Sunday 26 February 2012

Spinach Cheese Triangles


This is my take on the Greek dish Spanakopita ~ similar flavours and nutrition yet super quick and easy. Great for dinner, picnics and school lunches...


As much as I love filo pastry... all pastry in fact is pretty good... I love the ease and quickness of ready rolled puff pastry...





I have discovered this great brand, Careme Pastry... they do short crust and puff pastry that are gorgeous and without any of the trans fats and baddies of some of the other brands...




I keep a couple of packets of pastry in the freezer to make up speedy lunches or dinners

Pies, pasties, quiches

Sweet or savory... ready made pastry can save you loads of time...

And when the quality is there you can take this short cut guilt free!!!






 This is a relatively loose recipe in that you can tweek and change to match the season or the fridge!

The basics are a fresh cheese... like quark, feta or cottage cheese... eggs... herbs and leafy greens, like kale, spinach, chard or collards. If you use quark or cottage you need to season the mix with salt ~ the feta is salty enough...







Older leaves of chard or spinach are best blanched and squeezed a bit to remove excess water... but if you are using young leaves you really can skip this step.



 Spinach Cheese Triangles

You will need...

2 big handfuls of baby spinach or other leafy green
2 eggs or 4 small bantam eggs which is what had from our girls...
100g of feta, or quark or cottage cheese
2 packets of Careme puff pastry ~ defrosted
a small handful of basil or other herbs ~ dill, parsley or thyme







To make...


This is really so easy ...

first heat your oven to 200c




All you do is crack your eggs in a bowl... crumble in your feta, coarsley chop your spinach and basil


                                                                                                                                          


and mix...







From here all you do is cut the pastry into triangles... like so....




Then spoon on about a heaped tablespoon of spinach mix... the amount depends on the size of the pastry triangle that you have cut...



 


Then fold over the pastry and fork down the edges...





 I make 8 triangles per Careme packet with a generous scoop of spinach mix...

Bake these lovelies at 200c for about 20 minutes or until golden brown...



this is a simple salad of wild rocket and vine ripe tomatoes
dressed with olive oil and a crack of salt





What I do that is a bit sneaky is I make up a stack of these... we have them for dinner with salad AND then the leftovers go into the freezer for whipping out for school lunches....



If I have more mix than pastry I add a few more eggs and in an oiled dish bake a spinach slice...





Any way that is all for this post... I hope you find this recipe as much a saving as I do!


yours,


Honey Lady


Tuesday 14 February 2012

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The fact that this cake has no flour in it somehow makes me feel like it is better for me...less naughty! I'm not sure if that is entirely true but it is delicious!!  I put this in my childrens lunch box and always cut an extra slice for their teacher
you will need...

300g dark 70% cooking chocolate
125g unsalted butter
4 large eggs ~ separarted
1 tablespoon Honey Lady Vanilla Bean Honey
3/4 cup of castor sugar
1 pinch of salt
250g of almond or hazelnut meal
1 cup of cream

sounding pretty good so far....


To make....


1. preheat your oven to 160c and line a springform cake tin with greaseproof paper

2. Place butter and 200g of chocolate on very low heat, stiring with a wooden spoon until combined ~ remove from heat and cool... (you can eat about 1 teaspoon of this without it effecting the recipe)


3. Beat the egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar and vanilla bean honey until light, fluffy and creamy... ( you can eat about 2 tablespoons of this!!!)



like so...





4. In a clean, dry bowl beat the egg whites with 1/4 sugar and a pinch of salt until soft peaks form... it will look like this....




still not too tricky???


5. Add the almond or hazelnut meal to the egg yolk mixture and add the chocolate mixture... Then fold in the egg whites...


EGG YOLK MIX & ALMOND


CHOCOLATE MIX PLUS MEAL & EGG YOLK MIX




COMBINED... YUM!!!




FOLDING IN THE EGG WHITES....



VOILA!!!!

6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean....

By now your house will smell better than Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory!!!


I melt 1 cup of cream with 100g of chocolate to make a ganache style icing but you can be really good and serve with raspberries or cream...

or ice cream... coffee...


This cake CAN last for one week in your fridge in an airtight container... good luck with that... our families PB is 24 hours... and that is only because I hid it!!!




I really hope you enjoy this cake as much as we do!!

yours.

Honey Lady x

Thursday 9 February 2012

Lunch Box Treats

I thought today I would share with you some of the lunch box ideas I use. As a mother of 4 I can relate to how challenging lunch boxes can be!

I hate nothing more than when they come home hardly touched...

For me I want what I put in my children's lunch boxes to be

  1. healthy
  2. stuff they will eat
  3. quick
  4. low cost
  5. environmentally sound
Is this to much to much to ask???

I have to say for the majority of the luches I make I can tick all 5!  I have my lunch box failures but for the most happy well fed kids with empty luch boxes...

So here are a few ideas... and more to follow...

You may have seen this Honey Oat Slice before but I wanted to share with you some quick and low cost lunch box treats that I use on a day to day basis...


I often alter this recipe depending on whats in my pantry!

The base recipe for my Honey Oat Slice is as follows...


Honey Oat Slice

Ingredients

 1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (220g) self raising flour
125g butter
1 cup Honey Lady Raw Honey





 To Make

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 18cm x 28cm slice pan with baking paper

In a large bowl, combine oats and flour.

Heat butter and honey in a small saucepan on low heat for 1-2 minutes, until butter has melted and mixture is well combined.

Make a well in centre of dry ingredients. Add butter mixture and combine well. Press firmly into prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden.
Cool completely in pan. Cut into squares to serve.


Now what I think is really cool is the variations you can do... for example... for today's lunches I took...

1 cup SR Flour
1 cup shop bought muesli (carmens)
125g butter
3/4 cup cup gum honey
1/4 cup sultanas
1/4 cup sliver almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds...

And followed the same method as above and they were delish!! we actually ate them as breakfast on the way to school because we ran out of time for breaky!!!


Another great variation which is a personal fave is...

1 cup of oats
2 cups SR Flour
125g butter
1 cup of honey
1/2 cup dried apricot diced
1/2 cup of shredded coconut

And again same method as above...


A FEW MORE IDEAS....                                                                                How easy and cost effective is fruit and yoghurt with a drizzle of honey??

Other snack we do is popcorn... my kids love this with melted cinnamon honey and butter... totally YUM!

My kids really love a container of chick peas with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of herb salt...

A quick dip made with equal parts of quark and yogurt with chopped herbs and vegetable sticks...

Last nights roast veggies with pesto and lettuce....









 There are so many options to give our kids great lunch boxes that they will eat... be creative!!!





yours,



Honey Lady




Wednesday 8 February 2012

Quick Beef Cous Cous with Zucchini and Feta

This meal is the outcome of an epic day... getting home late, hungry children and an empty-ish fridge.... We have ALL been there... Yes??
You will need... 1 cup of cous cous, 1 cup of boiling water, 1 small onion, 1 clove garlic, 100g bacon, dash of olive oil, 500g beef mince, 1/2 tsp ground cummin, 1/2 tsp ground corriander, 1 medium zucchini, 1/4 tsp white pepper, small handful of flat leaf parsley and a crumbling of feta...


                                               
SO I always have spices, cous cous, onions and garlic... bacon in the freezer (sorry non meat eaters)... And this is what I generally start with if I don't know exactly what I'm going to cook...

In Hungarian cooking everything starts with onion, olive oil, garlic and capsicum... and usually bacon...Tonight I really wanted to use some middle eastern spices so I omitted the capsicum...


First I peasant chopped the bacon, onion and garlic and fried off in a glug of olive oil... too easy... then added the mince and cooked until brown... and add the spices... and stir....


Then manolin in the zucchini ~ the trick here is fine slices as they cook fast and the zucchini breaks down to almost nothing...




Would you believe thats almost all... cook this mix for another 5 - 10 minutes and season to taste...

While this is cooking you can boil the kettle and make your cous cous ~ 1 cup cous cous : 1 cup boiling water.... cover and then fluff up when water is absorbed....




Throw through the flat leaf parsley and plate up... we had our with butter lettuce from the garden... and crumbles of feta... delish....






I hope you enjoy this as much as we did....


yours,



Honey Lady




Monday 6 February 2012

Spaghetti Sauce for Fussy Eaters!!

Spaghetti Sauce... is usually something that most children will eat...however meat and tomatoes, whilst OK nutrition...are also a great medium to hide a load of veggies in... to trick even the fussiest of eaters....

This photo is of all the veggies that I managed to get into this meal.... I love the colours!!!

This is a great end of week ~ use up whats in the fridge meal...


You will need...

10 -12 vine ripened tomotoes
700g passatta
1 beetroot
3 carrots
2 squash
2 spanish onions, 1 clove garlic
1 stick of celery
bunch of herbs ~ parsley, thyme, oregano, basil


* vegetables can be changed but this combo works really well
and as for herbs.... these work but if your child is really fussy only put in a small amount or omit completely



 This meal work thanks to a high speed & power blender... you could also use a food processor or the fine side of a grater. In truth the finer the veg is diced or cut the better the end result...


What I do is blend 4 tomatoes and the peeled onions and the garlic until they are fine but you can see small pieces...

Like so!

Then place a glug of olive oil in a heavy based pan and pour in this tomato/onion/garlic mix... fry off until colour changes and smell sweetens...

Take half of the remaining vegetables, the remaining tomatoes and the remaining passatta and blend... throw in the herbs with one of these blends if you are including...





You can blend these as fine as you like... sometimes with fussy eaters it is the texture of the food not necessarily the taste so this can remove the texture element easily....
This mix is with the beetroot... how amazing is the colour??!!





Cook the sauce for a good half hour on low heat... this is the secret folks... LOW heat....this concentrates the flavours and makes your entire home smell Divine.... I get hungry typing!!!



Now this vegetable sauce is perfectly fine to use in any pasta dish as is... lasagna, gnocchi, pasta, rice or even with meat...

However... I'm pretty keen on the health benefits of  kangaroo and so this is what I do next... you could use beef here also...




In a wok or large pan add some olive oil and your meat... fry off until pink goes like so...




Just because I had it in the fridge and I love taste of a good Italian sausage... I added some chirizo to my meat... and fried off  til cooked and delish!!!





I then added a few ladle fulls of the tomato sauce that we just made... this is a to taste moment... like it really chunky and meaty??? add less sauce... sweet and light... in goes more sauce....






Add a couple of bay leaves and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes... and voila ~ cest fini....





You can use this sauce in so many ways... pasta... rice... cous cous... over smashed potatoes.... the list goes on!!! I make up a big batch and freeze... I also freeze one serve portions to take out for school lunches...






For our evening meal we had this sauce with pasta and salad... delish!!!


I hope you enjoy this and give it a try....


yours,

Honey Lady



Sunday 5 February 2012

More Blog Coming...


A quick apology for lack of posts...

Many a meal and recipe to share..

Will post tonight... thanks for your understanding... HL