Lunch & Dinner

     My Bolognese Gnocchi Bake is a recipe I used to make all the time years ago when the kiddies were younger. It was relatively cheap - mince, a bottle of tomato pasta sauce, packet gnocchi and some cheese. It was an under $10 dinner and so easy. Well I still cook it but change it up a bit now that I have a tmx. I make my own sauce but still use store bought gnocchi. You can certainly use thermo gnocchi. A half batch from the EDC/Basic Cookbook will be plenty I'm told. This is a great one to have in the freezer for an easy dinner. Just pop [...]

  I love lasagne. I thought I'd change up the flavours a bit. My partner was not impressed with the thought of steering away from traditional beef lasagne. Now, he did try it but of course he didn't loooove it.  He said it was tasty but preferred beef. The kiddies on the other hand devoured it. They couldn't get enough. I left my pumpkin in big chunks. If you think your kiddies may notice and be horrified, blitz the raw pumpkin in the tmx on speed 9 until fine. You can sprinkle it on the layers with the sauce etc. You can add additional veggies into the sauce like celery, [...]

   My partner loves anything honey mustard so this is a popular dish. You can certainly cook all your veggies on the stove and double or triple the amount of chicken and sauce. Just remember when doubling you will need to increase the time by 20%. Double the sauce will be plenty though. If you want a subtle tasting sauce, reduce each mustard component by half. You can serve the chicken and sauce over rice or pasta if desired. Instructions for the stove top are below.  

    My boys love anything in a wrap. Its a great way  to get them to eat more salad. These are my very easy fajitas. I'm not a big red meat eater so don't eat these but the family love these including the 13 month old who likes to eat the strips on their own.  I lost count of how many my 6 year old ate the first time I made them. This isn't spicy but you can certainly add some extra chilli to these to up the spice level. This have a kick of garlic to the sauce. You can reduce this if you prefer. These are a little [...]

    Many years ago I worked with two amazing friends who lived together (Hello Jami and Tash if you see this!). I'm not exactly sure how this started but each Wednesday I would cook dinner and deliver it to them. I loved it as it meant I was cooking new things all the time. This was one of their favourites meals. I have served it with steam vegetables for the photo but can be served with pasta, zoodles or rice.   I have included instructions below.      

   I am always asked for a chunkier style bolognese. I posted last year about using the rice basket for cooking mince for a chunkier result  but I thought I would write up an actual recipe which may be more helpful. This is a chunky style bolognese packed full of vegetables. Whilst the mince in nice and chunky the vegetables are quite fine so great for all those vegetable detectives in the house. I use my homemade Passata in this recipe. You can use store bought Passata if preferred. I like to use Herbamare salt in most of my recipes as it gives a nice flavour to the sauce. You [...]

   One thing that we will still buy in packet form is Beef Stroganoff. My partner loves it. I have been trying to find a Stroganoff recipe he would like to replace it so I could stop purchasing it but had no luck. I had given up. I can thank my dearest friend Candice for this recipe. I remembered having this years ago and loving it so decided to experiment a bit and do it tmx style. Mine does vary ever so slightly just to add onion, garlic and paprika as we love those flavours here. This recipe is mushroom-less as no one in this house is mushroom fans. You [...]

  This Lamb and Zucchini Mince with Cous Cous is a dish our cook at work used to make all the time and I loved it (I don't eat much red meat but when I was pregnant I couldn't get enough of it!). I don't recall how to make it exactly so this is my take on it. You can certainly add more vegetables to this dish if desired. You can serve this on cous cous, pasta, rice or even zoodles. The sauce is quite runny after cooking but I like this because it adds flavour to the cous cous. It will thicken upon standing. Speaking of sauce, be sure [...]

   My boys love sausages. This Sausage and Bean Casserole with Mash is always a winner. My Sausage and Red Lentil Casserole is delicious and normally my go to sausage dinner but I thought we would try something a bit different. The boys love it because they think it has baked beans in it (I’ll just let them keep thinking that!). This is a good all in one meal served with mash but you can serve it with rice or pasta if preferred. I often serve it on cous cous for something slightly different. The sausage and bean component is a great meal for the freezer as it thaws well. [...]

   Need dinner on the table in under 20 minutes? This is the meal for you. What is great about  this Creamy Tomato Tuna Pasta is there isn't anything fancy in it so it's budget friendly and it makes a lot. This is enough sauce for 400g of pasta but you can certainly double this sauce though if you need to feed more. I serve this with steamed veggies on the side but there is no reason why you couldn't add very finely blitzed carrot, celery and zucchini into this dish. If you peel the zucchini the veggie detectives in your house wont even spot the vegetables. I use my [...]

  Today I posted two new kiddy friendly recipes, 4 Can Savoury Muffins and Lunchbox Biccies,  so why not add a kiddie friendly dinner too! This is a "use the scraps from the fridge" kind of dinner. The boys love this and often eat two big bowls full each. Not bad for a dinner made of bits and bobs. Ive put down that it tales 25 minutes but it really is quicker than that. Perfect for a last minute meal. Did I mention very budget friendly too? Because I'm lazy and want a quick, fuss free dinner I blitz my spinach early on in the process and therefore the sauce [...]