Yesterday I was walking around in a short sleeve top and capri pants!
Woke up this morning to grey skies and the smell of rain, and although not exactly cold I have been wearing jeans, a long sleeve tee and a body warmer!
We had a huge brunch and have been nibbling all afternoon so I felt for something light for supper, like yummy BEAN SOUP!
Now making bean soup the "proper" way is quite a production which involves soaking dried beans overnight! The cooking process itself takes about four to five hours!
I decided to make Bean Soup at twenty past five THIS afternoon - making it the "proper" way is out of the question wouldn't you say??
So here is my LAZY BEAN SOUP RECIPE:
Ingredients:
3 medium size carrots (peeled and grated)
2 medium size onions (peeled and finely chopped)
250g diced bacon (guess you could leave it out for a vegetarian option! - but I cook for a good old fashioned South African man!)
2 x 410g cans Mixed Beans (drained)
1 x 410g can Butter Beans (drained)
500ml (2 cups) stock (I make mine by dissolving a chicken stock cube in 500ml boiling water - vegetarian option use 5ml veggie stock powder)
5ml (1 teaspoon) garlic pepper (a mix of garlic flakes, ground pepper and salt)
12,5ml (1 tablespoon) butter or margarine
12,5ml (1 tablespoon) flour
125ml (1/2 cup) milk
12.5ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice
Method:
Heat a little sunflower oil in a heavy base pot (I use a cast iron pot)
Sweat the onions, carrots and diced bacon for about 5 minutes
Add the beans and stir through with a wooden spoon
Sweat for a further 5 minutes
Add the stock and the garlic pepper
Simmer over low heat for 60 minutes
(Meanwhile do something that does not require much concentration like working ends in!)
While still simmering - mash the soup with a potato masher (when making "proper" bean soup this process involves putting the mixture through a sieve). Now bring the mixture to the boil.
Melt the margarine or butter in the microwave. Mix in the flour (make a paste). Mix in the milk
Add to the boiling soup and stir until the soup binds (the milk mixes in and it goes a creamy beigy colour)
Add the lemon juice and stir through
Serving suggestion: Toasted bread fingers (I cut the crust of day old bread, cut into fingers and toast under the grill in the oven for a minute or so!)
YUM!
Does not look very artistic I am afraid - but it does taste good!!!
It is already dark here - so this is a really bad photo
I have had quite a few requests for the recipe on Facebook so here it is:
Nutella Muffins
2 Eggs
125ml Oil (half a cup)
Nutella (I use the swirly one with the dark and white chocolate)
2ml vanilla essence (half a teaspoon)
375ml castor sugar (a cup and a half)
500ml milk (2 cups)
45ml cocoa powder (3 tablespoons)
5ml coffee powder (1 teaspoon) (dissolved in a tablespoon of boiling water)
750ml cake wheat flour (3 cups)
15ml baking powder (3 teaspoons)
Method:
Sift cake wheat flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together
Whisk eggs, oil, vanilla, dissolved coffee, sugar, and milk.
Stir into dry ingredients until combined (don't over mix!)
Spoon into greased muffin pans lined with cupcake papers (about half full) - top with a teaspoon of nutella. Spoon more muffin mix on top of the nutella.
Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 20 - 25 minutes
Best enjoyed while still warm!
Today was another one of those CRAZY busy days. Hubby has been on the phone with clients all morning and I have been packing cards. By the time I realised I was starving and was about to make us breakfast it was almost lunchtime! I felt like something freshly baked and savoury. I usually make my sweetcorn bread from scratch - but being a bit pressed for time today I took a shortcut (all the while holding thumbs that it would actually turn out ok!!)
I keep a packet or two of these premixes in the cupboard for emergencies (almost starved + lazy + in a huge hurry = EMERGENCY):
I added oil and eggs as per the packet instructions, a 410g tin of sweetcorn and about 150ml water. Shared in half between two greased loaf pans. Baked at 180C for about 45 minutes:
They turned out quite well. Had to take a quick pic because Hubby had arrived to investigate the aroma! Grated some cheese, put out some butter and apricot jam, made two quick cups (coffee for Hubby - tea for me) and LUNCH!
Slices are a bit hacked - the bread was still steaming hot - but, as I said, we were starving! OOOH yummmeee! It was delish!
Spending the afternoon working in ends and trying to figure out why I suddenly cannot connect to the internet on my laptop??
Hopefully I will still have some time to work on my Christmas Stocking pattern.
As promised in my block stitch baby blanket post my banana tea loaf recipe.
This banana tea loaf recipe has been around for as long as I can remember - my gran and my mom used to make it when I was little - and I have been using the same recipe for almost 30 years!
This is the perfect way to use over ripe (even almost mushy) bananas - strangely there always seem to be exactly four to six bananas that are over ripe in our fruit basket - sure there is a conspiracy????
It makes two delightfully moreish loaves (they last about five minutes in our house - none left to photograph!!) - and it is absolutely flop proof!!
I have no idea where the original recipe came from as it was in my gran's and my mom's handwritten recipe books.
BANANA TEA LOAF RECIPE
Ingredients
125ml baking margarine
2 eggs
250ml sugar
500ml flour
10ml baking powder
1ml salt
4 - 6 (over ripe) mashed bananas
5ml vanilla essence
Method
Beat margarine and sugar until creamy.
Add vanilla, add eggs one by one
Beat well after each addition
Sift together dry ingredients - add to egg mix
Add mashed bananas
Beat well.
Pour into 2 greased bread pans.
Bake at 180C for 45 - 50 minutes.
Yummy!
Happy Baking!!
Happy Birthday Dani Rose!!!!
Twenty Two - WOW!!!
Really quite cold here today so thought the kids might like something sweet to nibble when they got home from work.
Quickly whipped up a batch of my flop proof Strawberry Muffins before I got started on making supper.
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| Strawberry Muffins |
It was already dusk when they came out of the oven so I cheated a bit with the photo (this is a photo of a few from a batch baked a while back!)
Anyway here is my really easy flop proof Strawberry Muffin Recipe!
Ingredients:
2 Eggs
125ml Oil
1 x 425g Tin of Strawberries (juice reserved)
2ml vanilla essence
375ml castor sugar
Reserved Juice topped up with milk to measure 500ml
750ml cake wheat flour
15ml baking powder
Method:
Slightly mash the strawberries with a fork
Sift cake wheat flour and baking powder.
Whisk eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar and liquid together.
Stir into dry ingredients until combined (don't over mix!)
Spoon into greased muffin pans and bake at 180 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes
Here is the pita bread recipe as promised:
1000ml cake wheat flour
1ml salt
15ml sugar
30ml sunflower oil
1 x 10g packet instant dry yeast
450ml warm water
Sift the dry ingredients together. Mix oil and water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the oil and water mix. Knead to form a soft dough (I usually judge it to be ready when it does not stick to my hands or the bowl anymore).
Rub oil over the dough so that it does not dry out. Leave it in a warm place to rise (an hour or two in summer and three or four hours in winter). Knock the dough down slightly. Cut into twelve equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
Allow to rise while oven heats up (230 C) up and you are preparing the fillings (chopped tomato, homemade pickles, chopped pineapple, grated cheese, crumbled feta and saucy beef strips or mince, etc)
Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes
Family loved them! Now I will have to make them every time because no will want to eat the supermarket pita bread!!
