Sausages with Roasted Onion, Tomato and Polenta

Do you ever go through those periods where ingredients just seem to stock pile in your cupboard and you can't for the life of you come up with a use for them? And then all of a sudden you have a real rush on them and basically use your whole supply over the course of a few days?? That happened to me this week.

I have a bag of polenta sitting in the cupboard that has been mocking me for weeks now and to be honest, I had hidden it right up the back so I could no longer see it. All of a sudden this week I needed it to go with these sausages for dinner Monday night and I needed it for dinner Tuesday night - is it international polenta week and no one told me?! Never mind, with this dish we showed that bag of polenta who's boss!

Sausages with roasted onion, tomato and polenta

Serves 2

You will need:
1 tbspn oil
1 onion (diced)
2 tspns crushed garlic
200g tomatoes (diced)
4 thick beef sausages (or you could use any type of sausages - vegetarian, pork, veal etc)
Salt and Pepper
2 cups beef stock
100g polenta
1/2 cup grated cheese or 50g parmesan (whichever you prefer)
1 tbspn butter

Pre-heat oven to 190C.

Add oil, onion and garlic to a roasting pan and place in the oven for 3-5 minutes.

Add the tomato and season with salt and pepper. Roast for a further 10-12 minutes until the tomato starts to break down.

Add the sausages and nestle them down into the tomato sauce. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until the sausages are cooked.

When you add the sausages to the roasting pan, get started on your polenta - throw the stock and polenta into a medium saucepan over medium heat, bringing to the boil. You will need to stir the polenta continuously with a wooden spoon, it will get an attitude and start to spit if you don't keep stirring it! Once the liquid is all absorbed and the polenta is smoother and creamy, stir through the cheese and butter and set aside.

Serve sausages on a bed of polenta with a generous amount of the roasted onion and tomato sauce.

This is a really nice easy, modern and tasty take on your average 'bangers and mash' dinner and perfect for those cold winters nights!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Mrs B xx

Vegie Hot Dogs

Around our house we like an easy Friday night dinner, and it doesn't get much easier then hot dogs....except when your semi-vegetarian and those lil red snausages make you feel ill.....so next best thing, Vegie Hot Dogs...with a twist!!


Vegie Hot Dogs

4 Hot Dog Rolls
1 pkt Sanitarium Vegie Hot Dogs diced
1 x onion diced
1 x red and 1 x green capsicum diced
1 tspn brown sugar
1 tbspn balsamic vinegar
4 slices swiss cheese
4 tspns french mustard

In a fry pan over medium heat cook the onion for 3-4 mins or until browned. Add sugar and balsamic and cook for a further 2-3 mins.
Add capsicum and cook for 3-4 mins or until flavoursome. It's ok if it's still a bit crunchy.
Add diced sausages and stir to combine.
Slit your hot dog rolls through the top. Spread one half of each roll with a tspn of mustard and place a slice of cheese in there as well.
Top with the sausage filling and your good to go!!

These are so delicious and a bit of a fancy take on your average hot dog with sauce!

Sorry it's a late post, i've been away for a few days! Updates tomorrow!!

Love Em x

Comfort food

Last night OH and I finally went to the parentals for dinner. We didn't make it on Tues night as planned coz OH was visciously attacked by the man flu on his way home from work and therefore spent the night in bed. I, on the other hand, made a spectacular vegie chow mein....possibly a touch too much curry powder, but I'm gonna make it again next week with some tuna so I will try and rectify it second time round! Anyway, last night Mum made this casserole of Sanitarium vegie sausages, baked beans and onion all cooked up in this delciously thick tomato sauce and served with a dollop of thick and creamy mashed spud. It was mega filling, but it was hot and tasty and reminded me of home. It was real comfort food. Which got me thinking about what comfort food is and what my favourite comfort foods are.

Wikipedia defines comfort foods as 'foods consumed to achieve some level of improved emotional status, whether to relieve negative psychological affect or to increase positive. More generally, comfort food can be defined as food that brings some form or measure of comfort, sense of well-being, or easy satisfaction, usually from being warm and filling such as a dish made with a staple food, or basically pleasing such as sweets or desserts.' Like most things I think comfort food is in the eye of the beholder, I mean some people might find a big bucket of kfc or a tub of ice cream or a block of chocolate comforting, and whilst the chocolate and the ice cream sound nice, I don't think they would do much to comfort me. To me comfort food is food that reminds me of home. Food that conjures up images of sitting around the dining table or in the lounge at Mum and Dad's. That's one thing I miss about living at home I think, just having my parents there to chat to. When we go to Mum and Dad's for tea the boys retire to the lounge and Mum fusses about the kitchen while I sit on the kitchen bench in the same spot I always used to and we just chat about everything and anything.


I miss my Dad being involved in that too, but we still talk heaps and times change plus I imagine he is happy to have another boy to talk to! To me, that is what real comfort food is about. That being said, it's really not even about the food, the food is good, but the real comfort is just knowing my parents are there I think and being reminded of that is comfort enough. I love going to Mum and Dad's and having big bowls of Mum's hearty home cooking or Dad's chocolate pudding or my parents Christmas Pudding. Oh the Christmas pudding...it is a tradition that everyone shakes the fruit while it's stewing and everyone has a stir of the batter, it's an annual treat that we try and stretch out as long as possible. The night we have our last slice of pudding is always a sad one!

Big bowls of hot, hearty, mushy food on a cold morning or night comfort me too though, but in a different way. There is nothing like sitting in bed with a big bowl of porridge and golden syrup on a cold winter's morning or curling up with a bowl of thick vegetable soup and hot crunchy bread roll on a cold winter's night while you listen to the rain. I don't seem to need comfort food so much in summer, it must be a winter / warmth thing. That being said however in desperate times I am quite partial to a big bowl of pudding or golden syrup dumplings or even some white chocolate for comfort all year round too!

On another note it is cold and windy and rainy here. I got out for a walk tonight though before it set in and that is two nights in a row. I have been a bit slack on the exercise since switching to maintenance calories, but I feel so much better for having done something the last few days!

OH is currently cooking a chicken curry and we are using coconut cream for the first time ever (I know, I have told you before though that we are a little behind!) but I can smell the coconutty goodness from the lounge room and it smells divine! I can't wait to try it and I will fill you in tomorrow!!

Em xx

Mid-Week Ramblings

I can't believe it's only Wednesday...in my head I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday, but it's not....booooooooo! It feels like it has been raining for an eternity here. It literally hasn't stopped since last night. It will fill our tanks up though and be good for our lil trees and our vegie patch. I really hate driving in this weather though, it amazes me how some people don't change the way they drive even when the weather is really bad.

Righto, let's start with the mid weekly round up. On Monday night I attempted to make curried sausages. Now let me start by saying my Mum makes fantabulous curried sausages, she uses vegetarian sausages and throws in a heap of vegies and it's all covered in a thick curry sauce and they are always spectacular. So on Monday night when I made mine I was hoping for a similar outcome, but OH insisted I use real sausages (occasionally he has a dummy spit and wants real meat in his meals - which I understand) and go for a more traditional take on it, so that meant more sausages then vegies of course! Anyway I was mighty disappointed, I didn't realise I had only like a tspn of curry powder left and so the result was a curry sauce that coated the sausages and vegies, but that was about it, it didn't have a whole heap of flavour and was kinda just like having sausages and mashed potato for tea, nice, but not what I was expecting. So at Mum n Dad's last night I harrassed Mum for tips and decided that tonight I would throw the leftovers back in the pan and try and fix it. A bit of water, some more curry powder, bit of tomato paste, problem solved! I finally had a thick glossy curry sauce with a hint of tomato and there was plenty of it, it even made OH break into a sweat lol but it was delicious! And it really made me feel like I had accomplished something by finally getting it right. No photos though because honestly curried sausages just don't photograph that well! How about a recipe instead?

Curried Sausages
750g of vegetarian or meat sausages
1-2 tbspns of curry powder
1 onion - diced
2 carrots - diced
1 capsicum - diced
*can also add extra vegies like peas and corn if you want
1-2 tbspns flour
1 tub of tomato paste

Ok if you are using meat sausages, brown them off in a pan and drain the fat, I do mine in the George Foreman Grill, and set aside.
Add onion and curry powder to a fry pan and cook for 3-4 mins.
Add carrot, capsicum, tomato paste, 2 cups of water and flour.
Cut sausages up and return to pan. If using vegetarian sausages, dice and add to pan now too.
Bring to the boil and let simmer until sauce thickens. Serve with rice or mashed potato.

It's pretty simple, if you want more sauce, add more water, if you want it thicker, add more flour and it you like it hot, add more curry powder!

Last night we went to Mum and Dad's for tea and I think I said before, Mum makes a legendary pumpkin soup. The thing is we only get it for a limited time because she makes it from the pumpkins Dad grows in his vegie patch, so when the pumpkin run out, so does soup season : ( Anyway last night was the last of the pumpkin soup for the year and whilst it was very exciting, also very sad, you know that when you get to the end of the bowl you are not getting anymore for another 8 or so months, but you also know you have a very happy belly! Last night we had our pumpkin soup with a pizza base that Mum had drizzled with balsamic vinegar and topped with cheese before throwing it in the oven, it caught us off guard abit coz OH and I were not expecting the vinegar lol but it was yummy!


On Mon night OH and I went to kick the footy around the park and when I was putting my sneakers on I noticed I had a hole in the back of them....I only brought them in February...but they only cost me $20....serves me right. I have known for a lil while they wouldn't last long, the first time I put them on the tag tore off the back of them and when you walk on gravel you can feel every little pebble! So yesterday I gave in and took myself on a shopping expedition. I tried on pretty sneakers and cheap sneakers and expensive sneakers and had the man in the shop tie my foot into one pair so tight I had to get him to help me back out of them, but in the end I went for comfort over price and over looks and came home with these lil babies:

They are mega comfy and although last night on the treadmill they did give me blisters (I think it might have been coz I had them done up too tight) I think it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I can't wait to go for a decent walk in them!!

Hmmmm tomorrow night OH is going to have a go at fried rice so that will be nice, I think, I have no idea what he is going to put in it and I have promised myself not to hover over his shoulder and let him do his own thing.

And I found out today I will be spending alllllllllllllll day next Wed in a Workers Comp training course, now normally I work from 7-3 and this course is 7-5....yick. But they are providing morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Several years ago hearing that would have made my mind do somersaults thinking of the cakes and biscuits and cheese platters and sausage rolls and mini quiches....but now it makes me very nervous! I have decided to take my own food and like I can pack a few pieces of fruit and some yoghurt in my bag, but normally I only have some rice cakes and philly for lunch, but thats probably not practical to carry in my handbag? I don't know if there will be a fridge or a microwave there but I was thinking of a simple salad that I can just put a tin of tuna through or something...I could keep that in my bag with an ice pack or something couldn't i? Does anyone have any other ideas of what I could take?

Till tomorrow... Em xx