Cheat's Moussaka

Here's another good hearty winter dinner recipe I picked up from this month's Real Living - Cheat's Moussaka. 

 via Real Living

My darling Yiayia would turn in her grave if she knew I was taking shortcuts making Moussaka - but hey if it means I can eat it more often I figure its worth it.

The "cheat" is that the bechamel sauce is actually made up of greek yoghurt, fetta cheese and egg.

I love me some fetta but I have to admit I was hesitant to how this would turn out.

Here's my lamb mince and sauce simmering away.

And to cut down the washing up I used the same pan for the eggplants.

The layering begins..

And here's the yoghurt/fetta sauce on the top layer with a sprinkle of parmesan.

And 30 minutes later - Hello golden brown deliciousness!

It was pretty tasty - definitely not as creamy as a true bechamel but certainly way quicker to make. I guess the yoghurt/fetta combo could possibly be more healthy also - but its probably a slighly more expensive option too.

My Uncle's Veggie Patch

At my Uncle's place on Friday I couldn't help taking a few snaps of his very productive veggie garden in a narrow bed down the side of his house.

The soft pretty purple eggplant flowers were so lovely!

I've never tried growing eggplants before but these were pretty inspiring

And like all good Italian veggie patched - a chilli bush!

This passionfruit flower was so amazing! We've got three passionfruit vines in the backyard - one on a side fence doing much better than the two in the shade growing on the chicken coop - but we've never had a single flower or fruit to date.

Maybe I should print out these photos and show them to our vines to give them a bit of a hint.