Wholemeal pasta with creamy cottage cheese and seafood sauce

So Mr J has requested for more greens and less meat this week; his appetite seem to change every week, but I guess we're still adapting to the freedom of actually choosing what we want to eat! Another new-found hobby of mine now is to minimise food wastage each week; shopping always feel like a risk when I haven't got the slightest idea what I'm going to cool with the food I buy... 

Well tonight's recipe was created from wanting to create a healthy light dinner, yet clearing out what I have in the fridge. Well just happened that a friend of ours left us some cottage cheese, which he has been eating as part of his super strict diet; apparently cottage cheese is high in protein, perfect for the calorie conscious ;b ... So here it goes, a super healthy cottage cheese sauce, and to top up the healthiness - Wholemeal pasta! (Guilt-free for the pasta-lover in me :) ) 

Ingredients:

- 2 small servings of Wholemeal pasta, cooked al dente and drained.

- 1 cup of cottage cheese 

- 1 egg 

- 1 cup of pasta water 

- herbs for flavour: a few sprigs of thyme (just happened to have some fresh sprigs in the fridge too) 

- 1-2 cloves of garlic

- 4 large button mushrooms

- prawns and ling fish fillets, marinated 

- salt and pepper for seasoning

How to make it: 

- Cook marinated meat/seafood with herbs. When browned outside and semi cooked, add pasta water, cottage cheese and egg, stirring until it becomes a creamy mixture, the meat should cook thoroughly by this time. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of pasta water or milk. Season to taste. 

* I left the fish in there for too long, it kinda disintegrated into the sauce... 

On a cold winter's night...

Not so cold if you live in Sydney, but winter nonetheless.

With almost three months into married life, things are settling and finally I am motivated to revive this blog =) And now that I have my own kitchen, I have been making more savoury, main-meal types of food, so the main reason for this blog is for easy access to recipes that I have used and tried, let's keep it brief and get into it!

Red Wine Beef Casserole

Ingredients:

• Chuck steak ~2kg, diced, marinated with salt, pepper, coat with flour
• Chicken stock 2 cups
• 2 cups dry red wine
• Herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Bay Leaves
• Vegetables: Mushrooms, Celery, Carrots, Onion, Garlic

Brown meat first. Add stock, wine, garlic, onion, herbs, half amount of carrots and potatoes. Leave to boil gently (takes about 3 hours on the stove if you don't have a pressure cooker). Add remaining vegetables when the meat is tender or 30 mins before ready to serve.

Baked Whole Trout

Ingredients:

• Whole Ocean/Rainbow trout
• Marinate: Olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper, garlic, thyme, oregano, lemon juice, lemon slices

Bake at 180 degrees C for ~30mins (depends on size of fish).

Mini cupcakes in a simple DIY bag

Tart/Quiche pan

So excited, been thinking of getting this for a while now... what shall I use it for?

Mmmm just thinking of all the possibilities!

I haven't bought myself new bakeware for a long time... that's why I'm excited... if only I have the time to bake something now :(

But stay tuned! =D

Cranberry Choc-surprise Mini Cupcakes

I noticed a trend with my posts... it reflects that uni-break is never complete without me making something in the kitchen AND posting it up :) So as my one week mid-sem break comes to an end (it's too short!) I thought I should keep with this trend.

Another thing I accomplished today was to tidy up the parts of the kitchen that Mum has set apart for my cooking junk. Yes, my cooking junk are exclusive to me cos I'm the only one who bakes at home ;p This applies to baking trays, various ingredients and utensils... some of which I had to throw out today :s Hm.. how I look forward to having my own kitchen one day ^^

Anyways, my point is, I found some ingredients in the cupboard and it triggered my creative juices... cranberries, dessicated coconut, white choc melts...


What you need:

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup dessicated coconut
• approx 12 white chocolate melts
• all other ingredients for basic vanilla mini cupcakes found here
  

The "choc-surprise" part is the piece of choc melt that I inserted to the middle of the mix before baking... It didn't really melt as I thought it would... it turned out crunchy instead... Well, I guess that's why it's called a surprise ;)



Kinda reminds me of a bunny... digging a burrow... loll

[Unfortunately, Mr. Photographer is busy with exams this week, so I took the photos instead... so you might notice a drop in pro-ness x)]

Mini Apple Tea Cakes

Made these cinnamony-goodness a while back... the diced apple pieces were supposed to sit on top of the cake... not sink inwards! Maybe I have to add them on top after the cake's cooked =/

What you need:

• 85g butter. softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup SR flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 cup grated apple
• Topping mix: 1/2 cup diced apple, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon

How to make it:

1. Preheat oven to 160'C. Line a 24 mini-cupcake pan.
2. Use electric beater to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
   
3. Add flour, milk, egg and cinnamon, and beat with electric mixer on medium until well combined. Stir through grated apple.
4. Divide mixture evenly into the pan, sprinkle topping mix evenly between the cupcakes.
5. Bake for 10-15mins until firm to touch.
   

Christmas Sweets - Citrus and Coconut Sponge Finger Balls

Made these as Christmas gifts last year... gave them all away at church happily, just to go home and realise that I never got to taste any of my finished products! (I only taste-tested the sponge finger mix) So I decided to make them again for Christmas this year. As I was making them, I couldn't help wondering why I have only minimal memory of myself making or tasting these last year... I wonder what was preoccupying my mind at the time o.o?

Anyhow, this recipe is adapted from one in the Woolies' "Fresh" magazine, advertising "Unibic Sponge Fingers". Same recipe can be found here... I didn't use orange zest, dried apricots or Cointreau, so I named it according to its taste ;P


What you need:
250g sponge fingers, finely crumbed
1 cup mixed citrus peels
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 tbs apricot conserve/jam
200ml condensed milk
50g butter, melted
250g cooking chocolate (semi-sweet or white)
sprinkles/almond flakes to decorate

How to make it:

1. Blend all the ingredients together in the mixing bowl to form a soft mixture.
   
2. Roll into tablespoon sized balls and leave to set firm (refrigerating helps).
3. When set, dip each ball into melted chocolate and leave to set.