I was up and at ’em after preschool drop off before the cafes at Westfield even had a chance to stretch and get dressed ahead of the day’s business.
Unfortunately, that pudding is still a unicorn to me. Which makes me want it even harder. I’ve been to all three Coles already in my local area to no avail. I do hope they return to the shelves soon. It’s not even December yet and you can’t be running out of a Christmas bestseller this early in the piece.
I did, however, find this Lamington Sponge pudding which I can see msyelf eating for Christmas breakfast with a mimosa or several… All the major food groups covered right there.
The Aldi at Eastgardens will be closing for renovations soon so it was just as well I got in today for some Christmas supplies. Instagram tells me that this fancy Black Forest Stollen ($9.99 AUD) is not as nice as the regular, no-frills version that Aldi also stocks so don’t be like me and get seduced by those glace cherries. Fortunately, the Luxury Fudge ($5.49 AUD) is highly rated.
A critical shortage of work chocolate was also addressed at Aldi and my haul has gone straight into my work bag to make sure I don’t leave it all behind in the mad rush out the door tomorrow morning.
I’ve actually spent most of today being proactive about that rush out the door in the morning. I’ve been in the kitchen whipping up batches of things that work well reheated for breakfast and lunch during the week. These are both Cookie and Kate recipes, by the way. That’s the Blueberry Baked Oats above and the Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserole below.
I’ve tweaked the enchilada casserole recipe to suit my taste for something spicier. I also found the recipe as it reads ended up a bit dry for me so I used two bottles of salsa instead of one.
Mission makes a black bean and chipotle salsa which I highly recommend because it does give the casserole a richer and smokier flavour. Kate does suggest a similar option in her recipe but the brands she refers to aren’t readily available here in Australia. I found both my salsas at Coles. I also added a few teaspoons of Sriracha and some barbecue sauce to the combined salsas.
Another useful hack is Gourmet Garden’s lightly dried coriander. I added a good 2/3 of the packet to the salsa.
To serve, I had some sour cream and extra spinach leaves on the side.
I’ve made the switch to glass containers over plastic for lunch and as with many things related to food storage, you get what you pay for. I initally balked at the $11 – 13 AUD that Decor and Pyrex cost so I went round to MINISO and found a square container for $7.
The problem is that MINISO’s version features plastic lids that don’t actually seal when closed so you’re committed to making sure the container stays perfectly upright at all times.. or else.
The MINISO container looks like it’ll have to stay home in the fridge but my Decor and Pyrex ones are all good to go for this week’s work lunches.
Do you bring lunch into work? Are you a glass container fan? Which do you use?