Cheaters Quiche

Have I told you about the 1 cup quiche?  This is my new favourite recipe ever!  Perhaps it's constantly having fresh eggs, perhaps it's the sheer lack of thought or effort required or perhaps it's the fact that it's damn yummy, but this is truly a great one to have up your sleeves.  Perfect to whip together if you have unexpected visitors and absolutely the business for picnics!


This isn't really a quiche in the traditional sense as there's no fiddling with pastry required. It uses flour and the flour sort of sinks to the bottom creating a type of crust.  You can use any filling you want in this and it serves about ten people. It's as good cold and keeps great for a few days in the fridge. I freeze slices individually and pop them out in the morning for a nice lunch later.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1 pkg bacon lardons
• 1 pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• chopped fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chives, whatever you like)
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 tomato, sliced

Grease a baking dish with butter. Pre-heat oven to 200C.

Mix all ingredients except tomato in a large bowl. Yes, that's really it.

Pour into greased baking dish and top with tomato slices.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until firm and cooked through. Slice and serve warm or cold.

Weird and Wonderful Flavours: A sambo and a cake

I should really learn to stop promising things, because when it comes to anything bloggy I am utterly and completely useless. But here it is a bit late and I've combined it with my favourite wrap. Both are rather unconventional, but I assure you both are delicious, I'm munching on a wrap as I type this, om nom nom!

Thai Veggie Wraps

This is one of my all time favourite lunches, you can add meat if you like, but I think it's flavourful enough with just veggies and the seasonings. It's about as Thai as Guinness, but I needed a name - authentic it may not be - but delicious it is!

Powered up with some superfood goodness of nuts and avocados, this is a strangely weird but wonderful wrap. I love food with contrasting flavours and textures and this one ticks all the boxes. Sweet, savoury, smooth, crunchy and colourful there's something for everyone.

I find different cultures like different styles of sandwich. For instance Americans like to add cheese to everything (not just sandwiches for that matter) and if that floats your boat, go for it.  Here in Ireland sandwiches are often preferred toasted and this is actually delicious toasted as well, but because I don't like wilted rocket I add that after I toast it.  A great trick for toasting is to wrap your wraps up tightly in foil and get your iron out and pop it on full temp. Place it on the wrap packet for a few minutes, switch sides and do the same. Voila, toasted wrap! :) But I digress... onto this delicious madness!

Ingredients:

• 2 wraps of your choice
• 1 tbsp cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp thai curry paste
• 1 tbsp mago chutney
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced
• 1/2 avocado, thinly sliced
• 10 thin slices cucumber
• handful cashews
• few slices red onion
• salt and pepper, to taste

Spread the cream cheese on your wraps, then spread the thai curry paste and chutney on top, mixing the three as you spread.

Top with veggies and cashews, season, wrap up, toast (optional) and enjoy! 

---------------------------------------------------

Grapefruit Cake
We ate it all before I took a picture of it, but think loaf cake. It's ridiculously moist and delicious and I would highly suggest doubling the recipe as you will want more. I made one to bring over to a friend of mine who was under the weather, when I got home I promptly made another one for us! It's an easy recipe and perfect when Aldi are selling grapefruits for 39c! I got this recipe from a friend of mine Bryony and I am so glad I did, I've adjusted slightly after baking it a few times. I suspect any citrus fruit would work just as well, but the grapefruit is so unique, it really surprises people!

Ingredients:

For the cake-

• 1.5 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup natural yoghurt*
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp grapefruit zest
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the syrup-

• 1/2 cup grapefruit juice
• 3 tbsp sugar

For the glaze-

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp grapefruit juice

Pre-heat oven to 180 and grease and flour a 2lb loaf tin.

Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Beat eggs together with yoghurt and zest and pour into dry ingredients to make a thick batter.  Stir in oil.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in tin for ten minutes.  Make syrup by heating grapefruit juice and sugar until sugar dissolves.  Using a skewer make some small holes in the cake and pour syrup on top.  Allow to cool completely.

Whisk icing sugar and remaining juice for glaze until smooth and pour over cake.

National Breastfeeding Week: Thoughts on the Stigma

My little man nursing at just a few days old.

This week is National Breastfeeding Week. It's a subject near and dear to my heart as regular readers will know.  I'm a bit of a strange one, because I'm one of the few who biologically cannot exclusively breastfeed... but did anyways!  I thought I'd write a bit about my feelings on the stigma of breastfeeding in Ireland and the prevailing view on breasts as a sexual object versus a functional biological one.

I love that we have a week highlighting this beautiful act of motherhood, but it's a lifelong battle in Ireland which never ceases to baffle me.

Just looking at some of the reactions of people on twitter says a lot about Irish culture and the way women are really viewed.  If boobs are seen purely as a sexual thing, what does it say for us? For a culture who is rapidly rejecting religion and all the backwards theories that comes with it and finally backing science and natural selection, it's amazing to me that we can be so close minded about this.  I wonder where people think the human race evolved from if it wasn't for boobs. Formula wasn't even an option 200 years ago, yet somehow we managed to survive.

I would urge every woman to examine her feelings on this issue and wonder why and where those feelings evolved. If boobs are only for our partners to play with, what does that say about us? What does that say about our view of the role of women? Where did such views come from? Whether you choose to breastfeed or not, you really need to think about this. Why should women be made feel uncomfortable or in extreme cases shunned for doing something their bodies were made to do? Why is it ok for women to flaunt their assets in the media or out on a Friday night but not to use them how they were actually meant to be used?  Why is it that educated women feel this way? Why is it that 50 Shades of shite is so popular among women? Why is it that we are our own worst enemies?  Yes, Christianity has a lot to answer for shaming women and their bodies, but even in some of the most oppressive countries towards women today breastfeeding is a non-issue. Nursing burqas are big business I tell you! :)

All of this bears thinking about and pondering... above are just some of my thoughts and there are many more where that came from but I will spare you!  Check back tomorrow for my new favourite cake recipe... Grapefruit! Yes, it's worth it!

Check out Mama.ie for the rest of the posts on this special week.

Oh and now... a competition for the week that's in it!



a Rafflecopter giveaway