Jinie's Menu

I asked my friend Jinie to tell me what she would put on the menu at a YamDaisy Cafe.
This is important to me as I need to discover how people think and look at the concept for the food. Delicious, homestyle, seasonal food that the chef can manage throughout the day in the small kitchen with not much help!
The soup dish and one main is to be available for lunch and on through the day as long as it lasts, and the second main and fruit based dessert need to be available by mid afternoon. These meals can be take away also.

Jinie is someone who has managed on a low income for many years. Her first thought was on how to make a good meal with the cheapest ingredients. But what this made me realise is that for people on low incomes the costing is easy, think of the great meals you already cook! You can be confident they will be within the budget for the YamDaisy Cafe.

Jinie chose:

Potato and leek soup with crusty bread. Perfect for this time of year in Wintery Victoria. This is one of my favourite soups as it is so tasty and comforting.

Pasta Bake made with bolognaise sauce and with grated vegetables added. Hmm, I am confused My vegetarianism may be to blame, so I search the web and as far as I can work out, Jinies recipe is like lasagne with bolognaise sauce. This would be a great meal and easy to prepare. The sauce could be made the day before and be ready in the fridge, and dried pasta, rigatoni perhaps, would be used in this recipe. the added vegetables could be pieces of roasted root veggies. I would like to add some lightly dressed rocket leaves to the plate as their bite would complement the dish.

Veggie Slice with a side salad and sweet relish. I googled this one and discovered that most of the world thinks veggie slice is a slice of vegetarian pizza. No. It is more like a fittata, eggah or an Iranian Kuku. The most common recipe around here is the zucchini slice with about 5 eggs, lots of onion and grated zucchini and topped with cheese and baked. When Jinie makes it she adds whatever is to hand: sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, zucchini, capsicum and bacon. I would like the side salad to be soft lettuce and herbs with little extras like pine nuts and olives and the relish served in a little dish beside.

Rhubarb and Apple with creamy yoghurt. The truth is that we got sidetracked and I didn't get a fruit dessert from Jinie! But luckily (because I wanted to put a photo up) I had taken a picture of my yummy dessert last week, and this would be just lovely with Jinie's menu. I cooked the fruits separately and made the yoghurt extra creamy by draining it a little. (I would serve with the yoghurt on top I think)

So this is the first input I have for the YamDaisy menu. I would love some feedback and ofcourse I would love your ideas for a menu. Check out the menu page on my Yam Daisy Cafe website (which by the way I am updating, so any feedback on that will help me too!)