Free-For-All Friday: food and (in)couragement!

Happy Friday, one and all! I thought I’d share a few special links with you for your perusal over the weekend, but just in case you don’t know what day it is tomorrow, make sure you swing back by to find out!

I’ve had food on the brain this week — I am pregnant after all — and I wanted to share a couple of recipes that might make your day a little brighter before too long!

When I have a couple of extra bananas that didn’t get eaten quickly enough, this is my go-to recipe. I usually have an extra banana in the freezer that was too ripe for fresh enjoyment and three is all I need to make this awesome banana bread. (Four is better, though.) The recipe only takes one bowl, and throwing everything together usually takes me about 15 minutes. I let the Bear help this time and he loved it! I wish you could’ve seen that baby stir — a lot less mess than I expected!

Banana Bread Recipe!

Since I had a special delivery of tortillas a few weeks ago (I don’t like buying them here because they’re pretty expensive) I made these awesome Fajitas a few nights ago. They are SO easy. I use an extra pepper, and this time I tried using a peeler to strip a carrot into nice thin strips to add a little more veggie to the mix. It was a nice addition! (See my pretty picture?) Since the food cooks together before you add the spices and soup (I use a packet of soup instead of a can, btw the way…saving the Rand!), I just take a Bear-sized portion out before adding the soup and spices, and then the Bear’s mouth doesn’t catch fire and we all happily enjoy the meal together. If you like it hot, throw in some chili flakes, a little cayenne, a generous splash of paprika and an extra helping of chili powder. (Just don’t forget to take out a portion for the kiddos first!) ¡Ole!

Chicken Fajita Recipe!

Like Dora the Explorer’s Backpack says, it is ¡¡YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM … delicioso!!

Kristen, over at We Are THAT Family, made a beautiful announcement about some ministry she is involved in getting started in Kenya that is very inspiring. You can read the announcement here!

And last but not least, have you been {in}couraged lately? (in)courage is an awesome website, specifically geared toward women, with an amazing team of writers who pump out beautiful posts filled with challenge and — you guessed it — (in)couragement, day after day. (I wish they’d let me join in the fun with a post or two!) They had their first “guy writer” just this week, so fellas — you can go have a look, too! If you haven’t been by lately, they have a new look and some kickin’ new features. It might just (in)courage you in the direction of a better day!

(In)couragement Recipe!

I hope you have a great and (in)couraging weekend!

xCC

Do you ever…

Do you ever work really hard on making a meal extra pretty by choosing a pretty dish (thank you, mother-in-love) and choosing pretty pasta instead of the normal spaghetti the recipe calls for and then carefully arranging things just so?

And then you take the dish out of the oven, and it’s for a friend who’s just had a baby, and you’re just so happy it turned out so pretty?

And you think it’s so pretty you just have to take a picture or three or seven before you hop in the car to drop it off?

No?

Well, um, me neither.

Just asking.

xCC

Next Week’s Menu

As I was working on next week’s menu in order to do some grocery shopping this afternoon, I thought to myself, man, I wish someone else would create this menu for me! Do you ever feel like you’ve been eating the same ten or fifteen meals in a short-listed rotation day after day? As I finished up the list, I decided I might just paste it here for you. Mayhaps you can benefit from the labour of love which was looking for new and healthy recipes online this morning while simultaneously colouring Veggie Tales pictures and helping the Bear complete his new puzzle.

A few new meal ideas never hurt, and most of these are pretty healthy options from Prevention.com. You can count on me cutting down the salt most of the time, and kicking it up with some spicy whenever I can. Feel free to send some ideas my way so I don’t have to do this all over again next week!

Monday night: Chicken Cacciatore Pasta w/ salad. Mushrooms will not be featured in our version. And some maize pasta I found a few weeks ago will probably make an appearance instead of the whole wheat pasta.

Tuesday night: Moroccan Lamb Stew w/ Couscous
*We buy lamb in bulk here in SA — sorry if this is not an easy one for you — the lamb packs always come with pieces that are good for stewing (and nothing else.) You could probably try it with beef. Who doesn’t love how easy couscous is?

Wednesday night: Arroz con pollo (I will definitely do the throw some veggies in option so I don’t have to worry about anything else. And I’ll probably skip the bay leaves and throw in some of tomorrow’s taco seasoning. Woot!)

Thursday night: Taco Casserole (I’m really excited about this because I found a recipe to make my own taco seasoning. It’s really expensive here!) This might end up being Monday. I’m hungry now.

Friday night: My brother and his girlfriend arrive and we’ll be having a big old Braai with Lamb Chops and Boerewors and baked potatoes. Since that’s probably not likely to be on your menu (if you’re outside SA) feel free to try these burgers I made last week. They were GOOD.

Sorry I haven’t planned next weekend…with visitors around I’m not sure where we’ll be when yet!

Let me know if you try any of these, if you dig the menu sharing, or if I’m wasting my time. 😉

xCC

Tasty Tuesday: Do the Leftover Stretch

I‘ve decided to create a Tasty Tuesday post for Beauty and Bedlam this week, simply because my mother-in-law is a genius in the kitchen, and I need to share the genius-ness with you. I’m obviously not a genius since I just tried to say geniusness. Although I probably put on a few pounds every time we visit Hero Hub’s folks in Bloemfontein, I love it because I learn so much. A small price to pay for wisdom! Mrs. Collie shared this recipe with me for stretching your leftovers, and at first I remember thinking What will I ever use that for? But I most certainly found a use yesterday and it turned out really well. Who doesn’t want to make something new with leftovers, make them go further, and not throw them away? We’re in a recession, people! So here ya go:

Pour Over Pastry

Basically, you spread the leftovers in a baking dish, (for example veggies or foods that have been moistened with cheese sauce or soup packets — they can be sweet or savoury). You mix, pour, bake and voila! it creates a whole new lovely dish! I did it with leftover Chicken Divan last night (which is chicken with broccoli in a sort of curry-mayo sauce) and it was delish.

Here’s the play by play:

First combine:

3/4 cup flour  + 1/2 tsp salt + 10 ml (2 tsp) baking powder

And then add:

one egg, beaten into 125 ml oil* (1/2 cup)  and 125 ml cold water

Mix all that together, pour it over the leftovers, and bake at 180C/350F for 30 – 45 minutes. It will puff up and brown a little…yum.

*I used olive oil because it’s healthier and it was all I had in the flat.

I forgot to take a picture beforehand, but here was the finished product…

Leftovers

Just enough leftovers for a Bear-sized snack today. Yum! Hope you enjoy trying the leftover stretch. Let me know if you do!

xCC

You can check out this week’s other Tasty Tuesdays at Beauty & Bedlam.

The Happy Pick N’ Pay Pictures

I hope you read the story last week about how I was blessed with those pictures at a fraction of the cost at Pick N’ Pay (that’s the name of the grocery store across the street from us, in case you were thinking it had to do with shoe shopping!) I promised to share the pictures of the pictures now that they’ve replaced the others.

Without further ado, I’m very pleased to share the before and after, which I hope will make you smile and rejoice with me!

Before: (frumpy frumpy)

Before, Frumpy

It was kind of boring and the pictures weren’t very good ones for frames that hang on a very bare wall. But with some blessing and some resourcefulness we’ve arrived at:

After: (happy, happy!)

After Yay!

It has made the wall seem so much less bare and more happy to have these warm colourful photos and the ribbon that makes them look like a ‘gift’ with the Scripture (Psalm 127:3) that says children are a gift. Can you believe that ribbon has been reused and reused and initially came off a box of chocolates Mark gave me I think when we were dating?

Have you gotten creative with budget decorating lately? I’d love to hear about it.

Enjoy Your Latte Without the Bucks

Have I ever told you that I have a really great husband? My Hero Hubby is an all-around goodfella. Without the swearing. Among the many things that make him delightful is the fact that every morning, and I do mean every morning, he makes lattes. Proper lattes. Sit still for a few minutes to sip and enjoy lattes. In these days of tight finances, this is a simple pleasure we enjoy every morning. And it occurred to me that you might be blessed by me sharing this information, because you could do the same thing, and save a whole load of cash if you happen to be a Fourbucks coffee addict.

The first thing you need to know is that it is biblically very important that, if you have one, your husband should make the coffee. If you open your Bible, you’ll see that the book immediately following Philemon, just preceding James, says He brews. And that’s proof enough for me. 🙂

The second thing you need to know (and now I’m being serious) is that there are a couple of tools that will make your coffee moment an absolute pleasure. And good news, neither of them is a $500 espresso maker! The first is a stove top cafetiere. Like him:

I make de coffeeee

I got him for Mark for his birthday. He is made by Bialetti. They are not paying me to write this post. If they were, it would be much, much better. (Dear Bialetti, if you want to sponsor this post, holla at your girl.) Other people make these cafetieres too. I just read lots of reviews and heard good things about this one. And I trust the Italians about a lot of things, including ice cream and coffee. They aren’t very expensive. We’ll discuss how they work in a moment.

The second tool that you might like to strap to your belt is a frother. This is not a necessity but it sure does make a difference. For Christmas I bought Mark a frother. It arrived after we had already left for South Africa. (Christmas 2008) It went back to wherever it was shipped from. I was very sad. Eventually in February 2009 it re-arrived and the frothing began.  Since the Bialetti Cafetiere had worked nicely, I went with Bialetti again. I think the character on the front is funny. So this is her, the frother:

I made de milk niiiice

Sorry I forgot to take a picture without Hero Hubby’s hands in it. But you’ll see more of Frother later.

From here, you have a few basic steps to follow. HH did a bit of barista work as a jack of many trades opening Adventure Centres in the UK. So consider these instructions very professional. (giggle)

You’ll start off putting water into the bottom section of the cafetiere , not above the little steam hole you see on the side there. Next you’ll put coffee into the espresso holder in the middle of the cafetiere. How much you put depends on the strength you like it and the size cafetiere you choose. (HH puts about two heaped tablespoons.) Ours was supposed to be a six-cup model, but it seems tiny — perhaps it makes six wee espressos. Anyway, coffee and water, step one. Exhibit A:

fill me upNext you’ll screw the top on the cafetiere and sit him on a reasonably hot stove. Gas really makes this process a little smoother and faster (we discovered in Edinburgh) but our normal old stovetop plates are getting it done just fine these days.

some assembly required

He should percolate until you peek and see a nice dark pot of coffee happily steaming away on top. (About five minutes total.)

It's Time for the Percolator

While you’re waiting for the percolation to take place, you can work on generating some nice milk. We have found that Long Life Fresh Milk, like the stuff that comes from Spar, is really thick and good for frothing, even when you’re not getting the full-fat stuff. I don’t actually know if they make something like that in the States. The consistency is more like soy milk I suppose. It froths better than other milk we’ve tried, but really I think you can work with whatever you’ve got.

Make it Frothy

We started out warming the milk up in the frother on the stove, which is what is supposed to happen. It worked nicely when we had a gas stove. However, now that we are working with electricity again, HH has decided his preference is to warm the milk in a pyrex measuring jug in the microwave (full power, 3 1/2 min per 500ml), and then pour it into the frother and work the magic. I suppose you can decide for yourself which method you prefer. (Note:  HH says the frothing mechanism looked like it was going to warp when the frothing jug got so hot using an electric stove…so perhaps microwaving is the way to go unless you’re cooking with gas. 🙂 )

Microwave it

Once your milk has safely found its way to your frother and has arrived at a hot temperature, the little plunger that looks like the centre of a French Press Cafetiere will froth your milk to a delightful consistency, if you only commit yourself to pumping it up and down for 30 seconds or so. It’s obviously worth the work since HH is willing to do it every day.

And finally, with frothy milk and steamy espresso, you have found the moment you’ve been waiting for. Getcha a big mug so you can enjoy the magic. But first, if you are a sweet tooth like me, add your required dose of the good stuff (2 tsp of golden brown is how I roll). Then pour about a half a cup of frothy milk into each coffee mug. Next, using your best judgement, split the espresso blend between the two cups. Stir. Then add the rest of the frothy milk to the top, and spoon out some fluff so that your cup almost overfloweth. A dash of cinnamon is not a necessity at this point, but in my opinion it sure doesn’t hurt.

Here are the illustrated steps of assembly: Sugar, milk, coffee, stir, top off, and enjoy!

Sugar

Milk Coffee Stir

Top it off

EnjoyIn case you’re wondering, HH’s mug is the “C” mug (it’s bigger) and mine is the Blackbeard’s. It’s a restaurant in my hometown and it feels a little bit like home to enjoy it every day. 🙂 If you decide to try out this delightful coffee making method and save yourself fourbucks or so, let me know!

Here are the product details in case you’re interested in trying this at home!

I don’t think Bialetti is making our particular frother anymore (at least not on Amazon.com — I bought ours in the UK at amazon.co.uk), but here are some similar ones: