Tag Archives: recipes

Meal plan week 1

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Today is the first day of my life style challenge, and to help keep on track here’s my first week’s meal plan. We use the meal plan as a guide, we will mix up the meals depending on what we feel like but typically these are the meals for the week. This is a short week as I will typically post every Saturday.

Day Breakfast Dinner
Monday Fruit Salad with Flax seed Ratatouille Casserole + Brown Rice Pasta
Tuesday Oatmeal with grated apple + sultanas Lentil and Kale Soup
Wednesday Fruit Salad with Flax seed Vegetable Paella + Quinoa
Thursday Oatmeal with grated apple + sultanas Curried Pumpkin Soup
Friday Fruit Salad with Flax seed Falafel and Greek Salad + humus

Meals may also include fruits or unsalted Pistachios.

Budget constraints were $70; in total we spent $60 and only a portion of that contributes to my meals.  Additional groceries are being purchased for the rest of the family. In future, I can provide a shopping list if anyone is interested.

Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake

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I have brought buttermilk several times over the last month and have thrown it out unused, something I really don’t like doing. This time determined to use it before it expires, I found a great recipe in the Cooking Light Magazine (November 2008) for Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake.

The recipe makes two 8×4 loafs, which I iced with a lemon icing. Next time though I would either make a plain butter sugar glaze with the vanilla buttermilk loaf, or switch out the vanilla in the loaf for lemon. Also in my oven, it did not require the full hour of baking.

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Ingredients (Vanilla buttermilk pound cake)

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup of butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Place the first 4 ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk. Put aside.
  • Place sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the sugar mixture in stages, beginning and ending with flour.
  • Spoon the mixture evenly into the two greased and lined loaf tins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from tins. Cool completely on a wire rack.

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Ingredients (Lemon Butter Icing)

1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 lemon (finely grated lemon peel + juice from one lemon)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar (confectionary sugar)

  • Place butter and lemon ingredients into a bowl
  • Add the icing sugar in stages, so you can ensure the thickness you want for your icing. Mix together with a knife until blended
  • Apply icing to the cooled loaves with a  knife
  • Serve 🙂

My Christmas pineapple fruit cake

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I am not a big fan of fruit cake however, I love this pineapple fruit cake.IMG_0674 I make it every Christmas – and I get a lot of folks wanting the recipe. This recipe is all made in one large pot so clean-up is also really easy. So, here it is – it is one of my Mum’s recipes.

Ingredients

1 can of pineapple – crushed or chunks (~450g) including the juice
12 oz mixed fruit
125 g butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

1. In a large sauce pan, place the first seven ingredients.
NOTE: I use pineapple chucks as I prefer the bigger pieces of pineapple – I do cut them in half though.
NOTE: For the mixed fruit I use 1/2 a container of mixed peel/glazed cherries, 1/2 – 3/4 cup of raisins (golden raisins + raisins). You can include currents if you want.
NOTE: For the mixed spice, if you do not have this I use 1/4 tsp ginger, a pinch of nutmeg, pinch of cloves and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

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2. Heat, and boil for 10 minutes. As the mixture rises, stir and to ensure no boiling over occurs.
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3. Take off heat, allow mixture to cool. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees F (106 degrees C).

4. Grease and line a cake tin.
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5. Add the two cups of flour, baking powder and 2 eggs to the fruit mixture, mix with a metal spoon until just blended.

6. Place into the mixture into the cake tin. Put into the oven and bake for 1 hour.

7. Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, remove from tin and place on a cooling rack.