Chilli Con Carne

I have been struggling to find a Chilli Con Carne base thats gluten free (for those days you cant be bothered making things from scratch) but when browsing the health food section at Coles I came across this one. All you needed to add was a tin of crushed tomato's, kidney beans and mince and is great for people with lots of allergies or health concerns. Then serve with either rice, corn couscous or corn chips. It was very easy to make and tasted fantastic, I also added some avocado spread on top to give it some extra kick. I have had a few of these sauces now and they are all pretty good, but are a bit more expensive then sauces from the asian/indian etc. section.

Blue Cafe, Inveresk

My brother was heading back home to the Army in January, so we went out for lunch at Blue Cafe, Inveresk to say one last goodbye. I hadn't eaten there for a while so was interested to see how the menu had changed. There was too much to choose from as I wanted to have about 3 of the dishes on the menu. I decided to go with a small serving of the quail and a side of chickpea fries. The quail was beautiful and the salad that accompanied it was really tasty, now the fries, these were quiet different. An unusual taste and texture as I think they were made fully from chickpea flour. The aioli that came with them though was terrible, so I asked for a relish instead and that was nice. I am not sure if I would recommend the fries but certainly the quail and all the other meals on our table looked really good.
http://www.bluecafebar.com.au/

Cataract Bistro

We went to the new revamped Cataract Bistro for a friends birthday recently and I was quiet excited as everyone had been talking about the new stone grill meal, where you get raw meat and cook it yourself. So I just had to have it, along with calamari and chirozo salad for entree.
The entree was really nice and quite big but thats cool with me, then my main came out and looked very exciting. It had veggies on the side the steak plonked on the hot stone ready to be cooked, so you just cut bits off cook them dip them in a gravy (gluten free, yay) and eat, repeat! It was really fun, fresh and a new dining experience. Worth checking out!

The Taste, Hobart

Over New Years a friend and I went to the Taste down in Hobart for a day trip. Unfortunately we didn't give ourselves enough time to really sit back and relax but thats ok the weather was pretty miserable and I dressed like it was summer (because it was in Launceston!). We did a lap of the venue checking out all the food stall and bumping into so many people, it was packed! We were first drawn to a Willie Smiths organic cider which was a good start to the experience.  After much contemplating I found a place called Mint that did healthier options such as rice paper rolls, salads and buns. I ordered a rice paper roll and a Vietnamese salad that had satay chicken in it with a huge variety of good veggies. To my surprise the serving was huge, so certainly value for money. We sat outside on these chairs that were covered in fake grass, it was great apart from the rain! I was soon thirsty so went and checked out the Franks cider tent, I went to go with an apple cider until the lady suggested I try the cherry cider, I am not a big fan of cherry flavoured things but this was really really good. Now it was dessert time, we picked this out as soon as we walked into the venue, dark chocolate mousse with raspberries and a walnut apple crumble topped with caramel icecream. All I have to say about these is WOW! Coeliacs really are spoiled for choice, sometimes too much. We left the Taste feeling very full and over indulged, but it was totally worth the calories and the drive down!
(I just had to take a pic of this cute little bus/van that sold icecream!)

lunch at the Basin Cafe

While my brother was down from Townsville we took him to the Basin Cafe for lunch after a tiring day at the boxing day sales. I love eating here and the setting is wonderful, overlooking the pool and the Basin also the chairlifts going overtop.
The menu at the Basin Cafe have gluten free items listed and do a really nice gluten free bread. I went with the chicken curry served with rice and bread (note sure why it came with bread?) but I didn't care because it was really good and one of the better curries I have had. I demolished the whole thing quiet quickly. They also do a wicked breakfast, yum!
http://www.launcestoncataractgorge.com.au/basincafe.html

My favourite ingredient this Spring/Summer

We all have one or a few ingredients we always buy when grocery shopping and mine for Spring/Summer would have to be fresh coriander. The flavours are so good and it can be put in so many dishes. I always use it in a fresh salad as part of my lettuce and sometime pop some into a stir-fry. When cooking/creating with it be careful as its not everyone cuppa tea (I have a friend who will not eat a dish even if it got coriander sprinkled on top as a garnish!).
Think I might have to go grow my own as I eat that much of it!

Apple Crumble

With my big bag of local orchard apples I decided to stew them myself and make apple crumbles with them. Stewing them was easier then I thought and they tasted really good. I then got a recipe out of my 4 ingredients cook book so therefore the crumble was really easy to make and cook. I put them in individual pots and made sure they had plenty of crumble (got to have lots!). So good to be able to have some sweet treats and they be enjoyed by other (non gluten free) friends.

Apple Tea Cake

Before Christmas I went to an orchard and bought a bag of golden delicious apples, unfortunately I am not able to eat a whole bag of apples to myself in a week so I decided I wanted to stew them and make an apple tea cake. I found a recipe in one of my gluten free cookbooks and finally stocked my pantry up with some cooking ingredients etc.
It was rather easy to make with the help from Morgan being my cookbook reader-outer, the recipe didn't seem like it had enough stewed apple in it so I added some more. For my first attempt at apple tea cake and first time baking from scratch in sometime I don't think I did too bad!? (tasted a little gooey and for sure gluten free!) Check it out.