Potato and Pumpkin Bake

This afternoon has me in a bit of a "What to make for Dinner" funk, I should have gone shopping today also. I have put it off had a huge nap with Damon, I now have to be at work in 1.5 hours and now find myself stuck for ideas, really wanting a potato bake but have no cream or eggs. So I made one with some condensed mushroom soup out of the cupboard. 

Here is what I made: 

Potato and Pumpkin Bake

Ingredients (approximate, use what you have): 

3 medium potatoes

1/4 butternut Pumpkin (the seedy end)

1/4 - 1/2 Spanish Onion

1 Tin Campbells Mushroom Soup

Tasty Cheese grated (not sure how much I grated it as needed for each layer)

1/2 tin of milk

1 - 2T Cornflour

Parmesan Cheese, shaved 

Salt and pepper to taste. 

The making:

1. I used my mandolin type slicer it's one of those ones off the t.v. and sliced as I went so I wouldn't have and left over bits of vegies. I did them quite thin I think on number 2.
2. I also grated the cheese for each layer and the parmesan only went on top. 
3. Using my small square baking dish I layered potato, pumpkin and spanish onion.
4. I added a little salt and pepper and spread 1/3 of the tin of soup.
5. Grate some cheese and sprinkle on top of the soup. 
6. Then I repeated the above steps until I ran out of pumpkin. I did 3 layers. 
7. The top has the final bit of soup some more tasty cheese and a sprinkle (handful) of shredded parmesan.
8. I then half filled the soup tin with milk and added a bit of cornflour to hopefully thicken it a bit, and poured this over the top. 
9. Into the microwave for 2 bursts of 10 minutes on 80% power. 
10. Into the oven until brown on top and ENJOY:) 

All Plated Up with freezer fried rice and
random frozen vegies I found in the freezer:) 

Chicken, Mushroom and Chorizo Risotto

So tonight I made a yummy risotto. I had grand plans to take some pictures and put them up but of course my memory card in the camera won't work and the phone is taking blurry pictures:( 

So here it is and the best pics I have. I loosely base it on the recipe on the back of the Rivianna Aborio Rice packet. 

Chicken, Mushroom and Chorizo Risotto. 

I don't have the exact measurements but here goes:

2T Olive Oil

2T butter

1 large onion finely chopped

1/2  chorizo thinly sliced (mine was out of the freezer)

400g chopped chicken (freezer again) 

I think it was about 2 and a half cups of chopped mushrooms

a cup or so of white wine 

2 cups Aborio Rice

1- 1.5L chicken or Vegie stock (mine was out of the freezer)

1cup peas 

1/2 cup corn 

Parmesan cheese and knob butter to finish

So to make it :

1. Heat the stock 
2.  Melt the butter and oil, add the onion and chorizo with a touch of salt and pepper over a low to medium heat. Put the lid on and turn to low. I like to let this do it's thing for about 5 mins but I stir it every minute at least to stop it sticking.
3. Add the rice and stir for a minute making sure all the grains are nicely coated and kind of opaque.
4. Add the white wine to deglaze the pan and start the next 20 mins of stirring. 
5. When the wine is absorbed I start adding the stock 1cup at a time. 
6. After the first cup stock add the mushrooms and don't stop stirring:) 
7. When the stock is absorbed add the next cup and keep stirring, my arm gets sore in the middle:) lol
8. When there are only 1 - 2 cups of stock left I add the chopped chicken, peas and corn. 
9. When all the stock is added I put in the Parmesan and butter, give it a good stir and pop the lid on for a few minutes to make it super creamy:) 

The YUMMY finished product even the chicken hating 16 year old and 3 year old like:) 

Poor Heidi ate the bits of chicken thinking I would make her eat them but I normally pick them out of her finished meals:)