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Being held captive by my children and my cat

March 19, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, News · Tagged family, feeding the family, photography, recipe

The other day I was gripped by procrastination so profound that no amount of cookbook-page-flipping or sitting-in-the-sun could satisfy it. Turning to the obvious procrastination aid (the computer), I found myself editing & ~~deleting~~ cataloging through obscene amounts of photos of meatballs, salads, pasta etc etc. Who knew it could take so many attempts before I get a shot that I’m happy with.

More alarming was that amongst the myriad food shots were an astonishingly large amount of photos of my cat. Asleep.

I never wanted a cat. I objected strongly to acquiring the critter and only did under intense emotional duress from the rest of my family. I’ve cursed him as I’ve cleaned up his poo off my kilim rug, I’ve tried not to cry as I’ve watched him bat a mouse around until it died and I’ve been scratched until bleeding by his sharp claws. Little bastard. So I was more than a bit surprised to see photographic proof that I’ve somehow evolved into a crazy cat lady.

It occurred to me that the internet just doesn’t have enough photos of cats so I thought I’d share.

On chairs, in a hat, under a blankie, stretched out…

Weird, isn’t it. This is just a sample of the photos I had. But there’s something about the little sleeping creature that makes me all tender. Just like when the kids would finally collapse, exhausted after a day of screeching and wailing and I’d sneak into their rooms and just stare at their little perfect faces and MARVEL at how amazing my life was. How LUCKY I was to care for such angels. All the pains of the day would be instantly forgotten.

Then they’d wake up 3 hours later (about 20 minutes after I’d drifted off) and I’d be back to wanting to kill them.

Stockholm syndrome, I think. Falling in love with your captors.

Sifting through the photos though, I was pleased to see that my food photography skills are coming along. I don’t always get it right, but I do like these ones…

There’s no simpler joy than a perfect pikelet.

Food on sticks is always a winner.

The grooviest cake in town!

vegie smugglers beef triangles with vegetables and puff pastry

Yum.

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A meal plan with a challenge

March 17, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged meal plan, recipe, vegetarian

It’s a special meal plan this week, in support of ‘Meat-Free Week‘ – a great initiative that is trying to get us to rethink the amount of meat that we all eat. As they say, ” Meat Free Week is not about promoting vegetarianism or veganism, but instead encouraging rational conversation around meat consumption and production. ”

You can register on their website and pledge to go meat-free from March 18-24.

To help you out with it, here’s a meal plan full of delicious vegetarian dishes from both me and some of my favourite blogs.

Sunday

Lentil burgers.

Monday

Vegie quesadillas

Tuesday

A quick pesto pasta salad.

Wednesday

I love the look of this coconut & vegetable biriyani at Natural New Age Mum.

Thursday

vegie smugglers pumpkin and lentil soup recipe

Pumpkin, corn & lentil soup.

Friday

I’m going to relax and have mamacino’s baked eggs and avocado toasts

Or you could try Gluten free pasta with pumpkin, corn, red capsicum and zucchini from Feeding two growing boys.

or there’s a page of awesome stuff here from the lovely Bek Mugridge. I love the look of the tempeh balls and the nut loaf.

For me, eating meat-free from time to time means that I can lessen my impact on the environment, and then, a couple of times a week I can afford to buy better quality meat that I really enjoy. Good luck!

PS, if you’re a blogger with a fabulous vegetarian recipe that we should all know about, make sure you link up to it below.

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How to smuggle vegies at breakfast

March 14, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged breakfast, feeding the family, ideas, parenting, recipe, vegetables

At what stage in the day do your kids start eating vegetables?

If they have cereal and toast for breakfast, then a lunchbox of sandwiches and fruit, it’s quite possible that no vegies pass their lips until late afternoon.

The current Australian government guidelines suggest that a five year old child should be eating 3-4 serves of vegetables a day. Which is quite a lot. (BTW – If you don’t know what a serving size looks like, there’s a really handy visual guide in the beginning of a fabulous book called Vegie Smugglers 2.)

To have a chance of hitting that quota, it’s a great idea to start sneaking the healthy stuff in in as early in the day as possible before tiredness turns your little angels into grouchy and disagreeable monsters (or perhaps that’s just my kids).

Sneaking in some vegies at breakfast isn’t as hard as it sounds. You can make the breakfast burrito recipe from Vegie Smugglers 1. Or you can do a little baked egg dish with capsicums and eggplant. Pop a bit of corn in scrambled eggs. For a quickie, just put some avocado & tomato on toast. Or maybe you want to whip up a green smoothie.

They are my latest addiction. I used to come home from school drop offs needing tea and toast, but I’ve replaced that habit with one of these smoothies and find they fill me up and give me an energy boost in the middle of the day.

There are stacks of recipes for them, but this is my current favourite. I find for my kids to enjoy them, I need to load it up with frozen banana. Like the ice cream I made recently, using the frozen bananas gives them a real ‘thick shake’ texture that the kids can’t resist. And I find serving them up in a pretty cup never goes astray.

Oh la la! This is the fancy cocktail version (avec trashie).

Green smoothies

1/2 cup firmly packed spinach leaves
1/2 cup pineapple pieces
1 frozen banana, peeled, sliced
1/2-3/4 cup rice milk (you need a watery milk, so skim would work, but full fat isn’t so nice)
1 tsp white chia seeds

For an added kick, I also pop in 1 tbsp Nutra Organics super greens & reds food powder (click my affiliate link below to check out all their products).

I put everything in a glass jug and use my stick blender to whizzy it all up into fab green goodness.

This will make enough to divide nicely between 2 adults and 2 kids.
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So they’re my suggestions. What about you? Have you got a smoothie recipe or some breakfast vegie-smuggling wisdom to share?

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The want-a-thon

March 12, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Ham/pork, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, recipe, soup, vegetables

Miss Fruitarian wants a turtle. And a hamster. She wants real wings, a DS and pony called Sparkle.

Mr M&P wants the Harry Potter Lego game for (my) iPhone. And a second console for the PS3 (for daddy) and as much Chima Lego as he can get his hands on (even after seeing only one ad).

I want a nanny, a saxophone with a ‘silent’ switch, no cellulite and a daily foot rub from Hugh Jackman.

Mr VS is diplomatically coy about his desires, but I suspect he wants an extra hour in each day, children (and a wife) who know how to tidy up after themselves and a few hours alone with Megan Fox.

The kids also both want broccoli that tastes like chocolate, a mum who doesn’t insist on quite so much fresh produce and a new system of eating that involves the couch and interlocking straws.

Meanwhile, when I put this dinner down in front of the kids the other night, they didn’t really want it. It’s brown. But luckily we have the ‘two bite’ rule – that is, if I’ve bothered to make them dinner, then they need to show respect and take two big bites. Then, after genuinely trying, if they still don’t like it, I’ll give them some bread, a banana or extra yoghurt instead.

Turns out after two bites, they did want this after all. Because it’s yummy and two bites was all they needed to discover that.

Tastes great with last week’s cheese muffins.

Slow cooker pea & ham soup

1 1/2 cups green split peas, rinsed well
1 brown onion, roughly diced
1 large carrot, peeled, diced
1 potato, peeled, diced
2 sticks celery, sliced
1 fresh bay leaf
1 kg ham hock
8 cups water
3 tbsp parsley
2 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 cup frozen peas
Pepper

Place the rinsed split peas in the bottom of your slow cooker. Layer the vegies over the top. Add in the bay leaf and plonk the ham hock in the middle. Pour over the water, cover and set to cook on low for 7 1/2 hours.

Remove the hock, transfer to a plate and shred off the meat. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Use a stick blender to make the soup a nice creamy consistency.

Return the shredded ham to the cooker along with the herbs and frozen peas. Leave for another half hour until the peas are bright green.

Serves 2 adults and 4 kids

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If your family likes soups, try out these….
Pumpkin Corn & Lentil
Minestrone
Witches Stew
Chicken & Udon

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The best way to smuggle… apricots

March 8, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats, The best way to smuggle... · Tagged feeding the family, fruit, lunchbox, treats

I haven’t done one of these posts for a while. If you’re new to the blog, these are the posts where I tackle a specific ingredient. In the past I’ve offered solutions for tricky vegies like mushrooms, spinach and beetroot. You can view a full list here.

So apricots seem a bit lame in comparison, but I figure with summer drawing to a close, you’ve probably got a few of these guys about, possibly looking a little worse for wear. Chuck them in this cake and you’ve got a nice alternative to banana bread. If though, you’re inundated with aging bananas, then you can see a recipe for banana bread here.

Apricots magically disappear!

Apricot slice

RECIPE EDIT: Please note that this recipes has changed since first being published. Originally I left out the egg! Huge apologies.

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
½ cup LSA mix (or just almond meal is also good)
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup shredded coconut
5 fresh apricots, finely chopped (or use 10 tinned apricot halves – this is a better option than reconstituting dried ones)
140g tub apple puree (or peel & chop two apples, and make your own)
50g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 20x30cm lamington tray with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Mix in the LSA mix and sugar. Combine in the rest of the ingredients and mix well. It takes a while to get the mixture really combined. Depending on your apricots and apple puree, you may need to add a splash of grapeseed oil or 10g extra butter to hold everything together). Press the mix evenly into your tray.

Bake 30-35 minutes until springy to touch. Cool and cut into squares.

MAKES 30ish squares.

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How exciting! A competition! With a prize!

March 3, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, News, Vegetarian · Tagged competition, lunchbox, recipe

I’ve got a great prize today from Superfoods for Kidz. The lovely Vanessa recently sent me a bunch of their products to try and now it’s your turn to win some for yourself. If your kids are fussy, then a combination of vegie smuggling and popping these powders into some recipes will be all you need vastly improve the health of your family. This is what’s up for offer…

Worth $158!

I run competitions rarely, and I don’t get paid to run them. I asked Superfoods for kidz to team up with me for this one because like to support local small businesses that are focused on helping the health of our community. You can read all about them here.

So I’ve been experimenting and adding the powders into heaps of things really successfully. The C Berry Blast was a big hit in this smoothie…

Bananas, yoghurt, milk & C Berry Blast powder.

A sprinkle of the choc berry blast has been gracing the top of our yoghurt and the kids were BEGGING me for the Berry choc chunk superfood bars. They’re a great snack size for younger kids and another great idea for lunchboxes.

And the Vital Veggie Powder worked a treat in these cheese & vegie muffins.

Perfect way to get vegies into a lunchbox.

Cheese muffins

1½ cups self-raising flour
2 cups grated cheese
125g can corn, drained
½ cup mushrooms, very finely diced
2 tbsp tomato relish
1 egg
¾ cup milk
60g butter, melted
Chives (optional)
2 tbsp Vital Veggie Powder (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 12x125ml muffin tray.

Mix together the flour, cheese, corn and mushrooms in a large bowl.

In a separate jug or bowl, combine the relish, egg, milk, melted butter and chives.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Divide between your muffin holes and bake for 25-30 minutes until very golden and cooked through.

MAKES 12

To enter, you must be a subscriber to this blog. Then below, suggest how you would use the powders at your place. You don’t need to supply a full recipe, but links are always fun. And links to MY recipes are bound to be popular really, aren’t they!

And it’d be great if you’d support Superfoods 4 kids on Facebook.

Entries close 11pm AEST, March 6. Winner notified via email March 7 and published here.

*7/6/13 – CONGRATULATIONS TO COLEEN SUMMERS – YOU’RE OUR WINNER! VANESSA FROM SUPERFOODZ & I LOVED THE IDEA OF POPPING POWDER INTO RICEBALLS!

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Five chicken dinners

February 26, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Chicken · Tagged chicken, feeding the family, mealtime, recipe

Well, need I say more? Here are five dinners made with chicken, which apparently Australians eat more of than any other meat. This year each of us will consume an average of 44kg of the stuff. Fact.

These recipes should give you a couple of kilo’s worth of inspiration (unless you’re a vegetarian, in which case you might prefer to click here.)

Click the pictures to link through to the recipes.

Chicken & brown rice salad.

From the Lunchboxes planner e-book…

Chicken nuggets.

From Vegie Smugglers 2…

Sang choy bao.

A classic from Vegie Smugglers 1…

Chicken sausage rolls.

From Vegie Smugglers 2…

chicken and tarragon one pot winter warmer by vegie smuggers

Chicken & tarragon one-pot.

Do any of these take your fancy? How else do you like to cook chicken for your family?

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What’s Jamie’s best cookbook?

February 20, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged cookbooks, feeding the family, noodles, recipe, salad, vegetables, vegetarian

Chuck a heap of coriander, mint and chilli on the adult’s serves.

The inspiration for this recipe is a noodle salad from Jamie Oliver’s ’30 minutes meals’ cookbook. I’ve evolved it quite a bit to suit my family and added a stack of extras (since that’s my thing really, isn’t it). We’ve been eating it every week for most of the summer since it ticks all the dinnertime boxes. It’s easy to make, I can make it ahead and serve it cold. And it’s delicious.

Do you think ’30 minute meals’ is Jamie’s best book? I do. It’s the cookbook of his that I return to often. Heaps of great flavours, all very accessible. Each time I browse through I find something else I want to make. The food is more healthy than his early recipes which featured meat, meat and a bit more meat but not as simplistic as the recipes in ’15 minute meals’, which I didn’t like so much. I can’t quite put my finger on why I don’t cook anything from that book. Am I missing something there? I flip through that repeatedly and don’t bookmark anything. Perhaps point me in the direction of the recipes you like from that one and I promise to give them another look.

Noodle salad

250g dried egg noodles
1 red onion
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp grapeseed oil

1 carrot, peeled, grated
1/2 red capsicum, finely diced
125g can corn, drained
1/2 cup cashews or peanuts, chopped
1 cucumber, halved, seeds removed, sliced
Mint & coriander to taste (I like heaps, the kids like none).
Lime wedges (optional)

In a mini-food processor, blitz together the onion, lime, sauces, sugar and oil. Set aside.

Cook the noodles according to packet directions. Drain, return to the saucepan and pour over the blitzed sauce while they’re still hot (the onion will cook and mellow a bit). Mix through the carrot, capsicum and corn.

Once the initial heat fades, you can add in the nuts, cucumber and herbs.

Serves warm or cold.

Serves 2 adults and 2 kids.
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Your family likes noodles? Try these dishes…
Beef Pho
Chicken & udon soup

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A chocolate cake that will make grown men cry

February 18, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats · Tagged chocolate, cooking techniques, treats

No, it’s ok! See! You serve it with raspberries!

Admittedly, this cake is scraping into the Vegie Smugglers repertoire on an almond-meal technicality. I considered calling it ‘adult nut cake (with rum and a block of chocolate)’ but I have to concede that it doesn’t contain anything healthy at all. The truth? It’s a flourless dark chocolate, almond & rum cake that is SO delicious that Mr VS loved me more after I made it for him on Valentine’s day.

Being a fan of all things tasty, I thought it worth sharing in case you know an adult in need of spoiling sometime soon. It starts off like a mousse cake, then after a day in the fridge becomes a sinful truffle cake that lasts several days.

The recipe is from Claudia Roden’s ‘The Food of Spain‘, but it’s not her recipe either, apparently it dates bake to Spanish cookbooks from last century.

Chocolate, almond and rum cake

150g dark cooking chocolate (best quality you can afford), broken into pieces
3 tbsp water
150g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp dark rum

Topping
50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup caster sugar
25g unsalted butter, cubed

Heat the oven to 160C. Line a 23cm springform pan with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate with the water in a double boiler (a bowl, over a pot of boiling water – but don’t let the bowl touch the water or it will burn, you just want the steam to be a nice gentle heat source – still not sure how? Watch this video).

Stir constantly and once the chocolate is nearly melted, add in the butter and stir them together into melty-awesomeness. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, almonds, baking powder and rum. Add in the melted chocolate and mix really well.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks (when you lift up the beaters, the peaks stay up in the air – if they flop to the side, they are ‘soft peaks’ and you need to beat them a bit more.

Add 1/4 eggwhites into the chocolate mix and combine in gently with a spatula. Repeat with 1/2 the remaining mix and then again until all the eggwhites are combined in – there’s an ok ‘how to’ video here about beating and folding in eggwhites).

Pour into the tin and bake for about 35 minutes until firm.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan (it will sink – totally fine).

Release the cake from the pan and transfer to a cake plate. For the topping, melt the chocolate and water as above, add the sugar and butter and melt and mix well, then pour over your cake, easing nice drips down the side every now and again.

SERVES 8 ADULTS.

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Is your kid a fussy eater? Here’s where to start…

February 13, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, News, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, freezer, ideas, mealtime, parenting, pasta, recipe, vegetables

Start simple. Here.

Today’s recipe is for all the parents whose toddlers get pleasure from winding their mummies and daddies up as much as possible during each meal.

Look! They think. Daddy’s face goes so red when I refuse to eat that! Look! Mummy’s head is about to explode each time I shriek! How about I drop the rest of my dinner ON THE FLOOR – won’t THAT reaction be hilarious.

Ah yes. Lovely mealtimes like that with Miss F are the reason why Vegie Smugglers exists. We had SO MANY unhappy dinners together. So much scraping of uneaten food into the bin. So often I was SO CLOSE TO LOSING IT. We were locked in an ongoing food battle.

I was determined to win the war, because I love to eat and I hated that dinnertime had become so miserable. And last Friday night when I watched a now 8-year-old Miss F crunch happily through a salad of corn/snow peas/broccolini & cos, I realised that I HAD WON.

But how did I start to turn things around? Well Miss F liked cheese, so I started there. I made her cheesy pots. And she liked bread, so I gave her salmon pikelets (at first without the green bits). I started with what she DID eat and expanded out from there.

So if your little food fascist likes tinned spaghetti, then this recipe might be your starting point. Do whatever you need to do to have some dinnertime wins and if that means sneakily replacing a junk favourite with a healthy home-made version then DO IT.

If they eat this happily then next time you could make it with wholemeal pasta. Or put in some grated carrot. Then, in a while, try little chunks of carrot instead. If they like these flavours, migrate them to a lasagna, cannelloni or a lentil pasta sauce that has more smuggling potential. As time goes by, you’ll have to do less and less to hide anything, until they happily just eat a raw carrot or snack on grape tomatoes.

Watching Miss F munch through her raw greens, I was so glad that I’ve put all the effort in. Most toddlers are fussy eaters and without intervention many will grow to be fussy tweens/teens & adults. Teaching them how to love healthy food is a gift they will carry for life.

Couldn’t help myself.

Home-made tinned spaghetti

I don’t usually stipulate organic products, but think in this simple recipe they’re essential.

2 cups pumpkin, diced
250g organic spaghetti (half a standard pack) – broken into short lengths
125g can 4-bean mix, drained, rinsed
700ml jar organic passata (find it near the pasta)
1 tsp brown sugar

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the pumpkin and cook until soft (about 7-10 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces). Use a slotted spoon to remove the pumpkin and pop it into a drainer (keep the water boiling).

Pop the spaghetti into the same boiling water and cook according to packet directions.

Put the beans, cooked pumpkin, passata and sugar into a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to the simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Use a stick blender to blitz everything up into a smooth sauce.

Drain the spaghetti then add into your tomato sauce.

Serve topped with Parmesan. For a more substantial meal, top with crumbled crispy bacon or pop in some meatballs (try this lamb meatball recipe).

MAKES ABOUT 8 TODDLER PORTIONS (freeze some for easy dinners in a flash).