Category Archives: Recipes

Banana Kiwifruit Smoothie

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In an attempt to make myself eat more fruit I thought I would put my blender to good use and start making some smoothies. I can now say I am totally addicted and have been making myself and Miss K smoothies nearly everyday! This Banana Kiwifruit Smoothie we made up has to be one of our favorites so far, it’s really yummy and good for you too! Miss K loves helping to make them and more importantly LOVES how they taste!

To make this smoothie you will need:

  • 1 large banana
  • 2-3 kiwifruit
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1-2 scoops vanilla ice cream
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 2 Tbsp plain or vanilla yoghurt (optional)

Pop everything in the blender, make sure the lids on! Whizz up and serve. Makes 2 glasses :)

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Homemade Vanilla Sugar Scrub

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I thought with Mothers Day around the corner it might be a sweet idea to make up a batch of homemade sugar scrub. I’ve tried a few homemade mixes before but this one has to be my favorite. It leaves your skin feeling so soft and I think it’s having the olive oil in there that makes it. Plus the vanilla smells so good you almost want to eat it!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 cups raw sugar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

When you make the recipe you don’t need to worry about exact measurements, just throw it all in the bowl and mix it up till you are happy with the consistency, you can add more sugar if you want a dry scrub or more honey and oil for a smoother scrub. If you are using this for a mother’s day gift you may also be interested in checking out the free printables I used on my mason jars over at kiki creates.

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Homemade Pumpkin Soup

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This pumpkin soup has to be one of my most made recipes, I make it all the time because its Miss K’s favourite meal, plus she’s eating veggies and just doesn’t know it! It’s really nice and creamy, easy to make and is packed with pumpkin!

Ingredients:

  • 750g pumpkin, peeled and chopped
  • 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
  • 375g potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 4 cups chicken stock (stock cubes are fine)
  • 1 1/4 cups of cream
  • salt and pepper

Method:

  • Bring all the vegetables and stock to the boil in a large stove top pot. Reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 mins until soft. Then mash or blend.
  • Add the cream and bring back to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for another  5 mins. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Sundae Cupcakes

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Miss K turned 4 over the weekend and to celebrate we had a little get together with family and friends. I wanted to make her something special for her birthday party and decided on cupcakes but with an ice-cream sundae theme!

I started by getting some cupcake wrappers and party straws by Paper Eskimo to use as my colour theme. They stock some gorgeous party paper supplies in all sorts of colours but I went with Miss K’s fave colour PINK!

For the cupcake mixture I stuck with my favourite recipe, you can find the method here from one of my previous posts. The next step was the buttercream frosting. I searched the web reading tons of buttercream recipes as I had never made it before and was quite worried about having enough mixture for the 12 cupcakes.

I ended up finding an excellent recipe over at Savory Sweet Life, the frosting turned out just how I had hoped, it tasted amazing and there was plenty of frosting for the swirls. I used a Wilton 1m tip to decorate, then finished them off with the sprinkles and a cherry on top!

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Birthday Cupcakes

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It was my Mum’s birthday the other week and I was going to make a birthday cake but then I decided for a change I would make her some pretty mini cupcakes instead. The recipe I use for my cupcakes is from the Edmonds Cookbook, it’s easy to follow and they always turn out delicious. Miss K was very happy to help me with decorating them and eating as many as she could at the same time!

Ingredients:

  • 125g butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1/2 cup of castor sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup of milk

Method:

  • Pre-heat oven to 190°c and prepare cupcake trays and cases.
  • Beat the butter, vanilla and sugar together until creamy and pale.
  • Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
  • Sift flour and baking powder into the mix and fold in until combined.
  • Slowly stir in milk.
  • Spoon evenly into paper cases, then bake for 10-15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched.
  • Let cool on a wire rack then ice and decorate.

Makes about 22 mini cupcakes.

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Leftovers Pizza

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We have been having a great summer so far over here in New Zealand and have found ourselves outside most evenings having barbeques and enjoying the weather with friends and family.

Our fridge was starting to overflow with quite a lot of barbecue leftovers, so for a meal I decided I would try making a “leftovers pizza”.

The leftovers I used were:

  • cooked steak and sausages
  • baby potatoes in ranch dressing
  • asparagus
  • capsicums (yellow,green)
  • tomatoes
  • avocado
  • grated mozzarella cheese

I had some thin and crispy pizza bases in the freezer which I spread a layer of tomato paste over. Then I just chopped and sliced all the leftovers which I spread over the bases. I finished them with a swirl of BBQ sauce and mayonnaise and popped them in the oven at about 220 celsius for 10-15mins on fan bake.

This has now definitely turned into a new favourite of ours, you can mix it up and use just about any leftovers you have to make a light summer meal that costs nearly nothing and tastes really good!

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Mini Pecan Pie Tarts

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These little pecan pie tarts are a hit in our house and I already have family requesting them again for Christmas this year. They are so simple to make and taste AMAZINGLY GOOD!

Ingredients:

  • 4 sheets of ready rolled sweet short crust pastry
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 75g butter
  • 1tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • whole pecans for topping the tartlets

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease the tartlet tin (12 holes)
  • Cut 12 circles out of the pastry using a 7 cm fluted pastry cutter. Place the circles in the prepared pan.
  • Place the brown sugar, maple syrup, butter and vanilla essence in a small pan. Heat gently over a low heat until the butter is melted, then turn up the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly before mixing in the eggs.
  • Stir in the chopped pecans and transfer the mixture to a small jug. Three-quarter fill each pastry shell with the mixture and top each with a whole pecan.
  • Bake the tarts in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the filling has risen and set. It will sink and settle as it cools.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Okay so I know there’s already a whole lot of chocolate chip recipes floating round on the web, about 28,000,000 according to Google! I’ve tried a few recipes in the past but they were nothing to write home about. Anyway the other day I decided I would make a batch of cookies with Miss K and use a new recipe that I had found on the Martha Stewart website. To cut a long story short these cookies were the best I have ever tasted! I don’t think will ever use another chocolate chip cookie recipe again because they are that good!

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup milk-chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 2 batches and beat until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Cover, and freeze for 10 minutes.

Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly. Bake until centers are set and cookies are pale golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes.

Oreo Spiders and Mummy Juice Boxes

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Hi everyone! Well with only a few sleeps to go until Halloween a bunch of us bloggers have teamed up to bring you some awesome ideas. I decided for Halloween I would make some fun kids snacks, Oreo Spiders and Mummy Juice boxes!

To make the Oreo Spiders you will need:

  • Oreo’s biscuits
  • Smarties
  • Licorice strips
  • Icing

First pull the licorice strips in half, cut to length and then stick into the center of the Oreo for your spiders legs. For attaching the eyes add a blob of icing and pop the Smarties on top!

For the Mummy Juice Boxes you will need:

  • Juice boxes with straws
  • White masking tape
  • Googly eyes
  • Hot glue gun

Wrap the juice boxes in the masking tape all over leaving a crease in the tape for the eyebrows. Using a hot glue gun attach the googly eyes below the eyebrow crease and then stick the straws in the top. All done!

For some other creative Halloween ideas be sure to check out all the other blogs involved in this months Collectively Creative! Thanks so much to Kelly from Cobwebs, Cupcakes And Crayons for organising the blog event :)  Hope you all have a fantastic Halloween this year!