Hot Apple Strudel

I'm a big fan of apple strudels, apple crumbles and apple pies. Well, anything that has to do with baked apples. I don't like apples as is, in its raw state, let alone a Granny Smith apple. So the only way I will ever eat this fruit is if you cook it or bake it, one way or the other.

This is one of my all time favourite desserts - hot apple strudel. Served hot with rich vanilla ice-cream...yum...yum...o yum! Everyone needs to try and make this at home. It only took me 15 mins to prepare and 35 mins to bake. The smell of this freshly baked dessert after 25 mins of baking will make you want to take it out from the oven right away and dig in.

I've made this dessert twice already this week. Once when a friend came over for dinner and another just for hubby & I to indulge in whilst watching a dvd on a lazy Sunday night. It seriously is worth the effort. You will not regret making this!


Hot Apple Strudel
(serves 4)

1 sheet of low fat puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp raisins

- Preheat oven to 180C
- Line a baking tray with foil and top with baking paper
- Thaw the puff pastry at room temperature on the baking tray until it is easy to handle
- Make egg wash by stirring the egg and water in a small bowl
- Mix the caster sugar, flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add in the apples and raisins and toss to coat
- Spoon the apple mixture onto the middle of the puff pastry. Leave 1 cm from the side edges. Then fold the top and bottom parts of the puff pastry together to seal. Then tuck the ends under to seal the sides.
- Brush the pastry with egg wash
- Cut slits that are 2 inches apart on top of the pastry
- Bake for 35 mins or until golden
- Cool on the baking sheet for 10 mins
- Slice and serve this warm with rich vanilla icecream

Pumpkin, Spinach & Haloumi Salad

I tried this Pumpkin, Spinach & Haloumi salad at a local cafe a few weeks ago and thought it was totally delicious. The sweetness of the pumpkin mixes well with the saltiness coming from the haloumi cheese. This is not a quick salad to put together but one that is well worth the effort.

For those you who are not familiar with Haloumi cheese - it is a cheese made from a combination of goat's and sheep's milk, it's white, salty, its texture is semi-soft and because of its high melting point, the cheese is often grilled or fried before serving with salad or vegetables.

Pumpkin, Spinach & Haloumi Salad
(serves 2)

2 handfuls of spinach leaves
1/2 butternut pumpkin, sliced
100g Haloumi cheese, sliced to 0.5cm-1cm thick
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper

- Grill the butternut pumpkin slices until soft
- Grill the Haloumi cheese until golden
- To make the dressing, whisk the extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper in a small bowl until well combined
- Combine spinach, grilled pumpkin and dressing in a bowl. Divide between plates. Top with grilled Haloumi.

Dark Chocolate & Blueberry Muffins

I varied the ingredients I used in making my White Chocolate & Blueberry Muffins to come up with this dark chocolate version.

Follow this recipe but add in 1/2 cup of cocoa and replace your white chocolate pieces with dark chocolate chips.

Turkey, Spinach & Zucchini Quiche

If you're not hungry after work and have an hour to spare, try and make a quiche for dinner.

You can basically put anything as part of your fillings, be it ham, spinach & fetta cheese, mushrooms, capsicum....in my fridge, I had turkey slices, a bag of spinach and half a zucchini leftover from the night before...so I used these ingredients for my fillings tonight.

One thing that's different about this recipe is that instead of using the traditional milk/cream/half & half, I used a 99% fat free buttermilk that was already sitting in my fridge. I didn't know if it would work but experimenting with food is a typical foodie behaviour and so I gave it a try. The quiche turned out perfectly and was extremely tasty. My hubby ate 3 pieces of it and I had to tell him to stop stuffing himself!


Turkey, Spinach & Zucchini Quiche

6 pieces of Turkey slices, diced
1 handful of spinach leaves, sliced
1 zucchini, diced (I used 1/2 as I only had this much left after the other night)
3 stalks of parsley, chopped finely
2 eggs
250ml buttercream
1 tsp salt
dash of black pepper
1 handful of low fat shredded chedder
1 piece of shortcrust pastry

- Preheat oven to 180C
- Lay out a piece of shortcrust pastry and let it thaw
- If you are not using silicone, lightly grease your pie pan (I used a 25cm pie pan)
- Once the pastry has thawed, mould the pastry into the pan, smoothing the edges and the rim carefully. Use a fork to poke holes on the pastry. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add in buttercream, salt & pepper. Combine well.
- Add in turkey, spinach, zucchini and parsley into the buttercream & egg mixture. Combine well.
- Add cheese into the mixture, leaving some to sprinkle on top of the quiche later when the filling is in the pan. Stir in.
- Pour the filling into the pie pan.
- Sprinkle the top with more cheese.
- Bake this in the oven for 45-50mins. When baked, take the quiche out of the oven and let it rest for 10 mins before serving.
- Serve this with salad.

Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta Salad

When you come home from work wanting something tasty, healthy and takes only 30mins or less to prepare, this Warm Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta salad is for you.

As soon as you get home, just do 2 things:
(1) take the chicken out of the fridge and marinate it
(2) boil water in a pan for your pasta
When you've finished getting changed and cleaned up, the water should be boiling. Start preparing your pasta and pan frying the chicken pieces. Toss your salad leaves and pasta together with your desired dressing then placed the cooked chicken on top. Voila!


Here's my Warm Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta Salad recipe:
(serves 2)

2 small chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 tsp English mustard
2 tsp honey
1 tsp minced garlic
1.5 cups of pasta spirals
6 button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 zucchini, sliced
1 handful of rocket leaves
1 handful of parsley, chopped
99% fat free Caesar dressing
black pepper

- Place the chicken pieces in a bowl and marinade them with mustard, honey and minced garlic.
- Boil water; add in pasta and cook for 10 mins until al dente.
- Place button mushrooms and zucchini slices in a frying pan, let this cook through then set aside.
- Place the marinated chicken pieces on the pan and let it cook until brown on both sides.
- Toss rocket leaves, mushrooms, zucchini and parsley in a large bowl; add in cooked pasta. Add in your desired amount of dressing; toss well together.
- Serve salad on plates; topped with chicken.
- Add in black pepper if desired.

White Chocolate & Blueberry Muffins

One failed attempt after another in 2 weeks gave me the illusion that yes, I am not made to bake muffins. The last 2 attempts in making muffins turned out to be disastrous. When you are longing for baked goods and decides to spend 20 mins preparing and waiting an additional 25 mins for them to bake, one would be anticipating some wonderful, cake-like delectables right? Well, the last 2 times I baked, I felt like I was cursed. My 1st attempt was in making Spiced Peach Muffins, whilst the 2nd attempt was in making Mixed Berry Crumble Muffins...both were meant to be really nice but NO, my damn muffins stuck to the paper cases and the insides of the muffin came out doughy. I swear I didn't miss a step and followed the recipes to the T. So what went wrong? I've made cupcakes and muffins before and never failed so dismally. After thinking it through, I think it HAS TO do with those DAMN muffin paper cases I bought from Coles. If you ever go to Coles, DON'T EVER, EVER buy the muffin cases by the makers of "Bakeit" - these muffin cases look cute on the outside, with mini bananas and strawberries printed on them but don't be fooled - don't use them because your muffins will stick to the paper and you will have to literally rip the paper off your muffins.

Today was my 3rd attempt in making muffins - my 3rd time in 2 weeks. Lo & behold, they turned out soooo well! This time, I didn't use those cursed muffin cases but instead used my other cheap, plain, white & foiled muffin cases which served me well many a times. The muffins I tried this time around were White Chocolate & Blueberry Muffins. These turned out soooo well!! The muffins were very light and fluffy, and just right with the amount of sweetness. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I'm going to use this recipe and improvise a bit next time to make Dark Chocolate and Cherry Muffins. First we'll need to clear these puppies off first - which shouldn't be too hard! They're really really yummy. I'm so happy my 3rd set of muffins turned out so well. Let's just say I will never use those cursed muffin cases again and if you ever come across them in your supermarket, remember this - DON'T BUY THEM!


White Chocolate & Blueberry Muffins
(makes 15)

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
125g white chocolate, cut into chunks
2 lights, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g butter, melted
1 punnet of blueberries

- Preheat oven to 180C. Line your muffin pan.
- Sift flour into a large bowl. Add sugar and white chocolate chunks. Stir until well combined.
- Whisk eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter together in a separate bowl.
- Use a large metal spoon, stir butter mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Gently swirl through blueberries.
- Spoon mixture into muffin pan. Bake for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 mins. Turn onto a wire rack. Serve.

Prawn & Chives Fried Rice / Watercress, Carrot & Pork Soup

Watercress, Carrot & Pork soup is a typical Cantonese style soup. What typifies a Cantonese style soup is that the soup is a clear broth that is prepared by simmering meat and other ingredients (vegetable and sometimes herbal ingredients) for several hours. You may eat the ingredients with your soup or dish them out and serve them with a little soy sauce to eat with rice and other prepared dishes.


Watercress, Carrot & Pork Soup

1 bunch Watercress, washed thoroughly
1 large carrot, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 piece of pork fillet
2 dried dates
salt to taste

- Add 3/4 water to a pot and bring this to the boil
- Add in pork fillet, carrots and dates
- Add in watercress
- Turn the heat down to medium and let the soup bubble away for 1 hour
- After 1 hour, turn the heat down to allow the soup to simmer for another hour
- Add salt to taste

I used pork fillet in the soup but some people prefer to use pork bones or chicken bones. If you are using pork bones, bring the water the the boil and add in pork bones first and let this boil away until all the bone marrow and scum float up to the top of the water. You will need to skim this away otherwise it will leave specks of grey in your soup so it won't look as clear. I used pork fillet because it's very lean so there is no need to skim off any fatty residue from your soup. Another tip worth noting is that you should boil your water first before you add in the watercress - if you don't, your soup will be bitter - that's what my mum told me.

You should be able to find ingredients such as watercress and dried dates in your local Chinese grocery stores. The dried dates, carrots & pork add sweetness to the soup and when the soup is boiled, the taste and smell of watercress is very apparent. Soup is very good for you. Drinking soup apparently gives you nice skin and who doesn't want that?

I also made Prawn & Chives Fried Rice to go with our soup tonight. Hubby says I should clear out everything that's in our fridge/pantry before I'm allowed to buy anymore groceries. He thinks I go overboard when it comes to food shopping. I guess he's right! So for this coming week, I will attempt to come up with dinner ideas from food that we already have at home so I'll need to be creative.


Prawn, Chives & Ginger Fried Rice
(serves 2)

1 cup brown rice, cooked
8 frozen tiger prawns, thawed then cut
1 bunch of Chinese chives, chopped
2 tsp grounded fresh ginger
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp soy sauce
white pepper to taste

- In a frying pan, add in the ground ginger. Stir-fry until fragrant.
- Add in cooked brown rice. Coat well with fried ginger.
- Add in chopped chives. Mix well with rice.
- Add in prawns
- Stir-fry until all of the ingredients are cooked and mixed well together
- Add in lightly beaten egg. Mix this in thoroughly and should coat the rice. You don't want large lumps of egg in your fried rice.
- Add in soy sauce. Stir.
- Sprinkle white pepper to taste. Stir.
- Serve immediately

Chinese chives are flatter, longer and has a stronger smell than chives you may normally find in your local supermarket. The chives and ginger make the dish very very fragrant. It's worth trying this version over the typical fried rice you may find in Chinese takeaway stores. It's very tasty and extremely easy to make.