Pan Fried Toasted Cheese Sandwich with Truffle Oil (so cheesy, no food pun needed)

Last week I was lucky enough to have the most amazing gift bestowed upon me. A work colleague of mine had spent a week in Melbourne and kindly brought me back a bottle of black truffle oil. 

As that particular day at work ended up being quite busy, in times of stress I sniffed at the oil like it was smelling salts (your brain really can't comprehend that anything stressful could be happening when it is faced with an aroma so crazily pungent and delicious).  Anyway, as it was my first time ever using black truffle oil, I thought I would start really simple. And since I decided to cook with it on a Sunday, it made sense after being at church and worshipping Jesus, to go home and cook with cheesus.

Here's What You'll Need:

• 2 slices of bread (I used a light rye)
• Vintage Cheddar cheese
• Black Truffle Oil

 Fry the bread in a pan in the oil (only fry one side of each slice) until browned. Flip one slice over, add the sliced cheese and put the other slice of bread on top. Continue frying sandwich until the bread has browned and cheese has melted. I accompanied the toastie with a cup of tea in a fancy tea cup, because I'm a lady (although seeing me eat you probably wouldn't think so). Best eaten with eyes closed, to experience maximum deliciousness.

Pig in a Winter Garden Soup

Soup. I love the thought of it on a cold Winter's day, but the reality is that it rarely keeps me full for long. That's why I came up with this little beauty. It's tasty, nutritious, high in protein and did I mention it contains cheese AND bacon?

Here's what you'll need (Serves 6):

• 2 small red chillies, finely sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 300g bacon, chopped
• 3 heads of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 1-2 handfuls of brussel sprouts, halved
• 200g of mushrooms, chopped
• 2 tins of butter beans, rinsed
• 2L of vegetable stock
• Grated cheese

Fry the garlic, and chilli in some oil for about a minute. Add the Leek, bacon and mushrooms and cook until leek softens. Chuck in the rest of the vegetables, the butter beans and stock. Add water until liquid covers vegetables and bring to the boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Blend soup (I used my newly acquired stick blender... Life changing!), pour into serving bowls and add a handful (more like 2) of grated cheese to soup before serving. Best eaten slurped.

Taste-Tea Tropical Oats with Quinoa

With the weather seeming to grow colder by the second, I have been counting down the days until Summer's sweet return. It's no secret that I'm not that fond of Winter. The cold really gets to me, and Winter fruit just doesn't appeal to me the way Summer tropical fruits do. Which is why I was delighted when I stumbled across Stash Teas. They have some amazing flavours, my favourite being their delicious Coconut Mango Oolong tea. As the back of the box suggests, it really does taste like a day at the beach. Seeing as I couldn't afford to whisk myself off to somewhere tropical and would have to ride what remained of Winter out, I thought maybe I could bring a taste of the tropics to my breakfast with the help of this tasty Oolong.

Here's what you'll need (it serves 4):

• 2 Coconut Mango Oolong Teabags (I picked mine up from Thomas Dux, but you can also purchase them online from their website)
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1 cup of Quinoa (rinsed)
• 1 cup of shredded coconut
• 1 cup of dried mango, chopped
• 1 can of light coconut milk

Bring 4 cups of water to the boil and remove from heat. Plop in your teabags and let them steep for 5 minutes. While you're waiting, place the oats and quinoa into a saucepan. Once the teabags have steeped for long enough, discard them and pour the tea over the oats and quinoa. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

Place the shredded coconut onto a tray lined with baking paper and pop under the grill until it has browned (keep a good eye on it as it browns really quickly).Add the coconut and dried mango to the oats and quinoa as well as the can of coconut milk.Bring the mixture to the boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid has reduced. Serve, enjoy and imagine you're somewhere exotic! You can store the remains in the fridge (if any), and just add some milk to the mixture when reheating.

Delicious Stuffed PotatOH

So I decided to follow my own advice and use the remnants of my vegetarian chili from a few nights ago and rustle up a stuffed spud for dinner. This dish was super easy to make and the perfect meal for a cosy Saturday night in.

 Here's What You'll Need:

• 1 good sized potato (okay I'll admit it... I ate 2)
• Salt
• Grated cheese
• Leftovers of your choice

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Wash the potato and while it's still wet, put the potato into a bowl, add some salt and turn the potato to coat (this will give the potato a nice, crispy skin). Bung the potato into the oven and bake for one hour (the potato is ready when the skin feels crispy and the potato gives a little when you squeeze it). Cut a hole in the top of the potato and scoop out some of the contents. Once you have enough space for your filling, sprinkle over some grated cheese and put the potato back into the oven until the cheese has melted. Top with guacaholymole and serve with a movie of your choice (for me it was Love and Other Drugs).

Lime Marinated Chicken wings, Easy Vegetarian Enchiladas and Guacaholymole

I had invited a friend over to watch the final State of Origin Game. Now I have to admit that I am no fan of football. But what I am a fan of is having an excuse to cook up unhealthy(ish), delicious food mid week. First up on the menu were lime marinated chicken wings:

 Might I say that these wings tasted amazing and were really easy to prepare (you can find the recipe here on the Food Network website). I followed the recipe as far as making the marinade, but instead of "broiling" the chicken as the recipe suggested, I baked them in the oven for around 30 minutes (turning them over half way through) at 180°C. The recipe also suggested serving these delicious wings with an avocado dip, but why you would serve them with a boring dip when you could serve them with my Guacaholymole is beyond me.

Here's What you'll need to make Guacaholymole:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 cove of garlic, crushed or thinly sliced
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 1 lime, juiced
• chili flakes
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp Coriander, chopped

Mash the avocados in a bowl. Add the garlic, tomato and the onion. Add a good squeeze or two of lime juice, a sprinkle of chili flakes and some salt and pepper. Stir through the coriander and give the mixture a taste. Adjust the ingredients to please your own taste buds. I prefer mine quite limey with a big hit of garlic and chili.

Next up, right in time for kickoff, were vegetarian enchiladas:

For the filling, I cooked up a vegetarian chili (found here on Taste, a website that I have found really handy in the past as there are loads of recipes listed here). The best thing about this chili is that you can do so much with the leftovers. You can make nachos, have it on toast, or (my personal favourite) use it as a delicious filling for a stuffed spud. I also added a can of corn into the mix, just for some extra sweetness.

To make the enchiladas (and this is a very simplified version), spoon the mixture into tortillas and roll up to enclose the filling. As the filling will be warm from just being cooked on the stove top, all you need to do is place the enchiladas on a tray, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven until cheese is melted and tortillas have started to brown. Serve with a good dollop of Guacaholymole on top.

Good Golly Miss Cauliflower, Prosciutto and Potato Bake

Saturday night found me and three friends squeezed into my tiny studio apartment. I was cooking a feast for four in my even tinier kitchen but as I always say, it's not the size of your kitchen that matters, it's the size of your heart when you're cooking in it. As I had an abundance of potatoes and cauliflower remaining from the past few fruit and veg box deliveries I had received (see Mystery Box Thursdays), I decided to cook up a delicious cauliflower, prosciutto and potato bake, and good golly was it tasty!

Here's what you will need:

•  4 good sized potatoes, thinly sliced
• Half a head of cauliflower, broken into florets
• Prosciutto (half to put in the bake, and half to eat while you're cooking)
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or thinly sliced
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup of cream
• Grated Cheddar cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cook the sliced potato in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and then layer the potato in a lightly greased, ovenproof serving dish. Shred the prosciutto and layer on top of the potatoes, followed by the cauliflower. Add the garlic.

Mix the cream with the nutmeg, and pour over the potatoes, prosciutto and cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top and then sprinkle some more (you can never have enough cheese), followed by the Parmesan. Cover and bake for 50 minutes or until vegetables are tender, then uncover and place under grill until cheese has browned. Serve with other equally delicious things of your choosing (I served with baked vegetables and garlic-chili BBQ chicken) and fight your friends for the last few remaining mouthfuls.

Mystery Box Thursdays

One of the highlights of my week is Thursday afternoons, when my seasonal fruit and veg box from SydneyFresh is delivered. For $35 I get amazingly fresh seasonal produce delivered to a doorstep of my choosing. In this case the delivery is made to my office and presented to me by whoever is lucky enough to receive it from the delivery man. I know this box is going to arrive once a week, but somehow the excitement and novelty of it is yet to wear off. Whoever brings the box round to my cubicle is always greeted by the site of me, bouncing up and down on the Swiss ball I sit on and clapping my hands in delight (I thought it would be a better option for me to sit on a Swiss ball after one of the senior members of the office busted me spinning around on an office chair while gleefully yelling "Weee!". Did I forget to mention this was the first impression this poor man had of me?). Anyway, my good friend Troy talked me into getting this delivered after he raved about how fresh it was, and he was right.

What I love most about it, is the fact that it's seasonal and I'm able to support Australian produce. I also love that I never know what I will be cooking come Thursday night. This has really enabled me to get creative in the kitchen. What was in today's box of delicious goodness you ask? Cauliflower, broccoli, zucchinis, tomatoes, snow peas, spinach leaves, potatoes, celery, mushrooms, carrots, pumpkin and my favourite, brussel sprouts! In the way of fruit I recieved pears, apples, oranges, mandarins and kiwi fruit. This is the smallest box available (with the largest box costing $70) and is the perfect size for a couple, or like me, a single gal who eats enough for two. You can also order extras like free range eggs, herbs and spices, and also flowers.