home made pies

I got some lamb stew meat from my mother in law that she sent along with my brother in law for us along with some vegetable and fruitcake etc for Christmas and I cooked the meat today with a bit of carrots and potatoes and onions with some chicken stock I made previously and it came out so nice , I cut out all the fat and then rolled out some dough , cut it out with a small saucer and then add the meat and fold closed and voila , cornish pie !

 

it was easy to just cut the circle with a saucer /smallish plate as it makes it a bit neater

then you add the meat in the middle along with some carrots and potato , fold close and do the edges with a fork as it prevents the filling from spilling out , make a whole ontop with a knife for steam to escape .

it looks like a huge calzone pizza hahaha

you have to then brush the tops with some milk as it browns it quite nicely like that :) I do not use egg on my pies .
I somehow want to save a bit of money :) and milk does the trick also .

The end result ! my husband enjoyed it very much , he had two for dinner ,the other two he will eat tomorrow , I did not had any , but did taste , was delicious !

from the rest of the dough I made peri peri cheese straws for him, just added peri peri and a bit of grated edam cheese, made in twirls and baked in the oven .

Vegetable lasagna

the end result was really very tasty , I did not use pasta at all, just vegetables, it was my own recipe so I figured because it was in layers I call it vegetable lasagna , I used potato slices instead of pasta sheets, so I guess it could work, I started by layering a layer of half boiled potatoes that was boiled in salt water and then topped with a layer of beans red sweet pepper , onion jullienne carrots and mushrooms , then I made white sauce with mozzarella cheese and then I grated a bit of cheddar cheese ontop and baked in the oven, Husband and Vincent our next door neighbor and friend said it was very nice :)

Hamburger

End result , might not look like much but it is so yummy :) no sauce , no mayo , just like that , healthy and tasty , next time I will do my other hamburger with the lettuce and all the trimmings :)

This is what the cooked meat patties look like , the onion really taste very good .

cut two tomatoes in slices :)

Omega 3 different grain and seed buns and grated sweetmilk cheese make an awesome hamburger

first you take some lean mince and then you put a teaspoon Ina Paarman beef spice and a pinch of salt and pepper in the  meat with chopped onions , the chopped onions makes the meat juicy and very tasty and less time and not so oily as onion rings that has been fried in oil . You then make a ball and make it flat in your hand like a meat patty , then you dust it with baking flour :) 

Friday pizza night

so , what to make for a hungry Theo bear on a friday night for dinner , Home made pizza with lots of pepperdew! that always makes a yummy combination. tomato puree at the bottom then a bit of Edam cheese , then on the bed of cheese some chicken breast and then a layer of sweet green pepper and then cherry tomatoes and then a bit of sweetmilk cheese and then a bit here and there sweet chilly sauce and then four or five cherry tomatoes cut in half and then topped with bits of sliced pepperdew , round about 10 minutes in the oven and 1 minute in microwave, voila ! dinner for the husband :) 

no fuss no trouble, I did not have one, made chicken and salad for myself :)

easy and pie !

Tasty Chicken and broccoli with cauliflower as side dish

was really delicious :) 

This was dinner last week, my husband really enjoyed it , the thing about eating healthy is , you can have so little but you can really make it very tasty and with no trouble at all :)
I made a chicken breast stuffed with roasted veggies , the veggies was peas, asparagus, small baby mealies , green sweet peppers, and broccoli and cauliflower , courgettes and a few baby tomatoes .

you can buy a whole bunch of asparagus and cut a few of them in pieces per person , you do not have to cook the whole bunch all at once and with a variety of veggies it is not that expensive, so one can eat delicious food and yet it wont be expensive . some are just to lazy to rince veggies off and mix it in batches and devide and put it in seperate bags and freeze :)

I love using Ina Paarman's green onion mix on my chicken, it is really tasty

when I stirfried /roasted the veggies I add a bit of sesame seeds for the umph /mojo , it makes it so yummy and give the veggies such a nutty taste

I just cooked the broccoli and cauliflower in saltwater for a few minutes , it was still crispy and so good :)

the end result before I added the broccoli and cauliflower to the plate , my husband said it was so yummy :) 

October birthday dinner :)

the tip here is , it did not shrink much , is to seal the meat in a big pot first after you marinate it , here you can see the raw stage, did not shrink all that much :)
my husband bought me a flight ticket to go visit my dad in Pretoria , I had to make this for my birthday dinner , everyone had a great time , I flew back to Cape town the following day :) 

after you pushed it full of garlic you can marinate it for an afternoon in lemon juice rosemary and garlic slices and mrs balls chutney , yummy

Leg of lamb my dad bought , not a joke as this was round about R300-00 worth of leg and it was huge , I had to ask the guy to cut some fat off as I feel why should we pay for fat and not just the meat, I made it with the bone inside of the leg , my dad likes it that way , then got the rosemary ,mrs balls chutney and spices ready :) and lots of fresh garlic,rub with mrs balls garlic and then add lemon juice and rosemary and spices , beef spices will do :)

you must peel onion quite thick and let the leg of lamb rest on it while baking

first had to peel a lot of garlic to stuff the leg of lamb with , fresh garlic work the best :) yummy

sorry about being all back to front but this is what the dinner looked like when I cooked for my dad when I visited them the week of my birthday the 7th October 2011 just before I had to fly back to Cape town the following day .I made garlic potatoes with parsley and sweet pumpkin and green beans with onion and potato just the way the old boere tannies made it :) (kookkos)  and my famous mushrooms sauce :)

This was the leg of lamb when it got out of the oven , full of stuffed garlic , it was so juicy :)

One of  my dear friends that visited me on my birthday 

Bread in Afrikaans and English

Ingredients /Bestandele
15 g kitsgis / instant yeast
250 – 300 ml milk/milk
1 teelepel strooisuiker /castor sugar
450 g sterk broodmeel/bread flour
1 teelepel sout/salt
100 ml olyfolie/oliv oil
Metode/method

1. Meng die gis met 150 ml melk en die suiker.Mix yeast with sugar and milk
2. In ‘n aparte mengbak, meng meel, sout en olie. Vryf die olie in. In seperate bowl mix flour , salt and oil
3. Meng die meel en melkmengsel en voeg geonoeg van die melk by om ‘n klewerige deeg te vorm. Mix flour and milk mixture and mix with enough milk to form sticky dough mixture
4. Knie deeglik tot die deeg nie meer klewerig is nie. Knee the dough till its not sticky
5. Bedek met ‘n doek en laat dit in ‘n warm plek rys tot dubbel die grootte./cover with cloth and let it rise in a warm place to double in size
6. Knie weer vir so 5 minute en vorm dan vier 30 cm lang ronde brooodjies. knee the dough for another five minutes and form four 30cm long round bread
7. Laat dit staan tot grootte verdubbel en bak dan teen 200 degC. / let is rise to double in size and bake on 200 deg C till golden brown, if it gets out of the oven cover with wet cloth and let it cool off or take a bit of butter and rub it in warm crust , mmm yummy :)

Chicken with crumbs and veggies

I made chicken breasts crumbed in the oven till golden brown ,just a bit of egg white and crumbs from provitas that was crushed in a bag with a bit of beef spice in , black pepper and little bit of salt , you have to season your food otherwise it is bland , the chicken was fully cooked but awesomely moist and tasty inside, the yolk of the egg you can use the following day for an omelette or you can drink it in a smoothy with a banana and a spoon of peanutbutter . I made  zucchini that was steamed with a little bit of Edam cheese grated over them and put in the oven a little bit to melt , then made mushrooms with a bit of spice ontop of that with grated raw carrots and cabbage with a bit of cross and blackwell mayo that was mixed with a bit of sweetener and few spoons of milk . Husband said it was delicious .

Spring time is here and salad are on the menu

Salad with a fan of avocado and chicken patty with mixed veggies salad, always a tasty treat in summer time

 Stuff the chicken breast with baby cream spinach that you made with spinach and a bit of flour till soft and tasty add salt and pepper to taste. roll in egg white and in bread crumbs and bake in oven .

 when cooked make potato salad with lots of springonions in and make fresh salad with raw mushrooms and baby spinach and sweet peppers, cucumber and tomato , it is really delicious

Granola

Made my husband his own granola and then he eats it with plain yogurt, you need big glass bowl, and creamy peanut butter with no sugar added, and then cinnamon and then oats raw and honey , you then add two teaspoon of cinnamon , 6 spoons of peanut butter and then three cups of oats and half a cup of honey , roll it with your fingers till all sticky and oats are in balls, spread out in glass bowl and bake in the oven till golden brown, smell so good, let it cool off and then put in ziplock bag, some will still have little clumps of goodness, ready for husband to take to work tomorrow and eat with his yogurt .

 

this is a very good recipe for Diabetics too , just be careful to use not a lot of honey , I used a bit more honey on my husband's granola , I love making these homemade goodness and it does not cost a lot !
I guess you can add nuts and raisins too for a more expensive granola but this is really good and healthy !

Lasagna in the making ...

 I made lasagna when my friends were here from Pretoria and it is a very nice recipe as you use fresh ingredients ,which makes it so tasty , first I took two huge onions and fried them in two teaspoons of olive oil with a little bit of Himalayan pink sea salt , and top it with fresh peeled tomato after a while, skins taken off , I do NOT like tomato skin in food , never did , lots of fresh herb and garlic that is from my herb garden, here you can see clearly how much parsley I used , quite a lot and it is so yummy , then the lean beef mince , I take some Ina Paarman chicken stock and a spoon of been spices and a pinch of black pepper , the result the sauce .

 At this stage you taste the sauce and add two cups of water,add a bag of tomato paste , I do not use the tin ones , I use the small foil packets , I somehow do not like the small tins of tomato puree as it taste funny ... then simmer a bit , not for long as this is a quick recipe, does not take that long .

 Then get the bowl ready and lasagne sheets , I bought a nice one , it was not so expensive , and strangely enough this one is coming from Italy I think :) got this at our local grocery store . I love using the spinach one too, only once I got tomato pasta , it was pink, never found that one again.
Then I make the white sauce with butter , milk and flour and add  a bit of mozzarella to my white sauce , but not much , my recipe does not get cheese on top as I found it to be way oily and then I can not have a small piece . Layer all the ingredients and then last bit of sauce right on top .My husband loves my cooking !

 Layer ingredients and then layer with some more sauce on top, let it stand for an hour and bake in oven 180' degrees. It is quite lovely and very tasty ,even to eat cold the following day .

It is not fatty at all and very delicious , my parents in law love this to bits .
I always make a smallish green salad with cucumber , tomato and green sweet pepper on the side. 

thank you
bona petit !

Poetjanstie's Egg and baked beans on toast

Reluctant Metallurgist, Professional father & grandfather, lucky husband, against sycophancy ;-) Amateur poet-blogger-musician-photographer, (ex-) rugby player. http://poetjanstie.blogspot.com/

 @poetjanstie on twitter

 

he is one of my friends on twitter , made this for myself and it was so tasty !

it was so delicious 

slice of brown bread ,topped with baked beans,slice of ham , baked egg, 

slices of tomato on side

delicious , try it !

lamb pie

 I made my husband some pies ,he loved these , made it easy for myself as I bought ready made puff pastry ,I took two lamb chops, cut off all the fat , cut in smallish blocks and fried it in olive oil with onions and carrots and green beans amongst a little bit of kernels of mealies  nearly the same as i would have made cottage pie , just with pastry on top instead of mashed potatoes and used lamb blocks of meat instead of mince , I guess you can make these with mincemeat too and with chicken and mushrooms, I used chicken and mushrooms before , they came out quite nice.

 I rolled out some dough and then put some ontop of the cute ramekin bowls and then brush a bit of milk over it to make it golden brown . Remember to cut a cross in the middle for the pie to breathe :)

My husband said it was delicious , just a bit difficult to eat out off the ramekin bowls.

Meat balls and baked potatoes

I noticed I bought lean mince but lamb mince , first time ever I bought that and did not realized it until I wanted to make mince balls today , I also took three potatoes which I rinced off and then cut in half with the skin  , sprinkled some Ina Paarman green onion spice over them as they are going in with the mince/ meat balls, I hope it is not going to come out fatty :)
strange cooking with lamb mince the first time ever . hope it comes out delicious 

Recipe
Chopped large onion
pinch of thyme (dried)
handful chopped soup celery chopped coarse
handful fresh parsley chopped very fine
salt and pepper to taste
1teaspoon beef spices
half teaspoon mustard
mixed all together

add little bit olive oil at bottom of pan , roll potatoe face down in oil and put on roundness again with the cut part facing up skin at the bottom , put spices on

roll mincemeat balls in balls and press and roll in the little bit of olive oil
sprinkle a bit of paprika over

bake in the over until golden brown and delicious :)


I made some mushroom sauce to go with the meatballs , my husband loves it when I cook for him :) also made whole carrots with skin and all , just steamed it .

pancakes with chicken breast etc

I got myself this adorable small pan to make my husband pancakes , I usually make him savory ones and they are so tasty .

This is what the pancakes look like  mmmmm

 

Recipe :

Make pancakes  after you make the filling

two chicken breasts that has been cut in strips
 green sweet pepper strips
onion chopped fine
sweet chilly sauce 2 tablespoons
small block of feta cheese
2 pickled pepperdews chopped in small bits
little bit of olive oil for frying

fry onion till see through
add bit of salt and pepper
fry chicken strips till brown with the onion
add sweet pepper fry but still has to be crispy
add sweet chilly sauce only till chicken is fully cooked
add chopped pepperdews
crumble feta cheese over warm food and stir

put some in the pancakes and roll up
throw rest of sauce and bits over pancakes

dinner is ready

this is very tasty and so easy to make :)