Cream Cheese Pudding

Creamy Vanilla Cream Cheese pudding, dressed with strawberry and fresh mint leaf. This is a cheat dessert. Have it creamy and sinful or have it diet friendly with low fat or fat free cream cheese and milk and instant vanilla pudding. 

Ingredients

🍰 8 oz cream cheese (fat free for the diet conscious)

🍰 2 cups milk of your choice

🍰 1 packet vanilla pudding (either regular or sugar and fat free)

Method

🍰 mix together milk and pudding mix as stated on packet with hand mixer.

🍰 Add softened room temperature cream cheese and continue to blend well with hand mixer until smooth.

🍰 Place in ramekins or individual containers and refrigerate for an hour or till firm. 

🍰Best Served with fresh strawberries and mint. 

Bon Appetit!

xoxoxo

Nur Diyanah Magness

Crostini with Goat's Cheese, caramelised onions and figs.

Something different I came up with this evening. Crostini with goats cheese, caramelised onions, figs and toasted nuts.

Goats cheese is not something everyone has a palette for because of it's strong mature flavour. I never used to like it but acquired the taste for it after experimenting with a combination of flavours and tastes that went well together. Caramelised onions have that tangy sweetness to it and figs with honey like sweetness, a perfect contrast with the cheese. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil and a little more to drizzle on bread. 
• 2 small Baguette rolls (2x150gm)
• 150 gm Goats cheese sliced 
• 150-200 gm cream cheese mixed with 1 teaspoon of any favourite herbs. I used rosemary, chopped fresh mint and a pinch of freshly ground pepper.
• 2 Large Onions sliced thinly
• 1-2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
• 2 tableapoons Brown sugar
• Few soft figs sliced (soft center and not too dried)
• Fresh mint leaves
• Toasted almond flakes and sunflower seeds. 
• Honey or agave syrup (optional)

Method

1. Slice onions and fry with olive oil till limp, add balsamic vinegar and cook few minutes then add brown sugar. Cook till no liquid and onions brown and caramelised. Set aside. 
2. Baguette bread..cut into half and slice horizontally, halving it; place on oven tray.  drizzle or spray little olive oil on each slice and toast in the oven at 200C for 8-10 mins or till slightly brown and crisp. 
3. While bread in oven, Slice goats cheese and Mix cream cheese with favourite herbs. 
4. When bread is done, divide the onions equally on each slice. 
5. Place goats cheese slices on both ends of bread and add a blob of cream cheese mixture in the center of each slice on top of the onions. 
6. Dress with a mint leaf and toasted almond flakes and sunflower seeds. You can drizzle some honey if desired. 
7. Serve warm and immediately so the goats cheese slices melt just slightly with the hot toasts, making it a perfect texture. 
8. Best served with red wine. I personally do not drink alcohol at all, so I take it with NON alcohol red wine....yes it's a perfect match!! 

xoxoxo 

Nur Diyanah Magness

Mixed Rice Stuffed Aubergine/Egg Plant

Spicy Rice filled Eggplant/Aubergine with yogurt and salad.

This recipe was fully vegetarian but for my second try I added in some minced/ground beef....both ways tasted so good. 

Stuffed Eggplant/Aubergine ready for the oven

Ingredients

• Optional : 250 gm ground beef
• 1 cup basmati rice ( i just cooked extra to have extra fried rice on the side. 
• 2 large aubergines/eggplants
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, halved, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, halved, deseeded, finely chopped (I used one half red and one half yellow)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed (I used 5)
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander (I used 1 tsp coriander seeds)
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger (I chopped a thumb size dried ginger)
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh red chilli or 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric, fresh or dry is fine.
• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh continental parsley - I used 3 stalks.
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind 
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup yoghurt. Greek, plain or fat-reduced...any will do perfectly fine.
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint (I had no mint so I just made a simple raita mix of chopped tomatoes and chives instead…just as good)
• salt and pepper to taste.
• pinch of garam masala or chilli powder for the yogurt (only if you like a spicy flavour)

Step 1

Cook the rice in a large saucepan of boiling water for 15 minutes or until tender. Rinse under cold running water. Drain well.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 200°C. 

Step 3

Meanwhile, cut the eggplants in half lengthways. Use a small sharp knife to cut a 1cm border around the edge of each eggplant half. Scoop out the flesh within the border, leaving about 1.5cm of flesh on the base of each eggplant half. Finely chop the flesh.

Step 4

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. If you are using the ground meat, fry till brown. Add the onion and capsicum and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic, coriander, ginger, chilli and turmeric and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or until aromatic. Add the chopped eggplant and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until eggplant is soft. Remove from heat.

Ground beef and capsicum

Step 5

Add the rice, parsley, lemon rind and lemon juice to eggplant mixture, and stir to combine. 

Fried Rice with ground beef

Step 6

Place eggplant shells in a large baking dish. Spoon rice mixture evenly among eggplant shells. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until eggplant shells are soft and filling is golden.

Stuffed Aubergine/Eggplant

Step 7

Place the yoghurt and mint in a small serving bowl and stir to combine. I had no mint so I just added some chopped tomatoes and chives to the yogurt with a pinch of garam masala for a nice flavour. 

Serve with spicy rice-filled eggplant.

Yogurt Salad/Raita

I enjoyed making and eating this meal, was superb! If you like eggplant, Do try it too...you will love it! Bon Appetit!

Xoxoxo

Nur Diyanah Magness

Mothers Day, every day

There is one precious gift that any parent would want and wish for...and rightly so deserve, and that is to be in their kids daily prayers just as they have their kids in theirs. My mum has been there for me from the day I was born, through all my ups and downs even till today, even thousands of miles away... her love, support, care, advice, words and most of all, her prayers are with me. While appreciation for any parent should be every day of the year, most of us still love to extra appreciate mothers on this special day. I had no idea how hard (yet so rewarding and amazing) motherhood was until I got there myself. So my love and respect for my own mum and anyone out there who has ever raised a child grows more and more every day.

Although I really value the thinking behind Mother’s Day—recognition of our mothers and everything that our mothers have done for us - I think that part of being a mom is turning every day into Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is all about being appreciated for everything they do all of our lives every single day....and as a mother myself, I don’t need anything fancy to show me that.  I just need to look for signs of it in my daily living to turn every day into Mother’s Day. 

Happy Mother's Day to my very own amazing mom..and to all of you mummies and mamas out there!

Herb Potatoes and Eggs - Great anytime, anywhere.

Was totally bored with the usual daily breakfast and oats, So I cooked up something rather different from the norm. -- Herb potatoes and celery with eggs, dressed with a blob of humus, honey mustard and a side of Fresh avocado and tomato.

Ingredients

• Boiling potatoes, 4 small or 2 medium potatoes, rinsed and scrubbed
• 2 stalks celery sliced small
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 tabs olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Generous pinch dried herbs or spices, such as oregano, basil, Italian herbs, tarragon, thyme, herbes de Provence, paprika, or ground cumin.(optional).  I added a little mixed masala, rosemary, thyme, basil, dried coriander.
• 3 large eggs
• 1 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup grated or crumbled cheese, such as aged or extra-sharp Cheddar, pepper Jack, feta, goat cheese, Gruyere, aged Swiss, provolone, or regular or smoked mozzarella. 
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, parsley, cilantro or dill (optional)

Directions

• 1. Dice the potatoes pretty small but not super tiny. (You want them small enough so they more or less fit in a single layer in an 8-inch nonstick skillet and will cook quickly. Aim for about 1/2 inch dice–no larger.) 
• 2. Combine the potatoes, water, oil, and salt in the skillet over high heat. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly, cover, and set the timer for 5 minutes. Let the potatoes cook, stirring once or twice if you think of it, while you prep the rest of your ingredients. By the end of the 5 minutes, the water should have just evaporated and the potatoes should be barely tender and maybe even have started to brown. 
  
• 3. Uncover the potatoes and use a spatula to loosen them from the skillet. Cover again and cook over medium to medium-high heat until lightly browned, stirring occasionally, 2 to 5 minutes longer. If using dried herbs/spices, sprinkle them over the potatoes now. 
  
• 4. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Pour the eggs over the browned potatoes, strew with the scallion, and scramble until the eggs are just set, maybe a minute or so. Sprinkle the eggs with the cheese and fresh herbs, remove the skillet from the heat, and let the whole shebang stand until the residual heat melts the cheese and finishes cooking the eggs. (If you don’t mind losing a little crispness on the potatoes, you can cover the skillet so the cheese melts more quickly and evenly.) Scoop the mess from the skillet, place it onto plates, and pass the forks. 
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

Adapted from culinary