Showing posts with label carrot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carrot. Show all posts

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Take a bag of carrots...


Last week at my local fruit shop two bags of carrots cost $1.50. That's a bargain and so of course I bought two. There are only three of us here and we've hardly all been home on the same night at the same time to even eat a decent meal.

So on this lazy Sunday I decided it was time to turn these carrots into something.

Firstly I decided to make this Banana-Carrot Cake which is a lunch box staple here.
http://mysydneykitchen.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/healthy-lunch-box-treat.html

Then I made a nice batch Carrot Soup. I love carrot soup. It's warming and hearty but somehow doesn't feel as heavy as Pumpkin Soup.

It's a very basic recipe and you can adapt it to your needs. I use cream in mine but you could use milk or soy milk or even coconut milk or if you were on a diet water and coconut milk powder. Again I use basic mixed herbs but you could use curry powder and ginger instead for a more exotic flavour.

Carrot Soup

1 onion diced
3 rashers of bacon diced
2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
750g of carrots or about 3/4 bag, sliced.
1/2 cup cream.
oil to cook.

1. Heat oil in saucepan and add onion. Cook until translucent. Add bacon and cook till soft, about 2 minutes.
2. Add herbs and sliced carrots. Toss till carrots coated. Add chicken stock and simmer until carrots cooked, around 20-25 minutes.
3. Use a stick blender and process until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of cream and combine.

Serves 4.

I plan to freeze mine, hence the not so attractive plastic container.

I grated too many carrots so I have some in the fridge to add to some spaghetti sauce in the next day or so but that's the bag gone and for 75c I feel like I got got great bang for my buck.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

What's been happening in my kitchen?

Well I haven't posted in a while. The reasons for this are many and varied but include:
  • taking my daughter to three high school open days in a week
  • finding all the paperwork for high school applications
  • a day of freezer cooking
  • my camera deciding to play up
  • my computer hard-drive giving up the ghost
  • my husband helpfully misplacing his camera that I took back-up photos on
As with so many things in life sometimes it does feel just a tiny bit as if the universe is conspiring against one.

My freezer cooking day last week was a big effort but has made the past week's abundant crazy so much easier. So far we've eaten a gnocchi bake, a meatloaf, twice baked potato and sweet potato crumble from the day.

I think I mentioned before that I don't do all chicken dishes or all pasta dishes because that's just not what we like to eat or how we eat so I do a big mish-mash of things. I know that doesn't work for everyone but for us a freezer full of chicken won't help because we don't want to eat that every night for two weeks. Here is what I finished up with:

  • meatloaves x 2
  • sweet potato crumble x 2
  • twice baked potato x 3 serves for us
  • lamb and mushroom pie filling
  • gnocchi bake
  • zucchini slice
  • potato soup


I definitely need to do another batch of baked goods. My daughter made the ever simple lemonade scones on the weekend. These are a super easy thing for kids to make.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6036/lemonade+scones

Carrots were on sale this week so I can see banana carrot cake and hummingbird cakes on the horizon.

Anyway, hopefully the hiccups have ended and I can get back to blogging in earnest again.