CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE PIES

1 kilo chicken breast,  diced small
500 grams frozen peas, corn and carrots
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cans cream chicken soup
3 chicken stock cubes
1 cup grated tasty cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1 packet frozen puff pastry sheets


in a large frypan, saute chicken until just cooked, don't brown.

drain.

in same pan, heat through frozen vegetables, onion and garlic.

return chicken to pan.

add soup and stock cubes.

bring to boil.

add cheese and stir till melted.

simmer for a couple of minutes.

remove from heat.

cool.

preheat oven to 180c

I use an electric pie cooker for these.

but for oven, line at least 2 greased pie plates with  pastry, trimming to fit.

fill with pie mix.

cover with another sheet pastry, trimming to fit.

cook till golden brown.

POTATOES, BACON AND ONION IN FOIL

8 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
8 rashers short cut bacon, sliced
1/2 packet (20 grams) french onion soup
60 grams butter, sliced

preheat oven to 180c

line a 9 x 13 ovenproof dish with a couple of sheets of foil, with the foil overlapping the sides. lightly grease the bottom of the foil.

serves 4-6

layer half the potatoes on the bottom of the dish.

layer half the onions on top of the potatoes.

sprinkle with half the french onion soup.

layer with half the bacon.

repeat with rest of potatoes, onions, bacon and soup.

dot top with butter.

NOTE: there is no salt added because the french onion soup is salty enough.

wrap the foil over the sides and top of the potatoes etc, making sure everythings covered. use another piece of foil if necessary.

cook for about 1 - 1 1/2 hrs, till potatoes are soft.

serve with sour cream if desired.

good as a side, or on its own.

OMG

What a week.  First week of school holidays and I have 2 kids sprawled on couches, with buckets, bags full of snotty tissues and a whole heap of moaning.  I'm  armed with panadol and extra boxes of tissues.
I thought I was going to catch anything but I woke up yesterday morning (Saturday) feeling like I'd been hit by a bus.  Everything ached and my throat was on fire.  Luckily a couple of panadol fixed that, so I thought I was good to cook.  Long story short,  I was in bed so early last night because after tea I felt so ill that as soon as everyone left, I had a shower  and hit the hay.  So......

Hello Sunday.

Nice early start for a Sunday morning.  I actually feel worse today but I have the chunky one.  She arrived at 6.20 am after a night of no sleep.  But she's had a bottle and she's out like a light so I'm going to make the most of my time before the next lot arrives.

So first things first, earlier in the week I made an impossible pie with bacon and cheese.  These are a quiche without the pastry, but with a base that makes itself.  Takes about 10 minutes to prepare and about 45 minutes to cook.  Served with a salad or chips, it makes a nice meal for a warm night.  It's also excellent cold.

So back to Saturday, because I wasn't feeling great, I decided I was opening a few packets that would at least make the kids happy.  Hello Betty Crocker.  1 Packet of blondies, 1 packet of brownies and 1 packet of rainbow biscuits. I also only have the mini food critic with me today so a bit easier. As packets are quick and easy, the cooking was all over in an hour and a half.  I'm glad because I need to take it easy for a while.
Such a quiet house, the boys are still sprawled.  I wish I could sleep.

Miss Tash arrives with the chunky one (who has also been sick for the past week), she's obviously feeling better because she wants to destruct everything in sight.  We have a cuppa and a chat until the chunky one starts playing up, so home they go.

I take it easy for a bit longer and I'm just checking through ebay and gumtree (a local selling site) and I find a playpen that I want to attach to the one I already have. God knows, the little mountain climbers need to be imprisoned on the odd occassion. The man goes to get that, they have a pram there and miss Tash wants that, so she meets him there, and then a highchair come home as well. Totally set up now. It's big and takes up half my loungeroom, but they have room to move and play.  Good job. (now where am I going to keep the pram)

Miss Tash and the chunky one are staying now, So because it's still early, we take the little kids out side for a play until it's time to cook tea.
I'm making pasta because it's a bit easier to make.  So I made a quick bolognaise sauce and I'm going to make a chicken pesto sauce.  When I was at Aldi the other day, they had a ready to serve chicken pesto on the deli shelf.  Looked good so I bought it and we had it for tea that night.  It was yum.  But I reckon I could make it, so I bought what I thought was in it and I'll hope for the best.
So lightly cook the chicken, saute some sundried tomatoes, saute some garlic, wilt some spinach,  add some cream and basil pesto, pour over noodles.  Wow,  yummy.  I put 3 tablespoons of pesto in this, but it would be added to your own taste really.  Everyone loved it.  the bolognaise came in a sad second lol.

Now dessert, I had a lot of bananas on the way out, so I decided on a self saucing pudding.  Not a lot of work in this.  My puddings a bit on the large size so would need to be halved for a standard sized family.
I had never made this before, but it's going to become a favourite I think.  Totally yummy.

The kids were happy with their plate of goodies too, they cleared that in record time.  Thanks Betty.

As I said I'm ill, did My blog make any sense?   Hope so. Now the chunky one's awake.  I guess an hours sleep is better than nothing.  Gotta go.

see you later

this is my life lol

BANANA SELF SAUCING PUDDING

CAKE
3 cups self raising flour
2 teaspoons bicarb soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 bananas, mashed
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs

SAUCE

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup golden syrup
2 teaspoons cornflour
3 cups boiling water


preheat oven to 180 c.  lightly grease large baking dish.  This is a big pudding.


CAKE
in a medium bowl, mix the bananas, oil and eggs.

in another bowl, mix the flour, sugar and bicarb soda.

add the banana mix to the flour mix and stir till well combined

spoon into dish.

SAUCE

mix the brown sugar and the cornflour together

sprinkle evenly over the top of the cake.

mix the boiling water and the golden syrup together and  carefully pour over top of cake.

cook approx 40 mins till nicely brown and a skewer comes out clean.

serve with cream or icecream.

CHICKEN PESTO PASTA
with sundried tomatoes and spinach

1 kg chicken breast fillets,  diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
900 mls thickened cream
3 tablespoons basil pesto
100 grams sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
100 grams spinach
salt and pepper to taste
500 grams pasta, (your choice)

cook pasta according to directions on packet.

wilt the spinach in a colander over the pasta pot, set aside.

in a large frypan, on a medium heat, lightly cook chicken. dont brown it. set aside.

lightly cook the sundried tomatoes, set aside.

saute the garlic then add chicken back into pan.

add cream, pesto and salt and pepper.

simmer till chicken is cooked through.

add spinach and tomatoes,

toss through pasta. I didn't use all the pasta.  depends how much sauce you like.

IMPOSSIBLE PIE with bacon and cheese

6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup thickened cream
3/4 cup self raising flour
6 rashers short cut bacon, chopped
1 small - medium onion, finely chopped
1 small can or 1/2 cup capsicum, finely chopped
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 tomato sliced
extra grated tasty cheese
salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven to 180
lightly grease pie dish

in a large bowl, whisk eggs

add milk and cream, whisking till well combined.

whisk flour, salt and pepper into egg mixture

add bacon, onion, capsicum and cheese to mix.

pour into pie dish.

decorate top with sliced tomato.

sprinkle with extra cheese

cook approx 45 minutes.  test by putting a cut in top. if still runny, cook till set.

NOTE: you can add any finely chopped vegies you like in this.

Hellooooo Saturday.

Here we go again.

The kids are here, the mini food critics full of snot (lovely) and totally crappy.  Miss Lily pily's been here 5 minutes and already crying because "I miss my mum".  There's only 9 1/2 hours to go till she comes home again.  It's gonna be a looooong day.

I'm cooking a roast for tea tonight, well two roasts, one chicken and a leg of lamb.  So it's all about the cake this morning.

Before I forget, last Sunday I made an incredible biscuit...snickers biscuit bites.  Something I dreamed up when I had nothing better to do.  The hardest part of making these was melting the caramel.  The base is a pressed chocolate ripple biscuit, filled with caramel and peanuts, covered with peanut butter icing and drizzled with chocolate ganache.  Totally divine.

Everyone was impressed. I could swim in them lol.

Anyway back to today.
I had seen a recipe through the week for a malteser mars bar slice. Not the cheapest thing to make but I'm going to give it a go.  More chocolate ripple biscuits and of course maltesers and mars bars. Also has condensed milk and butter.  The topping was supposed to be cadbury dairy milk chocolate but I substituted cooking chocolate.  Only took about 10 minutes to make. Very yummy.

I haven't used my bread maker for while, so I thought I would make some cinnamon scrolls and of course I decide to experiment and make banana nutella scrolls as well.  I  will just divide the dough in half when it's ready.  I double rise everything when I use the bread maker, so the dough stays in the machine till it rises, then  I punch it down and roll it out.  I cut the dough in half and put  a cinnamon, butter, sugar and sultana mix on one half and spread the other with nutella and some sliced banana.  Roll it up, cut it into pieces and rise it for another hour before cooking.  Three and a bit hours to make  and about 15 minutes to cook. Well worth the time though.  When cooled I iced the cinnamon ones with a pink strawberry flavoured icing and the banana ones with a nutella  flavoured icing.  So good.  Of course, I have to try them so I spread two with butter and devour.  I was even nice and shared with the man of the house.

The man had bought home some oranges so an orange cake is looking good too.  I wanted to try something different so I flip through some recipes and come up with one that uses the whole orange in the cake. I've made cakes like this before but that usually involves no flour.  I'll give this one a go.  This recipe says boil the orange for 5 minutes.  Every time I've boiled oranges it's been for an hour,  I decide to boil for  half an hour.
The rest of the cake is quick and easy, blitz, mix and done. Took about 40 minutes to cook.

Apparently I forgot lunch, well its only 2.00.  I make some sandwiches for the little angels and a coffee for me and have a bit of a break.  Liliy pily's out side. She's happy.  Miss snotty's inside destructing, she's happy too.  The boy's have gone visiting.  I'm very happy.  It's actually quiet.  Apparently you can destruct noiselessly.

Back to cooking.  The snickers biscuit bites were such a hit, I decide to make some more.   I get these done, except for the icing, but I still have to ice the cake so I will do that at the same time

 It's 4.00  and I like to cook my roasts low and slow.  I'm using oven bags so I put the meat into the bags, and into the oven on 150 c..  I won't have to worry about them again till it's time to dish up.

I make the  orange butter icing for the cake and the peanut butter icing for the snickers bites and get them out of the way.  The cake looks good, will be interesting to see what it tastes like.. Will have to wait for that.

I peel some potatoes and put them in the oven just as  Miss Tash arrives with the chunky one who is also sick.  She has a temp and is totally grizzly.  Time for a cuppa.  And a try of the malteser slice.  Miss Tash says its great. She's a chocolate freak like the rest of us, so great is good.

I leave Miss Tash with the grizzly one and go back to the kitchen to finish getting tea ready.  Honey carrots and green beans.   Lizzy lou arrives, I make her a cuppa and give her a bit of malteser slice as well.  Yumm say's she.  Good all round.

Number one son finally arrives and we dish up tea.  The man carves while I make the gravy and throw everything at the plates.  Dinner is served.
We always rush through this bit because it is truly all about the cake.

I cut and try the orange cake, not too bad but  I reckon I should have boiled the orange for an hour.   The flavour is good  but there is a bit of  peel here and there.  Definitely needed the hour. That extra half hour makes all the difference to the softness of the peel and the way it blitzes up.  Oh well, next time.  Still looks good.

So everthing is eaten.  Miss chunky who has cried all through main course is suddenly happy and climbing all over the couch. Miss Tash got to eat cake.   Number one son looks at me and says "I only have one complaint".  I look at him, must have been glaring lol . He smiles and says "there was no mint sauce"
If that is all there is to complain about, I'm one happy mum.

next week.....