Avocado Deviled Eggs

So I had an avocado that I had bought last week that was about to turn and I needed to use it. Unfortunately, I had also reached the point in the week were I had almost no food left. And this week it was severe, no veggies or fruit, and no quinoa. However, what I did have a lot of were eggs, a whole cartonful! So I decided to use what I had and make deviled eggs, but instead of mayonnaise I used the much yummier and healthier avocado. Now, this was not only the first time that I made deviled eggs of any kind, but also hard boiled eggs too. I was a bit nervous that I would screw it up, but I actually did a great job if I do say so myself (see below left). I put 6 refrigerated eggs in cold water and slowly brought it to a boil. When the water was boiling rapidly, I took the pot off of the stove and put the lid on. Then I let it sit for 15 minutes. After that I cooled the eggs. Now according to my roommate this step is key. So the way I did it was by sticking the pot under cold water. I DIDN'T dump the hot water out first, I let if flow out into the sink as the cool water flowed in. Then I added some ice to further cool them down. I did this for about 10 minutes. After that I peeled them. This was the hardest step. The egg shell can be sharp and it didn't always come off in nice large pieces, and since I had 6 eggs to do it took me awhile. But is was all worth it. Every egg was perfectly cooked and beautifully yellow in the yolks (see below right).

The next step was to make the avocado filling. For this I mashed half an avocado, added the yolks from the eggs, a bit of coriander, and some garlic pepper and garlic salt (below left). I then mashed it all together until it was smooth (below right). Next I needed to get the filling into the eggs, I decided to do this by using a plastic bag. I cut one of the corners and squirted it into the hard-boiled eggs. This didn't come out quite as pretty as I expected it to, but it was cleaner than spooning it in. The result was amazing. Delicious, flavorful, and surprisingly filling. I ate 2 full eggs and 4 pieces for dinner and was full. They are also a great afternoon tea snack or good for breakfast was well. They kept well for 2 days, and were all gone by that time so I don't know if they'll last longer :P

Thoughts on this dish:

• This is such a great and healthy alternative to an awesome and classy picnic treat.
• I love deviled eggs because they are really versatile, morning and afternoon tea are a big thing in Australia and I'm thinking that I want to learn how to make some tea treats and then make a really nice tea for my family when I get back home (My family loves tea). 
• I also now know how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs so I can add that to my list of ways to cook eggs: scrambled, omelet, fried, sunny side up, and hard-boiled. 
• This is great because it has lots of protein and good fats… which are great for you in moderation

So excited to have been able to pull this off. I love that I'm slowly learning how to make more sophisticated meals that I love to eat, but never have attempted to cook before. Each victory boosts my cooking confidence.

Aussie Lollies Take 1

 So we have a wonderful shop on the campus of UQ called the Lolly Shop. And as I mentioned before, here a lolly is a synonym for candy of any kind. Earlier this week I finally bit the bullet and went inside to check it out. Not only do they have a ton of Aussie treats like chocolate bars and Tim Tams, they also have by weight candy. This is perfect for me because it allows me to try a couple of kinds of candy for about $2, and satisfies my sweet cravings without going overboard. This time around I decided to sample some chocolate/caramel lollies (above). I got 2 with chocolate and fruit, 1 with yogurt and fruit, and the last was a caramel. I thought I was getting into something straight forward, boy was I wrong!

The first lolly I tried was an yogurt covered apricot ball. Now for some reason (perhaps maybe the name…) I expected it to be dried apricots covered in yogurt. This wasn't entirely the case. Instead, I got apricot flavored coconut covered in yogurt. It was actually kinda nice, there were chunks of real apricot in there, and the flavors blended nicely, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. 

After my first lolly surprise, I should have been prepared for the next one, but alas, this was not the case. The next lolly was a chocolate covered pineapple. So I was thinking "okay this is either what it says on the tin or coconut and pineapple like the apricot one." Wrong! This lolly was pineapple flavored taffy covered in chocolate. Besides the fact that it tasted really fake, and I was super sad that I didn't get any real pineapple it wasn't bad. I actually liked the chewy texture mixed with the chocolate.

By the time I got to the chocolate covered raspberry I knew that wasn't what I was going to get. So I bit into it hoping for the best. This one was raspberry flavored jelly covered in chocolate. It was yummy, though once again fruitless. Of those three 'fruit' lollies I think I enjoyed the apricot one the most. 

Lastly, I got a Jersey Caramel. It's a caramel square with cream in the middle and the concept reminded me of an American candy called a Bullseye, which I love. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. The caramel was dry and gritty, and the cream didn't really add anything to the treat. It doesn't help that I was expecting something similar to a bullseye with chewy caramel and creamy, fluffy cream and was let down so completely. 

The good news about this experiment is that I learned two important lessons about Aussie Lollies. Number one, don't compare them to U.S. treats, expectations lead to disappointments :(. And number two just because the lolly is called one thing, doesn't mean that it is actually what it says it is, so I'll be tasting with a bit more caution now. While I stuck to the chocolaty things for this test there were heaps of fruity gummy like lollies at the Lolly Shop that look really wonderful, so I'll be tasting some of those next! 

Southwestern Quinoa

This was one of those times that I want to the fridge and said to myself, "what food do I have and what an I possibly make with it?" I ended up making this quinoa with a bunch of extra things. I had extra taco seasoning from my taco sweet potatoes, an extra can of beans, and an avocado that was about to turn if I didn't use it. So I made the rest of the quinoa I had mixed it with the taco seasoning. Chopped up the avocado, and a yellow mini capsicum I got at the Queens Street Markets, mixed those with the beans and then mixed that with quinoa and steamed spinach. Lastly I added so left over sour cream to give it some moisture and to add a cheesy flavor. Done! Southwest flavored quinoa. It was yummy hot and cold. Though, the avocados were the ingredient that stood out. Next time I might try making avocado creme with the sour cream and avocado instead of adding them separately, but this was a really nice dish for something thrown together with no forethought.

Roasted Veggie Caponata and Tzatziki with Homemade Chips

This last minute lunch idea was a stroke of classy brilliance. I took the last of my roasted veggies (eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, and red onion in this mix) mixed them with artichoke hearts and feta cheese. This made a really nice caponata, a type of roasted eggplant dish. This one was very light since it had no sauce, so I used it as a kinda spread. I used one of my rye flats to make homemade chips. I then constructed my own pieces, first a smear of tzatziki then a generous spoonful of the caponata (see below). It was such a satisfying lunch. I didn't feel overly full, and it was really fun to make and eat. Also I unintentionally created a great dish for having guests over for wine and cheese. In retrospect, if I wasn't eating it for lunch it would have gone incredibly well with a glass. Now I know what I'll make if I'm having people over for wine, or just as a really classy appetizer to make before an italian or Mediterranean dinner.

Loved this so much, there is nothing I would change about the recipe.

Damper

This is another fun authentic Aussie food experience that we had on our trip to Brisbane Forest Park. Damper is basically traditional Aussie bush bread. It's the kind of thing that bushman, ranchers, and anyone who was going out into the bush would take with them. It's self rising flour with water, cooked into bread. It tastes like dense thick flourly bread. It's basically a cross between bread and scones (so American biscuits but Aussie scones), and they eat it with jam and honey. I had two pieces with jam and was extremely full. So full that I saved the pasta I packed for lunch as a later afternoon snack. I can see why this is good for the bush: filling, easy, and keeps well for a long time. I might try making some of it later, it seems pretty easy and I've been wanting to try to make some Aussie food!

Red Pesto Artichoke Pasta

I needed to bring a lunch to our field trip to Brisbane Forest Park on Friday. Unfortunately, I have no sandwich materials. At the last minute the night before I decided to make a pasta dish that I could eat cold. So I made some of my vermicelli but used Mediterranean flavors this time around. I made cooked the noodles and as I was doing so chopped up some shallots. I love shallots, they're like mini sweet onions, and are a super classy to use. They are usually pretty pricy, but I bought a bag of 8 of them for 3 dollars at the Queens Street Markets the other day, and have been waiting early to use some. I actually only chopped up half of one for this dish. After I strained the noodles I mixed them with a handful of spinach to steam it. Then I added this to the mixture of shallots and artichokes. Next I added some capsicum tomato pesto as the sauce. I tossed these all together and finally added some feta, which I tossed in too. It was a perfect amount of food for a filling lunch. I stuck it in the fridge to eat cold the next day, but I bet it would be good hot as well. It was a really nice sophisticated meal. My one complaint was that the rice noodles are so tangled that it was hard to mix in all the other ingredients. I think I would fix this by breaking them apart before cooking next time. Otherwise a really nice and tasty lunch.

Pastaless Veggie Lasagna

Okay, this was a masterpiece. A masterpiece that I was eating for 4 days straight and I was sad to see go when I finished it. It tasted sinful, but was extraordinarily healthy. I give you the pastaless lasagna. Constructed from veggies, pasta sauce and ricotta, this lasagna tasted amazing and was really pretty too. I based it on a recipe off of this website: http://mymansbelly.com/2012/02/27/meatless-dinner-recipes-easy-vegetable-lasagna/, so credit where credit is due I did not think of the gorgeous spiral pattern on my own. But I think I pulled it off without a hitch :) It took awhile to make, but wasn't difficult. I poured tomato-basil sauce into the bottom of a roasting tin. Then, basically, I thinly sliced 4 veggies, eggplant, zucchini, red capsicum, and red onions. I then layered them around the pan using ricotta as the glue (see below). Plain ricotta is boring so I mixed in herb seasoning and garlic salt to give it some flavor. This was brilliant because it really spiced up the dish and made it flavorful. Something I noticed as I was layering was that the veggies would slide down as I added more and more layers so I had to prop them up and squish them together to get the max veggie coverage in. Also I started to run a bit low on ricotta so had to use less and less as I went on. I had way too many veggies left at the end so I ended up roasting them for later. I love roasted veggies and was able to use them later in the week so it worked out fine for me. After my lasagna was layered it looked like a flower (below)! I added the finishing touch, some drizzled olive oil with garlic salt, and then popped it into the oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes. After that time I took the lasagna out and sprinkled it with shredded parmesan. Then popped it back in for another 10 minutes. After that it was ready to eat, though I let it cool before I took a slice. It was soooooooooooooooo good. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing this dish was. the sauce and ricotta mixed just so, the veggies were roasted just enough to get a nice smoky flavor but were still firm enough to hold the shape. Pieces were not very pretty, the cheese and sauce spluched out, but the taste made up for it!

Thoughts on this Dish:

• Thought #1:Amazing!
• Okay, now here are some things I learned. I sliced the eggplants first and then salted them and let them sit on trays covered in aluminum foil for an hour an a half. I did this because they have a lot of moisture in them so the salt drew this out and made it so that moisture wouldn't go into the dish.
• What I didn't realize is that zucchinis have that as well… so my dish was a bit more watery than what I was expecting. Next time I'll do the same thing with the zucchini 
• Also a bit less olive oil drizzle might help with the wateriness too
• This was a great thing to heat up and eat as leftovers, it kept really well in the fridge and tasted fresh out of the microwave. 
• This made enough for 4 very filling meals, bigger pan if I'm serving more people.
• This was such a guilt free dish, the most unhealthy thing in here is the ricotta, and per serving it's not bad at all :)

I cannot emphasis enough how much I loved this dish, so happy I came across the recipe on Pinterest and really pleased that I could pull it off so well.