Blondie's Recipes | Finding Feasts

Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes

Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes are a stunningly moist and slightly spiced chocolate cake that will certainly be enjoyed by all.

The original recipe is from Julie Le Clerc’s gorgeous cookbook, Little Café Cakes.

Needing a treat for the school lunch box lead me to this one but with what I had in the cupboard it turned out a little different. To start with I used Dutch processed cocoa powder, which you aren’t suppose to use with baking soda but since the recipe also asks for baking powder I took my chance. I used 2 large zucchini’s so there was A LOT of zucchini. I threw in dried cranberries and chocolate bits for extra sweetness as it wasn’t very sweet but the end result was surprisingly good. I have written the recipe to what Julie Le Clerc documented – adding the cranberries and chocolate bits… oh and using olive oil rather than canola, just to show you that you can mix up recipes a little and still end up with a great end result.

As I used so much zucchini I ended up with some extra mixture so poured it into a pie tin and made an extra large soft cookie that master M absolutely loved! More so than the actual cakes so I will remember to make more of the giant ‘cookie’ next time.

These are dark, moist and tasty – enjoy! Blondie

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Chicken w/ Lap Cheong & Spinach

Chicken w/ Lap Cheong & Spinach is a deliciously juicy Chinese dish that can adapt to having whatever vegetables you want to use in it.

This is an adaption from a new cookbook I picked up from the library, Sweet Mandarin Cookbook by Helen & Lisa Tse. “Classic and contemporary Chinese recipes with gluten and dairy-free variations.” This is a book I will be adding to my collection, without doubt – so many great recipes and very simple.

I say adaption because I used a whole chicken broken down instead of the skinless chicken breast and English spinach instead of the Chinese cabbage, oh and sherry (which I personally prefer) instead of the Shaoxing rice wine. I didn’t need to thicken the sauce with cornflour but if you choose to use the chicken breast you may want to. Just add 2 tablespoons of cornflour or potato flour to 1 tablespoon of water, mix it well then pour in near the end and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring continually.

So delicious… Blondie 🙂

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Sweet & Sour Sardines

Sweet & Sour Sardines is a dish I served while we were all away over the Easter break for the Friday Fish BBQ.

Before we head off for the holidays, Bella and I go for a massive shop at the Sydney Fish Markets, truly, so much fun! Prawns, oysters (which I now know I have a severe reaction to, but that’s another story) barramundi, sardines, whiting and morton bay bugs… a true feast.

We all head to a beautiful property near Oberon, which is on the other side of the Blue Mountains. The kids have a ball with the zip line and the animals that are there, while Bella and I enjoy a week of cooking and mushroom foraging. The hubbies enjoy eating and golfing…so everyone is catered for.

This is a dish inspired by Feast magazine April 2014, the Venetian recipe of Sarde in Saor. If I were in my own kitchen I would have had all the ingredients but since not, there were a few alterations to the original recipe. I used bay leaves instead of thyme. I didn’t have raisins or white wine vinegar so used Dill Pickle juice and pickles to get the acidity and sweetness.

This recipe sings on the tongue, with each bite a delicious blend of sweet, sour and fishy saltiness.

Enjoy the bounty… Blondie xx

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White Chia Seed Banana Bread

White Chia Seed Banana Bread is a great way of incorporating the healthy goodness of chia seeds into your kids’ lunch boxes. Plus they are so fun to eat as they are little balls of popping seeds that all kids will love.

This is part of my New Years resolution, the one where I have to make one recipe from any book or magazine that enters my house, and as you can see below, sadly I have fallen way behind…

So in order to get back on track I have made an important decision, that is, I am allowed to be inspired by recipes within the books and magazines, hence this little gem of a recipe.

Vol.2 of Nourish magazine 2014 had a big article on chia seeds with some nice recipes, but I really needed something for the lunch box, which is where I chose to incorporate the seeds into my normal Banana Bread recipe. Voila, a popping banana bread that I know Seb is going to love.

Popping seeds of goodness… Blondie xx

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Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w/ Spinach Crust

Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w Spinach Pastry — Click image for recipe

Mushroom Yoghurt Pie w/ Spinach Crust is the recipe attached to the Spinach Pie Crust I posted a little while ago.

This recipe comes direct from one of my most favourite cookbooks, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. Every page you turn to has a recipe you want to try – 289 pages of delicious vegetarian dishes that i’m slowly getting through. I’ve said it before, this book deserves to be in everyones cookbook collection.

This is a flavoursome pie with a simply stunning pie crust that I know you will make more than once. Every time you walk past a bunch of silverbeet or spinach, this pie base will pop into your head with an endless list of fillings to try it with.

Enjoy… Blondie

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Pork & Prawn Stir Fry w/ Zucchini Noodles & Sweet Potato Sticks

Pork & Prawn Stir Fry w/ Zucchini Noodles & Sweet Potato Sticks is a simple stir fry dish that is flavoursome and textural, relying on great produce to make it a special meal. The only sauce addition is fish sauce and a pinch of sugar, everything else comes from the garden, pasture and ocean – love it!

If you haven’t got your vegetable slicer/noodle maker yet then what are you waiting for? It makes vegetables fun for kids but also opens up a whole new world in cooking. The zucchini noodles really do have a similar texture to normal noodles. They also do spirals, which are fantastic in salads!

Slop it up! Blondie xx

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Crispy Thai Chicken Nuggets

Crispy Thai Chicken Nuggets are so amazingly moreish you could quite possibly fall into a food coma if you made enough of them – hubby almost did!

With the last of my thai paste sitting idle in the freezer – there wasn’t quite enough left to make a family pot of thai curry, the next dream recipe that popped into my mind was deep fried chicken nuggets, and what an amazing lightbulb of a meal idea it was! These nuggets are so moist, so tender, full of amazing flavours and with the indulgent use of deep frying, deliciously naughty as well.

Balance out the meal with some steamed vegetables such as garlic beans and a stir fried zucchini noodle dish and you won’t feel so bad indulging in these bite size morsels of flavoursome chicken nuggets.

Tip: Don’t be tempted to make this dish a little ‘healthier’ by using chicken breast, as you need the fuller flavour of the chicken thighs as well as the moist meat that the thigh fillets have to successfully make these nuggets.

Make, indulge and enjoy… Blondie 🙂

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