I think I just fell in love...

.... with a low fat dessert ;)

When I don't have plans on a Friday night, I love cooking up something yummy so I can enjoy the leftovers. Plus, while I love entertaining, cooking by myself means there's no pressure to get the meal cooked to a set time and I save money. Although, Billie can get pretty demanding with the requests for scrapes...


 In line with my diet regime (which I am proud to say, the weight is still falling off), I cooked 'low fat' recipes. I say 'low fat' because while they are healthy and diet friendly, I most certainly do not feel like I'm missing out. 


So what did I cook? Beef, red wine and mushroom pot pies and steamed chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the pot pies (after all, it's my favourite: slow cooked beef in a red wine sauce with the added benefit of a flaky pastry layer on top) but, I was most impressed with the dessert. Seriously, if I didn't know it was low fat, I would have easily been convinced that it was not hip-friendly (it was that good!).

Lamb.

Another week, another kilo lost :) Billie (my cat) discovered the joys of catnip this weekend. Cats I've had in the past weren't interested in it, but I witnessed first hand the effects catnip can have on a cat. He was smelling it, rolling in it, eating it, and blissfully lying in the middle of the floor, occasionally playing with his tail for the best part of the weekend. He was most definitely in a happy place. On the plus side, he didn't attack my feet during my sleep once!


After a not so great week at work, I decided lamb would be the best comfort food (seeing as the catnip has no effect on me :p). Slow, slow, slow roasted lamb served with skordalia. This lamb was virtually falling apart after 4 hours in the oven, definite comfort food. I decided to cook a Greek-style dish this weekend, which is what I had originally planned to cook for the girls weekend in the Blue Mountains. Skordalia is a basically a potato puree with lemon juice and garlic, I guess you can call it a dip and it went well with the lamb, which was seasoned with garlic, lemon and oregano.


And for dessert? Crepes with caramel apples. Note to self: hot caramel burns like crazy! A teeny tiny drop touched my finger, and it hurt like crazy... Fingers crossed for a better week to come :)

And just one more for the weekend

Cupcakes: I won't actually be allowing myself to eat any of these but I promised my team at work that I would be baking something for them this weekend, so I've delivered on this promise with chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing (and sprinkles ;))

More weekend cooking....

This post outlines my 'treat' for the weekend (a treat for having lost weight this week):

- Plum pork dumplings
- Caramel chicken with pickled cucumber

I love the concept of sweet caramel and sour sauces in savoury food, especially in Asian style dishes, and teamed up with the pickled cucumber really lightened the dish, and adds that important crunch element. And on reflection, this dish is actually pretty healthy - Winning!

The plum pork dumplings I actually made up myself. I basically made a dumpling mixture of pork mince, plum sauce, finely chopped garlic, and grated ginger. I then folded the mixture into some gow gee wrappers and cooked them gyoza style (fried in a pan for a couple of minutes to crisp up the base, then added some water, whacked the lid on and let them stream for 2-3 minutes more to cook the filling and the rest of the dumpling).

Wintery weekend

Well, the weather this weekend has not been too spectacular. After some beautiful days during the week, the weekend was grey and dismal.


I've been dieting this week (trying to lose the weight I packed on during last weekend's eating efforts! :p), and I'm proud to say the meals in the post are indeed diet friendly, and more importantly winter friendly:


Slow braised lamb shanks with mushroom ragout, and panna cotta with cinnamon cherries.


The panna cotta melted a little bit, as you can see from the picture, but that was because I had to dip the moulds in hot water to get the panna cotta out, and unfortunately because the panna cotta, being low fat, was primarily low fat milk, low fat yoghurt and gelatine, it melted quicker then the full fat versions I've made in the past, but - wow, it tasted just as good as the real thing and the cherry sauce was delicious (it was basically a jar of cherries simmered in their juices with a cinnamon quill until the sauce reduced, and it was then cooled in the fridge). And of course, who doesn't like slow cooked lamb shanks.... diet? what diet?

A weekend in the Blue Mountains

Last weekend some of the family and I ventured to the Blue Mountains. I must say, I was thankful for my smart phone and its GPS function as the planned route to get to the Blue Mountains couldn't be taken due to a complete road blockage on the Great Western Highway. So my trusty GPS took me via the back roads - on the Birds view line of road, which was very hilly and windy, and FULL of trucks trying to also find their way to the Blue Mountains. Very scary trip, as the trucks were traveling along at full speed on a rather small road. But I made it in the end to Blackheath in the end, and lets just say my family knows how to eat! I would like to travel via that road in not so busy times again though, there was stacks of apple orchards where you could pick your own apples, not to mention lots of apple pies for sale.


I cooked dinner on the Friday night, which went down quiet nicely (I think). I stuck to a relatively simple (and yes, French again!) menu considering I was cooking for 15 people. The menu was:

- Beef Bourguignon
- Ratatoullie 
- Potato and onion gratin
- Garlicky green beans
- Apple and cinnamon Clafoutis (for dessert).


I'm not one to normally include recipes in my blog, mainly because the thought of typing out the recipe doesn't intrigue me ;) but the Garlicky green beans were easy peasy: green beans blanched in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, drain them, then return the beans to the pan and add butter and crushed garlic, then toss until the butter has melted.


On the Saturday some of us went for a drive to Katoomba and we had the most delicious brunch (including scones with jam and cream) at the Paragon cafe. Very cute cafe :)


Then Saturday night my lovely cousins cooked a Christmas dinner (that's Christmas in July), with lashings or roast meat and vegies plus trifle and pumpkin pie for dessert. Sunday morning was followed by a huge fry up of all the left over food, and then it was time to venture home (this time at least via the Great Western Highway which was a blissful drive in comparison to drive in :p).


Thanks to the family for a great weekend and I genuinely hope we can do it all again next year xx

Cheers!