Sunday Lunch Recipe - Crunchy Chicken & Pasta Salad

Here is a great recipe for a salad I like to make on summer days or to take on family picnics. It can be eaten as a side dish or as a meal on it's own. It's easy to make and super yummy.

You can use left over barbecue chicken but I like to use chicken tenders.

Ingredients-

3-4 cups cooked chicken

1 1/2 cups of cooked pasta

3/4 cup celery sliced

1 sml can of water chestnuts (drained)

1/2 cup grapes (cut in half)

1 sml can of pineapple pieces (drained)

1 teaspoon of onion flakes

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Place mayonnaise, salt and pepper in a sml bowl. Mix well and set aside.

2. Place all other ingredients in a larger bowl and mix.

3. Add mayonnaise mixture to large bowl. Mix. Allow to sit in fridge until all ingredients are cold.

4. Enjoy!

Sunday Lunch Recipe - Blackberry Coconut Slice

When John and I moved to Ballarat approx. 18 months ago I decided to start a new tradition of having family over for lunch every Sunday.

It's been a great way to rebuild relationships with family members that unfortunately have suffered due to living long distances apart.

My Family aren't exactly the most sociable group of people, so what better way to entice them over but by offering food.

Feed them and they will come..... I say.

Unfortunately in 2010 I'd gotten into a rut when it came to choosing the lunch menu.

This year I've decided to surprise my family with something different each week.

I've been rummaging around through my recipes boxes and came across this lovely old favourite and thought... this will be perfect for the Blackberry Jam I bought at a recent local Twilight Craft Market...Yummo!

I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the slice all cut up (oops) as it was gobbled up before I had a chance to get my camera.

Anyway, here is the recipe if you would like to try it. It's very easy.

BLACKBERRY COCONUT SLICE

for the base -

90g butter

1/4 cup Castor sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup plain flour

2 tablespoons cornflour

3-4 tablespoons of Blackberry jam

topping -

40g butter

2 tablespoons of Castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of coconut

2 tablespoons self-raising flour

BASE

1. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and creamy.

2. Add egg, beat well.

3. Sift flour and cornflour, fold into creamy mixture using spoon.

4. Spread mixture evenly into a lined and greased lamington tin.

5. Spread jam over base.

TOPPING

6. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy.

7. Add egg, beat well.

8. Fold in sifted flour and coconut.

9. Spread topping over jam ( crumble spoonful at a time).

10. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 minutes.

11. Cut it into slices when cold.

VERDICT - Super yummy :)

Chocolate Play dough!!!

Need a quick and easy last minute gift for a child?

Why not try this -

CHOCOLATE PLAY DOUGH!

Yes, you read that right.

I needed something special to give to the students in my Nursery class at church. They love playing with the normal homemade play dough each week so i decided to make them their own play dough, but with a twist. I also gave them a set of cutters and roller each and put it all into individual gift bags...too easy.

Like this idea? Here is the recipe -

Chocolate Play dough

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup salt

1/2 tablespoon Cream of tartar

1 1/2 tablespoons oil

1 cup water

1. Place all dry ingredients in a medium size saucepan - mix.

2. Add wet ingredients and stir.

3. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens and forms a ball of dough.

3. Remove from saucepan, cool slightly, then knead until dough is smooth and even coloured.

4. Store in an air-tight container in a dry cool place.

WARNING -Your whole house will smell heavenly :)

Saturday drive

Another short and sweet post. I've had the flu for the last couple of weeks so I'm really lacking inspiration and motivation.

Lots of renovating projects ahead of us (more things to post about:)), as John and I are moving into our beautiful (but needing alot of TLC) 130 yr old terrace home next week....yippee! This means we won't have alot of time for drives in the country...boo hoo. We therefore couldn't let such a lovely day go to waste. Was sure nice seeing the sunshine again, as the weather has been so miserable here lately.

Our first stop was at an antiques store in Newlyn. A bit pricey but lovely.


Of course I had to have a look in Mill Markets at Daylesford, even if it was only a short browse. Liam started to 'turn into a pumpkin', so we decided to keep moving. Will definitely be leaving the kids with the live-in babysitter (aka big sister) next time. Sorry Winona!
In the short time we were there I saw a few nice things.

Two very sweet vintage framed prints.

How sweet is this play kitchen hutch. Love the cute penguins on the front.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the drive home...finally some peace. Of course we had to stop and get some fish and chips :)

Finished the day by cooking some mini sausage rolls for lunch tomorrow.

So easy to make. All you need is puff pastry sheets, a roll of sausage mince and some grated veges (carrot and zucchini work well). Make up a mixture of 50/50 mince and grated veges. One sheet of pastry should make 15 sausage rolls. Place on a tray, brush with milk and bake for approx. 20mins in 200/180c oven.

My kids love them.

Hope you all had a lovely Saturday.

RECIPE: A twist on an old favourite

CHOCOLATE BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

3 crusty knot bread rolls or other crusty bread (I used 1/2 a Vienna loaf)

1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread

1 3/4 cups of milk

2 tbsp caster sugar

3 eggs

icing sugar and ice cream to serve

*

• spray baking dish with oil
• cut bread into thick slices
• spread choc spread on both sides of bread, then place in dish
• whisk together eggs, milk and caster sugar
• pour custard mixture over bread
• set pudding aside for 20 minutes to allow custard to soak into bread
• set oven to 180 c
• place dish on tray and put in oven
• bake for approx 40 minutes or until custard is set and top is golden brown
• dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream

ENJOY!