Pup Biscuits

My little French Bulldog Toulouse LOVES food. All food. Even stuff that
isn't food...like rabbit poo.

The fact that he will eat anything is fantastic because he considers all
food a reward - even breakfast.

As a food-enthusiast this is awesome because I can try out all sorts of
food on him (as long as it is dog friendly of course!).

Recently, while spiralling through the black hole that is Pinterest, I
came across a recipe for dog biscuits. I thought to myself "oh my gosh,
Toulouse would love these!". In actual fact, Toulouse wouldn't care if I
made him a pile of rabbit poo brownies - he might like that even more!
So being the very loving/over feeding dog mother that I am I thought I
would make the delicious Pinterest dog biscuits, with a little bit of
something extra, for my precious pooch pumpkin.

Pup Bizkits (makes a lot)

3 cups flour or wholemeal flour
1 cup polenta (cornmeal)
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup of peanut butter 

or 

1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup of grated
carrot (dried with paper towel)
Honey to taste

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Line baking tray with baking paper
Put all ingredients into a mixer or mixing bowl. Combine until a dough
ball forms.
Roll out dough on a floured surface until 2 cm thick.
Cut out biscuits using whatever biscuit cutter you have. I used an
Easter bunny cutter.
Place cut out dough on the lined baking tray.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
For extra crunchy biscuits bake for a little longer.

*Please note - this recipe makes A LOT of biscuits. The dough is
freezable if you don't want to make a truck load of biscuits at once.

I have noticed the biscuits go a little soft if not cooked all the way
through. This is probably fine as your dog will not care and love them
anyway :)

Toasted Muesli

Ahhh breakfast. The bane of my existence.

Im in a constant battle with breakfast, i hate cereal and i can never seem to stick with one constant food. I seem get over breakfast foods very quickly and get quite frustrated, probably because im starving.  

Anyhoo, my latest breakfast fad is fruit, jalna yogurt and toasted muesli. So delicious.  

Here is the recipie, created by Marc, for tosted muesli.  

1 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1/2 cup smashed pecans
1/4 shredded coconut
1 tb spoon sesame seeds
1 tb spoon sunflower seeds
2 heaped tb spoons demerara sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tb spoons oil  

Preheat oven to 140 degrees
Combine ingredients until coated with oil.
Spread onto a flat unoiled tray evenly
Stir every 5 minutes until golden and delicious.

Slow Cooked Beef with Balsamic Garlic Sauce

Having guests over for dinner is the best excuse to cook something a bit fancy. Lately we have been getting a bit fancy a few times per week, thanks to our slow cooker.

Last thursday night we had a guest, my cousin Alex, and he got to experience our first attempt of a modifed recipie originally titled Veal with Balsamic Sage Sauce. I must say our modified version (which you are about to read) it a bit fabulous and is totally fancy enough to share with your next lot of guests.

You may even be so satisfied with this fancy meal you might want to get fancy with your lover....or your single sexy guest. I'M JUST SAYIN'.

Eat this.

Slow Cooked Beef with Balsamic Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

1.5 kg rump
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
20g butter
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup chicken stock

Method

Trim excess fat from rump, chop up into decent sized chunks.
Toss in flour to coat, shake off excess.
Hest oil in large frying pan and cook beef in batches until browned.
Transfer to 4.5 litre slow cooker.

Add garlic to same pan, cook stirring until fragrant. Do not burn!!!
Add vinegar and boil uncovered for about 2 mins or until its reduced by half.
Stir in stock.
Transfer to cooker.

Cook covered on low for minimum 6 hrs. Season to taste.
Serve with whatever veggies you like and your fave glass of red wine.

Cheers!

Slow Cooked Chicken Cacciatore

Well tonight was another successful evening of gastronomic delight thanks to our slow cooker. A special thanks must go to my huzbayne Marc for creating this delicious slow cooked darling.

Marc's Slow Cooked Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients

6 chicken drumsticks
2 cans of tomatos (400g per tin)
1 heaped teaspoon of powdered chicken stock
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 bay leaf
3 stalks thyme
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Good grinding of pepper
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 water
1/2 capsicum
1 carrot
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
Cornflour to thicken

Method

Remove skin from chicken.
Chop up veg.
Fry off onion and garlic.
Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Set on low and cook for minimum 6 hrs.
Remove any oil or fat that has risen to the top.
Add corn flour to thicken 1/2 hr before serving.
Serve with rice, noodles or mash.

Slow Cooked Chicken Tikka Masala

I am totally in love with my slow cooker.

So totally in love, it gets a work out daily in our house.

As 9-5 workers, coming home and cooking dinner is as appealing as stabbing ourselves with hot pokers. So we bought a slow cooker and lived happily ever after. *Que choir and doves.

Along with our new bible "Woman's weekly slow cooker 2", our most hated time of the day (dinner time) has been saved.

Tonight an amazing miracle occurred. A miracle that involves......chicken.

The meal our slow cooker cooked was so magical i may have even done a naked dance in celebration......maybe.

Cook it and do a naked dance yourself, just don't send me a picture :-)

Chicken Tikka Masala (Sparkle Style)

Ingredients

1kg chicken Maryland's skin removed
800g canned tinned tomatoes
2 large brown onions thinly sliced
2/3 cup Tikka masala paste
200.ml water
Greek yogurt for serving
1 cup loosely packed coriander (optional, i hate it)

Method

Remove skin from chicken.

Cook off onion. Trust me, onion will not cook in the slow cooker if you dont pre cook it. Bastards.

Combine chicken, tinned tomatos, cooked onions, paste and water in a 4.5litre slow cooker. You can adjust your ingredients depending on the size of your slow cooker.

Cook covered on high for 4 hours or low all day long (like me).

Serve with rice and yogurt.

Do joyous naked dance. X

Audrey Shortbread Biscuits

Hi all!!!

It's been an AGE since I last posted something fabulous that I baked and I feel really bad. I've let my 10000000000 fans down and I hate dissapointing ma peeps yo!

Anyhoo, what's more important is what lead me back to the ol' butter and sugar....mmmm butter and sugar....

I have a new niece!!! Her name is Miss Audrey and she is just so fabulous I thought the parents that created her deserved some lovely treats for doing such a bang up job (pun intended).

So I trawled through taste.com and came up with this recipe which I inevitably altered and sparkled up! (By 'sparkled up' I mean forgetting to do the fork pattern on top before they went in the oven and consequently making the pattern once they had been cooked a bit). Brilliant!

Audrey Shortbread

Ingredients

250g butter, softened
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup custard powder

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Place butter, sugar and vanilla into a food processor. Process for 2 minutes or until well combined.

Add flour and custard powder. Pulse until just combined (don't over-process or biscuits will not have a fine texture).

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls. Place onto prepared baking trays. Press with a floured fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 12 minutes or until light golden. Allow to stand on trays for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining biscuit mixture.

Sparkle Casserole

Winter + casserole = happy Lisa :)

This little Sunday night dinner treat is sure to win the hearts of your fabulous significant other, friends and kids.

It's a Lisa Sparkle creation coming straight to you....from my brain.

Cook, eat, thank me later x

Sparkle Casserole

Ingredients

Pre spiced 'chicken roasting pieces' from Aldi. Approx $7 on a tray.
1 onion
3 sticks of celery
1 red capsicum
1 sprig each of dried thyme and rosemary
3 cloves garlic
1-2 cups red wine
3 cups water
2 cans tinned tomato

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and put the oven shelves on the very bottom rung.

With oil, cook off chicken pieces 4 or 5 at a time in a big heavy based pot that is suitable for the oven. Put chicken aside once browned, not fully cooked through.

Chop up onion, capsicum and celery roughly into chunks. Take shells off garlic and put veg, garlic and herbs into pot with oil and cook until onion is translucent. Do not burn, cook on low heat.

Once veg is cooked pop chicken back in the pot and pour over the wine, water and tinned tomatoes.

Stir the shit out of it.

Pop the lid on and stick your awesome casserole in the oven for 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Chicken should fall off the bone and juices reduced. (that's fun to say)

During the 3hrs, pass the time like I do, watch the kardashians or gossip girl :)

Once 3 hrs has passed and the chicken looks sufficiently cooked and f-ing awesome, cook some rice and serve that shit up.

Love me x