Thai Beef Salad

                       Thai Beef salad 

I have been really trying to change what we eat. The only problem is we seemed to be eating the same foods. So I decided to try and jazz the salads up that we are eating, or even just try and find new tasty flavours.

I really liked the idea of Thai beef salad, only problem is there is one ingredient that I struggle with.
Fish sauce. When ever a recipe calls for it I try to completely leave it out or reduce it to the tiniest amount.

I think every recipe I looked at for Thai beef salad had fish sauce included.
The other thing I found was the sauce/dressing seemed to be enough to drowned the poor salad.

Another thing is I like dressing but I like dressing with my salad not salad with my dressing if you know what I mean :)

Well I made this and it was good! it will be added to our list of salads we love!

What you need

Beef strips ~ 250g
romaine lettuce leaves (I used 8 and removed the stalk)
snow peas finely sliced (I used about 8-10)
cherry tomatoes quartered ( I used 12)
cucumber finely sliced  ~ (I used 1/2) ~ (I used a spiraler if thats what they are called)
small red onion or shallot onion very finely sliced
red bell pepper ~ ( I used 1/2 a large red pepper)
shredded/grated carrot (I used 1/2 cup)
Fresh Coriander/ Cilantro ~ (I used just under 1/4 cup)
Fresh Mint leaves ~ (I used 10 large leaves ripped in half)
Peanuts chopped ~ (I used just under 1/4 cup)
Salt and pepper to season the beef


For the Dressing
I make the dressing individual portions so I don't get more fish sauce anyone else :)

Fish sauce  ~ 1 teaspoon
honey ~ 1 teaspoon
red chili finely chopped ~ 1/4 of a chili
garlic clove finely grated ~ 1/8 teaspsoon
fresh ginger finely grated ~ 1/8 teaspoon
lime juice ~ 1/2 fresh lime

Cook the beef for a couple of minutes, seasoning with a pinch of salt and pepper. This will cook very quickly and you don't want to over cook it
Cut, chop, rip  all your veggies and herbs and chop the peanuts

Make your dressing/ sauce in a small bowl add the fish sauce, honey, lime juice, garlic, ginger  and chopped chili, mix well and  leave to one side

Place all your veggies in a dish/on a plate. mixing them up.
pace the beef strips on stop and mix up again.
sprinkle with the chopped peanuts and pour the dressing on and give on last quick mix.

Enjoy

Sweet Potato Crust Quiche pie

                                   Sweet Potato Crusted Quiche

I love sweet potatoes, So when I seen this recipe I knew I needed to try this soon!
Of  course I made it my way ;)
I got the idea when I seen something similar with a spinach  filling.
While I like spinach, I knew this wouldn't have been on the top of my list to try

So I made one with Crab meat.
I was surprised how easy this was to make and it was pretty tasty

I had originally bought the crab (in a tin) to make baked wontons. I just never got to making them.

This really could be made with any filling
Next time I think I'll try a veggie filling


What you'll need

sweet potatoes ~ 3
small red onion ~ 1
eggs  ~ 3
grated cheese ~ 1 cup
milk ~ 3/4 cup
tin crab ~ 1 tin (about 1/2 cup)
salt and pepper

preheat the oven to 180/350 degrees
peel and slice the sweet potatoes
then slice them (I used the mandolin)
place  the sliced sweet potato in the bottom of the a pie dish
and up the sides (for the sides I cut the slices in half)
Making sure not to leave any gaps
sprinkle with salt and pepper
bake for 20  minutes, making sure that the potato slices are soft

peel and slice the onion and cook until soft and leave to cool

drain the crab well

Mix the eggs, milk, cheese, crab, and cooked onion and season with salt and pepper

Pour the filling mix over the sweet potatoes and place back in the oven for another 40-45 minutes at 180/350 degrees