What's for dinner Dad?

I get that a lot! and now I have a solution! Just go here:
WFD.co.za

To my mind one of the best recipe sites on the web, easy to navigate and most of all no registration needed to view the recipes!
Now all I have to say is "Go and find us a recipe and WE will knock it together".
I wish other questions we parents get asked in life were this easy to answer.

Bashed chicken leftovers

Some days I am in a flat spin and when I collect the milk and bread at my local P&P I grab a roasted chicken, for the price of R24 odd you get a chicken of reasonable size all cooked and quite tasty. I can't cook one for that price quite frankly!
Now after one or two of these days one collects a few odd chicken leftovers... what to do? what to do?
I came up with this bashed together recipe...

Bashed Chicken Leftovers.
Pre heat oven to 250/300 C

Ingredients:
Chicken leftovers or one whole chicken pre cooked/roasted.
Packet of bacon
3 med. potatoes
4/5 tomatoes or a can of tomatoes
Packet veggie soup.
Veggie seasoning/sprinkle.

Method:
Slice and dice the bacon and chicken, place in seperate bowls.
Peel and slice potatoes into rounds about 6mm thick.
Peel tomatoes with boiling water and dice.

Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom of a casserole, followed by chicken then bacon then tomato and do it again, sprinkling veggie sasoning over the potato and tomato layers.

Mix the veggie soup with 250 ml water and pour over the top and stick the covered casserole in the oven... as soon as you get the smell of the bacon reduce heat to 200C for another 30 min. by then it should be done with the potatoes firm but soft.

Serve with a tossed salad.

Quiche at Gecko's

The Free State National Botanical Gardens have a new place to eat...
Gecko’s Restaurant has opened and I decided to partake in a light lunch when I visited this week... not expecting much I ordered a cup of coffee and the Quiche of the day...
I was pleasantly surprised by this plate presented to me... the Quiche was Bacon and Mushroom, with a "Garden salad" with a delightfull Advocado sauce instead of the usual salad dressing... it was delicious both on the salad and Quiche!
Gecko's will be visited again! and I will be singing their praises... the service was excellent as well as the prices, not the cheapest but the quality was top class. The tables are plain but suit the setting and are adorned with indigenous blooms, depending what is flowering at the time...
I will have write up's on places I think are worth a culinary visit from time to time.
Must get that Avo sauce recipe next time...

Update: 03/09/07 - Seems like the place is now closed. When KatieB and I were here in July it was all shut up and the sign board was missing as well.

Hasta la pasta

Here is something I missed...
Hasta la pasta
Ok, I am cheating a bit, this is just my way of cooking spaghetti.
Take your favourite pasta pot, any large pot that holds at least 4 litres is fine, I have a cool one that has a built in strainer.
Fill with warm water (speeds up things) and add 2 herb and garlic stock cubes (instead of salt) and get it boiling, add a dash of olive oil and then the pasta as soon as the water is boiling vigourously. Stir a few times to prevent pasta sticking and cook for around 20 minutes until al dente.
Serve with your favourite dish like my meatballs or bolognaise.

Awesome dude's salmon bake

Wow a comment! Thanks chefmom, you have great blog by the way... Now for another one from my blog...
Le saumon avec la sauce de tomate et vegtables - Salmon with tomato sauce and veggies.
2 to 3 servings, can be squeezed or stretched to suit fish or company.
Ingrédients - Components... errr ingredients
1 fillet of salmon (canadian cos it is cheaper) big enough for your baking dish
2 cans tomato paste
1 leftover bit of tomato sauce in All Gold bottle
1 leftover bit of mayo in bottle
1 nice sized onion
1 serving spoon of peppadews
1 500/750g bag vegetables of your choice from P&P or Woolies, I used one that had carrots/sweet potato and butternut, will be trying other variations to the theme. Some olive oil, black pepper to taste, veggie seasoning and paprika. Set oven on 300 - full blast to warm it while you prep da fish and do the sauce... Get your fav saucepan as well and a baking dish big enough to hold the fish and veggies Dice & slice the onion and peppadew, seperately or together. Put the veggies in the microwave and nuke em for 5 minutes at least, rember to make a hole in the bag, it will explode if not!
La Sauce - the Sauce
A dash of olive oil in the saucepan, saute onions and add peppadew or do em in tandem, add the leftovers in the 2 bottles by swishing around the leftover with 250 ml. warm water, toss into onions that should be ready by then, add tomato paste and some Italian herbs, simmer slowly while you prep the fish... You should have around 750 ml when done, add water if needed.
Le poisson - the Fish
Wipe the fish with about a desertspoon of olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper to taste and colour the fish with some paprika, place in baking dish and put in oven... Don't forget! Turn once when the fish starts browning, this should not take longer than 6 minutes a side.
La combinaison - the Combining of it all
Now whip out the veggies and the fish, open the bag and arrange veggies around the fish in dish (rhymes), pour the sauce over the fish and veggies, return to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes, put grill on for the first 5 then swich off the oven... the fish and veggies will do the final cooking in the residual heat of the oven.
Prepare your table in the meantime... Goes well with a fine tossed salad and good company or it will serve two days worth of leftover for a single dude like me, there, ain't I awesome.

Haddock and veg bake

Haddock and Veg bake
This is what I had at hand ingredient wise,
4 baby gem squash
8 baby pear shaped marrows, approx 50mm long
Some left over cherry tomatoes and 2 bigger ones
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
punnet of button mushrooms
1 large onion
1 pack frozen haddock fillets approx 500g
Veggie Seasoning
and my new oil spray filled with Olive Oil.

Method:
First peel the sweet potatoes and cube, rinse and put into a microwave/glass dish and Nuke for 4 minutes at full blast.
Put your Oven on HIGH in the meantime.
Then trim the ends of the squash and marrows, rinse and do the same as the sweet potatoes but only for 2 minutes.
Now it is time to get out the baking dish big enough for all the ingredients, spray with oil, dump the nuked veggies in and spray with oil and sprinkle with Veggie Seasoning.
Slide the dish into the oven while you do the next step.
Trim the tail bit off your fillets of fish and cut in half, wash the mushrooms and tomatoes, dice/slice the larger ones and do the same to the onion.
Now you can whip your dish out of the oven and add the fish, arrange at will and spray a tad more oil, pop back into the oven for another 10 minutes.
Finaly add the tomatoes onion and mushrooms, sprinkle with Veggie Seasoning and spray lightly with oil.
Pop the lot back in the oven for 15 minutes, use a large spoon to mix the lot a bit and return to the oven for another 10 minutes with the Grill on, keep an eye on things from now on, as soon as things get brown do the mix thing and toast the rest... as soon as things go brown again shut the heat off and prepare to feast.
This recipe can be adapted regarding protein and vegetables, use whatever you have, the secret is in the light film of oil and the Veggie Seasoning. I reckon I could have served at least 4 people.

Le poulet fumé

Today's recipe is another plonk and roast dish, I think one should call it Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis or in plain english Smoked Chicken with Roasted Vegetables. (French thanks to Free Translations.Com.) Very easy to make and quite quick if one harnesses the Microwave to pre-cook the veggies.
Ingredients:
1 Smoked chicken, one could substitute this with one of those roasted chickens from your Spar/P&P/Woolies deli department.
Assorted packs of prepared veggies of your choice, I picked baby spuds/medeteranian veggie mix with sundried tomatoes/sweet potatoes/butternut/snap peas. You can mix and match as your tastebuds/hunger dictate.
1 Pack button mushrooms
1 Handfull asparagus
1 Large onion
1 Large red sweet pepper
2 Large tomatoes
2 cans tomato & onion mix, one per baking dish.
250 ml fresh cream
Herbs and spices to suit your taste, my choice was 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp Italian herb, 1 tsp majoram, 1 tsp celery salt, 1 tbl spn Veggie sprinkle, dried garlic (one clove fresh) and 2 tsp Coriander seeds. These were all ground together in a mortar and pestle (my new kitchen toy)
Preperation:
Cut the chicken into portions and place in a baking pan/dish and grill for a few minutes, this helps cook out any excess fat...
Put all the veggie packs into the microwave and nuke for 8 minutes or untill semi cooked...
My ingredients were enough for 2 baking dishes, it may vary according to your requirements or amount of ingredients you have.
Remove chicken from grill and set oven on max, drain any fat from the chicken and divide between the baking dishes if needed.
Arrange veggies amongst chicken, slice onion and tomatoes and plonk among the rest of the veggies, cut up the asparagus and mushrooms to spread about likewise.
Spread your spice/herb mix over ingredients followed by the tomato/onion mix and then divide the cream between the dishes.
Return to oven for about 10 minutes, stir and turn bigger vegetables and bake another 10 minutes.
Set oven on Grill and grill the dish for another 10 minutes or until veggies start showing brown... Do not Incinerate!
By this time you should have finished a tossed salad to complement your Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis.
This is a thumbsuck recipe as it can be chopped and changed depending on ingredients available. Will serve four comfortably.