Friday, August 31, 2012

MARS BAR SLICE

This is a recipe for the delicious sweet treat, Mars Bar Slice!

Ingredients:
* 4x 53g Mars bars, finely chopped
* 50g Butter
* 3 cups (60g) Rice Bubbles
Icing
* 50g butter 
* 200g milk chocolate.

Method:
1. Melt your butter and Mars bar pieces ina saucepan over low heat. Once the two ingredients are combined, turn the heat off and set it aside to cool slightly. 
2. Pour your rice bubbles into a large bowl then add your slightly cooled chocolate mixture and mix until the rice bubbles are coated with chocolate. 
3. Pour your rice bubble mix into a cooking dish lined with aluminum foil then using your wooden spoon, gently press the mixture evenly around the dish.
4. To make your icing, melt your butter and chocolate in the microwave on 30 second intervals, stirring in between then place it on top of your rice bubble mixture in the pan.
5. Pop it into the fridge for about half an hour or until hardened then slice is up as desired.

Monday, August 27, 2012

CARBONARA PASTA

Hey everyone,
This recipe is how to make Carbonara pasta, mainly focussing on the sauce portion because pasta is pretty basic and I'm sure everyone knows how to make that bit.
Ingredients:
Pinenuts
Mushrooms
Shallots
Cream
Milk
Butter
Pasta
STEP ONE
PASTA
The first thing your going to want to do it start boiling your pasta so that it is ready for when you finish your sauce. Just heat some water and cooking salt in a saucepan on the stove and place your pasta in, stirring it every once in a while so all of the pasta is evenly cooked.

STEP TWO
FRY
The next step is frying your ingredients. Start of with the pine nuts, quickly frying them on each side because they burn easily. Next remove your pine nuts from the pan and fry your mushrooms. Lastly, in a seperate frying pan, fry your shallots.

STEP THREE
COMBINE
Now you can add your pine nuts and mushrooms back into the drying pan as well as your cream, butter and milk. Once the sauce thickens, you can then mix in your shallots.
It's a super easy pasta sauce but it tastes delicious and is a change from normal tomato based pasta sauce. I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Another pasta sauce is coming soon so watch out for it.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

VEGETABLE/VEGETARIAN LASAGNE


This recipe is for one of my favourite dinners to make, Vegetable Lasagne! It's really simple to make but very delicious!

Ingredients:
Lasagne sheets
Olive oil
Lasagne Bechamel Sauce
Lasagne Tomato Sauce
1 Sweet Potato
2 Zuchinni's
1 Capsicum
1 Onion
Cheese

Method:
1. The first thing your going to want to do is prepare are cook your vegetables. Cook your sliced capsicum and onion in a small frying pan over medium heat, uncovered. Cook your sliced zucchini and sweet potato in a large frying pan over medium heat, covered. Set aside to cool.
2. Place a small amount of olive oil at the bottom of your lasagne dish with a thin layer of tomato paste. Place a lasagne sheet on top of this and then add a mixture of your vegetable fillings on top of the lasagne sheet. Top with white sauce and another lasagne sheet then repeat the process until you have used all of your vegetable ingredients. Finish with white sauce and cheese.
3. Cook it on 160 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is browned and the pasta is soft. You can check if the pasta is soft by inserting a knife into it and if it cuts through easily then it's ready.
4. Take it out of the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.
Thanks for reading, hope you try it out!

Friday, August 24, 2012

HEALTHY HABITS: TRAIL MIX RECIPE

If you follow me on Instagram (JordyDanielle) or Twitter you would probably know by now that I have started eating healthier because I really want to get fit. I thought that I would share the knowledge that I am learning along the way and begin a new series called "Healthy Habits" where I will be writing about nutritious recipes, healthy snacks, good diet foods and tips on how to live healthier (food choices when eating out, maybe even some exercise tips). The first installment in this new series is my trail mix recipe! I am a huge snack-er and always having to be munching on something! Before beginning eating healthier it used to be chocolate, chips and biscuits but now I have to make sure that what I snack on is better for me than that! A "naughty snack" that I love picking at is trail mix because I still get my sweet, salty and crunchy snack fix but it isn't as packaged and processed. Without further ado...what I put into my trail mix...

Dried Fruit
Of course fresh fruit is so much better for you than dried fruit is but it's still much better than chips and biscuits! I add goji berries (I could go on forever about all of the benefits these little berries have), Craisins (dried cranberries) and a berry mix which includes cherries, strawberries and sultanas. This satisfies my sweet tooth because of the sweet dried fruits. 

Nuts
Nuts are a great source of protein but they are pretty high in fat so I only add some cashews and almonds. I also love adding peanuts and occasionally walnuts but I tend to stay away from macadamia nuts because I feel like they are the fattiest nut and I always feel really heavy after eating them. This is where I satisfy my salt cravings because the cashews and most nuts come salted.

Chips
No not the kind of chips your thinking! I add banana chips which are so delicious but very high in sugar and calories! I also add coconut chips which are shaved and roasted coconut pieces! These suprisingly aren't too bad for you but they are quite expensive. This is where I get my crunchy snack fix because it feels like I'm eating chips!

All of the ingredients I use, you can easily have access to at any Coles and probably Woolworths so it's super easy to make and the ingredients are very accessible. 

I hope you enjoyed my first "Healthy Habits" post! There will be many to come and I look forward to sharing my healthy journey with you all and possibly supporting everyone else in the same position!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

SWEET AND NUTTY POPCORN TREATS

Hey everyone, 
This recipe is a super simple sweet and nutty popcorn treat perfect for entertaining!

Ingredients:
200g Cooking Chocolate
1 cup marshmallows
1 cup popcorn
1 cup peanuts
Cupcake wrappers

 Method:
This recipe is super simple because all you have to do is evenly distribute the 3 ingredients into cupcake wrappers and then pour the melted chocolate over the top. After about 30 minutes in the fridge, take them out and they are ready to eat!

As you can see, these are very simple and quick to make. Thanks for reading!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

BANANA CAKE

Hey everyone,
Just a quick recipe on Banana Cake. I didn't take pictures while making this delicious treat so it probably isn't too helpful but I did take pictures of the end reuslt.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
3 small bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
50ml milk
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Method
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.
2. Add eggs seperately, beating well.
3. Mash bananas and add to mixture.
4. Dissolve soda in milk and add flour and milk alternately.
5. Bake in a large tin on 180 for 35 minutes or until cooked.

Friday, August 17, 2012

CHOCOLATE CRACKLES

Hey everyone,
This recipe is for the delicious rice based coconut treat, Chocolate Crackles. These are perfect for serving at parties or entertaining with friends so keep reading to find out how to make them!

Ingredients:
1 cup Rice bubbles
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup icing sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 stick of Copha
Step 1
COMBINE
Combine all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl so that's the sugar, coconut, cocoa and rice bubbles.

Step 2
MELT
Melt your Copha over low heat in a saucepan until the stick turns completley into liquid. Set to cool for about 10 minutes.

Step 3
MIX
Add the copha to the dry ingredient mix and combine them together thoroughly.

Step 4
SPOON
Evenly distribute the mixture among 12 cupcake wrappers and put in the fridge to set until hard.

That is how easy it is to make the delicious party treat, Chocolate Crackles! Thanks for reading! Check out my video on this recipe here.


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

TEMPURA VEGETABLES

Hey everyone,
This recipe is for a delicious Japanese food which I love and I'm going to be telling you how you can make your own at home! Tempura can get really expensive in resteraunts so I was interested in finding out how to many it yourself and save some money. Now that I know how, I wanted to share it with you all!
The secret is Trident Tempura Batter Mix! For under $5, one pack makes an excessive amount of Tempura! If you were to buy this much tempura at a resteraunt it would cost you over $40!
STEP ONE
MIX
Start off by mixing your tempura mix with water and stirring it until all of the clumps are gone.

STEP TWO
COAT
Next evenly coat all of your vegetables in the batter. If you can see your vegetables clearly through the batter, you have added too much water and can fix this problem by adding a bit more flour to the mix.

STEP THREE
DIP
Now it's time to dip your batter covered vegetables into a saucepan of boiling oil. The most important part of this is to not leave them in too long and do one at a time! If you leave it in too long, it's just a soggy, oily, burnt mess and if you put more than one in at a time, they stick together. Leave in until just browned.
Serve with on top of Japanese curry for an authentic meal good enough to be served at a resteraunt!

Friday, August 3, 2012

HEALTHY HOMEMADE PIZZA

Hey everyone, 
Here is a super healthy recipe for homemade pizza; I made mine even healthier because it's a vegetarian version.  It's a super simple recipe that makes for a perfect quick and easy dinner or lunch.
Ingredients:
Pizza base
Pizza sauce
Capsicum
Mushroom
Zucchini
SPinach
Mozzarella Cheese
Just slice up all of your ingredients and place them on a tomato paste covered pizza base.
Once you have placed all of your ingredients onto your pizza, sprinkling the top with some cheese. Place it into the oven for 15-20 minutes on 200 or until the cheese on top browns.
Check out this recipe on my cooking channel here or watch the video below!