I tried this: White Nutella

I was looking through The Metapicture, and found this:

And I thought to myself, where INDEED is the white chocolate Nutella?

I tried this: Gummy Bear Icypoles

As I was checking out The Metapicture (as I do on a fairly regular basis) I found a recipe for Gummy Bear Icypoles.



These gummy bear icypoles came from
here

I don't know about you, but when I was a little person, my mum had a cupboard filled with Tupperware.

Merry Boxing Day

Merry Christmas +1 to everyone!


What did you get up to? I stayed up until 2am on Christmas morning, roasting a deboned turkey (looked sort of like it had been steam-rolled)

It's Christmas, it's Christmas Time!

In eight minutes it will be Christmas Eve. I am awake because I am cooking a whole heap of things for Christmas Day because we are hosting Christmas at our house. I am cooking things and The Man is washing dishes.

So far I've made

Happy

So a few weeks ago, I decided that I would start eating more healthy food. I have not had the happiest 2015, and have decided that 2016 will be THE YEAR

Slapped hand!

Oops.
For the first time in years of blogging, I have had my hand slapped for posting up a photo that's not mine.
So if you you wanted to see the Shakshuka recipe that I posted last week, I've had to take it down because the photo I put with it came from the original recipe. Never mind I linked to it twice within the post.
Anyway, as I can't afford getting into a cyber brawl, I will wait until payday and then purchase more ingredients to make another batch.
Hmmmmmm....

Chocolate Cake - Take 2

I'm on the hunt for a low-carb chocolate cake that doesn't taste like 'chemical warfare'

This is how I described low-carb chocolate cake on the Facebook yesterday

My tastebuds are so angry at me for subjecting them to the cake I made on Thursday and so yesterday I got The Man to dig out all of my hippy foods to see if I could figure out how to make an edible chocolate cake to appease them.
Who has heard of chocolate mug cake? I found a low-carb version...

3 Minute Chocolate Cake (serves 2)
(Linda's Low Carb Menus & Recipes)

Source

• 1/4 cup almond flour, 1 ounce (I used almond meal) (also, I suppose the 1 ounce is an alternative measure for the 1/4 cup).
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp + 1 tsp granulated stevia
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 egg

1. Place all ingredients into a 500ml microwave safe jug. (if you want, sift the almond flour to get a lighter cake texture - I didn't do this). Make sure you mix thoroughly or else you'll get lumps of cocoa in the cake.
2. Cover the jug with cling wrap and poke a hole through the plastic to act as a vent.
3. Cook on HIGH in the microwave for 80 seconds (or 1 minute and 20 seconds)
4. Leave to cool - it will be very hot.

Was this meal cheap? I can't remember how much almond meal costs as it was already in my cupboard...
*checks the Woolworths website*
It seems that the amount of almond meal that I used in this recipe costs approximately $1, which seems quite reasonable.
Was this meal quick to prepare? Three minutes! The longest bit of preparation was melting the butter.
Was this meal tasty? Obviously sugar-free is not for me. I didn't like it. It also could have used some vanilla because it tasted too dark to me. Maybe I was not built for sugar-free food?
Would my family eat this? Honey liked it, and after giving it a good stir, told me that she had made it herself. I left her to it. Luckily because it only serves two, I didn't feel guilty about dumping it on the plate with my last cake effort.

Healthy chocolate cake

Continuing with my efforts to eat more healthily, I decided to have a go at a low-carb chocolate cake. I ended up sending it to my parents-in-laws house as a thank you for minding the little people while I went to Melbourne to see Dirty Laundry Live being taped.
So here is the recipe:

Low-Fat Low-Carb Chocolate Cake
(Food.com)

• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 cup Splenda (I used stevia instead)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 4 egg whites
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup skim milk

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees
2. Mix cocoa into hot water until there are no lumps left
3. Combine wet ingredients and mix until blended
4. Add cocoa mixture and mix until well blended
5. Sift together dry ingredients
6. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well blended
7. Pour mixture into a 9x13 inch cake tin
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Was this meal cheap? Pretty much. The eggs were the most expensive part. All the ingredients were already in the cupboard.

Was this meal quick to prepare? Yes, but it took a long time to bake. The original recipe said baking would take 25 minutes to bake. It was closer to 40.

Was this meal tasty? Not really. It wasn't very chocolate-y at all and the taste of the baking powder and soda overtook everything else. Also the stevia just made it taste weird.

Would my family eat this? The little people, especially Honey loved it. The Man wasn't too impressed. I thought it was awful.

Shakshuka! Bless you.

Yesterday I had left over pizza for lunch, so when I picked up Honey and she told me that she wanted pizza for dinner (but no vegies on it, OK Mum?) I decided to make something different, but I had no idea what.
So while I was at the supermarket I was googling low-carb dinner ideas, and shakshuka came up, it's a vegetarian Israeli meal. I think?
Anyway, I made a pot (or in my case, a frypan) of it for dinner, and had heaps left, so now I'm eating it for lunch.
It actually made 5-6 serves, but I ate about a third of it for dinner, so I think portion control is something I need to, ahem, address...

Shakshuka (makes 5-6 servings)
(Tori's Kitchen)

My very own photo. Luckily my stove was clean today!

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 medium capsicum, chopped
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes (I used Ardmona because they are Australian grown)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of sugar (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• 5-6 eggs

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil in a largish frypan until the onion has softened
2. Add the garlic and continue to fry on a medium heat until you can smell that its cooking.
3. Add the capsicum and fry until it has softened.
4. Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste to the pan and stir till it is blended.
5. Add the sugar and the spices and allow it to simmer until it starts to reduce.
6. Taste the mixture and then season according to your preferences.
7. Crack the eggs and add them to the mixture (I put six eggs into the mixture as in the picture above).
8. Cover the pan and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes. The eggs will cook on top of the tomatoes.
9. Make sure the sauce doesn't burn!

Shakshuka can be eaten for breakfast lunch or dinner.

Was this meal cheap? I already had most of the ingredients. The tinned tomato and eggs were the priciest bit - the tomatoes were $1.40 a can (multiplied by two cans), and then the eggs were $3.50 for half a dozen. I already had eggs, but I've just bought another half dozen for a recipe I am going to try. But divided by the number of serves, it's pretty reasonable.
Was this meal quick to prepare? Sort of. It took a little while, but I could go and do other things once it was combined, and then just set the timer to remind me when it would be ready.
Was this meal tasty? I reckon this recipe lends itself to add all sorts of ingredients and flavours. As it is, it was quite good (especially if I was going to eat it for breakfast), but I was tempted to add bacon, but then decided not to so I could see what the proper recipe was meant to taste like.
Would my family eat this? Yes. Honey stole some of it as I was eating my tea (just after she finished her 'pizza-with-no-veggies'). The Man might want something more substantial with it, and Buddy just enjoys food. But yes, they would all eat it.

Food confusion

So you may have noticed via my ramblings that I dabble in roller derby.
Well, currently I'm doing Freshmeat training and a few weeks ago they did Level 1 testing, and soon they are doing Level 2 testing.
Since I began derby training I have tried and tried to pass the Level 1 test, which is pretty much a safety test to make sure you can stay upright on skates. On my last try, I failed by .3 of a point. GAH!
Anyway, Level 2 testing is coming at me (all the Freshies are doing it) and there is a fitness component and I'm not really fit so have been practicing push-ups and sit-ups and planks and stuff.
Then I thought, how easy would this planking business be if I weighed less? And I've been googling weight-loss plans and recipes. And I'm totally baffled. One page says more veggies, another says no grains, then there's things like 12WBT and Weight Watchers and Lite N Easy, and the overriding concerns for me are the following:
1. I am poor, and no matter how much I want to lose weight, I can't afford to pay for the privilege.
2. I have a husband who does not need to lose weight.
3. I have children who need all the food groups
4. I am essentially lazy and I like having dinner cooked quickly with minimal mess as I don't like cleaning up afterwards.
So after asking lots of people what I should do and getting lots of answers, I've decided to try everything (I am probably setting myself up for failure).
But anyway - here we go with my first healthy meal option:

Two Ingredient Wholemeal Pizza Dough (makes a large pizza that serves 4)
(Lose Baby Weight)

• 1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
• 1 cup natural or Greek yogurt (I used Pauls Natural Yogurt as it had half the kilojoules of the Greek yogurt)

1. Mix together in a bowl.
2. Knead with your hands until it's springy when you poke it.
3. Roll out with a floured rolling pin.
4. Top with tasty ingredients.
5. Bake in a moderate oven until cooked.

My toppings were tomato paste, mushrooms, red onion and cheese.

Was this meal cheap? Yes. The ingredients worked out to cost about $3-$4.
Was this meal quick to prepare? Pretty much - because the base is just flour and yogurt, I reckon I could prepare a bulk batch of bases and freeze them for whenever I want to make pizza.
Was this meal tasty? It wasn't bad. Perhaps I could have put more toppings on the base, or used some Italian herbs (The Man loves Italian herbs) for more flavour.
Would my family eat this? Probably. The Man would probably supercharge it with toppings - the midgets however like picking toppings off pizza so they'd probably would be just as happy with a bowl of pizza topping and we could forget about the base.

Photo bomb - April 18 2014

April 18 GOOD

This was Honey's first Easter egg, and it was GOOD!

Photo bomb - April 6 2014

April 6 - A TASTE OF AUTUMN

Today was the first time I've had soup. This is all that was left afterwards - just a taste of tomato soup.

Photo bomb - April 4 2014

Today is my cousin's birthday.
Happy birthday CN!

April 4 - GOOD TOGETHER

Tonight we had a pick pick (Honey-ese for picnic) tea in the loungeroom. Fish and chips go really well together, and clean up was easy peasy because I released the pups and they ate all the dregs.

Flipped - BAD TOGETHER 

Since The Man and I got together, AFL has been a bone of contention. I support the Blues, The Man barracks for the Hawks, but comes from one-eyed Magpie supporters.
When Honey was baking, I was so sure that she'd be a boy that I told The Man that If she was a girl, she could barrack for the Hawks.
Hmmm.
When Buddy was on the way, I was smarter. I said that he could barrack for the Hawks IF he decided to be born on Grand Final Day (a couple of weeks before his due date) AND if Hawthorn won the Grand Final (which I think they did?). I even said we could name Buddy after Buddy Franklin.
Lucky because now he's quit the Hawks and become a Swan.
Anyway, as a result, after giving the forces that be multiple opportunities, Buddy is a Blue Boy.

Photo bomb - April 3 2014

April 3 - SHAPES

The teddy bear and dinosaur pasta shapes are always the most popular in our house. I'd argue that the teddy bears are too cute to eat, but that means they get gobbled down all the faster. Poor teddies.

Flipped - LINE

Please excuse my crookedy photo. I was juggling the camera while holding the ruler against the wall.

Photo bomb - April 2 2014

April 2 - IN MY HAND

I made Scottish tablet last week (recipe can be found here). I found some leftover in the kitchen and gobbled it down.

Flipped - OFF MY FOOT

Yes, I have weird looking toes.
I cleaned some green polish off of my toes. Really the flipped prompt should literally be 'OUT YOUR FOOT', but that sounds a bit gory.

Photobomb - March 23 2014

March 23 - I'M LOVING...

I'm seriously unable to buy anything off the menu at McDonald's. I have to add weird stuff to everything.
Today it was a large Sprite with grape Fanta syrup in it. All grape-based soft drinks rock my socks. So delicious.

Photobomb - March 19 2014

March 19 - CROPPED

What a grub. Can you see the mashed potato in his eyelashes?

Photobomb - March 11 2014

March 11 - SOMETHING GOOD

Tell me something good....
The above is what was left of my dinner that The Man made for me tonight. He was going all vegetarian and it was very tasty.
I have another song stuck in my head from the prompt today - then I YouTubed it, and I found another song called 'Something Good' that I've heard before.

Tomorrow's prompt is partial - I don't think I will find a song that that reminds me of. Maybe.

Photobomb - March 6 2014

March 6 - CHAIR

This is Buddy's highchair. He isn't the tidiest eater. The yellow comes from the dahl that we had for dinner the other night. Buddy decided that it was better used as paint.

Photo bomb - Feb 27 2014

February 27 - MY VIEW TODAY

Food. My view was Mongolian BBQ Beef cooking on the stove.
A side note, Honey is soy-intolerant. She ate this and became quite 'sick in the tummy'. I was totally baffled until I saw that one of the main ingredients in Mongolian BBQ Beef sauce sachet is soy sauce.
I'm usually so pedantic about avoiding soy.
I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it, but it was delicious nonetheless.