September 2011 view

In the forground is chia plant.

grandmas spaghetti

We call this Grandma's spaghetti from my Dad's mum's version. Ours has tinned tomatoes rather than the original Heinz tomato soup and garlic .My mum makes it Grandma's way.

amounts don't matter much really just start with

500g  organic spaghetti  and cook that up in the usual salty boiling water.

while that is happening:

fry up bacon , onion and garlic

when cooked add a large tin or two 440g tins of  organic crushed tomatoes.

Add dried chives, sugar  (1tsp)  salt & pepper. Dried paprika is nice also.

cook for a while to get the flavours tasty

add cooked, drained spaghetti and simmer until it thickens a bit.

Add cream about 1/4 cup or milk about 1/2 cup (this tames down the acid I think in the tomatoes as does the sugar).

Serve with cheese.

this picture is after the milk has been added.
My Mum adds cheese in the pot but it sticks to the pot and is hard to clean off easily for me!

Indigo 's Avo face dip

Cooked pickled Beetroot

INGREDIENTS:
it takes about an hour to cook on a low heat. The beetroot softens and melds with the flavours. Taste along the way to see if you like the flavours and add more flavourings as you like.
quantities vary depending on amount of beetroot and quality of flavourings ....
butter/oil in frying pan to coat
fresh grated Beetroot
tablespoon of vinegar to start
garlic
fresh thyme (dry works but I think not as good)
powdered cloves, a pinch
salt pepper
sugar if beetroot not so sweet (i usually wait til it is cooked for about 30 min before adding sugar and be sure there is enough moisture to prevent sticking with the sugar)
water if it starts to stick
Eat warm or cold!

simple food, simple equipment

I still can make some ok food with my simple tools. Simplest is my inbuilt food processors, hands and mouth!!

Today's progresesion:
A child wanted an apple smoothie. Sounds a bit strange? It's apple juice in cows milk (I like almond), it taste quite nice. So I had some apple pulp, and apple juice left. I didn't want to waste it so I got the cut up  pineapple  I had in the fridge and juiced that also, now we have apple pineaple juice.

The pulp I added to a mixture of almond meal and shredded coconut I was playing with and had left in the fridge for "something later". I've added ground linseeds, vanilla seeds, coconut sugar and raisins. The mix is drying in the dehydrater in the shape of cookies. Hope they taste OK.

Kale chips worked quite well.
Kale,olive oil, nutritional yeast, salt and fresh finely chopped rosemary. Had no cashews!!

Vegie almond sprinkle:
This happened over a few days.
I dried some shredded cabbage, red carrot, parsnip, orange carrot and onion that had beed lightly coated in oil with a little homemade "herbamare" from a few years ago.
It was ok but a little....(I think i would like them dried separately then do somethings with them) I ground it all up with some dries almond meal and it tastes quite nice, on avacado so far.

a while ago.
Tomato soup
This was yummy.
Fresh and semi sundried tomatoes, 1 medium peeled zucchini, basil, rosemary(just a few lillte leaves), salt, pepper dash olive oil a bit of water and blitzed. I warmed it a little to take the chill off, topped with pepper and rawmesan.

now I'm waiting for nice tomatoes again.

Spinach sandwich

This was fun. Two  spinach leaves. One  spreadwith  cold steamed sweet potato then thick  caramel cashew sauce and and a layer of mixed berries. The second leaf  on top stalk side to the outside, sits better.

cashew nut butter

I made this by pushing the cashews through the fine grind plate in my mincer attachment for the kitchen aid. Then put it through a second time, added a little water to make it pastey.
Today I had it on Kitz crackers with tomato, cucumber and spinach.

Grandad's peas

Just warm fry

Mushroom tomato Salad

Mushrooms and semi sundried tomatoes  were marinated in lime juice, Braggs Aminos, olive oil and pepper. After a while the mushroom and tomato juices mixed and made a tasty dressing. But it looked a bit dull. So I added a garnish of tomato, drizzle of oil and a sprinlke of parsley sprouts. The fetta was for the visitor who "needed" normality so I added fetta!

Curry coconut Pumpkin Soup

I didn't have fresh coconut so I  soaked some dessicated coconut for a while then blended it and strained  through a nut milk bag ( I actually use an Enjo wash bag I had never used).
The coconut milk  went back into the blended with  butternut pumpkin. A spoon of coconut butter, ginger, red onion, salt, curry and tumeric pastes.
Blitzed  again. Strained through the bag again since my blender isn't a powerful blitzer.
The soup was then smooth and creamy.
I warmed it slightly in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Sprinkled with rawmesan. (With the stick blender I graound up a very small garlic clove with raw cashews and salt until powdery).