Cornflake Cookies

Just a quick, delicious recipe for biscuits that I love.  It's really easy, and I've been meaning to make another batch for my blog, since I haven't made these since I was about 11 years old.  They are so messy to make but that's the fun of them!!  

INGREDIENTS

250g butter
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
2 cups cornflakes
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sultanas (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
2 extra cups of cornflakes

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter and sugar well
• Add eggs, one at a time
• Fold in vanilla, sifted flour, (sultanas, chocolate chips) and 2 cups of cornflakes
• Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and roll in extra cornflakes
• Bake for 15 to 20 min

Be warned, they go golden, but are soft when they come out of the oven, so use a flat spatula to lift them off the tray/baking paper, otherwise they'll just fall apart.

THESE ARE SO YUMMY.  'Nuff said.  (Oh, and light and chewy and just ... om nom nom)

Arroz Con Pollo (Mexican Chicken & Rice)

This is a recipe I have wanted to try for a very long time, but all the versions I found included some spice mixes that are not available outside of USA (typical haha!) so I was keeping my eyes peeled for one I could make without them.

Cue my friend Fien, whose house I was at last week.  We were thinking about what to have for dinner, and looking through cookbooks to find something because her partner is gluten-free so obviously had to be something he could eat.  Then I saw this and was like "let's make this!  I've always wanted to try it!".  

So all our good intentions were there.  And then, just after the slowcooker was turned on and we just sat down to start watching a movie... powercut.  -_-  Less than ideal.  By the time it was eventually turned back on, it was almost 8pm, and dinner would need a further 2 or 3 hours to cook! By which stage, we had given up and got pizza.

The dish however, did keep cooking, and when it was done, was put into leftover containers, for Fien and Hamlin to eat the following night, and they said it was delicious.  So tonight, I made it at my house too!

INGREDIENTS
1 chicken (3-4lb/1kg ish) cut into serving pieces or 6 chicken pieces of your choice (I used chicken breast cut into large cubes)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
1 tablsepoon paprika
1 tablespoon chilli powder (or less - it is very strong!)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock (gluten-free if you're intolerant)
1 bay leaf
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 cup peas
salt and pepper

METHOD

• Put tomatoes, wine, stock and bayleaf in slow cooker
• Brown chicken (but don't cook all the way through) and add to slow cooker
• Heat oil in a pan
• Add onion, garlic, and capsicum
• Cook 3 min
• Reduce heat to low and stir in paprika, chilli powder, cumin, and oregano
• Cook 1 min, stirring constantly
• Scrape mixture into slowcooker and stir well
• Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours, or HIGH 2-3 hours, or until chicken is almost cooked through.
• An hour before it finishes, cook rice in a pan and some oil, until it goes opaque (maybe 3 or 4 minutes), stirring often
• Pour rice into slowcooker and raise heat to HIGH if cooking on LOW
• 15 minutes before end, add peas
• Salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot

 
 To be honest, while it was nice, it didn't taste as strongly or flavourfully as the smell of it cooking.  It was spicy, and I even skimped on the chilli, so you don't need much chilli to get a kick.  It was filling, but the chicken was a little dry, so in future I may either add more stock, or use bigger pieces of chicken.

Recipe: in "Gluten-Free Slow Cooking" by Ellen Brown, pg. 133

Satay Chicken

Most of the time, I follow the recipes I find.  But sometimes, I find several recipes, and then use bits from all of them!  This is what I did tonight, and it turned out well.  Felt like satay chicken but didn't have a jar of the sauce I normally use, so decided to try to make it from scratch. 

INGREDIENTS
500g chicken breast, sliced
1 onion, sliced
peas 
1 pack vermicelli
1 can of coconut milk (or cream)
3 tbsp peanut butter
sweet chilli sauce (to taste)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 or 3 tbsp of sugar
1/2 cup water
salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp crushed ginger

METHOD

• Set some salted water to boil, for the vermicelli.  Once it boils, add the vermicelli then turn off the heat.
• Meanwhile, brown chicken and onion in oil, in a fry pan
• Add ginger and garlic, cook for 2 min
• Add coconut cream, peanut butter, chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, white vinegar, and salt
• Stir and bring to a simmer
• Reduce heat and simmer until thickens
• Add peas and cook until tender
• Serve on drained vermicelli noodles, or rice

So this was kind of an ad-libbed recipe, but it tasted good, and photographed terribly.  I think I'll make it again in future, but on rice.

 

Banana Sultana Loaf

Trying my best to do more new recipes now that uni is not so demanding!  Here is one I did today.  I picked it out of one of my mum's old recipe books, because we had some manky looking (aka very ripe!) bananas to use up, and I didn't feel like making icing for a cake, or muffins, and we didn't have any oats to make my usual banana oatmeal muffins!

One problem I had with this recipe is that it was all in weight measurements, as opposed to cups and tablespoons/teaspoons and that was a bit of a pain.  Luckily we had scales :)

INGREDIENTS
90g butter
1 large egg
1/4 tsp baking soda
60g sultanas
125g sugar
220g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 ripe bananas

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter and sugar
• Add egg and mix well
• Add in sifted dry ingredients
• Add in mashed bananas and sultanas
• Pour into a greased (or silicone) loaf tin
• Bake for 50 mins
• Serve warm with butter

 This was a pretty easy recipe, aside from all the measurements!  Came out a bit dry, then realised it was in a part of the recipe book that said it was part of the 'buttered sweet' section haha so best to serve it with butter!!  It tastes great too! :)

Recipe Inspiration: Rally Cookbook

Crustless Quiche

Thought I'd better get a recipe in before October is over!  Gotta have at least one entry per month! ;) No, actually this month has been insane with uni work, haven't had time to try anything new (much) or write about it.

But now I'm on study leave, which gives me a little flexibility to do stuff like this, so here is today's lunch! 

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup self raising flour

Before being cooked

salt and pepper

1/2 cup cheese (grated)
1 fried onion
Ham or cooked bacon
Veges - I used grated carrot and seasonal asparagus

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Whisk eggs, milk, flour and seasoning together
• Add everything else to the mix
• Spread in a silicone quiche/flan dish (silicone makes it so much easier to remove at the end)
• Bake for 45 mins, until gold on top and puffed up
• Let sit for a couple of minutes (to make it even easier to remove from silicone)
• Cut up and serve hot, or cold, with relish and sour cream (optional, but delicious)

So this was a super easy recipe to make, and my mum loved it.  I'm not a super egg fan myself (as I probably said when I wrote about the crustless broccoli quiches I made back when I began this blog!) but it was pretty nice.  Would be great for lunches too.

Shout out to Jeremy, one of my best friends, who I've known since we were 7.  This was his recipe/idea.


Recipe Inspiration: http://www.grownups.co.nz/read/lifestyle/food_and_wine/crustless-quiche-recipie

Apricot Chicken

Found via pinterest many moons ago, when I couldn't eat much, but was dreaming and researching and stalking photos of food, this is a recipe that has been sitting in my "to try" pile for a while (rhyme not intended).

The original recipe called for fresh apricots and vinegar and sugar, but I didn't have any fresh apricots - out of season, so it gave an alternative using apricot jam and dried apricots.  So that's how I'll write this recipe, with how I did it! :)

INGREDIENTS
12 dried, pitted apricots (I used a bakers dozen just in case), diced finely
1/2 cup apricot jam

1kg skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
Salt
Cooking oil
1 diced onion
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sweet chilli sauce (or Tobasco sauce, or other hot sauce like the recipe suggests)
Black pepper

METHOD

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat
• Cook the chicken until browned, sprinkling salt over while it cooks
• Remove from pan and set aside
• Add more oil to pan if necessary
• Saute onions until brown
• Add chicken stock, chopped apricots and jam
• Lower the heat to medium
• Add cinnamon, rosemary, and chilli sauce
• Taste and season accordingly with salt
• Bring to a simmer then lower the heat
• Gently simmer for 10-20 minutes
• Return chicken to sauce
• Simmer gently for 5 minutes
• Serve while hot, with rice

I wasn't sure about this recipe.  It sounded nice, but once I started making it, the cinnamon just looked and smelled weird.  Cinnamon doesn't usually go in savoury things as far as I knew.

But you know what, it was AMAZING.  Well, so said my parents, my friend and my Dad's friend who were there.  It actually tasted way better than it smelled.  It was quite spicy, and not sweet like I expected.  I also really liked the fact that most of the stuff in the recipe are things you ordinarily have in a pantry.

One thing I would change would be the amount of vegetables.  Or lack thereof.  I'm just not sure which veges would go with it.  Maybe some capsicum (bell pepper).  I'll try that next time!


Recipe Inspiration: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apricot_chicken/?amp%3Butm_campaign=Feed%253A+elise%252Fsimplyrecipes+%2528Simply+Recipes%2529&amp%3Butm_medium=feed

Homemade Hummus

Recently, I spent the weekend down in Christchurch/Timaru for my cousins engagement party, which was a lot of fun.  While I was there, my other cousin, who is very healthy and inspirational in her dedication to exercise (most unlike me... perhaps that doesn't run in the family haha), and I got talking about food, and cooking and such.

The topic of healthy snacks came up, and I'm trying to be healthier at the moment for various reasons.  We talked about hummus, and how it was a great snack, with crackers, and carrot sticks, and other vegetables in stick form.  I complained that hummus is sooooooooo expensive and my parents (who I still live with) would never buy it regularly in the groceries because it is a "luxury good".

Then she goes "why don't you make some?".  LIGHT-BULB MOMENT! We already had some dried chickpeas at home from the bulk bins (MILES cheaper than the canned ones in brine), and all I needed was tahini paste (sesame seed paste stuff).  Everything else we pretty much had already!  Including a food processor that isn't used much... so yay!  A use for it!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup dried chickpeas (makes [supposedly] 2 cups of hydrated chickpeas)
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice (or less, to taste)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (or about 1/2 tsp pre-crushed garlic)
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (although go lightly on this actually... it's stronger than I thought!)
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of water
parsley and olive oil to garnish


METHOD

• Soak chickpeas in lots of water in a large jug/bowl overnight, changing the water once or twice if you can
• Drain, then bring chickpeas to boil in a large pot with lots of water and a dash of salt
• Simmer for 30 mins
• Drain and let them cool, but try to make the hummus while they are still warm - apparently it blends better :)
• Put all the ingredients into the food processor (or blender) except chickpeas, oil and parsley
• Pulse/blend for approx 5 seconds to mix
• Add chickpeas
• Blend until it is the consistency you want - people usually go for a 'sour cream' thickness
• Taste and season accordingly
• Transfer to a serving bowl
• Chill in the fridge for a few hours/overnight
• Eat!

 So with this recipe, I learned about cayenne pepper.  And how much NOT to put in haha.  It came out very spicy.  Mum and Dad liked it a lot, so they ate it, and I also pawned some off to my friend... I hope she liked it... I haven't heard from her though... oh dear.  Sophie I'm sorry if the spicyness was too much, but I did write the warning in the status on FB asking if anyone wanted some really spicy hummus! ;)

I'm definitely making it again, cos it's relatively simple, and dried chickpeas from the bulk bins are really cheap... definitely cheaper than buying ready made stuff.  The only other cost was the tahini paste, but now that I spent NZ$8 on the jar, it'll last many hummus' to come.  :)

I'm really looking forward to playing with flavours.  I know they do pumpkin and kumara (sweet potato for non-NZ followers) from the brand I like, so I might try recreating it!  Watch this space!

ALSO: This recipe makes A LOT.  Great for if you're having a party.  If I was to make it again, I'd halve all the measurements.

Recipe Inspiration:  http://greekfood.about.com/od/appetizerssalads/r/hummustahini.htm

Homemade Lemonade

Now here's something I haven't done before; making a drink on my foodie blog!  The neighbour (who is never home, only comes home once every now and then to mow the lawns) has a massive lemon tree, which is laden with fruit.  A LOT of fruit.  And I want to use it.  We also have our own, smaller, tree.  I used a mixture of lemons from both.

Normally we can take lemons down to a local place who give us cordial, lemon curd and such in return, but this time I want to make something with it.  Right now I already have a  Lemon Yoghurt Loaf in the oven, sans blueberries, using up some lemon.  But I still had tonnes left over.

I always saw the stereotypical little lemonade stand selling cups of lemonade for 50c in movies and things, and wondered, surely it must be easy to make the stuff?  So I did!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup if you don't want it as sweet)
1 cup water (for sugar syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

METHOD

• Combine sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan
• Stir over medium high heat until sugar dissolves
• Set aside to cool
• Juice the lemons (between 4 and 6 to make 1 cup of juice)
• Combine lemons with cooled sugar syrup
• Pour into a juice jug (or whatever you want to use)
• Add the extra water to dilute
• Chill (the juice AND you, cos you're done!)

See what I mean?!  So freaking easy.  I have learned one thing though.  It's REALLY hard to take a nice photo of a drink.

As for taste, well I added only 3 cups water to dilute, and it was super strong.  But really, really, REALLY nice.  I love it.  I can't wait to make more of it for summer! :D

Recipe Inspiration : http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_lemonade/

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Ordinarily, when Sweet & Sour Chicken is on the menu, it's a la jar, or a la can.  A long time ago I found a recipe for Sweet & Sour Chicken made from scratch, and got the can of pineapple ready to make it, since it's one of my favourites!  I went through a phase of wanting to try and make from scratch that which we normally make from a ready made sauce.

However, the can of pineapple sat in the pantry unused until now.  Due to lack of time and motivation to make it.  Jars and cans are just way faster and easier right??  Laziness.

Well actually, in spite of all the steps, this recipe is really easy!!  And do you want to know a bonus??  ALL the other ingredients are ones that are usually in the pantry!  Super convenient.  Apart from the pineapple... obviously not something we ordinarily have. ;)

INGREDIENTS
450g boneless skinless chicken breast
1 egg white
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour

1 400g can crushed pineapple (save the juice!)
1/4 cup juice from crushed pineapple
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce (aka ketchup)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp and 1 tsp cooking oil

2 small-medium onions (cut into chunks)
1 carrot (cut into small sticks)
1 tsp crushed ginger (or 1 tsp fresh grated)

METHOD

• Combine chicken with egg white, 1/4 tsp salt, and cornflour
• Stir to coat chicken evenly
• Let sit for 15 mins at room temp, or up to overnight in fridge
• Whisk together pineapple juice, vinegar, tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, and brown sugar
• Heat large frying pan over high heat
• Pour 1 tbsp oil into pan and swirl to coat
• Make sure the pan is very hot, and then put the chicken in in one layer to fry untouched for 1 min
• Flip and fry other side the same for 1 min.  Chicken should still be pink-ish in the middle
• Put chicken to the side on a clean plate
• Turn heat to medium
• Add remaining oil, and add the ginger, onion and carrots
• Cook 5 mins or until soft
• Add pineapple chunks and the sauce mixture
• Turn the heat to high until the sauce simmers
• Add the chicken back in when it does
• Cook until the chicken is cooked through.
• Taste the sauce and add some more brown sugar if you like
• Don't forget to season with salt, and if you feel like something is missing, toss in some sweet chilli sauce!

Well.  I thought it smelled a bit weird.  But OH MY GOODNESS does it taste amazing!!!!!!!!!!! The excessive use of exclamation marks is definitely justified.  Seriously the BEST Sweet & Sour Chicken sauce I've ever had.  Even better than bought ones!!!  I'm not even kidding.  We will never buy ready made jar/can sauces for it again.  And SO easy!!

A few adjustments I made were adding some Sweet Chilli Sauce, and about 1/4 cup water to just water down the sauce a little bit.  Also, the original recipe called for 2 capsicums as the vegetables (not onions and carrot) but we didn't have any of them so I improvised and it was still amazing.  I think in future, if we have capsicum, I will definitely use only one small onion, carrot, and capsicum.  A good balance of veges!!  Oh, and I also chucked in some peas towards the end.  Gotta have some green hehe :)

Another thing is that the step with the egg and cornflour on the chicken... seems like a bit of a waste of time and a bit messy.  Not sure what it's supposed to achieve so will skip it next time, but still pre-cook the chicken.   :)

Recipe Inspiration: www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sweet_and_sour_chicken/

Macaroni Cheese

Tonight was a lazy night.  I wanted macaroni cheese for some reason (perhaps because I almost had it for lunch the other day but ended up having sushi...thus my craving was left unsatisfied haha).  

I had never made it before, and I googled a recipe.  Generally when I do this, I open 3 or 4 of the top recipes that come up, pick one, then see what different ingredients the others include, and then put that in the recipe I've chosen as well.  If that makes sense.  So, for example, in this one, the original recipe did not call for salt or paprika, but I added both, since they were in fact common in the other mac and cheese recipes I opened.

I also didn't follow the instructions exactly (to my own detriment... I will explain in my evaluation!), trying to do a Rachael Ray and add "starchy cooking water" from the pasta to the sauce to make the sauce and pasta "marry" as Rachael says.  I shall tell you what happened after the recipe.  :)

INGREDIENTS

500g macaroni

50g butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

2 cups (250g) grated cheese

parsley

1/2 tsp salt

paprika

METHOD

• Put macaroni on to cook as per packet instructions
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan
• Cook, stirring, for 1 minute over medium-low heat
• Stir in flour, cooking until it has thickened a bit
• Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth
• Stir until mix comes to a boil
• Reduce heat
• Add salt, and a pinch of paprika and parsley (to taste!)
• Stir well
• Simmer for 2 min
• Add cheese slowly, stirring continuously over a low heat
• Turn off heat, and either mix drained pasta thru sauce, or sauce all over drained pasta (whichever dish is big enough!)

So yes, my minor indiscretion was the addition of "starchy cooking water".  Note to self, this makes the sauce go all granulated, gritty and curdled (as Mum said).  I will NOT be doing that in future haha!

Other than the funny texture, it was actually really delicious.  I can imagine it would be better with bacon (or ham) chopped up in it, and some fresh peas... but hey, I like my meals colourful, and I've never understood the whole mac and cheese thing - it seems too plain to me haha!  But I did like this, and will make it again!  So easy and quick! 

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/13955/classic+macaroni+cheese

Tuna Pasta Bake

Well hello lovely blog readers!  I'm ever so sorry it has been a while since I posted a new recipe!  What can I say, I've been incredibly busy with uni and work and trying to have a life :)  I've still been cooking and such, but not really any new recipes until tonight! 

I've had this little baby tucked away in the back of my recipe book, in the 'to try' pile, and finally tonight, I did!  It was very easy, and I felt like it was *almost* made from scratch so probably better for you?  But I think the cheese might ruin that theory haha!

INGREDIENTS

230g dry pasta shells (I used a mixture of different ones)

1 small red capsicum (not in season & too expensive right now, so I didn't put this in)

1 can (305g) condensed cream of mushroom soup

2 tsp dried parsley flakes (or fresh if you have it!)

1 cup milk

pinch of chilli powder (optional)

1 can (170g) tuna in springwater, drained and flaked

1 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained

1 cup grated cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1 onion, finely chopped

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 220 deg C (and butter an ovenproof casserole dish - I forgot to do this...  it didn't stick though, so it's ok)
• Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil over high heat
• Add pasta, stir and cook until it's about 2 minutes before being done
• Drain pasta and set aside
• In the same pan, whisk mushroom soup and milk together
• Bring to a simmer over a low heat
• Stir in tuna, corn, onion, capsicum, parsley, chilli powder, and half of the cheese
• Add the cooked pasta and stir
• Season with salt and pepper
• Spread the mixture in the casserole dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese
• Bake for about 30 mins, or until the top is golden brown

I have an admission to make.  I *may* have burnt the top.  Kind of.  Well cooked.  It was very brown.  BUT still delicious!!  I don't normally like mushrooms, either as a vege or a flavour, but it worked, and it wasn't over powering.  The cheese and milk helped water down the flavour, and of course, pasta was nom nom nom as always.

Definitely will make it again!!!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.ivillage.com/tuna-and-pasta-bake/3-r-63970#ixzz1oCUrJvwy

Feijoa Loaf

Feijoa is a fruit that is abundant particularly in Autumn, and is most common in New Zealand.  It's quite unusual, an acquired taste... acquired in so far as it helps having grown up with them.  Many people have feijoa trees in their gardens and our friend (she's British) doesn't like them, and so she gave us a bagful from the tree in her garden.  

This recipe inspiration came from a website which exclaimed it was the "easiest feijoa loaf ever".  I disagree.  Easy usually means quick, but the whole steps of boiling the feijoa and sugar and butter, then waiting for the mixture to cool down... what a pain in the butt!!! 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup feijoas (the fleshy bit, not the skin)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 g butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Put feijoas, sugar, butter & water in a saucepan
• Bring to the boil, cook gently for 5 minutes
• Remove from heat and allow to cool
• Carefully stir in the dry ingredients & egg. Don’t overmix!
• Pour into loaf tin, and sprinkle over a mixture of raw sugar and cinnamon (about 2tbsp and 1/2 tsp) - this is optional
• Bake in a loaf tin for 50 minutes

This loaf was a slight fail in my opinion.  It came out quite dry, I think I may have overcooked it, cos I forgot the oven was on fan-bake, rather than normal bake.  The sugar and cinnamon on top gave it a nice crunch though, and I think this was my favourite part of it.  

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.mividacontigo.com/food/the-easiest-feijoa-loaf-ever

Banana Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Time for another new recipe I tried!  This time, it came about not through browsing Pinterest, like most of my other recipes, but instead, me wanting a twist on plain old banana muffins/loaf/cake.  I didn't want to make a cake, and every time I use cake batter in muffin tins, it comes out too dry.  So I decided to google a recipe for banana muffins, but not plain old boring ones either.  I wanted something different.

So I found a recipe for cranberry banana muffins.  And it sounded yum.  Only issue was, I had no idea what "flaked bran cereal" was, yet I had seen recipes for oatmeal banana muffins.  I figured oatmeal and banana went together ok having read that, so I substituted oatmeal (aka dry porridge/rolled oats) for that.  

INGREDIENTS

1 & 1/4 cups flour (you can also use wholemeal)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup if you prefer it not so sweet)
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 & 1/4 cups oatmeal (aka rolled oats/dry uncooked porridge)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180ºC
• If not using a silicone muffin tray, then lightly grease a muffin tin, or line with cupcake liners
• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt
• In another bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, oil, milk and bananas
• Stir in oatmeal
• Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just blended
• Stir in cranberries
• Divide evenly among prepared muffin cups
• Sprinkle with a little raw sugar on top - gives a nice crunch, but this is optional
• Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean
• Leave muffins in tin to cool, then remove to a rack to cool completely (or serve warm)

This recipe with these measurements made (for me) 12 ordinary size muffins and 12 mini muffins.  However, since I was hesitant to overfill the muffins, they were quite small and dense, and didn't rise much.  Next time I will fill up the muffin cups a bit higher.  :)  

As for the flavour, it was amazeballs!  The cranberries soaked up the liquid, they became sweet and juicy, the banana was good, and the raw sugar I had sprinkled on top gave a delicious crunch to it.  The oatmeal and banana made the muffin nice and dense, which will be great for lunches/morning tea.  Definitely a keeper!!!

Recipe Inspiration:  http://www.sevenspoons.net/blog/2006/1/13/plain-january-jane.html?lastPage=true#comment18152293

Pinterest

Ok so I admit, this blog post is not about a recipe per-say, but it's about where I find a lot of my recipes.  

I used to use www.pinterest.com a LOT.  

I'd spend my days trawling the pages looking for yummy things I wanted to try and make.  Then if I spotted one (like a needle in a haystack... I'm very fussy you see...), I'd pin it to my board called "Recipes to Try".  Once I had tried the recipe, I would change it and pin it to "Tried and Tested".  I'm a very organised person.  I can't help it, it's in my nature!

So I thought I'd just post a quick blog with links to both my boards, in case you were interested (you'll see a lot of double ups, in so far as the recipes that I've tried, I've probably written about on this blog anyways).  

I warn you though, if you set up an account, it can develop into a serious addiction.

I was addicted for a good couple of months, over Christmas/New Years/Jan/Feb.  But once I got back to uni in March, I didn't have as much time to trawl through the pictures and such.  One would think this would mean I would go and make all the recipes waiting to be tried... but as such, not yet.  Maybe soon.  :)

Recipes to Try:  http://pinterest.com/hannabaorange/recipes-to-try/

Tried and Tested: http://pinterest.com/hannabaorange/tried-tested/

Couscous

Well, couscous is something I've wanted to try for a long time, and bought some a while ago, yet never got around to cooking it.  Tonight I decided to give it a go.  We were having lamb chops for dinner, and steamed veges, so I thought couscous would be nice instead of potato.  Here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup couscous (dry)

1 & 1/4 cup vegetable stock (made up with boiling water)

1/2 tsp salt

couple of pinches of dried thyme

1/2 tsp onion salt (optional)

METHOD

• Put couscous, salt and thyme in a bowl that has a lid
• Make up the vegetable stock with boiling water
• Add the onion salt to the stock
• Pour the stock over the couscous, and stir with a fork briefly
• Place the lid over the couscous, and DO NOT remove! 
• Ignore and leave for 5 minutes
• Remove lid
• Fluff with a fork
• Serve immediately!

This was remarkably tasty, and not in the least as bland as I originally thought.  Thyme always goes beautifully with lamb, so it was a great compliment to the chops, and it wasn't heavy.  1 cup of dry couscous made enough for the three of us to have on the side, with plenty left over!  Certainly don't need to use 2 cups of dry couscous like the recipe I referred to said to (altho, I ended up experimenting and doing my own thing instead!)

I was worried it would be gluggy and unappetising, as I have heard couscous can go horribly wrong.  However, this came out well, fluffy and light.  Will definitely make this again!  (It's SO CHEAP too!!!  WIN!)