Recipe | Fried Polenta Garden Salad

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal/polenta

160ml milk

2 cups water

salt

olive oil

mixed salad leaves 

cherry tomatoes, halved

cucumber

kalamata olives

Dressing

1tbsp aioli 

1tbsp natural unsweetened yoghurt

1tsp seeded mustard

juice of 1 lemon

Heat the milk and water over a medium heat in large sauce pan with a generous pinch of salt. Pour the polenta in a constant stream whilst stirring with a whisk. Continue to whisk the polenta for about 10-15 minutes until cooked and is a thick porridge like consistency. 

In a prepared tray, I used a cake tin for lack of anything else, pour in polenta and chill, covered, until set. 

Once set, remove polenta from pan (it should just ease out) and cut into bite-sized cubes. 

Heat olive oil, about a tablespoon, over a medium to high heat in a frypan. Place polenta cubes in the frypan leaving enough space between for your to turn them over. Turn and cook all sides of the cube until crispy like a chip. Once cooked, place km some paper towel to drain some of the oil off them. 

I didn't cook all of mine at once because they're very filling so I left them in the fridge and cooked them later. 

In a jar, shake all of the dressing ingredients together. Pour over tossed salad leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and fried polenta bites. Season with some salt, pepper and more olive oil. 

This is just a super simple use of delicious fried polenta but there are many more. I'm working a nice recipe for cheese based sauce but I'll let you know if I ever get there. 

Enjoy! 

Erin xx

Recipe | Chickpea, Spinach and Tomato Stew

Hi lovelies! Recently I have been loving watching Estee and Aslan's vlogs, especially Aslan's cooking series. This particular recipe was for a chickpea dish with a tomato sauce base. I thought it looked perfect for a drizzly day here in Australia so I decided to give it a shot. You can watch Aslan's video here. 

Recipe | Capsicum Nachos

After a recent nachos gorge session I figured there must be a more healthy way to enjoy the Mexican cuisine classic. I've seen recipes around the internet using mini capsicums in a similar way but none using my favourite ingredients and truly utilising the capsicum as a corn chip replacement. I know that Jess' favourite food is capsicum so when she came over for a chilled out girls night I knew it was the time to try this recipe (she's also very handy in the kitchen). 

Serves 4 - 5

Ingredients

2 packets of miniature capsicums, halved and deseeded

3 tomatoes, diced

cucumber, diced

small red onion, diced

400g tin corn kernels 

1 green capsicum, diced

1 lemon, juiced

1 lime, juiced

400g tin Old El Paso Mexe-Beans

bottle of Old El Paso Think n Chunky Medium Salsa

sour cream

guacamole (1 ripe avocado, 1tbsp sour cream, salt and pepper smashed together)

2 cups tasty cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 200°C. 

On a baking tray lined with wax proof paper arrange the capsicum halves so that they're quite bunched together with the open side facing upwards. Place in oven for 10 minutes then remove. 

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, mix red onion, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, green capsicum, lemon and lime juice. 

Spoon Mexe-Beans and the Medium Salsa evenly on top of the partially cooked capsicums. Next, sprinkle over a thin later of cheese. Spoon the diced vegetable salsa on top. You may end up with excess salsa; this can be stored in the fridge for use at a later date. Cover your nachos with the remaining cheese and place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to become golden.

Once cooked, serve with sour cream and guacamole.  

Enjoy your healthier nachos!
Erin xx

Recipe | Gluten Free Cupcakes

During the Christmas season oftentimes I opt to bake presents for friends. Recently one of my friends has been diagnosed as gluten intolerant so I have been on the hunt for a great gluten-free cupcake recipe. I decided on adapting a tried and tested vanilla sponge recipe to make it gluten-free friendly. These definitely aren't the healthiest options, but it is Christmas after all.