Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup

At the end of last week I still had some pumpkin and half a large sweet potato left. My husband and I ended up going out to dinner on Friday night which didn't help (we went to El Bulli which was so good). So yesterday I made a pumpkin and sweet potato soup with scones. This turned out really well and used up the last of my leftovers. I love soup, it is so versatile and easy and perfect for chilly winter days.

1 large onion, diced

3 gloves garlic, sliced

500g pumpkin

300g sweet potato

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

half a teaspoon ground coriander seeds

pinch of chilli powder

1 lt chicken or vegetable stock

Fry the onion and garlic until soft, add the pumpkin, sweet potato and spices and fry for a few minutes until you can smell the spices. Add the stock and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then simmer for half an hour or so, until the vegetable are soft. Let cool slightly and then blend (I just use a hand held mixer and it works just fine). Heat up again and serve with a little parmesan and fresh parsly on top.

I serve this with fresh scones but it would also be lovely with some garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Week 2 - Wednesday

This week is pumpkin week, so far we have had roast pumpkin, pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins (I will share these recipes in another post) and last night we had beef and pumpkin stirfry.

This meal is so tasty and so quick and easy. I used the recipe in the Thrifty Kitchen cookbook. I love this cookbook, the meals are perfect for weeknights, delicious and quick. It has a whole chapter dedicated to using up leftovers creatively, it is one of the few cookbooks I have seen that is realistic about eating well, while not spending a fortune.

I have made this meal so many times, it literally takes about 15 minutes and it is full of vegetables so is good for you too. Sorry I can't share the recipe but I do recommend the book!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Well, we just had a long weekend, one spent at home due to a combination of terrible weather and track works.

My plan has so far gone really well. On Saturday we had pizza's, using the left over beans from Friday. Of course pizza bases are a personal preference but I have had success with this base from Elegant Musings.

Sunday, we ended up having some friends over so I cooked up two chickens in an attempt to keep to the plan. No photos I'm afraid but I did try a new trick that I had seen in a cookbook. I put half a lemon into the cavity of each chicken. This gave the chicken a lovely delicate flavour, but I would not recommend using the meat juices in a gravy. The gravy had this odd flavour, and it was the lemon, while the chicken itself was delicate the meat juices had a very strong lemon flavour which was quite unpleasant.

Monday I used the left over chicken to make chicken and leek pot pies. These were very tasty, although I am a pastry fiend. Here is my recipe for the pie filling:

1 tablespoon butter

1 leek, sliced

3 gloves garlic, crushed

3 rashers bacon

Left over chicken meat

1 cup chicken stock

2 desert spoons cornflour

half a cup peas

salt and pepper

Fry the leek, garlic and bacon in the butter until the leek is soft. Add the chicken and the stock. Put the cornflour in a cup with about half a cup water and whisk with a fork until there are no lumps, add this to the pie mix. Add the peas and cook for a few more minutes. Put in pie dishes and cover with puff pastry. Cook in oven at 200 degrees until pastry is golden.

Enjoy!

Week 1 - Friday

I feel like I haven't cooked in ages! Luckily Friday night dinner was one of my favourites, tortillas with beans and guacamole.

For the tortilla I used this recipe from the Homesick Texan, I swear once you have tried these you will be unable to go back to store bought tortilla's. These are light and fluffy and so easy to make, as long as you follow the recipe exactly, particularly the resting times. It is also important to roll them out quickly, if you work them for too long they will be tough.

As the tortilla's are the star of this particular dinner I keep the rest really simple. This is the recipe for the bean mix

1 onion, diced

3 gloves garlic, crushed

half a medium sized red chilli (I de-seed mine and will explain why later)

2 cans drained kidney beans

1 can diced tomatoes

salt and pepper

Fry the onions, garlic and chilli until the onion is soft. Add the kidney beans and fry for five minutes or so. Then, using a potato masher, mash up the beans until soft. Add the tomatoes and continue to fry. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper.

I serve this with guacamole, and what I like to do is make the guacamole quite hot. This way the bean mixture is mild but people can choose how hot they want their tortilla's with how much guacamole they add. If I was cooking for more people then myself and my husband I would also serve some sliced avocado as well. I then put all of this one a big platter with some tomato, lettuce, cheese and sour cream and everyone can assemble their own.

So, this is a really tasty dinner and really quite easy to make.

The First Hurdle

Well, this is something I was expecting but I have to admit not quite so soon into my little experiment. The husband and I ended up going out for dinner last night, we went to Tomislav which was beautiful, but it has thrown my plans a little bit. My plan for Week 1 Wednesday was a green curry but luckily I was going to use frozen vegetables and green curry paste all of which will keep. However I do need to use up the coconut milk and the chicken. So here is what I am thinking. I will use the coconut milk in porridge, this is the husbands favourite way to have porridge. Here is how I make this:

1 cup quick cook oats

1 cup lite coconut milk

1 cup water

pinch of salt

honey & banana to go on top or

brown sugar and sultanas on top.

Add oats, coconut milk, water and salt to a pot. Bring to boil then reduce heat and cook while stirring for about 40 seconds. I love quick cook oats as they literally take 2 or 3 minutes to make. We do prefer the banana and honey topping but as bananas are still about $14 a kg I am having to come up with different toppings, either way this is perfect for a chilly mid week breakfast.

The chicken will keep until Friday when I will have to use it in my tortillas, which will be lovely but I was planning on keeping that meal vegetarian.

So, I am going to have to come up with a solution next time this happens as I do not want my meal plan to dictate my life. This is meant to help me, not hinder me.

Sweet Potato muffins

Tuesday is a dinner day off for me but each week I try to do some baking (not on my plan as of yet but maybe soon). One of my favourite recipes at the moment is for Sweet Potato Muffins, sweet potatoes are currently in season and these are perfect lunch box fillers. They are also lovely for desert with a spoonful of vanilla ice-cream.

The recipe I use is exactly like this one but without the nuts (although I am liking the sound of them, maybe I will add them next time). I recommend these, they are delicious!

Sweet Potato Muffin Recipe

Week 1 - Monday

Tonight I made a thai red curry, it is a very easy, quick dinner, perfect for a Monday night. I made it with chicken but you could easily substitute the chicken for chickpeas to make it vegetarian. This is my recipe for two people.

1 onion, diced

2 gloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon thai red curry paste

200g chicken thighs, cut into strips

100g butternut squash

1 can diced tomatos

1/2 can lite coconut milk

handful of frozen peas

Fry the onion, garlic and curry paste together until the onion is soft. Add the chicken and brown. Add the butternut squash and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and the coconut milk. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, add the peas in the last few minutes of cooking. Serve with brown rice.

From this I know I will have about 200g of chicken left and half a can of coconut milk. This will all be used in a green curry on Wednesday night so so far no waste!

The Explanation

This blog is a little project that I set for myself for several reasons.

Firstly, while I love cooking, I hate grocery shopping and I hate having to come home from work and having to figure out what to make for dinner. I tend to go to the grocery store everyday and figure it out there. This leads to frustration (weeknight supermarket shopping is my idea of hell), food waste, expensive grocery bills and uninspired meals.

Secondly, the amount of food I waste really weighs on my mind. In Australia alone it is estimated that we throw out $5.2 billion worth of food a year. Imagine what that sort of money could do in a third world country, and then imagine how much that is going into our land fills. It horrifies me, and what makes it worse is that I am one of these people throwing out roughly $600 a year in food.

Finally, I am hoping that this will help me eat a little more seasonally, which again impacts on our planet.

So, how does this all work?

Essentially, I have written up a 5 week meal plan in which I only repeat one meal (pizza) and in which I factor in what I think I will have left over from previous meals. So, for example I always seem to throw out coconut milk and pumpkins (I have no idea why, it is just these two seem to end up in the rubbish a lot). In order to prevent this I have factored in two curries in one week, and I have a week of pumpkin dishes because I know that I will have left overs from previous meals. Also the reason I have two pizza nights on my plan is to try use up the last of bits and pieces in the fridge. I am hoping that come Sunday morning (when I plan on having next weeks groceries delivered) I will have a lovely empty fridge.

Along with the meal plan I have created a monthly (pantry) shopping list and a weekly shopping list for fresh ingredients. This way I only need to do grocery shopping once a week. And hopefully will only be buying what I need to each recipe.

I will also be posting recipes and photos and will generally ramble on about how it is going. I do have many concerns and will document those as I go along.

I am also making my menu plans an shopping lists available for anyone who might be interested.

Wish me luck!