The Outback Expat

  • HOME
  • About Me
  • How to Follow Me

Cookery Cheats

February 7, 2018 by Vicky Leave a Comment

I am quite enjoying cooking and coming up with new recipes.

I’ve also been trying to come up with some things to make cooking easier or quicker, especially after working all day.

A few things I do to make cooking easier are:

1) I use onions, capsicum and mushrooms as the base as a lot of recipes. When I get my shopping delivered I will chop up the capsicum (pepper) and onions and mix them with mushrooms (I buy them pre-chopped) and store them in sealable bags in the freezer. One capsicum, onion and 200g of mushrooms is enough for 4 – 5 meals for the Aussie and I so will last a couple of weeks. I usually get a bag out of the freezer when I’m cooking and it saves a lot of time.

2) Another “cheat” I use is to buy garlic, chilli and ginger paste from the supermarket. I know the fresh ingredients are the better choice but the jar versions are always really tasty and last for weeks making it super quick and easy to add them to dishes.

3) I also buy meats like chicken breasts, sausages, minced beef and sandwich steak for our meals. They usually come in packs which are to big for two people to have in one meal. I will chop up the chicken breast and sandwich steak and then split it between bags to put in the freezer. When I need the meat for my meals I will defrost them in the morning and then it is just a case of getting the ingredients ready for dinner.

What things do you do in the kitchen to save time.

My Favourite Photos from January 2015

February 10, 2015 by Vicky 3 Comments

Last month I posted my favourite photos from 2014 and in honour of that “tradition” I thought I would share my favourite photos from the last month below.

It seems that my January was a fairly food orientated month with some new recipes tested and also a few dinners out with the Aussie and friends. Mind you still not a terrible way to spend what was otherwise a hectic working month for me!

Here are my favourite photos from January 2015

January 2015 Outback Expat Faves

From L-R top row
1. First time trying an espresso martini at Chow Darwin whilst having dinner with some lovely girlies in Darwin. Pretty yum cocktail but made much better in my opinion by the ice cream float you added I think!

2. Christening our new BBQ with the most amazing marinade lamb chops I have ever made. I will share the recipe next time I make them!

3. Experimental fish pie made with salmon and cod from scratch including the white sauce. It was pretty much amazing. I was worried the Aussie wouldn’t like it as I wanted to make it again and luckily he did.

4 Home made Banana loaf made with local bananas. The recipe is here if you fancy giving it a try.

5.Pad Thai at Chow again. I only recently tried this dish for the first time and love it, it’s so tasty and Chow always make sure they don’t add the prawns because I am allergic to prawns. So delicious.

6. Student diary purchased and ready for starting studying in less than a months time! Also purple which is amazing!

7. I think I went a bit photo (aka cocktail crazy in Chow) as this is a Mango Crushie with vodka that tasted just like mango juice. Too easy to drink. I also tried the Ka Pow number 1 at Chow which was pretty special and very gingery which I love.

8. Penguin ornaments. I am a teeny bit of a penguin fan as you know and for Christmas my best friends from my home town in the UK sent me the penguin ornament on the left which has a map of Antarctica on it which I love. After posting a picture of it they realised I had been sent the wrong map and arranged for the correct one with a map of Somerset where I am from in the UK, on it and now I have a gorgeous pair.

9. FaceTiming with my dog Henry. I miss him like crazy and more often than not when he see’s or hears me on FaceTime he turns the other way but here we are both led down having a chat. Love my boy and can’t wait to see him at Christmas.

10. Fiddlers Green in Darwin a pretty nice and extremely reasonably priced restaurant/pub I visited with my friend, her partner and their little boy with on Australia Day for lunch before dashing off to the Movies to watch the Imitation Game which was a very cool film. Of course where else would you celebrate Australia Day than visiting an Irish restaurant!

There is my January in photos! What did you get up to?

Ice Cream Days

May 24, 2014 by Vicky 4 Comments

It seems like it’s been a busy week but we haven’t done too much really and now we have a whole weekend with no plans which is pretty nice as we haven’t been home on the weekend for probably a month or longer. I’ve bought the food we will need for dinner so don’t really even need to go out unless it gets too hot and I feel the need for some air conditioning which is always a possibility.

Between working which has been hectic for both of us it’s been a dinner and ice cream sort of week though which is always fun (but expensive).

Somehow we ended up going out for dinner a few times. Monday night might have been due to my comment that I can’t be bothered to cook tonight and the Aussie claims he cannot cook, but I blame the 4am start for that one as we drop the Aussie’s brother off at the airport on a Monday morning for 6am so by the time I finish work all I want is to sleep sometimes. The rest of the week, not my fault!

We went to a restaurant in Palmerston on Monday called the Hogs Breath Cafe and the food in there is always pretty good with amazing steaks, it’s on the must visit list when my family gets here.

On Tuesday we went to a really nice Italian restaurant called Salvatores Cafe in Darwin City. I like it here because the Chef always comes out to check the food is good and will talk to you about how he cooks it or how much he loves creating the food. We’ve been here before and I learnt then to order an entree portion of pasta as the main course is huge! I had a gorgeous salmon pasta and I am going to have a go at re-making it this weekend for us. The Aussie had a very nice looking steak as well.

They also have really good looking desserts but we popped to an ice cream shop around the corner called Trampoline Gelato, I had a passion fruit and Eton mess tub which was very very good. I can highly recommend this shop!

Trampoline Ice Cream

Thursday we had to pick the Aussie’s brother up from the airport at 8:30 so headed to Stokes Hill Wharf which has great views of the city and out to sea as well as a good selection of shop/stalls where you can buy dinner. There are usually pretty good fish and chips available there which we opted for and of course we had some ice cream after, purely to fill the time before we had to go to the airport of course.

View from Stokes Hill Wharf Darwin
View from Stokes Hill Whard

Finally on Friday I had dinner with a couple of friends at a restaurant called Nirvana whilst the Aussie went for a drink at our favourite Friday night spot, Dinah Beach. I’ve never been to Nirvana before and we decided to choose 3 different dishes (butter chicken, Malaysian sauteed beef and Thai Beef Mussaman so we could all have a bit of each and it was such a delicious meal. I didn’t take any photos as the food was too nice and the chatting non stop.

They also had live music during dinner which was good although we were chatting so much we forgot to clap a lot!

We decided that it would be a good idea to FaceTime my Mum at dinner so my friends could meet her. Unfortunately she wasn’t available so we called my brother as well which was funny and he owes us a drink now I think! I am really looking forward to everyone meeting when my family arrive in 29 days!

Raw Comedy and Some History

March 23, 2014 by Vicky Leave a Comment

A lovely quiet if not extremely hot weekend this weekend with a few outings to the big city!

The temperature has been rising and it’s been extremely hot and humid with not much of a let up. This means it’s super steamy outside and inside if you have no air con like we don’t and so heading to the movies or theatre where they have very good air con is always appealing!

The Aussie came home from work yesterday afternoon and mentioned that there was a comedy event on in Darwin that he heard would be good. I spent a few minutes searching on Google and discovered it was an event called Raw Comedy and it was an open mic night where 14 amateur comedians would be competing for the chance to go to the final in Melbourne with the overall prize of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

photo 1

As expected some of the acts were very very good with good stories, comic timing and the ability to make you roar with laughter. Some were a bit cringeworthy BUT they had the guts to give it a go and I really admire that strength as I absolutely hate public speaking and get so nervous its ridiculous.

I really enjoyed the night and laughed a lot which is of course good for you!

Today the Aussie was due to go racing in the sailing race at one of the yacht clubs but didn’t feel well enough. We decided to book some tickets to go and see the film Pompeii which has just been released and has the lovely Kit Harrington from Game of Thrones in it.

Everyone knows the story of Pompeii and the film was very well made with extremely realistic effects but because we know how the story goes they threw in the usual forbidden love kind of story which kept it flowing well and kept your interest.

We watched the 3D version and the Aussie said the effects for that weren’t bad although he has seen better (I cannot comment on the 3D as for some reason my eyes never see the 3D bits but I have to wear the glasses or the split screen/colour thing will give me a headache).

It was a good film for a Sunday afternoon if not a but violent and graphic in places which is never my thing.

We finished our Sunday off by popping to our local pub for dinner and I had a very tasty roast dinner. I miss my Mum’s roast dinners a lot and whilst those at the pub are not as good they will do until my Mum can cook one for me đŸ˜‰

photo 2

Next Page »

About Me!

My name is Vicky and I am a Lawyer from the UK who upped sticks and moved to the Northern Territory in Australia in August 2013!

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
Load More…Follow on Instagram

Follow me on Twitter

Tweets by @Outback_expat

Blogs & Websites I Love

Here are a selection of blogs and websites I follow and love.

Emerald and Jade Lifestyle

IntheNT 

Rhyme & Ribbons

Sailing with Emma Ward

Webme

Recent Posts

  • Six by Four
  • Easter 2019
  • What I have been Eating – Part 1
  • My March Faves & Things I have loved in March 2019
  • Happy Easter

Search

Categories

  • 101 Goals in 1001 Days
  • 40 Before 40
  • ABC of the Seasons
  • Aussie life
  • Blogmas
  • Brisbane Park Run Tour
  • Currently
  • England and Australia
  • Events
  • Exploring Brisbane
  • Getting Fit and Healthy
  • Goodread Reading Challenge
  • Grateful Heart Monday
  • Monthly Faves
  • Northern Territory Travels
  • Outback Cookery Experimentation's
  • Silent Sunday
  • Studying and Exams
  • Things I have Loved
  • Throwback Travel Thursday
  • Travel Blog Tribe
  • Visa

Recent Posts

  • Six by Four
  • Easter 2019
  • What I have been Eating – Part 1
  • My March Faves & Things I have loved in March 2019
  • Happy Easter

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Supported and Maintained by Webme.     Contact us for your next web project

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy