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Freshly Blogged

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For those of you who do not know I have entered the PicknPay, Freshly Blogged competition. PicknPay and Fresh Living magazine, in association with Knorr and Spekko, have invited South Africa’s top food bloggers to blog their way to stardom, win incredible prizes and have the chance of seeing their recipes featured in Fresh Living Magazine!

Each week we, the bloggers, receive a new culinary challenge, which contains a list of ingredients and a few specifications. The challenge is to create a delicious recipe, cook, photograph and post the recipe on the Freshly Blogged Website. This is where you come in, you need to check out the fab recipes and vote for your favourite {which is hopefully mine ;)} There are weekly prizes up for grabs for both bloggers and you the public!

You can vote every week – simply click on the recipe and click the green “Vote for this recipe” button at the top of the page to participate. Plus, you could WIN one of the weekly voter prizes. 

I will also be featuring my recipes on my foodie website “a beautiful life”.

FAR Photography, Food, Healthy Eating, Recipes

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Knowing how to make Homemade Tomato Sauce, is a great basic recipe to have in your cooking repertoire! You can use it as a base for so many delicious recipes. It is also something you can make in advance and either store in the fridge or freezer until you need it. You can blend the Tomato Sauce after cooking and use it as an alternative to store-bought tomato sauce.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Homemade Tomato Sauce

This recipe for my Fresh Homemade Tomato Sauce will make quite a large quantity, which is perfect to store for later use. You can use it on homemade pizza or when preparing a quick easy weekday pasta dish. I have used chilli’s in this recipe but if you would like to make it suitable for small children, simply leave them out.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Ingredients for the Fresh Tomato Sauce

  • 1 tin large plumb tomatoes in their juice (or 2 smaller tins)
  • 15ml tomato paste
  • 2 -3 garlic cloves(crushed or finely chopped)
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh or dried oregano (If fresh then chop finely)
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh or dried basil (If fresh then chop finely)
  • 2 tsp. chilli paste or 2 small chilli’s (chopped finely)
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • A splash of balsamic vinegar

In a large saucepan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and then add your garlic, chilli and herbs; sauté over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Then add the tin of whole tomatoes to the pan and cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. You can begin to break up the tomatoes now, then add the sugar, tomato paste, salt & pepper, balsamic vinegar and stir to combine. Continue simmering for a further 20-30 minutes to soften the tomatoes and reduce the liquid. Once you are happy with the consistency remove from the heat and set aside.

Homemade-Tomato-Sauce Recipe

Once the tomato sauce has cooled you can pour it into either glasses bottles or jars for storing in the fridge or into freezer proof containers and place in the freezer. This sauce will store for up to 2 weeks in the fridge and 2-3 months in the freezer.

For more food inspiration and delicious ideas visit our Recipes Page and follow Inspired Living on Instagram.

Cape Town Lifestyle, Entertaining, FAR Photography, Food, Lifestyle, Recipes

Daily Dish

Last week a bespoke box of a different sort was delivered to my door. Daily Dish is a new on-line service which offers clients the unique service of menu planning, ingredient sourcing and home delivery! Imagine my intrigue when I was offered an opportunity to try out their service. Being an avid cook myself but often plagued by the frustration of not having time to shop on the spur of the moment or not being able to source the necessary ingredients, it was certainly something I was excited to experience.

At Daily Dish, we’re not chefs (or foodies). We were just so frustrated with the last-minute dash around the crowded supermarket after work and bored with the same old meals and sad take-outs every week that we decided to do something about it. So we hunted around for a service that would deliver either fresh ingredients or home cooked meals. On-line ingredient shopping turned out to be a nightmare and “home-cooked meals” looked worse than boarding school fare. ~Daily Dish

My first step was to log on to the Daily Dish website and select my recipe of choice to try; I chose a Sirloin Stir-fry. All that was left to do was to select a day and time for delivery – how simple. My delivery arrived promptly at 3pm last Tuesday in an elegant black box, filled with all the ingredients necessary for me to create the Stir Fry recipe.

I was really impressed with the quality of the ingredients and the fact that items are measured out, which helps prevent waste. All I had to do now was read the recipe and get cooking.

We change the menu every week so you don’t get bored. And we spend loads of time researching and test cooking new dishes to make sure they meet our strict requirement to deliver amazingly tasty dishes in under 30 minutes. Vegetarian options always available. ~ Daily Dish

The recipe was easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions; even the most inexperienced cook would be able to pull it off. Everyone in the family loved the flavours in the dish and it was wonderful to create something different from my normal repertoire.

I think this service is an excellent idea for anyone who enjoys cooking and eating good food but does not always have the time to plan and shop, especially if you feel like whipping up something unique on the spur of the moment. It is also perfect for entertaining and the fact that it is delivered to your door is super convenient.

You can choose from the selection of available dishes on the Daily Dish website and you are able to order up to 3 dishes at a time. Place your order online before 10am Monday to Friday and they will deliver it to you after 6pm on the same day. Daily Dish currently delivers in the greater Cape Town area: City Bowl, Atlantic Seaboard and Southern Suburbs, including Tokai, Westlake and Steenberg.

Images: ©FAR Photography

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