Dinner and dessert ~ trying something new

26th March 


Once the zest was removed, I just loved the pattern and colour

I unexpectedly did not have to work yesterday morning and boy did I achieve a lot.  I wonder if this would be the case if I stayed at home every morning; guess not, as we all know I like to be crafty!!!  However,  by 9am I had made the children a healthy fruit homemade smoothie for breakfast, made a batch of cupcakes from a newly found recipe, driven them to school, (this is not normal) completed the weekly food shop and was just about ready to start cooking the evening meal, phew, feel tired just writing it!!!

I had to be at work by 1230, by which time I added to the list: dinner made, prep work for work completed and I had joined a very long queue at the post office to send hubby something he had forgotten and needed by today, plus I managed to squeeze in dropping off daughter's lunch as she had taken an empty lunch bag to school!!! What a morning!


So dinner and dessert were both new recipes to me.  Sometimes things happen for a reason and it is not till much later that it becomes clear why or indeed the meaning.  Just recently a good friend of mine has started raving about the virtues of coconut oil and posting various recipes including it, another friend of mine is challenging herself to feed a family of 5 and a couple of pets, for as little as possible each week, she is using the newly published book, A girl Called Jack,  and yet another friend talks about the importance of you are what you eat.  It was with all this in the BACK of my mind that I stumbled upon (I was not looking for it) a new blog all about healthy food, see link here:  www.earthyfeast.com   As I scrolled through the posts, the stunning photography of food sang out to me and made my stomach rumble, I just had to make something from here, but not feeling very brave or adventurous, came across a soup recipe that I thought would be great for the forecasted cold day that turned out to be yesterday.  So in my early morning food shop, I added only a few ingredients extra and started to tot up how much this meal would cost, a la my girlfriend, as previously mentioned.  Costing, later...


Roasted Sweet Potatoe Soup

You will need:
4-5 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into medium length chunks
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1cm of ginger, finely chopped
1 lime, zest and juice
200ml coconut milk
vegetable stock, enough for desired consistency, I used just over 1 litre
smoked paprika, to taste
salt and pepper
a few chilli flakes
a little oil

This is a straight forward recipe, for photo tutorial, follow this link to Earthy feasts blog:  http://www.earthyfeast.com/recipe/sweet-potato-soup-with-ginger-lime/



But in a quick read format:

♥Saute the onions till soft and golden.
♥Roast sweet potatoes with smoked paprika, seasoning and well coated in oil, until gently roasted and soft.
♥Add sweet potatoe, stock and coconut milk to the onions and boil.
♥Add ginger, garlic and lime zest and juice and simmer gently.
♥Liquidise and eat and enjoy!

So that covered the let's try to use coconut oil/milk in our food, and it tasted good, so I may well be trying to incorporate it more into our food, it also ticked off the let's eat cheaply, as I worked out the soup cost approximately 80pence  per serving, serving of four.  Not bad in my book. And hopefully it covered off the, you are what you eat, lovely warming vegetables, I can live with that!

However, old habits die hard and I had been pondering when to make this next dish for a couple of days, ever since someone posted it on a food/recipe sharing group I belong too and so all my good intentions went flying out of the window, I made...Nutella cupcakes! This did not adhere to any of the above good intentions and probably undid any good we may have achieved, but hey, small steps, right...

For those of you with a sweet tooth, this really hits the mark and both my children loved them, I had a nibble as I really am trying to be good ;)  This is an incredibly easy 'all in one' mix and would be easy to do with small children too, very quick! Many thanks for this recipe from Wiola Zylka, a fellow group member from the food group that I belong too.


Nutella Cupcakes 
You will need:

1 cup (280g) Nutella
2 eggs
10 tbsp (62g) self raising flour
I also used 1 tsp of baking powder, although this is not strictly necessary.


♥Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
♥Place a large tablespoon worth of mixture in cup cake cases.
♥Add toppings if desired, ie chopped nuts, choc chips etc, I did not add any.
♥Bake in pre heated oven, 180 degrees Celsius, for about 15mins.
♥Eat and enjoy x

Good old hand whisk, comes up trumps every time.

 

 

 

The mixture was quite heavy in consistency, but the cakes worked well, so this is correct.

 



 

 

Ready for the oven!  Bought paper cases, made out of coloured greaseproof paper, they are basically just a square of greaseproof paper.  I am going to try and make my own, as they are jolly expensive, but do create a ta dahh! feel to them.

 



 

 

These were perfect yesterday on a cold day!  As they say naughty but nice!

 



 

 

I love this cake dome, that was once Mamma's but she kindly gave it to me when she discovered that I was coveting it!  It is used often in our household.

 



 

 

I really enjoy taking photographs, but you do go to some silly lengths sometimes, here is my 'behind the scenes' type shot!!

 



 

 

The original recipe can be found here:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Nutella-Brownies-Three-Ingredients/

 

 

I wonder what you will make, will you be good or naughty in your cooking choice?