Add more pesto according to taste if needed.

add the salt and pepper and parmesan cheese.

add the spinach and cook until just wilted.

serve.

Hello and almost goodbye, again Saturday.  I'm sitting here at 10.30 pm, listening to the wind howling around outside and wondering whether my internet will stay connected long enough to finish here.

It's been a really quiet day here. Lizzy Lou and family had a wedding to go to today so no extra kids. I actually got to go shopping with miss Tash,  number five and the chunky one. A bit of Chrissy shopping, a bit of food shopping and a bit of a wander around.

The only thing I cooked today was a chicken stir fry for tea, which we will get back too.  I did all the rest of my cooking last night because I made ice cream.  Number five had sent me some recipes which of course I deviated from.
If I had known it was so easy, I would have been making this for years. So I took the basic recipe which was condensed milk, thickened cream, and milk coffee biscuits and added orange zest,  food colourings and choc bits. You just line a swiss roll tray with the biscuits, beat the cream and the condensed milk, add in the zest, colouring and choc bits,cover with more biscuits and freeze.  When it was frozen i just blobbed on some chocolate ice magic topping. That's the stuff that you have to microwave to melt, then pour over ice cream and it goes hard.  We now have Orange choc chip ice cream sandwich. Hopefully it works.

The other recipe was similar but you whipped the cream then added the condensed milk and stirred in crushed honeycomb. That gets poured over malt biscuits, sprinkle a bit more honeycomb and freeze. Honeycomb freezer slice.

I had seen a recipe ages ago on facebook for a chocolate eclair cake made with graham crackers and instant pudding mix. Being in Australia, I have never seen graham crackers (apparently pronounced gram according to my son who lives in Seattle) and because they are in so many American recipes, I was really curious to know what they tasted like.  When I was out shopping on Friday, I was looking at one of the pop up shops at the Plaza  and lo and behold, there was a packet of graham crackers The price was $7.00, but oh well at least I'll know what they are.
So I make my chocolate eclair cake which  is instant pudding mixed with milk and whipped cream and layered between the crackers. Top that with chocolate icing and refrigerate over night,  It looked really good and quite frankly, I was excited.
So that was Friday night.
Now, back to Saturday.
8.30 am. arrives and so does a message from number five informing me that he and the family are arriving shortly for breakfast "I have no butter" says he.  "Go to the shops" says me. But no, apparently he would rather drive 10 minutes to my place (the shop is just down the road from him) and have me make it. So cuppas and toast all round.  That drifted into the shopping trip, then back home. Time to try my eclair cake.  I cut it, it's really soft, I taste it and...YUK. I don't like the taste of the graham crackers at all, I guess the Americans grow up with them, a bit like us with vegemite.  The kid's will eat it, hopefully.  What a waste of $15.00 odd dollars. Looks good tho.

 Anyway after number five and family left, I put up some Christmas decorations. I especially like my hiding santa in the box.
That took a few hours of picking and sorting but finally got finished just before miss Tash and chunky one arrived back.  Number five had to work.

Miss Tash arrived with a box containing a baby trampoline which she proceeded to put together (with a bit of help from Chunky)

 in the hopes of keeping the chunky one entertained for a while. That certainly worked.

While they played I got to work on the chicken and cabbage stir fry. Nice and easy. Chop up chicken, cabbage, onion and red capsicum, cook that in a wok with some garlic, pour in water mixed with ginger, soy sauce, chicken stock cube and cornflour and thicken and serve.  We had some mashed potato with that.

We have our ice cream for dessert.  Wow the orange choc chip is divine. Everyone is loving it.  I think I'm pretty clever lol.

The honeycomb one is pretty good too, tho I can't lay claim to that recipe.
Tash and the chunky one go home and my nights pretty much done.  Clean up and then a cuppa while I'm still listening to the wind and staring at my Christmas lights.

So I wish you all good night and leave you with a pic of my Christmas pussy.....

HONEYCOMB FREEZER SLICE

600 mils thickened cream
1 can condensed milk
400 grams honeycomb, crushed
1 packet(250 grams) malt biscuits

line a deep 18 x 28 cm baking dish with baking paper.

place a layer of biscuits over bottom of dish, cutting to fit.

with an electric mixer, whip cream till stiff.

beat in condensed milk till firm.

fold in 250 grams of the crushed honeycomb.

pour cream mixture over top of biscuits.

sprinkle remainder of honeycomb over top.

freeze.
 
cut into squares as needed. let sit a couple of minutes before serving.

ORANGE CHOCOLATE CHIP ICECREAM SANDWICH

1 can condensed milk
600 mls thickened cream
2 packets milk coffee biscuits
zest of 1 large orange
200 grams dark choc bits
15 drops red food colouring
15 drops yellow food colouring
bottle of  chocolate ice magic topping

line a swiss roll tin with baking paper.

cover bottom  of tin with biscuits.

with an electric mixer, beat cream, condensed milk and food colouring together till thick.

stir in zest and choc bits.

pour evenly over biscuits, smoothing top.

cover with another layer of biscuits

cover with cling wrap and freeze overnight or until set.

when frozen, drizzle with chocolate ice magic topping.

CHICKEN AND CABBAGE STIR FRY


1 kg chicken breast fillets, sliced
6 cups cabbage, shredded
1 onion, sliced
1 red capsicum, sliced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 chicken stock cube
1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons oil
salt and pepper to taste

add 1 tablespoon oil to a wok or frypan and cook chicken (in two batches). remove from wok and set aside.

add another tablespoon of oil to the wok and cook, stirring, the garlic, cabbage, onion and capsicum till just tender

In a jug, mix the water, ginger, soy sauce, crushed stock cube and corn flour.

add chicken back into the wok with the vegetables.

add the water mix, stirring till thickened. (if too thick for your taste, add a bit more water)

add salt and pepper and serve.