HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

One of the most complicated cakes I have ever made ..... the hummingbird cake. Not difficult just has a few more steps than the usual cake that I cook. My niece requested this cake on her recent visit so it was only fair that I insisted that she act as my apprentice. Like everything I cook I think you can add more or less of things like nuts, bananas a pineapple to suit your own tastes. As I source a wider variety of bulk pantry items from new stores my waste list decreases. This makes me very happy as I move more and more towards my goal of creating less rubbish in the world.

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE
Waste - paper bags from flour, sugar. Tins from pineapple. Butter paper. Cardboard and foil from cream cheese.
Composted - banana skins, egg shells

CAKE
1 450gram tin of pineapple
3 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon bi carbonate soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of olive oil
3 ripe bananas
1 cup pecans chopped (or I used walnuts as I had no pecans this time)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

METHOD

1. Drain juice from pineapple tin and put into a small pan and reduce it on a low heat until it becomes one cup
2. Pull or cut the pineapple flesh up and put aside in a bowl until later
3. In a bowl put flour, baking powder, cinnamon and bicarbonate soda
4. In a different bowl combine the sugar and eggs. Whisk them together. Add the oil, pineapple, pineapple juice, nuts and banana.  Mix through.
5. Combine the wet mixture with the dry and beat together.
6. Divide the mixture and pour into two tins.
7. You can make two cakes or a double decker cake depending on what you want.
8. Bake in a moderate oven until the knife is pulled from the middle of the cake clean and the cake is slightly brown. Takes about 45-50 minutes.

ICING

140 grams of butter
2 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250 grams of cream cheese
Nuts to decorate the top.

METHOD

Put all of the above ingredients into a food processor and mix until smooth and creamy. If you are making a double decker cake you might want to double the icing mixture to put it in between the layers. I find this amount will generously ice two cakes. Decorate the cake with nuts either pecans or walnuts.

I think this cake needs to be cooked a few time to find out if you would like more or less of the banana, pineapple and nuts.  A big thanks to my apprentice and her friend for their help, As usual our cake was eaten with people I love and a nice cup of tea . Thanks for stopping by ......... Eco Granny.

CHERRY PIE

Part of trying to live waste free is avoiding food waste. Realising that food takes a lot of resources to bring food to our tables. I think we take for granted that we just go and get the food we want. I often think about those people who do not have access to food and that their attitude towards the waste of food would be much different to ours. I heard Geraldine Cox (who runs an orphanage in Cambodia)  speak once and she told the story of one of the children who she brought to Australia for medical treatment. He could not believe that we did not want to eat fresh food when it was so readily available, he could not understand why you would willingly buy processed food. The other thing he said was he couldn't understand why we cooked more than we needed and had leftovers in our fridge. He thought that was wasteful. When I heard this story years ago it resonated with me. Long before my Eco journey I did think about food waste and how food is valued more by those who don't have it (naturally) and how we as a society just take it all for granted. Anyway with this all in mind, the cherries that were starting to go soft were taken out of the fridge and given a new lease of life in the form of  Cherry Pie.

CHERRY PIE

Waste - paper bags from flour and sugar and butter wrapping paper

Composted - Egg Shell and cherry pips

CHERRY PIE FILLING

600 grams of cherries

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons of cornflour

1/3 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

METHOD

1. Take all the pips out of the cherries

2. Place cherries, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice in a pan and cook until the cherries are soft and squishy.

3. Add the cornflour and stir and it thickens.

4. If it is thicker than you would like just add a bit of water until it is the consistency that you desire

5. Set aside to cool

PASTRY

1 1/3 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup of self raising flour

1/4 cup of custard powder or icing sugar or (I used organic plain flour as it has a sweet taste)

1/4 cup caster sugar

150grams of butter

2 tablespoons of iced water

1 egg

METHOD

1. Place all dry ingredients with butter in a food processor or bowl and mix through until the butter is      mixed through. Like fine breadcrumbs.

2.  Add the egg and the iced water and mix through

3. Put onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth 

4. Roll it and wrap it in a beeswax wrap and place in the fridge for up to 30minutes

5. Take out and divide into two. One bit larger than the other. 

6. Roll out and put into pie dish

7. Add the cherry mix

8. Roll out the other piece of pastry for the top. You can make a lattice top or a flat top depending on        what you like.

9. Use milk or egg and use a pastry brush to glaze over the top of the pastry. You can also sprinkle          sugar if  you like.

10. Bake in a moderate oven until the top is golden brown.

My mouth was actually watering as I took this photo and I can assure you it tasted as good as it looked. Thanks for stopping by .......  Eco Granny.

LENTIL SHEPPARDS PIE

This is a slight variation of the lentil lasagne. Some people don't eat pasta or its unavailable to them so this is an alternative for them. I wanted to eat a shepherd's pie but as I gave up meat I had to create an alternative. Its a nice winter meal when you are craving warm comfort food. Potato is very common making this an easy recipe for everyone. You can change the filling with whatever you have in season or whatever you need to cook up in your fridge. Its flexible and you can easily make it your own to suit your own tastes. This is one of my lazy meals that I make and can cook it up very quickly. It lasts well in the fridge for a couple of days ..... that's if the family stop eating it all the time!

LENTIL SHEPHERD'S PIE (disclaimer it contains no shepherd's!)
Waste - organic peels of onion and garlic
Tins - from lentils and tomatoes
Glass - sauce bottles
Plastic - cheese wrapping

LENTIL MIXTURE
1 large carrot
1 large zucchini
1/2 capsicum
1/2 large onion or 1 small onion
3 cloves of garlic or as many or few as you wish
handful of spinich
400 gram tin of cooked tomatoes or you could add 400 grams of freshly cooked tomatoes
400gram tin of lentils rinsed and drained or 240 grams of lentils that you have cooked yourself
1 tablespoon  of wortechsire sauce
1 tablespoon of tomatoe sauce
salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Add a dash of olive oil to a pan and when it warms add the onion and garlic cook until soft.
2. Add capsicum and stir for a few minutes
3. Put in all other ingredients and stir.
4. Taste test after a few minutes deciding if you would like to add more sauce or you are pleased with the taste.
5. When cooked put into the baking dish you want to use and set aside to cool.

TOPPING
Boil potatoes the number will depend on how wide your dish is. If I cook extra I just make another meal with them. But normally about five average sized potatoes will do the job. When cooked through mash them with a bit of butter and a splash of milk and a 1/2 cup of cheese.

METHOD TO COMPLETE

Spread over the top of the lentil mixture the mashed potato and then grate cheese of you would like. Put back into the oven and brown the top and heat through. You can make this meal in advance and heat and brown the top when you are ready to eat it.

This is a good hearty meal for hungry tummies. Its flexible so add whatever you have and whatever you like to eat. Make it your own. I hope you enjoy ........... thanks for stopping by ......  Eco Granny.

CARROT CAKE

I have cooked this carrot cake a few times now and it has not failed once. Therefore it is worthy of a blog. We have enjoyed it for afternoon tea with visitors and today I am taking it to my step mother's home as she has just had surgery for breast cancer. I wanted to take something nice as food always makes you feel a bit better. Life can be unpredictable and this situation just reminds me once again to enjoy every day and to value those you love. We can't always roam around doing exactly as we please but we can make our spare time count by doing things we love and being with those we love. So with that in mind bake this cake and share it and your time with your favourite people.

CARROT CAKE
Waste produced - organic to be ccomposted
Flour bags - paper biodegradable
Ingredients in glass such as vanilla, olive oil, cinnamon.
Honey from The Source is in a jar which I will clean and refill


1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 grated carrots
1/2 brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup olive oil

METHOD

1. Place all dry indgredients into a bowl including the carrot and walnut and stir through
2. Place all wet ingredients into another bowl and mix
3. Combine all together
4. Put into a cake tin and bake on a moderate oven until the cake is cooked through.
5. For cake novices the way to test if the cake is cooked is to poke through the middle of the cake with a skewer or knife and if it comes out clean or with crumbs on it then it's ready.

Icing for the top of the cake
 Combine 250 grams of cream cheese with 1/2 cup of icing sugar. Spread on the top of the cake once it has cooled. You can sprinkle some chopped up walnuts on the top to add extra crunch.

If you bake this cake share it with people who you love and those who love you back ....... thanks for stopping by ......... Eco Granny

LENTIL LASAGNE

This meal is a family favourite and even my brother who is an avid meat eater says its the best vegetarian meal he has ever tasted. I got this recipe from a friend and I have adjusted it slightly to suit our tastes. I cook this meal  about once a fortnight and we never get tired of eating it. It is the most requested meal that I cook. I have changed from tin lentils to raw lentils to avoid the packaging. If you are in a hurry and do not want to wait for the lentils to cook then use one tin of lentils. Drained and rinsed.

LENTIL LASAGNE  (recipe from my friend Sharon Marsh and cheese sauce recipe from Everyday Cookery by Helen Bunney)
Makes one family sized lasagne
Waste produced - plastic from cheese, paper bag for flour, tin from tomatoes, cardboard box for  pasta sheets. Glass jars from sauces. All other waste composted.

FILLING
400 Grams cooked whole green or brown lentils (1 tin)
800 Grams diced tomatoes (2 tins)
1 carrot
1 zucchini
Spinach as much or little as you would like (I use baby spinach as its more delicate. If you use large spinach chop it finely and take out all the white bits)
1 brown onion
two cloves of garlic
1/2 capsicum
tablespoon dried basil or a handful of fresh
2 heaped tablespoons tomato puree
A few splashes of soy sauce
A splodge of tomato sauce

METHOD

1. If using fresh lentils pre-cook them first.
2. Dice the onion and crush the garlic
3. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and add the garlic and onion and cook until tender.
4. Grate carrot and zucchini, chop the spinach and add to the saucepan along with all of the other ingredients.
5. Cook on a medium heat for about ten minutes.
6. Set aside to cool

CHEESE SAUCE

4 Tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of flour
600ml of milk
salt pepper
120grams of cheese

METHOD
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour
3. Return to the heat and cook, stirring for about a minute
4. Remove from heat and gradually add milk while stirring
5. Return to heat and cook on a medium to low heat until it thickens
6. Add the cheese and stir through until it has melted
7. Season with salt and pepper

METHOD TO COMPLETE
1. In a pie dish or baking dish put on the bottom a layer of pasta sheets
2. Pour over the top a layer of the filling
3. Add another layer of pasta sheets
4. Pour over the top a layer of cheese sauce
5. Add another layer of pasta
6. Add another layer of the filling
7. Add another layer of pasta
8. Pour over the final layer of cheese sauce
9. Grate cheese on the top and sprinkle some nutmeg over it
10. Cook in a moderate over until the the pasta sheets are soft  (test by putting a knife in) and the top is brown.

I hope you enjoy eating this as much as we all do ..... thanks for stopping by .... Eco Granny

BANANA CAKE

I cook ninety-five percent of our food from scratch and people often say to me that they don't have time to cook their food. The other day I cooked this banana cake and it took me less time to prepare it than it would to get into the car and drive to shop to buy one. Not to mention the fact that the cake purchased from the shop would have been wrapped in plastic. I think the whole cooking things yourself has become a mental block for some people who don't realise that is not that hard to create your own food from scratch. It took me ten minutes to make the cake mix and I used a food processor to mix it together. The time it took to actually bake was longer but I was sipping my tea while waiting for it to be ready to eat.

BANANA CAKE (recipe from Everyday Cookery by Helen Bunney)

Waste produced - organic waste was composted

Flour bag, sugar bag - (paper recyclable) 

Butter wrapping - not recyclable but re-usable (see blog of Gippslandunwrapped for this information)

6 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup of sugar

2 eggs

3 medium bananas (better if they are old and soft)

2 cups self raising flour

pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

2 tablespoons milk

METHOD

1. Beat butter and sugar to a cream

2. Add lightly beaten eggs

3. Peel and mash bananas and add to the mix

4. Sift flour and bicarbonate soda together

5. Fold in dry ingredients alternately with the milk to form a soft dough (I just sifted into the food processor add the milk and mixed it)

6. Spoon mixture into two greased and lined 18cm sandwich tin. (I put mine into my bread loaf baking tin)

7. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 to 30 mins

8. Cool on a wire rack 

9. When cold, fill with whipped cream and sprinkle to top with icing  sugar (didn't do this bit at all)

We enjoyed or banana cake on the back deck with a cup of tea and visits from our children ..... time taken to eat it .... about five minutes ..... and thanks for stopping by Eco Granny.

Classic Chocolate Chip Biscuits

The little boys were going on holidays so we got up early and made some biscuits for them to take on the long drive. We also made a batch for Granny to have for afternoon tea. The little boys love to help cook and I love teaching them. Henry is learning to crack eggs and while some of the shell has to be dished out of our mixture he is getting better and more confident with this new skill. George likes to tip the ingredients in the bowl. Their favourite part of this recipe was breaking up the chocolate into bits to put in the mix. Some on it did not make it into the bowl but did make it into their mouths. Lucky I brought extra. I try to get my chocolate from the bulk food store but as it is a bit of a drive from where we live I brought Lindt chocolate as it's wrapped in alfoil and cardboard both of which are able to be recycled. Once the biscuits were cooked we taste tested them before we packed the rest up for them to take on their holiday. I had my share with my daughter-in-law and granddaughter for afternoon tea.

CLASSIC CHOC CHIP BISCUIT (recipe from Better Homes and Garden magazine 08/17)
Makes 30 (depending on how big or small you make them)
Waste produced - chocolate wrapping - cardboard and alfoil  (recyclable)
Flour bag - paper (recyclable)

125 grams of melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 grams dark chocolate (we only used milk chocolate it was what we had in the cupboard)
100grams milk chocolate
100 grams white chocolate

METHOD

1. Pre heat oven to (160 fan forced or 180 conventional)

2. Put butter and sugars into a mixing bowl and combine 

3. Add egg and stir

4. Sift in flour, bi carb, and baking powder and mix well

5. Roughly chop the chocolate and add to the mixture. (you can keep some back to press in after you      have rolled the biscuits and before they go in the oven)

6. Roll dough into teaspoon sized balls and place on a tray about 5cm apart.

7. Gently flatten with a fork until they are about 1cm high

8. Bake for about 12-15 minutes 

9.  Remove from tray and allow to cook on rack

10. Eat .......... with a good cup of tea and a friendly face that you love .....

Try not to eat too many at once ........ we ate too many .... but they were so good .......  and thanks for stopping by Eco Granny.