Turkey Open Burger with Chargrilled Pineapple and Avocado Cream

When a packet of turkey mince came on sale, I could not resist that $3 price tag for 500 grams. It's fresh AND free range. Coming home though, I decided to pair it with something expensive... an avocado that costs the same price as the mince itself!

Avocados has come down in price a little since then but boy oh boy was an avocado precious when it was going for $3 or $4 per fruit. I came to realise how much our family love this. We baked it with eggs, we have it for breakfasts or in salads.

Anyway, I think the winner of this dish was the pineapple and avocado combination. That citrus tang from the pineapple and creaminess of the avocado with turkey seems to work.

Asher has started finger foods too and this is perfect for him to hold and munch on. I usually leave out the salt for his portion. Messy too!

Turkey Open Burger with Chargrilled Pineapple and Avocado Cream 
500 grams turkey mince
1 onion chopped
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp italian herbs
salt and pepper
egg

1/2 a pineapple sliced thinly and char grilled

1 avocado and 2 tablespoon of greek yogurt blitz in a food processor

To make the turkey burgers, combine all ingredients and shape them in patties.

Heat a pan up with oil and fry the patties up. Meanwhile, prepare avocado cream. Char grill the pine apples if you have not done so. Assemble and eat!

Lamb Bolognese - Clean Eating

This was one of the meals I cooked before we moved. It's freezer friendly, and one of the reason why I like it is that I can cook in bulk and it tastes better the next day. It's sort of a bolognese recipe- an adaption if you like, except that I have it with vegetables and not on any pasta/rice.

For the past 6 months or so, I have been slowly reducing my intake of processed food. Perhaps you noticed that I have not been posting food consisting with noodles or rice recently. Or think that I am on a low carb diet. The reality is that I am going back to basics, and eating less food that have gone through any manufacturing. I still get my carbs through fruits, vegetables, and root vegetables (Sweet potato, pumpkin..etc). I'm not anti carb or anti- treats. I still enjoy my desserts and sweets!

Eating clean to me is to eat wholesome, healthy food as much as I can. I'm not perfect and I dare say that I try my best to practise it 90% of the time, and 10% of the time, I enjoy some treats. The rule of thumb is that if it is man-made (like gone through any form of processing) then I try to avoid it.

While on most days, I avoid sugar or any sugar added products, I do enjoy my treats once a week or when I feel like it. One thing though,  I enjoy my treats the way it should be enjoyed- without guilt.

But back to this lamb bolognese. I paired it with some lightly stir fried zucchini and broccoli. Delicious. Simple and fresh. Too simple that I nearly didn't want to write a post about it, but thought I could share what I have been doing on days that I have been tired and just want a quick fix meal. And it can be healthy too.

Lamb Bolognese- Serves 4
500 grams lamb mince
1 can of tinned tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 fresh tomatoes diced
1/2 cup of beef stock
2 chili chopped
1 red onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 cup of mushrooms chopped
salt/pepper

Saute onion and garlic. Cook mince till brown and done. Add in tinned tomatoes and fresh. Fold in all vegetables. Add stock and simmer for 15-20 mins. Serve with veges or salad.

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Meatballs in Tangy Tomato Sauce

It's finally here. Autumn that is. Where the weather is cool and the breeze comes in. Autumn and Spring are probably my favourite seasons of the year. It isn't too warm but there is enough sun to get out there and seize the day.

As I am writing this, I'm recovering from a very sore left index finger. We had some friends over for a bbq and I sliced my finger while chopping spring onions! Since the bleeding didn't stop for 2 over hours, I went to the doctors who placed a pressure bandage on.

So with the bandage on, everything seems to operate a little slower. Like typing for instance and washing your hair. It may be one finger but it reminded me of how we tend to take little things like this for granted. It also forced me to slow down a little- like no boxing classes and scheduled our little break away. Sometimes, accidents remind us to take a breath before going again.

My disclaimer is that I rarely cut my fingers while cooking. I think it is a reflection of my internal exhaustion. In the mean time, I had a few days off with cooking with hubs taking over the reins. He turned around and said- indeed it's a lot of planning and prepping.

I'm on the road to recovery by the time you read this... and don't worry, I made these meatballs when my fingernail was still intact so no blood lost with this. It's a nice warm dinner on a cool night. Who says one cannot have salads with baked dishes?

The sauce keeps the meatballs moist and lovely. You can probably sauté the mince if you like and top it with the sauce, but I was looking for a less to wash dish. I didn't put cheese in mine but you could sprinkle some before baking it.


Moroccan Spiced Lamb Meatballs in Tangy Tomato Sauce (serves 4)
450 grams of lean lamb mince
1 red onion chopped
2 tsp of dukkah (spicy)
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of chill powder
1 egg
pepper

Tomato Sauce
1 tinned chopped tomato
2 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 tablespoon of water or more if needed
squeeze of lemon
salt and pepper

Make lamb mince balls- just combine all ingredients. Roll into balls and place into over proof dish- it should make around 16 meatballs.

Sauce- combine all in a jar. Pour over meatballs and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Classic Meat Loaf with Glaze

There is something special about meat loaf. I feel that it is really under rated these days. People tend to associate meat loaf with it being boring food.

My first memory of meat loaf was when I watched American TV. You know, the scene when the mother says "it's dinner time! We are having meat loaf" and the kids making faces. Perhaps, growing up in Singapore, I have been so blessed with having traditional Chinese food, that I just thought that those poor American kids having to suffer through dinner!

So without tasting or knowing exactly what that was, I concluded that meat loaf must be tasteless and boring.

Not till I started experimenting with mince meat that I realised how interesting meat loaves are. First up, they are EASY! super duper easy. And then, it's really no fuss! Exactly how I like my food to be. And budget friendly. Very budget friendly when one was a student, and the other just started working. Oh talk about memories.

More recently, I came across Matt Preston's version of meat loaf. Now, a chef talking about meat loaf? I need to sit up and read up. He included in oats in his version in place of breadcrumbs. "Low GI idea, I like it already" I thought. The glazing idea will keep the loaf moist as well.

I substituted some glaze ingredients from what I have in the fridge and it turned out terrific as well.

Classic Meat Loaf with Glaze

600 grams of lean beef mince
1 onion chopped finely
1 tablespoon of garlic minced
1 cup of rolled oats
1 large egg
1 cup of soy milk

Glaze
1/2 cup of tomato sauce/ketchup.
2 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of mustard- I used spicy seeded but Dijon is the best)
Salt

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Combine mince, onion and garlic. Fold in oats. Then add egg and milk. Just combine, don't over stir it. I pressed mine in a lined loaf tin but you could do it on baking tray form into a loaf shape. Roast for 30 minutes first.

Meantime, put glaze ingredients in a saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes till combined and looks syrupy. Pour 2/3s of the glaze on meatloaf after 30 minutes. Return back to the oven for another 30 minutes.

Re glaze when meatloaf is done. Rest for 5 minutes and serve with a sprinkle of salt.

Soy Bean Paste Chicken Stew

Ok, so I am fast discovering different ways of using soy bean paste. That's the thing about having a huge jar of it in the fridge, you think of ways to use it! LOL


I'm pretty impressed with this chicken stew though. It's really good with rice, easy to cook and tasty. The best thing about this is the sauce of course.


So I wonder.. how many more dishes I could cook up with soy bean paste?

Soy Bean Paste Chicken Stew (serves 4)
400 grams of chicken thigh diced
1 red onion sliced thinly
1 chilli chopped
1 tablespoon of garlic
2 tablespoon of soy bean paste
1/2 cup of water
2 potatoes diced


Saute garlic, onion and chili. Add soy bean sauce for around 3 minutes. Brown chicken with sauce. Add water and potatoes. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve with rice and vegetables.

Roasted Capsium Garlic Pesto Spaghetti

 Using Jamie Oliver's 30 minutes cookbook has inspired me to make sauces for pasta myself. He opened my eyes to the kind of things I could do with my humble food processor. Having a jar of grilled capsicum on hand, I thought it would be pretty cool to blitz everything up and use it as a sauce base.

Further, my hubby bought 15 cans of tuna. Seriously. 15 cans. They were on sale, and it's the kind we like (John West) so he decided to purchase it for "rainy days". Now I like a good tuna sandwich and perhaps a tuna potato cake one day but 15 jars? woah!

So I used it in this pasta as well.

I made this with little intention to blog it, but when I did a taste test, I thought it turned out pretty well. A pasta sauce that is not tomato based or cream based! Pretty cool hey.

Roasted Capsicum Garlic Pesto Spaghetti (serves 4)
500 grams of spaghetti cooked in boiling salted water
3 cans of chili tuna
1 chopped yellow capsicum
1 cup of corn
1 cup of peas

To be blitzed
250 grams of roasted capsicum (You can roast it yourself but I got mine from a jar)
1 tablespoon of garlic
around 80 grams of basil leaves
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt
3 chili padi chopped

Blitz everything up. Heat pan and blitzed ingredients. Saute all veges first. Toss through tuna for around 5 minutes. Toss pasta though. Serve with some cheese if desired.

Potato and Broccoli Soup

There are nights where we just want a simple dinner. No rice, no nothing but just soup and toasties. Melted cheese and ham on bread (especially since I can't have too much cheese makes this super appealing to me!) with a bowl of hot simmering soup.

I love thick soups like this. It gives the illusion that cream is added to it but it's really simply potato and broccoli. No fuss soup  blended to create such warmth.

I made this soup before heading to the gym for my zumba workout (loveee zumba!) so I wrote a note to hubby asking him to eat first. As I read it now, it says FAT ME instead. DOH! Subconsciously perhaps?

Potato and Broccoli Soup (serves 4)
4 medium size potatoes peeled and chopped
1 onion sliced
1 tablespoon of garlic 
2 medium size broccoli chopped
1 ltre chicken stock

Fry onion and garlic. Add in potatos and broccoli. Pour stock in and cook till done. Blend in liquidizer till smooth. Serve with some Parmesan cheese and toasties.

Spinach Rocket Pesto Salmon Spaghetti

If you ask me, I prefer olive oil based pasta than creamy ones. Don't get me wrong, creamy pastas has its own place as well, but there is something very addictive about olive oil based pastas. It makes your tongue tingle and want more. The flavours seem to dance on your tongue and it lingers.

My experience in making pesto was.... mmm.. once. It was around 5 years ago, when we decided to grow our very own basil plant. It was very successful and soon we were proud owners of a basil... bush! I wish I have a photo to show you! That was when I tried making pesto. Soon after, winter sets in and the bush dwindle down to nothing. :(

Since then, I have never got back into growing our own vegetables and herbs. One day I am sure we will again!

For this version of pesto, I blended basil, spinach and rocket together with some olive oil and parmesan cheese. Instead of pinenuts, I used some pistachios that I had on hand. I love the herby nutty mixture in the end that went very well with smoked salmon.

I'm also happy with our budget for this meal.

Spinach Rocket Basil Pesto- $4
Smoked Salmon- $4 (On sale! yay!)
Pasta-$1

Total: AU$9

I'm submitting this dish to our monthly budget meals party with Cuisine Paradise. The theme this month is NOODLES! woohoo.

Spinach Rocket Pesto Salmon Spaghetti (Serves 4)
250 grams of Spinach, Rocket and Basil (around 4-5 cups)
2 tsp of grated parmesan cheese
1-2 chili padi diced
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of shelled pistachios
100 grams of smoked salmon
500 grams pasta cooked and drained

Blend spinach, chili rocket, basil, cheese, oil and pistachios. Blitz it for 1 min.

Heat a pan up. Sauté the herb/vege mixture. Toss pasta and smoked salmon through. Serve with more cheese.

Basil and Tomato Sausage Soup

If you are wondering, yes this was the soup I made when it was 35C. The week when we had bizarre hot/cold/can't make up its mind weather.

It was also the soup that hubby requested me to make. I love the chunky veges in a soup. Somehow, it bulks it up and makes it very yummy. Hubby likes this soup and he calls it the man soup-because it has plenty of spicy Italian sausages in it. (well, he thinks it is plenty, but really there were only 4 ...the trick was to slice them up! ;) shhhh.....

(honey, if you are reading this-refer to the previous post about complementing each other....)

I had some basil on hand and a leftover jar of pesto sauce as well. So I saute the sausages and veges with the pesto before adding in the stock. The result was a flavoursome and rich soup. It tasted even better the next day.

Now, I just need to make this for our cold 10C night, instead of the 35C day.... ;)

Basil and Tomato Sausage Soup (Serves 6-tastes even better the next day)
4 Italian Sausages sliced
4 tablespoon of pesto
1 onion sliced thinly
6 stalks of celery diced
1 cup of button mushrooms sliced
1 carrot sliced
1 cup of frozen peas
2 tomatoes diced
1 can of mixed beans
1 can of 400 grams diced tomato
1 small bunch of basil leaves
1 ltre of beef stock
2-3 cups of water

Saute sausages till nearly done. Add pesto and all veges. Toss through. Add stock and simmer. Add water when needed. Simmer for around 20 minutes or so. Add basil in the last 2 minutes of simmering. Serve with crusty bread and a tsp of presto.

Stir Fry Prawns with Century Eggs. A $20 Budget Meal- Egg Theme

 I didn't forget! I meant to post my mixed fruit + chocolate hot cross buns today but I quickly realized that today is deadline for an entry to $20 Budget meal (= AU$15) submission.

Being on a budget isn't new to me. I don't recall a time where we are never on a budget. From being a student, to newly weds, it's part and parcel and life really. We think being on a budget is a necessity to life these days. With raising costs, it's hard not to take charge of your money and to know where each cent goes.


I usually cook for 4 and pack the remaining dinner into our lunch boxes the next day. By limiting take out lunches to once or twice a month, we managed to keep our expenditure low. It is actually not often that I have a soup and 2 dishes meal because with each component, costs increases. However, being a Cantonese, I missed my soups and would savour each time we have it. When granny was here, we would have clear soups two to three times a week. For us though, it would probably be once or twice every few months (I can see hubby's sad look here..) Another reason of course is time, but I realised that if I put all ingredients in my magic thermal cooker in the morning, all I need to do is to re heat when we come home at night.

Usually, we do not spend $15 on our meals. It's probably around AU$8-$10 depending on what dish I cook. This is the breakdown costs of our meals

Corn, Carrot and Radish Soup- $3.80

Stir Fry Long Beans and Mushrooms- $3

Chili Prawns with Century Eggs- $6.30

Total: $13.10 

I think it's worth it though because we have prawns in this meal. Century eggs is around AU$2 here.

Granny who I spoke to one weekend, excitedly told me that she saw someone cooked this prawn dish on TV and think I should try it. She said that she has to tell me soon because if not she might not remember all component of the dish. So here I go, documenting it... and hopefully it's similar to what she remembered!

Stir Fry Prawns with Century Eggs

1/2 red onion- sliced
2 chili padi (I used chili padi from our garden so it's freeeee) 
1/2 tsp of corn flour
250 grams of shelled prawns
1/2 bunch of spring onions sliced
2-3 tablespoon of maggi soya sauce
dash of white pepper
1/2 tsp of salt
1 century egg diced

Quickly stir fry onions till soft. Add chili. Fry prawns till done and sprinkle some corn flour to it. Add around 2-3 tsp of water as well. Add sauce in with some pepper. Season with salt. Toss spring onions and century eggs through. Serve with soup, veges and rice.


Thank You Ellena from Cusine Paradise in hosting this event. I can't wait to participate in next month's!

Vietnamese Style Pickled Radish Pork Omelette

As a child, I never knew that my family was struggling with money. My parents and grandmother took it upon themselves to make sure that I never go without. My dad used to tell me that he could go without food, but I would never go without books.

My grandmother has various creative ways of making meals interesting. I recall that I love pickled radish omelette and would often request it for lunch or dinner (it goes well with congee or plain white rice). Sometimes, we would only have rice, egg and soy sauce for dinner. Again, I ever thought it was any different. I just ate it like it is.

Recently I saw a Vietnamese version of the same dish. It has fish sauce and some pork mince in it. As usual, I did not follow it's measurements but just cooked with what I think it would taste like. I think I probably used too much pork mince, and would put some corn flour to the egg mixture so it doesn't break as easily. The egg mixture was too heavy, hence the omelette didn't flip as it should.

Nonetheless, it was a cheap meal served with some stir fry veges and rice. I used the sweeter version of the pickled radish. Speaking of which, any other ways to incorporated picked radishes in cooking? I have used the in chee kueh before but was wondering if there are any other suggestions?

Vietnamese Style pickled Radish Pork Omelette

100 grams of pork mince
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp of soy
1/2 tsp of garlic

4 eggs
20 grams of sweet pickled radish
a splash of soy milk/milk
2 tsp of fish sauce
1/2 tsp of sugar
1 small chili padi chopped

Marinate mince first. Heat pan with 1 tsp of oil. Saute pickled radish and chili padi. Fry pork mince till nearly done. Mean time, whisk eggs with milk, fish sauce and sugar. Pour egg mixture to pan and cook til set. Serve with veges and rice.

Teriyaki Meat Loaf

I am very much in love with my oven. I love the ease of it- just placing something in a hot oven and out comes a hearty hot meal (or dessert!we win either way). Having some left over teriyaki sauce in the fridge, I tipped the rest of the bottle out to marinate our meat loaf. Talk about Asian influence in our styles of cooking! It wasn't anything too fancy but enough to survive another night of dinner- and left overs to boot for the next day.

To add more veges in our diet- I mixed in some shredded carrots and chopped onions. Does the treat I say. I love the texture and would not hesitate to make this again! 

I served these with stir fry veges.

Teriyaki Meat Loaf (Serves 4-5)

500 grams lean beef mince
1 egg
1 cup of bread crumbs- fresh or from packet
2-3 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce
2 tsp of chili powder (because I like it hot!)
1 carrot shredded
1 red onion chopped
2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
pepper


Line loaf pan. Pre heat oven 200C. Mix everything in a bowl. Spoon and press mixture into loaf pan. Bake for 30 mins. Serve with salad or stir fry veges.