Baked Beans with Pumpkin

As a kid, I always hated the little tins of baked beans that sat in our pantry at all times, and for the longest time I just assumed I hated beans. It didn’t really take up much mental real estate, as we didn’t really eat beans, and there was never a situation where tinned baked beans were the only acceptable option. They were never forced down my throat, as Mum doesn’t like any beans, so I didn’t, either.

Or at least, that’s what I thought for the first 30 or so years of my life. As it turns out, I LOVE beans of all shapes and sized, I just don’t like the weirdly sweet sauce that smothers tinned baked beans (or tinned spaghetti, for that matter). I eat beans weekly, in some form or another, and haven’t found one I don’t like yet.

I’ve still been a little gun shy to make my own baked beans. 6 hours? Overnight soaking, just so I can forget they’re there? Nah. I survived 30 years without them, I can go a little longer, right? But then, I found a recipe in a Women’s Weekly vegetarian cookbook that used tinned beans and took maybe 5 minutes of hands-on time, and 30 minutes total. That, I would try. And, boy, was I rewarded handsomely for my investment. For 30 minutes of work and maybe 5 bucks in ingredients, this recipe yielded a thick, spicy, stew-like dish held together with just enough cheese to feel special, that fills you up for 410 calories per serveand makes you rethink everything you ever thought about baked beans.

In case you can’t tell, I’m a total convert.

Serves 5

Ingredients

500g kent pumpkin, cut into wedges

Spray oil

1 onion, diced

3 x 400g cans 4 bean mix, drained and rinsed

400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2tbs barbecue sauce

1tbs honey

1tsp dijon mustard

2tbs tomato paste

700g passata

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste



130g grated cheddar

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Spray a roasting tray lightly.
  2. Cut pumpkin into large-ish chunks, place on tray and spray lightly again. Roast for 15 minutes, until softened and starting to colour.
  3. Meanwhile, in an ovenproof skillet, cook onion over medium heat for five minutes, until softened. Add beans and chickpeas.
  4. Stir in barbecue sauce, honey, mustard, and tomato paste. Stir to combine and coat the beans and onion.
  5. Add the passata and cayenne, and season well. Boil for five minutes, until thickened slightly.
  6. Add pumpkin to the sauce, and gently stir to cover with sauce. Sprinkle cheese over the top, and bake for 15 minutes until thick and golden.

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Apple, Spinach and Chorizo Frittata

Ahhh, frittatas. So easy, so delicious, so good at making a meal out of the most basic ingredients.

This particular frittata, for example, is so stupidly easy, yet the flavour is almost undeservingly wonderful. Such marvelous results for such little effort or need for cooking expertise. I mean, isn’t that the best kind of cooking? All the results for little effort? In my busy, lazy world it is.

This frittata is so versatile, too. You can make it the night before, which is perfect for Thursday nights when the daughter and I both have netball training, the son has baseball, and the husband has a killer commute. It’s a meal in itself, but light enough for those nights when you don’t want a full dinner. And, best of all, while doesn’t last long in my house as everyone loves it, if I can keep it away from snacky, sneaky hands, it lasts two or three days for a great work lunch. A larger serving (1/4) is only 360 calories, and a smaller serving (1/6) is 240. Add some veggies or a salad, and you’re absolutely good to go – and it’s more filling than just the larger serve.

Ingredients

2tsp olive oil

180g chorizo sausage, sliced into coins

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 red apple, thinly sliced

100g baby spinach

9 eggs

60g milk

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Heat oil in an ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Cook chorizo for five minutes, or until golden. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes, until softened. Transfer both to a bowl, but keep oil in the pan.
  3. Place apple slices in pan and cook for 5 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden and starting to soften. Remove to a separate plate or bowl.
  4. Add spinach and stir briefly until just wilted. Return onion and 3/4 of the chorizo to the pan, and distribute evenly in the pan.
  5. In a clean bowl, whisk eggs and milk until combined. Pour into pan, over the spinach mixture.
  6. Arrange remaining chorizo and apple slices over the egg. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes, shaking occasionally, until eggs just start to set. Transfer to oven, and bake for 12-15 minutes until egg is golden and cooked though.

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Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and Leftover Bubble & Squeak

I love a good two for one deal, and in this case, it’s a delicious deal that I’ll be keeping on rotation. Fluffy baked sweet potatoes with the flesh scooped out and put aside for tomorrow morning, topped with a concoction of tomatoes, beans, and smoked ham, baked to perfection under a sprinkle of cheese – yes please! And the next day, taking the scooped flesh, mixing it with the leftover bean mixture, frying it to gnarly goodness and topping it with a runny egg is the best way to start any day – especially during the blah-ness of Covid-19 quarantine.

I have served this with almond-crusted beef schnitzel for a more decadent dinner, but it seriously is delicious and filling enough to work as a meal on its own. As a stuffed potato, this recipe is 327 calories. The bubble and squeak with 2 runny eggs clocks in at 340 calories. Very reasonable for a superb breakfast!

Serves 4, with enough to make a B&S to serve 2-3 (calories counted at 3 serves)

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes (about 600g total)

1tbs + 1tsp olive oil

1 red onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

400g diced tomatoes (tinned or fresh)

1tbs barbecue sauce (a smoky one is great here!)

2tsp dijon mustard

chilli powder, to taste

400g can 3 bean mix, drained

100g ham, chopped

1/4 cup grated cheese

fried eggs, to serve with bubble and squeak

Method – stuffed potatoes

  1. Preheat oven to 230.
  2. Wash and halve sweet potatoes lengthways, prick with a fork and rub with one tablespoon of olive oil. Place on baking tray, cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes, or until tender.
  3. Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in a pan over low heat. Add onions and carrots and sweat for 8 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook for one minute.
  4. Stir tomatoes, mustard, sauce and chilli into onion mixture and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water if drying out too much, although this rarely happens over a low heat.
  5. Stir in beans and ham, and cook for 10 minutes, allowing mixture to thicken.
  6. Remove cooked potatoes from oven (do not turn oven off), and allow to cool enough to handle. Scoop flesh into a bowl (cool and refrigerate for later), leaving a 1cm thick layer of flesh in the skin.
  7. Fill potato shells with tomato mixture (reserve and refrigerate the leftovers).
  8. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 5 minutes, or until cheese has melted and turned golden.

Method – Bubble and squeak

  1. Bring potatoes and tomato mixture leftovers out of fridge and rest to remove the chill. Combine into one mixture
  2. Heat 1tsp olive oil in a frypan. Upturn mixture into pan and flatten into a giant patty. Cook for 5 minutes, and flip. Don’t stress if it breaks… this isn’t a pretty dish anyway! Cook underside for 5 minutes, until slightly charred, gnarly bits form.
  3. Meanwhile, fry eggs to your liking.
  4. Using a spatula, cut the bubble and squeak into 2 or 3 serves, and slide onto warmed plates. Top with fried eggs, season liberally with salt and pepper and serve.

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Crab Cake Eggs Benny

My eldest turns 12 today. Crazy.

He’s always angling for that next seafood meal, so I made him crab cakes, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce for breakfast. A worthy birthday breakfast for my favourite little foodie.

But kids always have that knack of keeping you humble, right?

“It’s okay that you didn’t make the English muffins from scratch this time, you’re still a good mum.”

Thanks, dude.

Despite the glaring failure of store bough English muffins, the rest was seriously good. And because all the components came from a range of sources, I’m collating them here for next time. Something tells me there will be a next time. Probably 365 days from now.

I’m not even thinking about calories here. It’s not an everyday kind of breakfast, so let’s just leave it “many”.

Aside from resting the crab cakes for 30 minutes, this only takes about 15 minutes of active cooking time, and can easily be coordinated together (even for me… and I usually hate cooking breakfast because I freak about the timing). Might I suggest:

  1. Prepare the crabcakes and rest in the fridge
  2. After 30 minutes, heat the pans for crabcakes, eggs and hollandaise – remember, you want the crab cakes pan hot and the other two just at a simmer.
  3. Steps 1-3 of Hollandaise
  4. Fry the crab cakes, while still stirring the hollandaise
  5. Pop the crab cakes in the oven
  6. Step 4 of the hollandaise
  7. Between stirs of the hollandaise, poach your eggs
  8. Remove sauce from heat – steps 5-6 – and toast your muffins
  9. Assemble

Serves 4 

Ingredients

Crab cakes

450g crab meat (from a can is fine, if like me, you didn’t win the lotto last night)

2tbs mayonnaise

1 egg, beaten

4tbs dried breadcrumbs

1tbs sweet chilli sauce

2tsp dried parsley

1tsp dijon

salt and pepper, to taste

2tsp olive oil

hollandaise sauce

2 egg yolks

1.5tsp cold water

1.5tsp lemon juice

100g butter, melted

salt and pepper

pinch cayenne pepper

poached eggs

Water, to come up a few inches in a wide pan

2tbs white vinegar

4 eggs

2 English muffins, split, toasted and buttered, to serve

Method – Crab Cakes

  1. Drain crab meat (if canned), and place in a large bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix all other ingredients except for oil. Gently fold into the crab meat, being careful not to overmix.
  3. Shape into four flat patties. Mixture will be a little wet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up a bit.
  4. Preheat oven to 180C.
  5. On the stove, heat oil in an oven-safe frypan over medium-high heat. While you’re at it, start simmering the water for the eggs and the water in the double boiler for the hollandaise.
  6. Carefully transfer crab cakes to pan and fry for 2 minutes, until the underside is golden. Very gently (honestly, they’re a bit fragile) turn and cook for a further two minutes. Should one break a little when you turn it, you will be able to reshape it.
  7. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for about 10 minutes, while you make the rest of the components.

Method- Hollandaise Sauce

  1. In the top bowl of a double boiler (off the heat), whisk the yolks, water and lemon juice until pale and frothy. Actually, I use a rubber spatula, rather than a whisk because I hate the sound of metal on metal, so pick your weapon.
  2. Set the bowl over the base, with 2.5 inches of water simmering (definitely not boiling!) over low heat.
  3. Stir constantly and vigorously over this low heat for two minutes. (If the eggs start to scramble, immediately place them over a bowl of very cold water and continue to whisk the lumps out. Strain the eggs, pour back into the double boiler, and continue with the method. If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to restart.)
  4. Whisk in the butter very slowly – a bit at a time. Continue to whisk vigorously for another minute or two, until thick and glossy.
  5. Remove the entire double boiler from the heat and separate the two pans while you cook the eggs (otherwise the eggs will continue to cook and will scramble). Season with salt, pepper and cayenne.
  6. You can leave for a short while, but once the water is no longer simmering hot, placing the sauce back over the water pan will keep the sauce warm and smooth while you finish up.

Method – Poached Eggs

  1. Add vinegar to a wide pan with enough water to reach a few inches up the side, and bring to a simmer.
  2. Crack each egg into a deep saucer or teacup/espresso demi-tasse, taking care not to break the yolk. One egg at a time, create a small whirlpool in the water – just large enough for one egg – and gently slide the egg into the vortex.
  3. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Bringing it all together

Butter your toasted muffins, top with crab cake, egg and sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

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Egg, Vegetable and Feta Pots

Lazy Sunday mornings are for brunch, but after overhauling my lifestyle over the past year, brunch makes me a bit nervous. So many of my former g0-to recipes easily took up half of my daily caloric goal, and were so full of fat and sugar, it’s really little wonder that I ended up so unhealthy (especially considering these were not just a once-a-week splurge, but an extension of an already crappy diet).

I honestly feel that part of the reason I’ve found this journey to be so easy is that I haven’t looked at food in terms of “I can’t eat that”, but in terms of “I can’t wait to try this new recipe” or “how can I eat a little of that and still come in under my goals for the day”, incorporating better choices and a new way of eating into my already established love of food and cooking. It’s been a fun revamp of my cooking repertoire, not a deprivation of the most basic pleasures of life.

This one is a firm favourite of mine – a nice change from an omelette, these egg pots are fluffy and hearty, and delicious enough for the whole family to enjoy. I am happy enough to forego the side of toast, as it really is quite filling, but it’s excellent to know it’s there if I’m particularly hungry. Without the toast, it’s a nice 274 calorie brunch- add another 85 calories or so for a slice of whole meal toast with cottage cheese.

Serves 2

Ingredients

5ml spray oil

1tsp olive oil

125g sweet potato, grated

50g red capsicum, diced

40g baby spinach

1tsp minced garlic

4 eggs, beaten

30g Greek feta

tbsp dried parsley

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C, and spray two ramekins lightly with oil

2. Heat oil in large frypan over medium heat. Cook sweet potato and capsicum, stirring, for 5 minutes until softened.

3. Add baby spinach and stir to wilt. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

4. Combine eggs, feta and herbs in a large bowl. Add vegetable mixture and mix well.

5. Divide mixture between ramekins and bake for 25 minutes. Serve with toast, as desired.

 

 

 

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