Lentil and smoked bacon soup

                                           Lentil and smoked bacon soup

I love soup and I wanted something a bit different to normal. 

Everything I needed I had so I thought ok lets give this a try.

It was  tasty and filling

What you'll need

1 cup of lentils (I used blond )

1 cup of chopped smoked bacon (I used a packed of lardon)

1 cup of chopped onion

1/2 chopped celery

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1 can of tomatoes (pureed or mashed up)

1 liter of chicken stock

1 bayleaf

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of dried thyme

1 tablespoon of garlic puree

1 tablespoon of oil

salt and pepper  to taste

In a saucepan a add the oil on a low heat.

add the onions and start cooking the onions. Do this for about 4 ~ 5 minutes. Move the onions to the side and add the bacon cook for a few minutes then add the celery and carrots and garlic puree and cook for about 5 more minutes.

BE CAREFUL not to have the heat to high

Add the tomatoes, lentils bayleaf,  thyme, smoked paprika, salt and pepper

mix well

Then add the chicken stock.

AGAIN mix well.

Add the lid and leave to simmer low  for 45  minutes to 1 hours.

giving it the occasional  stir

Enjoy 

Cookie pie

                                                                            Cookie Pie

  

Cookie pie

I wanted to make something sweet that I knew what it was made of.
I looked around and around for ideas...Nothing was really standing out.
It had to be made from what ingredients I already had in the house. 
It also needed to be quick and easy. 

This worked out great.
I will definitely keep this recipe to hand when I need to throw a quick dessert together. 

What you'll need

3/4 cup of soft butter
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of plain/all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 ~ 3/4 cup of M&M's 

grease a pie dish 9 1/2 inches 

mix the flour and baking soda

mix the butter and sugar together
Add the egg
add the vanilla
mix well 

add the flour and baking soda mix to the wet ingredients and mix well

Fold in the M&M's

pour into the greased pie dish

make sure its spread out equally

bake in a preheated oven at 160/325 degrees for 30~ 35 minute 

my oven took 35 minutes 

Enjoy 

Best Chicken Noodle Soup

                                                          Chicken Noodle Soup

The weather is awful here, rain, thunder, lightening. So that means soup time
Also the sniffles and coughs have started, so again Soup season

The weather here is awful. That means soup season smile emoticon
The sniffles and the coughs have started, again soup season smile emoticon

Chicken Noodle Soup

4 chicken breast
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of crushed cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
Sun flower oil
1 1/2 cups of chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup of chopped celery
1 tablespoon of diced garlic
Bayleaf
2 cups of chicken stock
4 cups of water
Salt
2 cups of pasta
Juice of a lemon
1/4 cup of Dill

Mix the garlic powder, onion powder, crushed cumin seeds, oregano, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper,chili powder.
Drizzle oil over the chicken then sprinkle the seasoning over the chicken.
making sure the chicken is covered both sides with the seasoning.
Bake at 180/350 degrees

In a soup pot/large saucepan, add a little oil and then add the onions, carrots and celery and cook until the the veggies start softening (7-8 minutes)
Then add the bayleaf and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.
Keep stirring as you don't want the veggies to stick. 

Add the chicken stock and water and salt to taste.
Leave to simmer.

Juice the lemon and chop the dill

When the chicken is cooked, shred the chicken.
Add the chicken to the soup after a few minutes add the lemon juice and dill and stir.

Enjoy

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips 

It really feels like winter is coming.
In fact it actually feels like winter is here already. 

Then I go to the market and see all the lovely what I call "summer fruits'

Nothing like lovely fresh summer fruits.
I still wanted to try something different with the fruit.

So I made Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips.
...and it was good!

What you'll need

Flour tortillas
Light brown sugar ~ 1/3 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
melted butter

Well.... I used
For the salsa

nectarine ~ 1 all peeled and chopped
Granny smith Apple ~ 1 all peeled and chopped
kiwi ~ 1 all peeled and chopped
strawberries ~ 1 cup
raspberries ~ 1/2 cup
Fresh lemon juice ~ 1 teaspoon
teaspoon of jam ( I used strawberry) ~ 1 tablespoon
light brown sugar ~ 1 teaspoon

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small dish until all blended together.
Brush the melted butter over both sides of the tortillas.
Sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon mix 

Then I used a cookie cutter to cut some shapes.
Mine where acorn shaped smile emotico 

Then I baked in the oven at 180/350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
You want them crispy, but when removed from the oven and cooled they get crispier 

I juiced half a lemon 

I then peeled and chopped all the fruit I was using
(this can be very therapeutic smile emoticon ) 

I chopped the apple first and added it to the lemon juice and mixed it well.
Then after chopping all the other fruit I added the apples, sugar and jam and mixed.
Making sure the jam was and sugar was mixed in store in the fridge until needed and take out about 10 minutes before serving 

Enjoy 

smile emoticon