Homemade Fathers Day Pita Pizza to take away!

I can sometimes struggle with finding gifts for my Dad when Fathers Day/ Birthday/ Christmas comes around. Especially this year as he has told me not to spend any money on him.
He has said this a few times but I never usually listen & then he tells me off when I buy him something, especially when he says he can 'do without' the present I bought him.

So, I had to put my thinking cap on. I was and always will spend some money on my Dad but I thought I could be different this year & give him something that he will actually use (or in this case consume!)
If there's one thing that pops in my mind when I think of my Dad (apart from being a great, awesome & loving Dad) it is PIZZA!
My Dad is really healthy and works out in his home gym every day I would say. He pretty much eats steamed fish & vegetables every single night and is in his 60's and fitter than me which really says something, BUT he does love his pizza.

I figured I would make a bunch of mini pizzas on pita bread and wrap them up so he could freeze them, take them out as he pleases and re heat them for dinner if he feels like ditching the fish & veggies for dinner one night!
I made four flavours, 'Super Dad' Supreme, Spicy Mexicana, BBQ Meat Lovers and American Pepperoni.

You can make what ever flavours you like, just see what you have in the fridge or what ever takes your fancy!

Fluffy American Pancakes served with a Blue Heaven Milkshake.

Today was the second Saturday morning that Jai & I wanted to make a sweet tooth's dream breakfast.

We decided on making pancakes, but not the easy, boring one cup of flour, one cup of milk and one egg type ones. We wanted to try make those fluffy American pancakes you get at restaurants but never seem to be able to nail at home.

We looked up 'fluffy American pancakes' and decided to go with the trusty BBC recipe. We gathered the ingredients and started cooking up the pancakes, while blending up the ingredients for our Blue Heaven Milkshake.

I wanted the second milkshake that I'd make in my new blender from Jai to be the iconic Aussie 'Blue Heaven' Milkshake ever since I found out they sell the Blue Heaven topping at the supermarkets in Australia now.

The Blue Heaven Milkshake has always fascinated me as it was my favorite flavour milkshake and thickshake as a kid. And as usual whenever someone from overseas would ask what it tasted like my response was always 'blue' and to be honest it still is!

A little research suggests that the closest flavour to Blue Heaven is Vanilla Raspberry, but it is so sweet, syrupy and artificial tasting that it's hard to believe there is any fruit flavour in it at all.

Delicious Banana Malt Smoothie.

I have been incredibly slack at posting lately! I guess this would have mostly to do with the fact I have not actually been baking or cooking anything worth while posting.

I have a slight bit of motivation back ever since my Sister introduced me to Pinterest!

So if you would like to follow me or take a look at the inspiration I have been getting you can see my profile HERE!

Anyway, for the past few months I have been obsessed with milkshakes/ smoothies and sandwiches. A weird combo I know. And despite my obsession I have not really made either (partly due to not owning a blender). I've just been looking at photos on Pinterest and the Internet.
So when my Birthday came along earlier this month and my awesome boyfriend surprised me with a blender I was over the moon!

We finally, finally decided to make a Banana Malt Smoothie yesterday & served it with some delicious waffles for a sweet tooth's dream breakfast, so here it is :)

Jamie Oliver's Chicken Fajitas.

If there's one thing I can't resist that is Mexican food. I don't know how different 'our' Mexican food is to true authentic type Mexican food, but you really can't go past a good taco, burrito or fajita in my opinion!

I seem to have a love affair with all foods spicy and hot as well so naturally I always 'accidentally' pour in a little too much chilli when cooking such foods.

Jai and I originally cooked this dish in our little flat in Liverpool, UK as we were working our way through Jamie Olivers Recipes in the Ministry of Food book that my lovely Sister bought us as a moving house/ county present.

We liked it so much that we've used this recipe every single time we've wanted to cook fajitas since.

I hope you enjoy just as much as we do :)

Semmelklöße (German Bread Dumplings).

So last year my boyfriend Jai and I decided to make a list of things we wanted to do, no matter how small or big they were, we put them on the list. So right under Jai's wish of wanting to go on an overseas holiday, he also had 'Make German Bread Dumplings'.

I'd never heard of them before but I guess they appealed to him as we have indeed traveled to Germany as well as many other European countries.

He sent me a link to a recipe which you can find HERE and they looked pretty interesting, so I decided the next time we were together cooking, that we would make them seeing as though I had all the ingredients already in the pantry.

I wanted to do a little bit of research as I always do, so I found out that these German Bread Dumplings are also known as 'Semmelklöße' and are in fact from Bavaria. You can serve them with just about anything, whether it be a traditional stew or soup, or even served with a pork chop and apple sauce.

Update :)

So I've been totally slack at looking at everyone's delicious posts and making posts of my own, for a good few months now!
I haven't had quite as much spare time on my hands since moving house and getting a new job to post everything I've been cooking.
Despite the lack of time, I've been making more of an effort than ever before to have home cooked meals at least 5 times a week. Having said that I do have a frozen meal in the oven right now.... I'll forgive myself though as it is currently bucketing down rain here in Melbourne and I don't feel like popping down to the shops!

Sweet memories of Chicken Tikka Lasagne ♥

When my lovely boyfriend and I moved to England a couple years ago, after 6 months of not working, living the high life just outside of London in my Sisters beautiful home, eating whatever we wanted when we wanted, lots of trips to the quaint little pub down the high street and traveling to Germany, Poland, Ireland and Scotland.... we were pretty much left broke. (Which is to be expected I guess!)

So after that, we moved up North to Liverpool where the wages are cut in half, but the price of living is also amazingly cheap.

So for the first few months we did all our shopping at a giant, tacky supermarket that you will know as 'Iceland'.

Basically most of their food is frozen and processed to the max, and the very few fresh ingredients they have shouldn't even really be called 'fresh'.

However, ONE good thing has come out of our experience with Iceland, and that is the day my boyfriend spotted their 'Chicken Tikka Lasagne' and an absolute steal at £1 for a pretty large portion.
Our curiosity got the better of us, and we decided we HAD to try it.
Once we did try it, chicken tikka lasagne became a weekly meal in our house. It was amazing.

So more than two years after we found it (and four months after we moved back to Australia) my urge to have this dish again was too intense so I decided to make one from scratch and wing it.
And wing it I did, If I don't sound too cocky! The first mouth full brought me right back to some of the happiest moments of my entire life, snuggling up to my boyfriend on our broken wooden couch happily eating our £1 dinners whilst watching some corny show like Deal or No Deal. 

That to me, is bliss :)

Potato Röschti with Egg, two ways!

So I finally broke my healthy spell with one of the greatest foods in the world. My serious weakness is the humble potato...

And what better way to enjoy potato than make up a freshly cooked potato Röschti (or Rösti in German).

I guess some would argue that this is more like a hash brown or even similar to a Jewish Latke (minus the flour) but I'm going to call it a Röschti just because I feel like it.

Anyway, the other night I had some potatoes getting slightly old and also some eggs in the fridge that I wanted to use up, so I googled Röschti & egg and stumbled across THIS recipe from 'Food is my Life' and decided to go along with her idea of cracking the egg on top of the Röschti and mixing it through, but I also decided to make one more where I simply cracked the egg on top and let the egg whites set before dishing it up so the yolk was all runny.

Click below for the recipe :)

Baked Tortellini with Tomato, Olives & Ricotta.

I am dying to post something hugely greasy and unhealthy, okay what I REALLY mean is that I want to EAT something hugely unhealthy like this mouth watering Southern fried chicken recipe in one of my older Masterchef Australia magazines where they went to America. However.... my Mum & I are still trying to be 'good' and are trying out all the recipes in our Weight Watchers magazine first so low and behold here is another one of my 'healthy' posts!

I do have my Mum to thank for cooking this lovely dish as I have been sick so have been sitting back being as lazy as I can be, so I guess maybe it's a blessing I haven't given in to temptation & sat there with some fried chicken goodness....

'Healthy' Tuna & Vegetable Mornay Bakes.

So here is my latest Weight Watchers Recipe from the August edition. Tuna mornay is one of my favorite things to eat so I was quite excited to try out this recipe to see if it tasted similar to the creamy, buttery and fatty ones that I can happily eat a whole bowl full in 5 minutes flat!

And it definitely did live up to my expectations, It was creamy and full of flavour and I probably scoffed way more than I should have.
Even though it looks pretty ordinary in the photos don't judge it by it's looks, try it and you wont be disappointed if you love tuna mornay!

As always click the cut below to see more photos and the recipe. And lastly, I just want to thank anybody who has taken the time to read my blogs and leave a comment, it means a lot! :)

'Healthy' Beef Tacos with Guacamole & Salsa Cruda.

So here is another one of my 'healthy posts'. You are probably wondering how on earth tacos can be healthy but the idea of my posts lately is to put a healthy spin on a classic comfort dish like these tacos or the creamy carbonara I posted a while back, by eliminating just one or two of the 'bad' ingredients of the dish or eating it with a nice green side salad to fill you up for longer!

So my mum and I recently bought some ingredients for a few Weight Watchers recipes including these tacos, a tasty pork mince and vegetable stir fry, a creamy tuna and vegetable mornay bake and I should soon enough be posting a lovely salmon patty recipe from the Dietitian at my Mums work!

Click on the cut to see the recipe and more photos :)

Weight Watchers Thai Chicken Burgers.

So lately my lovely Mum & I have been picking up the Weight Watchers magazine from the shops ever since we discovered it actually has really nice, tasty recipes every month.

We always love a good flick through the magazine, but tonight was the first night we actually decided to cook something from it.

While I was away at the BF's house on the weekend my Mum picked out the Thai Chicken Burger recipe and got the ingredients for it ready for us to cook the next night.

I think this recipe appealed to her so much as she is in LOVE with Thai Fish Cakes! Salmon or white fish, I am not sure she even minds as long as it is 'Thai'! So Thai Chicken Burgers it was!

Click 'Read More' to see the recipe and more photo's as usual :)

Cooking Scouse like a Scouser!

I had never heard of the dish 'Scouse' before my boyfriend and I moved to Liverpool in 2009 and was always terribly intrigued to find out what it was and to try it.
So what I did find out quite quickly that Scouse is a beef or lamb stew that was very popular to eat among sailors throughout Northern Europe and especially in Liverpool.
The name originally came from the word 'Lapskaus' which is Norwegian for 'stew' and eventually got shortened to 'Skaus' and now 'Scouse'.

The dish was very common among working class Liverpool as it was a cheap meal to make. The original recipe called for lamb or mutton (usually the cheapest cut available) however my boyfriend and I made it with beef as now it is cheaper than lamb and we wanted to keep it as working class as possible. (Actually, we probably needed to save a few pennies ourselves!)
The recipe also called for chopped onions, carrots and water with stock. Then 'as many potatoes as possible' were added to the dish. And many potatoes we did add!
You are supposed to eat the finished stew with white crusty bread with butter, red cabbage and beetroot.

Anyway, unfortunately Scouse is almost impossible to photograph without making it look like a big bowl of sloppy mush but I can assure you if you take the afternoon to make Scouse it is absolutely SO worth it! So please, please don't judge it by its looks and have a read of the recipe below :)

I should probably warn you of the many photos and stories of Scouse under the cut.

'Healthy' Creamy Fettuccine Carbonara.

Once a month a dietitian comes in to my Mums work to talk to the clients that come in. And that once a month she also brings in a new recipe to hand out to everyone. More often that not, it is also my Mum and her colleagues that love to pinch a recipe sheet and try it out at home!

On every recipe she types up there is a 'traffic light rating' with a key as to what each colour (green, orange and red) mean.
On the table Green = recipe is appropriate for everyday use. Orange = recipe is appropriate for use sometimes and Red = appropriate for use as a treat or on special occasions.

So anyway, this months recipe is 'Creamy Fettucine Carbonara' and has a traffic light rating of Green/ Orange.

Click the cut for the recipe and more photos.

Meat .... and lots of it!

First of all I have not updated for AGES! Actually, I have not even updated since I moved back to Australia from England.

I don't know why I haven't updated, but today I finally got the motivation to write a new post because I got something wonderful and glorious in the mail today and as the title says, it involves meat and lots of it!

I have wanted it ever since the lovely BF took me to Paris earlier this year when we were still living in the UK. We were wandering around the beautiful streets of Paris & in one of the many old book shops, I found a book all about meat. I flicked through it and saw a recipe for 'Lamburgers' and for 5 euros thought it was a bargain.

Admittedly I was quite flustered from walking hours on end around the gorgeous city and like the difficult child I am when I get flustered, refused this amazing book when my lovely boyfriend offered to get it for me.

I had all afternoon and night to think about this book and by the next morning I desperately wanted it again, so off we trudged to go get it.

We got there and the shop was closed for the next two days and we were flying back to the UK the day before it would open back up again.

Anyway, I've always known how much my boyfriend loves me, but for him to put up with my tantrum about being flustered the first day we found it, catch the metro 25 minutes the next day to go and get it again, comfort me when I was sulking about the book store being closed, then search the internet when we got home to find this mysterious 'meatbook' which I had somehow forgot the full name of, find it on Ebay in America, then pay quadriple the original amount we saw the book for in Paris.... Now that is what I call love and tolerance and the whole ordeal has made me appreciate and love the book even more (And him of course!!).

So if you are reading this my lovely BF, Thank you so much for your love and for my beloved meat book!

Enough stories now. I will reveal my Family Circle, Meat Cookbook from 1954!