Slow Cooker Chana Masala #SundaySupper

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Laura

I’m back!

After a week holiday in Italy for my brother’s wedding and then a crazy week at work with studying for my citizenship test, which I am so happy to say I PASSED! I have been MIA but I am back and so excited about this Sunday Supper theme. Today we are all sharing slow cooker meals. And I don’t know about you but I could always use inspiration on slow cooker meals. Especially when life gets as busy as it has for me.

For my recipe I decided to attempt something I have wanted to do for a while now, Chana Masala.

This is one of my favourite curries and yet I have never had success with it at home. But this recipe from Simple and Sustainable Cooking seemed a lot easier then others I have seen so I decided to finally give it a try. I have to say when I noticed she used dried chickpeas and yet didn’t soak them first I foolishly questioned whether or not it would work. Not only did this recipe amaze me with how well they cooked but it has made me want to start to cook my dried beans in the slow cooker instead of the stove from now on.

We seriously have such an amazing collection recipes to share with you today so don’t forget to check out the rest of the Sunday Supper menu.

Slow Cooker Chana Masala

140g (3/4 c.) dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
600mL (2 1/2 c.) water
salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 onion, diced
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander powder
3 tomatoes
1 inch piece peeled fresh ginger
1-2 green chilies
1 tsp garam masala
1 lemon or lime
2 scallions, chopped
handful of coriander (cilantro)

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Posted in #SundaySupper, Crockpot, Indian, Vegetarian Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Sausage and Egg Muffins #BrunchWeek

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Laura

I cannot tell you how excited I am. In 24 hours we are going to be boarding a train that is going to take us through Paris on our way to Rome for my brother’s destination wedding. Never have I been as excited about traveling as I am about the holiday. So today will be my last post for the week as I will be focusing on family time but I can’t wait to come home and share with you about our adventures and see what food inspiration I get from our trip.

While I am gone there will be more amazing brunch recipes being shared during Brunch Week as well as the amazing prizes so don’t forget to check out the other blogs. And join them on the PintrestChat. There are so many ways to enter the drawing for these fabulous prizes just check sign up with the rafflecopter.

So for day 3 of Brunch Week I want to share with you my take on a sausage and egg breakfast sandwich. The method I use to make the egg patties is unique and has taken me a while to be happy with. I use large metal cooking rings for this. If you can’t find anything of the sort you can just make a thin omelette and use that to top your egg.

With Mother’s Day coming up this would be a wonderful Mother’s Day Brunch idea to surprise her with.

Well I am off for fun adventures, have a great week and good luck to everyone with the prize drawing this Brunch Week.

Sausage and Egg Muffins

1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
500g (1 lb) minced pork
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 Tbsp extra for frying
4 muffins (English)
4 slices of cheese
4 eggs
1 Tbsp milk

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Posted in #BrunchWeek, Breakfast | 5 Comments

Breakfast Won Ton Cups #BrunchWeek

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Laura

It is Brunch Week! What does that mean? Well all this week a large group of bloggers have teamed up to give you brunch recipe ideas and we have some fabulous prizes from some great sponsors. I won’t be able to participate in the whole week as I am off to Rome on Wednesday. Yes you heard that right, Rome. My little brother is doing a destination wedding so we have almost a week in Rome and I am so excited.

But enough about fun adventures and back on to breakfast. I often get stuck with new ideas for breakfast and brunch. But I really stuggle with creativity with it. So when I heard about Brunch Week I thought this would be a great oppertunity to push myself out of my comfort zone and try to get more creative.

I mentioned before that I have a lot of won ton wrappers to use up so my first recipe I decided to get creative and use them. I had seen a lot of people use won ton wrappers for things like lasagne cups so I thought I would take the same principle with eggs. First I tried pre-cooking the wrappers but that resulted in oddly shaped cups and then they overcooked once I baked them with the eggs. So round two I tried adding the eggs to the won ton cups and baking it together and this time it turned out perfect. Make sure to spray your tin with a light spray of oil so that they can easily come out once they are baked. You can use any filling, in the same way you would do mini quiches.

Won Ton Breakfast Cups

24 won ton wrappers
6 eggs
120mL (1/2 c.) milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
40g (1/2 c.) cheese, grated
6 rashers of bacon (if using streaky bacon you might want to use more)

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Posted in #BrunchWeek, Breakfast | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Southwestern Crock Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes #WeekdaySupper

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Laura

I am not sure why I never thought about this before, doing baked potatoes and sweet potatoes in the crock pot. But let me just say this is a genius idea. I love jacket potatoes (baked potatoes) but can never seem to co-ordinate the baking time right to have them for a week day meal. It ends up just being a weekend side dish for a BBQ or something like it. Sticking them in the crock pot to cook during the day and then coming home to them ready for toppings makes this such a simple week day meal. By adding more filling ingredients as your topping something like a jacket sweet potato or potato can instantly transform from a side dish to the main meal. As we are trying to lose some weight I didn’t add any butter to the sweet potato but I have to say with he filling it wasn’t needed. The only thing I would have done differently is stuck it under the grill for a minute to melt the cheese.

Southwestern Crock Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes

3 medium sweet potatoes
400g (1.5 c.) frozen corn, rinsed and patted dry
Salt, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
400g (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
40g (1/2 c.) cheddar cheese, grated
handful of coriander, chopped (cilantro)
sour cream for serving

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Posted in #WeekDaySupper, Crockpot, Easy Meal, Gluten-Free, Main Course, Vegetarian Recipes | Leave a comment

Bacon Meatballs

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Laura

Can you believe that there was once a time when I didn’t like bacon? Now there is a sensible reason why I went off liking it, I once worked in a kitchen where every Sunday I had to cook 20-30 lbs of bacon for Sunday Breakfast and after a while just the smell of bacon made me feel sick. So for almost 15 years I couldn’t stand to even have it cooking in my house.

My poor husband.

But I gave bacon a try again for the first time last year and my eyes were opened back up to the taste I have been missing all these years. Although I will say I prefer English bacon over American streaky bacon which has a much higher fat content. But I am finally back on the dark side and loving it.

Bacon Meatballs

250g (1/2 lb) bacon, chopped
250g (1/2 lb) minced beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1 egg
1 courgette (zucchini), grated
Favourite Tomato Sauce

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Posted in Beef, Gluten-Free, Main Course, Pork | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments