I just may bite...

Our journey cooking from scratch took a turn a number of weeks ago when we decided to cut down our meat intake even further. We never have a lot of meat, around 100g per serve and always at least 2 nights a week with no meat but Simon and I decided to change that round and only eat meat 2 nights a week and eat vego style the other nights. 

Can I just say before I continue, that this is right for us. We enjoy eating like this and both have found it to have added health benefits we weren't expecting. We both have different reasons for cutting back the meat intake, Simon more for health reasons, me for more ethical reasons. I am not trying to "convert" you or guilt you or any other nonsense you can think of. This is our journey and we do what is right for us at that time.

When we first started cooking from scratch, way back in January (where has the year gone) when I received my beautiful bench mixer for Christmas people often asked us if we were on a diet, what we could and couldn't eat. They wouldn't offer me store bought biscuits for example cuz "oh you're on a diet aren't you?" Infuriating. (lets be honest though why would I want their crappy store bough biscuits when I could have my own home baked treats!) When you make a complete lifestyle change people have no problems commenting with their two cents (which often makes no sense) about what you should be doing. I often heard: "be careful you are eating the right foods", "HA! we eat three times as much meat as that mwahahah, you poor thing Simon.."

Apparently portion control, eating more vegies then meat, and mixing herbs and spices together, to create my own flavour combinations instead of opening a packet of seasoning which contains vegetable oils, sugar and additives to name but a few nasties, is something other people need to be

concerned about!

Times that concern (unwarranted) by 10 now.

Lets consider the following which are both true and real stories because they are about me.

2013 - Overweight, lacking energy, cooked dinner at home 3 -5 nights a week but our pantry was full of taco seasonings, packets of slow cooker flavourings, cup a soups etc etc etc, takeaways the other nights you get my drift... basically a terribly lifestyle.

Did ANYONE, EVER, question this lifestyle?? NO! Of course they didn't!!

January 2014 to September 2014- Started cooking from scratch. 8kg down. More energy. Sleeping slightly better. Skin is better. Wallet is better (cooking from scratch is cheaper than convenience foods). Pantry is full of seeds, nuts, flours, too many spices to count... nothing that is a one stop option! Everything has to be combined to create something delicious!

Did anyone ever question this lifestyle?? YES of course they did! At first they laughed and told me I wouldn't be able to stick to it. They got annoyed when I told them I couldn't go out for tea because I wanted to cook at home. They tried to tell me I was silly to do it when you can buy things to make it quicker. That THEY would never have time to do it because they work... for the record, I work. I

work full time. Three days I am in an office working for someone else. The other four days in the week and every weeknight I work for myself, trying to establish myself in the world of website design!! Yes when you work for yourself you do have time to step away and get some things ready for tea but anyone can be more prepared in the kitchen if they want to be.

October 2014 - Cut meat intake to 2 days maximum per week. This is more for Simon. I am not really interested in eating meat at all at the moment abut this allows us to eat meat when we are guests at someones home as our main concern with starting this was that we didn't want to inconvenience our families by telling them we are "Vegetarian" and sending them into a flap. So the two days a week is our buffer which we won't always use. Another 2 kg down. Started the gym, energy is increasing further. Sleeping soooo much better, waking is still difficult but I do go to bed late :-/ Skin is MUCH better. Wallet is even better. Pantry is full of things as above except I have lots of beans, chickpeas, chickpeas etc. Fridge is full of fresh delicious vegetables and a thousand eggs haha!

Did anyone question this lifestyle?? YES. CONSTANTLY. I AM STARTING TO BELIEVE THEY DO NOT HAVE THEIR OWN LIVES TO FOCUS ON. Yes I make sure we are getting enough protein. It might not look like it but I actually have a pretty good knowledge of food, I research meals to make sure we are getting a high nutritional value! Yes I understand that the extra weight loss and

other benefits are probably from the gym but combined with cutting out meat I feel I am doing even better. No, I don't feel like my life is over, have you not seen my meals? I would prefer delicious stuffed mushrooms over a hunk of steak! One I heard today: You might get hit buy a car tomorrow, you may as well enjoy it while you can! (Obviously implying that I will not enjoy my life without meat in it). What exactly can you eat is another question I get asked frequently... well obviously we can eat everything except meat or is a product that comes from the meat of an animal. The only time I have had difficulty with this was trying to make a vegetarian gravy, as obviously beef or chicken stock is out. But it turned out amazing with the help of every Australian's favourite yeast extract, Vegemite. Other than that our meals have been delicious and in the past week alone there have been two dishes that Simon has requested we put into high rotation for dinners.

Thanks to the power of the internet if I feel like a dish that we used to eat with meat in it I simply type vegetarian into the search bar before the name of the dish and up pops thousands of vegetarian variations which I then modify to suit us. Many of those dishes I then share with you.

I've calmed down a lot since I started writing this. Obviously I was just running hot from the comment mentioned before, how good is it to be able to get feelings out!

I am not here to preach to you about what foods to eat. If I inspire one of you to clear out your pantry of processed convenience foods then I will be insanely proud. The point I am trying to make is how sad it is, that the social norm is a high meat, highly processed, low fat, high sugar diet and anything else is weird and frightening and "no fun". Instead of questioning each others food choices why don't we find out why and how people have made come to that decisions to eat that way. What works for one may not work for another and it can take a long time to figure out the best way and foods for you to eat to maintain a healthy body and mind.

Do you ever get questioned on your "different from the norm" eating habits? I'd love to hear what foods go on the table at your house.

As always Happy Cooking! (from scratch!)

Erica xxx

Lentil Bolognese

I’ve been having certain negative and guilty feelings lately about food. This is NOT normal for me, I do not get guilty over food. Sometimes I might regret certain food decisions while I am laying on the floor struggling to breath from over consumption of something particularly delicious but I have always felt there is no room in my life for food guilt. I eat what I like and I enjoy it thoroughly, especially now that we eat real food! But in the last 6 months or so I have started getting a real complex about eating meat. I aways try to buy meat that is Organic, Free Range and Family Farmed if possible as I like to know that the hunk of meat I am about to tuck into had a good life, and was slaughtered in a way that was least stressful. But I can’t do it anymore. Even writing about it now makes me feel terrible. Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE meat. It is DELICIOUS but I just can’t stop thinking about the animals while I am eating it.

So we are taking a break. You will have heard me before saying that I don’t like labelling people in certain food types so I won’t label us as “Vegetarian” although for the time being that is how we are eating. Dairy and Eggs are ok (although I have certain views on that as well but one step at a time) but no meat or meat by products (which means no pan gravy!!!) I also don’t want to be a problem and make a big deal of it, I am not trying to “convert” or change anyone else’s food habits (although I do want you all to start cooking your food from scratch!!!) and we certainly don’t want people to find us difficult to feed etc.  (although if you are planning on inviting us over, I would prefer not to have a steak… oh god I love steak.)

So the recipes I will be sharing in the immediate future will be meat free. Most will be adapted from our favourite meat dishes so it’s just substituting one meat thing for something else so feel free to add your own meat in!!

Do NOT be afraid of lentils. I have never cooked with them before but they turned out great! We really did not miss the meat at all in this dish it was so hearty and rich and delicious! Do not knock it until you try it!!

Lentil Bolognese

Ingredients

Olive OIl
1 ½ Cup Lentils (Dried or Tinned)
½ Cup Dry White Wine
2 Cans Crushed Tomatoes
½ Cup Water
1 Brown Onion chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic crushed
Italian Herbs, Fresh or Dried, Basil, Thyme, Oregeno ½ cup of each fresh, 1 tablespoon each dried
Pinch or Two of Salt
Pasta to serve (we used to gnocchi, but any pasta would work!) make your own here.

Method

Brown your Onion and Garlic for a few minutes in a large saucepan with a dash of olive oil.

Add the Cans of Tomatoes, Wine, Lentils, Herbs and one pinch of salt

Give all the ingredients a good stir in the pot making sure everything is mixed thoroughly.

Put the lid on the saucepan and let simmer at a medium low heat for 30-40 minutes stirring frequently (if using tinned lentils you can probably halve this time and you will not need to add the extra water)

If using dried lentils, you will need to add the ½ cup of water at some stage during the cooking process as they will suck up all the liquid from the tomatoes pretty quick smart. I would suggest you keep an eye on the sauce and just put a bit of the water in when required.

When the lentils soften, taste and add salt as required.

Cook your pasta and when that is done simply drain and serve with Lentil Bolognese over the top!

 

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese for extra bite!

Happy Cooking, (from scratch!)
Erica

Mexican Chicken Salad

Monday nights have become very short on time for us! I've started doing a makeup course (one of my many other loves) which starts at 7, so by the time I walk home from work (yes I am lucky enough to live close enough to my work to walk! Having lived in Melbourne I REALLY appreciate it!!) get changed and redo my make-up for the course there isn't much time leftover to make a delicious and nutricious meal for Simona and myself! (Annie's food is pre packaged up in little bags of tasy meat rice and vegies so we just tip it in her bowl and she is happy!) But us humans have been sufering slightly. Eggs on toast has become a regular occurance, and though Simon hasn't complained (he'd eat eggs on toast every night of the week if I let him) I feel a bit slack, and after slacking off slightly on the weekends I feel like something healthy!!

 

It was such a nice day yesterday, it felt like summer, so I got all excited and decided to make a salad!!

This one is super simple yet deliciously tasty, and like a lot of my recipes modifiable for your dietry requirements. Its gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, leave out the chicken for vegetarian/vegan options and you can remove the beans and corn if you are paleo (although it would eliminate the "mexican" edge a fair bit)!

Mexican Chicken Salad 

 Serves 3-4 for a light meal

1 capsicum

1 red onion

1 chilli

2 tomatoes

Lettuce (as much or as little as you want)

1/2 cup- 1 cup of chopped fresh coriander

1 cob of corn

1 - 2 chicken breasts and thigh meat from a previously roasted chicken

1 tin of three bean mix

1 -2 lime

Teaspoon Cumin

Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Teapsoon Paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

 

Method

1. Chop the capiscum, red onion, chilli, tomatoes, lettuce and place into a large salad bowl.

2. Tip your beans into a colander to strain, then tip beans into your bowl.

Remove the leaves and "hair" from your corn and cut off the kernals. I find it easiest to lay the cob  horizontal and slice off the kernals in a big strip, then turn and do another strip and so on until all the kernals or off. Put into your salad bowl.

3. Chop your chicken roughly and into the bowl!

4. In a seperate little bowl squeeze your limes and mix together with the cumin, garlic powder, paprika and olive oil until combined. Pour into your salad bowl with the other ingredients.

5. Toss your salad. ha ha

 

Serve! The lime comes through in little bursts of freshness as oes the coriander. You could serve with homade tortillas! Leftovers make a great lunch when you remember to get the container out of the fridge before you walk out the door :(

 

Happy cooking! (from scratch)

Erica xx

Reader Request! Asian Wontons (Dumplings, Pots Stickers tiny morsels of deliciousness)

I had a request from a friend for a recipe for Dumplings/Wonton's. I love them yum yum, and they are soooooo versitile. You can pre make and cook them in advance then reheat for parties, put them in a soup, eat them as a entree, a main, hell you could even eat them as dessert if you are so inclined! They can be vegetarian, or full of meat, what a delicious tasty treat!! I don't have any of my own photos at the moment so please enjoy the google supplied image below haha!

Ingredients

• 1 cup roughly shredded Chinese cabbage (Wombok)
• 2-3 spring onions sliced roughly
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 whole chilli (seeds optional)
• 2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
• ½ a kilo of pork or chicken mince
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 package wonton wrappers (in the Fridge in the pasta section, You can get round or square, both work the same). You can make your own Wonton Wrappers. I have tried twice and neither time was it very successful.
• Cooking spray (I use coconut oil)
• 2 cups water
• Soy Sauce or Sweet Chilli Sauce to Serve

Method

1. Put Cabbage, Spring Onions, soy sauce, chilli, ginger, mince, chestnuts and garlic into a food processer and give it a few quick spins. This combines the ingredients and minces it all up. You want the mixture to stick together.

2. Working with 1 wonton wrapper at a time (cover remaining wrappers with a damp towel to keep from drying), spoon about 1 teaspoon filling into center of each wrapper. Moisten edges of wrapper with water (a pastry brush is very handy to brush over the edges). Bring 2 opposite corners together, pinching points together to seal. Bring the remaining 2 corners to center; pinch points to seal. Pinch 4 edges together to seal. Place dumpling, seam side up, to the side. Repeat procedure with remaining wrappers and filling to form the dumplings. Continue until all the mixture is gone. Coat dumplings with cooking spray.

3. Place a large nonstick frying pan (one with a lid if possible) over medium-high heat. Arrange 10-15 dumplings, seam sides up, in the pan; cook 30 seconds or until the bottom is browned. Add 1/2 cup water to pan; cover and cook 5 minutes. Uncover and cook 1 minute or until liquid evaporates. Remove dumplings from pan; keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining dumplings and water.

 

4.Serve immediately with a soy sauce, or sweet chilli sauce or a peanut sauce or... you get the gist, whatever delicious sauce you desire!

ALTERNATIVE COOKING METHOD 1

If you prefer to have your dumpling steamed then you can invest in some bamboo steamers (any supermarket or cooking supply store has these).  Fill a saucepan of water and sit your steamers on top. Bring the water to a simmer. Line each basket on the steamer with a piece of baking paper and sit your dumplings on top. Steam for approximately 5-10 minutes.

ALTERNATIVE COOKING METHOD 2

You can also deep fry your dumplings if you prefer tasty crunchy mouthfuls of deliciousness (can you tell I love dumplings hahaha). Heat a saucepan of oil or your deep fryer. Test the oil by putting a cube of bread in the oil. It should turn brown fairly quickly but not burn. You do not want your oil too hot or the wonton wrappers will burn. Similarly you do not want your oil too low or the wontons will just absorb the oil and go soggy not crispy.

 

 

Feel free to eat them all at once, in one giant mouthful like Kung Fu Panda would do... thats how I eat them hahaha!

Happy Cooking! (From Scratch)

Erica xx

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Have you ever been really driven to do/make something and found it insanely difficult to find an easy way to do it? That's the problem I came across when wanting to make a BBQ sauce to go with our pulled pork tonight!! Should it be this hard to find a recipe for a sauce that was actually from scratch? There are hundreds of recipes on the internet for BBQ sauces that contain Worcestershire sauce and pre-made tomato sauce/ketchup, but I struggled so much to find one that didn't contain either one or both of those two ingredients, which themselves contain lots of ingredients, and when store bought contain many additives and extra's that I go to great pains to avoid in our daily cooking!!! I decided to do what I have done quite a number of times and simply read the ingredients on the back of a bottle of BBQ sauce and then use the key ingredients to make at home! Added bonus... it turned out quite a bit simpler than I thought it would be!! I will store the rest in the fridge, as this made around 500 mls and use during the week on other meals!

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

Can of diced tomatoes

50g of tomato paste

1 medium sized chilli chopped roughly

1 onion chopped roughly

1 garlic clove chopped roughly

4 tablespoons of brown sugar (you could substitute with Rice Malt Syrup for a fructose free version)

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of Smoked Paprika

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

pinch (and I do mean a small pinch of crushed cloves (or 1 clove)

Method

Put all ingredients in a saucepan

Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer until the sauce has reduced to a thick consistency.

As with most of my recipes, make sure you taste as it is simmering and add any extra's of the ingredients as required to taste!

Whiz it up in a blender so its nice and smooth and wallah!! Your very own homemade BBQ Sauce ready to pop on... anything!!!

Hope you enjoy this recipe!! If you would like to request me to cook something you have struggled to find a recipe for simply respond below and I shall see what I can do!!

Till next time, Happy Cooking (from scratch!)

Erica xx

Beef Stroganoff!

I was sitting here thinking about food (nothing new) and realised that unlike other food bloggers I never really have a clever little back story to go with my recipes, nothing that really details why I decided to cook a certain dish that day, how it tasted, what the weather was doing that day, what colour underpants we all had on (Annie the Poodle included)…

Truth is, there generally isn’t a rosy cheeked sunny day kind of story to accompany a dish like Beef Stroganoff. I saw a jar of strog sauce in the supermarket and decided to try and cook it from scratch. That’s the end of that exciting story! It reminds me of my childhood, but it was never my favourite dish so I don’t get all warm and fuzzy like I would thinking about Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings. 

I think about food from the minute I wake up till the minute I go to bed, throwing some sporadic thoughts about work in there and occasionally day dreaming about how many cosmetic products I could buy if I was a millionaire (too damn many that’s how many!!) but that's about as interesting as it gets... I know, not that interesting haha!

However my food thinking is now fairly focused on what other classic home style dishes that really don’t take much longer to cook with fresh whole ingredients rather than packet seasoning or a jar of anaemic looking sauce… I need suggestions!! I am going to cook a Steak and Mushroom Shepherds pie hybrid tonight which I cannot WAIT to put into my mouth! (note: I ended up making two, plus had SOOO much meat left over so now have at least 6 meals out of one batch of meat! I bought a 1.2 kilo blade roast which was $9 a kilo and cooked for around 1.5 hours with seasonings etc on the stovetop, but it would be great in the slow cooker! The meat was SOOOO tender!)

OK so here it is, what you have read through all that nonsense to get to... *drum roll please* Introducing Beef Stroganoff recipe which I based on the same by Julie Goodwin who wont the first Australian Masterchef! I just made changes to the type of steak and made it gluten free by using cornflour instead of plain flour! This ended up being one of our absolute favourite "from scratch" meals I have made... I was positively delicious!!

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients

1 kg steak, trimmed and sliced very thinly 

(I used the heart smart steak from Woolworths as it was on special)

1/3 cup corn flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika

¼ cup coconut oil

300g button mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ cup tomato paste

½ cup beef stock 

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

300ml sour cream

Method

ombine the flour, salt, pepper and paprika in a bowl.  Toss the beef strips through the mixture so they are well coated.

In a large, non-stick fyring pan, heat ¼ of the oil over high heat.  Place 1/3 of the beef mixture into the pan and cook, tossing and stiring for 2 minutes until it is golden brown. Repeat this process with remaining oil and beef mixture. Removing the cooked beef before putting a new lot in.

Remove the last of the beef from the frying pan and sit aside.

Reduce the heat to medium high.  

Place the last of the oil in the pan and cook the mushrooms and garlic until softened. 

 Add tomato paste and stir for a further minute.  

Add stock, Worcestershire sauce and sour cream to the pan.  

Return the beef and stir for a minute or two until well combined and warmed through.

We served with mashed potato as I had some potatoes that needed to be used, but would also be fantastic served with pasta!

Steam some greens and serve on top. This is sure to be a family favourite, especially in the darkest depths of winter!

Share your photos with me if you make this, I would love to see them!

Happy Cooking (from scratch!)

Erica xx

Super Quick and Easy Poached Chicken!

How to poach chicken for salad, pizza etc... In under 20 minutes?! EASY!

This recipe is for ONE chicken breast which will easily feed two people possibly three depending on the dish you are preparing the chicken for. It last us two meals. so really it fed four, but we don't eat large amounts of meat, on the occasions we do eat it :) I would simply increase the cooking and resting times if you are poaching a larger amount. I am yet to poach a whole chicken, I will give it a go soon and let you know how long to do it for!

Super Quick and East Poached Chicken

Ingredients

1 large chicken breast

2 cloves of garlic

Few slices of lemon

2-3 Bay leaves (optional)

Method

Pop all ingredients in a pot of water and bring to the boil

Simmer for 10 minutes on medium heat with the lid on

Remove from heat and leave sitting in the pot with the lid on for a minimum of 10 minutes

Your poached chicken is done! Told you it was easy!!

I made a roast vegetable salad and topped with chicken, but have also used the chicken for sandwiches and on pizza!

Roast Vegetable Salad