Pasta Fagiole Tweaks

We love the Pasta Fagiole from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook (EDC) - it's healthy, quick, easy and yummy!

I've tweaked it a little to make it even yummier and healthier...

to the basic ingredients in the EDC I add the following:

• 2-3 cloves of garlic rather than just 1
• 1 large or 2 small carrots, you can also add a zucchini
• if you love parsnips try adding 1 medium parsnip - soooooo good! (but don't do it if you don't like them in the first place lol)
• we use gluten free pasta and it works perfectly (usually i use organ brand with amaranth or quinoa, to get the extra goodness from them)
  

for other recipe tweaks & reviews have a look at this thread

Links - Meat Dishes

Beef Chimichangas

broccoli beef

chicken bean & tomato soup

chicken enchilada throwdown

chicken poppers

Costa Vida Chicken (good for entertaining)

garlic chicken with white wine

Greek Chicken (thanks susana ;) and chris lol)

kerala style chicken curry

Old Fashioned Fried Chicken - want to try this for chicken nuggets for the kids

Spicy Shredded Pork - for enchiladas etc

taco soup

NEW Wednesday Night Chicken Delicious

Day 1 - No-Meat Week

dinner tonight was pretty damn good. everyone enjoyed it :D (the kids didn't know there was no meat) thanks to bec for the inspiration! I take no responsibility for the lack of mexican authenticity ;)

i'll definitely do this again next time i have the chance to roast up a heap of vegies while the oven's already on...

Roast Vegetable Enchiladas and Mexican Rice

Roast vegies - i used pumpkin, capsicum, zucchini and a small parsnip. i meant to do sweet potato and forgot. i should have done onion too!
olive oil
1/2 onion, finely diced (if you didn't roast one)
pinto beans, soaked& drained, or a can of refried beans
spices - ground cumin, coriander and garlic (optional any kind of chilli spice)
10 tortillas
small amount grated cheese

gently fry onion and spices with a little olive oil
if you're using pinto beans put them in with enough water to cover all. put the lid on and cook for 5-10 minutes until the beans are soft enough to mash.
dice all your vegies (or chop in the tmx like i did)
mix your mashed / refried beans with the vegies and put 1/10th of the mix into each tortilla. roll up and place in a greased oven dish.
sprinkle with cheese
bake in moderate oven for about 15 minutes

1/2 onion, finely diced
olive oil
cumin seeds
ground coriander
garlic
around 3/4 cup of rice (? just guessing!)
1 tin of diced tomatoes or a jar of salsa or taco sauce etc etc
stock or a little salt & water
finely diced green capsicum
1 tin corn kernels, and the 'juice'
fresh herbs - coriander and / or garlic chives
optional - also great with sliced black olives, jalapenos

gently fry onion and spices with a little olive oil
add all other ingredients - and enough water to reach 1cm over the top of all the other ingredients.
bring to the boil
cover and turn down to low, cook until rice is done. (you can take the lid off and stir once or twice)
mix herbs through

i did use the thermomix a lot for this and you could probably do most of both recipes in it, but i wasn't in teh mood to play (plus i was making another slice in it lol)

PS: do you think i take too many food pictures? tonight ryan insisted i had to take one of them all eating, when he saw me taking one of my plate lol

Honey-Roasted Parsnip Soup

this one IS fully made and YUM!

it is a fair amount of work for the small amount of soup you get, i have to be honest, but if you like parsnips you'll LOVE this. I think next time i'll use maple syrup (ack, i forgot to buy more!) instead of honey.

from here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/honeyroastedparsnips_5334.shtml

Ingredients
25g/1oz unsalted butter
500g/1lb 2oz parsnips, roughly chopped
½ onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 small clove of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves
1 small bay leaf
1 tbsp clear honey
1l/1¾pt chicken or vegetable stock
6tbsp dry cider
4tbsp double cream

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas7. Heat the butter in an ovenproof casserole dish, add the parsnips and roast in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Add the onion, carrot and garlic and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes, then mix in the herbs and honey. Cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables have caramelized.
2. Now remove the dish from the oven, add the stock and bring it to the boil on top of the stove. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cider then pour the soup into a blender and purée until smooth. Strain through a fine strainer, bring back to the boil, then remove from the heat, swirl in the cream and serve.

ohhh forgot to say - next time i'll add the carrots in with the parsnips at the start - i ended up with falling apart parsnips and only just cooked carrots.

Penguin's Delicious Chicken

here's a recipe inspired by a friend on another board my changes in italics...

Penguin's Delicious Chicken (serves 4)

8 chicken thighs or drumsticks 2 breasts, diced
2 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 leek, washed and sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons minced garlic
1-2 carrots, sliced 2 carrots
1 parsnip, sliced 2 parsnips
1 tin (400g) diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups chicken stock 1 chicken stock cube
3 tablespoons tomato paste

Preheat oven to 180C. Toss the chicken in seasoned flour.
In a heavy-based frying pan brown the chicken on high heat, then remove and place in a large casserole dish. Add a little more oil to the pan on medium heat and cook the leek, garlic, carrots and parsnip for 5 minutes, stirring until tender. Add to the chicken. Then put the tomatoes and stock in the pan and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes until it thickens slightly. Add to the casserole dish. Cover and bake in oven for 1 hour, then remove lid and cook for 15-20 minutes more. Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.

You can use an onion if you don't like leeks. You can also substitute other veges if you prefer but this is a nice combination. Leftovers reheat beautifully!

spray pan with cooking spray, fry chicken til lightly browned, place in slow cooker. gently fry all veg & garlic until onion / leek is slightly softened. put all ingredients in SC & mix. cook on high 2 hours & low 1 hour.