Tag Archives: Main Meals

PORK SPARE RIBS AND FRIED RICE

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Pork spare ribs and fried rice what nicer combination is there? And to top it all off my children cooked it for usJ. I just love that the kids enjoy to cook and are willing to cook an evening meal for us (and I didn’t have to ask them, they just came up to me and said that this is what they were cooking for dinner). When a child is willing and enthusiastic to do something, you need to nurture that energy and provide them with the right materials for them to move ahead and develop their skills. Oh and of course I was willing to have a night of cooking.

PORK SPARE RIBS

This was a simple marinade that we often wack together for chicken and pork. For this recipe the pork marinated all day in,

Sweet chilli sauce

Whistershire sauce GF

Soy sauce GF

We don’t have any measurements for the amount of each sauce but you do need enough to coat the ribs.

When it is time to cook the ribs you can do this on either a fry pan or on the BBQ, but please be careful not to burn the marinade.

fried rice pork belly

FRIED RICE

Rice cooked in the Thermomix according to the instructions in the everyday cook book. Once cooked it was put aside to cool while the other ingredients were being prepped. The other ingredients were beacon pieces, egg and a packet of frozen veg.

In a wok place some coconut oil to prevent too much sticking and allow it to heat up. Then add your egg that has been gently whisked together and allow it to almost cook before you give it a gentle stir and allow it to cook all the way through. Now that you egg is cooked put it into a bowl and set aside while you cook the beacon pieces and heat through the veg. When the veg is heated start mixing in your rice a little at a time so that it separates and starts to fry. After all the rice is added you can now add the egg and mix it through. All you have to do now is serve it all up on a plate and enjoy your hard work. J

A HOUSE AND ROASTED TOMATOES

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Well Lucas Lifestyle is once again having a change in their lives and moving into a house after travelling the country for 13 months. Going from a little expanda caravan to a 5 bedroom house has been fun and exciting. There is so much room and now I have to call out for the girls if I need them to do something (I used to only have to whisper). The best part of the house is that there is a full sized kitchen with a full size oven and full size bench tops, something I haven’t had for quite some time. This beautiful house that we have moved into is on a magnificent  5 acres near the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. There are loads of fruit trees, 5 veggie and herb patches, and a Taj Mahal chook pen which now houses 10 free range chooks, I’M IN HEAVEN.

Full sized Kitchen

Courtesy of the people that lived in the house before us we have an abundance of tomatoes so for tonight’s dinner we had Roasted Tomatoes with basil and chilli. Such an easy dish to prepare, yet so full of flavour.

ROASTED TOMATOES WITH BASIL AND CHILLI

A load or cherry tomatoes

Basil (or herb of your choice)

Chilli

Coconut Oil

Salt and Pepper

  • Wash and dry your tomatoes, then cut them in half and place them into a roasting pan or equivalent.
  • Finally chop your chilli and herb and sprinkle over the top of the tomato.
  • Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a little coconut oil.
  •  Roast in a pre heated over at 200 degrees for around 20 min or until the tomatoes collapse.

Roast Tomatoes

 

ZUCCHINI SLICE

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While staying in my friend’s backyard in Maroochydore I have been taught this wonderful recipe and am keen to share it with you all.

2 zucchinis cut into chunks

1 carrot cut into chunks

1 onion quartered

1/2 cup GF self-raising flour

3 eggs lightly beaten

Feta cheese (I use Sheep)

Method:

  1. Place the carrot and then the zucchini into the TM bowl grate 2 sec / speed 9.
  2. Once grated remove from TM bowl and squeeze all the juice out. (this can be done with a nut milk bag or in a strainer)
  3.  Place onion in TM bowl and chop 1 sec / speed 9.
  4. Place all the veg into a bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients and combine well.
  5. Put your mixture into a greased oven proof dish and cook for 40 min / 180 degrees or until cooked through and golden brown on the top.
  6. Allow to cool for around 15 min / ½ hour. Enjoy

Squeeze the juice from the zucchini and carrot is very important for if you don’t your slice will be to moist and end up as just hot slop 🙂

FISH

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Hello every one I haven’t dropped off the planet, I’ve just been really busy with traveling this wonderful country of ours and not having much Internet service or time. I’ve also been attempting to teach our 3 wonderful children.  The good news is though I have been working on a few recipes and special posts in this time so more is coming your way.

Since my last post we have traveled from the bottom of W.A to nearly the top of W.A and seen some most amazing sights. Exmouth and Karajini would have to be my most favorite spots so far.

 

 

Well this blog is about food so I better stop rambling on about where we have been and start talking about the wonderful food that we have been eating. As we have been heading north we have been staying in a lot of free camp sights and unpowered sights, so Thelma (the Thermomix) hasn’t been coming out of the cupboard very often. When we stop at a powered sight I replenish all my flours, milk and mayo, and cook up a few cakes and things like that for the next week.

While in Exmouth for a few days Matt was lucky enough to go out fishing with friends of friends. He didn’t catch much but as a boat they caught a nice amount, so our Engel is now a freezer with lots of fish fillets in it. As a result of the fishing we have mainly been eating fish for dinner in every way possible. We as a family have decided that fish bites (nuggets) are our favorite (I will add a quick recipe for these at the bottom).  Our second favorite would have to be the easiest way to cook fish but it is so yummy, you simply get your fillet and some fresh garlic and cook it in your fry pan.

 

FISH BITES

Fish fillets of your choice cut into bite size pieces

Rice flour

Egg

Coconut milk (or milk substitute)

Crumbs (we used corn flakes)

 

Lightly dust your fish bites in rice flour. Mix together your egg and milk and then coat your floured bites in it. Place your crumbs in a zip lock bag and once your bites are coated with the egg and milk place them in the crumbs, zip the bag and shake to evenly coat them with crumbs. You are now ready to cook them. We shallow fry ours in coconut oil,  we also do them in a few batches to keep a good hot temperature so that they turn out nice and crispy.

PASTA ROCKET SALAD WITH FIG

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I would like to ask you this question.  Whose kids love to cook and create their own food?  Mine do, our eldest loves to cook. I think she gets this from her granny and a little from me, our middle daughter just loves food and our youngest is just coming of age to do most things by herself. With three girls into food and cooking means I don’t have to prepare all the family dinners, and as of late our oldest daughter has been making us the most simple yet delicious pasta rocket salad. I think she got the idea from a supermarket website and changed it a little to fit into our diet.

Going off the salad topic for just a little bit. It will fit in eventually but this story needs to go back a few days so that I can catch you up on the full story. FIGS!! I just love fresh figs. My husband and children just don’t share my enthusiasm for them but they do like them (not everyone can be as good as me). Well where we are staying at the moment there is a big public fig tree (what a find) and it is fig season (even better find). So every couple of days we have been going down to this tree and picking fresh figs. Everything we have been eating has figs in it which gets me back to Natalia’s pasta rocket salad (now with fig). What a great taste match, rocket and fig. I hope you all try this recipe it is so fresh and easy.

 

Pasta rocket salad with fig

 

GF pasta

Rocket

Cherry tomatoes halved

Chicken

Figs

DRESSING

Sweet chilli sauce

Lemon juice

Crushed garlic

 

First you need to cook your chicken I use any pice of chicken with no bones and cut it into strips or dice and season with Herbamare . Set your chicken aside to cool and cook your pasta as per their instructions.

Add the rest of the ingredients into a salad bowl. Once the pasta is cooked and you have drained it add it to the salad bowl and mix well without breaking your pasta. When you are ready to serve, drizzle with your dressing and enjoy.

I was thinking that instead of figs you could add mango, or even spiced poached pear.

So simple yet really exquisite. Hope you all enjoy it.

NIBBLES

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Time flies when you are having fun. Not only have I been enjoying the sights of the Margaret River region I’ve also been busy trying out new recipes. Trying new recipes has been a little tricky with Matt working night shift and the girls and I having to relocate to the local library during the day while he sleeps. All the recipes that I have been trying still needs some more tweaking before I’m willing to share them with you. Just so you keep your appetite here are a few things that I’m working on, Sweet potato slice, Flat bread and Bagels.

There are a simple things that my family and I enjoy on a regular basis and I would love to share it with you. There is no set recipe just amounts of what you would like to eat.

NIBBLES

 

Nibbles, how much more info do you really need. This is so easy to prepare and is always a winner in our house. My girls love to have a choice about what they are eating and when I serve up a table full of carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber, sun dried tomatoes, olives, artichoke harts, egg plant, smoked oysters, crackers and a dip of any flavor, they don’t know what to start with. We always find that every time we have nibbles there is always one thing that gets finished first but it is never the same thing every time. Other nibble ideas are capsicum, cherry tomatoes, boiled eggs, apple, nuts and even chips (home made are the best).

VEG & TUNA

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Ok here is something ridiculously simple yet it is one of my favourite lunches.  This one is good for the working person that needs to get lunch ready quickly or for those that want a quick fix for dinner.  I often have this for lunch at work where I am the generally the only one there and need to answer phones and serve customers.

Veg and Tuna

1 bowl of frozen vegies

1 small can of tuna

Herbamare seasoning

 

Heat the bowl of vegies to desired temperature.  Season with Herbamare seasoning and then place the can of tuna on the top.

It’s as easy as that, now all you have to do is find the time to eat it.

PIZZA

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When you start on a new way of eating you go through cravings for the things you used to be able to eat. This is quite normal, food is addictive and you have become accustomed to that way of eating. I am no different. I like pizza but only good pizza, I don’t really like the big chain pizza companies. I’ve been making home-made pizza for some time now but it was time to change the recipe so that it was GF and DF. Adapting the recipe to be GF was the easy part, but what about all that cheese that goes on top?  Replacing that stumped me for a little while then I remembered, one of the big chain companies puts egg on their pizza. What if I made an egg and coconut milk mixture for the top of my pizza?

 

Pizza

1 packet of Laucke GF easy Bakers bread

I mixed this packet according to the instructions and found that it was a little wet so I just added coconut flour till it was at a right consistence to roll out.

1 packet of bread made 2 pizzas

 

Tomato Paste

Cut up vegetables of your choice

2 eggs whisked with an equal amount of coconut cream (this is for the replacement of cheese)

 

Roll out your dough and place on a pizza tray, spread on the tomato paste and add your toppings (not the egg mix yet).  Place your pizza in the oven and then pour the egg mix over the top.  Cook till golden brown.  You are now ready to eat your very own home made pizza.

VEGGIE SALAD

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The fridge is starting to look a little bare, it’s almost time to go out and do the groceries.  But before I do let’s use up what’s in the fridge.  I asked the kids to make a salad to go with our chicken wings so that when we got back from our ride we could eat dinner. There was no lettuce! What would we do?  The content of our fridge was something like this,

Cucumber

Tomato

Celery

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Sweet potato (we didn’t use)

Brown onion (we didn’t use)

The girls made the nicest salad with the above ingredients. All were used raw, with a little salt and pepper. The broccoli and cauliflower were chopped into fairly small pieces. Yummo thanks girls you are the best!

FRESH SPRING ROLLS

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We are heading out of town for the weekend and when we go away I like to do most of my prep work before I go so that I can enjoy the weekend away as well. Getting together with family and friends always means stacks of food and plenty of drinks. This is a nice light refreshing snack or meal that will keep nicely in the fridge for 24hours.

Fresh Spring Rolls

1 packet rice paper

Lettuce shredded

Carrot grated

Celery julienne

Sprouts

Fresh mint

Chicken breasts diced (you can use any meat or sea food)

Your favourite seasoning (I like herbamare seasoning)

Coconut oil for cooking

I don’t have exact quantities on the ingredients because it all depends on how much of each you like in your roll. You can add any other ingredient or take out any, depending on your tastes.

Prepare all your salad ingredients and place them in individual containers so that you can put a little of each in your roll.

Dice your chicken breasts and coat in your favourite seasoning. Heat some coconut oil in a frypan or wok and cook you meat. Allow this to cool before you put together your rolls.

Follow the instructions on the packet of rice paper and make your rolls.

Dipping Sauce

2 Tbsp. Fresh Lime juice

1 tbsp. Fish sauce

1 tbsp. Water

1 tbsp. Sweet chilli sauce

2 Tsp Fresh grated ginger

2 cloves of crushed garlic

Crushed Almonds

Put all the ingredients into a jar and close the lid, now it’s time to shake shake shake. You are now ready to sit down with your family and friends and have a magnificent feast.