Dinner 30 - lamb cutlets and vegies

Well, here it is, the last of my 30 Dinners. It's been quite a challenge remembering to get a photo of every dinner and apart from a couple of leftover dinners I think I did it!

Tonight we marinated half the cutlets in worstershire sauce, cider vinegar, olive oil and rosemary then cooked them on the barbie.

When I went to the fridge to see what we could have with the lamb, I found that all we had were lots of potatoes and onions and some broccoli! My problem is always what to do with potatoes. Tonight I decided on potato bake and what a good decision. They always say about 45 minutes to cook but I left these in for about an hour and they were great!

Now it's time to reflect on the photos we've taken of our dinners over the past month and see if there's something going on that can be improved or varied. One thing I've noticed is that I'm more aware of what I'm having for lunch! Maybe that's the next step - 30 Lunches!

Dinner 29 - parsnip soup, pork schnitzel and roasted vegies

You know, I've always thought parsnip were just tough old things good for nothing but being roasted to smithereens. Tonight I discovered cream of parsnip soup and it is heavenly! So sweet and thick and yum. I definitely recommend giving it a go next time you don't know what to do with your parsnips!

Dinner 28 - pasta with chorizo and homemade red sauce

There were pork schnitzels in the fridge ready for tonight's dinner but this afternoon I decided to go for a walk with Austin and consequently got home late so I reverted to an old favourite: pasta and red sauce. To dress it up a bit I fried some chorizo and made a carrot salad and a lettuce and fennel salad.

We always have some containers of red sauce in the freezer for just these kind of nights. Michael cooks up a dozen tins of tomatoes with an assortment of other ingredients and then whizzes it all up. Over the years he's perfected the recipe so that we always have great tasting red sauce at our fingertips. As a consequence, I have lost the taste for jarred pasta sauces. Maybe that's a bit snobbish but there you go. I know what's in my red sauce (well, Michael does) and I know that there's nothing bad hidden in it.

I don't know if I've mentioned the sauce we put on our salads? We make a few variations of a vinaigrette. Growing up we had vinaigrette on everything, from lettuce and tomato salads to cold leftover vegies and meat. In our house everything had a sauce and most of the time it was vinaigrette. So I've taken on some of that tradition and always have vinaigrette on our lettuce and garden salads. In fact, I really don't like the Australian tradition of serving a big bowl of mixed salad vegetables dry as a bone. I need a sauce!!

One of my mum's favorites was carrot salad, which was just grated carrots, vinaigrette and parsley. That's what I made tonight as well as the lettuce and fennel salad. There are countless ways of making vinaigrette and of course it should be made to your taste, but here's how I make it:

In the bottom of your salad bowl put some salt and pepper, finely chopped garlic and hot English mustard. This is very important for us as we love the flavour it gives. Using a different type of mustard like Dijon or American changes the taste of the sauce dramatically. Add some cider vinegar and mix together well. Finally add olive oil to taste. The usual proportions of vinegar to oil are 1:4 or 1:3 but we like it vinegar strong so tend to put about 1:2!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 27 - chicken and chips

I think in an ideal world I'd have cooked the chicken and chips myself but alas work was chaos today and this is our fallback dinner. Everyone has a dinner they do/buy when they've run out of time or can't be bothered. What's yours? I'd love to hear your ideas so post them in the comments below.

You'll see in the photo a nice glass of beer. It's Michael's home brew and it's really good. He started home brewing years ago with the cheap and nasty supermarket brands. Then gradually over the years he's got more into it, culturing his own yeast and trying more fancy beers. This one is an amber ale and happens to be one of my favorites.
I haven't always been into beer. It took me a lot of trying and eventually while living in Europe I developed a taste for Belgian and Dutch beers. The town where we lived in Holland had a local brewery and restaurant where you could order the local beers with your food. We don't have much of that here in Oz but I guess we're younger and don't have as big a history of beer making. Luckily I have a husband who likes making beer so I can have my own little taste of Europe here!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 26 - wraps ups

My little boy always asks for 'wraps ups' these days. In the beginning when he had never tried them before, he couldn't manage to keep the wrap together and all the salad and chicken would fall out so he'd just end up eating them like a normal dinner of things on his plate. Then a little while back he got the hang of it and now he's a real pro at holding them and not having too much spillage (unlike with every other dinner he has!).

The reason I like this dinner is there's minimal cooking involved and you can vary the fillings with whatever you've got at the time. Sometimes I do chicken, sometimes kidney beans, sometimes beef mince.

I usually buy the large fajita wraps but today for some reason I bought some soft round corn taco shells that you fry up and curl over into the taco shape - major flop! Austin refused to eat them and both my husband and I preferred the usual wraps. It could be that I'm not a good fryer but whatever, we don't like them!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 25 - leftovers

The other night we made three pizzas and only ate two. So tonight's easy dinner was leftover pizza with salad. We'd made two pepperoni and one ham and pineapple (Austin's favourites) and had the pepperoni left. We were a bit worried that Austin wouldn't eat it again, since the other night he decided he didn't like the pepperoni one even though he'd eaten lots of slices of pepperoni as I was preparing the toppings! Anyway, turns out he loved it and wanted more than we had!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 24 - lamb ribs and lentils

I can't take the credit for this dinner unfortunately. It was my husband who did some creative cooking and came up with the lentils dish. It has spinach, lentils, baby carrots, cream and tangelo juice in it. And it is yummy!

The lamb ribs come from the 'lamb man' (see Dinner 5) and were marinated in a BBQ sauce. Michael pre-cooked them then barbecued them.

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 23 - homemade pizza

I think we normally have homemade pizza once a fortnight but I see the last time we had it was three weeks ago, the first dinner of my 30 dinners.

I love how Austin eats most of his toppings during the preparation, snapping up slices of pepperoni and capsicum as I'm cutting them up. He's even into putting the ingredients into the bread maker for the dough. One day he'll be making our dinners...well, we can only hope!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 22 - pork schnitzel with sweet potato chips

I found this one a few weeks ago on the taste.com iPhone app when I had some pork schnitzels and didn't know what to do with them. Admittedly this recipe takes quite a bit of time but there are breaks while it's baking and there's practically no preparation. Just chop the sweet potato into chips and put them in the oven for half an hour. Then bash the steaks and dip them in flour, egg and bread crumbs. Put them in the fridge until the timer for the sweet potatoes goes off then add them to the oven for a further 25 mins. I made the apple sauce that's in the recipe too.

Sweet potato actually makes great chips. They're crunchy on the outside and beautifully mushy on the inside. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 21 - pesto ravioli

This is a quick and easy meal. You can make your own pesto if you want. I just bought a jar of the Italian brand from Woolies along with some fresh ravioli. It only takes a few minutes to boil the water and 5 minutes to cook the pasta. Then chuck in the pesto and it's done. I also added a salad on the side just for a few extra goodies.

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 20 - leftovers

Not worth a photo but definitely worth eating! With lamb mince, potato, carrot, tomatoes and eggplant it's packed full of goodness and you can make a massive batch to freeze for a lazy day (just like we did!).

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 19 - potato moussaka and salad

Here's one we had in the freezer from a while back and got to pull out tonight when the in-laws came for tea. Note to self: it takes a long time to defrost and heat up a big casserole dish of moussaka! We thought it would only take about 30mins but in fact it took close to 1hr 30mins! But everyone got fed and that's the main thing!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 18 - Chinese takeaway

Oops! It's only taken 18 days to forget to take a photo. I was distracted though, being at the in-laws, and surrounded by excited children (and adults). So it was Chinese takeaway, as you can see from the leftovers. Not something we have very often, mainly because I'm not too keen, but a nice change nonetheless. The meal started with cut up vegies and dip and ended with cheesecake, ice cream and fruit. What's your favourite takeaway?

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 17 - chicken, olive and chorizo casserole

What a find! I was just browsing through taste.com.au yesterday and they were showing off their range of casseroles on their homepage. I came across this one and it sounded really good and I can now confirm that it is really good! Definitely on my favourites list. And best of all, I've now got leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 16 - BBQ

I love a good BBQ with friends. When everyone brings something to share for dinner it always turns out so good and it's a great way to get some new ideas too. Tonight was no exception.

There were sausages of course, a whole selection of them in fact. I contributed my new favourite salad from a few days ago, spinach, avocado and walnut, and there were baked potato wedges, BBQ prawns and prosciutto wrapped asparagus. It was all so good most of us had seconds. Then for dessert there was a beautiful chocolate date and nut cake. Yum!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 15 - sausages and veg with leftover pasta

Austin decided he wanted to make bikkies at 4.00pm today and I stupidly concurred - I hate to quell his creativity (or his desire to cook!). So I only started on the dinner quite late and it was all a bit uninspired tonight I'm afraid. Everything was quite bland except for the mushrooms. I can't help making them with creamy wine sauce. Must be the French in me!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 14 - macaroni carbonara with salad

Never made this before but it was quite tasty and got a 'this is good' from Austin so definitely a keeper. It was a bit dry though so next time the boys need to be sitting waiting as soon as it's ready!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 13 - chicken and roasted vegies

Ok, so I cheated on the chicken because of time limitations but the chips and roasted vegies are home oven cooked!

This is another one of Austin's favourites. If you ask him what he wants for tea he always says either wraps up or chicken and chips. He likes the chicken part best but the chips are still good. I've started making my own roasted in the oven instead of buying them with the chicken. I feel better about them that way. And they all go nicely with garlic sauce!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 12 - bean nachos

This is an old favourite in my household but until recently we hadn't really made it for Austin, probably because serving chips to a 2 year old seemed a bit like bad parenting! But when you think about it, everything else is really healthy and the chips are a fun addition. Well, we don't have to worry too much about Austin requesting nachos that often anyway, he much prefers what he calls 'wraps up'!

I usually do my nachos with red kidney beans, onion, tomatoes and capsicum. It took us quite a few goes to get the grilling right and Michael is the current expert at turning the chips nice and crisp and the cheese nice and melty. Yum!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Dinner 11 - BBQ

Gotta love dinner at the folks! We mentioned we would stop by on the way home and they said they'd do a BBQ. Little did we know that they would also have prawns and homemade mayonnaise for entree, the BBQ, which included sausages, marinated chicken thighs, pasta salad, potato bake and green salad, cheese platter, dessert and champagne to finish! Admittedly, the champagne was for someone's anniversary but otherwise it was a pretty good feast all accompanied by some delicious wine!

Actually, this so-called feast was pretty much what we had growing up and what we have now when the whole family gets together. When I was younger the 4 hour lunches/dinners were a complete bore but now they're a comfort. I know we're always going to have some great wine and beautiful food. And of course fantastic family company.

What did you have for dinner tonight?