Tag Archives: food

Sweet potato & roasted peppers crustless quiche

I am trying to eat healthy these days and come across this recipe. The recipe is really quick and easy and healthy too.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium sweet potato, diced
  • 1 brown onion, sliced
  • 1 red pepper (bell pepper/capsicum), sliced
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/4 cup full fat cream
  • Zest of 1/2 lemon
  • Sea salt and pepper for seasoning
  • 1-2 tbsp of pine nuts
  • Ghee, macadamia oil or virgin olive oil for cooking

Steps

  • Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Grease a flat baking tray with coconut oil and scatter diced sweet potato. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove and turn the oven down to 180°C (355°F), ready for the quiche to go in.

sweet-potato-roasted-peppers-crustless-quiche-2

  • In a medium frying pan, sauté onion and red peppers in ghee or macadamia oil on medium heat for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes of cooking, add fresh thyme, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt.

sweet-potato-roasted-peppers-crustless-quiche-1

  • Whisk eggs with cream and combine with the zest of lemon, a pinch of black pepper and a generous pinch of sea salt.
  • Grease the bottom of a deep baking tray with coconut oil and line with baking paper, making sure the sides are covered. Assemble sweet potatoes and onion and red peppers mix evenly on the bottom. Pour whisked egg mix on top.

sweet-potato-roasted-peppers-crustless-quiche-3

  • Bake for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with pine nuts and some extra fresh thyme and bake for a further 10 minutes.

sweet-potato-roasted-peppers-crustless-quiche-4

  • Stand aside to cool and settle for 5 minutes before serving.

sweet-potato-roasted-peppers-crustless-quiche-5

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S.

https://nepaliaustralian.com/2016/11/22/nominations-open-for-nepaliaustralians-blog-award-2016/

Make sure your blog and the blogs you read are nominated so they can win the title.

Birth Week :)

Yap, you read it right, instead of just being my birthday on 28th Oct, it turned out to be a birthday week this year :).

I am sure I have mentioned here many times that Nepali people follow different calendars which means we have birthday in different days every year depending on what you are following, the Gregorian calendar, Nepalese Calendar or the tithi (birth chart and position of sun, moon and planets). Normally, I don’t care much as I don’t really know when my Nepali tithi birthday is. My mum normally does some puja in Nepal and that is it.

But as my parents are here, I celebrated my tithi birthday. It was on 21st Oct and my mum did a simple puja for me that day. As it was a weekday we didn’t do much but just tika and sagun to mark the day. It is always special to have your parents around as they make you feel special every day.

birthday-3 birthday-4

Also after the puja, Chhori gave me a flower (thanks to AS) and a big hug and kisses to wish me on my birthday. I put a few of those photos taken during the puja on Facebook which led to many of my friends and family wishing me birthday as well. Thus the birthday week celebration officially started.

During the whole week, I had birthday wishes and Facebook posts which made me feel very special  🙂

On the 27th, my boss bought me flowers and they were lovely.

birthday-19

On 28th, I work up early as normal and waited for Chhori and AS to wake up. As I was checking my phone, I saw a message from AS that he had send me before he went to bed so he was the first one to wish me :).

It said, “Happy Birthday to the one who has always been there for me. Whether rain or shine, I’m so happy and grateful that I can call you mine.”

He definitely made me happy and it was a great start of my special day.

There were a few more messages in my Facebook and inbox as well as sms which were flowing the whole day.

When both my sweethearts were awake, AS got Chhori to give me a card and flowers and gifts.

birthday-8

The flowers were lovely and loved my wallet, sunnies and umbrella. AS has always been so thoughtful and Chhori was too cute hugging and kissing me. I have to admit it was one of the best days I have ever had.

birthday-2

Since Chhori came into our life, our life has changed for the better and I love being a mum to such a cutie pie.

birthday-11

It was the first day of Tihar that day so we did Kag Puja and went out for breakfast. I had egg Florentine and AS had the Big Breakfast. The food was yummy and we were stuffed by the end of it.

birthday-15-tile birthday-16 birthday-18

The plan for the afternoon was lunch and movie as mum was looking after Chhori and we didn’t want to come home late. I think when you have a baby, you change things so you can be with your kids more and I was more than happy to come home early to be with Chhori.

page

First we went to watch a movie. We choose to watch “The Girl on the Train”. I had heard good reviews about it so AS got tickets to it.

The movie was OK. I loved the drama and suspense but at times I found it very slow.

For lunch AS chose a nice Japanese contemporary restaurant called Sorenzo.  When we walked into the restaurant, as it was afternoon, there were not many people. The ambiance of the place was good but the food is what I am still thinking about.

We went there for lunch so we thought we would order a set menu to make it easy as it had a wide range of dishes.

We thought we were getting 5 different dishes and dessert as there was slash in the menu between two items. We thought that we could easily handle much of food as Japanese food is small in portion generally but we realised later that we were getting everything in the set menu.

So we started with our favourite edamame with salt sprinkled on the top. It was warm just like I liked it.

birthday-20

It was followed by fresh pacific oysters. Both AS and I are not a big fan of oysters but we loved them as they were tasty and full of flavour and surprisingly they didn’t have a fishy aftertaste .

birthday-21

Then came Kingfish carpaccio which was amazing and we finish them in a few seconds as it was delicious.

birthday-22

It was followed by the most interesting dish of the day, sashimi platter. But the interesting part of this was the presentation.  The dish came with oozing Nitrogen and a skull making it really interesting. As it was close to Halloween it was a great idea. The platter contained various cuts of Salmon, Kingfish, Tuna and Scallops which were fresh and perfect. We were really impressed at this point and AS was really happy about his pick of restaurants.

birthday-26

Following the sashimi platter, there was a chef’s selection of sushi which was light and perfectly seasoned.

birthday-28

Then came the pan fried scallops with white miso sabayon which was one of the most delicious platters on the menu. The presentation was awesome as well.

birthday-27

Next was tempura platter that included prawns, mushrooms, eggplant and sweet potato. It was fresh and crunchy and very yummy but we couldn’t finish it as we were already so stuffed with the sushi and the sashimi.

birthday-29

The last and main dish was smoked salmon with sweet and spicy miso sauce. The dish was very delicious and flavoursome but we couldn’t finish it as out tummy was screaming to stop as it couldn’t handle the amount of food we were eating 🙂

birthday-25

Finally, it was time for dessert and we both choose ice cream. I had lime sorbet and AS had passionfruit and chilli sorbet. The presentation of the dish was great but unfortunately we couldn’t finish them either.

birthday-23 birthday-24

I think we ate 3 times more than what we normally have for lunch but it was a great experience and loved all the dishes.

birthday-5 birthday-13

After lunch we headed home where our munchkin was eagerly waiting for us. I had invited my brother’s family for dinner that night.

birthday-6

So in the evening when everyone was at my place, we had a cake for my birthday which was an amazing rainbow colourful cake.

birthday birthday-14

The cream was delicious and I loved it so, so much. And thus 28th Oct concluded :).

birthday-10

The next day a friend of my visited and brought a nice dress for my birthday and the following day, some of our friends invited us over for dinner and I got a nice hand bag for a birthday gift.

I am so happy that there are so many people in my life who have made my birthday into a birth-week with their love, blessing and wishes.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

Valentine’s Day 2016

It was V day a few days ago; and I got around to doing the post a bit late.

Anyway hope all of you had a great day with your loved ones.

Valentine's day 2016 (4)

This year, it was Chhori’s first V day so we made it special for her by taking a few photos. I always want her to remember this day as a happy time shared with family. I also want her to know that we love her a lot and will be there for her no matter what.

Here are some photos from the day with Chhori. I hope these photos will tell her many stories in the years to come.

Valentine's day 2016 (1) Valentine's day 2016 (2)

Also in the morning, AS made a very yummy breakfast. I have to give him A+ for his effort and the result. He made this nice round pancake with a red heart in the middle accompanied with mixed berry smoothies. It took him quite some time in the kitchen though 🙂

Valentine's Day 2016 (1)

Chhori was very excited and happy about everything. When we put her in front of the breakfast tray, she was so excited that we couldn’t stop her from trying to grab everything.

Valentine's Day 2016 (2)

This year for Valentine’s we became 3 from 2 and I love it so much. Hope one day in a few years, it will be 4 from 3 and we have a complete family 🙂

Valentine's day 2016 (3)

Take care everyone and hope to see you with another post very soon.

from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

Pasni party for Chhori

After the pasni puja was over, the next big day was the party day.

Chhori is so blessed to have so many loved one come to visit her after her birth. So I wanted to invite everyone for the celebration and to share the day with us.

As with other celebrations, I had many ideas that I wanted to execute for her special day.

So I started planning for the big day months in advance. I wanted a big enough venue that served good food and had great ambiance. After a very tiring search, we finally found it.

The next part was to find a good baker to bake a special cake for Chhori and a photographer who could capture the special moments. Once everyone was booked, I started on the entertainment. I wanted to put on a few performances so I asked few of my friends and they agreed to dance and sing on the day. Altogether, there were going to be 5 dances and a song and I was performing a dance with my sister in law as well.

I always liked dancing but I haven’t performed since high school so I was excited and scared at the same time. We practiced for almost a month every other day and though we were not very good in the beginning as the days passed and we practiced more, we got better and better. I was really happy with where we were headed.

In the meantime, we also designed place cards and arranged the table sitting. It took a while but when everything were done, I was super excited for the day.

On the day of party, I went to the beauty parlour to do my hair and makeup. It took almost 2 hours to get ready and I was happy with the result. I had ordered a special lehenga saree and that was what I was wearing. AS was also looking really handsome in his new suit and bow tie.

Chhori pasni (9)

Chhori also had a special dress made for her in a boutique in Nepal by her grand ma which I loved a lot. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

Chhori pasni (5)

Once we were all ready, we went to the venue. It was decorated, nicely.

Chhori pasni (6)

The cake was also already delivered. We placed all the place cards in the right places and were set for the evening.

Chhori pasni (4)

It was early and the photographer was there as well so we spent an hour taking photos before the guests arrived. He took great photos of us as well as with my parents and brother.

Chhori pasni (16) Chhori pasni (17)Chhori pasni (2)

As the guests arrived, the place stared to fill up and food and drinks were served.

Chhori pasni (1)

It was so much fun catching up with friends and family after a while. Chhori was an absolute angel and was behaved so well.

Chhori pasni (3) Chhori pasni (7)chhori pasni (4)chhori pasni (2)chhori pasni (3)

After a while Chhori was bit tired and I let her sleep for a while so she would be fresh and happy for the cake cutting.

As to our schedule, it was time for some entertainment and first up was me and my SIL. I felt nervous like as if it was my first time on the stage but once the music started the fun took over the fear. We both were more relaxed and started our performance.

Chhori pasni (11)

Before we knew it, the songs came to an end and I was glad that everyone enjoyed it too. We were showered with applause when we left the stage. I am so glad we captured the performance on video.

After our dance there were more performances that evening by my friends. I am so grateful that I have such a great family and friends who invested their time and energy to make Chhori’s pasni such a memorable evening.

Chhori pasni (14)Chhori pasni (12) Chhori pasni (15)

As I looked around, everyone was enjoying the evening and I could see that the guests were relaxed and mingling well.

While the performance was on, entree was served and after the performance, it was time to cut the cake. Chhori woke up just in time for that.

Chhori pasni (4)

The baker did a great job with the cake. It was what I had imagined and looked amazing. I, AS and Chhori cut the cake together. Amazingly, when we gave Chhori a piece of cake, she loved it so much that she started munching on it and we were pleasantly surprised. She loved the sweetness and she looked so cute with cake all over her face.

Chhori pasni (13)

After the cake, the dance floor was opened and every one joined us on the dance floor for hours to enjoy the evening. It was so much fun for all of us.

chhori pasni (1) chhori pasni (5)

In the meantime, dinner was served and everyone enjoyed the food and the dance and before I knew it, it was close to midnight and party was coming to an end.

Chhori pasni (10)

I am so happy the evening went as we planned and everyone enjoyed it. They told us that they had an amazing time and loved our organized celebration.

Chhori pasni (8)

We got some beautiful photos and videos from the day so when Chhori grows up, she too can enjoy watching her Pasni ceremony.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and the post as much as we did the occasion.

Take care everyone,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO

Thank you solid food

Anyone with kids knows that sleep is a luxury for  the first year of being a new mum. I am sure only a few are lucky enough to be able to say that their baby sleeps through the night from the very first week.

I am not any different either. Before Chhori came into my world I loved my sleep and tried to sleep 8 hours every night. I was always fresh and rested when I woke up every morning. But for the past 6 months, 8 hours of sleep seem like a distant dream. Like every new mum, I am juggling my new baby, home and everything else with little sleep. The sad thing is that I have so many things to do when Chhori sleeps that I cannot even catch up on my lost sleeps when she naps.

Chhori

For the first month, I had to wake up every two hours to feed Chhori. She didn’t know the difference between night and day so I had to follow her routine. Also she was exclusively breastfed so my husband couldn’t help me either even when he wanted to. Slowly she started to get better but until she was only breastfeeding, she used to wake up at least twice or more during the night.

I still remember the first time she slept through for more than 3 hours at night and I was super happy to get even that brief a rest.

chhori (3)

As I mentioned on my previous posts, I have started Chhori on solid food. I started slowly with purée and she now eats more solid. I will share more recipe on the foods I am making at home for her soon.

These days she has solid food 3-4 times a day. And I tell you she loves it too. I feel so good when she opens her mouth when I bring the spoon close to her. I am giving her a mix of home made and store bought purees. She is a good girl as she also eats pumpkins, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips and broccoli puree too. Of course her favorite ones are mango and banana pure and sweet custards.

apple puree (3)

The best benefit the solid food has bought apart from helping Chhori with required nutrition is that it is helping her sleep longer.

Chhori used to take 20 – 30 minutes nap 4 – 5 times a day and at night still woke up 3 – 4 times to feed. The longest she went without feeding was 4 hours and that on good nights. But since she started eating solids, she sleeps for 6 hours straight and I need to feed her only 1 – 2 times during the night. Also during the day, she has longer naps which sometimes has lasted up to 2 hours.

Chhori (2)

The first night she slept for 6 hours, I woke up just to check if she was OK. I was so glad that she slept for 6 hours straight for the whole week this week. And I know, things will get better from here on so big thanks to solid food.

To all the new mums out there, things do get better as they grow older in terms of sleeping. So hang in there and do what you are doing. There is no rule and no right and wrong. Just do what you think is right and eventually you will get there. Never forget happy mum is happy baby and a happy baby makes a happy mum too.

Now my next goal will be getting Chhori to sleep through the night which should hopefully happen in the next couple of months. I will definitely keep you posted with the progress.

All the parents who have been through all these situations please do share your tips and tricks to make a new mum’s life easier. I am sure I am missing some amazing tricks. Hope to hear from you all.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO