Tag Archives: Making, Creating + Frugal Living

kale rice salad- Frugal Friday

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Funny how an- uh oh what am I’m going to make for dinner moment (the fridge was looking particularly slim pickings) turns into a wow, I think I’ll make that again moment.

Yep, it was one of those times.

Kale Rice Salad

some cooked brown rice

a couple of good slurps of olive oil

2 chopped shallots

bunch of finely chopped new kale leaves (older stems will be too chewy raw)

1/2 can of corn

a good squeeze of lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

mix it all together and serve at room temperature… or hot… or cold.

asparagus and capsicum- Frugal Friday

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Summer eating is getting kick started here, and I’ve been lucky enough to get some wonderful locally grown asparagus and capsicums lately. When the vegetables are already tasting delicious and as they should be, I don’t want to do much to them, there is no need. Simple cooking means dinners ready in a few minutes, and I’m definitely up for that.

In a pot or wok* over high heat, add a good slurp of olive oil. Some chopped capsicum give it a couple of minutes head start and add your chopped asparagus. Stirring it through, and cook until asparagus is just done.

On to a plate and drizzle some extra olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Serve with a swiss cheese omelette and some crusty bread.

What’s delicious and seasonal in Sydney this month?

Berries- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries

Cherries- still expensive, but oh so good

Nectarines and peaches are getting a look in

Asparagus- cook it as soon as you buy it, don’t let it sit in the fridge for a week

Basil-for pesto making, dead easy.

* I use my flat bottomed wok for just about everything. Used on a gas flame, it cooks quickly and evenly. Don’t just use it for Asian style meals, it lends it self to pretty much any kind of cooking you can think of…except maybe cupcakes.

how to make butter and yogurt- Frugal Friday

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I think every blogger who ever dabbles in food posts, has done a how- to- make- yogurt and/ or butter at one time or another. Just to add to the lovely collection- here’s my way.

How To Make Yogurt 

What you will need-

kettle, yogurt thermos, yogurt container, powdered milk, 2 heaped tablespoons old yogurt, water, measuring cup.

Time it takes- do it in the time it takes to boil the kettle.

Fill your kettle up and turn it on. Take 2 heaped spoonfuls of bought yogurt (like the end of the tub), add a little water to mix it, it’s now runny and set aside.

 Fill your yogurt container half full with water.

 Add one and a half cups of powdered milk. No need to shake it down and fit as much as you can, just roughly 1 1/2 cups. Mix it with a spoon and add your runny yogurt mixture. Mix again and fill the rest of the container up with water. Lid on, give it a good shake.

 Kettles boiled. Fill it up to the top of the plastic thingy inside. Place your yogurt container in with the lid on, add the thermos lid and leave it (don’t peak) for 8-12 hours. The longer you leave it the tartier it will taste. (I’ve forgotten it for 24 hours and it’s still fine.)

*******

Once, about every six weeks I refresh the batch with a packet of the ready to go yogurt mix you can buy (which is just add water and shake.) I find it keeps the cultures stronger, and more likely to keep it at a thicker Greek style yogurt consistency, (which is what we all like.)

$20 for the yogurt maker, and each litre of yogurt I make, works out to be about $1.50 a batch. I then add any of our homemade seasonal jams to sweeten the yogurt. Dead easy. You are saving a whole bundle of money, no more plastic tubs and you don’t have the usual paragraph of ingredients that’s in a lot of yogurt today.

How To Make Butter

In a mixer, pour in a carton of cream. The best you can buy, (not thickened cream). Whip it….and keep whipping…

 Keep it whipping until it starts to look like this. The liquid will start to separate, which is then able to be drained off. Add a pinch of salt (to taste) and keep squeezing out that excess moisture using a spatula against the side of the bowl. You don’t want any of that moisture in there. Once it is all drained off it can be shaped into what ever shape you need.

Next time you see one of those fancy pancy butters imported from countries far far away, you can have a little chuckle at the thought of spending that much money on butter and then go home and make it yourself. Again, dead easy.

Now where’s the bread to go with it?…

Almond pesto- Frugal Friday

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Pesto is one of those dead easy, whiz it up and away you go kind of meals. The only thing that stops me is pine nuts. Yes, I love them, they are delicious. However I can’t source any local ones and they are really quite expensive. Swapping the pine nuts to a cheaper and more local nut works just as well though.

I’ve made it with pecans, walnuts before and for this one it was almonds. Blitzing whole almonds in a blender (skins on) then adding 2 bunches of fresh basil, some grated parmesan and some great local olive oil. It’s an accompaniment to lots of dishes. It never lasts long in this house, but this amount will give a good sized jar, which I just top up with some extra olive oil, and then keep it in the fridge.

Eat it stirred through pasta, a little chopped up chilli and extra parmesan.

Mixed with rice, baby spinach, and crumbled fetta.

Or simply on some toasted sourdough, bruschetta style.

Blueberry Jam

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Blueberry Jam

500gms blueberries

250mls water

bring it to a simmer

now slowly add

500gms sugar

1/2 lime juice

stir

a slow rolling boil until the jam thickens and passes the saucer test.

 

So what is the saucer test? Grab a small saucer and pop it in to the freezer while your jam is cooking. If you keep casting your eyes over the cooking jam, you will start to see the consistency changing, it will start to look like a thicker rolling boil. If you think it has started to thicken, get the cold saucer out of the freezer and dollop a small spoonful of jam on to it. Swirl it round a bit, and (hopefully) you will see that it has thickened up. Try running a finger through it. If it’s ready it will wrinkle a little and feel thicker.

10 tips for Eucalyptus Oil use

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To me, if you want to smell Australia. It means going into the bush after rain and breathing in deep. What you will smell is the earthy undertones of eucalyptus trees wet from a recent down pour or drizzle. It smells so wonderfully clean. There are hundreds of different varieties of eucalypts found in Australia. However due to them being introduced to all corners of the globe, you will also find them from Egypt to Chile. As they have been introduced to some areas that are not suitable for their growth and the fact that they are also large water suckers, not everyone is a fan of the old eucalypt.

10 reasons to become a fan of the oil they produce are…

1/ Stains in clothing can be easily gotten out with a paste of eucalyptus oil and liquid washing detergent. Rub it in to the stain with some thing like an old toothbrush, leave for 10 minutes and then wash as normal.

2/ Removing remains of anything sticky, eg. wax, sticker. Use oil straight and rub sticky business off.

3/ Feeling clogged? Or perhaps a toilet plunger to suction outgoing mucus sounds like a good idea? Try boiling some water, put the plug in the sink, fill sink with hot water and 3 drops of eucalyptus oil, and drape a towel over your head to breathe the vapours. The eucalyptus oil works as an expectorant and decongestant. DON’T add 2 tablespoons of the oil to the water, as your lungs will constrict and you will be blinded for approximately 5 minutes- you have been expertly warned.

4/ Underarms in clothing having a residual pong (smell)? Try the same oil to laundry liquid paste as no.  , leave and wash as normal. No residues from under arm body odour or deodorant build up.

5/ Freshens and deodorises anything that may need a little lift.

6/ Feet looking a little funky with a touch of athletes foot? Try soaking the foot in a bucket of 1 part vinegar/ 3 parts water, dry and then dab straight eucalyptus oil on to the infected area. Eucalyptus oil works as a fungicide. It can also be used straight on any discoloured nails that may have a fungal infection.

7/ A mixture of Eucalyptus, bicarbonate soda and vinegar can be made up and used for cleaning all parts of the bathroom, including the toilet. Its non-toxic for drains, and is great to disinfect, deoderises, and anti-bacterial.* [see this post for exact measurements]

8/ For dust mite control, add a cap full to your washing machine and wash sheets and mattress protector. Soft toys can also be washed in this way. This kills the dust mite and removes the allergen that the they produce which can effect asthmatics.

9/ Insect bites can be treated with dab of straight oil. eg. Mosquito or tick bites.

10/ When cleaning out cupboards. Get a 1/4 bucket of hot soapy water, with a cap full of eucalyptus oil, and wipe down shelves for clean and fresh smelling.

See here for 10 Tips on using Bicarbonate Soda. 

Honey Almond Nougat Gift ideas

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Gift ideas. Sometimes I can get completely stumped for ideas for gifts. I want to give something, but don’t want the present to be a token something. I want there to be some kind of thought behind it. A little present to say Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas or a simple I’m thinking of you.  Not something that screams… uh oh I forgot your birthday up until an hour ago, and this was the first thing I saw…Isn’t it pretty!

Here’s one idea for a gift. First stop, go to your local second hand store.

One Donna Hay tea cup and little white dish later. ($2 dollars spent, for perfect condition.) Add some recycled ribbons that I had got via a whole bundle from a LETS trade a while back. Now to fill them.

Kecap Manis Roasted Almonds

Your desired quantity of raw almonds, coat them lightly in Kecap Manis (Indonesian Soy Sauce). Then put them on a tray and slow roast them in the oven. Done when an almond is cut in half, and lightly browned through.

Honey Almond Nougat

2 cups caster sugar

1 cup glucose syrup

1/2 cup honey

1 cup toasted whole almonds

1 tps vanilla

2 egg whites

75grams softened butter

rice paper sheets

Mix sugar, glucose, honey, vanilla in a pan. Stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil uncovered until reaches small crack stage (a tps of mixture snaps when its dropped into cold water.) This usally takes about 6 minutes or until reaches approx 138C.

Beat egg whites until firm peaks form. With mixer running, slowly add hot mixture in a thin stream. Mix for 3 mins or until the mixture holds together, then add the butter. When combined add the nuts.

Quickly spread into greased and lined with rice paper tray. Smooth the top down and press the remaining rice paper. Wait until it gets to room temperature, and then cut into desired shapes.

Two easy hand made gifts that are made with love, using recycled dishes, and ready to be given to someone that needs a good present.

Frugal Friday

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Once more Friday rolls around and there is not much left in the fridge. Not quite so little as to go shopping but not quite so much as to have many options. What to do with some organic pumpkin, carrots, and some flaccid celery and still get the monkeys to eat it? Carrying on from the Indian theme from last Friday, I think it was going to have to be dhal. Add a little red lentils, vegetable stock, some garlic, a fistful of spices and I had myself a tasty, healthy, budget friendly, monkey friendly dinner. Add a little natural yoghurt on top, and some fresh naan bread and dinner was done for ‘Frugal Friday’.

Naan bread I had tried to make a number of years ago, with the end result being little hard round bricks. That was the last time I had attempted them. Naan bread being a firm favourite here and with an excellent little Indian take away around the corner to happily oblige us when the taste for naan over comes us.

But not today. I wanted to give it another crack…..

160ml warm water

1tsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbls oil/or ghee

2 tbls yoghurt

Mix the water, yeast and sugar together in a bowl until dissolved. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes. Add flour salt, half the oil and yoghurt. Mix to a soft dough then knead on floured  surface until smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a bowl with wet tea towel over the top in warm place for approx 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Knead dough on floured surface for 5 minutes, then divide into 6 portions. Roll out into rounds. I pulled one side to get the traditional ‘teardrop’ shape that you would get if cooking in a tandoor oven.

Cook in a very lightly oiled frying pan and pop the frying pan under the grill to get those distinctive brown puffy circles to finish it off. Brush naan with remaining ghee or butter.