On a recent trip to the supermarket, I came across tomatoes for $2 a kilo.  If that wasn’t a sign to make my own tomato pasta sauce, I don’t know what was!  This sauce is rich and flavoursome, and can be used on pasta, as a side for chicken or steak, or even drizzled over roasted veggies….its so flexible!  Make up a big batch and freeze it for future delicious meals!  My all time favourite way to have this is with Richelle’s Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Gnocchi, which can also be made paleo.

3 tbs olive oil

1 large brown onion roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic roughly chopped

1.5kg tomatoes, roughly chopped into 6 -8 pieces each

2 tbs sugar (replace with your fave paleo sweeter for Paleo)

¾ cup red wine

1 stock cube (I used beef, but you can use vegetable if you prefer)

Italian dried herbs

Salt and pepper to taste (be very generous!)

In a large saucepan, add the olive oil, onion and garlic, and lightly fry until translucent.

Add tomatoes, sugar, red wine, dried herbs, stock cube and salt and pepper.  Use plenty of herbs and salt and pepper!

Cover and simmer for 30-40 mins, until tomatoes have completely softened, and are falling apart.

Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly.

Using a hand stick blender, blend the sauce until almost smooth (or keep it slightly chunky if you prefer your pasta sauce this way)  You can also use a jug blender if you prefer.

Return the pot to the stovetop, and simmer on low for 30—40 mins to let it thicken.

Serve on your favourite pasta.  I love it on gnocchi, check out the recipe for Richelle's Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Gnocchi (Paleo)

I had a craving for some authentic, home made real Italian Mama gnocchi with tomato sauce.  A quick google on a Saturday night came up with nothing but cheap and nasty pizza and pasta in the outer eastern suburbs.  So I took matters into my own hands, and this is what I came up with!

A slightly healthier bent on the usual high carb potato gnocchi, this one is mostly pumpkin, with a bit of sweet potato and a couple of baby potatoes.  I've made both the paleo, and non-paleo version, and both are as equally delicious!  They are a bit fiddly to make, but so worth it!

500g pumpkin

1 small/med sweet potato

2-4  baby potatoes (optional, don’t use for true Paleo)

1-2 cups plain flour or almond meal  (flour gives you the true gnocchi texture, but almond meal still gives you a great result, and keeps it paleo!)

Roughly chop the veggies, leaving the skin on, and boil or microwave until soft.

Roughly mash the veggies with a masher.

Now comes the fiddly bit.  Using 1/3 of the mash at a time, squish the mash through a large fine metal strainer with the back of a tablespoon.  This separates the skin and makes the mash super fine, which is key for this recipe.  Alternatively you can use a Potato Ricer if you have one, its like a large garlic press for spuds, and its super quick!

Allow your fine mash to get cold.

Once cold, add enough of your flour/almond meal and mix with a knife to form a dough like consistency – this will be 1-2 cups.  Move onto a lightly floured board, and lightly knead, and form into long thin logs.  

Cut into small gnocchi pieces, approx 2-3cm long.  Roll with fingers into gnocchi shaped pieces.  If they are too sticky, coat with a very small amount of flour/almond meal.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and add gnocchi pieces in 2-3 batches.  Keep water boiling continuously.  Gnocchi is ready when it comes to the surface, use a slotted spoon to remove from the pot.

Serve immediately with your choice of pasta sauce.

*I put mine a casserole dish, and covered them with Richelle's Rich Red Wine Tomato Sauce (Paleo).  I stirred in a little shredded parmesan, sprinkled some extra parmesan on top, and baked it in the over at 220 degrees for 10-15 mins, until the cheese is melted.  

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but this meal is DIVINE!!

When I opened my Kelly Bros veggie box this week, and saw the big ugly tomatoes, first thing I did was hold one to my nose....and BANG!  I was rewarded with that sumptuous aroma that only ever seems to come from homegrown tomatoes....you know that smell that makes your mouth water, and makes you want to take a bite, as if it was an apple?  This was it.  In case I didn’t love Kelly Bros already!!

In my opinion, theres only 2 things to do with amazing tomatoes....serve them on salada biscuits, or make Caprese Salad!!  So I thought I’d share this super easy, beautifully fresh and tasty salad, one I fell in love with on my first trip to Italy, in the city of Turin.


INGREDIENTS 
2 large tomatoes (beefsteak, or something equally flavoursome)

1 large ball buffalo mozzarella (or bocconcini) – you will find this in the gourmet cheese section, sold in a tub of brine or water

¼ bunch fresh basil

Good quality olive oil (basil infused is great!) for drizzling

METHOD

Thinly slice your tomatoes, and set aside.

Thinly slice your mozzarella into discs, and then cut through the centre of each disc, so that you have a pile of flat half circles.  Set aside.

Tear the leaves of your basil off the stem and set aside.

On a plate, lay down a slice of tomato, then a slice of mozzarella, then a couple of basil leaves, layered in an offset fashion so that you can see a small part of each ingredient.  Continue in this order until you have used all your ingredients. 

Drizzle your olive oil over the whole salad, and garnish with any leftover basil leaves.

Serve alone as an entree (like they do in Italy), or as a side dish.

Preparation time: 5-10 mins

Serves: 3-4 as a side dish

With temperatures soaring, refreshing salads and smoothies are most certainly the order of the day.  This week we are thinking a little outside the box, using both kale and beetroot in these simple, yet refreshing recipes.  Special thanks to Sheryl Brooks for creating the test kitchen this week, and sharing with us her delicious creations!

Kale & Beetroot Salad.

Serves 2 main 

3 Cups packed Kale, Stalks removed and (kept for juicing), leaves thinly sliced.

Juice for 1/2 lemon.

2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil.

Pinch Salt.

Pinch freshly ground black pepper.

150 gm Fresh beetroot diced.

50 gm Fetta diced.

1/2 Carrot shredded.

1. Combine kale, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

2. Using your hands massage for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add remaining ingredients, toss and serve.

Beetroot and Kale Juice

3 Cups packed Kale (plus the extra stalks from the Kale & Beetroot salad).

1 1/2 Fresh beetroot peeled.

3 Carrots ends chopped off.

1/2 lemon.

A lighter take on Indian favourites – guaranteed to help you avoid feeling like you need to be rolled away from the table afterwards!

Using cauliflower to replace rice is my new favourite thing. By cooking in stock, you lose any bitterness usually associated with cauliflower, and, like rice, it can take on any flavour you like, from Italian, to Mexican to Indian and beyond, the options are endless. And with cauliflower having around a quarter of the calories found in the same amount of cooked rice, it’s tasty AND easy on the waist!

INGREDIENTS

Cauliflower “Rice”

• 1 large cauliflower
• 1 green capsicum, diced
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 4 tablespoons curry powder
• Mango chutney (to serve)

Tandoori Chicken

• 2-3 chicken breasts, sliced into small strips
• 200g natural yoghurt (retain a few teaspoons for serving)
• 2 tablespoons tandoori paste (gluten-free)

METHOD

1. Combine the tandoori paste with the yoghurt until it turns a light pink colour.
2. Add the chicken, and ensure that each chicken strip is covered in the yoghurt mixture.
3. Put in the fridge to marinate while you are preparing the cauliflower.
4. Remove the leaves and the large stalks from the cauliflower.
5. If you have a food processor, using the chopping implement, process the cauliflower heads until they are medium to finely chopped. If you don’t have a food processor, finely chop the cauliflower heads until they take on a crumbly consistency.
6. Add the chopped cauliflower to a large saucepan.
7. Add the chicken stock and the curry powder to the saucepan, and mix to combine.
8. Add the vegetables to the saucepan.
9. Bring the cauliflower “rice’ to the boil, and allow to simmer for 30 mins, stirring as required.
10. While the cauliflower is simmering, remove the chicken from the fridge.
11. Heat a large non-stick frying pan.
12. Fry the tandoori chicken in small batches, to ensure they are cooked evenly. These are intended to be “dry” fried, however you may need to use a small amount of oil to avoid sticking. Do not overcook, to avoid it drying out.
13. Once the cauliflower is cooked, drain off any excess liquid in a strainer.
14. Serve curried cauliflower, with tandoori chicken piled on top, a dollop of yoghurt, and mango chutney.

Its Friday, that means its time to be a little decadent for the weekend!!!  Its time for a gloriously light, perfectly sweet yet tart, Lemon Tart!  This is a great to take to a friends BBQ, and impress the pants off them!

Its very simple to make, and for something so delicious, doesn’t take that long to prepare.  Theres no oven cooking, though allow an hour for the base to set in the fridge, and 20-25 mins for preparing the lemon curd.

Equipment you will need:

Ideally you will need a springform pan (thats one of those pie pans with the removable base).  It makes it so much easier to remove from the pan, and allows you to maintain a restaurant quality appearance!  Though you will see from the pics that I used  I silicone pie dish, and that worked pretty well too, as you could peel it off!

You will also need a heatproof bowl, I just use a glass bowl, as you will need to make the lemon curd in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.

Finally, you will also need a food processor, or similar electric chopping device to process the biscuits into crumbs!

Ingredients:

Base

•  185g Marie or Nice biscuits,
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•  90g butter, melted
• Pure icing sugar, to serve
  

Lemon curd

• 3 lemons (finely grated rind from 1 lemon, juice of all 3 lemons)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar (if you want it super tart, decrease this amount to taste)
• 125g butter, chopped
  

1. Lightly grease a 2cm-deep, 24cm (base) springform pan (dont stress if yours is bit bigger or smaller, it will still work!). 
2. Process your biscuits into a fine crumb.  Add nutmeg, cinnamon and melted butter, and mix (or process) until combined
3. Press into base and sides of prepared pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Make lemon curd:  Whisk eggs and sugar together in a heatproof bowl until well combined. 
5. Add lemon rind and lemon juice, whisking constantly until well combined. 
6. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow base to touch water). Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 20 to 25 minutes or until thick and custard-like. Do not allow to boil. 
7. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
8. Pour lemon curd into chilled tart case. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or as long as you have – Ive made this by setting it for just 2hrs!). Dust with icing sugar and serve.
9. For best results cut with a hot knife, and serve with cream or ice cream.
   

Theres a pattern here - this one take no time to prepare either!  It takes about 5 mins to open packets and pour them into the slow cooker!  

Many thanks to my friend Bindy for this pearl of a recipe (which I've tweaked slightly!)!

• 2-3 chicken breasts 
  
• 2 x 300g jar salsa (or the equivalent homemade salsa) – you could also replace 1 jar with 400g tin of crushed tomatoes
  
• 1 sachet taco seasoning
  
• 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans, drained
  
• 1 x 200g tin corn kernels
  
• ½ bunch fresh coriander
  

1. Place the chicken breasts in the base of your slow cooker.  Pour salsa and taco seasoning over the chicken, and stir until seasoning combined.  Make sure that the chicken breasts are covered bottom and top by the salsa.  If your breasts are thick, you may need to use a rolling pin or a mallet to flatten them slightly so they are covered
   
2. Cook in slow cooker on low for approx. 8hrs. 
   
3. 15 mins before serving, using a fork, shred the chicken, it should easily fall apart.  Then add the kidney beans, corn, coriander and continue cooking on Low for 15 mins.
   
4. Serve with tortillas, guacamole, sour cream and fresh greens
   

Serves 4

Heres something I threw together last night, and it came out AMAZING! Thought Id better write it down before I forgot what I did! Would be rude not to share!

Super quick and easy, just throw in what you want. Prob took me about 15 mins prep time.

Meat

• 500g steak, roughly diced ((the cheaper the cut the better)
• ½ 1/2 cup plain flour
• Ground pepper (i used pepper steak seasoning)
• Salt (I used chicken salt)
• 2 tsp gravox
  
• 2 tbs olive oil

Sauce

• 1 cup red wine
  
• 3/4 cup water
  
• Generous dash wostershire sauce
  
• Packet French onion soup mix (home brand rocks!)
  
• 2 tbs gravox
  
• Bout 5 good squirts of BBQ sauce
  
• Few shakes chilli powder
  
• Few tablespoons flour or cornflour (to thicken)
  

Veggies

• Leek
• 10-12 button mushrooms, sliced thickly
  
• 2-3 Carrots, roughly chopped
  
• Handful green beans 
• Handful fresh parsley
• 2-3 Potatoes, roughly chopped (optional)
  
• Any other veggies you like!

1. Combine about half a cup of plain flour with ground pepper, chicken salt and approx 2 tsp of gravox in a large zip lock freezer bag.
2. Add cubed meat to the seasoning in the freezer bag, and shake to coat thoroughly.
3. Sear beef quickly in oil in a heavy frying pan to seal in the juices.  Just seal the meat, Do NOT cook it through.
4. Place meat in a medium to large slow cooker 
5. Lightly fry the leek in the same frypan with the same olive oil, and add to slow cooker
6. Combine red wine, water, wostershire sauce, French onion soup mix, additional gravox, bbq sauce, chilli powder and additional flour in the same frypan over low heat till thickened. Stir well to break down the flour (although really, the lumps don’t matter, they disappear in the cooking!) Add more or less of each ingredient as per your taste. Sauce should have some thickness, but easily stirred. Add more water if required. Add sauce to slow cooker.
7. Add veggies to slow cooker. Stir to coat all ingredients. Cook on low for 7-8hrs.
8. Approx 30 mins prior to serving, check the thickness of your stew.  If you want to thicken it, add 1-2 tbs of cornflour, stir through, and allow 30 mins to thicken.
9. Serve on its own, or on a bed of mashed potato, or cauliflower mash
10. ENJOY!!!

This is such a quick and simple way to prepare a yummy breaky the night before.  It seriously takes about 5 minutes to prepare, and you wake up to the aroma of freshly stewed apples..mmmm....

• 2-3 apples, roughly chopped (skin on is fine)
  
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
  
• 1-2 tsp brown sugar (to taste)
  
• 1 cup rolled oats (use regular oats, not quick oats)
  
• 2 cups water
  

1. Throw apples in bottom of a medium to large slow cooker.  
   
2. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the apples
   
3. Pour the oats evenly over the apples (do NOT stir)
   
4. Pour the water evenly over the porridge, again do NOT stir - this keeps the layered structure
   
5. Cook in slow cooker on LOW for approx. 8hrs.  Serve hot first thing in the morning!
   

Serves 2.

This cake is super easy and yum yum yum!  Shane particularly loves this one for his work lunchbox.  Its sweet enough to taste great, but is still pretty low on the bad stuff!  Whenever I make this for special occasions, Im under strict orders to make sure I make 2 - one for Shane, and one for everyone else!

Low fat too as there's no butter or oil!

Enjoy!!!

Cake

• 1/2 cup SR flour
  
• 1/2 cup plain flour
  
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar (depends on your taste)
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
  
• Few shakes cinnamon
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 120g Heinz baby pear purée
  
• 1 1/2 cup grated carrots
  

Now its up to you if you want to ice this beauty - its quite nice without it, but if you are after something decadent...

Icing:

• Philly cream cheese (the third less fat one not the fat free one...yuck!)  NB.  You can also substitute cream cheese with Tofutti, which is a tofu cream cheese (non dairy).  Still tastes great!
  
• Icing sugar (enough for personal taste)
  

1. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ones in another. Mix together.
2. Grease or line a square baking dish with baking paper. Slop the mix in and tap on bench to let settle.
   
3. Cook in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 mins. Test with skewer before removing. Should be super moist!
   
4. Allow to cool on wire rack.
   
5. When cold, mix icing sugar with cream cheese to taste. Spread over cold cake. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. 
   
6. Guard it with your life...this cake will disappear in a flash!
   

Have you ever wished you could become one of those amazing chefs that actually had the time to bake fresh bread?  Sick of buying shop bread that lacks substance?  It all ends here...in just 3 SIMPLE steps

• Throw your ingredients into a medium-large food processor
• Allow the loaf to rise for 1hr
• Bake for 25 mins
  

The result is a piping hot loaf of bread that smells just like the bakery, and tastes even better!  This is so easy that you could make a loaf of bread everyday!  Shane's never really been a bread eater, but thats changed with a fresh loaf, filled with hearty "keep you full for longer" ingredients.

You can even mix and match ingredients depending on your taste - wholemeal, grainy, even raisin or fruity!

Heres the details.  You will need to follow the instructions the first time, but if you are anything like me, its so simple that you can just do it from memory after that!

• 3 cups of flour (make sure at least 1 cup is white flour, but the other 2 can be a combo of any flour eg. wholemeal, oat bran, wheat germ, ground flax, even gluten free flours etc).  My favourite is 1 white, 1 1/4 wholemeal, 1/2 rolled oats, 1/2 LSA
  
• 2 tsp salt
  
• 1tbs dry yeast (or one packet)
  
• 1 tbs sugar, honey or other sweetener
  
• 1 tbs oil (olive oil, canola, nut oil or butter)
  
• 1 1/2 cups of very warm water
  

1. Setup your food processor with chopping blade.  The bowl should have at least a 9 cup capacity to allow for movement of the dough.
2. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor bowl and pulse several times to mix
3. Combine the warm water with the other wet ingredients (oil and liquid sugar if you are using) in a large measuring jug with a pouring mouth
4. Turn of the food processor and slowly add the liquid ingredients through the food chute. Occasionally pause to allow the food processor to catch up.  Add this slowly, as you probably wont need to use all of the liquid!  Once the dough forms a ball and pulls away fromt he bottom and sides of the bowl, DO NOT ADD ANY MORE LIQUID!.  Allow the food processor to run for 1 more minute to "knead" the dough.
5. Turn the dough onto a cutting board that has been dusted with flour.  It should be sticky and pliable.  Quickly knead the dough for about a minute and form it into a log shape.  Lightly coat the surface with oil and set in a loaf pan coated with non-stick spray.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about an hour (in a warm place), or until the surface has risen above the top of the pan.
   
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 mins.  It should sound hollow when you tap it.  Once pan has cooled enough to handle, turn it upside down, and cool on a cooling rack.
   
7. Cut with a bread knife, and enjoy warm,.  After day 1, this bread is best as toast - cut it thick, and toast it.  
   
8. I usually freeze my leftovers for toast at a later date.
   

Note - for bread that tastes like hot cross buns, add 1/2 cup of sultanas, 1/4 cup of chopped dates and 1tsp of cinnamon to the dry ingredients.  The smell and taste of this will make you weak at the knees!!