How to reheat … Corned beef

I’ve struggled with reheating cooked corned beef for years, do I slice it or leave it in a chunk before I freeze it?

Defrosting in the in the fridge is my usual method, I put it out the night before so I’m not reheating from frozen. The microwave dries it out, slicing dries it out, in a pan dries it out.

Last night I par cooked my vegetables to make a vegetable bake. I took the steam basket out of the pot that still had a reasonable amount of water in the bottom then popped my uncut defrosted piece of cooked corned beef in the water to simmer, not boil,  while I did the vegetable bake.

WOW why did I not think of this earlier. I boil my corned beef so it’s not like it’s not used to the water and  the water still had the juices of the vegetables to keep it flavoured.

YES! Now I know how to reheat my corned beef and keep it juicy. Dinner was wonderful.

Half and half cake

If you can have a half and half pizza I see no reason you can’t have a half and half cake.

A bigger cake or slice tray is preferable as it give you a little wiggle room for in tray mixing.

As seen here in below picture I made a basic butter cake then poured the batter in to a slice tray (28x18cm).

I sprinkled  some chocolate chips on top, carefully with a skewer (my implement of choice when mixing like this) I pushed some chips down into batter and sort of stirred them in, more on top. Topped with shredded coconut.

The other half I had a fresh pear that I peeled cored and sliced, place on the top of the other half then sprinkled with a little mixed spice.

Baked as usual. Cooled to half way in the tray then turned onto a wire rack.

An easy way to give a little variety. Works just as well with a chocolate cake mix or other.

Apples or peaches or banana for other fruits and sultanas or mixed fruit for the other side, the choices are yours.

Creamy lentil soup

It was a recipe by default of something else not working so bear with my haphazard notations please.

I read a recipe to make lentil burrito wraps of 1 cup dry red lentils and 2 cups tap water. Soak overnight. Blitz to fine/mush in a bullet. Little oil in a pan and pour in, flip and cook other side. Needless to say for me it stuck to the bottom of the pan, it was crepe like and it didn’t work for me. Tasted ok and looked more like a scrambled egg omelette when I was done.

What to do with the rest of the lentil mush in the bullet, it was only lentils and water but it seemed a waste. I put it back in the fridge.

Today I made vegetable soup. 1 chicken bullion cube a couple-ish cups of water and a couple of handfuls of frozen mixed veg. Everything was almost cooked.

It then dawned on me that I could use my lentil mush in my soup, it’s healthy. I turned the pot down low and added the lentil mush and wow just like that while stirring it into the pot it got nice and creamy. I let it simmer for a bit longer and  added a few spices my favourite being the anything seasoning . 

Vegetables are whatever you wish them to be.  No reason you can’t use fresh.  Adapt your water level.

I’m really happy with this as my hubby likes a creamy soup. You can’t taste the lentils. It’s very filling. To make it more of a meal add some chopped cooked chicken or turkey.

The most preparation would be to soak the red lentils  making sure you popped them in to soak overnight to soften.

 

Cuppa soup (single or family sizes)

Chicken or beef or vegetable.

Cuppa soup (single or family sizes)

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings: 8
Course: Mains
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Cup powdered milk
  • 1/3 Cup Corn flour
  • 2 (rounded) Tablepoons Chicken stock powder. Or beef or vegetable
  • 1 Teaspoon Onion powder.
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Dried Basil
  • 1/4 Teaspoon White pepper

Method
 

  1. Sift milk powder, cornflour, stock powder and pepper into a bowl or large jug.
  2. Add other ingredients and whisk or stir all together.
  3. Pour into an air tight jar/container and seal.
  4. The date on your powdered milk will be your use by date.
  5. To use for a single serve soup add 2-3 teaspoons to a mug and stir in a little water to make a paste. Add more water to fill cup while stirring. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir microwave for 30 seconds until thickened and hot to taste. Cups size matters, adjust amounts.
  6. Family serve approx 1/3- 1/2 cup of soup mix in 500ml water. The ratio will really depend on how many you wish to feed and how thick you wish your soup to be. Same as single serve for microwave. If making in a saucepan make to paste add water and keep stirring on a medium heat until soft bubbles.
  7. Is also great as a quick pasta sauce base just adjust your amounts of soup mix to water.
  8. You can't add boiling water to soup base as it seems to curdle your milk powder. In truth the microwave and the jug boiling come pretty close in time.

Notes

If my instructions are hard to understand my apologies I'll answer any questions you have.
This is so easy to make and have in your pantry. Use for lots of things just changing your soup mix and water ratios.
Instead of a white sauce and add a little grated cheese.
Pasta sauce.
Over rice sauce.
Soup for 1 or soup for many.
 
 

Housework

I’ve never been one to have a ‘housework” day, I generally do things as needed so nothing piles up. The only time this does not work is when we have many days on end of rain and I can’t hang washing out on the line to dry.

I like to get my stuff done in the mornings and preferably before morning tea time (10ish am). Mainly because it get pretty hot especially in summer.

My question is do you have a specific day of day of the week that you set aside for your household chores or or a time of day you like to get things done by?

Or it just gets done when it gets done?

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