Smoky BBQ Pork Ribs

These smoky pork ribs were a seriously delicious dinner! I actually made these for Fathers' Day way back at the start of September and then with the move forgot to post them. Now there are probably thousands of rib recipes out there and I must have looked at dozens before deciding to just wing it and make something up myself. I didn't want anything too spicy and I didn't want to buy weird ingredients like liquid smoke.

While I'm all for making things from scratch I did use bought sauces for this, namely the Fountain Good Choice tomato and barbecue sauces which I reviewed earlier this year.

I wasn't able to find the American style ribs anywhere (admittedly I left it until the last minute!) so used these Aussie pork spare ribs instead and they worked just as well.

The cooking is done in three stages. First they are left to marinate in the fridge overnight which starts to tenderise the meat, then they are baked in the oven and lastly they are grilled and basted with marinade which makes them charred, sticky and luscious. So good!

I served the ribs with coleslaw, avocado, homemade potato wedges and corn on the cob. Hubby and kids all loved it and there lots of sticky smiles and licked fingers.

Remember to start this recipe a day ahead!

Smoky BBQ Pork Ribs

1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coconut sugar
4 cloves garlic
2 ts smoked paprika
2 ts mustard powder
salt and pepper to taste

1.5 kg pork spare ribs

Combine all marinade ingredients in a large dish and combine well. Add the pork and mix well, massaging the sauce into the meat. Cover the dish with 2 layers of plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius, Line a large baking dish with foil and place a rack on top. Lay out the ribs on the rack, reserving the marinade, season with salt and pepper and cover with foil.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours, turning and basting with marinade every 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile tip the remaining marinade into a small pot and bring to the boil for a few minutes, until it has reduced and thickened.

Increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees. Remove the cover from the ribs, brush with extra marinade and bake for another half an hour, turning and basting again halfway OR cook the ribs on a barbecue grill over a flame, turning and basting every 5 minutes or so (this will give best results!).

Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves 4

Back to school baking

The last 2 weeks have flown by and here we are on the official last day of the holidays. Which means there are only 10 weeks until Oscar has finished grade 1 and Charlie has finished kindy and then it will be Christmas! Wow. So much to do before then though which is why I made a kickstart today with a marathon of baking.

Today I made:
1 x big batch Chocolate Granola
1 x Banana Bread
1 x Grain free Banana Cupcakes
1 x Almond and Chia Protein Bliss Balls
2 x Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I find having a stash like this in the freezer makes life so much easier. I can quickly grab something sweet to pop in lunchboxes for a treat, there is always something for afternoon tea even if we are home late and I can take a snack for myself if I am going to be out and about (saves buying something!).

Only half the banana bread actually made it to the freezer though as it smelt so good while it was baking and the kids needed morning tea so lucky things enjoyed it still warm with lots of butter (delicious!).

Then later I also prepped some savoury meals to help with lunch and dinners. The back to school routine is always a bit of a shock to our systems and I find dinner ends up getting pushed back later and later which then affects bedtime. So I love having dinners either completely prepared ahead of time, in the slow cooker or half-prepped because it just saves so much time.

For lunch today I cooked some chipolata sausages and saved 6 for Oscar's school lunches. My tip is to always separate out the leftovers you want to keep first before you dish up the meal because that way it's there ready to go and doesn't mysteriously get eaten!

Next I made a huge double batch of meatballs using 1 kg of beef mince, a tin of mixed beans and loads of veggies and herbs. Shape them into balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper and then pop them straight into the freezer (seal them in a bag once they are frozen). We will have some for dinner tonight, have leftovers for hubby and the boys lunches tomorrow and then still have another full dinner's worth in the freezer for another night. I like to bake my meatballs as it lets me cook the whole batch at once and saves on the mess.

Anyone else doing some back to school baking? Do you have any tips for make-ahead cooking and baking?

Apple Pie Cookies (SRC)

What a month it's been! We moved into our new house exactly 2 weeks ago and while we still have a few boxes around, it's feeling more and more like home. I love our new oven and induction cooktop but as we don't have an induction suitable frypan it has made cooking dinner a little challenging.

But today of course is all about the Secret Recipe Club, a dedicated band of bloggers who are assigned a blog each month to secretly peruse and cook from, with everyone posting their recipes on the same day. Today is reveal day for group D.

This month I was assigned The Spiffy Cookie by Erin. In a funny coincidence she had my blog just last month! Erin has a PhD in microbiology (just like my husband), loves the combination of peanut butter and chocolate and her favourite meal is dessert.  I know I say it every time but I was really spoilt for choice when it came to recipes.

Erin recently did a round-up of her top 10 peanut butter and chocolate recipes which included a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake that had me drooling over the computer!

Her Steel Cut Oatmeal with Bananas and Cobbler Topping looks like just the thing to pimp up our regular porridge and her Spiced Pear Smoothie sounds delicious. To round out breakfast how about baked eggs with a crispy hash brown crust?

We had most of a box of apples to use up though so I started searching for apple recipes and came up with some beauties like Homemade Apple Jelly, Apple Walnut Pancakes and just last week this Apple Pecan Praline Bread. One that really jumped out at me though were these Apple Pie Cookies which were just so cute! All the best bits of apple pie but in cookie form which I knew my kids would love. Genius right?!

I played around with a few ingredients to suit our dietary requirements but I think these are pretty close to the original and they were AMAZING. Apple pie is one of my favourite things but I don't tend to make it very often. These little cookies had all the same flavours and were exactly like mini apple pies. The recipe made 24 and they were gone in a day. As you can tell it was very hard to stop at just one!

Apple Pie Cookies
Adapted from Dorothy Kern's Dessert Mashups via The Spiffy Cookie

Base:
100 g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 cup spelt flour
1 egg
2 tbs coconut sugar
1 ts vanilla extract

Filling:
5 granny smith apples (peeled, cored and finely diced)
1/3 cup water
1 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts ground cloves
1 tbs coconut sugar
1 tbs spelt flour

In a large bowl cream together the butter and coconut sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Fold through the flour and almond meal until incorporated into a thick dough. Spoon the mixture onto plastic wrap, wrap well and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the apples. Peel, core and finely dice the apples. Place in a medium pan with 1/3 cup water and the spices and cook over low-medium heat until just tender. Drain and place into a heat proof bowl. Sprinkle over the coconut sugar and flour and mix well.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 x 12 hole mini muffin pans.

Place a tablespoon of dough into each muffin hole and press over the base and sides creating an indent for the filling. Spoon a teaspoon of apple filling into each cookie.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out and dusting with icing sugar. Delicious warm from the oven.

Makes 24 cookies

Thanks for a great month Erin! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

My favourite green smoothie

Wow where has the past week gone?? In a whirlwind of boxes and newspaper and mess, that's where!

We are slowly settling into our new home. It's school holidays now which is such a welcome relief. I think we were late for school nearly every day last week and I even forgot free dress day on the last day of term and had to do a quick trip home for a change of clothes for Oscar so he wasn't the only one in his class wearing his school uniform. Oops!

Most of our kitchen things are unpacked now and I'm getting back into cooking and baking but mornings are still rushed. This green smoothie has been an absolute saviour this past week when I haven't had time to sit down for breakfast. It is my all time favourite combination of flavours and is packed full of nutrients to keep you going for hours.

My kids love this one and luckily they are completely OK with green drinks. If yours aren't I do have a trick to help with that! We use glass mason jars with a handle and lid for smoothies and as our glasses are green, the kids have no idea what the drink actually looks like! They just love the taste and the creaminess and happily down the lot with no complaints.

(I will take a photo of our glasses so you can see what I'm talking about in the morning!)

If you're not sold on the whole green smoothie thing this one may change your mind. 

My Favourite Green Smoothie

1 cup rice milk
1 frozen banana, chopped into rounds
really big handful baby spinach
1 heaped teaspoon chia seeds
1 heaped teaspoon flaxseed meal
1/4 large avocado (or 1/2 a small one)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Place all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend for 1 minute (TMX 1 min / SP 9).

Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Healthy chocolate crackle slice

Snacks, snacks snacks! That's what we seem be needing a lot of lately. I guess moving really does work up an appetite!

And today is moving day! As you read this the truck will already be here loading our things and getting us ready to start our new family life in our new home.

For anyone who grew up in Australia you will be very familiar with the chocolate crackle, which featured at every birthday party and school fete as a kid.

These are a far healthier version from the Naughty Naturopath Mum who calls them anti-LCM bars. I have to admit my kids have never eaten an LCM and would have no idea what they are (yay!) so I just called it a chocolate rice bubble slice for them.

We don't usually buy rice bubbles either but half a bag came home with them from their sleepover down the coast in the holidays and frugal me didn't want to throw them, but also didn't want them to just eat it for breakfast because they would be starving again in 5 minutes.

These were SOOOO delicious. Chocolatey, caramelly, crispy and chewy and just plain good. Still a treat but one you can definitely feel good about.

Healthy Chocolate Crackle Slice or Anti-LCM Bars
From the Naughty Naturopath Mum

4 cups rice bubbles (puffed rice from the health food shop is better!)
2 cups desiccated coconut (check that it is preservative free)
1 cup rice malt syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup raw cacao
pinch salt

Grease and line a slice pan with baking paper.

Place all dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together.

In a small pan over medium heat, place the rice malt syrup and coconut oil and warm gently until it is smooth and only just starting to bubble. Pour immediately over the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and press down well, smoothing the top as you go.

Store in the fridge and slice into bars when ready to serve (you can't store this out of the fridge as the coconut oil will start to melt as it warms up).

Makes lots.

Enjoy!