Spicy Chickpea Casserole with Quinoa

I wasn't sure how well this would be received - my children aren't picky eaters by any stretch of the imagination, but they are all under 6. I needn't have worried though. Miss Four thought "chicken peas" was hilarious, and after I told them that chickpeas were the main ingredient in hummus, which they all adore, Master Five couldn't get enough of his "hummus nuts"! Pictured is DP's serve, which had less tomatoes than was really proportionate, so it doesn't look as red as it should, but this was a fitting meal for the Cookbook Challenge "Red" week.

In turn, I love this cookbook, all slow cooker recipes, with a lot of attitude, and hilarious mum talk asides that had me bookmarking quite a few pages.

Spicy Chickpea Casserole with Quinoa (from How to make Love & Dinner at the Same Time by Rebecca Jager)
1 red pepper [capsicum], chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 [425g] cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 [400g] cans diced tomatoes
1/3 cup quinoa, uncooked
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all the ingredients in the slow cooker.
Cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours, or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours.
Remove the bay leaf, and serve.

This was an entry for
The Cookbook Challenge: Week 22 - Red.

Beef, Pepper and Mushroom Casserole

This made the house smell like pizza all day. I was tempted to add tomato paste and some pineapple. lol
Adapted from "Margaret Fulton's Book of Family Meals"

1kg braising steak, roughly cubed
3 tbsp flour
salt & pepper
3 tbsp oil
3 onions, chopped
1 large green capsicum, deseeded and chopped
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 cup red wine
150g button mushrooms, quartered

Mix the seasonings with the flour. Of course, you could really use any seasonings you want, but don't go overboard, or you'll drown out the other flavours. Coat the meat pieces in flour. Heat oil in a frypan, and quickly brown meat on all sides, frying in small batches. Place meat in slow cooker, and turn slow cooker on low. (I always turn my slow cooker on once I've started putting ingredients in, to keep them warm while I do the rest of the prep)

Fry capsicum and onion in leftover oil. Add to slow cooker. Dry fry mushrooms to add a little colour if you like, or can be bothered. Otherwise just add straight to slow cooker. Mix stock and wine together. This may be too much liquid, I'll let you know once it's finished cooking ;). You of course can use any combination of stock and wine measures to make up 2 1/2 cups, I used 1 1/2 cups of stock because that is the smallest size my stock comes in. (I use alcohol removed wine for cooking btw, just in case you thought I was trying to make Master 4 a booze hound!)Use your liquid to deglaze the frypan, by added slowly at high heat. Once it is all in the pan, add any remaining flour and cook for a minute. Pour all this lovely gravy into the slow cooker, and put the lid on. Leave for as long as you usually leave a casserole on low, or turn it up to high, and leave it as long as you would on that. It's up to you really. I'm not a recipe nazi. After all, if it doesn't work, it's your family who has to eat it! ;)

This was nice, but not anything special. We arrived home from shopping five minutes before our regular dinner time, so I threw some two minutes noodles in with it. I don't recommend doing that btw. Take the extra 10 minutes to microwave some potatoes please.

Slow Cooking Thursday!

Now, I know, I hardly need another regular blog event, let alone another weekly one, since I continue to struggle with posting daily, but this is different. I mean, I was cooking a slow cooker meal on Thursdays anyway, to give me plenty of time in the afternoon to cook with the kids and not worry about having the dishes cleared in time to feed Master 9-week-old before cooking dinner. So when I saw that Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom was hosting Slow Cooking Thursdays I just had to join in.

Not exactly the fanciest looking thing I've ever cooked

Tonight's dinner was adapted from an oven recipe for Beef and Red Wine Casserole over at Taste.Com.Au. Adapted in that I did the frying and the liquid boiling in a frypan, and tipped it into my slow cooker, then just left it to cook all day. I wasn't sure of the time I should have cooked it for, but as everything in my slow cooker just gets left until dinner time, I figured it really didn't matter. After all, isn't that the point? To be able to leave it all day? This was great anyway.
I saw a bottle of alcohol free shiraz in the supermarket, and used that for this dish. I only ever use wine for cooking anyway, so I prefer not to give the kids alcohol if I can help it. This made so much, I've got enough for a full meal in the freezer (that will possibly have leftovers) and I didn't even serve it with bread. I think when we have the frozen meal, I'll serve it with some barely steamed broccoli, and crusty homemade bread rolls.

This dish is officially approved by Miss Two

Oh, and come back tomorrow for a special treat: a slow cooker dessert called Chocolate Mess!

Hawaiian Casserole

We have a doctor's appointment in Melbourne this afternoon, so I got in early with this slow cooker recipe from Best Recipes. I had dinner cooking, and my washing being hung out, and for a brief moment I fet like a lady of leisure... until Master 6-Week-Old wanted a feed, and the older two decided they wanted lunch as well, and the house went from peaceful and super organised to noisy and running behind in three seconds flat.

Dinner cooking

DP hanging out the washing

***EDIT*** But all that effort was worth it when we got home. Wasn't particularly sweet, just nice, even stone cold - which is how I ate mine an hour after everyone else, once I'd fed the baby! I even had enough leftover to be able to make into a little pie tomorrow with spare pastry.

Danny's Tuna Casserole

A while back I asked my family for their favourite recipes, to put together a recipe folder for my nephew who likes to cook. What follows is verbatim what I got in an email from my brother's fioncee.

Danny's Tuna Casserole
1 pack of plain chips (crushed)
1 tin tuna in brine (drained)
1 can creamed corn
1 can Tomato soup
Good handful of rice
Good dash of your condiment of choice (if you so desire i.e. Chilli sauce etc etc)

Mix thoroughly, put into casserole dish and into oven till browning crisply on top and hot all way through (typically 30 min pending on depth of dish)

Given those somewhat dubious instructions (no oven temp, no packet/tin sizes), this is what we ended up with. (Oh, I put the oven on 180°C, but it could have been a little higher I think. Try 190°C, and keep an eye on it)

It tastes as appetizing as it looks.

I think it could have standed having only a 1/4 of the sugar in it that it did, needed salt too. Miss Two had one bite, but Master Three was eventually persuaded to eat his. I've had something very similar to this with mushroom soup instead of tomato, and without the creamed corn. That was tasty. This is not one I'll be making again.

DP (who doesn't eat fish) really enjoyed his steak sandwich though.