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Tag Archives: Donna Hay
WE are both sooo tired from our days, that we could barely even think about eating, let alone standing in the kitchen and cooking. I have been having insatiable cravings for spring rolls, too, and that was the original plan tonight. As I stood there looking at these baby eggplant, I said hell with it, it was going to be a Donna Hay sort of night! So I looked up her summer Ratatouille recipe and started chopping away – yellow squash, green squash, red onions eggplant, the first of summer dry farmed tomatoes (if you are a regular reader, you know HOW we love these) and then I drizzled everything with fresh rosemary from the garden and a healthy dose of olive oil. In 40 minutes we had a nice big bowl of Ratatouille – yum!
this is what dinner was tonight. As Donna Hay would say, “simple made simple”. Tonight we headed back down under for a warm mushroom salad. Earthy, with a salty aftertaste from the bacon; but, then you are grabbed and pulled in by the citrus in the light lemon juice dressing with creamy feta and lemon thyme. Served with a nice chardonnay and warm crusty bread. Quick and delicious dinner in 25 minutes!
The recipe can be found here, or you can email us.
If you are familiar with Donna Hay, you know exactly what I am talking about when I mention her cookbooks and magazines. Not only is the food styling and photography stunning; but, the recipes are brilliant!
I am always looking for good, quick meals that we can whip up in less than an hour during our busy work week. Time and time again, I turn to Donna! Not only are her recipes easy but each one uses the freshest seasonal food available. As well, they are usually meant for 4 servings which makes it easy to half for two. Every time we try a new recipe, we are equally as happy as the time before. This was NO exception ……..
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 Another fantastic Donna Hay recipe was cooked at our house last night. I am in love with her recipes – so simple and so good! Thursdays are our late night to eat so I am always looking for something simple to cook, that is not a left over, from a frozen box or can; something fresh, easy and delicious. The Asparagus and Mint Pasta was just perfect.
This dish SCREAMS Spring and Easter. A light cream sauce made of minced garlic, lemon juice, asparagus, mint and sweet peas (okay they were frozen, but I imagine fresh ones would be pretty fantastic as well). I was afraid that the sauce may be a bit heavy with all the cream that is added; but, it was exceptionally light, very refreshing with the Meyer lemon and mint undertones. We use whole wheat pasta which is not as pretty, but I like to think it is “healthier” as well it added a nutty flavor which blended very well with the sauce and salty pancetta chips that garnished the dish.
This is a great dish to add to your Spring menus – flavorful and easy, dinner in under 30 minutes!
 Donna Hay style! I was not going to blog about this as we were having a pretty crappy evening last night and I have come down with this nasty cold, again; but, I just looked at the photos that L. took and I just had to tell you all about it! Not only is this dish incredibly easy to make but it is so tasty.
Just imagine it ….. Lightly seared chicken breast which have been seasoned with only salt and pepper, then you rip them to shreds while making this ultra creamy broth of ginger, lemongrass, garlic, coconut milk and fish stock (I used chicken stock, fish stock freaks me out!!!). When everything is cooked (only takes a mere 30 minutes) you ladle the broth over the shredded chicken and top with diced spicy peppers, Thai basil and Kaffir Lime leaves (I can not find them in the bay area) but we used zested lime instead. Oh my .. just thinking about it makes me hungry all over again! I served some simple brown rice along side it, just in case we needed a filler, but you really don’t, the dish is plenty!
Here is the recipe … more Donna Hay on the menu for tonight!
The past few days have been very busy and have left us very little time in the kitchen. The day started with us having our friends, the M.’s over for breakfast – MEM gave me a waffle iron for breakfast and I was anxious to break it in! Perfect way to start our day … good friends, good food and lots of coffee!
I have been inspired, visually, by Donna Hay for some time. We own a couple books and I have recently discovered her magazines – a must have if you love to cook! Unfortunately, I do not cook that often from any of them, mainly because I just forget. This week has been declared Donna Hay week at our house.
What I love about her recipes are that they are simple and use fresh ingredients. Tonight we decided to go with a Lemon Pork dish. I did adapt it a little, used eggplant instead of tomatoes, did not have lemon thyme so I zested meyer lemon on the top; but, it still came out beautifully. Bursting with flavor – the milkiness of the pork, a bite of garlic, the savoriness of the thyme and the zang of lemon created a wonderful marriage of flavor. The taste was very fresh, clean and likeable!
We are back on our spin schedule, which means we need to come up with a couple easy meals for Tuesday and Thursdays. Not only did we get home late but there is nothing really left in the fridge since we were playing in Yosemite last weekend instead of doing house stuff.
I was able to toss a a couple cutlets(who knew Lil’s cutlets would go so far) into the freezer, from the other night; before, L. devoured them. At least we had some protein to work with. As well we had a half of a head of butter lettuce in the fridge and some frozen pizza dough left over from the HHDH #17 challenge. What did I come up with, you are asking yourself?
I rolled the dough out very thing, topped it with some fennel seeds, olive oil, sea salt and crushed pepper and baked it into a thick and crispy cracker. While the pizza was crisping away, I tossed in the chicken cutlets to warm them up. In the mean time, I tossed a salad together of lettuce, red onions, chick peas and made a light dressing of olive oil, red vinegar, and lemon juice. Once everything was cooked and warmed, I chopped up the chicken and tossed it into the salad. Simple and easy and ready in 30 minutes.
We are trying to be somewhat healthy this month and are trying to stay motivated with the Ironman meets Ironchef challenge over at Balance.
I found this Thai Chicken Coconut Soup and we decided to give it a try. While it was good, it was just okay. We will probably not make this particular recipe again as it was rather brothy (is that a word), not enough substance, even for a soup. It was just lacking something …..at least it was healthy!
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