Chicken Lasagne

There is nothing better than a good hearty meal for Sunday dinner and no matter how many years go by, I will always come back to use Pippa's chicken lasagne recipe. It is 10/10 every time. Today I had to make it a pasta bake as I discovered we had no lasagne sheets when I went to put it together, but it still hit the spot.

Pippa's Chicken Lasagne

1 white onion 

4 cloves garlic

2 chicken breasts

2 heads broccoli

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can corn kernels

300ml thickened cream

2 tablespoons dried basil

grated cheese to top

1. Dice onion and mince garlic and fry off in oil until softened

2. Dice chicken and fry until brown

3. Add chopped up broccoli, corn kernels, cream and cans of soup. Mix well

4. Allow to simmer on a low heat for 5-10 minutes.

5. Put a small amount of mixture with a little water, then spread evenly on the bottom of your lasagne dish.

6. Layer lasagne sheets and chicken mix until you have the last of your chicken mix as a top layer. Then top with grated cheese and bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 50 minutes or until browning on top and bubbling.

Serve with baked potatoes and a side salad. Delish!

Lemon Baking

I am obsessed with lemons. Everyone who knows me knows that. Baking things with lemons is my actual favourite and I am all over that every time someone sends lemons my way.

This week I made:

Easy Lemon Cookies

115 grams Butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 ¾ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

Lemon glaze

1 cup icing sugar

3-4 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions:

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius (160 fan forced)

2.     Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add vanilla and egg and beat again until combined.

3.     Sift in flour, baking soda and salt. Add lemon juice and zest. Beat briefly until soft cookie dough forms.

4.     Roll cookie dough into balls (approx. 1 ½ tablespoons of dough each) and bake for approx. 12 mins each or until golden om the edges. Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

5.     To make the lemon glaze, sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time and mix with a fork. Keeping adding lemon juice until you reach your desired consistency. You want the glaze to be smooth, but thin enough to drizzle.

6.     Drizzle glaze over cookies. Leave 10-15 minutes to set.

These were amazing! I will totally be making them again. So much lemony goodness in them!

Moist Lemon Cake

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon lemon zest

½ teaspoon salt

125g butter

 1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon vinegar in a cup, then fill with milk)

Lemon syrup

¼ cup lemon juice

3 tablespoons icing sugar

Lemon icing

1 cup icing sugar

1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon milk 

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius (160 fan forced)

2.      In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, lemonzest and salt. Set aside.

3.      Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 5 mins. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.)

4.      With mixer on low speed, add eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla and lemon. Beat on medium high until combined.

5.      Mixing again on low, add a third of the flour mix, and mix until combined, repeat with half of the buttermilk, then another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and the rest of the flour. Mix until all combined.

6.      Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 mins until cake is golden brown and a tester comes out with minimal moist crumbs.

7.      Let cake cool for about 15 minutes in the pan. Combine the lemon juice and icing sugar to make syrup. Remove cake from tin and transfer to a cooling rack, the brush syrup on the cake while it’s still warm. Allow to cool completely.

8.      When cake is cool, combine all the icing ingredients, start with 1 tbsp of lemon juice and milk and add remaining lemon juice as needed. Icing should be thick and not runny. Ice cake and let dry before serving.

This was also really yummy! Give me all the lemons. I'll bake until the cows come home.  

Spaghetti soup

I am very well known with the kids for making things up as I go along when I am cooking. Every recipe I use, I generally substitute things, so it very rarely ends up how it is "meant" to be. But I love seeing what I can come up with.

This week I made spaghetti for dinner - then really had a hankering for soup, so I made up something on the fly that I then referred to as "spaghetti soup." I was blown away when I gave it to the kids in a thermos for school, thinking they would come home and be like, whyyyyy did you give us soup? waaaaaaaa. Instead, both of them raved and asked to have it for dinner that night too! Shocked to my core. Spaghetti soup was born when I poured the leftover spaghetti from earlier that week into the vegetable soup I made up. Easy!

Basically it was:

Chopped leek

Diced brown onion

Diced zucchini

Diced carrot

Diced celery

Can of tomatoes

Can of tomato soup

85g of tomato paste

Diced potato or sweet potato

Chicken stock - or water

But I have made it a few times since and basically you can add anything you want and it works. Plus it's actually delicious. I threw in my left over spaghetti the first time, but after that, half a packet of whatever pasta you have on hand does the trick.

It's our new family fave!

Chocolate chip banana muffins

After my baking spree at Jen's over the weekend, I also inherited a bag of giant dark chocolate chunks that she wasn't going to use... so I found another random recipe online from inspired taste and got to work with some more manky bananas from my fruit bowl. I swear there is no in between with my kids. It's either eat them all, or eat none of them. It's fine with me if I keep getting to bake with them all the time!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

70 grams butter - melted

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bi-carb soda

¼ tsp sea salt

3 ripe bananas mashed

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup chocolate chips

 

Heat oven to 160°C (fan forced). Line muffin cups with paper liners. Makes 12.

Whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, bi-carb soda, and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the melted butter, mashed banana, egg, and vanilla until blended.

Add the banana mixture to the bowl with dry ingredients, then combine. Do not overmix.

Stir in choc chips. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 20 - 25 mins.

 

Can confirm, they were delicious! Especially the chunks. Another recipe for the banks.

 

Spaghetti Casserole

This is one of the greatest meals of my childhood - Spaghetti Casserole. My mum used to make it all the time when I was a kid and it is so delicious! I make it often as an adult and without fail, if I make it for someone as a drop off meal or they have it at our house, they want the recipe. I always thought it was an old family recipe that Grandma Goodlet used to make, but mum recently corrected me, she tore it out of a Women's Weekly magazine when she was younger. Baha. Still an absolute winner no matter where it came from! I posted a picture on my instagram story when I made it a few weeks ago and my cousin messaged and was like, oh my gosh I remember that! That stuff was the best. Yes it is.

Spaghetti Casserole

250g spaghetti (half a standard pack)
250g beef mince
3-4 rashers short cut bacon
1 large onion
170g tin tomato paste
2 cups water
Grated cheese to taste

Cook pasta according to packet directions, rinse when cooked and set aside
Dice onion and fry until brown, add diced bacon and fry off, then add mince and do the same.
When all the above are nicely cooked, add the tomato paste and 2 cups water. Allow to simmer until well combined and slightly thickened (only thickens a little!)

Assemble with half spaghetti, half meat mixture, then a layer of grated cheese, then repeat.
Bake at 160°C (fan forced) for 30 mins, then allow to stand for 10-15 mins before serving. This allows it to settle, or it just falls apart when you try to serve it.

Tomato relish

Who knew I would be the person making jars of pickled stuff in my kitchen? Not me, that's for sure. But as time goes on, I feel more inclined to increase my food storage and make things in my home for our family. I love baking and sharing what I have made - and now that my kids are obsessed with tomato relish (seriously - a standard breakfast here is toast spread with butter, tomato relish and sliced cheese. I really can't blame them either - it's delicious!) I felt like I needed to make my own. Mum has been making it for years and when her neighbour (same one that gave me the incredible vintage dresses) gave her some of her own batch recently, she decided to change to her recipe as it's amaaaaazing. So today we made tomato relish. Two triple batches in fact.

TOMATO RELISH

1360g ripe tomatoes

1 tablespoon mustard

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 small tablespoon curry powder

450g white onions

1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour

450g white sugar

1 cup vinegar

salt to taste

Method:

Cut tomatoes and onions into small pieces. 

Put contents into dish, add salt to taste, mix then cover and leave overnight.

Drain in morning, add one cup of vinegar, boil for five minutes, then mix in cayenne pepper and sugar.

Mix flour, curry and mustard with a little vinegar, then add to the tomato mixture, boiling for one hour. Stir regularly to avoid mixture sticking to the base of the pot.

Bottle while hot.

This is definitely a story for generations to come. I had to cut up eight and a quarter kilograms of tomatoes, then almost three kilograms of onions last night. Poor Madeline decided to stay up and wouldn't go to bed because they didn't have school today and kept crying because the onions were so strong. Literally sitting on the couch crying from the fumes - but wouldn't go to bed. It was hilarious. She'd rather have her eyes on fire than go to bed. 

So today we made up our witches brew as dad called it, then bottled it (hot tip, put the jars in the sink in hot water first so they warm up and don't crack cause the mixture will be boiling.) ready to be eaten. Yum. 

We did really well, there was only one jar that didn't pop seal at the top

and we got 24 jars from our mix! So happy. I am sure that will take us a while to get through.

wpc christmas goodie plates

it's that time again - and i have slaved away for countless hours in the kitchen in order to plate up the western power good trays for 2020.

this year i did a few new ones - including a licorice allsort slice, a white chocolate and cranberry slice, a timtam hedgehog slice and a caramilk rocky road - along with my standard chocolate truffles, choc chip (santé) cookies (this is the standard edmonds recipe, but mine are a little different as below), chocolate rocky road, brownies, caramel fudge, salted cracker toffee (and peanut butter pretzels and kisses to boot, but i can't take credit for those.)

Licorice Allsort Slice 

Ingredients

125 grams Butter, diced

½ Cup Brown Sugar, Packed

½ Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk (180ml)

1 Cup Licorice Allsorts, sliced in half

1 x 250g Packet of Milk Arrowroot Biscuits (crushed) 

Icing

1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar

1 Tablespoon Butter, Melted

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

2-4 teaspoons Water

(If making Lemon Icing, add zest of one lemon and use the lemon juice in place of the water.)

Instructions

Lightly grease a 25 x 25 cm slice tin, or prepare with baking paper, and set aside.

Using a food processor, crush the biscuits to a fine crumb and set aside.

Slice the licorice allsorts and set aside.

In a large sauce pan add the butter, brown sugar and condensed milk and heat gently until the butter has melted but do not boil, remove from the heat.

Add the crushed biscuits and licorice allsorts to the saucepan and combine well with a large wooden spoon.

Pour into the prepared tin, press mixture down firmly and smooth with the back of the spoon and then aside and prepare the icing

 

Icing

In a medium bowl add the icing sugar, melted butter and vanilla and stir to blend.

Add water a teaspoon at a time, stirring well, until you have a thick but pour-able consistency.

Spread this over the prepared slice, give it a jiggle to settle the icing.

Place in the fridge to set, or overnight, then slice and store in the fridge until needed.

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White Chocolate and Cranberry Slice

 

Ingredients

1x pkt 250g milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed

3/4 Cup (75g) Desiccated Coconut

½ Cup (75g) Dried Cranberries

155g White Chocolate

100g Butter, cubed

395g Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

 

Chocolate Topping

190g White Chocolate

1 tsp Vegetable Oil

 

Instructions

Prepare a 25cm square slice dish or baking tin with baking paper

Using a food processor crush the biscuits to a fine crumb

Add the biscuits to a large bowl and add the coconut and cranberries.

Use your fingers to mix to ensure no lumps of con-joined cranberries are in the mixture and set aside.

In a large saucepan slowly melt together the first measure of white chocolate, butter and condensed milk, stirring often to ensure it does not catch until butter completely melted and ingredients blended together.

Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add to this the crushed biscuits, coconut, cranberries and mix thoroughly.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan and using the back of a large spoon or damp hands spread it around and flatten mixture until it is completely smooth and packed tight.

Put the biscuit base in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes while you prepare the topping

Place the chocolate in a medium sized microwave proof bowl. Heat for 30 second bursts, stirring in between until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Add the oil to the chocolate and combine well, then pour over the cooled biscuit base. (The Oil is to prevent the topping from cracking!)

Place back in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight until set

Bring the slice to almost room temperature before slicing to ensure it does not crack.

Slice using a sharp knife & store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

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 TimTam Hedgehog Slice

Ingredients

250 g milk arrowroot biscuits

2 x 200 g packs Tim Tam biscuits

200 g butter

3 tbsp cocoa powder

⅓ cup desiccated coconut

395 g tin sweetened condensed milk

200 g milk chocolate

Method

Line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tin (which has high sides) with baking paper.

Roughly chop 6 of the Tim Tams into large pieces and set aside until needed.

Place the plain biscuits into a food processor and blitz until they have just broken up. Add the remaining whole Tim Tams and blitz for 5 seconds or until they have broken into large chunks. Place the crushed biscuits into a large bowl and set aside.

Pour the condensed milk into a small saucepan and add the butter and cocoa. Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the ingredients have combined.

Pour the condensed milk mixture into the bowl with the crushed biscuits and add the coconut. Working quickly, use a large metal spoon to mix the ingredients together.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and flatten the surface with the back of a spoon.

Break the milk chocolate into squares and place it into a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave on high for 30 second spurts (mixing in between), until it's just melted. Pour over the top of the slice and sprinkle the Tim Tams you set aside earlier over the top. Place the slice into the fridge for 6 hours (preferably overnight) to set.

Once set, remove the slice from the tin and cut into pieces.

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Caramilk Rocky Road

 

Ingredients

2 x 180g bars Caramilk chocolate

100g roasted almonds (I used the 190g chocolate coated almonds from Woolworths)

100g white marshmallows

100g Maltesers

 

Instructions

Melt the Caramilk chocolate in the microwave in a large glass bowl in 20 second bursts. 

Pour in the almonds, marshmallows and Maltesers then mix together with the chocolate. 

Line a 20 x 20 cm tray with baking paper and pour in the chocolate mixture.

Push the mixture right to the edges.

Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until set. 

Remove from the fridge 20 minutes before you want to cut into bite sized pieces.

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Chocolate truffles

 

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 pkt (250g) milk arrowroot biscuits

2 cups desiccated coconut

 

1. Crush biscuits finely in a food processor

2. Add to milk and cocoa and mix well

3. Take teaspoon sized amounts and roll into balls

4. Roll in coconut

5. Place on baking paper in fridge to set

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Santé cookies

 

​125g butter, softened

¼ cup brown sugar

3 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk

¾ cup desiccated coconut

¾ cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Few drops of vanilla essence

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC (Fan Forced). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cream together the butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder and mix into the creamed mixture, followed by the chocolate chips.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls, place on the prepared tray and flatten with a fork.

Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Leave on the tray for 1–2 minutes then place on a wire rack to cool. 

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Milk chocolate rocky road

 

500g melted milk chocolate

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup chopped peanuts

1 bag pink and white marshmallows (halved)

1pkt coles honeycomb squiggle biscuits (chopped)

1 pkt party mix lollies

 

1. Melt chocolate on a low heat in microwave for short intervals until completely melted and smooth.

2. Mix all ingredients into melted chocolate and pour into prepared tray, refrigerate until just set and then cut into bite sized pieces. 

(really the sky is the limit, you can add pretty much anything you want... glace cherries, any kind of nuts, honeycomb, biscuit chunks... let your imagination run wild!)

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Brownies

 

200g butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

 

1. grease a 20 x 30cm tin, pre-heat oven to 180 deg cel

2. melt butter in a big saucepan on a very low heat, add brown sugar, allow to melt a bit and mix together. do not boil!!

3. add cocoa and vanilla, stir very well

4. take off heat, sift in flour, stir it in

5. add eggs, beat in really well

6. spread mixture evenly in tin, bake for 20 - 25 mins

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Caramel fudge

 

125g chopped butter

395g can sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white choc chips

1. grease and line metal dish

2. in a saucepan, stir butter, condensed milk, golden syrup and sugar together over a low heat until simmering (and sugar is melted!) stir constantly for 10 minutes until slightly thickened and golden brown

3. remove from heat, add choc chips and until mixture is smooth and chocolate is completely melted

4. pour into dish and refrigerate until set. slice with a hot knife into small squares.

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Salted cracker toffee slice

 

1 cup salted butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 cups choc chips

premium crackers

unsalted peanuts

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius, line a baking dish (I used a lasagne sized one...) with baking paper then grease the inside of the paper well.

2. Lay a flat layer of crackers on the paper

3. Melt sugar and butter in a saucepan until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes, until it thickens and sugar is dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly.

4. Bake for 8-10 mins, until toffee is bubbly, then remove pan from oven and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes.

5. Sprinkle choc chips over, allow them to soften and melt and then spread them into an even layer. Sprinkle peanuts (optional!) over top and top with ground salt to create a sweet salty flavour.

6. Set in fridge then cut into slices.

top - salted caramel cracker slice (with christmas sprinkles this year haha)

and brownies below.

white chocolate and cranberry slice

i got photos of these two newbies when they were cooling, but forgot to get one with the topping on, which is probably better anyway, considering they would have just been white then, they look much better when you can see the fillings.

licorice allsort slice

edmonds sante biscuits

chocolate truffles

caramilk rocky road (omgosh, this was amazing, i will absolutely be making this again and i may eat the whole lot on my own!)

milk chocolate rocky road

plating/ packaging in process... 

and ready for delivery!

my first one went to clackline and was plastered on the internet by a very grateful bestie who was busy making her christmas cookies.

we had so many this year (totally becoming famous) that we filled up the esky and worked out the shortest route through ellenbrook to drop them all off. worth the effort though, we are always met with so much love... i'll keep going just for that!

marlee's trolls cake

i finally got to make my first chocolate overload cake this weekend, a trolls birthday cake for my friends sweet daughter marlee. i had always considered making one but had no good reason, until now. but it was super fun. 

i used this recipe that i made jett from next doors birthday cake with, doubled to make four cakes - along with the same icing. 

layered with icing as filling, and coated around with it too, before i started adding decorations

grabbed some bits and pieces from kmart (the rainbow straps) coles (twirls, freddos, hundred and thousands biscuits, curly wurlys and coloured pearls) and the reject shop (windmill lollipops) and thew it all on there til it looked good and finished, then added trolls. bobs your uncle. the birthday girl was very pleased, so i was happy!

happy birthday little miss marlee! 

creamy chicken pasta

there have been quite a few experimental recipes happening in our house lately - one of them being this creamy chicken pasta. please excuse this very unappealing photo, but the kids loved it, even the little nugget that claims not to like zucchini - so here is me recording the recipe for future reference.

based very loosely on a recipe from here:

creamy chicken pasta

-500g penne pasta

-2 diced zucchini

-1 bunch chinese vegetables

-400g diced chicken thighs

-1 teaspoon onion powder

-2 teaspoons minced garlic

-250g cream

-1/2 cup chicken stock

-sprinkle of dried parsley

-parmesan cheese to serve

1. cook pasta according to directions

2.  cook garlic in a small amount of oil until fragrant. add chicken and cook until brown. add diced zucchini and chinese veggies and allow to cook until soft.

3. stir in cream, stock, chicken, parsley and onion powder, allow to simmer until well cooked.

4. add pasta, stir in, then serve. top with parmesan cheese.

homemade bread

so... i gave homemade bread a go... and it wasn't terrible. admittedly i decided later than i should on a sunday afternoon, the attempted to make it quickly, from scratch. many bad ideas there haha. 

but. it wasn't terrible. i picked the first recipe that popped up (which you can find here) that didn't look too hard and went for it.

we ate it piping hot from the oven with butter and jam and it was yum! but i think it will probably be better the more attempts i make at it and the more time i put into it.

it did, however, rise beautifully and i was super proud of that... until i put the uncooked dough in the car to drive to my mother in laws and it started to sink a little in the pan... another rookie mistake.

perfect homemade bread - i am coming for you!

pumpkin pies for sale!

we had a relief society activity in august, with a harry potter theme and i was asked to make some pumpkin pies so we could have one on each house table. i got so many compliments on the evening and had a lot of people ask me after that if i had plans to make them again, so in the end i thought i would see how it would go if i tried selling them!

i took a deep breath, wrote up a little spiel and posted it on facebook... only to sell the entire lot that evening. all twelve of them. i was so, so stoked! i actually couldn't believe it, yet here we are!

i posted them to be available on thanksgiving, to be delivered the day before or the day of, thankfully people wanted them at different times (including some for sunday, to be delivered before church) so i only had to bake them four at a time. with super cool pizza boxes and pumpkin stickers from ebay, they looked pretty pro - and i have had some wonderful feedback. i am so happy! i really enjoyed doing them and feel certain another round next year could be a go.

the one and only piece i had - it was delicious, but i really wasn't hungry for pumpkin pie after making 13 of them! (one for our family thanksgiving!)

here's what i hope will be another successful year next year!