Make it Monday!

Today I have set myself a challenge. Once again it's food related!! I'm making chicken vegetable soup as the weather is finally cooling down (I LOVE the cold), Bacon, cheese and pesto scrolls for Caitlin's school lunch and a dinner we haven't tried before from Jamie Oliver's web site :)


My Chicken soup is made up of anything really. This time I used:
*400 grams chicken breast (can use any chicken, breast was on special!)
*3 celery stalks
*1 swede, skin off
*3 potatoes, skin on
*1/4 pumpkin, skin off
*1 capsicum
* Handful snow peas, cut in half
*1 onion
*2tbsp vegetable stock powder
*400ml can chopped tomatoes (can use crushed if you like)
*3 beans mix

I diced up all the ingredients willy-nilly keeping the pumpkin and potato slightly larger. Put 1tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. Add all the vegetables and let them sweat off for a few minutes. Fill the pot up with water, add vegetable stock powder and can tomatoes.

Let reduce until the vegetables are cooked and the soup is the consistency you like. Meanwhile put chicken into an oven safe dish and cook on 180c for 20mins. Remove from oven, drain fatty liquid and pull chicken pieces apart with fork. Add the beans and chicken to the soup. ENJOY!!

Sorry for my crappy recipe, I'm not very good at writing them lol.

To make into baby food for Mary-Jane (10 months old), I took one scoop of veggies and half a scoop of liquid and gave it a very quick wizz with my stick blender. Wizz more for thinner consistency.

I searched around for good lunch box ideas and this is what I came up with: Bacon, cheese and pesto scrolls. I used:
*1 cup natural or greek yoghurt
*1 1/2 cups self raising flour
*4 rashes short cut bacon diced
*1tbsp sundried tomato pesto
* Handful of grated cheese (i used tasty, can use mozerella)

Mix flour and yoghurt in a bowl until combined. Place on a floured bench and kneed for 5 minutes. If too dry/moist, add more yoghurt/flour as needed. Roll out using a rolling pin into a rectangle roughly 40cms x 20cms. Spread out pesto and sprinkle on bacon and cheese. Roll dough up from the longer side making a long roll. Slice 5cm pieces (making 8 pieces). Stand them up on a tray so that one of the open ends is facing up and bake in a 180c oven for 20mins. ENJOY!

I have run out of ideas for dinner so I decided to have a look around and try something off the internet. Tonight's dinner is one of Jamie Oliver's recipes: Beef kofta curry with fluffy rice, beans and peas

This photo doesn't do it justice. Lets face it, it looks like dog poo. The kofta did not hold together at all! And  I'm no good at presentation, clearly. I didn't add the peas and beans as my partner doesn't eat them and I felt there was enough going on with this recipe already. Honestly, it was good and I'm still full hours later, but it tasted just like the jar curries. So I don't think I will bother next time. I do feel a sense of accomplishment though :)

xxx