Roast Vegetable and Polenta Stacks

Have you got your Christmas tree up yet?

Last year I made a vow that this year I would have my tree up at the start of December, it would be up for the entire Christmas season and our house would be a virtual Christmas wonderland.....

Apparently I lied. So due to issues coordinating everyone and holidays and wedding planning commitments, here we are, nearly half way through December, 12 days out from Christmas and we are just putting our tree up. Granted our home is more festive and has more decorations then usual so thats one part achieved at least....next year I will conquer you tree just you wait!!


Look at that cheeky little elf in the background!

Anyway, on Monday night, Mum and Dad came up to help OH and I put the tree up so I thought the least I could do was feed them!


This recipe is dead easy, not to mention light and packed full of flavour!

All you need is:

1 cup of polenta
2 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of milk
1 jar of basil pesto
2 red onions cut into small wedges
4 roma tomatoes quartered
2 zucchini thinly sliced lengthways
1 red capsium cut into chunks
2 bbq flat mushrooms sliced
200g of extra light ricotta

Ok so the night before combine the polenta, stock, water, milk and half of the pesto in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave covered for 6 minutes on high, but stop and give it a stir every 2 minutes. Continue in 2 minute bursts until all the liquid is absorbed and you have a nice thick mixture, pour into a greased slice tin or oven dish and pop it in the fridge overnight.

The next night....

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Grease an oven dish and add the onion, tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum and mushrooms. Bake for 40-45 mins, giving them a toss occasionally.

Combine the ricotta with the remaining pesto and place back in the fridge.

When the vegies have about 20 mins remaining, get the polenta out of the fridge. Slice into 8 even bits and place in an oven tray. Bake for 15 mins or until the vegies are done.

Now to dish up I just placed one of the polenta slices on the plate and spread it with a spoonful of the ricotta mixture. Spoon over 1/4 of the vegies and top with a big dollop of the ricotta mixture. Finish with another slice of polenta and a sprinkle of parmesan.


Oh yum!! That polenta with the pesto mixed through it is just bursting with flavour!

A great light and easy meal for a warm summer's evening :)

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

Em x

Spoilt Much?

After my little stint in hospital the other day I was seriously craving vegetables and grains and just real food in general.

God knows how I would survive if I ever fell down a well (highly unlikely I know...) or got lost in the bush (quite possible....) or just generally became too poor to eat well (this one definetly has potential...) because before I had even begun the low residue diet I was planning my 'welcome back' meal! I thought long and hard about it and decided that for my first real meal at home in 4 days, I wanted nothing more then OH's chicken parmy :)

Have I told you about OH's chicken parmy before? No? I'm sorry....some things are just too good to share...but I think it's time you knew that my OH makes a mean chicken parmy, not your ordinary crumbed and fried schnitzel pub version, oh no...he browns the chicken breast in the fry pan, lightly seasons them, then tops them with some tomato paste, fresh cut tomatoes and some cheese and oven bakes them till they are cooked to perfection. He used to make this for me when we first met using a cajun sauce we could buy at Target but unfortunately you can't buy it anymore, but it doesn't matter, they are still delicious! And he even cooked up a potato, mushroom, tomato and onion fry up to go with it!


He does spoil me :)

And I got extra spoilt because when we went to Mum and Dad's for dinner on Wednesday night (Day 2 of normal food) Mum knew I would be craving some vegetables so she cooked up this little feast


We had roast carrot, parsnip and potatoes done in a SchlemmerTopf (which is a glazed clay roasting dish), cauliflower cheese, brussel sprouts with garlic and parmesan and creamy mashed pumpkin :) Mmmmmm vegie goodness

Now more on the SchlemmerTopf. I remember Mum using this when I was little and it makes the best roast spuds!! But you can do meat in it aswell if you are that way inclined :) And as an added bonus it's a healthy way to cook as it doesn't require you to use any fats or oils. The dish retains all the liquids, flavor, taste, nutrients and vitamins allowing the food to cook in their own juices.

Oh and before I go, here is a photo of Mum and Dad....Dad is very excited about the prospect of tea!


Hope you all have a fantastic weekend :)

Em x

Potato Bake - Two Ways!

So last night OH and I both wanted potato bake....but we face that age old dilemma....I love a cheesy delicious potato bake as much as the next person, but I try and be a touch restrained whereas OH likes all these cheesy goodness he can get!
So, just like we do with lasagne, we decided to make two! And in the process we ended up having a three course potato inspired meal!

Course 1 - Potato Soup
Course 2 - Oven Roasted Potato and Kumara Chips


Course 3 - Potato Bake!


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Ok so the Potato Soup, really not that hard...but half way through the potato bakes being cooked, we took mine out and skimmed the stock off the top, put it in a bowl and OH MY GOD....OH and I argued over who got to eat it! It wasn't like a thick soup, but just a nice stock infused with all the potato flavours, oh it was delicious, it just needed some nice crusty fresh bread to go with it!

The Oven Roasted Potato and Kumara Chips were also easy, we thinly sliced about 300g potato and 1 small kumara, layered them in a small baking dish, gave them a light spray with some oil and seasoned them with some Season All - Garlic and chucked them in the oven with the potato bake. Keep giving them a good toss around the dish and I would say they roasted for about an hour alongside the potato bakes. Absolutely delicious!

And last but not least the Potato Bakes!

Preheat the oven to 180C and thinly slice about 1kg of potatoes.

Then we layered thinly sliced potatoes, grated cheese and some diced onion in two small baking dishes.

For the Cheese Lovers Potato Bake - On the stove top we melted 1 tbsnp butter then added 1 tbspn plain flour and cooked for 2mins. Keep it on a low heat just so you don't burn anything. Then add 1 cup of milk and stir through 1-1/2 cup grated pizza cheese (I use the pizza cheese because it incorporates mozarella, parmesan, cheddar and romano and has a great flavour). I also stirred in about 1/2 tspn of crushed garlic. Keep stirring until nice and thick and all ingredients incorporated. Pour over your sliced potatoes and season with cracked pepper. Cover with foil and bake for around an hour. Then remove foil and if your really keen, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for another 15 mins or until golden.

I will admit that OH's was awesome, but after one occasion where he put a whole 1kg pkt of cheese in the potato bake he made for our dinner one night, he has been banned from making mine!

And for the Health Conscious Potato Bake - I combined one vegetable stock cube, 1/2 tspn crushed garlic, 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of milk in a saucepan over low heat. Once everything is well combined pour over the sliced potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for about 45 mins, then remove from oven and use a ladel to remove any excess stock that is sitting on the surface (mmmmm potato soup!). Sprinkle with some light grated pizza cheese and place back in the oven for another 30-45 mins. I just stick a knife into mine to see if the potatoes are cooked. I found this was really delicious despite not having the creamy cheesy sauce but I pinched a forkful of OH's to make up for it!!

So there you have it - how we set out to make potato bake and ended up having a three course potato feast!

Em xx

My First Roast Chook!

Since I got the Australian Women's Weekly Cook Book for my birthday I have been meaning to make a roast chicken. I have never made one before but I kinda think it's one of those staple meals I should be able to make and the recipe in this book sounded easy and had lots of pictures and stuff. So last night Mum and Dad came over for tea to help us put our xmas tree up and I figured what better time then that to give it a go! I had to get OH to help me abit but the end result was pretty damn impressive!




It was all pretty simple - you only need:

1.5kg chicken
30g butter
1 x oven bag
For the stuffing -
1 celery stalk finely diced
1 small white onion finely diced
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tspns Season All w/garlic

For the stuffing - Combine all ingredients in a bowl (how easy was that!)
Pre-heat oven to 200C or 180 for fan forced.
Wash the chicken inside and out with water. Pat dry with paper towel.
Fill with stuffing. Seal the opening with some toothpicks and then tie the legs together with some kitchen string.
Place chicken and 30g butter in an oven bag and rest in a baking tray.
Roast for 15 mins then reduce heat to 180C or 160 for fan forced.
Roast for a further 1.5hrs. Chicken is cooked if you insert a skewer into the thigh and the juices run clear.

I thought this stuffing was really nice too and OH, who has never eaten stuffing in the entire time we have been together, loved it!

So anyway, I was most impressed that it was a) cooked and b) tasted pretty good!

Have some photos of the xmas tree, some xmas baking and my list of all the xmas goodies I intend to make in the next few weeks!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Em x

Red Velvet Heaven...and Roast Vegie Risotto!

Ok so I am experiencing some technical problems at the moment. Namely that my laptop died...like not just had a hissy fit, but full on died. Really not happy about this because it had a hissy fit about a month ago and I was without it for a week...and half my bank account to get it repaired...and now it just up and dies...highly inconsiderate if you ask me. So anyway, my point is that I have been without my laptop since Sunday. Not only did I have to go to a book store and write down the recipe for the Red Velvet Cupcakes I wanted to make, but then I couldn't write about how fantastic they came out and I seriously considered not writing at all until I had a new laptop because I can't upload photos on my work computer and I'm really disappointed about it but here I am...I will upload photos as soon as I can I promise. (Edit: New computer, photos are now added!! YAY!!)

Anyway so on Sunday I had my first attempt at Red Velvet Cupcakes. I have been wanting to try them for ages, but upon reading the recipe I was a little concerned about how they would come out, I have never used buttermilk and the recipe had white vinegar in it so I just wasn't sure on the flavour. But anyway everything was going well, then the recipe said to mix the cocoa and red food dye to make a paste...my food dye just kinda disappeared into the cocoa never to be seen again...so I added more...and more...but same problem, anyway eventually I just added it all to the creamed butter and sugar and eggs and OH MY GOD did it go red...like red red...it was so very cool, I may have done a bit of squealing and a happy dance and woke my partner from his nap just to come see how cool it looked :) Anyway, moving on, put them in the oven and pretty much sat on the floor waiting for them to come out (excited much!?) and when they did, there was another happy dance and some giggling, they were just so bright! I have to admit I even got the giggles when I was doing the washing up and the dye turned my sink full of water red (I am easily amused) I let them cool down and then decided I wanted to try one of my swirly piping nozzles out because I have only used the lil thin one before. It took a bit of getting used to but the swirls ended up looking alright for a first time and then I finished them off with a mini oreo...those things are just a cupcake decorator's dream! Hold on...had a thought, maybe I can upload a photo off my phone... (Edit: New computer...hooray!! Will now upload real photos!!)

I am officially in love with red velvet.

Now onto the risotto....ohhhhhh the risotto...I would make it again tonight if I could. I was thinking yesterday that with just the pumpkin, zucchini, capsicum and red onion the risotto might need a bit of extra flavour so I brought some little cherry tomatoes to add to it for some sweetness. Now keeping in mind the risotto I made last week was baked in the oven, easy...this one on the other hand was all stove tops and watching and adding liquid if it needed it....yikes. Although I was tempted to just chuck it all in a dish in the oven, I resisted and made it as per the recipe. To start with you chop up all the vegies and put them in an oven dish with some oil, then you let them roast for about 1/2 hour or until they are done really. Meanwhile you get your arborio rice and your stock and bung it in a pot and let it cook....but I have to say that I had to add a hell of alot more stock then the recipe called for, had a bit of a panic because I thought I added too much water at one point but after some serious stirring it magically disappeared and the risotto was cooked to perfection...as were the vegies by this point. Throw in some spinach and some basil at the end, stir it all together and voila! A damn good roast vegie risotto that even my meat devouring OH thought was fantastic (that is a big call coming from him, especially when it's about a vegetarian dish!) And seeing as I didn't add cheese or garnish it was parmesan, it was really low calorie, even better then the one I made last week!

How about I give you the recipe so you can make it for yourself! Would also be a good way to use up left over roast vegies!

Roast Vegetable Risotto

300g Pumpkin (cubed)
1 x Red Onion (cut into sections)
1 x Red Capsicum (cubed)
1 x Zucchini (sliced)
250g Cherry Tomatoes (halved)
2 tbspns oil
2 x cups Arborio Rice
2-4 cups Chicken Stock
50g Baby Spinach

Add your chopped vegies to a baking dish and toss through oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 180C (fan forced) for 30 mins or until pumpkin is tender.

Add your arborio rice to a large heavy based pan, add stock 2 cups of stock and bring to the boil, constantly stirring. You may need to add more stock now, I needed the whole 4 cups in mine. Continue stirring until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Remove vegies from oven and stir through rice.

Stir through spinach and top with crumbled fetta or shaved parmesan if you desire.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm you know this risotto was so good I didn't want dessert last night because my taste buds were 100% satisfied! Although I did give in later and let OH make me a Malibu Hot Chocolate...delicious...had them at a restaurant a few months ago, made with melted chocolate, cream and malibu, was heaven. But at home we have the low cal version and use a Jarrah Hot Chocolate sachet with a smidgen of milk and a shot of malibu, still fantastic but alot nicer to the waist line!

I have my last pole dancing class tonight so OH is cooking Beef Ragu with Mash....I am always starving after class so I am hanging out to get home to a house full of cooking smells, a big plate of yummy tea, oh and a hug of course! Plus the last bits of my pole arrived today so hopefully OH has that up by the time I get home!

Tomorrow...tonight's Beef Ragu and Buying a Cupcake Shop??

Em x