Uncategorized – Create You Coaching

Butternut Pasta Sauce

This one it absolutely amazing and we all enjoy it, too much really. It is finger licking delicious. It is a great way to get some added goodness into a pasta dish. Our twins love pasta, they seem almost Italian! You can add any veg you enjoy just fry it off and add to the pasta and sauce at the end, we use courgetti this time but mushroom, broccoli will work too.

Ingredients:

Pasta (half a bag makes enough for all of us)
½ Large Butternut, sweet potato works too	Mixed Herbs and Rosemary
1 onion	1-2 tbs Plain flour
Whole milk about a cup	Paprika
Cup of grated cheese or your choice	Pepper
1 Medium Courgette	Olive oil
Mushrooms if desired

Method:

Chop your vegetables into large chunks and drizzle with olive oil and herbs of choice to roast. I have a roast veg mix that is super tasty, it is from South Africa and I have not come across one here, but anything will do. Roast your butternut till cooked and delicious looking, the one we used was a bit young I think so didn’t have that deep orange but was tasty none the less.

While that is roasting fry your onion and the other vegetables you want to put in the dish, season to taste. Once the roasting the done remove the and place the roast vegetables in a container, add the milk and blend. This can be set aside until the evening when you are ready to cook.

Cook your pasta 15 minutes before you need the dish to be ready. While that is cooking put 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and the same of flour, mix it a bit and let the flour cook for a minute or so. Remove this from the heat and add your butternut and milk mixture while stirring. Once it is stirred in well return it to the heat and stir while it thickens, turn off the heat once it is the desired consistency. If it thickens too much add a bit more milk. Crack some pepper into the sauce.

Once removed from the heat add your cheese and stir until it is combined, it may be a bit stringy, but I don’t mind that. You can use cheddar or parmigiana and you can use less if you don’t want to add too much either, it is your dish. Once your pasta is cooked and drained you can add your sauce and fried vegetables to it and stir. I always have enough sauce to keep some for when I do not have time to cook and usually, I only cook the adult portion away the kids have gone to bed but everything is ready to go.

Finely sliced sundried tomatoes or crumbled feta will be nice on top. If you enjoy this recipe our Red Pepper Pasta is just as good.

Shrove Tuesday/ Flipping pancakes

The idea behind the entire concept is use everything in your cupboard so that it is bare for the Lent fasting. It is fine if you just like pancakes, you are not actually forced to fast if you partake.

In South Africa we like making pancakes a lot! When it’s cold, rainy weather, at church fetes or if your children just demand pancakes. We also don’t have sugar and lemon, don’t hate on me now please. We mix cinnamon and sugar and layer the pancakes covering them as you make them to melt the sugar and make a syrup. It’s amazing but I am still working on my husband who is British, don’t mess with a Brits tradition.

We also do savory as the pancakes make up the entire meal. Normally there is a cheese variety, you sprinkle the cheese in the pancake and roll them up as you make them, stack them so the cheese is melted and gooey. I couldn’t just give my babies cheese and sugar, right? So I made a few for them with a few more food groups.

Follow the mince pancake:

Ingredients: For quantities go on your own palate or that of your children

Pork mince (use any you like here Beef, chicken, turkey, it matters not we just adding protein)
Onion finely chopped ( small cubs not minced)
Coriander seeds and/ or ground cumin
Graham masala
Dijon mustard
Frozen peas, defrost or microwave for 2 minutes

Method:

In a pan toast the coriander seeds and bash in a pestle and mortar
Add some cooking oil of your preference, we use olive oil for this and fry off your onions
You can add finely chopped carrots, peppers or mushrooms here if you desire, we are keeping it simple
Now add your spices and fry for 1 minute or less till fragrant, add your mince and brown
Put a teaspoon of mustard and stir
Lastly add your peas, I like to squash mine, so they digest easier
Season with pepper, I do not add salt to their meals

I made our pancake batter earlier while the children were napping and just added the vinegar and baking powder 25minutes before cooking and left the mixture out the fridge.

Once you have flipped the pancake and it looks well cooked flip it back as the first side should be on the outside (this step is not needed just how I was taught). Sprinkle your cheese and then mince mixture and a few peas if you didn’t add them before. Now slide the pancake onto kitchen roll and roll up by hand.

A tasty alternative is to mash roasted butternut or sweet potato and layer that with cheese and roll up. I am sure everyone will love it not just the babies.

About us

It has been on my mind for a while to start this blog; the time is now. I became a mom of two amazing babies, Aria and Austin, and that really made me realize I wanted to share my experience of this crazy thing we call life. As the title suggests I’m doing what comes naturally and it may not always be perfect to everyone but it is perfect for me and my family.

My interests have always been varied and the blog will testify to this, everything from food, exercise and now parenting. The latter being the least predictable experience to date. I hope to share things that work and others that don’t, good days and bad days and how I make this work for me and my family. Because on the days that don’t go to plan and you feel alone, woman (and men) should know you are not, we are all part of the same big world.