PEANUT COOKIE & TRADITINAL MEAL

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

3/4 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup of smooth peanut butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg

Mix all ingredients, shape into little balls, put on a greased cookie tray and flatten them a bit with a fork. Bake in 160 degrees for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Let it cool on a rack. Seal cold cookies in a air tight container.
These are great as a Celebration Gifts... They have a very rich and strong flavor of peanut and just one goes a long way with coffee!!!!!

TRADITIONAL MEAT WITH THREE VEGETABLES

Just grill some chicken breast and serve with a "homemade" mash potato, broccoli, carrot and some gravy. Any easier than that?

PASTA FORNO

Cooked penne
Tomato sauce (600ml)
1 cup chopped ham
1/3 cup frozen peas
Basil leaves
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 cup grated cheese
1 1/2 cup cottage cheese mixed with 1 raw egg and 2 tbs parmesan

Mix tomato sauce with peas, ham and basil.
In a greased baking dish arrange in layers: 1/2 of cooked pasta, 1/2 of tomato sauce, 1/2 of sliced egg,1/2 of cottage mixture, 1/2 of grated cheese and season with pepper and salt. Repeat with remaining ingredient in the same order finishing with grated cheese. Put in a very hot oven for around 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown. Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese. DELICIOUS!!!

BBQ CHICKEN & SALAD ROLL UP

This was my lunch... Just grill some chicken breast and roll up in a wholemeal Lebanese bread with some well seasoned salad... Very healthy and filling... yummy too!

LENTIL SOUP WITH CORN PUFF
Brown some garlic and onion with oil. Add red lentil, chicken stock cube and top everything with water. Cook until lentil is soft. Blend and return soup to pan and let it boil again. You can add some cream at this stage and let it heat through.

CORN PUFFS
1 cup SR flour
curry powder to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels
chopped spring onion
1 egg
Mix everything and add water until a thick paste is formed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fry tablespoons of batter in vegetable oil until light brown and cooked. Serve with soup and a dollop of green tomato chutney.

MICROWAVE CAKE
This one is a bit temperamental... I have done it about 3 times and everytime they turned up different! Sometimes like fudge, other like brownie and last time I wasn't lucky as it became very dry... Maybe I let it cook 1 minute more than I should. Anyway the recipe is:

100g butter melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl and pour over dry one. Mix until well combined. Pour into a greased 20 cm baking dish (microwave safe) and microwave on high 5-7 minutes. Cool in the dish. Decorate as you like.

PANFRIED PIZZA, MUESLI MUFFIN & MINUTE STEAK

PANFRIED HAM & CABANOSSI PIZZA

Watching food channel on Foxtel inspired me to have a go on trying a different way of doing pizza. At the beginning I was a bit skeptical as I used to think that only the traditional fresh yeast pizza dough was good enough to eat! Boy I was wrong... Ok, this one isn't as good as my original one, however for a person who's not willing to wait an hour to be able to eat pizza this one is really good as you need only about 10/15 minutes from start to your mouth! I dare you to make it and don't like it. So here is the recipe:

225gr Self Raising Flour
1 tbs chopped fresh oregano
1 tbs olive oil
120ml water


Mix everything until form a soft dough. Open dough with rolling pin. Heat 1 tbs oil into a frypan (medium heat) and put dough inside pan leaving there until base is nice golden brown. Turn Pizza dough (flip in the pan as pancake) and let it cook on the other side. Meanwhile spread tomato sauce/pizza sauce over the cooked side of pizza and top with any pizza topping you wish. I used ham, cabanossi, basil and pizza cheese. After the bottom of pizza gets golden brown, put frypan under a hot grill until cheese melts. And your pizza is ready... Just serve with a nice salad and you have a light and satisfying lunch.

As I said before, this one will not substitute my original pizza dough for special occasions but it will be another altenative for a snack to my kids after school.

MUESLI MUFFIN

2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
3/4 cup low fat yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
60g untoasted muesli

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients and pour into dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Bake in 190 degrees oven for 15 minutes. I brushed muffins with a mixture of golden syrup and butter. After cold, I dust them with icing sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg mixture. They were less sweet than I wanted them to be, however quite nice with a coffee... Would I do it again? Honestly... no!

MINUTE STEAK WITH GARLIC SPINACH AND TOASTED SUNFLOWER SEEDS

Season steak with black pepper and sea salt and fry for around 1 minute each side. Keep warm. Saute garlic in olive oil, add a bunch of baby spinach, salt and pepper. Cook until spinach changed color to bright green. Serve in a bed of garlic rice and sauteed carrots. Sprinkle toasted sunflower seed on top of beef.

LEMON & HERBS CHICKEN WITH ROASTED SWEET POTATO & POTATO COUSCOUS

In a roast tray mix chicken pieces, spring onion (white and green part), coriander, celery leaves, lemon slices, black pepper, chicken stock crumbled over, lemon juice, white wine and olive oil. Mix to combine and bake around 1 hour or until cooked. In another tray, add chopped sweet potato, potato, garlic (whole), sea salt, black pepper, pieces of butter and olive oil. Roast together with chicken until golden and cooked. Cook couscous as directed in packet and mix with roasted potatoes. Season to taste.

CHOCOLATE PALMIERS WITH MOCHA GRANITTA

These palmiers are easy to do. Simply spread nutella over thawed puff pastry, sprinkle with sugar and fold. Cut into rounds and bake it in a very hot oven until golden brown turning once. They are delicious when served with mocha granita!

These was my lunch yesterday... LAVASH BASKET WITH GARDEN SALAD. Just spray a flat bread with oil spray, put bread inside a ceramic bowl forming a basket and bake in 160 degree oven until beginning to toast and hold it's shape. Leave to cool on a rack. Make your favorite salad and serve inside the bread basket. Very impressive for dinner party!

BEEF STROGONOFF WITH CHICKEN RICE AND FRENCH FRIES

BEEF STROGONOFF

1tbs vegetable oil
400g sirloin steak ( sliced)
2 middle bacon slices, chopped
1 finely chopped onion
2 chopped clove of garlic
11/2 cups sliced mushrooms
2tbs tomato paste
1 chicken stock cube
375ml light evaporated milk
1/4 cup water
2tsp cornflour
handful of parsley

Fry beef with oil until golden brown, take out of pan and set aside. In the same pan fry bacon, onion, garlic and mushroom for about 3 minutes. Add tomato paste and crumble stock over mixture. Keep stirring for about 2 minutes. Add evaporated milk and cornflour blended with water and let it simmer stirring until sauce start to thicken. Return beef to pan and cook until hot. Sprinkle with parsley Serve with chicken rice, steamed garlic vegetables and a small serve of French fries.

IT FELT LIKE IF WE WERE EATING IN A RESTAURANT... WE MADE IT EVEN MORE REAL WITH A GLASS OF WINE! TO GOOD FOR A MONDAY NIGHT...?

NO...MY FAMILY DESERVE IT!!!

MEXICAN RICE & SAUSAGE - HOT CHOCOLATE

MEXICAN RICE & FRIED SAUSAGE

Rice:
2 tbs vegetable oil, 1 chopped onion, 3 chopped spring onion, 1/2 chopped red capsicum, 1/2 cup green peas, 1/2 cup sweet corn, 4 cups cooked rice, 2 chicken stock cubes, salt, pepper and chili sauce to taste.

Saute all vegetables with the oil, add rice and stir until well combine. Crumble stock over rice, seasoning to taste. Serve sprinkle with extra chopped spring onion.
Fry some hot dog cocktail sausage and serve with the rice.

HOT CHOCOLATE WITH A TWIST

Put in a pan 3 cups of milk, 3 tbs cocoa powder, 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Let it come to a simmer stirring constantly to brake any cocoa lumps. Add around 1/2 cup of Southern Comfort (alcohol beverage) to the hot chocolate, stir. Serve sprinkle with a mixture of cocoa, icing sugar and a dash of cinnamon.

STIR FRIED NOODLES & TOFFEE APPLE

VEGETABLES & NOODLES STIR FRY

Today I had to make ends meet!!! It has been a while since I stepped foot into a supermarket, so I had to use a bit of creativity to serve my family a decent meal. What can it be more fast, cheap and nutricious meal than noodles? Tonight stir fried was delicious... Used last vegies that was in my fridge... I guess it will be shopping tomorrow!

SPICED TOFFEE APPLE WITH SWEET BREAD CROUTONS AND CHOCOLATE

Having almost nothing to cook with but still wanting something to indulge with, I "create" my own invention of toffee apple. It was really good! This one I will keep for those nights you just want something EXOTIC and POWERFUL to end the night!

Fry in a pan some butter, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, drop of vanilla extract and a good tablespoon of brown sugar until fragant... Add some thinly sliced apple and cook until soft and toffee like. Meanwhile in another pan, fry some cubed cinnamon & chocolate slice bread until golden brown and crispy. Serve bread cubes with sauteed apple on top and sprinkle with chocolate pieces to melt with the heat of apples... Sprinkle with icing sugar and VOALA!!!! So yummy... You cannot image! Use your imagination and use any spice you fancy.

ROYAL CHOCOLATE CAKE

ROYAL CHOCOLATE CAKE

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs melted butter
1/2 tbs baking powder
13 cup plain flour
1 dash of salt

Beat eggs with sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add other ingredients and mix until well combined. Pour into a greased and lined 25cm springform tin and bake for 25 minutes or until sides looses a bit from tin. Oven at 200 degrees Celsius.

After I have baked, I spread hot strawberry conserve on top of cake and finished with whipped cream, fresh strawberries and chocolate sauce.

A VERY EASY, QUICKLY AND DIVINE CAKE FOR ANY OCCASION!!! I made this one to take to a friends house who invited my family for dinner. It was a great way to end the dinner... The plate was clean by the time I was going back home!

PORK & GYOSA WITH SAUTE GREENS AND RICE

This was a fast & yummy dish to do. I had some gyosa left over from last time which I froze... So the only thing I had to do was cook the rice in my rice cooker and saute some of vegetables I had inside the fridge... So tasty, healthy and fast!!!

DECADENT CHOCOLATE CAKE

This cake has to be "the most chocolaty cake" I have done so far... It was for a friend and she wanted a ALL CHOCOLATE CAKE! As you can imagine, the cake, fillings, frosting and decorations were all from chocolate. It was quite expensive to do but well worth it!!!

CAKE
300g butter
300g caster sugar
6 eggs
225g self raising flour
75g cocoa powder
2 tsp strong coffee (liquid)

Beat butter and sugar for 7 minutes. Add eggs slowly. Add sifted flour, cocoa and coffee. Mix with wooden spoon until well combined. Bake in a 29 cm round tin in a preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) for approximately 40 minutes.
For this cake I made this recipe twice.
FILLING 1

1/2 can condensated milk
125g butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Beat butter with electric mixer and add cond. Milk slowly until fluffy. Add cocoa and beat until blended.

FILLING 2
150g melted chocolate
120g chocolate & hazelnut spread
50g butter

Mix all ingredients until well combined

TOPPING
250g milk chocolate
250g dark chocolate
350ml cream

Boil cream and pour over chopped chocolate. Let it stand for 2 minutes, stir chocolate mixture until melted and well combine. Set aside until spread consistency. Spread all over the cake. Leave left over chocolate at room temperature until piping consistency. Pipe around cake using piping bag.

DECORATION
125g milk chocolate bar, grated

Put grated chocolate around cake after you have covered with chocolate mixture (ganache).

Cut each cake in half and sandwich them with filling 1. Sandwich both cake together with filling 2. Top cake with chocolate mixture(topping). Decorate sides with grated chocolate and pipe around cake with remaining chocolate mixture. ENJOY!

BRAZILIAN GIRLS PICNIC DAY

Brazilian Girls Picnic

I am back after 2 weeks without adding a post... I really missed being here... Somehow it is wonderful be able to share some of my recipes with you all!!! Especially that I know some of my friends enjoy visiting this site... so I do owed them my daily posts... Hope never had to be away again.

this was a CARROT CAKE I did to my friend's picnic birthday party last Friday... It was moist and delicious... And the frosting held up pretty well on the heat of around 37 degrees Celsius! The recipe I have posted last month.

This cute thing is a TOMATO & BOCCONCINI SALAD STICKS. Just marinade bocconcini with olive oil, chopped basil, salt and lemon zest. Cut grape tomato in half and alternate tomato and cheese into a fancy toothpick.

At the back you can see the SMOKED TROUT AND CREAM CHEESE OMELETTE ROLL UPS and in the front you see my version of MINI BACON & VEGETABLES FRITTATA. Both were really yummy! However my favorite has to be the frittata. You fry some chopped bacon, them add some chopped vegetables (carrot, cooked potato, chopped red capsicum, chopped onion, chopped garlic, chopped parsley and spring onion. Saute mixture until cooked. Crumble some chicken stock over mixture and taste for seasoning. Set aside to cool down. Divided cooled mixture into mini muffin trays and top with a mixture of eggs, cream and grated cheese. Baked in 180 degrees Celsius oven for 15/20 minutes. We served at room temperature.

SMOKED TROUT AND CREAM CHEESE OMELETTE ROLL UPS : Make paper thin omelettes with beaten eggs and set aside. Beat cream cheese, chopped chives and lime zest until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread some of cream cheese mixture onto omelettes and lay some smoked trout on top of cream cheese mixture. Roll up omellete and put inside an airtight container and store inside the fridge for abourt 3 hours. Just before serve, take out from the fridge and cut into 1 cm rounds. They are very refreshing!

On the left is the most popular sandwich of our picnic: ROASTED PUMPKIN & RICOTTA PASTE SPINACH LAVASH WRAPS. Mix some ricotta with chopped semidried tomato, mashed garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside. Roast some pumpkin with garlic, salt, pepper and a drizzle of honey until soft. Mash it and ajust seasoning. On a spinach lavash bread, spread some of ricotta mixture, lay some baby spinach leaves and put mashed pumpkin on top of spinach leaves. Roll up and wrap roll with glad wrap. Leave inside the fridge for 2 hours. Cut each lavash bread into 6 rolls. Wrap some glad bake strips around rolls and tie with a string. Display them standing up as the picture. They look very impressive and sure to be a "HEALTHY & VEGETARIAN ALTERNATIVE" to your guests!
The other one was a DOUBLE BRIE, QUINCE PASTE & ROCKET CROISSANT. They were very easy to prepare as we can buy everything ready from supermarkets and they look great! And more important: they are sooo elegant and delicious!

The bottom line was that Karla and I achieved what we wanted... Provide a simple, elegant, healthy and enjoyable picnic to our friend. The heat of the day was the only downside of the whole experience, however Brazilian people never let anything destroy an opportunity to laugh and share wonderful moments with friend! After all we all need a bit of human warmth!!!!

I just cannot wait for our next function!!!