End of year dinner

Last night was our end-of-year dinner for work... My partner and I both work for my parents and we are a part of a very small immigration firm for Australia & NZ. Because we are such a small company and naturally at this time of year everyone is ridiculously busy, I took upon myself to organise a dinner for us all at my parents home.

I was preparing the food for 3 days - Even though there was only 14 of us to feed we had many challenges involved like different peoples different diets and preferences.

Many of the dishes I created I have already shown before on this blog or were influenced greatly by Petite Kitchen.

The menu consisted of:

Starters - Flaxseed&sesame crackers, baked camembert with rhubarb sauce, baked ricotta and Feta&Lemon stuffed deep-fried olives.

Mains - Dukkah steak salad, smoked kawai&avocado salad, beetroot&lentil salad, grilled chicken drumsticks and soy&ginger lamb kebabs with a spicy peanut sauce.

Desert - Cocoa butter slice, balsamic strawberries with mint&chocolate and vanilla icrecream

Needless to say today I am absolutely exhausted and slowly preparing myself before we head up north tomorrow morning to my grandparents costal farm.

Here are some photos of the food below:

Blogged by: Megan

Wednesday BBQ Dinner

Hump-day woohoo! And Wednesday is also known as 'My Cooking Night AGAIN'. 

Tonight I decided with the awesome weather we have been having (minus today - so average!) that a BBQ was definitely in order. SO I whipped out a few favorites that abide the gluten-free, sugar-free, no simple carbs, dairy free combo that my family require - phew what a mouthful!

On the Menu tonight:

Soy & ginger lamb kebabs with a spicy peanut sauce

&

Lentil & spinach salad

Soy & ginger lamb kebabs:

Ingredients

600g of Lamb leg steaks

3 tsp finely grated ginger (fresh)

1/4 cup of soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp of Honey

1 Red pepper

2 Zucchini

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 Tbsp Soy sauce

1 Tbsp Sweet chilli sauce

1. Cut the lamb into small pieces - cubes approx. 2 cm by 2cm

2. Put into a mixing bowl and add ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and honey

3. Mix all together and put in the fridge to marinate for 4 hours

4. Once marinated long enough take out and prepare the kebabs by putting a mixture of diced red pepper, cubed zucchini and marinated meat onto skewers.

5. this recipe should make approximately 12 skewers.

6. Chuck on the BBQ on a medium to low heat and cook about 2 mins on each side.

7. Mix the boiling water, peanut butter, chilli flakes, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce in a small bowel and mix till a smooth sauce forms.

8. Serve the kebabs and pour the peanut sauce on top - YUMMY!

Lentil & spinach salad:

Ingredients

Salad - 

1 x 300g of Brown lentils (drained and rinsed)

1 x 300g of diced beetroot (drained and rinsed)

1/2 bag of fresh baby spinach

1/2 red pepper

1/2 cup of cut dried dates

1/2 cup mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower & poppy)

Dressing - 

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp Apple cider vinegar

1 clove garlic

1 Tbsp whole grain mustard

2 tsp honey

1/4 cup of grapeseed oil 

1. Mix all salad ingredients in a large serving bowl

2. Put all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and blend together with stick blender

3. Pour dressing over salad and toss to serve