Jamie's Pot-Roast Meatloaf

Serves 4-6

2 medium onions

olive oil

salt & pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 heaped tsp ground coriander

12 Jacob's cream crackers (I use breadcrumbs cause I have no idea what these are)

2 tsp dried oregano

2 heaped tsp dijon mustard

500g good quality minced beef

1 large egg

2 cloves garlice

1/2-1 fresh red chilli

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 TBS worcestershire sauce

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

2 TBS balsamic vinegar

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

12 slices of smoked bacon or pancetta

1 lemon

Method

Preheat oven to full whack.

Peel and finely chope one of the onions.

Place onion in a large frying pan on med/high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil and a pinch of s&p, add ground cumin and coriander, fry and stir every 30 seconds for 7 mins until lightly golden and then put in a bowl to cool. Wrap the crackers in a tea towel and smash up fine, add to the bowl with the onion mix, then add oregano, ustard and minced beef. Crack in the egg and add another good pinch of s&p. With hands scrunch and mix up well. Move the meat mixture to a board, pat and mould it into a large rugby ball shape, rub with olive oil.

Please meatloaf in a casserole pan or baking dish and put in over, turn down to 200 degrees and back for half an hour.

Peel the other onion and chop, peel and slice garlic and finely slice the chilli. Place the onion, garlic and chilli in a large pan on med/high heat with 2 lugs of olive oil, the paprika and a good pinch of s&p. Cook for around 7 mins stirring every 30 secs. Add the worcestershire sauce, chickpeas, toms and balsamic vinegar, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and let it slowly simmer for 10 mins.

Pick the rosemary leaves off the woody stalks and put them in a little bowl. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and pour all the fat from the pan over the rosemary leaves and mix up well. Spoon your sauce around the meatloaf. Lay the slices of bacon/panceta over the top of the meatloaf, scatter over the rosemary and put back in the oven for 10-15 mins until the bacon turns golden and the sauce is bubbling and delicious. Serve and squeeze with lemon!

Jools' favourite Saturday afternoon pasta

This is a Jamie recipe and my boys love it, it's a good everyday dish, easy to do but yummy, give it a try.

Serves 4

olive oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1-2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

1 level tsp ground cinnamon

a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped

2 x 400g can plum toms

2 x 300g tins of tuna, drained and flaked (I just buy 1 big tin)

s&p

500g penne or rigatoni

zest and juice of 1-2 lemons

a small handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a frypan cook onion, chilli, cinnamon and basil stalks on a med-low heat for 5 mins until the onion has softened and is slightly sweet. Turn up the heat and add toms, tuna and a good pinch of salt. Break the toms up using the back of the spoon, then bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 mins. Taste for seasoning.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a pan of salted boiling water according to packet instructions. When al dente, drain the pasta in a colander, reserving some of the cooking water. Toss the pasta into the tuna and tom sauce with the roughly torn basil leaves, a glug of olive oil, the lemon zest and juice and parmesan and mix together well. Loosen the pasta with a little of the reserved cooking water if needed. Check seasoning.

Chicken & Basil stir fry

I went to a Thai cook class for mum's birthday and learnt this recipe, I cook it all the time, it's so simply and yummy. I'll do some simply one's to start with and if people want some longer, more complex one's let me know and I'll bring them out to!

Chicken & Basil stir fry

With this dish there was no amounts given so you have to do it to taste, add a little and taste and then add more if you think it needs it, we like it hot so I add more chilli. I'll just put roughly what I put in.

Ingredients

2 Chicken breasts
Basil (I just rip up a few handfuls at the end)
2 Chillis
2 cloves Garlic
a lug of Oil
a couple of lugs of Soy
a few lugs of Fish sauce
about 2 tbs Oyster sauce
1 tbs Chicken stock powder (use the dried asian style not cubes, this is like powder)
palm Sugar (I like it pretty sweet so I used the bottled stuff and add a big tbs, you could use brown suger)

Method

Slice chicken into thin slices and marinate in oyster and soy sauce
Crush or blend together garlic and chilli.
Heat oil in hot wok and add garlic and chilli blend (I added some fresh ginger to this mix too), stir fry for 1 minute.
Add chicken and stir fry until cooked.
Season with chicken stock, sugar and fish sauce to taste.
Add basil leaves and stir for 1 minute.

I’ve also added cashews and cut up snake beans (or normal beans) to this recipe as well, that’s nice too.

Chicken & Corn soup

Most of my recipes are from Jamie Oliver (I'm obsessed with him), delicious mag, Donna Hay, womens weekly etc, I'm a cook book junkie!

The first recipe nice and easy and great for the kids, if you have left overs put it in the fridge and the next night have have a pasta or you can add more stock and it's more soup!

Serves 4-6

2 chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups (375ml) chicken stock
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 celery stalks1 leek (white part only), finely chopped
1 cup (180g) small pasta shells
310g can creamed corn
handful of baby spinach leaves

Place whole chicken breasts and stock into a large saucepan (I used a soap pan as I like to make a big pot), add 3 cups of water as well. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins over med-low heat. Transfer chicken to a bowl, then strain stock into a jug or bowl (I don't bother straining, not that anal).

Heat oil in the same pan over med-low heat, add onion, garlic, celery, leek and cook for 5 mins until vegies have softened. Add stock and bring to the boil. Cut up the chicken into small pieces, add to soup with the corn & pasta and return to the boil. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer rapidly, stirring occassionally, for 15 mins or until pasta is al-dente. Add a little more water if it becomes to thick. Season to taste and add the spinach leaves.

All done, very nice easy meal to do.

New blog

Welcome to my new blog, I've mainly created this to add recipes to and to add my scrapbooking layouts/cards etc. If you have any recipes feel free to post them to my group on facebook for people to share.