With the day off work, I had a relaxed, lazy breakfast when I finally decided to get out of bed.
Breakfast
Bacon & Poached Egg on Wholemeal Toast with Baked BeansThe baked beans were Jocelyn's leftovers in the fridge. I'm trying to clean out the fridge and avoid as much food wastage as possible but there's only so much I can eat and there's only so much of the food that Jocelyn eats that I'm willing to eat. I was actually looking forward to the baked beans, but they were so bland! The tomato sauce, instead of having a sweet, tomatoey taste, was tasteless! I think Jocelyn must eat the low salt version of baked beans. They were awful! I tried adding some salt and tobasco sauce but it ended up going in the bin.
After some grocery shopping and errand running, it was time for afternoon tea. On a mini pana di casa vienna roll from
Bakers Delight, I layered thinly sliced strips of prosciutto, sliced roma tomato and sliced bocconcini. I drizzled a bit of olive oil over, cracked some black pepper and popped it into the oven for about ten minutes until the cheese has melted.
Garnish with fresh basil leaves from the garden...
and then it heads to my mouth.
Dinner
Cajun roasted Chicken Thigh with a warm Vegetable Salad and Cous Cous
I roasted some pumpkin and a bulb of garlic, halved, in the oven with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and cracked black pepper. I steamed the beans and then tossed them through the other vegetables. I toasted some pinenuts and added these too. Great to eat as it is but I also made some cous cous and mixed that through the vegetables.
The cloves of garlic were cooked perfectly! I am going to smell like garlic at work tomorrow after having some of this for lunch!
I had lunch at Yuki with some friends today. I've been craving some sashimi! Delicious and healthy!
The long hours at work this week really caught up to me and I was feeling far too tired to go out tonight. Benoit and Ivy dropped in though. Benoit was hungry so I, being the good hostess, cooked him some wantan soup.
They stayed for dinner and we were all feeling lazy so I put together the ingredients we needed to make our own dinner. 
I tipped out the jellyfish into a bowl. I was disappointed when I saw how much - or should I say, how little - there was! There was like two tablespoons!
I blanched the jellyfish with some boiling water and seasoned it with a few drops of sesame oil and the packet of seasoning that came with it. It was pretty stupid to go to all that effort for a few spoonfuls of jellyfish. Really stupid.
I remembered I had some fish paste left in the fridge from making yong tau foo earlier, so I pulled out a few pieces of wholemeal bread, spread the fish paste on, sprinkled on some sesame seeds and pan fried them for a few minutes. 
There was a discount on some 'grilled vegetable and fetta' paste from the deli section of Woolworths today so I thought I'd give it a go. I spread some onto a slice of wholemeal bread, sprinkled some cheese over it and grilled it for a snack. Yum!
This morning we used the remaining sourdough from yesterday's lunch to make cheesey toast!
I have never had vegemite on toast before so today was a first. I loved it! The saltiness with the gooey cheese is a perfect combination!
I enjoyed a few glasses of this wine tonight. A 2009 "Parliament of Owls" Cabernet Merlot from Golden Grape Estate in South Australia. Soooo smooth.
At work tonight, one of the cleaning ladies dropped off a surprise for me - a mini pavlova. I enjoyed it with a cup of tea. The meringue was deliciously smooth and overall it was soooo good! Just the right amount of sweetness.
In keeping with our weekly food feast at work, we each brought in a plate today for a shared lunch.
I cooked the mince mixture and allowed it to cook in the fridge while I used a cookie cutter to cut out the pastry circles. I put some of the mince on each circle and folded the pastry over to make little crescent moon shapes. I brushed some egg wash over the pastries before putting them into the oven.
I was watching for the pastry to puff up, but minute after minute, I noticed something was wrong. The pastry was not puffing up. Alas! I had used shortcrust pastry instead of puff pastry!
I also made some 'crackers' from a remainder sheet of shortcrust pastry and on some I put some cream cheese, smoked salmon and dill. On the others I put some diced roma tomatoes and fresh basil.
Garnish with fresh basil leaves from the garden...
I roasted some pumpkin and a bulb of garlic, halved, in the oven with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and cracked black pepper. I steamed the beans and then tossed them through the other vegetables. I toasted some pinenuts and added these too. Great to eat as it is but I also made some cous cous and mixed that through the vegetables.
The cloves of garlic were cooked perfectly! I am going to smell like garlic at work tomorrow after having some of this for lunch!
