From the Den Kitchen–July 2022

Recipes we tried this month (there’s a few!)…

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Maple-mustard chicken tray bake. Very easy and really yummy. Would probably use a different mix of veggies next time and cut them a bit smaller.

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Easy yoghurt curry chicken. I think this is now one of my favourite chicken curry recipes now. Easy to make and full of flavour.

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Air Fryer Beef Kabobs. These are yummy but I think they need something. The air fryer kabob rotisserie makes these so easy.

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Baked Potato with BBQ Chicken. Want something different to try with chicken roast leftovers? Give this a try. Full of creamy, potato, cheesy, chicken goodness. Ok so the original didn’t have cheese on top but I added some grated cheese to the breadcrumbs.

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Homemade Popcorn Chicken. Our littlest has recently decided that KFC popcorn chicken is her favourite so we thought we’d give the homemade version a go. She loved it even though it left her tongue tingly.

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Manu’s slow-cooker crispy-topped French beef and beer stew. Winter is the perfect time for stews and this one is pretty good. Even got a thumbs up from the little. Need to work out a better way to do the topping in the over though as it was a bit hit & miss.

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Classic beef and red wine stew with cheesy dumplings. Another beef stew. I swapped out the dumplings for my scone recipe as I didn’t have any polenta.

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Best Hokkien noodle stir-fry. Not bad. Found it very salty. It gotten eaten but wouldn’t say it was a favourite.

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Chicken & leek cannelloni. I love a good cannelloni and this makes a nice change from the ones with spinach. Also uses lasagne sheets instead of cannelloni tubes so you can make them as thick or thin as you like.

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Slow cooked silverside with Honey sauce. Silverside has always been one of my favourite roasts. This one is so moist and not salty. We tried to make the honey sauce but it failed so I made my usual mustard sauce instead.

What’s been on your menu this month?

From the Den Kitchen–June 2022

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Crack Chicken Casserole (with homemade Ranch) I can see how this got it’s name. So easy and very moreish. Big & I reheated it for lunch the next day. Big thumbs up.

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Slow cooker cheesy French onion mince. Very yum and with meat prices (& everything else) going up this ends up being a budget meal with big taste. Leftovers also freeze well.

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Meatballs in curry sauce. This is so good. Big thumbs up. Will be making it again but making smaller meatballs so it goes further. Also really good the next day.

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Curry Beef Pasta. I was kind of interested to see how this would taste after noticing there is no curry powder in the recipe & not being entirely sure what Indian tomatoes were. Glad I read the comments as everyone said they added up to 1 tablespoon of curry powder. Most also said they used normal tinned tomatoes. Another one for the books.

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Slow roasted corned silverside. Oh my. If you have only ever had the good old boiled silverside, you need to try this. So moist and delicious. I was worried it would still be salty but it wasn’t. Leftovers were still moist the next too.

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Satay chicken stir fry. Only four ingredients but I’m not a fan. I have a feeling it was the sauce (Coles brand Satay Simmer Sauce). I’ll retry it with the Satay simmer sauce I usually buy and see if it makes a difference. Also I was half way through cooking the rice when I remembered it’s meant to be served over noodles. Oh well. Will report back when we try it again.

From the Den Kitchen– May 2022

Another month and some more recipes for you to check out.

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Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup. Wasn’t sure how this one would go but we made it before hockey one day and came home to a delicious filling soup.

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Creamy French Onion Chicken Rissoles. So yummy. Pretty easy and very moreish. Reheats well the next day.

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One pan cheese and bacon smothered chicken. OMG this is so many of my favourite things in one dish. If you love chicken and bacon you need to try it.

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Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu. Cordon Bleu is often called a difficult recipe. This version is really easy & gives you two methods for coating – we went with the Quick Dredge method. Then served them with Crispy Roasted Baby Potatoes with Rosemary.

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Pork Lo Mein. Needed a new recipe for leftover pork roast so gave this one a go. It was ok. Hubby & big loved it. Small ate all the vegies and noodles.

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Chicken Chow Mein. This was meant to be a slow cooked version but someone (namely me) forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer in time to defrost. This was yum. No leftovers.

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Winter Chicken & Mushroom Pie. Pies are a great go to when you want an easy meal. This one is really good. Great way to use up leftover roast chicken.

Until next time…

From the Den Kitchen – Hamburgers

This recipe comes to you courtesy of my brother’s Home Economics class back in the 90s. We’ve been cooking it, in different variations since then. It’s super easy and full of flavour. We mix it up every now and then by adding a cube of cheese into each burger.

Hamburger

  • 2 cups beef mince
  • 1 brown onion
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp tomato sauce
  • 2 bacon rashers
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • pepper, to taste
  • mixed herbs, to taste
  • plain flour
  • oil
  1. Finely chop bacon & onion.

  2. Mix all ingredient together except flour & oil.

  3. Shape mixture into burgers, as large as you like. Roll in flour.

  4. Shallow fry in oil, about 7 minutes each side.

  5. Serve.

Main Course

From the Den Kitchen–March 2022

Another month down and some new recipes for you all.

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Thermofun Egg & Bacon Pie. Nothing beats a good E&B pie. It’s even better when you make them yourself. This one gets a thumbs up from everyone.

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Mexican Chicken. Meh. Needs changes but a quick 4 ingredient meal.

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Recipe Tin Eats Beef Stew. This is so good. Everyone loved it so that’s always a win. First time we did it in the slow cooker and it was so melt in the mouth delicious. Second time was on the stove and without the celery. Still delicious but not as good. This is one you can prep the night before, chuck it in the slow cooker then switch it on in the morning.

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Beef Rissoles. If a fan of a good beef rissole and these were pretty yummo. Another liked by all, including the cat who stole half of one out of the pan.

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Chicken Tetrazzini. This is so yummy. I made it without mushrooms as I’m the only one who eats them. Did cook up a batch in butter though and stirred it through mine.

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Recipe Tin Eats Oven baked pork chops with Potatoes. This was ok but next time I might try it with a different cut of pork. Apparently you can also use chicken so we might try that sometime.

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Satay Chicken. Pretty good. Most of the house don’t like satay. This one would be super yum over noodles or cold as a satay chicken salad (with a few additions). I’m thinking I’ll try that with the leftovers and let you know the result.

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Ham & Corn Pasta Salad. Made this for the big kid for school lunches. She loved it. I loved it. Think it will become another addition to her lunchbox choices. Could also change the dressing flavour with the addition of different types of mustard- I’m thinking either Dijon or seeded.

From the Den kitchen: Lunchbox snack edition pt 1

With back to school upon us for another year I thought I’d share some of the lunchbox treats I make for the kiddos (or the kiddos make themselves/with some help)

Weet-bix Coconut Slice.

Apricot Scones. Have tried this with fresh & dried apricots, fresh wins hands down.

Choc Chip biscuits

Shortbread

Cinnamon Scrolls (Thermomix version)

Chocolate rum  balls

Apricot balls (Thermomix version)

From the Den kitchen–February 2022

A quieter month for the new recipes and we stuck to a lot of tried and true favourites. Lots of French Onion soup additions this month.

Creamy French Onion Chicken Salad. This was so good. Think I was the only one who actually enjoyed it but oh well, more for me.

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Beef Satay. We all enjoyed this one. I think I was the only one who liked the sauce. Think next time we’ll try a different cut of steak though.

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French Onion Honeycomb pasta. Big thumbs up from everyone on this one. Really nice the next day too.

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Creamy French chicken. Good. Something I’d cook again. Want to try it thickened up a bit and in a pie.

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We love a good steak meal and decided instead of our usual chips & egg side we’d go with some veg. This time we tried Hassleback potatoes with garlic & herb butter and Honey garlic butter roasted carrots. YUMMO! So much garlic.

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Creamed tomato soup in the Thermomix. Nope. Not a fan. Can’t put my finger on it but this was a big no from everyone.

From the Den Kitchen in 2022

Hi all,

Welcome if you are new and welcome back for my long time readers.

My foodie series – From the Den Kitchen continues in 2022. I’ll be continuing our monthly What We Ate posts, sharing our lunchbox snacks, updating the old posts that are missing recipes, updating the master index.

I’m also planning to do a few recipe challenges that I really hope you’ll join me.

Anyways, just a quick update today. I’ll be back later with the first of our lunchbox snacks.

Have a great day <3

From the Den kitchen–January 2022

A busy month with a few new recipes, some picked by the kiddos as they are still on holidays and picked some new recipes for us.

We love sloppy Joes so were keen to try a chicken version. These were good. Think I prefer them to the beef version. And silly me didn’t save the recipe.

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Chicken rissoles were next up and these are pretty good. great the next day too.

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Slow cooking is a favourite of mine when we’ve got a busy day. just chuck it all in and turn it on. Slow Cooked Honey Mustard Chicken is a new family favourite.

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We often have Taco Tuesday but this time we mixed it up and had Enchiladas. These are so good.

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I often buy Chicken Kiev but due to covid related food shortages they haven’t been available, so when it was just hubby & me for tea one night I searched on Cookidoo and found a recipe. It made a few so could make it when the kiddos are home too.

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Something not chicken – Glazed honey balsamic pork chops. Hubby actually enjoyed these even though he’s not a fan of balsamic vinegar. I could have eaten 2.

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Baked Riti was a recipe picked by the eldest. She loves spag bol but the rest of us a so sick of it. This is a yummy compromise.

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Nachos was next on out list of something else apart from Tacos. These were spicy and I only used half the chilli. Will make again, maybe with even less chilli or bought taco seasoning.

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and finally I decided to try a new meatloaf recipe as our usual has mince & sausage mince but I only had mince. This was nice but think I’ll stick with our usual.

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What have you been cooking this month? Until next time….

In the Den Kitchen–December 2021

To start off December we had leftovers from another cooking of the brisket recipe we first did in October. This time we decided to try the leftovers in tacos. Such a great idea. Brisket is turning out to be a super versatile roast to do leftovers with. I just heated up the meat and shredded it then heated some tortillas. Usual taco fillings and you’re done. Quick and easy and everyone can serve themselves.

Next up this month was Plum Jelly Meatballs. A win, everybody liked them. Added to our book of recipes.

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Honey chicken is a favourite in this house so we had to try the Recipe Tin Eats Crispy Honey Chicken. It lives up to it’s name. It stays super crispy.

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I love fried rice and this Garlic Chicken Fried Rice was a winner.

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Another brisket roast but this time it’s Slow Cooked Honey Soy Beef Brisket. So good. Also great the next night heated up and served in crepes.

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Christmas and we were asked to cook a Turducken. This is the recipe we used. Ended up giving it a little bit longer but it was still moist and delicious. No picture for this one as I forgot.

The last new recipe for this year was cooked on New Year’s Eve and was Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Bites.  Served with a cheesy potato bake.

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Thanks for following along in 2021. I hope you tried something new and I look forward to sharing some new recipes with you all in 2022.