Invoking my right to free speech..

This post is a bit of a rant, so beware!

This weekend, Australia held a Federal election which meant that all who are eligible to vote had to go to a polling booth to have their say in who runs the country.

I will confess that I had a moment where I groaned about having to go out, but then I remembered very quickly that it is a blessing to enjoy the freedom of being able to vote at all. 

Ultimately, I believe that this freedom was bought by the sacrifice made by our service men, women and their families, both past and present.

Thoughts of those who live in other countries who have never had the freedom to vote also resonated with me.

When I saw some pics doing the rounds on FB that made light of having to vote, I saw red. They were throwing their right to vote in the bin, literally. 

Their vote meant nothing. Check it out:

But wait! There's more!

This is literally, a "donkey" vote. 

It’s people that have an attitude like this that make it just a little easier for someone like Adolf Hitler to get his foot in the door.

Rant over.

TGBTG

<3

Anje

Cloudy with a chance of chicken noodle soup

This was the outlook for us here in (usually) sunny Queensland.

Should have known that Murphy's law would prevail when I had planned to do several loads of washing! 

Looking in the bright side, it was the perfect weather to make some Chicken Noodle Soup.

I had planned to cook it on the weekend to try and give us an immunity boost. Three of us have been fighting to stop a cold from taking hold and it should be just the right thing! That's what urban legend says anyways >_<

This is the recipe I was working with-

http://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/recipes/a1870/homemade-chicken-noodle-soup-3996/

It is full of veges that are supposedly full of anti-viral properties, but the best part, they were hidden! Onion, carrot, garlic, celery, zucchini.. (I added that one in cos I had one left in the fridge and it's good for ya)

I blended them up once they were soft and together with the broth and fettuccine noodles, it turned out nice and thick.. Not overly nice to look at, but it was tasty.

One mistake- I added a few too many peppercorns at the broth stage, so it was a little bit over seasoned! 

Oh well. It was given the "alright" by my fussiest customer, so it will prob be made again this season.

TGBTG

<3 Anje

"Paradise by the rangehood light"

Can you guess what this meal was??

MEATLOAF, ofcourse! 

I can honestly say that my Mum never made this as I was growing up. 

I think the first time I ever experienced it was when I had dinner at my then boyfriend's (now husband) house nearly 20 years ago. Like all of my Mother-in-Law's cooking, it was rather yummo. 

I looked forward to making it myself somewhere in the future. It would end up being one of the regular stars on our meal plan menu, accompanied by roast veges! 

Some people make gravy to top it off, and we did too. On the odd occasion I would forget and we would just have to make do with tomato sauce, which turned out better in my opinion (I detest instant gravy!) Turns out I'm not alone in that opinion! 

So, I went looking on Kidspot recipes to see what they had to offer in the way of meatloaves, and I came across the heading "healthy meatloaf"..I was intrigued.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/kitchen/recipes/healthy-meatloaf-1623?ref=collection_view%2Cmeatloaf-recipe

I loved it for two reasons... (1) it was a vessel for smuggling veges and (2) it had a saucy glaze.  

Winner, winner, er, meatloaf dinner!!

I have a secret weapon that assists with veggie smuggling - it's my trusty food processor. Makes the onion, zucchini and carrot very hard to detect. No whining about onion chunks here! 

Overall, I was happy how it came together. Taste was fairly good, kids ate it up and the glaze was noice too. 

That's better than 2/3! LOL! Get it? 

Here's a picture of the loaf pre-oven:

Would I cook it again? Yep!

TGBTG

<3

Anje

Ole! Ole! Ole! Paella de Pollo!

Tonight I decided to try my hand at making a basic chicken paella...

I fell in love with this dish while away on a PD trip in Brisbane. A work colleague and I met up with our respective sons and had difficulty trying to decide where to eat.

We were at South Bank, and walked past all sorts of international fare, Turkish, Chinese and Spanish.

We finally settled on a place called Ole - to sample some Spanish cuisine. It was a relaxed atmosphere, particularly where we sat, facing the streetscape and a partial view of the Southbank arbor.

We were enticed by the friendly staff to try some - paella de pollo - to share. When we sat down to have a closer look at the menu we were further tempted by another dish - carne - to share as there were 3 young strapping, hungry lads in the group! We also went with a side salad to balance out such rich flavours.

The food was absolutely delicious, I became a fan of Spanish food (just hold the seafood part..!)

So, the quick chicken paella I attempted to make went down alright with the family- next time I think I will include chorizo (a traditional paella ingredient)

Here's the recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/quick-chicken-paella-402568

TGBTG

<3

Anje 

Singing up a storm in the kitchen.

Have been busy in the kitchen lately - cooking while letting my singing voice loose! Singing is rather therapeutic for me, as is a little bit of grooving around the kitchen.

We're starting to plan our meals again, so that means I am destined for the kitchen after getting home from work. Not the most appealing idea, but putting my playlist on and belting out some power ballads makes it a little bit more enjoyable (not sure that the rest of the house is enjoying it, but oh well, it's a small price to pay for their dinner!)

So, I've been trying out a few new recipes and revisiting some favourites too. Had a hankering for gnocchi, but never have much satisfaction using dried gnocchi. 

I'm not one to admit defeat so I went in search of gnocchi recipes and found a few that appealed to my rich, creamy taste craving - Cheeseburger Gnocchi!!

It turned out to be really delish, so check it out here- 

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/cheeseburger-gnocchi/

TGBTG

<3

Anje