friday – A True Love of Mine

Lunch at Your Desk: Leftovers Salad With New York Steak

Just when you thought i’d fallen off the healthy lunch wagon, here I am with another edition of Lunch At Your Desk.

Today I bring you the Leftovers Salad with New York Steak!
(apologies for the shadow cast by my arm – i’m definitely getting better with the whole ‘good lighting makes good pictures’ thing but clearly have a way to go!)

The leftovers salad is my go-to lunch when there weren’t enough leftovers from dinner to just have that meal for lunch again the next day. I find that there are generally some odds and ends of roast vegetables that are left in the pan and often a lonesome little bit of meat. It’s not too difficult to fluff it up with some raw vegetables and a simple dressing the next morning to turn it into a substantial lunch.

The night before hubs and I had made some delicious New York cut steak and roast vegetables. Hubs ate all his steak but I only managed about half of my huge piece. So I wrapped the rest in foil and left it in the fridge for the next day. In the morning I sliced the remaining meat up and left the gristly fatty bits behind. I added some raw carrots, lettuce, sweet corn and radish to bulk up the few remaining roast veggies.

and bam! Healthy lunch that travels pretty well too

For a dressing I just drizzled the salad with olive oil, a twist of salt from the grinder that I keep in my desk drawer and squeezed some lemon on top. There may have even been some pepitas sprinkled on top for good measure! So here is another healthy lunch dish that requires barely any prep and makes the most of the odds and ends that might otherwise go to waste a the end of a meal.

So lovelies, what did you all have for lunch this week?

Double Choc Chip Cookie Icecream Sandwiches

Double choc chip cookie icecream sandwiches. Try saying that ten times quickly. With a mouth full of these delicious desserts. Impossible I tell you! But don’t worry, while you wont win any tongue twister awards, you will be left with a belly full of creamy icecream and ooey gooey cookie. Tell me that doesn’t warm your little heart on this cold Friday evening.

While I have definitely been trying to make healthier choices with my meals, I do still subscribe to the Tom Haverford school of philosophy that, sometimes, you just need to

Thats right peeps, these icecream sandwiches are the sweets that you make when you need to show yourself a little love.

Friday Favourites: Kinder Surprise Berlin Style!

So my lovelies, i’m back from Europe and to be honest, i’m feeling a bit blue. I love this country, but the weeks of endless sunshine and clear skies contrast pretty sharply with the icy temperatures and torrential rain that greeted me last week. I know that any Europeans reading this will think i’m pretty soft but I don’t think that Sydney people are built for winter. I thought that I would use the next few Friday Favourites to cure my post-holiday blues and to share with you some of the little things that I discovered while I was away and wish I had bought piles and piles of to bring back with me!

The first treasure I want to share with you is this damn cool Berlin version of Kinder Surprise

This Kinder was available everywhere in Berlin and, if/when it finally makes its way down to use in Australia, I will be the happiest little bunny that ever there was. Have a look at the insides and you will see why.

Of course the Germans would be super efficient and section their chocolate in a separate compartment to their toy. All you had to do was crack the plastic in half, peel the top off and you have your toy and your chocolate all neat and pretty.

And can we talk about this chocolate?

This is basically the best of all worlds. Still working with the white chocolate/milk chocolate equation, these Kinders remind me of the little nutella dippers I used to eat with my school lunches as a child. Except these are much better! It’s built as a layer of soft milk chocolate spread covered by a layer of white chocolate spread then topped with two wafery balls that look like tiny ferrero rochers. Except that they taste more like a Kinder Bueno in spherical form. What on earth could be bad about that combination? I honestly wish I had filled my suitcase with these little guys and brought as many as I could carry back home with me. Instead, I will have to dream about these until I can make it back to the other side of the world. Or… maybe they will make their way down under and make me the happiest girl around? Maybe??

So, lovely readers, what treats do you look forward to when you go travelling?

Friday Favourites: Family Time and Pecans Part 1

As we hurtle headlong into the final weeks of Term 2, i’m going to use this Friday Favourite to slow things down and share with you the lovely day I spent with hubs, picking pecans and generally relaxing.

Enjoy!

Up in Kurrajong past Windsor, the land is different. Everything is greener and you can, wait for it,

feel the serenity!

But in all seriousness, there is something quite lovely about this part of the world. We always seem to go to the family farm in Kurrajong during Autumn, as the air is turning crisp. This is the best time to harvest pecans as many will have naturally dropped from the tree and all you have to do is wander through the orchard with a basket, collecting the nuts. Its quiet, its peaceful, its such a lovely break from the bustle and business of the city and reporting season (teachers, am I right?). In fact, a trip to the farm is so refreshing that I have been known to frolic among the trees…

I like to think that even as I edge towards 30, i’m still young at heart.

There’s not much else at the farm other than the pecan trees so I guess i’m using the term ‘farm’ pretty loosely. The orchard is lined with trees that have been pretty much left to their own devices after planting. Pappi drives around on the tractor a bit to flatten the grass and i’m pretty sure he does some basic maintenance like burning dead wood etc. The trees closer to the creek are much bigger and yield more nuts than those on the other side of the orchard. The pecans also seem a little fatter and the shells are much easier to crack from these nuts. There are no pesticides or chemicals used here so I think that unwittingly its all organic!

The nuts grow in little green pods which, when they are almost ripe, split and turn brown. This allows the pecan to drop to the ground when it is fully ripe. You can pick the pecans out of the pods when they are still on the tree but you will have to leave them in a dish for a month or so to properly ripen before you eat them.

This is a sneaky little sucker that is trying to hide from me. You can see the green pod that houses the nut inside. I’m not quite sure why the pecan has so many layers protecting the nut.
They are tricky tricky tricky!
But they are definitely worth the hassle.

So now I have a bunch of pecans that i’m using for a whole raft of new and delicious recipes. There is more to come about this lovely trip to the pecan farm but i’ll save that for next week. For the moment, I hope that you all enjoy your weekend! And if you have any recommendations for what I should be baking with this bounty, please comment below.