Good morning! It’s Friday and I couldn’t be happier.It’s been a week of ups and downs and I’m ready to relax and chill out this weekend.
Yesterday
Last night’s dinner was one of my faves.Andrew and his best mate AJ did the grilling while I did the kitchen work.
I’ve only been active on this blog for a few months, but I think I’ve posted this meal a few times: bbq veggie skewers with lemon garlic quinoa.Two new additions last night took the meal over the edge: garlic bread and pressed tofu marinated in caramelised balsamic vinegar and garlic with olive oil.
Out of this world. I had a couple glasses of Coriole Chenin Blanc with my dinner, while the boys had beer. The Chenin Blanc is one of my faves- bright and crisp with hints of pear.The bottle says the wine ages really well, but this bottle was a 2010 and I doubt that I could wait much longer than that to drink it!
(And yes, that is ice in my white wine.I know this automatically takes my classiness factor down a few notches, but I really like this wine super cold, and this was the way to do it.)
The boys retreated to the spare room after dinner to play some xbox or playstation or whatever it is that boys like to play, and I sat down to some episodes of the Office and catching up on blog reading.After awhile I got restless and decided to make the guys a special dessert: self saucing pudding.
I don’t know if this is an Aussie dish or my mom just never made it but this stuff is ah-mazing.It’s basically like chocolate cake that comes with a hot fudge sauce on it, right out of the oven.I served it with So Good soy vanilla ice cream, and the boys creamed over it. I did too, a little. Seriously good stuff.
Today
This morning has been a standard work day.What is it about Fridays that always makes me feel like they should be special!? I ate a grapefruit and some almonds for breakfast
and then had a cup of tea to keep my hands warm.
And now, a momentous occasion on ERW: I am going to post my first recipe! A few weeks ago I created a salad that Andrew and I simply love, and a reader asked me to post the deets, so here we go!
Moroccan sweet potato and cous cous salad (I need to come back and add some nice, non-iPhone photos of this dish!)
- 1½ to 2 sweet potatoes, cubed (I like to peel mine, but each to their own!)
- 2-3 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1¼tsp ground coriander
- 1¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1½cups vegetable stock
- 1½ cups couscous
- 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed, drained
- 3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1½cup chopped fresh coriander/cilantro (ILOVE fresh coriander, so you may like a little less than me; scale back if desired!)
Preheat oven to 200°C/390 F.
Mix oil and spices in a bowl and toss the sweet potato cubes in the mixture to coat.Lay in a single layer on a baking tray (I like to line mine with baking paper to help with clean up later).Season with salt and pepper and then bake for 30 -40 minutes, turning cubes occasionally as desired.If you smell burning sugar, they’ve been in there too long!
Bring the veggie stock to a boil, then remove from heat and add the couscous while stirring with a fork. Cover with a lid and set aside for 5 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Toast the pine nuts in a pan on the stove. Keep an eye on these and don’t burn them! Drain and rinse the can of chickpeas. Rinse and chop the fresh coriander/cilantro.
Once the stock is absorbed, move the couscous to a big serving bowl, fluff with a fork, and add the sweet potato, chickpeas, pine nuts, lemon juice and coriander/cilantro.
Toss it all together till it is a beautiful mix of grains, greens, and veggies, then taste and season with salt and pepper if desired!
Enjoy, and I dare you to stop at one bowl 
Ps- the second time I made this, I cooked some frozen green beans and threw them in at the last step.It was pretty good, but I like the original better.Feel free to try the green beans if you are looking to add more veggies!
Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think of it!
Do you ever make up recipes? It took me a long time to be brave enough to try it, but one day I decided I just had to trust myself in the kitchen!
I’m super, super new to tofu so please excuse me if this is a stupid question – is the marinated tofu on your skewers as simple as ‘press, dice, marinade, bbq’?
CheezyK recently posted..Travelday – Where I let the photos talk
Oh hello, Peas and Thank You friend!
Not a stupid question at all. I’ve been meaning to do a post on this cause I hated tofu for as long as I can remember until I learned how to make it this way. It really is that simple:
)
1) Dice or slice
2) Press- Wrap in a tea towel and press under a heavy object for at least an hour (in this post I use a six pack of Corona
3) Marinate – for this meal I used a tbsp or two of caramalised balsamic, a splash of olive oil, and maybe a tsp or two of diced garlic. Toss it around a bit then let sit as long as you have time for.
4) Cook- the cubes on the skewers were barbecued, the ones on my plate I did in the fry pan. Just make sure to let the tofu cook on one side until it’s toasty brown (four or five mins?), then flip to get the best flavor and color.
Let me know if you try it out!
I AM SOOOOOOOOO making that recipe. YUM!! I love your blog and your sharing. Thanks darlin
Mmm Mmm Good!! Can I feature you on my blog next week?
I hope you like it; let me know what you think
I’d be honoured to be featured on your beautiful blog! Let me know if you need anything from me for that.
Would I be able to use pesto sauce iasetnd of the basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and salt to make it quicker to throw together? Would it have a sililar taste? Thanks!
Hi Yasemin, thanks for reading!
I don’t think that pesto would work for this dish as its flavours would really clash with the Moroccan spices. The recipe I’ve written here doesn’t include basil at all, so make sure you don’t add it in!