On the menu: My Fridge Food

Hey, peeps! How was your week? 

Each Friday I strive to bring you something new from the Organized Chaos kitchen. In addition to that, I'm going to start listing out what we've been eating throughout the week! That way if there was a previous recipe involved...you can check it out! You can always find old meals on the Recipes page!

Wordless Wednesday: Potjie

We had a relaxing weekend as a family and spent Sunday making our favorite Potjie and playing outside! I couldn't imagine it being better! I love family time!

If you haven't checked out our Potjie recipe...do it now! You can find all recipes under our Daily Living section!

Check out my highlight sponsor this month!!

XOXxx

Shana Danae..

Pinspirations....

Hey, peeps! It's been a hectic weekend! I'm not even going to start by recapping it right now! Let me just say...7 days away from home and WHOA...it's a crazy nest in there!

Pinterest is addictive. I mean seriously, peeps, I'm addicted! I don't think if I stopped pinning now I'd ever accomplish everything I've pinned! But that doesn't stop me....or about a bagillion others of us! It is so great to get your juices flowing.

I'm not one of those pinners that feel incomplete or unsuccessful when pinning. I love getting new ideas, mixing recipes, and sharing my posts! Today, I thought I'd bring you some of my favorite pins lately!

Creamy Home Style Coleslaw

Hey, peeps! Hows the week been? Mine? Hectic! But that hasn't stopped me from whipping up some delicious dinners for my family! Each Friday I strive to bring you something new from the Organized Chaos kitchen. In addition to that, I'm going to start listing out what we've been eating throughout the week! That way if there was a previous recipe involved...you can check it out! You can always find old meals on the Recipes page!

Creamy Feta Spinach

I’m all about foods my children will eat. Thankfully, my children are far from picky; however I’ve learnt that some foods tend to send children running for the hills! I have a spinach recipe that will leave your little asking for seconds!

South of the Boarder Baked Chicken

Sometimes I decide to get creative in the kitchen….I know, WOW right?!?

This was one of those days. We had a lot of fresh ingrediants left in the fridge from the day before and I wanted to use them up. I cook a big meal on Sundays and chicken was in order this particular day! I was craving some Mexican flavour though. I still had some taco seasoning left from our Mexican night and started brainstorming what could I do. Therefore, my peeps, I introduce you to South of the Boarder Chicken.

Happiness is Homemade Link Up

WELCOME BACK TO HAPPINESS IS HOMEMADE LINK PARTY!!

We hope everyone is having a great week and had a great Memorial Weekend...now Summer can start!!!

MOST VIEWED LINKS

Lazy Saturday French Toast

One thing my children absolutely love for me to make is French Toast. For them, it’s a common dessert request and basically held in view as good as ice cream.

I don’t mind either. It’s simple and quick to make and I have the necessary ingredients on hand any given day of the week. I want to share my fool proof recipe!

Scott Family Salsa

Hey peeps! I spoke the other day about how hard it is to get some good Mexican food in South Africa!

Finally, in the last year, El PASO brand has started becoming known here. One of our grocery stores does stock some of their items...but this is also not authentic! And honestly, it is disgustingly expensive!

britishsupermarketworldwide.com

Wordless Wednesday: Mexican Night

Dip Tray

Flavor Explosion Taco Dip

Hey peeps! So I’ve been given yall some insight to how I pull together a Mexican night! 

One of my favorite memories from high school was all the crazy food we would eat when we had sleepovers! As an adult, I still enjoy this! I can’t have friends over for an evening and I’m not pulling out snacks!

Although, it isn’t actually anything authentic other than possible authentically American...I love a good taco dip! And so did my friends! I’m pretty sure C described it as a flavor explosion in her mouth! ;-) So that is it’s new name!

Guest post by Julie: Healthy Eating Tips for Christmas

4 Healthy Holiday Hacks – A Post from Julie Roberts

Eating healthy is not usually on our to-do list during the holiday season, but one too many slices of that favorite pie and we can wake up on New Year’s Day not feeling, or looking, our best. With planning and helpful nutritional information, there are easy ways to eat healthy while still enjoying the traditional favorites. Below I’ve rounded up four of my favorites:

Budget Vegetarian Lentil Shepherd's Pie

I’ve been writing a little on how Hubby and I are working to cut back on our grocery bill. One thing that we have done is cut out meat twice a week in our lives! Why you ask?

For me, this wasn’t difficult. I went down the whole organic/vegetarian route for a little while just after high school and actually for the most part I enjoyed it! For Hubby, it’s an easy way to save a few bucks and he knows I will still provide meals that fulfill him!

We eat leftovers many days a week for lunch so some days we are eating meat twice a day even! So....two meatless dinners a week. No problem!

I needed to get creative though! We didn’t want to eat scrambled eggs and omelets all the time! ;-) Though we do eat that a lot....I needed something more. So I started rummaging around the internet. Google...you’ve got a friend in me!

Pannekoek recipe

rsg.co.za

If you haven’t noticed already, we like to do things…well, our own way around here!! For instance, we don’t have a barbeque. We braai! And yes it is more than just how we build our fire that is different! The atmosphere, the side dishes, and the social event that surrounds it is very important to us! Much similar to how a game of football is almost tradition on Thanksgiving for a lot of families in America!

Cookies Galore

 A couple months back when we moved into our own place again, I had a lot… A LOT of replacements to purchase for my kitchen and house. Somehow things just tend to get used or go missing when they’re just sitting around.

Luckily, Ma gave me a whole bunch of stuff. We were very blessed to not only not have to start from scratch again but to receive such awesomeness like our microwave!!

In all of this, I’d gotten some recipes from Ma! ;-) Always a double score there right?!?

I’d been dying to make some sugar cookies with Lil Mister ever since I found a great idea for icing. I went through the recipes I’d been gifted and sure enough there was a cookie one! YAY!

You can imagine my excitement as Valentines Day approached. I figured what a better time to bake cookies than on Valentines Day for school and work!

I sent Hubby Dearest to the local store in search of cookie cutters and he came back with an awesome one. It was extremely cheap. For only R20 I got 3 hearts, 3 stars, and 3 gingerbread men. Each one gets smaller. So three sizes of each!

My excitement was pouring over and Lil Mister was beaming at the idea of cookies. Then again, what two year old doesn’t like cookies!!!

Even more excitement came when this was a two day process. We made the dough one day and allowed it to sit overnight in the fridge. The next day we baked and iced. This was perfect as a two year olds attention span isn’t incredibly long!



You can't make cookies without eating a little dough!





See our beautiful creations in the background!




He was a BIG helper!


 

Kid Friendly Sugar Cookies

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1)       Cream butter and sugar together until smooth.

2)       Add eggs and vanilla and fold in.

3)       Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to mixture and fold in until completely mixed.

4)       Place on a sheet of glad wrap. Wrap twice.

5)       Refrigerate 24-48 hours. The dough will be extremely hard when you take it out. It softens as you roll in! I suggest closer to the 48 hour mark if you can wait that long!

6)       Roll out and cut shapes.

7)       Bake at 180 for 6-8 minutes

Icing:

Butter, softened

Icing sugar

Fresh cream

1)       Mix butter and icing sugar at a .5-1 ratio.

2)       Add cream until you like the taste and texture. Continue repeating the process until you have enough icing.



They taste even better than they looked! ;-)


 

Shana..

 





Lil Mister's Peanut Butter Cookies

This morning Lil Mister and I decided we would make cookies.

He is a huge fan of helping Mommy in the kitchen and I thought it was a great activity to do while LJ slept a little!

I searched long and hard for a simple and quick recipe. To no avail however. Nothing seemed to quite hit the spot with what I was trying to achieve.

So I quickly created a simple cookie recipe and well, it turned out quite good!
I was going for a peanut butter cookie that would stay somewhat soft. These didn’t stay as soft as I wanted, but I’m beginning to give up hope on soft peanut butter cookies! Especially since I didn’t want to use butter!

 

Ingrediants:
1 c sugar
½ c flour
½ c peanut butter
1 egg
½ tbl oil
½ tsp baking powder

First we mixed the peanut butter, egg and sugar until the sugar was well dissolved. Then we added the rest of the ingrediants and continued to stir! So easy and simple. And not a lot of dishes!

I battled to get Lil Mister to let me put the dough on the baking sheet! He insisted on just eating it!

And since he is now having a visit over at Ouma’s house, I worry if his tummy isn’t feeling a little upset from the sugar and raw egg :-/

Eventually we got them in the oven though.

They baked for 15 min at 180C. They were still quite soft when taking them out and I let them cool. They still were a little crunchy so I might advise taking them out sooner!

We thoroughly enjoyed them however and strongly suggest you try them!
Lil Mister was so kind to even help clean up afterwards! ;-) Mommy score!

 

Shana..

Curry and Rice (or Toast!)

I’ve learnt so much about cooking since moving to South Africa.

I worked in restaurants since I was old enough to begin volunteering at the age of 12 in America. The day I turned 16 I began working officially in the restaurants and until I was offered my current office job, I’d never really left them. It was all I knew and I knew I was good at it.

However, it may surprise you that even though I have training in the kitchens, I hadn’t really learnt a lot about technique. I didn’t work in those types of restaurants. I’m pretty good at throwing things together and if you give me a recipe I can master it, but my overall cultural knowledge was limited!

Oh heck, I couldn’t even understand what in the heck mince was for the longest time when I moved to South Africa because I’d always known it as ground beef! I thought they were feeding me ground lamb! I SWEAR!

I love though how much Ma has taught me and that I’ve been able to merge the American ways with the South African ways in a lot of meals.

This one is however strictly what Ma taught me!

I have fallen in LOVE with curry since living in South Africa. It is not something I was so exposed to in my home growing up. I had no idea how to cook with it or how it would taste! But it is WONDERFUL! Especially having spent so much time in Durban, curry is a staple in our household now!

I want to share with you a simple but amazing meal. Curry and Rice! It really is easy, lovely, and delicious! Best of all....it is quick and versatile!

Todays version uses stewing beef. However you can use mince, chicken, even shrimp! Whatever suits your families tastes!

This recipe is based to feed just my husband and I so you will need to adjust accordingly. As well, you will need to be willing to taste test! The measurements are guestimates as I don’t usually measure but just throw together and adjust as we go!!

 

250g stewing beef

1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 ½ c frozen mixed vegetables
2 tbl curry powder (choose your strength!)
1 tbl sugar
5 tbl vinegar
3 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp tumeric

Salt and pepper to taste

 

1.       Brown your onion over medium heat

2.       Add your stewing beef. Brown slightly. Add 1tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper.

3.       Add water until meat is just covered. Add ½ tsp curry powder. Cook on medium heat until tender and begins to shred from bone. About 30 minutes. (If wanting a quicker way I suggest using mince or chicken which can be fried up in minutes!)

4.       Add potatoes after 20 minutes.

5.       Add vegetables after 5 minutes (or when potatoes are about half way done!)

6.       Cook over medium heat until potatoes are soft but still holding together! We're not making mash in here people!

7.       Make sure to keep water level just above the contents of pot!

8.       Mix curry powder, sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch in a mug. It needs to be thinner than a paste but thicker than a normal liquid. Think tomato sauce consistency!

9.       Add to pot and stir. Bring to boil while stirring then turn down to low heat. Allow to simmer about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can add more cornstarch if necessary to achieve the desire consistency of sauce you are looking for. We like quite a bit of sauce to soak into the rice or toast. It should be the thickness of gravy usually. You can also add more curry, sugar ect to achieve a taste your family will like! Serve over rice or toast!

See I told you it was easy! I really hope you enjoy this and if you have any questions just ask! My husband (and son!) both love to add a little bit of chutney and sliced bananas to the top of theirs! I like mine plain! Try it both ways!

Potjie Kos...mmm YUM!!

Potjie....

The South African Way

Being American, South Africa has brought on quite a few changes over the years! Some changes have been horrendous and were not taken lightly or without fighting! However, some changes, such as the introduction to a whole pot full of different cultures foods, have been welcomed with open arms (and mouths!!) I have truly enjoyed the thrill of experiencing true Boere kos (translation is silly but it is Afrikaans traditional foods) like malva pudding, Sunday dinner, braai, and especially POTJIE!! The first time I had potjie I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever tasted! Then again it was made with oxtail (another first for me) and I wasn't so fond of the taste of meats in South Africa at the time! But after a few tries and adjustment, I have learned to love this little bit of tradition!

I thought, in a lovely, sentimental way, I'd share some information about what is potjie kos and why it is so vital that EVERYONE try it!!

Potjie kos comes from around the 17th or 18th centries when the Voortrekkers were settling in South Africa. Although the black tribes had already begun using cast iron pots to cook in after learning from Portugese colonist and Arab traders, it was the Voortrekkers who made it into the tradition it is today. A cast iron pot needs relatively low amounts of coals to maintain heat and any substance that makes coals (charcoal or wood) can be used as the smell of the item burnt does not get into the meat. This made it ideal for cooking while traveling through the country. The concept is that everything is cooked in one pot (translation potjie kos- small pot food). Your meat and what ever vegetables you use are all thrown in and simmered.

It is essential to prepare vegetables and meat ahead of time so that it is ready when needed to be added!!

This sounds easy enough right?? HOWEVER!! South Africans are very particular about their potjie. Firstly, it is not to be stirred! You cook your meat with whatever onion, garlic, and/or herbs you choose in a little bit of oil at the bottom of the pot. That can be stirred to get a brown sauteed effect. After that the vegetables are to be added in layers as the time passes to allow proper cooking. You do NOT stir once adding the vegetables! For instance if you were making an oxtail pot. Your meat is finished and left at the bottom. Next you could add potatoes and carrots because the cook the longest. Then you would add items like pan pans and baby marrow later so they don't cook away!

My hubby ensuring that everything is just right with our pots!!

So the basics....
Start your fire and give it enough time to have the coals ready.
Cook your meat.
Layer your vegetables accordingly. You do not put all the vegetables in at once. Place them in only to allow the necessary cook time.
Add very little water if necessary.
Before serving add sauce and allow to simmer!

Served over rice, bread, samp, or some use pasta!

Again, I know it sounds simple but this is one of those things that takes years of practice to perfect! It is truly a hobby around here! Relate our passion for potjie to the American passion for Chili! We do even have potjie cook offs too!!
You can find great recipes at Potjiekos World


Beef and Vegetable Potjie
Ingredients


1 kg stewing beef
15 ml cooking oil

5 ml salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 clove garlic (crushed)

2 onions (coarsely chopped)

8-10 baby potatos washed
3 carrots (sliced)

300 g cauliflower florets

4 baby marrows (sliced)

1 punnet mushrooms (sliced)

1 pkt Cream of Mushroom soup

250ml Fresh Cream


Method

Cube or slice meat.
Add garlic and onion and saute until onion is transparent.

Heat oil in potjie and brown meat, then season with salt and pepper.
Add vegetables.

Begin with baby potatos. Allow enough time to begin to get tender. Check with fork.

Add carrots.

Add cauliflower

Add baby marrow and mushrooms.

Ensure that your vegetables do not cook away. Continually check the tenderness of the vegetables!
Cover and simmer for about 1 hours.
10 minutes before serving mix soup and cream and add to pot.

Serve over rice or freshly baked bread.

Other vegetables to try...baby corn, broccoli, patty pans, cabbage/ brusselsprouts.