Jamie's 15 Minute Meals: Thai Chicken Laksa

I received Jamie's 15 Minute Meals for my 24th birthday, and decided I would expose myself to new flavours, techniques and skills by cooking my way through the book, one recipe at a time. Four years later and I'm still not through the first section. I took a hiatus after doing the Michelle Bridges 12WBT, focused more on calories than on nutritious filling food. I then almost forgot about the challenge, until the middle of college last year when I decided I should really get back into cooking new recipes to challenge myself once more.

At least once a month I cook a new recipe.

And as this is my virtual paperless scrapbook, I thought I would blog about each recipe here because why not.

This Thai Chicken Laksa was so yummy the first time I made it, it was one of the first 15MM recipes that came out super awesome the first time I made it. It took me longer because I didn't have the right food-processor attachment, but the extra time it took was worth it.

So now it's been added to the meal roster, and I am looking forward to making this one more often.

The best thing about this laksa is how thick it is. The grated pumpkin in the soup really adds depth, and there are just some really powerful flavours working their magic. The first time I made it I didn't have kaffir lime leaves, and the second time I made it I forgot the coriander - but both times it has been super flavoursome and I haven't noticed the missing ingredients too much. I add a bit more stock than what JO says, because otherwise the noodles soak up all the broth.

And the chicken thighs are gorgeous and moist, and I love the five-spice/honey/sesame combo. It's a real winner. Soong loves it too.

So this one is a winner because:

• there's only one pot, one grater, one frypan and one mini food-processor to wash. 
• it tastes awesome
• Soong likes it
• it's super easy
• now that I know how to make it, it'll just keep getting faster and faster

This was recipe 11 out of 119 recipes in total. I'll do a bit of back-blogging about the first 15 recipes, and then will blog as I go for the rest! Exciting stuff. 

A place for thoughts

It's probably a good time to start fact checking again and making an objective account of all the really wonderful things that happen, the wonderful people around me and the wonderful ways God blesses me. That will keep me in line!

In the break between the last blog post and this one:
- I finished an amazing year of Bible college and graduated with a Dip of Bible & Missions
- I went back to working at my old job, but in a new office
- I learned a lot about caring for people with mental illness
- We started hosting young adults home group
- We had a wonderful housemate move in and stay for a year (who is about to move out)
- I learned to ride a bike
- I passed Greek! But am pretty bad at it now as I haven't done hardly anything since :(
- I read a few books
- I didn't go on holidays anywhere, but we've got a trip to USA planned.
- Had lots of little fun adventures, including seeing live music, spending time with friends, picnics, getting outdoors, cooking
- I won a competition on Instagram and got a free cookbook
- I had a pretty nasty ankle injury thanks to my friend's dog
- We got internet at home, installed air conditioning and an awning (feeling like real grown ups now)

So it's been a full year and a half, and a happy year and a half.

And here's to more regular blogging. Because paper and pen is so 2010, and everyone needs one or more scrapbooks.

Where to begin...

Warning: thinking aloud. (If this bores you, you can skip down to the bit about college a few paragraphs down)

I am stuck.

I wanted to post about all the fun adventures that I was having on the weekends, the friends I was spending time with, the joys I was experiencing, the things I was learning and seeing and doing... The problem is that since starting college, my life has just become one big ball of fun. College is still exciting, it doesn't have the same vibe as working full time does, and I'm loving every minute of it. But I can't write about every minute of college (it will be just too much to read!).

So I'm just thinking out loud about my 52 Weekends project for this year... I think it will need to change to 52 weeks! I want to record the highlights of the year and share what being at bible college is like this year.

So hey, if you're interested then stick around.

Now to mentally jump back and summarize what's happened in February since I started college!

The Beginning of Bible College

I can't believe it has been 5 or 6 weeks since I first started college. I arrived and I wasn't even sure if I had learned all the Greek I was meant to learn in the summer holidays. I soon discovered that feeling never really goes away, and you're never quite sure if you've really learned enough Greek! But we really did jump in the deep end. The start of college was like the start of school or uni, lots of new things to learn, lots of enthusiasm for study and homework, lots of people and relationships to form, working out what life looks like...

A typical day for me these days usually involves catching the train and walking to college, sitting around under the grapevine and studying Greek, going to class, eating a pear for morning tea, eating lunch, sitting under the grapevine in the afternoon with other people and studying or getting involved in college life and meetings. I've joined the social media team, put my hand up to help organise first year weekend away, and a Greek study group. Being at college was overwhelming in my first two weeks, there were so many names and so many introductions - it was like a Christian camp on steroids! But things have settled down, there are many lovely people who I am enjoying getting to know better, and there are just so many more fun adventures to have! Also, assignments have started...

Things I am really enjoying about college:
- Meeting people and making friends
- My first year group
- Learning Greek, it's so fun to see the New Testament in the original language
- Learning how to understand the Bible better and already being able to apply this to how I preach and teach at church
- The grapevine (it's really pretty and it's a nice place to study)
- Travelling to college with Isobel on Thurs/Fri and still getting car-time with Soong on Mon-Wed

Things that surprised me about college:
- How cool my year group is (I wasn't really sure what to expect!)
- How much the staff love the students and want to support them. It's very different to uni
- How much the students want to help and support each other
- How many people are actually in similar life situations to me, living off campus and travelling while spouse works and supports them

Things I am looking forward to:
- Mission in a few weeks
- Holidays (who doesn't love holidays hehe)
- Weekend away
- Introducing Soong to all my fun new friends
- Learning more

College is fun. I'm very thankful to God for the opportunity to go!

20 Completed January Jobs

 

20 tasks in January. What was I thinking? I must have been deluded into thinking I had a lot more free time than what I actually would. In between catering for Sweatcon, learning Greek, and working long days in the office, here's how I went with my month of organising:

1. PANTRY: Completed January 13th

The pantry is tidy. I have thrown out all open and out of date products. I have tried to use up what I can so that I am not storing products for the sake of storing things. My bigger goal was to try and rearrange the pantry into another kitchen cupboard, but I have not had much luck with this as of yet. Hoping to find some solutions soon, but regardless, it is nice to know that everything in my pantry is there for a reason.

2. SPICE CUPBOARD:

3. CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS: Completed 14th January

Soong is wonderful and took care of these for me. Christmas decorations have been packed away for another year. It's sad to be in my house without the tree, but it feels more spacious which is nice.

4. CLOTHES DRAWERS: Completed 22nd January

As I was putting away my washing I decided to toss a lot of the clothes in these drawers that I didn't wear but was keeping for the sake of it.

5. WARDROBE HANGERS:

6. MUSIC ROOM CUPBOARD:

7. BOOKSHELF: Completed 26th January

We are holding off on buying a new bookshelf until we have to. Our other one is bulky and a bit of an eye-sore, but that's no reason to toss it yet. So I tidied up the shelf, sorted out my folders and added them in, and it's looking a lot better!

8. CARS:

9. DVDs and CDs:

10. KITCHEN GADGETS:

11. LAUNDRY:

12. FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS: Completed 18th January

I sat down with my pile of financial documents and sorted them out, filed them away and paid what needed paying. Feels good to have this all stored away!

13. PERSONAL EMAIL INBOX: Completed 14th January

This was a hard one. Considering that I have never emptied out this inbox, and so found myself wading through almost 10 years worth of emails, it was very tiresome. I had a lot of emotional attachment to some emails as well, and so did my best to file and store the emails from when I first dated Soong, or long interactions with good friends. Feeling very accomplished to see it so clean and sorted though. I hope this lasts.

14. WORK EMAIL INBOX: Completed 13th January

I found this one pretty easy to sort though, as I really only use this email address for job hunting, freelance corrospondance and the occasional formal email (like to my accountant). So if I hadn't opened it or looked at it in the last three months, nor did I need it because it was to do with a finished project, I deleted it! I feel somewhat guilty that I deleted so many emails (close to 400), but what's the point in filing away things that I'm never going to open or look at? This was much easier than my personal email inbox due to lack of emotional attachment. 

15. NOTEBOOKS BOX:

16. PAINT BATHROOMS: Completed 17th January

A full on day of painting and work. We washed the walls, did three coats of paint, and then had very sore arms the following day!

17. SPARE BEDROOM:

18. MEDICINE BOX:

19. LINEN CUPBOARD: Completed 26th January

Sorted out the towels and refolded those, and then checked everything else. It's holding a nice collection of travel bags, which I may need to clear out at a future time.

20: GARAGE SHELF: 

So not only did I not complete these jobs... I also didn't get a chance to post anything until March! Let that bear witness to how full the start to my college year has been! 

Sweatcon, Shire and snags

Monday - Friday (19th to 23rd January)

Sweatcon happened! I love Sweatcon, it's the best conference of the year. This year instead of participating or strand leading I headed up the kitchen and catered for the whole thing. And I had such a great time. I had some lovely kitchen helpers, I loved the challenge of cooking for the entire conference and I think this counts towards my goal of cooking a new recipe every month!

Highlights from the week:
- Peter Jensen gave some amazing bible talks (I only got to listen at night but I hear that Matt Dodd's bible talks were equally awesome)
- Seeing so many youth there
- Seeing quite a few more older people there
- Chatting with people over lunch and dinner
- Seeing the conference grow again for another year

Saturday 24th January

I went to Cat's baby shower this afternoon with Laura. We carpooled and caught up. I ate my weight in sugary treats and quiche, we played pass the parcel and I won a candle. I got to catch up with a few of the girls from church who I haven't seen in ages as well which was great.

We visited Mel and ate Thai for dinner, followed by our tradition of drumsticks for dessert. We spent the evening chatting, playing Bananagrams and watching the lightening storm from her window. It was really fun and it's just so easy hanging out with Mel.

Sunday 25th January

Church this morning, finished off the book of Leviticus and then took the youth group girls out for lunch to McDonalds which was super fun. Then I used the aircon and interent at Pete & Isobel's and studied Greek for an hour. After that, I drove up to the mountains to visit Luke and his family and we went to church together which was awesome! It's been ages since I've seen them so I was so happy to catch up with them all. Can't wait to go back and visit them again soon. When I got home, my inlaws were over so I cooked dinner and we watched a movie and just relaxed together.

Monday 26th January

I slept in very late today because I stayed up till 3am finishing "Clockwork Princess". An intense book. Many tears were shed.

Australia Day BBQ lunch at Erin's today. We had salad and sausages and lazed around watching Harry Potter 1, 2 and 3, playing Cards Against Humanity and playing in the backyard with the kids. Lots and lots of fun. Exactly the way to end an insanely busy week.

First weekend in Australia

Friday 16th January

Soong and I surprisingly had a free night tonight, so we decided to drive out and visit Mum. Lana & Simon were busy hanging out with church people, and Julian was at a party, so we decided to head to the local club for dinner. It was a nice warm night and really fun. We walked there and walked home and hung out and chatted and ate yummy food.

Saturday 17th January

Oh boy. Today was painting day. We painted our two bathrooms and now they are ready to fight mould and look fresh! Also we are installing a new bathroom cupboard in one, so now that the wall is painted we can mount it. Soong had a gig tonight so I went to visit Nan & Grandad, fix her computer, and ended up having dinner with them. A nice quiet evening.

Sunday 18th January

Church today! Super lovely to be back, I always miss it when I am not there. We started Leviticius and looked at how God is holy and we are unclean, but he provides a way to be made clean and that's through Jesus. Then we had lunch at Pete's and had our first Greek lesson with him. Chris is waaay ahead of me, so I need to catch up. We ended up having Chris and Thom over for dinner that night as well.

A quiet but fun weekend.

January Pantry Challenge

I decided that the moment I stepped off the plane from New Zealand and returned to Australia was the perfect time for a pantry challenge.

The fridge had been wiped clean of all off food, the pantry had been mostly cleared out and the freezer was home to a few servings of meat and frozen veg. I had things that needed using and I wanted to start the year by using them all up. 

Also, I had grand plans of shrinking my pantry into a kitchen cupboard.

What is a pantry challenge?

A pantry challenge is a challenge to cook meals simply using the ingredients you already have in your fridge, freezer and pantry. The idea is not to go shopping and buy anything, although some people will go out and only buy the basics.

Other versions of the pantry challenge include the $20 grocery shop challenge, the stock shop challenge etc.

I chose to do my pantry challenge using my $10 Flybuys dollars at Coles. For $8.13 I bought eggs, one loaf of white bread, frozen peas, a kilo of carrots, and one pink lady apple (as a treat). 

My pantry challenge menu:

Monday - Mexican beans on rice with cheese.

Tuesday - Prawn pizzas on puff pastry

Wednesday - Chicken laksa noodles

Thursday - Grilled prawn & pineapple on couscous with vegetables

Friday - Chicken pasta bake

Saturday - Chicken noodle soup OR chicken and cheese pastries

Sunday - Creamy chicken and vegetable pie

Extra snacks - Banana bread

Extra snacks - Home made hummus & carrots

Pantry challenge reflections:

I was surprised at how much I could cook with the few cans of lentils and the small amount of prawns and chicken in my freezer.

I tried to make sure I was getting the right amount of calories and nutrients every day, but I know I didn't do great across the board. I didn't get as many serves of vegetables as what I need in a day, nor did I get my correct serves of protein. But I scored when it came to fruit, grains and dairy.

Overall, I really enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what to cook that would be tasty and healthy from what I thought were bare cupboards. It made me realise just how much you can eat when there's "nothing to eat". Doing a pantry challenge is a really good way to also save money, so I think the pantry challenge will be a regular feature in our household.