Warm potato, boiled egg, toasted almond and sundried tomato sauce salad

This is another winner for the simple quick easy dinners. I got the idea from The Pretty Blog's version. And it was GREAT. Seriously. Sooo good.

You will need:

4 medium potatoes
4 boiled eggs
rocket
almonds
chives
sundried tomatoes
an onion
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of red wine
1/2 cup of cream
1 cup of water

Fry the sundried tomatoes and chopped onion in a pan. Add the olive oil and the red wine. Add the cream. Dont worry if the mixture separates, it will blend properly when you process everything. Put everything in the pan into a blender/processor. Blend the mix, add the water and then blend again. Put your sauce aside.

Cut the potatoes into quarters and boil in salted water.
Once they are soft, drain and toss in olive oil.
Boil the eggs - 7 minutes for soft-medium eggs.
Toast the almonds in some butter in a pan over medium heat. Watch them carefully, they go from light golden to burnt in seconds!

Add all your ingredients together on a plate, adding in your rocket, top with chopped chives and shaved parmesan. Drizzle the sundried tomato sauce over and serve while still warm.

I feel like a stuck record saying how quick and easy some of these meals are, but seriously, coming from someone who gets home at 6, goes to gym and only starts cooking at 7:30, eating before 8:15 is like a serious triumph. So I feel like its okay to get a bit repeat-y about the easy fast ones! (that's what she said!)

 

Bacon, tomato and mushroom creamy linguini

Lately I have been juggling quite a bit. I am on a bit of a gym mission, I was interviewing and trying to get decent meals in in between, the time just disappears in the evenings. So I have been seriously trying to find meals that are super delicious but quick and easy. This is a huge winner.

You will need:

a pack bacon
2 cups chopped mushrooms
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
250ml cream
salt and pepper to taste
linguini

Get the linguini boiling in a pot of salted water.
Fry the mushrooms and set aside. Fry the bacon then add cherry tomatoes.
Pour the balsamic vinegar in and reduce.
Add the cream and leave to simmer for a while - dont stir too much or you will end up destroying your tomatoes.
When the linguini is JUST cooked take it off, drain and pour into your bacon pan. Add the mushrooms, mix well and serve with parmesan.

The easiest dinner everrrr!

Woop.

 

Apple, cinnamon and treacle sugar coconut oats

Mmmmm hmmm. I love a good old bowl of oats for breakfast. But it gets pretty boring after a while, so I have started experimenting with how to eat them! In fact I should do a whole post on variations of oats! This combination was a real winner. Delicious and perfect for a cool Autumn morning.

Ingredients:

2 cups oats
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 apples chopped into small pieces
(plus extra for serving)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 tsp treacle sugar
roughly chopped peacan nuts

Extra honey/sugar for serving to taste

Bring the water, milk and coconut milk to a boil on the stove. Add the oats. Stir.
When the oats are quite thick - after stirring for about 10 minutes - add the apple, cinnamon and treacle sugar and mix well.

Top with peacan nuts, extra apple and add sugar to taste.

What a great breakfast!

A genuine cottage pie

Wooo. Its been long. I have finally overcome my flu. I also got a new job! (Interviews after work were taking up a lot of my blogging time) and I officially got back to gym! - 5km run here I come! So those are kind of all my lame excuses for being so slack with uploading any foodie stuffs. I wish there were 34 hours in a day instead of 24. Pfff. There is never enough time to get everything done. Okay!

So when I was little I HATED cottage pie, I always thought it was too... wholesome, or something. Who knows what kids are really thinking. Anyways NOW I really like it. So here's my recipe!

You will need:

I used the left over mash from this recipe.
small onion
mince
2 large carrots
beef stock
basil & oregano
dash of red wine
thyme

Get your stock simmering.
Chop the onions and fry them up, add the mince and fry till brown. Chop up the carrots, add them to the pan. Add the red wine then pour the stock in, add your herbs and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Pour your mince into a roasting tray, spread the mash on top and bake until the top goes brown. I leave mine in for roughly 15 minutes and then put the grill on for the last 5 ... as you can see though mine burnt a little, so just keep an eye on it.

:)

Steak, mash, sweet corn & avo

Things have been so crazy busy lately, and I really get sad when I only have time to post here once a week... but once I get back into the swing of things again I will start updating more often again!

This post is one of the posts that is mainly for the idea. It isn't a combination I would have ordinarily thrown together but it turned out so well. There is no great skill here and its not a very fancy dish, but it is so delicious, and such a good meal combination that I had to share. (Oh so the reason I rated it 7.5 and not full marks is cause its too simple and too easy to make, I try to keep the scores in line with the skill success of the dish as well, if that makes sense...)

You will need:

Steak (I got fillet steak from the butchery at the William Nicol Pick n Pay)
Potatoes (5 large)
4 ears of corn
avocado
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup milk
salt & pepper (as always)

First get your oven on at 180, brush your corn with olive oil and pop them in the oven for at least 45 minutes. The longer they are in the more char-grilled they get. Yum.

Peel and boil the potatoes.
When they are soft take them out and mash them up. Add the butter and milk and mash some more.

Rub your steak with olive oil, salt, pepper and basil.
Get your pan super hot - when it starts smoking its ready.
Fry the steaks in the pan for about 2 minutes a side (depending on how thick your steak is and how well done you want it to be...)

Slice the avo up, put it all on a plate and bon appetit! Its an easy but super delicious dinner or lunch idea.