recipes food cooking

Pumpkin seeds are very healthy for you, I eat them raw often.

Pumpkin seeds are very high in iron and contain other vitamins.

Roasting them gives the pumpkin seeds a wonderful nutty flavour.

I made this spicy mushrooms recipe today for our dinner and it was delicious.

You can eat this recipe on its own or with bread or as an accompaniment to another dish, we ate ours with sweet potato chips.

I use lots of healthy ingredients in this mushroom masala recipe.

Ingredients for Mushroom Masala Recipe
Olive Oil
2 Large Handfuls Small Mushrooms
2 Small Onions (finely chopped)
Small Chunk Ginger
1 Large Garlic Clove
approx 1/2 Cup Creamed Tomatoes
1 Green Pepper/Capsicum
1/2 Tin Chick Peas
1 tsp Turmeric
1+ 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Garam Massala

1 tsp Coriander

1/2 - 1 tsp Chilli Powder (optional)

'Note...You can add as little or as much chilli to suite your taste.'

How to make Spicy Mushroom Masala Recipe

Add mushrooms.

Pour in a little water to loosen the sauce.

Cook on a medium heat for a few minutes.

Drain and rinse your chickpeas add them to the pan.

Simmer on a low heat for 5 minutes, if it needs thickening up add a little tomato puree and mix well.

This recipe is easy and delicious, I cooked it for my husbands dinner today and he loved it, I must admit I did too!

They are tasty as a hot or cold snack and so very healthy.

And stir well.

Now the secret!

Use a SIEVE and wooden spoon to paste your potatoes through the sieve.

Then add your butter or which ever ingredients you want for your perfect mashed potatoes! Enjoy your lump free creamy mashed potatoes! :)

I just thought I would do a little post on food hygiene for anybody out there who hasn't cooked much before. I hope this helps with anyone cooking raw meat products for the first time. :)

1. When is comes to handling meat, poultry and fish we should always make sure we don't 'cross contaminate'. By this I mean touching raw meat,poultry or fish then touching other things without washing your hands first. It can be easier to put some hot soapy water in a washing up bowl before you handle your raw meat, this way you can dip your hands straight into the water to wash before touching anything else. Also personally I 'twice wash' any utensils I have used around raw meats. I wash them once alone then again with the rest of my pots that need washing. This is a personal preference. We can't all be running round our kitchens worrying about germs all day long this is not my intention, but it is very important to keep clean when handling raw meats or you could get poorly.


2. Always make sure your meats are cooked thoroughly and piping hot. Nobody wants to eat over cooked meat - your don't need to frazzle your food........but you really don't want to eat undercooked food or you will get very very poorly indeed! You can buy meat and fish thermometers that tell you when food is cooked or you can check by :-

1. Poking meat with a fork, knife or skewer and checking if the juice runs clear - if it runs bloody it is not ready to eat and still raw in the middle.

2. With chicken it should always be white in colour when cooked and never pink!

3. Cut into your meat to see if it is bloody and needs cooking longer. Also gently check with your finger in the middle of a meat and if it is hot to the touch with steam coming off it, it will be cooked.

Remember no one likes burnt food but meat and poultry is better to be a little over cooked than under cooked and getting poorly from it. As long as you make sure your food is cooked before eating then it should be delicious and perfectly fine. :)

But I had a try and...........

To my delight I got 4 HUGE pieces of salmon along with some mixed smaller pieces and I got out nearly every bone! Look :)

So I coated the salmon in some spelt flour mixed with salt and black pepper and fried it up serving it with some boiled Bulgar Wheat and fried yellow pepper/capsicum, a red onion and 5 or 6 carrots chopped. It was delicious and my whole family enjoyed it!

To some people the words egg and curry just do not go together, but to me they are a marriage made in spice heaven!

I love egg and I love spices, my hubby thought this was very delicious when I made it for him tonight!

I am sure you too will like it just as much as the taste was wonderful !

Onto the eggs

To cook your eggs place them into a pan with cold water and a few splashes of vinegar.(vinegar stops the eggs from cracking and leaking) Bring to the boil then once boiling time them for 2 -3 minutes.

Then take them straight off, pour out the hot water and replace with cold - peel the shells off.

Serve with basmati rice. Enjoy the wonderful taste !

How to make brown bread

This is a really easy brown bread recipe to bake.

Follow the step-by-step pictures to help you along the way.

This brown bread recipe is crisp on the outside and fluffy in the centre.

For an even fluffier brown bread use half white flour instead.

Jeena's Dough
approx 2-3 oz Ground Almond(I am so sorry I didn't measure it but I will Update this recipe because I will make it again very soon!)
1Medium Egg
Tbsp Set Honey
Tbsp Rice Flour
Seeds Half Vanilla Pod
Flaked Almonds
Sprinkle Light Brown Sugar (optional)
Honey to Spread

For the Filling

Because I didn't weigh the ground almonds (sorry) I would advise to add a bit at a time until it is the consistency of a thick batter.
Apart from the dough ,sugar and flaked almonds! Mix all the ingredients together well again it should look like a thick batter.

Now for the Main

Roll our the dough into a long flat oval.

Then spread allover with Honey.

Spoon the almond batter in a line in the middle of the dough length ways. Don't worry that it doesn't look even etc..... it is a thick batter after all.

Now brush with some melted healthy margarine/butter(you don't have to it just helps the almonds stick and oil is too savoury!) and sprinkle with lots of flaked almonds, then if you want to sprinkle with some sugar. Now cook it in a hot oven until Golden brown. It will take 10 - 15 minutes depending on your oven. Cut the end off to check if your uncertain.