437/1038 - Zucchini and feta fritters

Recipes like this one make me LOVE meat free dinners! 

I cheated and skipped the step where I was supposed to salt the zucchini and leave it for an hour. Those who know me well will know that this was because I was in a rush to get dinner on the table and simply did not have time to comply! I thought I got away with it, even though the mixture was a little runnier than it probably should have been.

Continuing with my rebelliousness, I decided not to deep fry the fritters. Using a medium amount of coconut oil, I fried these for quite some time on medium heat, ending up with amazing tasting little discs that tasted incredible, even though they were not as light as they might have been had I followed the recipe. 

The fresh mint and feta added the most incredible taste to the zucchini and for a meat free meal, the family exuded a particularly high level of enthusiasm. 

Love x

436/1038 - Lemon delicious pudding

Lemon delicious indeed! 

In our house, my husband is the pudding man. The boys delight in telling me that his chocolate pudding is BY FAR the best dessert they have ever tasted. It is a running joke in this house which has been going on for some time. Well at least I thought it was a joke! 

When I said I was making pudding the kids got really excited. Until I started making it and asked my eldest to hand me a lemon. "A lemon?", he asked. "Whatever for?" In his mind, of course, there is no pudding other than chocolate. 

Insert horrified child here.

Once the pudding was made and my children had gotten over the fact that it was not chocolate, we sat down to what truly was a very lovely, and wonderfully tangy, dessert. 

...but apparently the chocolate pudding is still better.

435/1038 - Lois's almond and orange biscuits

These biscuits are so good they should be illegal! 

I completely changed the shape they were supposed to be, due to my almonds not being ground as finely as they could have been. I was fairly sure my mixture would not hold together in a log formation and so opted for these semi-squashed balls instead. 

There was a moment of panic when I was about to make the drizzling syrup and realised I had allowed my youngest to drink the remainder of the orange juice. Thankfully I had not squeezed the orange completely and was able to eke out just enough to make the syrup appropriately orange flavoured.

As is customary in our house, I sent a biscuit along to school with my youngest for his teacher to eat for morning tea. Apparently this one was a winner, with my son passing on his teacher's request for the recipe.

Unfortunately for my figure I ate around half of these. Given my desire to remain a reasonable size, I will be unlikely to make them again in the near future. 

434/1038 - Spicy chicken parcels

A few weeks ago my eldest had a little "incident" with my camera, which explains the dodgy pictures I have been posting! Thankfully this is the last of them, with my good camera (and also my peace of mind) having now been restored. My son and I are still on speaking terms and we have a mutually agreeable arrangement in place regarding the $600 repair bill...

It is amusing to me that I had always read the title of this recipe and assumed that the "parcels" were made of pastry. So on a day that I actually felt like a pastry encased dinner I pulled out this recipe...and discovered the parcels were made of foil! It sounded so nice I decided to make it anyway and push back my pastry craving for another day.   

I do love a yoghurt marinade and the toasted cumin and coriander in the mix made it wonderfully tasty. To top it all off, the coriander and squeeze of lime over the top of the baked chicken is a must for the full flavour experience. 

Stay tuned for another blog post soon...with decent photos! x

433/1038 - Mushroom custards

I spied a container of portobello mushrooms in the fridge as I was beginning dinner preparations last night and decided it was time to try out this custard recipe.

The custards were simple enough to make, but as per usual I had some trouble getting them out of the moulds looking perfect. With a piece missing from the side of this one, I decided a photo of the custard in the mould was much more attractive! Given my inability to consistently unmould custards, I was certainly playing the safe option serving these to my family rather than at a dinner party. 

The flavour of the custard was very rich, thanks to the fabulous rehydrated porcinis I included in the mix. We ate the custards with my chia seed meatloaf (nice combination!) and also slathered on slices of freshly baked rye caraway bread. 

Lovely x

432/1038 - Freekeh pilaf with spinach and fried onions

I have an overflowing pantry at the moment and this recipe was my first attempt at clearing out some of the tupperware containers of grains and legumes I have tumbling about in there. Only appearing in the latest version of the Cook's Companion, this recipe is a beautifully flavoured dish which would pair nicely with meat or veg but would also be lovely on its own as a quick lunch. Tonight I decided to serve it with a small pile of buttery, mashed golden sweet potato which we enjoyed very much. 

I used baby spinach rather than English, and instead of cooking and pulverising it, I chopped it finely and then simply wilted it in the pan. 

Had I known how lovely this would be, I definitely would have doubled the recipe! So nutty and quite salty from the stock, it was also given a wonderful lift with the addition of some preserved lemon. 

Big winner on all fronts! Although I still have some freekeh left, so sadly my pantry is no tidier than before.