Pumpkin Porridge Whoopie Pies

I have been mega keen to make something with pumpkin and oats....pumpkin and oat cookies, pumpkin and oat bread, just pumpkin and oat SOMETHING!! I eventually decided on pumpkin and oat cookies and whilst I was making them they kind of turned into pumpkin porridge sandwich cookies and then when they were done I realised they were actually pumpkin porridge whoopie pies, but despite having a serious identity crisis, they are yummy! 

 

Pumpkin Porridge Whoopie Pies

1/3 cup rolled oats

1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin

1/2 tspn Cinnamon

1/2 tspn Allspice

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

60g butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup all purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 150C and grease and line two baking trays.

Combine the oats, spices and pumpkin in a microwave proof dish and cook on high for 3-4 mins or until oats are tender. 

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until pale and creamy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until you reach a smooth consistency. Add the egg ans vanilla and beat well.

In a separate bowl, gently stir together the porridge, flour, baking powder and baking soda until the ingredients are just combined. Add to the butter mixture and beat until well combined.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the baking trays and bake for 12-14 minutes. They should look like little mini lumpy (from the oats and pumpkin!) pancakes when they are done.

Now for the filling you will need

80g butter

1 tbspn maple syrup

1 tbspn brown sugar

2 tbspn icing sugar

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.

Now that your whoopie pies have completely cooled, divide them up into pairs of roughly equal size and shape.

Spread the flat side of one whoopie pie from each pair with the filling and sandwich together with the other whoopie pie. Place in the fridge for an hour or so for the filling to firm up.

And now for the best part - make a cup of tea, sit down, relax and enjoy!

Mrs B xx 

Cheesy Zucchini, Spinach and Chicken Lasagne

I am totally exhausted right now! But I have a very cool chocolate cake in the oven that I can't wait to tell you about later in the week and an equally cool cheesecake in the fridge that I can't wait to eat....and then tell you about later in the week too!! In the meantime, before we enter a cheesecake / chocolate cake induced coma, let's talk savoury stuff....and by stuff I mean lasagne crammed full of zucchini, chicken, leek and cheese. Have I got your attention yet?? 

Sometimes when I go to make a lasagne I just don't want the same old tomato, mince, cheese combo....I know like it's bad enough that I frequently skip the mince altogether and throw in a heap of vegetables, but now I'm turfing the tomato too?? I must be tired! But as they say, a change is as good as a holiday, so go on, live dangerously, be brave and mix it up a little! 

Cheesy Zucchini, Spinach and Chicken Lasagne

1 leek, trimmed, halved, washed, sliced
2 tspns crushed garlic
1.5 tbspns plain flour
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup grated parmesan
2 chicken breasts or 3 cups of shredded cooked chicken
50g baby spinach
4 lasagne sheets
250g extra light ricotta
1 tbspn crushed basil
2 medium zucchini sliced into ribbons (use the veggie peeler to make the ribbons - it's so much easier!!)
1/2 cup grated cheese

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Spray a small oven proof baking dish with oil. Place chicken breasts in oven dish and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 25 mins, turn over and cook for another 15-20 mins or until cooked through. When the chicken is cooked, remove from the oven and shred. Leave oven on 180C.

Meanwhile spray a large frying pan with oil place over medium heat. Add leek and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until leek has softened.

Add the flour and cook for 1 minute before adding the stock. Simmer and stir for 5 minutes - the mixture should start to thicken slightly.

Add 1/2 cup parmesan, chicken and spinach. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes or until spinach is wilted.

In the base of a large baking dish, spread 1 tbspn of the sauce from your chicken mixture.

Place 1 lasagne sheet over the sauce and top with 1/3 of the chicken mixture. Layer 1/3 of your zucchini ribbons over the top of that. Top with another lasagne sheet and repeat your layers, finishing with a lasagne sheet.

Combine ricotta and basil. Spread over lasagne sheet. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan and grated cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until pasta is tender.

This is such a tasty mid-week week meal and packed full of all those spring favourites like leek and zucchini!

Enjoy!

Mrs B xx

Girls Night In

Last night I had the pleasure of hosting a Girls Night In to raise money for the research into and prevention of women's cancer for the Cancer Council. The event was held at my work and is something we have been putting together for the last month. I really wanted to organise a true girls night with all the trimmings and I thought what better then a night of good food and champagne with your friends, while you shop! I advertised the event at work and told people to bring along their Mother, Sister, Best Friend, whoever and just have some fun. Then I spoke with some local stores and some local party plan consultants to get them on board and we ended up with 5 party plans and 2 stores having tables last night selling their products which was really positive. Alot of the local businesses and the consultants also came on board by donating prizes for the night which was just fantastic.

We also had an amass of pink food, pink champagne and pink non-alcoholic beverages too! I really am lucky to work with such an amazing bunch of ladies who not only supported me in organising this event, but all chipped in to help with the catering too!

 

I think by the end of the night, through ticket sales, donations and the consultants donating 20% of their sales, we raised in excess of $1500! . When I started planning the night, I thought somewhere around $200 would be great so I couldn't have asked for a better result. Plus everyone really got into the spirit of the night and we just had so much fun! It was lovely to see so many people come together for a good cause and I had my Mum there to celebrate with me so that made it all the more special.

One of the goodies I made for the night was these Pink Truffles - they were my Mum's idea and I'm so glad she suggested them because they were easy and the hot pink white chocolate centre was just delicious! 

All you need is 

 

375g white chocolate + 100g extra

150ml thickened cream
2 drops pink gel food dye

375g milk chocolate

Pink sprinkles

Combine 375g white chocolate and cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 60 seconds and then stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. (*Next time I make these I will probably add some strawberry essence here)

Add pink dye and stir well - you may want to add more or less depending on the colour your after. Place the mixture in the freezer for 3-4 hours or overnight to firm up.

Roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on a lined baking tray. Place back in the freezer for 2-3 hours. If you balls don't come out smooth the first time - you can always re-roll them after they have been in the freezer and they will come out alot better.

Take 100g of the milk chocolate and place in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds and stir until smooth. Remove the truffle centres from the freezer. Using 2 forks or 2 teaspoons, place a truffle centre into the milk chocolate and roll around until covered. Place back on the lined baking tray. Repeat with remaining truffle centres and milk chocolate. Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours or overnight to set.

Melt the remaining white chocolate in the microwave and tint pink with your pink gel food dye. Top each truffle with a teaspoon of the pink chocolate and then top with some pink sprinkles. Place in the fridge for the  chocolate to set.

Store at room temperature and enjoy!

 

And here are some photos from last night!

Mr B and I made some rose water pink meringues nests and pink ribbons for the night too - they were delicious filled with strawberry yoghurt!!

This was getting the food set up....

 

 

The prizes.....

 

Shopping up a storm!!

And me!

 

 

Mrs B xx 

Choc-Chip Nutella Cookies

For some unknown reason we have had 1/2 a jar of nutella sitting in the cupboard for AGES now. Mr B has stopped taking sandwiches to work and started taking salads so the only way that jar was going to disappear was if I kept eating it or if I cooked something with it. I asked Mr B if he would like some Nutella Stuffed Pikelets in his lunches this week and his eyes lit up with excitement. So needless to say he gave me 'the look' when he came inside on Sunday after working his butt off and found these Choc-Chip Nutella Cookies sitting on the bench.....

BUT in my defence, I had intended to make these long before I found the stuffed pikelet recipe and then I lost this recipe and found the pikelet one and then I found this one again....the universe was obviously telling me to make the cookies like right now, but to make the pikelets next weekend! I can totally do that.

Mr B is not a biscuit person unless they are chewy....these are a touch on the cakey side, but apparently, so my chief taste tester tells me, they are still nice and chewy and the chocolate chips break all that evil cakey-ness up.

You will need:

125g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup hazelnut spread (like Nutella)
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
3/4 cup milk and white chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 160C

Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar together using an electric mixer. Add egg and nutella and beat well.

Add flour and baking powder. Mix well.

Stir through the chocolate chips.

Roll tbspns of the mixture into balls and place on the trays 3cm apart . Use a fork to flatten slightly.

Bake for 12 mins. Allow to cool on trays - they will firm up as they cool, but remain chewy and soft on the inside.

Enjoy!

Mrs B xx

Kitchen Improvements

Not long after Mr B and I moved into our home 4 years ago, we discovered a problem. 

Well Mr B calls it a problem, I call it a collection. 

You see I have accumulated a couple of cook books in my time, all of which I use, all of which I love - some are full of my recipes, some have my Mum's in them, some of the books have been passed down from my Mum and my Nan, some are full of things I'm building up to being able to bake and all of them are full of inspiration. 

When we moved into this house there was nowhere for them in the kitchen besides a small cupboard under the microwave where I would practically have to pull every single book out everytime I was looking for one inparticular and it was impossible to just browse.....which meant I ended up pulling all the books out and putting them in our spare room so I could see them. 

This in itself led to another problem.

My books weren't in the kitchen and if I wanted to look through them I had to go into the spare room, sit on the floor and scatter them all around me. It led to that same problem, I just couldn't browse, and unless I knew exactly what I was looking for it was impossible to make good use of all those beautiful books.

So Mr B came up with an idea, he would build me a shelf. This worked out well because Mr B got to use his brilliant wood work and design skills and well I got a shelf and we got our spare room back. Mind you this whole shelf building business started 12 months ago, but we have been busy you know! 

About a fortnight ago, Mr B proudly hung the shelf in the kitchen and I was busily putting my books on it before he had even packed the tools up! Doesn't it look beautiful! 

Mrs B xx 

Ghoulishly Good Treats

So do you ever have those times where your walking along with your ear phones in, listening to music and a catchy song comes on? All of a sudden you start tapping your hand on your leg, then your head starts bobbing, you start humming along and before you know it you're singing at the top of your lungs, doing the occasional air guitar solo and you realise you are now walking through quite an upper class suburb....well that was me at lunch time today. Needless to say I turned around and swiftly walked back the way I came!! 

Anyway with Halloween right around the corner, last weekend I decided to get my bake on and make some of my Mum's pumpkin muffins which are always a hit. Mr B has kept half for his lunches and I gave half to Mum and Dad as they won't have a chance to make their own this year.

And I remembered I had a heap of egg whites in the freezer so I decided to play around with some meringues too! I used 4 egg whites and beat them with an electric mixer until they were thick and foamy. Then I added 1 cup of caster sugar and just left them mixing away until the mixture was like marshmallow thick. I greased and lined some baking trays and got to piping some bones and little ghosts. I also made a stack of meringue nests which are always handy to keep in the cupboard for desserts. Once the meringues were done I just used some black food dye to dot on the eyes of the ghosts. Aren't they cute! 

Mrs B xx

Triple Chocolate Jersey Caramel Brownies

It's Sunday afternoon and I am plum tuckered out. It's been a busy weekend so far and Mr B is still outside working on the pergola and I'm still inside plodding through my to-do list. It's not all work though, last night Mr B and I went to a restaurant called Asian Gourmet and had an amazing meal of Lettuce Duck Rolls for entree followed by Sechuan Salt and Pepper Squid for main....hands down, best asian meal I've ever had. And then we went bowling and I actually won....but then I got a bit excited and decided we should play a second game and I lost....obviously I peaked too early. Aside from a lovely night out with Mr B, the boring to-do lists and mundane chores is always broken up by watching our two little mischief makers play in the yard - see how much they've grown!  

The little girl, Blossom is definitely the ring leader....she might look small and innocent, but if there's mischief to be had, she is right there in the thick of it and Loud Mouth is never far behind! Mr B and I are constantly amazed at their antics and can easily sit down and spend hours watching them play.

In the absence of lambs to brighten your day, may I suggest these Triple Chocolate Jersey Caramel Brownies? These are bites of fudgey, chocolatey, caramel heaven and the only issue I had with making them was hiding the jersey caramels from Mr B. For the last few weeks I've been buying a packet of caramels, leaving it in the cupboard and on the weekend when I go to get them for baking, they're gone! So the next week I do the same thing all over again to no avail. This week I tried something completely random and put the jersey caramels in the lolly jar on the kitchen bench in plain sight of everyone.....and you know what, they were still there when I came to use them!

You will need:

125 g butter
120g dark chocolate melts
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tbspn cocoa
1 cup mixed chocolate bits (I used a mixture of milk, white and caramel)
1 cup of jersey caramels, sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 180C

Line a slice tin with baking paper.

Place butter and dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl in the microwave and heat in 45 second bursts (stirring in between) until smooth.

Stir in sugar.

Whisk eggs into chocolate mixture until combined.br /> Add sifted flour and cocoa. Whisk to combine.

Fold in chocolate bits.

Spread mixture into prepared pan and scatter jersey caramels over the top. Press down lightly. Bake for 20 - 30 mins or until top is firm to touch.

Set aside to cool before slicing or eat it straight out of the pan....and say HELLO to delicious-ness

Mrs B xx