I'm used to breakfast rice bowls being savoury. This is the first time that I've tried a sweet one. It's fine. Not amazing, but nothing wrong with it either. It gives slight rice pudding vibes. I think I'd add a sprinkle of cinnamon next time just to lean into that a little more.

Sweet Brown Rice Bowl

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfasts by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• ~1/2 c. cooked brown rice
• 1 Tbsp. raisins or sultanas
• 1 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• ~1/4 c. milk (or to taste)
• sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the rice, raisins, and walnuts.
2. Top with brown sugar, pour on the milk, and sprinkle with cinnamon (if using).
3. If you would like a warm rice bowl, microwave for 30-60 seconds.

I found a discount cauliflower at the green grocer the other day, so I made soup! This was delicious, very easy, and wee Eyren loved it too. We've frozen a bunch to use as baby food in the upcoming months.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3-4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/4-1/2 c. grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. Toss cauliflower with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Spread the cauliflower out in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast at 200°C (400°F) until very tender (30-35 minutes).
4. Melt the butter over medium heat.
5. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
6. Add 3 c. of stock and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
8. Purée and use additional stock to thin soup to desired consistency. (I used the full 1 c.)
9. Stir in Parmesan.
10. Serve topped with additional Parmesan and/or fried onions.

I was really happy with the results of this recipe, but a little frustrated with the actual cooking. The noodles stuck together in big clumps and were quite difficult to get apart. And then the clumps cooked much slower than any noodles that did manage to stay separate. I don't know if the problem was my noodles, the way I broke them up, or the fact that my sauce was already boiling by the time I added them, but it was quite annoying! I think next time I'd try using a bag of the small "lasagna" noodles instead to see if that helped at all. Still... I can't argue with the results. This was excellent!

Skillet Lasagna

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 250g sausage meat¹
• 2-3 tsp. garlic paste
• 650-700mL tomato pasta sauce²
• 1-2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 9 lasagna noodles, broken into 5cm pieces
• 1 c. ricotta cheese³
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg (optional)⁴
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2-3/4 c. grated mozzarella (or other melty cheese)

Directions

1. Cook the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
3. Add the pasta sauce, 1 c. of water, and Italian seasoning and stir to combine.
4. Add the noodles, being careful to make sure they don't clump.
5. Cover pan and bring to a boil.
6. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until noodles are almost tender (~12 minutes), adding more water as needed to keep sauce moist.
7. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, Parmesan, egg, and a little salt and pepper and mix well.
8. Stir the pasta again, adding a little more water if necessary.
9. Dollop the ricotta mixture on top, cover, and simmer until heated through (~5 minutes).
10. Sprinkle with mozzarella and place under broiler until cheese is melty and lightly browned (2-3 minutes).

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¹ I only used 125g of sausage for my rendition because I was tossing in ~400g of homemade bolognese along with the 420mL of canned pasta sauce. ^Back
2 My can of pasta sauce was only 420mL so I added ~400g of frozen bolognese that we had in the fridge. I know that adds up to more that adds up to more than 700mL (if you assume that the sauce is mostly water and thus you can use weight to estimate volume), but since the bolognese had a bunch of meat in it, I figured it was less... saucy than plain pasta sauce, so I probably worked out about right for the sauce volume. And the extra meat in the sauce helped to make up for the paucity of sausage since I didn't have the full 250g on hand for this. ^Back
3 I think you could probably get away with using less ricotta than this, but I didn't want to have a partial tub left over so I just followed the recipe an used it all. ^Back
4 The original recipe didn't call for an egg, but the ricotta mixture was too thick to dollop easily and I usually add an egg to my "traditional" lasagna, so I tossed one in. ^Back

I found some short-dated cream on sale and got excited about the chance to make another lemon dessert. As usual, it's not particularly budget friendly, despite coming from the Budget Byte$ blog and even with the assumption of free lemons. Beth figured it would cost just over $4 to make this pie. With lemons accounting for just over $1.50 of that cost. I figured it costs just over $9 to make here (assuming full-price cream, but zero-cost lemons). So, I mean, I guess it's still pretty good when compared to the cost of buying a dessert at a bakery or restaurant, I'm just always a bit shocked at the delta between her prices and ours.

Lemon Cream Pie

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 90g butter, melted

Filling

• 1 can (~400mL) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250-300mL heavy (35%) cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter and mix well.
3. Press into a 23cm (9") pie plate.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
6. Combine the sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
7. Whip the cream.
8. Stir about half of the cream into the lemon mixture, then fold in the remaining cream.
9. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust, cover, and chill until set (~2 hours).

I really like this yogurt cake. It's simple and easy to make and has a pleasant, mild flavour. It's not excessively buttery, but doesn't taste "lean" either. It's lighter than a pound cake, but denser than a chiffon. And makes a nice blank slate to serve with other things.

The recipe called for serving it with a fresh peach purée. But the idea of taking beautiful fresh peaches and just blitzing them hurt my soul, so I served it with tinned peaches instead. And I quite like how the peach syrup goes with the cake as well!

I also swapped out the almond extract for vanilla. Since Reiver doesn't like almond extract, but is okay with vanilla. I think the vanilla flavour was nice and definitely have no complaints about the results, but it would be interesting to try maybe swapping out a bit of the flour for some ground almonds sometime. Just as a way to give it a bit of almond flavour without resulting to extracts.

Yogurt Cake with Peaches and Cream

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. plain yogurt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. butter, melted
• 280g (~2 c.) soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1-2 cans peaches in syrup or juice
• whipped cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 20cm (8") round pan.
2. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together.
3. Whisk in the yogurt and vanilla.
4. Whisk in the butter.
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and then whisk it in.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~40 minutes.
7. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.
8. Once cool, slice and serve topped with peaches and whipped cream.

These were supposed to be gingersnaps, but they came out more chewy than crunchy. I don't have a problem with this -- Reiver and I both really liked the results -- but I don't really feel they can be called gingersnaps given the results.

I was initially thinking that these were fairly economical cookies, but that was before I'd realized that I'd somehow completely missed factoring in the cost of the crystallized ginger for the recipe. If you make these as normal ginger cookies, without the crystallized ginger, the whole batch costs just over $4 to make and the per cookie price works out to <$0.10. Adding the second form of ginger doubles the price and brings it up to just about $10 per batch and over $0.20 per cookie.

Double Ginger Cookies

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2/3 c. oil
• 1/3 c. molasses
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 390g flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 c. turbinado sugar¹

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 165°C (325°F) and lightly grease a cookie tray or two.
2. Combine the oil, molasses, brown sugar, and egg and mix well.
3. Sift in the flour, ginger, and baking soda. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and salt in on top.
4. Stir to combine.
5. Mix in the crystallized ginger.
6. Roll the dough into balls about 2-3cm in diameter, dip in egg white, and then roll in sugar.
7. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 165°C (325°F) for 15-18 minutes.

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¹ I didn't have any turbinado sugar, so I just used regular granulated sugar. The texture is a bit different, but I still really liked the results. ^Back

Peach Princess / Peach Dream

By Reiver

This is one of the iconic desserts of my childhood, which was a staple as it relied almost entirely on shelf-stable ingredients that we had in the pantry as standard inventory. It's also one of the first desserts I learned to cook independently because (with the right plastic ring tin) it could even be microwaved thus avoiding oven use, although the exact details of cooking times I no longer remember; just the trial and error to get it! After scrounging the recipe from my mother, we taught it to Alex while she was here, and it was an absolute hit! It's closest, perhaps, to a heavily fruit-laden sponge cake, and it's delicious served hot as well as cold the next day.

Note: The batter lacking any 'normal' liquids in means it takes a bit to come together and doesn't seem 'right' until it's properly mixed through, but as the peaches continue to cook it comes out surprisingly moist. Just be gentle while doing the initial stirring, and make sure they're properly 'bedded down' in the pan so they can moisten the batter. If you're using a 20cm square pan like the one here, I suggest making a double batch to get he desired thickness.

Peach Princesse

M.J. McBrearty, RAHOTU.
Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 1½ cups (one 400g tin) drained cooked peaches

Directions

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add sugar, egg and melted butter. Mix well.
2. Stir peach slices into the stiff mixture, and place in a greased 8-9" (20cm) shallow baking dish.
3. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 20 minutes, then for a further 10-20 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
4. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or custard.

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Variations

Fruit Salad Dream

I'm not sure I would say this was a good idea, but I have fond memories of swapping the tin of peaches for a tin of fruit salad (usually containing peaches, pears, pineapple, and cherries) in the otherwise exact recipe above, as a child. I should probably try it again sometime; for the moment, caveat emptor!