apricot and lemon slice, scroggin slice

Apricot and lemon slice
Ingredients

125 grams butter melted 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk 250 grams malt biscuits, crushed 1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 1 cup coconut Lemon icing: 2 cups Icing Sugar 1/4 teaspoon Butter, softened, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons extra coconut for decoration

Method
In a small saucepan, add the butter and condensed milk. 
Stir over a gentle heat until the butter has melted.
In a bowl, combine biscuit crumbs, apricots, lemon rind, coconut and mix well. 
Stir in the butter mixture until well combined. 
Press into a greased or lined 20 x 30 cm tin and refrigerate for 1 hour. 
Ice with lemon icing and sprinkle with extra coconut (if desired). Cut into squares when cold.

Icing: Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add butter, lemon juice and lemon rind to mix to a spreadable consistency

Left: scroggin slice, right: apricot and lemon slice

Scroggin (trail mix) slice

Ingredients

• 1-2 sheets sweet shortcrust pastry 
• 3⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 1 dessertspoon golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 C scroggin (trail mix)
• Extra chocolate to cover (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Line with the pastry and prick all over with a fork. Cover with baking paper then baking beans or rice and blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans then bake the pastry case for a further 2-3 minutes or until light golden. Set aside.

Whisk the sugar, golden syrup and egg together then add the flour and baking powder and whisk until well combined. Stir in the chocolate and scroggin

Pile the fruit mixture into the pastry case and return to the oven for 20-25 minutes or until set. Cool in the tin then cut into rectangles.

Cover with melted chocolate for extra choc-ness.

Cookies and cream fudge

This is my go to recipe when I need to make something quickly with minimal effort.  With only three ingredients it never fails to get people asking for the recipe. Its rich and delicious - you have been warned!

Ingredients
1 can condensed milk
400-500g white chocolate
1 packet cream filled cookies such as oreos (I use Shrewsbury cookies and cream), broken/smashed in to chunks

Method
Melt chocolate and milk in a pot over a low heat.  Mix until everything is melted and its nice and thick.
Add the cookie chunks and stir.
Pour in to a greased or lined tray and leave to set.
Scrape the bowl clean with a teaspoon and eat it (this step is a must LOL).

An attempt to make a monkey cake

Today was my niece's 4th birthday party and I volunteered to make the cake.  You see I love baking and I would love to learn to decorate cakes (its on my to do list, oh yeah that list that we all have). 

Ms M is a typical 4yr old girl, obsessesed with PINK!  And so of course her cake had to be pink.  Now this would have been far more elegant with fondant, but I've never used fondant before and had no time to practice (my volunteering was only accepted on Monday, they were going to buy a cake).  So I went with buttercream frosting.  And of course, when I went to find my icing pipers the kids had stolen them and they are in the nether regions of the house, that place where socks end up for months.  So I had to opt for a plastic bag.  Plus I only had 3 hours sleep (spent the night celebrating a friend returning to the States).

But overall I am happy, and everyone said it tasted great (it was only the second time I have ever baked a chocolate cake, I usually always make banana cake).  Voila.

Protein brownies version one

Protein bars are something I've added in to my eating plan, they're easy to eat on the go and I can eat one quickly which is super important as my job has major time restraints.  The problem is protein bars are filled with non-food.  As I commented on my weight reduction blog (Wiggly Jiggly Wobbly) non-food is any ingredient that has more than 3 syllables or a number in it (only applies to english words). When its science speak, its not food -LOL- So broc-co-li is acceptable, po-ly-dex-trose is not ;)  In my attempt to get healthy I'm trying to eat less non-food and so figure I'm going to give making my own protein bars a go. There are a lot of recipes out there in our virtual floating world for protein bars, so I'll be stealing altering and playing and hopefully I can come up with something that a) tastes good (most important), b) has good nutritional make up and c) fill the gap the same way store bought bars can.

So here is my first attempt, a protein chocolate brownie.

Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats ground in a processor to make oat flour
1/2 c chocolate protein powder (whey based)
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 c artificial sweetener
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c apple sauce (unsweetened, I used baby food nom nom)
1 egg
1/2 c water 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 180 C
2. Mix all dry ingredients until well blended
3. Add wet ingredients and mix well
4. Pour in to a 8x8 baking tray or divide into muffin cups (I poured this in to 9 silica muffin trays, medium muffin size)
5. Cook for 15-20min

I work these out to be in the 100-120cal range, which is less than my store bought bars.  I'm thinking they need to be a little sweeter or chocolate-ier (oh don't you just love how we can make up words), they're just missing something.  I did go easy on the sweetener, as often I find it to be over powering.  A few chocolate chips, maybe some peanut butter or nuts could definitely help this.  But its not a bad base recipe to play and tweak with. 

Chicken and black bean chili

Now this might seem like a common enough dish to any reader from the USA that might have stumbled upon me, however, here in NZ its not common at all.  In fact I'd never even had black beans before until I made this recipe.  But while browsing blogs or pinterest (ahh the addiction) searching for something new and scrummy to make I came across a recipe for turkey and black bean chili.  And then as I always do I forgot all about it until I was grocery shopping and looking for a can on chickpeas I found a can of black beans.  My brain had a bubble and with a pop I remembered wanting to try chicken and black bean chili.
 

Ingredients
Dash of olive oil

1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Chicken (I used 2 large breasts), chopped in to small bite chunks or chicken mince
1 can of black beans
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 large capsicum (bell pepper) diced
1/2 T ground chilis
1/2 T smoked paprika
1/2 T cumin
2 t basil
2 t rosemary or oregano
1 T red wine vinegar (or red wine)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat.
2. Add the oil and garlic and cook until soft.
3. Add chopped chicken, one cooked add all other ingredients.  
4. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 40-60min.
5. Serve with brown rice