What's for dinner mum?

Do you plan your family meals in advance for the week or see what's in the fridge and improvise each day?

Mostly in the past I have improvised, but the times when I do plan a weeks worth of meals, buy groceries & fresh foods for those particular meals and then follow the plan, I find it works really well. My aim is largely to waste less and spend our money wisely. but a huge added benefit, I've found, is that it clears my head and takes away that gnawing question each day of what to cook. So rather than "what on earth am I going to cook for dinner, do we have the ingredients, will I have to drag the kids to the shops and do I have enough time to prepare", it's "ok it's Wednesday, burritos for dinner"

So as a way to keep up the momentum I'm starting a weekly "What's for dinner mum?" section over on the right there. And just maybe I can inspire you too, or remind you of a long lost recipe you used to cook, or you could try one of our recipes.

I'm also planning on taking a photo each night and posting it on Instagram, so please come on over and follow me if Instagram is your thing (I'm bubala_jo). I might try to post a montage of pics here too, I'll see how I go.

I'd love to hear - what's on your mind for dinner this week?

BBQ favourites

We had a BBQ here on the weekend, just because the weather was looking very summery (though it rained in the afternoon) and the kids always love it. I guess any break from the usual routine is a bit exciting when you're little!

So I thought I'd show you a couple of my favourite, fail-safe dishes. What does a vegetarian eat at a BBQ? I've tried lentil burgers, vegie sausages etc, but the thing I really love, and that I have to fight the carnivores away from, are these halloumi skewers (sorry, pic is pre-cooked, I was too hungry and distracted to get the camera out once they were cooked :-) I admit I have been addicted to halloumi since it became available here in Australia. This unique salty, almost rubbery textured cheese from Cyprus holds it's shape when cooked, so can be fried, grilled or baked.

Just cut your block of halloumi into even sized chunks and thread onto bamboo skewers (pre-soaked so they don't burn). My favourite companions for the halloumi are squares of green capsicum (peppers), whole small mushrooms and chunks of red onion (sadly rationed in the above pic through lack of shopping planning). The flavours complement each other really well and are fresh and tasty, with that salty kick that I love from the halloumi.



The second dish, pesto rice salad, is a firm family favourite, one that all the family eat, even the small boy (now 14 months, can I still call him a baby?). It's one of those dishes where if there are any leftovers they gets gobbled up soon after. Very satisfying for a mum to cook for her brood! I know it doesn't look very exciting, but the rice/pesto/lemon/cheese combo is divine, trust me.

The recipe can be found here. It's by the popular British cook Delia Smith, and appears in the book Delia's Vegetarian Collection, amongst others of hers. I've always loved the way Delia writes because she goes into great detail and often explains why something in particular is needed or how it works. Which is helpful if you're like me and like to cut corners occasionally - then you know when you can cut them and when not to. Anyway... my point here is that I have used bottled pesto (instead of making it fresh for the recipe) and it still turned out great.

So if you have a vegetarian coming to your BBQ or just feel like something different, I'd urge you to try these recipes. Of course the Mr and littlies know to ask nicely before they tuck into my halloumi - they've already eaten their boring old sausages and chicken kebabs ;-)


Green salad with roasted beetroot, adding some earthiness and crunch

Passionfruit passion

Unlike my mum, unfortunately I'm no gardener. But I have high hopes that one day, when the little people are not so little I will have time to learn. One thing I do have a go at though is growing passionfruit. I have fond childhood memories of lying on my trampoline eating the passionfruit we grew, particularly banana passionfruit which grew like a weed (and is now considered one).

Over the last few years I have been on a mission to grow a successful passionfruit vine. The first attempt didn't take. The second fruited in it's second year, then promptly died. This next attempt is going great. It had plenty of the gorgeous flowers and is fruiting like mad, kindly dropping fruit for the kids to excitedly collect every day or two.





As I puzzled over why the fruit weren't turning that beautiful purply-black colour I had a vague memory that I'd planted a Panama Gold variety (figuring maybe a different variety would work better this time?) which turn a pale golden colour when ripe. But, to my dismay, they are very tart even when yellow.



Which is a good excuse to try this simple icecream recipe that Fi blogged about recently. I'd been keen to try it, particularly as it includes no eggs, so my big girl could also eat it, unlike most homemade icecreams which are based on an egg custard base. I left out the vanilla and put in the pulp of 4 passionfruit, though it could easily have taken more.



I also made some passionfruit melting moments from this recipe (no good photos unfortunately - surely a little biscuit shouldn't be that hard to photograph, hmm) and passionfruit icing for a cake using this recipe.

Do you have a favourite recipe using passionfruit?