EASY PEASY DINNER WINNERS #12

MACARONI BAKE

1 & 1/2 cups macaroni pasta

4 rashers bacon

1 onion (peeled & finely chopped)

440g tin of tomato soup

1/2 cup milk

1 cup grated cheese

1. Place macaroni in boiling water for 8 minutes.

2. Drain well & put it into an 8 cup casserole dish.

3. Chop bacon & onion and fry gently in frying pan.

4. Stir bacon & onion into pasta.

5. Stir in soup, milk & grated cheese.

6. Bake at 190C for 45 mins.

Such a simple recipe, yet there are always requests for second helpings in this house! My sisters and I loved this as children and now my children (and even my husband) love it. My sister Lou cooks it for her family regularly also.

I used to feel a little guilty about the lack of vegetables in this dish, but then again, it does have onion... and onion is a vegetable.

HEALTH BENEFITS of the ONION...

Onion is a powerful anti-septic that is rich in vitamins A, B and C. It is a potent source of folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, chromium, iron and dietary fiber.

Ancient records reveal that onions have been used as far back as 4000 B.C. as a cure-all for many illnesses. Even now, we find many medicinal properties from this dynamite bulb.

For an amazing and extensive list of the onion's beneficial properties as an anti-coagulant, anti-infammatory, anti-septic, in treating anemia, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and many other health benefits, including that the onion is a potent aphrodisiac, see here.

You can always serve this meal with some salad or vegetables on the side if you'd like to add to the magical properties of the marvellous onion!

P.S. While researching the onion, I discovered that if you put it in the fridge for an hour before you cut it, it will not cause as many tears! Also, to get rid of onion (or garlic) smell that hangs around on your hands, rub your hands on stainless steel (like your kitchen tap) and it magically goes away! It's true!

Now it's your turn!

Link your easy peasy dinner winner below! Dessert, main meal, side dish or snack, I'm not fussed.

AT MY HOUSE...

At my house we got all excited about our re-stocked vege patch a few weeks ago, but sadly not all is going according to plan. I think Farmer Scarecrow says it all..... it has seen better days....

For the first year and half we had little trouble in our vege patch, a few aphids in the brocoli and a few chicken attacks, but on the whole I have been really impressed with how our plants have thrived and I have really enjoyed the process. This last few months though, I just haven't had much luck with anything but my rhubarb and nastursiums. Pests are not so fun :0(

Within days of being planted something started eating the tops of the new little seedlings. We had dealt with the snails and slugs and I was sure that it was not them, the chickens have been kept well away, and no caterpillars could cause such destruction so quickly! So I was left to assume either possums or pigeons. On my mother-in-laws advice I have put some of that smelly seaweedy kelp fertilizer stuff on them. She swears that it deterred the possums at her house after they swiped a crop of broad beans at her house. I think it may just be doing the trick, as they are no worse and starting to regrow slowly, but I am also planning the annoying addition of some bird netting to protect my patch.

On the upside though, the blossoms on our stone fruit trees are starting to come out, our little herb garden outside the kitchen door is going strong (although perhaps in need of a prune) and my parsley seems to be reviving itself (after a little magic spray)! You'll notice the ends are still all eaten but there are new leaves growing from the middle - all hope is not lost for my favourite and most used plants!

Play along with Lou & let us know what is happening at your house.

Or, if you have a vege garden, no matter how small or how well it is flourishing, why not join in with Bellgirl's 'veg about'.

KITCHEN CAPERS...

So helpful in the kitchen...

one for the bowl...

one for me...

and then I wonder...

" what on earth was I thinking attempting to make biscuits with three children plus a friend over to play?!"

Have a lovely weekend!

EASY PEASY DINNER WINNERS #11

This week's easy peasy dinner winner is Taco's.

Of course the easiest option is to buy a packet of taco seasoning, but one day I hadn't bought any and knew there must be a DIY alternative out there. So, I did what I always do and googled it. This version only takes a minute or two anyway.

image

DIY Taco Seasoning

source

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

If you want it a bit spicier - add some cayenne pepper. If you want it less spicy, omit the chili powder.

You can keep this in an airtight container in the cupboard for whenever you need it.

When I need it, I add it to 500g beef mince and a chopped onion.

The favorite in our house is to use soft tortillas for tacos. These are delivered each week in our Aussie Farmers delivery (Our shelves would be bare without Aussie Farmers!). I also use tortillas for lunch wraps, as pizza bases or for thin toasted sandwiches.

As I do when we make our own pizzas, I just put lots of small bowls on the table full of things like:

grated cheese

grated carrot

shredded iceberg lettuce

chopped capsicum

diced tomatoes

slices of avocado

and everyone makes their own.

It's often a big mess and the cheese gets eaten first, but some of the vegies do manage to go in at some stage. In some more than others.

After being inspired by seeing some great easy peasy desserts on many of your blogs and realising that, unlike me, many people do have dessert after a meal more than once a month, I'll now be including a quick dessert every now and then on a Tuesday. So, feel free to link your easy peasy desserts as well as your easy peasy meals each week.

The following is one I have been known to do when unexpected guests arrive...tastes divine. Came from the Donna Hay 'Food Fast' cookbook. Another title I like!

source

EASY APPLE TARTS

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry

2 apples (pink lady or sweet apples)

brown sugar

melted butter

Preheat oven to 220C. Cut each pastry sheet into 2 pieces. Core the apples and slice thinly. Place the pastry on baking trays lined with baking paper and top the pastry with a layer of apples down the middle. Brush the apples with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve with thick cream or ice-cream.

Now it's your turn!

Take a photo of your dinner tonight, or sometime this week, & link your easy peasy recipe down below, so that we can all give it a go. Don't forget to link back to here in your post so others can join in the fun and have access to some great new easy dinner recipes.

Alternatively, feel free to just link up an old post that you've written if it contains what we're after.

Remember - no dinner is too easy!

Bring on the easy peasy desserts as well - yum!

AT MY HOUSE...

At my house we tried this fun and easy science experiment.

As far as I know it only works on these particular flowers - snowdrops we always called them.

They are popping up all over the place at the moment. A sign that spring is almost here.

You just pop them into some water with some food coloring in it and overnight the color creeps up the stem and colors the petals.

Play along with Lou's At My House this week.

Addition - This evening the petals are even more brilliantly colored and these photos (taken this morning) do not do them justice.

KEEPING IT REAL

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"The Velveteen Rabbit". Margery Williams. 1922

SIMPLICITY CHOCOLATE CAKE

As promised....

SIMPLICITY CHOCOLATE CAKE

source

2 tbpsn margarine or butter

1 tbspn cocoa

1 cup SR flour

1 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 tspn vanilla

Grease an 8" ring tin. Heat oven to 180C. Melt butter.

Put all ingredients in bowl & add butter. Beat for 3 mins. Pour into tin.

Bake for 30 mins.

A scary addition to this recipe (now in hindsight 35 years on) is that it suggests that this cake

"can also be cooked by placing tin on asbestos mat in frypan at 220C" !!

Not likely!

There you have it.

It then goes on to list many quick and easy variations to the recipe to change it to another flavour, eg. banana, orange, etc.

Lou has tried a few if you wanted to give them a go.

Ever since a friend made these fun cupcakes at playgroup a few months ago, I have wanted to give them a try! You actually cook them in the cones - fun! I found a Donna Hay recipe on line. I didn't have much time, so I thought I'd substitute her recipe for the simplicity chocolate cake and it worked fantastically well! (even with the four that somehow oozed out the bottom of the cones onto the tray.....) I did follow Donna's suggestion of putting some chocolate pieces at the bottom of each cone before putting in the mixture though.... yum!

It also works well in little muffin cases, which I tried this week also. Moist and yummy.

Reality check - I often think that I can do more than I actually can - all that baking did not all eventuate. I did have to tell myself that, although I do really love to be involved in the community and do my bit - and surely a cake is an easy way to contribute - that one just can't 'do it all' and sometimes you just need to hand jobs over to others... but 3 out of 5 'aint bad. On that same note, my odd socks have reached new heights and this morning I counted 35!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY...

Wordless Wednesday.

Play here.

EASY PEASY DINNER WINNERS #10

As promised, this weeks' easy peasy dinner winner is from my beloved 'Nursing Mothers Cookbook' circa. 1975.

The subtitle says it all - Recipes for Busy Mothers.

My copy was a gift from my mother when I left the nest at the tender age of 18. I have spoken to many others who were gifted the same book for a similar departure. The recipes that I use are easy for me to find as they are covered in the splatters and spills of regular usage.

This weeks' recipe is a little like Lou's delicious salmon in foil recipe that she linked in a couple of weeks ago.

STEAK IN FOIL

500g rump or oyster blade steak

butter

1 packet brown onion sauce mix

1 tablespoon each chopped onion & green pepper

125g mushrooms, chopped

salt & pepper

Grease foil with butter. Sprinkle half the mix over. Place the steaks on foil. Chop green pepper & onion & put on top. Add mushrooms & rest of sauce mix. Put dob of butter on each steak. Sprinkle with pepper & salt. Fold up into parcel & cook in moderate oven for approx. 40 mins.

The recipe must have been adapted by my mother as her recipe was even more simple:

some oyster blade steaks

cover with a couple of tbspns of 'mushrooms in butter sauce' (see photo)

sprinkle with some brown onion sauce mix &

1 onion, diced.

Wrap in foil.

Bake at 180C for approx. 40 mins.

I wrap each steak in it's own individual parcel, but you could do them all in one.

Meat comes out beautifully tender (if not overcooked) and is great served with mashed potatoes & vegies.

I found a similar recipe in this funny, yet perfect book &

Mum's version may just fit into the ever popular 4 ingredients cookbook too!

And just when you thought you'd seen the end of this 'farm' party...this book even comes in handy at party time!

Apart from being the source of the shortbreads and mini egg & bacon pies (that we've had at every party since I was born!)....

...for the first time I tried the classic and all time favourite 'Simplicity Chocolate Cake' from the same book!

My mother-in-law has used this recipe for every birthday in her family for the last 35 years!

True to it's name - it is very simple.

As a side, and on the topic of easy....this year, after nabbing the idea from one of Goose's friends birthdays, instead of using icing, I just whipped some cream with a little bit of castor sugar and a dash of green food colouring. Much quicker and easier to 'frost' and much easier to eat!

I have a ridiculous amount of reasons to bake this week. Both Goose's school and our church are being polling booths for this weekend's election and have asked for baked goods to sell at their obligatory cake stalls and sausage sizzles. A cake for a family function on the weekend and I also need to produce something celebratory for Bear's birthday at playgroup and creche at 'craft' this week so I think this 'simplicity chocolate cake' recipe page may just get covered with the spills of regular usage also. I'll post this simple recipe in a day or so when I get a chance, so stay tuned.

Anyway, off my little soap box.

No, I was not paid by NMAA to advertise their book.

(Or the Australian Breastfeeding Association as it is now known).

It's just that it did seem to fit so well into the easy peasy theme ....

I'm sure some of you have a copy of this book - surely! If you don't it is actually still in print (now that says a lot!) and you can buy it here. Or ask your Mum, she may just have one on the shelf that you can borrow.

Now it's your turn!

Take a photo of your dinner tonight, or sometime this week & link your easy peasy recipe down below, so that we can all give it a go! Don't forget to link back to here in your post so others can join in the fun and have access to some great new easy dinner recipes!

Alternatively, feel free to just link up an old post that you've written if it contains what we're after! Thanks to all those who have posted in the last few weeks. Go and check them out if you haven't - there are some real winners there!

AT MY HOUSE...

At my house this weekend, we had the much anticipated

farm party!

There are many more photos & details here.

But, to indulge myself just one more time...

here are some photos of the little Frog, Goose & Bear family enjoying the day...

And of course, none of this would have been possible without the inspiration and sheer hard work of Granny - thanks Mum!

This is the first year that we invited friends for a party for Bear. It was just family for the first two years and so this time, along with the family, we invited four of his little friends too. Of course those friends brought their families along too (they were only 3 years old after all) which just made it all the more fun! I once read somewhere that you should invite one friend per age the child is turning. What do you think of that?

At my house today we are obviously doing quite a bit of packing up!

Play along at Lou's At My House this week!

P.S. Thanks Lou for being photographer on the day - really appreciate!

A FARM PARTY REVEALED

On Saturday our little Bear turned 3 years old. Although he is now adamant that he does not want to be 3 and still wants to be 2 thank you very much!

The party went fantastically well.

Here are a few (well, more than a few) photos of the day....

Please excuse while I completely over indulge.....

Some food pics....

Flowers (which I think are canola?) were sneakily picked growing along the side of the road!

The cake...

The decorations...

The fun extras...

The entertainment...

My Dad (whose own farm started Bear's love of all things farm) organised an amazingly generous gift of a real live animal farm in our front yard! I'm not normally someone who likes to pay people for children's entertainment - in fact I'm a little against it, but, why look a gift horse in the mouth (excuse the pun!) when the kids will absolutely love it!! It just made the party!

It also meant that apart from a little game of pin the tail on the cow, the application of some 'farm animal' tattoos and the blowing of some bubbles, I didn't have to organise any other activities!

Huge thanks to my talented sister Clare for creating the cow and applying lots of tattoos (among many other things on the day!)

To top it all off, there was even a very special Daddy & daughter fiddle duet!

A new song her violin teacher had taught her just 3 days prior had quite the 'hoedown' feel, so Goose & her Dad gave us all a fantastic little toe-tapping concert, along with a solo of 'Happy Birthday'.  Brought tears to her proud Dad's eyes :)

Most important thing of all was that the little (now "big") birthday boy had fun!

And of course, for this 'party Mum', so did I!


For more FGB parties, you might like to check out our parties page.

P.S. For those who are interested, the cake inspiration came from here...

P.P.S. For more farm party prep. ideas see here.