Strawberry Salad

The recipe for this divine salad was hidden inside the recipe for the Veggie bake... I just have to place this recipe on its own - it really is such a simple salad, but simply delicious!!

Ingredients

1 apple - cut into strips
4 strawberries - cut into pieces
1/2 rind feta cheese - crumbed
1 lemon - juices squeezed
Salt & Pepper to taste (if required, we didn't even use any)

Method

Mix through.

That's it. The lemon prevents the apple from turning brown, and adds wonderful flavour, without being sour!!  (notice the glass of wine?? I LOVE cooking with my wine!!) 

Mince & Macaroni, with Spinach soup and Spinach salad

Monday. Mince-day. I haven't made pasta in ages, so I decided to make it for a change. We still have spinach in the garden, so I sent my son to cut some leaves. What an absolutely wonderful plant spinach is!! It just keeps growing and growing... straight through our freezing winter, it still just kept on growing!
This is just another normal meal, so I am not giving measurements, just what and how.

Mince - chop onion and mushrooms and fry in a little olive oil. Add the mince and be sure to separate the mince. Add a little balsamic vinegar and more soya sauce. Add Spice for mince. You can add a little salt, but be careful of too much. The vinegar, soya and spice already has a lot of salt. Fry until done. Turn off heat.

Pasta - Cook in salted water until al dente.

Spinach soup - Cook the spinach in water with a little salt until very soft. Add ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, cream and grated cheddar cheese. Mix very well and cook further. (My idea wasn't soup, but I added too much water in the beginning, and now matter how long I cooked it, it just didn't want to evaporate!!) Put in a blender and blend until smooth. Astonishing creamy, cheesy taste - really great to remember for a different type of soup!!

Spinach salad - I took the baby leaves and flash cooked them for 40 seconds and then dunked them into a bowl of icewater to stop the cooking process. Then I sprinkled some salt over, let it stand a couple of minutes, threw off the excess water, crumbled some feta cheese over, and there's your salad!! Quite an interesting taste... Not as strong as raw spinach leaves, it has a softer taste, but still intense. I almost want to describe it as spicy and sharp.

With this meal, going low carb is easy - just don't eat the pasta!! 

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Wors, mash & Tomato sauce with banana salad

Yes, I know. Today's recipe is nothing short of imagineless (if there is such a word....) But, I did say that I was going to make 365 meals - one for each day of the year. I never said it was going to be gourmet cooking for 365 days!! (hiehie...)

In light of this being such a simple dish, I am not going to be very formal regarding the ingredients and method. 

Wors - Fry it in a pan, to your own liking. 

Mash - Cook 1 potato for every person eating until soft. Add salt & pepper to taste. Mash in butter (about 1t per potato) (but I love buttery mash, so make it a bit more), add cream to make it as soft as you like it. 

Sauce - Fry 1/2 punnet mushrooms in butter. Add 1 tin of tomato & onion, and one packet of tomato paste. Cook, but it burns quickly, add water to thin it. Add salt & pepper to taste, 3tbs sugar and 1tbs origanum. Mix well. Add water or cream to make it thinner if you like.

Banana Salad - Slice bananas into wheels. Add mayonnaise to your liking. And mix in a pinch of salt. 

And serve!! This may not be gourmet cooking, but it certainly is a filling and tasty dinner.

My family was very hungry, I had to snap a picture very quickly before it was all gone!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Veggie Bake

Since we are trying to lose some of the extra kilo's... (well, I am, and you know how it goes...), I have decided to cut out or minimise our intake of carbs. Turns out to be quite a challenge, especially on a meat-free day, like we had yesterday!
So, I made this Veggie Bake. It turned out to be quite filling - and very delicious! 
I made some rice for the kids - they really still need their carbs!! - and a little for hubby. *wink*

Ingredients

1kg pack frozen chunky vegetables
1cup grated cheddar cheese
50g margarine
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
2tbs mayonnaise
1t english mustard
1t mixed herbs

Method

Put the frozen chunky vegetables in a shallow ovenproof dish. Mix the cheese inbetween the chunks. Dot the margarine all over. Mix the mayo, eggs, milk, mustard & mixed herbs well. Pour over the veggies, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste and into the oven at 180degrees C, for about 1/2 hour to an hour. 

Before it went into the oven

When it came out of the oven

 

Making the salad:
1 apple - cut into strips, 4 strawberries - cut into pieces,1/2 rind feta cheese - crumbed, 1 lemon - juices squeezed. That's it. The lemon prevents the apple from turning brown, and adds wonderful flavour, without being sour!! Salt&pepper optional. We didn't even use any. (notice the glass of wine?? I LOVE cooking with my wine!!) 

The end result of the meal. 

Next time, though, I am going to add some lemon zest to the veggies. That would add some very nice dimension to this dish. 

Have a fabulous day!!

Yours in oil and veggies...

Risch