New Recipe = New Favourites

One of my 101 in 1001 items that I have been working on for a while was to try out 50 new recipes.  I crossed this one off my list a few weeks ago and thought I would share some of my new favourites that I discovered.  I won't share them all because 50 recipes is a lot but I have put together a collage of some of my favourites.  To see the recipes simply click on the corresponding link below the collage

Lemonade Scones/Apple Cinnamon Muffins/Cheese & Herb Pullapart/Orange Pound Cake/Chocolate Celebration Cake

Chicken San Choy Bow/Valentines Cookies/Choc Mint Cake/Healthy Banana Muffins/Banoffee Pie

Chicken Taco Chilli/Bliss Balls/Curried Lentil Soup/Oat Banana Pancakes/Raw Vegan Lemon Bars

PB & Honey Granola/Blueberry Breakfast Cake/Pizza Muffins/Crunchy Thai Quinoa Salad/Apple Tea Cake

Chia Pudding/Raw Choc Mint Slice/Puffed Quinoa Balls/Quinoa Fried "Rice"/Blueberry & Banana Breakfast Muffins

My number one favourite by far has got to be the bliss balls!  They are just so easy to make and so delicious.  For the more savoury minded people the pizza muffins would have to be my pick.  They made my house smell amazing when I was cooking them.  If you give any of these recipes a go be sure to let me know.  And for more recipes I have tried and liked check out my folder here on pinterest!

Banana Blueberry Breakfast Muffins

This week I found a delicious sounding healthy muffin recipe on pinterest.  Much to my frustration it was one of those pins where all the ingredients are listed in the caption then when you click through it leads you no where.  So annoying!  If anyone does know of the original source to this recipe please leave me a comment below so I can give credit where credit is due.

But, I decided to give them a go anyway and literally just chucked everything into a food processor and let it combine.  With the blueberries I added the correct amount to the batter and processed it but then also added a few extra to the top of each muffin to make them a bit prettier.

These muffins are honestly delicious!  They are not your typical muffin and are much healthier for you. They would be perfect to grab for breakfast if you are rushing out the door.  I forget to have breakfast a lot these days so having something like this handy to grab is a lifesaver.  If you wanted to make them a little sweeter you could always swap the blueberries for some dark chocolate chips too.

 

Banana Blueberry Breakfast Muffins

3 bananas (riper the better)
3 cups oats
1 cup almond milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup blueberries (plus extra for topping)

Pop all ingredients into a food procressor.  Blend until smooth.

Pour mixture into a greased muffin tin.  Top each muffin with additional blueberries.

Bake at 180* (170* fan forced) for 15 minutes or until a skewers comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

52 Weeks Happy (24/52)

Another Tuesday has rolled around way too fast! Where is this year going?

1 - I bought myself a basil plant at the start of last week.  I have always wanted a herb/vege garden but I suck at gardening.  So far so good with this little plant.  After a week he is still alive. Yay me!

2 - The first recipe made with my new basil plant was this zucchini lasagne that I have been wanting to try for ages.  It was delicious! Even Corey liked it and he isn't a fan of anything carb free. Winning!

3 - Corey ran out of mayo this week but instead of buying some he asked me if I could make me some. Total proud wife moment right there.  Of course I obliged and he is loving his homemade mayo.  Another kitchen win!

4 - Another work colleague asked me to make them a rainbow cake this past weekend.  I can't help but smile when making this cake.  Even if I have to repeat "Roy G Biv" repeatedly to make sure I don't mess up the order of the colours.

5 - Cake is my major weakness in my quest to cut down on carbs & sugar.  This week I tested out this canellini bean brownie recipe and it was the perfect solution to my craving.  They don't taste exactly like brownies but they are pretty good.

6 - I completed the first row of hearts on my latest knitting project.  I was a bit worried that they weren't looking like hearts so I went to twitter and instagram for advice.  Luckily everyone else saw hearts!  I think I was just looking at them for way too long and my eyes were playing tricks on me.

7 & 8 - We had the chance to get out and enjoy the sunshine a few times last week.  The week prior was rainy and miserable so these days sitting in the sun did wonders for everyones moods.

9 - Isn't that the happiest pile of fabric you've ever seen?!  I have pulled out a bunch of fabric scraps to make myself a new picnic blanket.  I have been meaning to do this for quite some time.  After tidying my sewing room I realised how out of control my scraps are getting.  So now a few have been cleared and hopefully I will have a new quilt to share shortly.

So how has your week been? I hope there have been some happy moments for you all!  And don't forget if you are on instagram follow me @petticoatsandpeplums!

52 Weeks Happy (17/52)

This past week has been a busy one so I have a few happy moments to share with you today!

The best part of this past week was that I started Kids Clothes Week and I finally got around to making Imogen some clothes.  I only ended up making 5 of the 7 planned outfits but hopefully the other two in the next couple of weeks.  All the outfits I made for Imogen came from stash material and notions so were completely free.  I am really happy with how they all turned out.  Sewing kids clothes is so fast as well so next time I was an instant gratification project Imogen will be getting more clothes!  To see full posts on everything I made go here.

1 - Imogen was playing in my sewing room while I finished up one of her dresses and discovered my petticoat.  I think we have a little vintage diva in the making!

2 - This week I have been trying to make some of the 129 recipes I have pinned in my cooking board.  This week I made chicken taco chilli, thai chickpea burgers and vegan banana apple chunk bread.

3 - I finally found a bit of time to read this week.  I started this book that my niece lent me back in February but only read 10 pages then put it down.  This week I managed to squeeze in a little reading time.  It's not the most intellectual read but it is entertaining!

4 - Corey had a 4 day weekend last week so we enjoyed spending lots of time with daddy.  It did make Monday seem exceptionally lonely though when he went back to work.

5 - Anzac Day was a gorgeous sunny day on the Gold Coast so Imogen & I headed down to the beach for lunch with my parents.  It was a lovely day!

So what has been making you smile this week?

Baking Without Sugar

Yes folks, you read right. I have been baking without sugar.  Without going on too long my dad read the book Sweet Poison a couple of years ago and decided to cut out sugar and managed to lose a heap of weight. Like over 30kgs.  So after having Imogen I started a similar diet to help me lose the baby weight.  It worked well but I am not coping well with the no sugar thing.  I love sugar!  Well actually the problem is I love cake and cake has sugar in it so I have been trying to find recipes to make that use healthy sugar alternatives.  I have been using stevia in my tea and was going to bake with it but last week I saw the Sweet Poison author on Sunrise who said the best alternative for sugar in baking is dextrose.  Apparently dextrose is the healthy part of sugar and gets burned off quickly rather than being turned into fat.  So when I found this recipe I decided to give it a go with the dextrose.

You can find the recipe by simple following this link.  It calls for sucanat or sugar.  I used dextrose which is slightly less sweet than sugar so I used a bit more than was called for.  If you were to use stevia you would use less than is called for as it is quite sweet.  You could probably also use honey in place of the sugar and just use the same amount.  I also used oat flour instead of whole wheat flour.  This is super easy to make by just blitzing some rolled oats in the food processor.

So have any of you every baked anything without sugar?  Do you have any healthy dessert recipes that you can share with me?

52 Weeks Happy (16/52)

1 - Happy Mail! I was lucky enough to "adopt" these patterns over on twitter a little while ago. I totally forgot about them so when they arrived this week it was a lovely surprise.

2 - I tried out a new knitting technique and made myself a super cute and warm hat for this winter.  I love learning new knitting techniques!  The navaho method has opened up millions of ideas for me!

3 - Onesie pyjamas rule! I was so happy to be able to crack out my onesie this week.  I bought it while I was pregnant and this is the first chance I have had to wear it. It is so warm for winter!

4 - I discovered a delicious new combination this week. I had porridge with honey & goji berries for lunch one day and it was amazing!  I had it again the next day and added some grated green apple. Yum!

5 - On the weekend we headed out to a local kustom kraft market and my mum bought me fairy floss. I love fairy floss and it's even tastier when your mum buys it for you!

6 - I finally got around to finishing my Mad Men Dress and I am so happy with how it turned out.  How can this colour not make you happy!

7 - Pinterest win! I tried out one of the recipes on my cooking board and it was a massive success.  I realised I had pinned 129 recipes and only made 20 so I am aiming to start making at least one a week from now on.

8 & 9 - Sewing for Imogen makes me happy!  It is so quick and satisfying.  This week is Kids Clothes Week and there will be lot more sewing for Imogen to come.

Homemade Marshmallows

One of my advent calendar activities for this week was to make marshmallows.  I was a little bit nervous about making them because I had it in my head that they were going to be super difficult.  I have wanted to make them for ages but I was always too scared to tackle it.

I am so glad I finally tackled this cooking goal because they are really delicious.  They are quite gooey which I though was because I made them so thick but mum said it's probably because of how hot it is at the moment.  I am going to try making these again in winter and see if they set a bit firmer.  But I quite like them gooey.

So I made Corey hot chocolate on Monday night using this recipe and when I was making the marshmallows he asked me why I didn't make the marshmallows first so he could put them in his hot chocolate.  Clearly I didn't think about that when I was assigning the advent tasks to dates.  Oh well! Next time.

Now in the spirit of full disclosure I must admit not all the marshmallows turned out as cute little hearts. This one took me 15 minutes to get out of the cookie cutter because it stuck to it.  Even though I dipped it in icing sugar first it still stuck.  So the rest of the marshmallows ended up looking like this....

 

Homemade Marshmallows via Donna Hay Kids Magazine

3 1/2 tablespoons gelatine

1 cup boiling water

3 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups liquid glucose

2/3 cup water (extra)

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 cups icing sugar

1/3 cup cornflour

Place gelatine and boiling water in the bowl of an electric mixer and set aside.  Place the sugar, glucose and extra water in a saucepan over medium-high heat and boil without stirring until soft-ball stage on a sugar thermometer.  

With the mixer running at a high speed, slowly add the hot syrup to the gelatine mixture.  Add the vanilla and beat for 12-15 minutes or until the mixture is thick and fluffy.  Pour into two 20cm square tines lined with non stick baking paper.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Sieve together icing sugar and cornflour.  Turn the marshmallow out onto a surface lightly dusted with a little of the icing sugar and cornflour mixture.  Cut into squares or use a cookie cutter dipped in icing sugar mixture to cut out shapes.  Marshmallows should be stored in an airtight container.

Corey's Pacman Cake

Every year Corey requests a cake for his birthday and every year they are random requets.  Last years request was a strawberry milkshake.  This year he ran through a few requests from a gumball machine to a pool table and finally settled on pacman.  He may have only wanted pacman himself but instead I decided to do the entire game after seeing these cupcakes.

To make things easier for myself I decided to make a square cake instead of cupcakes.  I also decided to go the whole hog and make ganache instead of doing my usual buttercream.  I also changed up the cake recipe and used this recipe instead of my normal chocolate cake.

This cake recipe was a massive hit!  My brother in law ate 5 pieces of cake to himself in the space of about 15 minutes.  There was only 1 piece left over at the end of the night which I gave to my sister in law to take to work in her lunch today.  If you are looking for a good chocolate cake recipe I suggest giving this one a go.  It is nice and firm to decorate with fondant but it also stays really moist.  I baked the cake Friday and yesterday it was still super moist and delicious.

Now I must admit that making this cake stressed me out a little bit.  The heat this past weekend did not make the fondant super easy to handle.  Also the black fondant rubbed colour onto the other pieces which was really annoying.  In the end I think the cake turned out pretty well.  I wasn't 100% with it yesterday but looking at the photos today with a fresh mind I am pretty happy with my efforts.  I need to remember that I am self taught and still learning so things aren't going to turn out as amazing as the professional ideas I find off the internet.  One day I will hopefully get to that standard.  And in the meantime I am happy to keep practicing because who doesn't love an excuse to make a cake!

Orange Pound Cake

As a part of the apronalong everyone was encouraged to do some baking and share a recipe.  I did some baking but it wasn't ready in time for photos so I am sharing it today instead.

Lately my cooking has been based on what is in our cupboards already.  I used to find recipes online then duck down to the shops and buy ingredients and whip it up that same day.  It's a bit harder to just pop out to the supermarket these days so I have adapted.  We had a bunch of oranges in the fridge that weren't being eaten so Orange Pound Cake it is.

I used this recipe and I must say I was very impressed.  It didn't seem like it had a lot of orange in it so I was concerned that the flavour was going to be a bit plain.  I was pleasantly surprised that the flavour was quite strong.  Corey even said that as soon as you opened the container I had it in you could smell the orange really strongly.  If you have oranges that need to be used I would highly recommend this recipe.  My next cooking adventure (when I get time) is going to be oatmeal and raisin cookies to use up the raisins sitting in my cupboard not being eaten.

Halloween Cupcakes

Tonight we are heading to my mum's house for dinner and I decided to make cupcakes for dessert.  Given that I will take any excuse to decorate cupcakes I decided to make them Halloween themed.  These mummy cupcakes were super easy to make and all they took was some simple icing and fondant.

I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and iced them with a simple white icing.  I then cut strips of fondant and draped them over the cupcakes to look like mummy wrappings.  The eyes are then small bits of fondant rolled into balls.  You can draw on the black dots with either a food grade pen or black icing or food colouring.

I love decorating cupcakes but more than anything I love ideas that are easy to execute and give you great looking results.  I will definitely be saving these into my Halloween ideas for future parties.

#31 - Bake A Pull Apart Loaf of Bread

While on maternity leave I have been trying to cross some things off my 101 in 1001 list.  It's been a good way to keep me motivated and occupied while I wait for our little ones arrival.  I seem to be gravitating towards the cooking items on my list and last week I crossed another one off by baking a delicious loaf of pull apart bread.

For some reason I have always wanted to make a pull apart loaf of bread.  It just seemed so fun!  This loaf only had 6 sections to pull apart but they would have been the perfect single serve to go alongside some soup.  I guess you could always make more sections if you wanted to.  I just followed what the recipe said.

I would love to make another pull apart.  I was thinking next time I might make a flat plaited pull apart kind of like the ones you get at Baker's Delight.  I think they would be better for a party situation as opposed to this one which I think would be better for a dinner party alongside some nice soup.

If you want to make some cheese & herb bread as well the recipe I used can be found here.

Saucy Meatball Pasta

Last night I gave this recipe a go from the Donna Hay Kids magazine from 2010.  I love the Donna Hay kids magazine because the recipes are usually quick and easy ideas but they taste delicious.  I always find new recipes in these magazines.  I am not into making dinners that require a million ingredients from expensive grocers.  This is a quick and easy recipe and was delicious!

Saucy Meatball Pasta by Donna Hay

2 slices white bread
1/3 cup milk
500g mince (the recipe says pork but I used beef)
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
2 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic crushed
1 brown onion finely chopped
700g tomato puree
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbs caster sugar
sea salt and black pepper
400g cooked fettuccine
parmesan

Place milk and bread in a bowl and set aside for 2 minutes or until milk is absorbed.  Add the mince and lemon rind and mix to combine.

Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls.  Heat half the oil in a pan over high heat.  Add the meatballs and cook for 4 minutes or until brown.  Remove from pan.

Add remaining oil, garlic and onion.  Cook for 5 minutes or until tender.  Add the tomato puree, stock, sugar, salt & pepper.  Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Return the meatballs and cook for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened.

Top fettuccine with meatballs, sauce and parmesan.  Enjoy!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

 

Make lemon delicious slice!!! Or anything else equally lemony but trust me this slice really was delicious.

A few weeks ago I made cupcakes that used only egg whites and with my leftover yolks I was going to make lemon curd.  I made Corey buy a bunch of lemons when he went grocery shopping and was all set to make it one night after work.  That day I thought I better see how long it is safe to leave yolks in the fridge before you use them.  Turns out it's only like 2 days and mine had been in the fridge for over a week.  So the yolks went in the bin and the lemons sat in the fruit bowl waiting to be made into something else.

Finally last week I decided I better make something before the lemons had to be thrown out too and it all became a waste.  So I did a quick google search and found this recipe.  The best part about this recipe was that I got to use my vintage juicer.  I bought this about 4 years ago from an op shop on the Sunshine Coast.  It got packed away into my glory box and then brought out and dusted off when we moved out.  We have lived out of home for 3 years now and this is the first time I have used it.  Woops!

I had a flick through the comments on this recipe and saw that everyone had left it in the oven for an extra 10 minutes after the topping was added to allow it to cook properly.  I checked mine after the recommended cooking time in the recipe and it was still a bit runny so I added the extra 10 minutes and it came out perfect.  Next time I might leave the base in for an extra 5 minutes as others suggested as well.  I took this slice to work and it was demolished!  I am actually going to make it again in a few weeks for one of the girls birthdays because she loved it that much.

I think I might also line my tray with baking paper next time to make it a little easier to remove and slice.  My slice ended up a bit worse for wear after cutting and slicing but it still tasted delicious.  If you like lemon stuff that still has a nice tart kick to it give these a go.

Homemade Muesli Bars

 

I was going through all my Donna Hay Kid's magazines a few weeks ago and saw this muesli bar recipe that I really wanted to make.  Finally I have gotten around to making them and I will definitely be making them again.  They are delicious!!!

Muesli Bars by Donna Hay

3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup plain flour
2 tbs brown sugar
1 cup sultanas
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 160*C,  Place the oats, flour, sugar and sultanas in a bowl and mix well to combine.  Place the honey and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook for 2 minutes or until very runny.  Whisk in the vegetable oil.  Add the honey mixture to the oat mixture and mix well to combine.

Spoon into a greased 20cm x 30cm tin lined with non stick baking paper and flatten with a spoon.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden.  Cool and cut into 12 pieces.  Enjoy x

Homemade Ginger Syrup

Last long weekend while we were visiting the Sunshine Coast we stopped in at the Ginger Factory.  I grabbed a massive chunk of ginger while we were there because I had seen this recipe and thought it would be fun to try.  Last night I decided to whip it up and oh my lord is it easy.  You basically chop the ginger, chuck it in a pot with some sugar and water, bring to the boil and leave it for a good hour and a half.  Then go about your day getting other stuff done and when you come back you simply have to strain it and you have a delicious syrup to mix with some soda water.

I am thinking that this will be delicious in summer possibly with a little vodka and a slice of lime. Yum! I think I might grab a bunch of ginger closer to Christmas and make up some syrup to add in with presents.

Homemade Ginger Syrup for Ginger Ale

recipe from Imbibe Magazine via Joy The Baker

makes 2 cups ginger syrup

2 cups coarsely chopped ginger

2 cups granulated sugar

6 cups water

Place chopped ginger in a food processor (or blender in a pinch) and pulverize until well chopped.

Place ginger, sugar, and water in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 1 hour to 1 hour and a half, until the liquid has reduced down by more than half. You’re going from 6 cups of liquid to 2 cups. The boiling syrup will become glossy and silky as it cooks down and nears completion.

Remove syrup from the flame and strain twice through a cheese cloth, or fine mesh strainer, into a large bowl. Let syrup cool slightly before pouring into a bottle to store. Cool completely before incorporating into drinks.

Recipes from Bloggers

  

Last weekend I did a little bit of cooking and decided to test out a couple of recipes I had seen shared by some fellow bloggers.  Firstly I have been wanting to try out Broccoli & Cheese Soup for a while and in my search stumbled across this recipe by The Veggie Mama.  I whipped up a pot on Saturday while Corey was sick on the lounge.  I woke him up to have a bowl and he ate it up pretty quickly. It was delicious! I will definitely be saving this recipe into the winter recipe list.

After the soup I thought it might be nice to bake something sweet to take to Garterbelts & Gasoline.  We pack a picnic whenever we go to a festival so we can camp out in front of the stage and have lunch and listen to music.  I had a few spare oranges so I decided to whip up this Orange Butter Cake I saved a while ago from Melbourne Epicure.  Cathy is an absolute goddess when it comes to cakes and this one is no different.  It is so quick and easy to whip up and produces a delicious moist butter cake.

Have you found any good recipes on the blogs you read lately?  I am having the biggest urge to try out new recipes lately and have been cooking up a storm!