Easy Like Sunday Morning (Avocado Toast)

It’s a Sunday!

And it’s a day of rest, altho I’m sure for some, it’s pretty hectic spending time with family and kids and chores and errands and groceries and …. gosh, I’m feeling tired already.

Feel blessed you have things to do. Feel blessed you have people to do it with.

As for me, I’m taking a break and taking it easy. For lunch/brunch. 

There’ll be some face stuffing later with the tribe.

It’s been a lovely yet stressful week. (How can a mere seven days cause so many mixed feelings?)

Had someone very close to my heart visit for a few short days. It’s always too short. But it was good.

I miss her already.

That’s obviously not the stress part.

A word of advice on texting that most probably already know but we all need reminding, esp folks like me who have diarrhoea of the mouth and thumb/fingers.

Anything you type/text can be misread. It all depends on the other person who’s reading it, what kind of a mood they’re in, whether they’re menopausing/andropausing and possibly a host of past traumatic history they’ve gone thru and one word might just trigger some negative response. 

They could read it as a ‘Grrrr’ or as an ‘Awwww’. 

Sometimes concern can be misread as criticism … how? …. only they know. 

And sometimes, they’re just too damned sensitive. Bah! Humbug!

I have no energy for dramatics.

And then I find out I have no chickpeas …. AARRRGGHHH!!!

*Breath*

*count to ten*

Make do….

1 Avocado, nice and ripe

2 Garlic cloves, nice and chubby

1 can Canellini beans, Chickpeas would’ve been nice

1 handful coriander leaves

Juice of half a lemon

Drizzle of sesame oil

1/4 cup Grapeseed oil, or Olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Some toasted pine nuts

Plonk them all into a food processor except for the pine nuts (you can add it in but I like some crunch).

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

It’s up to you how smooth you like it

Sprinkle pine nuts.

Use as a dip, a spread on toast or toss with some cooked pasta (just add some grated parmesan for extra flavour)

Easy!

No stress ….. 

Egg Muffin

Well, waddaya know! 

This wasn’t that hard to make. So why are they charging so much for it? Hmm ….

Nope. No recipe post this time … but, well, I snuck something in anyway …. look closely …..

This is a no brainer. Something simple with ready ingredients any normal fridge would/should have.

It’s my go-to whenever I don’t crave for anything specific and not particularly hungry for anything fancy. Eggs are my best friend. 

It’s convenient to have a batch of English muffins stashed in the freezer. I like homemade ones … I make them to the size of my appetite. Make some, you won’t regret it.

Split the English muffin. 

Toast the muffin halves. 

Fry an egg (runny yolk of course). 

Plonk onto toasted muffin half. 

Top with crunchy pickles, a dollop of ketchup and whatever else that makes you happy. 

Top with other toasted muffin half.

Munch away!

Burp.

Boring, isn’t it?

Shutting up now ….

Easy Dinner Rolls

Oh ….

My ….

Gawdness!!

This must be the easiest and fastest bread recipe I’ve ever tried!

And they turned out super!

Soft and tender crusted rolls. Not the hard crust dinner rolls.

My bread machine decided to die on me. I haven’t been making bread since my tennis elbow injury. 

Tried a “No Knead Bread” recipe. It was ok … no great shakes. 

Tonight I had a hankering for some plain soft buns, slathered with butter. I can wolf down a half dozen easily and then regret it all later when I feel like a hippopotamus that can’t swim. So yum!

Had to make some. 

Used a regular stand mixer this time, using the dough hook attachment. 

This is gonna be a repeat recipe for sure …. many, many repeats…probably with some improvisations later. 

Do not be shocked by the amount of yeast. It doesn’t turn out yeasty. All’s good. Tested, tasted and approved by several tonguebuds ...or maybe they're just being polite? 

(Adapted from kitchenmeetsgirl)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup plus 2 tbs warm water

1/3 cup oil (I used grape seed oil)

2 tbs active dry yeast (I used instant yeast)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3 1/2 cups bread flour / high protein flour

2 tbs butter, melted (for brushing)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 400ºF / 200ºC.

In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine warm water, oil, yeast and sugar. Give it a quick stir and leave to rest for 15 mins. You should have a foamy mush by then.

Mix 2 cups of the flour, salt and egg into the yeast mixture using dough hook attachments. 

Add remaining 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup at a time.
Knead until you have a smooth and elastic dough.

Shape dough into 12 balls (I made into smaller ones and got 18).

Place dough balls into a large baking pan, spacing them apart enough for dough to rise until about doubled in size. Alternatively, you can also bake them in muffin pans.

Let rest for 10 mins (I left mine for 15 mins) or until doubled in size.

Bake for 10 mins (I baked for 10 mins, took them out and brushed with some melted butter and baked a further 5 mins) until tops are just golden brown.

Soooo goooood!!

I've used it as a burger bun, loaded with char shu (Chinese bbq meat) and pickled gherkins with a slathering of mustard. It's a little lighter than the usual burger buns. Okay if the filling isn't too heavy. If you're looking for a good burger bun, you can use this. Great buns for anything.

*Note: unused dough can be frozen before proofing stage. Wrap in cling film and freeze. Thaw, shape and allow to rise to double its size and bake as per instruction above.

Sprouting Ideas: Chia

You’ve heard of Chia pets. Chia seeds. I wrote a little about it a while ago while experimenting (messing around really) with it in a spiced peach jam.

Full of nutrition, minerals … healthy benefits.

Ground chia seeds are great in bread and cakes. 

Now come the sprouts. Great in salads and sandwiches. Saw this on several sites and I decided to give it a go. I love sprouts … all sorts. They’re expensive to buy. Dunno why … it’s so easy and quick to grow. 

Has anyone tried sprouts on buttered bread? You know those dainty little things called cucumber sandwiches? Replace them cucumbers with sprouts, lashings of butter and lovely soft white bread …. or whatever healthy alternative soft bread you like. I’m going for something that pleases my tummy and fussy tongue buds …nothing healthy here …. oh … fine …. health food … ground chia seeds bread? Close your eyes while you chew on them … minus the crunch, they taste like cucumber…use your imagination.

Anyway …. I had fun growing these cute thingies. 

I’d used the plastic container for coffee machine pods. You can use old egg cartons, unglazed clay tiles, any shallow container. 

On clay surfaces, just sprinkle an even layer of seeds on a soaked tile. Give the seeds a spray of water and continue spraying it daily keeping them moist. They’ll turn into a gelatinous goop but it’s fine. They’ll sprout soon enough. 

Here’s what I did for mine …

STUFF

coffee pods container / egg carton

cotton buds

Chia seeds

water

METHOD

Wet the cotton buds and and fill each hole of the container. 

Sprinkle an even layer (do not over crowd the seeds) on the soaked cotton. 

Leave on a sunny window sill or any sunny area but not in direct sunlight. 

Sprinkle water on the cotton buds daily or whenever it looks/feels dry. 

It’s important to keep it moist.

Wait patiently for those cute thingies to sprout. 

Trim when sprouts are about 2-3 cm tall…about 2 weeks or so.

Throw out cotton and start all over.

No Frills Open Sandwich

Today was No Frills Day!

No-fuss lunch, no-fuss dinner, in other words, L..a...z...y day. No-fuss posting too! Does it have to be a fancy recipe or post each time? Give yourself a break once in a while. This is supposed to be fun and therapeutic.

Canned food ..... and what's wrong with that? I like to dig a spoon into some baked beans every now and then or even some sweet corn kernels ... straight outta the can, mind you.

Today's lunch was canned mackerel in tomato sauce. This brings me back to my childhood days when mum used to throw this together at the spur of the moment when I got hungry ... which was all the time. She used canned sardines then, but somehow, somewhere down the line, I developed a dislike for sardines and tuna. Must've overdosed on it. So, mackerel it is.

And thrown together it was too! The only "frills" in this are the cucumber twirls on the top.

And if you don't like the "punch-you-in-the-face" and "knock-your-boxer-shorts-off" type heat, you can always substitute the chillies with cayenne pepper.

INGREDIENTS

Canned Mackerel in tomato sauce

Calamansi lime juice, to taste

Salt, to taste

Red onion, diced

Cucumber, remove core, diced/julienned

Red Chillies, finely chopped

METHOD

Crumble mackerel and toss together with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and add more salt and chillies if necessary. Garnish with extra cucumber and chillies. Oooo...hot stuff!

Serve on toasted focaccia.

Note: I used chinese lettuce because that was all I could find in my fridge. Iceberg would've been nice.