We have decided its time to start eating less meat and chicken and try out more veggie dishes. Not only is it healthier but its cheaper too.
This was my first real veggie dish with lentils and it turned out so well. Aaron even went back for seconds when I thought I would have had to bribe him to even try it.
A while back I bought sour cream and since it was on special I bought 5 pots. Then I only used one.
Since the sour cream was about to reach its expiry date (can sour cream really expire? Does it just get more sour?) I asked around for recipes to use up the last 4 pots.
I used one pot to make a creamy nutmeg pasta sauce the other night and then last night I used another pot to make these quick and really delicious scones.
So I mentioned that I bought a stand mixer the other day. Well, it arrived and so far I have made 2 batches of challah using the dough hook (NEVER kneading dough again!) as well as a batch of cinnamon muffins and on Friday I made an apple and banana bread/muffin recipe.
I have absolutely no idea what prompted me to add apples into the mix but I’m glad I did. They were amazing!
3 large grated or finely chopped apples (I used 2 green and 1 red and left the skin on)
3 large ripe or overripe bananas, mashed
2 cups sugar (I used sugar replacement)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
2/3 cup of oil
2 teaspoons vanilla (I didn't have so didn't add and it was absolutely fine)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 180C and grease 2 loaf pans or like I did, 1 loaf pan and 2-3 muffin trays (12-18 muffins).
Add all the ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
Mix well, ensuring all the flour is incorporated.
Separate batter into the desired pans and place in the oven.
For loafs, bake for about 1 hour.
For muffins bake for between 30 minutes and 45 minutes.
Notes
The original recipe called for half a cup chopped nuts and half a cup raisins. I had neither on hand so didn't add them and the recipe came out fine. You could also add craisins or even chocolate chips to this recipe and it would be delicious.
OK, so not something I didn’t already know but still.
I could not look at Aaron’s room for a single minute more on Friday. So I asked demanded that he clean everything. I made him pick up and throw away every last piece of paper, string, broken toy, piece of crap off his floor. He had to clean out his toy box, bedside table and computer desk. He had to dust everything, wipe down all the surfaces and then sweep the floor. I then came in and used my awesome steam mop thingy to clean the floors. The best part was when I told him I want the floor clean enough to eat off. His eyes almost bugged out until I told him that it was a saying and we were not really going to eat off the floor.
So now his room is pretty clean, except for the cardboard boxes he is turning into a plane. Lets see how long it lasts this time.
About 2 years ago we bought a really cheap vacuum cleaner from the local grocery store. It was cheap but it worked really well. For the last little while I’ve noticed that it wasnt working as well as it used to. We cleaned it out. Paul pulled out a fair bit of fluff and hairballs and it worked a bit better but no where near as well as when it was new. I thought that was that. Its a cheap machine, obviously has a short lifespan. I asked Paul to give it a clean so I could use it on the above mentioned boy’s room. Paul landed up taking the thing apart and actually washing one of the big sponge filters, which was disgustingly dirty.
Let me just say, the machine now works like I just took it out the box. It even picked up glitter off the tiles and carpet.
Moral of the story? Clean and service your appliances before throwing them out.
Jerusalem – pic taken by Paul
You can make cake using plain Greek yogurt and no sugar
I felt like making a cake for tea yesterday and I didnt have any diabetic cup for cup sugar replacement available. What I did have was stevia liquid. I searched online and found a simple trick for using liquid stevia as a replacement in a regular recipe. Basically 1 teaspoon stevia for each cup of sugar as well as 1/3 cup liquid for each cup of sugar. In my case I used plain yogurt.
As you know, Paul is diabetic, and I am always trying to find yummy sugar free food to bake or cook for him.
Paul tends to eat a bowl of oats with fresh fruit in the mornings but its getting boring. I work with a lot of UK products and last week, Scottish oatcakes kept popping up. So I googled and found a variety of recipes and yesterday I tried out a simple Scottish oatcake recipe.
These biscuits can be used in place of bread. Spread some butter, honey, jam or cheese on top or just have them plain right out the oven!
Scottish Oatcakes
2016-08-15 05:36:31
Yields 16
A quick to make, yummy biscuit. Can be served with butter, cheese, jam or as is.
I usually make ice cream in my churner but that requires some forethought and planning and since this was a last minute decision I went will a ‘no cook’ ice cream.
I’ve been ordering organic veggie boxes every two weeks from Maggie’s Garden for a few months now.
One of the things I love about the boxes is that I get to try out veggies that I wouldn’t normally buy. Like kohlrabi and zucchini.
I’ve received zucchini a few times now and every time I’ve grilled or fried them and then thought to myself, ‘That was nice but why didn’t I make zucchini bread?’
So this time I specifically ordered a kilo of zucchini so I could make bread. I searched for a sugar free recipe so that Paul could eat it too and what I came up with was delicious!
The #BestBossEver sent me a link on Facebook to this recipe and I knew I had to try it for Shabbat tonight.
Although the actual preparation takes all of 5 minutes, you do need to prepare your dough a minimum of 8 hours before you want to bake it.
So I made my dough last night before I went to bed. It literally took 5 minutes. This afternoon I baked it, which took about 20 minutes to heat the oven and let the dough rest after shaping and a further 45 minutes to bake.
