Our Gang's Spaghetti Bolognaise

This is one of the kid's most favourite things in the world to eat.  A recipe that "Buddha" insisted on putting on this blog, and also one that I make every week just about but continuously forget to photograph lol.  Finally, at last I remembered to have the camera handy.

I generally make a large batch of this and then freeze the left overs in single serve containers or snap lock bags.  These are great for after soccer lunches on the weekend.  I just pull out the required number of servings the night before then when we get home from soccer on Sunday, I have almost defrosted Spag Bog ready to just be popped into bowls and heated in the microwave.  The kids are happy, and all have a nice warm lunch in their tummies, what could be easier!!!

I remember when I was young and newly married to my first Hubby, Tuesday nights would be our "nightmare night".  He was a Chef and would work till about 8pm that night.  Since he worked alot of nights, having a meal together was precious to us.  I was also working full time at this point and I didn't get home until 6.30pm myself.  Tuesday nights we would alternate between Spag Bog or Tuna Mornay.  Both meals which were quick and easy to prepare.  Back in the "pre child" days though, I used to really spice things up with alot more capsicum and zucchini and then I used to add chilli sauce as well.  It was really yummy!!  Once kids came along we had to tone it down and I am only now starting to spice it up (very very gradually) lol.

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNAISE - OUR GANG'S STYLE

1 kg Beef Mince

1 Zucchini, roughly chopped

1 Sweet Potato, roughly chopped

1 Onion, diced

1 Capsicum, diced

Garlic and Mixed Herbs to your liking

1 x 500gram packet of pasta of your choice

2 x 400 gram cans of Chopped Tomatoes (you can use fresh if you like)

1 x Can of Tomato Soup

1 Jar of Tomato Puree or use a jar of Raguletto or Dolmio style of sauce

Worcestershire Sauce to taste

Tomato Sauce to taste

Roughly chop the zucchini and sweet potato.

Place in a bowl, cover with water and cook in microwave until soft.

 Place pasta on to cook.

Fry the onion and capsicum until softened.

Add the herbs and garlic to your liking.

Add the Beef Mince, cooking until lightly browned/cooked through.

Add in the jar of tomato puree, the tomato soup and the chopped tomatoes.

Add in the Worcestershire Sauce and Tomato Sauce (I like to use the last bits of my tomato sauce bottles mixed with a little water to get it all out)
At this point I add in my pureed zucchini and sweet potato mix and stir through.

When the meat sauce is cooked, drain the pasta and add to the sauce.

So easy and so yummy.

Dutch Curry Cottage Pie

I tried this recipe out the other night feeling quite nervous.  I was sure my kids wouldn't like it lol.  We don't really eat curry.  The only curry I normally use is a little in my Tuna Mornay but other than that, nothing, nada, zip, nil, lol.  So I had ingredients for toasted sandwiches lined up,,,,,just in case!

Hubby and I are okay, we don't mind curried sausages and very mild curries but the kids normally wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.  So to say I was nervous about this recipe was probably an understatement.

One thing my kids do all like though is Cottage Pie.  Normally we buy the Maggie mix for Cottage Pie and make it with that.  The kids love it and I love it too because I always through in a generous helping of mixed veggies lol.

This time I basically made it like I normally would but instead of the Maggi Mix I added the soup mix.  Amazingly, to my delight, the kids all ate it and although two of them said they prefer the other sort, I did notice that they all went back for seconds.  Hubby and I thought it was really nice and will definitely make it this way again (I have to add that we had it for lunch the following day and it was even yummier, the curry flavour had gone through it better and it was really, really nice).

DUTCH CURRY COTTAGE PIE

2 kgs Beef Mince

1 packet of Dutch Curry and Rice Soup Mix

2 cups of water

1 large onion, diced

Frozen Mixed veggies (whatever you like to add)

1 tomato, sliced

Breadcrumbs

Mashed Potato (however much is required to cover your chosen dish/dishes)

Cheese for grating on top

Fry the mince and onion together, adding in the mixed veggies once the mince and onion have browned off.

Mix up the soup mix with the 2 cups of water, mixing it thoroughly.

Add soup to mince and stir through well.  Bring to the boil for a few minutes.

Pour into a baking dish or casserole dishes which have lightly been sprayed with cooking spray.  

Top with Mashed Potato, then top the potato with a breadcrumbs, tomato slices and grated cheese.

Bake in moderate oven for approximately 45 minutes.

Be warned:  This recipe makes a large amount.  I used my larges baking tray and as you can see it was pretty full.  Normally I get the baking tray full plus two small casserole dishes left over with the mince.  So normally this meal would create a meal that is family size (with left overs :-)  ), plus two small casserole dishes ready for the nights when it is just Hubby and I that need to eat (you know those nights when the kids have hounded you for hot dogs and you give in but really don't feel like hot dogs yourself lol).  On this night though, I don't know what I was thinking and I just piled the mashed potato straight on top and it took me a while to realise the reason why the baking tray was so chocka block lol.  Oh well!!

Stuffed Capsicums

Due to Hubby buying an enormous bag of capsicums at the market last weekend, we have been having a very capsicum orientated week.  We have had several bowls of coleslaw made with added capsicum of course lol, we have had a Spaghetti Bolognese made with capsicums and also Burritos made with capsicums in the sauce and also homemade burgers complete with capsicum.  Now, while that got rid of quite a lot of capsicum, we still had alot left (the bag was very large, at least 5-6kgs of capsicums!).  So while Hubby and I were home alone on Sunday night, we decided to try a new recipe and make Stuffed Capsicums.  I searched the internet and found this recipe:  Stuffed Capsicums 

The result,,,,,,YUMMO!  The only difference we would make to the recipe is to add more spice or chilli sauce maybe next time just to give it a little more pizzazz but as a starting point this was really nice.  We are going to try this one with the kids and I think at least half of them will like it.  I figure that even for those that don't like capsicum they can always just eat the filling lol, I know they will like that bit!

STUFFED CAPSICUMS

6 medium sized capsicums

500 grams beef mince

1 large onion, diced

4 tablespoons rice

300ml water

Salt and Pepper

1 x 440ml can tomato soup

1/4 x 570 gram jar pasta sauce

large handful of grated cheese

Cut the tops off the capsicums, empty out the seeds from inside.  

Place the capsicums into a casserole dish

Fry the onion.

Add mince and break it up well.

Add pasta sauce, water and rice and simmer for 10 minutes.

(we use hubby's grandma's frying pan, somehow it always tastes better cooked in that lol)

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff the capsicums with the meat mixture.

Pour the can of soup around the capsicums.  We also added about half a can of water as well to prevent it from drying out.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the top of each capsicum.

Bake in moderate oven for 55 minutes or until capsicums are soft.

Enjoy!

We left these in a little too long as you can see by the cheese but these were delicious.  We had two each and then had another 1 each for lunch the next day.

This would be a great meal for a crowd as it is so easy to make and takes very little time!