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Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES

June 5, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Chicken, News · Tagged chicken, dinner, feeding the family, parenting, pasta, recipe, vegetables

It’s officially winter, so a ‘winter warmer’ must be in order. And since in winter I am generally grouchy and irritable, I need a dish that can please me on many levels. Perhaps you are the same, so I offer you this chicken & tarragon one-pot recipe to try.

Here are some of the reasons it makes me happy…
Chicken and pasta (kids favourites, so will be eaten without any objection at all), one pot (mummy’s favourite), vegie smuggled zucchini, carrot, onion and peas (for an uber-mummy moment), suits everyone (you can even blend it up for baby food), freezes well (for up to 2 months).

It contains wine too. I tell you not as a warning (since it cooks away for 20 minutes before serving, so you’re unlikely to intoxicate your kiddies), but to give you permission to open a bottle on a mid-week night when you wouldn’t normally feel it justified.

chicken and tarragon one pot winter warmer by vegie smuggers

Chicken, tick; pasta, tick; vegies, tick; one pot, tick.

Chicken & tarragon one-pot

1 tbsp olive oil
500g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 2-3 even pieces
1 red onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled, chopped
1 large zucchini, chopped (peeled first, if your kids hate green)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine
2x10cm peelings of orange zest (use a vegetable peeler to do this)
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
1 cup rissoni
¾ cup frozen peas

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chicken and brown for 2–3 minutes on each side to get golden patches. Remove and set aside.

Reheat the pan over medium heat and cook the onion and carrot for 2 minutes then add the zucchini. Cook for another couple of minutes until the vegies are softening then add the garlic for another minute.

Add the stock, wine, orange zest and tarragon. Season with black pepper. Bring to the boil, return the chicken to the pan, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the pasta and peas and cook until the pasta is tender and the chicken is cooked through (about 8 minutes).

Remove and discard the orange zest before serving. Cut the chicken into pieces to suit your kids.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS.

Comments (13) »

Balayage and the freezer – (why neglect is a good thing)

May 31, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, News · Tagged feeding the family, freezer, recipe, vegetables

Did you know that there is a new hair trend at the moment called ‘balayage’? No, neither did I. But I found out about it at my most recent hair appointment. I like to pry ‘cool’ information out of my lovely hairdresser who is a whole 15 years younger than me. Being typically mum-busy, I rely on her to keep me up-to-date. You see, now that I AM a mum, I don’t really like LOOKING like a mum. Although the fact that I’m usually found in the school yard wearing a puffer vest is a bit of a giveaway (well it IS cold, and they ARE warm).

Anyhow, balayage, is a fancy French term for mega-long regrowth. WOW. And my hairdresser wanted me to PAY for that?

Armed with my new knowledge of ‘what’s cool’, I’ve managed to produce my very own balayage by avoiding the salon for 3 months and utilising that mummy beauty secret – NEGLECT. If only it worked as well on leg-hairs and fingernails.

So with neglect on my mind, let’s eat from the freezer this week – I’m far too busy growing my regrowth to possibly cook.

Freeze these lentil patties individually, wrapped in cling wrap.

I freeze this, pasta and all, in kid-sized serves

Rissoles with yummy stuff smuggled inside!

These lamb patties will freeze well for 2-3 months

Comments (10) »

What the kids eat in… Malaysia

May 23, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, What the kids eat in... · Tagged brunch, feeding the family, recipe

Lucky children in Malaysia grow up eating these delicious prawn fritters called Cucur Udang.

Super easy to make, they’re a good way to get the kids eating a new protein. Not that I desperately need them to grow fond of expensive seafood, but sometimes my best friend and I like a bit of adult gourmet, and this recipe is a way to deliver both a kid-friendly and adult-tasty dinner in one dish (just sprinkle over some chilli, spring onions and coriander for the adults).

And they’re cooked in no time at all, completing the recipe golden triangle of interesting, easy and delicious.

Makanan ini enak!

Cucur Udang

1 cup self-raising flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground turmeric
(for colour, optional)
250g cooked prawns
4 spring onions,
thinly sliced
125g can corn kernels, drained
Handful of bean sprouts
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 eggs, whisked
Canola oil, for frying
White pepper

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and turmeric (if using).

Peel and devein the prawns then chop them into a texture to suit your family (I need to nearly mince mine). Add to the bowl with the spring onion, corn and bean sprouts.

Mix it all together and add the chilli sauce, egg and pepper. Add 1 cup water, a little at a time, until you have a good batter consistency.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Spoon in ¼ cup amounts of the mixture and cook for a couple of minutes. Turn over and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Drain on paper towel.

Serve the fritters with salad and bean sprouts.

MAKES 16

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A spoonful of sugar (or croutons) helps the vegies go down

May 15, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, mealtime, parenting, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

A big fat yummy bowl of witches' stew

Last week I served up an aesthetically challenged split pea soup that could best be visually compared to a bowl of snot. Full of vegetables and lacking in glamour, there was little chance of the little lovelies voluntarily hoeing in. Which is a shame, since it was absolutely delicious.

In these situations it’s important to remember the Vegie-Smuggling philosophy of sugar coating meals – that is, finding lures that will be irresistible to your kids that will ensure certain success with a risky dinner. For me, these include dollops of tomato sauce, mayonnaise and with soups, croutons.

There’s something FUN about discovering a crunchy delight in a thick soup and it works on my kids without fail.

I dump a load of them into a bowl and ladle the soup over. The first crouton goes in, coated in soup and the kids realise that the flavour is good and then they go back for more. I PROMISE you, that both the kids ate up full bowls of this soup and said they’d happily eat it again. We even had a laugh about the ugly look of it. Once the croutons were submerged, Miss Fruitarian renamed it ‘Witches stew’, which I think is a title just as enticing to kids as the oily, garlic bread.

This is an advanced Vegie Smuggling dish – if your kids aren’t used to soup, try my Chicken & pasta recipe instead, but if your kids are used to a nice thick hearty texture (and like peas), try this out. It’s not my recipe (it’s from Gateway Gourmet), I’ve only added the croutons and made minimal changes, which is why it’s not in the cookbook, only online.

Witches stew

2 tbsp olive oil
1 white onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled, diced
3 celery sticks, diced
1 parsnip, peeled, diced
1 ¼ cups green split peas, rinsed, picked over
4 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
Half a bunch fresh thyme leaves (remove stalks)
Salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the vegies and cook, stirring often for 8-10 minutes to soften. Add the split peas, stock, herbs and some seasoning.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 1-1¼ hours. Remove the bay leaf. Use a stick blender to process until smooth. Add 1/4-1/2 cup extra water if the texture is too thick. Season further to taste.

Serve over croutons.

Not healthy, but will make the rest of it magically disappear

Croutons

Preheat oven to 200C. Line oven tray with baking paper.

Slice 1 small breadstick into cubes. Scatter on tray.

Combine 2-3 tbsp olive oil with 2 cloves garlic and 1 tsp Italian herbs. Mix well. Pour over bread and toss to coat.

Bake 10-15 minutes until as golden as you like.

Comments (13) »

Mother’s day… and then the rest of the year…

May 10, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, News

Yummy for mummy's tummy

How did your mother’s day go? Mine was a pretty good one. A card from Mr Meat & Potatoes with a picture of a scribble ice-skating (thankfully captioned by lovely daycare carer) and inside he’d dictated “you’re special because sometimes you take me to the Easter Show”. Miss Fruitarian was more verbose in her well decorated effort, “I love you since you take me ice-skating (common theme) and buy me things”.

Yet again, no mention of the delicious meals I serve up to them night after night. Or the myriad other events that keep their lives running smoothly each and every day for the whole rest of the year.

Luckily my best-friend is much more aware of the effort I pull and spent much of the day on Sunday cooking treats and serving me warm beverages in a variety of my best china. Then he disappeared off to work for a bit and the kids nipped off to the neighbour’s place and I was left blissfully alone for TWO HOURS. Now THAT’S a good mother’s day present!

Finally the guilts got to me and went to retrieve them. I was greeted with my daughter’s back as she raced off and a “not coming home” tantrum from Mr M&P who went on to wet his pants. And I’d just been thinking how nice it was to be having my first nappy-free mother’s day.

The rest of the day passed with the regular conflicts, them bossing me around, me bossing them around and finished off with lots of cuddles. A bit of a snapshot of my life of mothering at the present time. Love, crankiness and the odd pair of wet undies.

Funnily enough, I tend to get a bit more undying love and hoots of ‘you’re the best mum in the whole wide world’ on other days – actually whenever I cook them something like these Apricot & Yoghurt Biscuits…

Yummy for everyone's tummy

Apricot & yoghurt biscuits

1¼ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¾ cup rolled oats
¹/³ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup dried apricots, sliced
2 tbsp hazelnut or
almond meal
²/³ cup vanilla yoghurt
¼ cup canola oil
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 170C. Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Add the oats, sugar, apricots and hazelnut meal and mix well.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yoghurt and the oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add a little more yoghurt if the mixture isn’t quite wet enough to absorb all the flour.

Using wet hands, roll 22 balls (ping-pong-ball-sized) and space evenly on the trays (these biscuits don’t spread much). Press with a fork and sprinkle with a little extra sugar (demerara is nice). Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

MAKES 22

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The best way to smuggle… cauliflower

May 3, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, Food experiences, The best way to smuggle..., Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged dinner, feeding the family, parenting, recipe, tips, vegetables

I was always a good eater as a kid, but cauliflower was one of the few vegies that made my tastebuds recoil. My recollection is that we ate the drab thing a lot – but perhaps that’s just me unfairly forgetting the 6 nights a week that we ate stuff that I really loved (my mum is a great cook).

Funny how the food aversions stick around. I talk to parents all the time who worry about their kid’s eating habits, only to confess mid-conversation that they are themselves modelling the fussy-food behaviour. And I realise that cauliflower is the vegetable that I don’t buy as often as I should (since it’s full of fibre, vitamins and anti-cancer compounds). I use all sorts of excuses in the supermarket – it’s expensive and the kid’s don’t like it… but hang on a minute – that’s not actually true… I never expect the kids to like it but actually my kids DO like it (particularly smothered gratin-style in a cheese sauce and baked).

Recently I bought a chunk of it and served little florets along with broccoli simply microwaved and drizzled with lemon juice – the kids were excited and ate it all up (I think I even heard ‘yay! cauliflower!). Just goes to show what a bit of variety can achieve.

So my lessons learned were..
1. Don’t pass my food aversions onto my children.
2. Don’t assume anything about what they will and won’t like.
3. Keep the vegies served on a regular rotation (absence does seem to make the heart grow fonder).

And if you are nervous about introducing cauliflower to the family, try out this fish pie, which artfully smuggles both cauliflower and parsnip into the top layer. It’s a great recipe for autumn when cauliflower is just coming into season and the unaffordable excuse disappears too.

This is not the vegie of my childhood nightmares!

Family fish pie

Butter, for greasing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic
1 carrot, peeled, grated
1 zucchini, grated (peel first if necessary)
400g white fish, cut into 2cm cubes
2 tbsp plain flour
1 cup milk, warmed (soy is fine)
¾ cup grated cheese
1 tbsp finely chopped chives and/or parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp white wine
Salt & black pepper
Canola oil cooking spray

Topping
4 medium potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 parsnip, peeled, chopped
1 cup cauliflower florets
25g butter
½ cup milk (soy is fine)
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a lasagne or casserole dish.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft (but not brown). Add the garlic for 1 minute then add the carrot and zucchini. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the fish and carefully mix through for 3-4 minutes.

Add the flour and milk and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat. Add the cheese, chives, lemon and wine. Mix through and season well.

Meanwhile, for the topping, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the potatoes, parsnip and cauliflower. Boil for 10-15 minutes. Test one of the largest pieces with a fork. If it skewers easily, drain the vegies into a colander, then return to the pan. Add butter and milk. Mash well. Taste and add more milk or butter if the mixture needs it.

Spread the fish mixture evenly over the bottom of the dish. Carefully put the potato layer over the top. Spray with cooking spray and bake for 20 minutes until golden.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 3 KIDS

Comments (14) »

Holiday hell-fryer (the curse of the dismal ‘kids menu’)

April 28, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News · Tagged Fast food, feeding the family, parenting, recipe, vegetables

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Here’s my post-holiday question to you all – why is it that kid’s restaurant menus are so universally crap?

The picture above beautifully illustrates the joys of it all. Doesn’t it look delicious! See how the fish & chips, calamari & chips and nuggets & chips are all so seductively similar. Just the shapes vary – the nuggets were even cleverly shaped like dinosaurs!

It may be the cheapest and most cheerful option for restaurants, but don’t you reckon that we should be trying just a little bit harder to feed the kids something that’s not golden? Don’t get me wrong, my kids can scoff a nugget as heartily as any child, but if you’re road-tripping about for several days then even the tin lids quickly reach their fried food limit.

I know I can get a side plate and give them a makeshift meal from the adult plates, but what I’d really love is the option of a small portion of something healthy that isn’t full of chemicals and soaked in fat.

I think food outlets Australia-wide should take note of these mince kebabs – they are cheap, inoffensive (no outlandish vegies on show), can be kept long term in the freezer, can be eaten without utensils and still offer kids some nutrition. I’m sure I’m not the only parent out there who thinks it’s not unreasonable for a kid’s menu to provide an option that requires the chef to do something more than tip the contents of a freezer into a deep fryer.

How about something like this?

Mince kebabs

If your kids are likely to use the sticks as weapons, just shape into rissoles or meatballs instead. Vary cooking times to suit.

1/3 cup cous cous
1/3 cup boiling water
1 brown onion, diced
1 bunch English spinach, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 kg beef mince
Salt & pepper
2 eggs, lightly whisked

2 tbsp olive oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 180º. Soak 12 bamboo skewers in cold water for 15 minutes. Line an oven tray with baking paper.

In a bowl or jug, combine the cous cous and water, stir and cover with plastic wrap. Leave for 5 minutes then fluff with a fork.

Combine the rest of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands to combine the mixture, then roll golf-ball sized portions into sausages and slide them firmly onto a skewer. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry in the kebabs on all sides (4-5 minutes total), then transfer to a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

Makes enough for 2 adults and 4 kids. Serve with the tomato relish pictured. Find the recipe in the Vegie Smugglers cookbook.

Comments (9) »

A quick clafoutis

April 20, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats · Tagged cooking techniques, eggs, fruit, recipe

Right. Easter this weekend, so we need a recipe with eggs. Avoiding all the usual culprits, I thought a clafoutis would be good – a nice opportunity to get one last pleasure from plum season. They’ve been one bright spot in a pretty drab year for summer fruit.

I was photographing this for the new cookbook, but they do sink FAST, meaning that I couldn’t get a good enough shot, so let’s keep this recipe as a WEB EXCLUSIVE. Awesome.

Being lactose intolerant I rarely cook with cream. My body can handle a bit of cheese here and there and I always just substitute soy milk without any dramas, but cream is a challenge and since my last pregnancy my body has evolved and it’s now a total no-go zone. But in the supermarket I saw a lactose-free cream (in the long-life section), and thought this recipe was a good chance to give it a go… so far so good. Combined with a lacteeze and I might be back on my way to dessert heaven!

Doesn't this look gorgeous? But wait, there's more...

Plum Clafoutis

These quantities are for the small dish pictured. Double the mixture for a large, family-sized flan dish

Butter for greasing
3-4 tbsp caster sugar
3 plums, quartered
2 eggs
2 tbsp plain flour
1/3 cup milk (soy is fine)
1/3 cup cream
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 190C.

Grease an oven-proof shallow dish. Sprinkle and teaspoon of the sugar over the base. Place the plum pieces around evenly.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy (a minute or until your arm is too tired to bother any further), add the sugar and keep whisking and combine in the flour, milk and cream. Also pop in the vanilla and zest.

Pour over the plums and bake for 30 minutes or so until golden and firm. Serve with ice cream.

Eggs... cream... more!

Comments (1) »

Crowd pleasers – feeding 4, 14 or 40

April 15, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News · Tagged brunch, feeding the family, mealtime, parenting, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

School holidays and my home is abuzz with a variety of children coming and going. After 18 months at school, we are now firmly entrenched in the local community and I’m having kids (with siblings) dropped off for a few hours, then all picked up and taken elsewhere – without tears or clinginess, just excitement and adventure.

It’s a nice contrast to those early baby days, where I was home, alone for 12 hours at a time, barely even knowing neighbours, with a whole long depressing day stretching out ahead of me. Now it’s all action and I love it. A little magic mirror to this time would have made those endless first days of motherhood much easier.

These days my biggest parenting stress is figuring out how many kids I’m going to be feeding each night, which is why I’m sticking to a range of flexible recipes that easily stretch out to serve everyone.

Sneak vegies into heaps of kiddies with ease!

Corn & chickpea fritters

If your kids are chickpea-phobic, blitz them up in a hand-held food processor before adding to the mix.

²/³ cup self-raising flour
1 egg
²/³ cup milk
315g can corn kernels, drained
1 medium carrot, peeled, grated
400g can chickpeas, rinsed, and drained
4 spring onions, finely chopped
Handful of basil and parsley leaves, finely chopped (optional, but recommended)
Black pepper
Canola oil, for frying
Salad and lemon wedges, to serve

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the combined egg and milk, whisking as you go to avoid lumps.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the batter and mix until evenly combined.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the canola oil and ensure it is nice and hot before adding ¼ cup amounts of batter to the pan.

Cook for 3 minutes then flip over and cook on the other side for a further 3-4 minutes until nice and golden. Repeat with remaining batter. Drain on kitchen paper.

Serve warm with salad and lemon wedges.

MAKES 10

By the way, do you MAMABAKE?
If you love to make big batches of food for the freezer, don’t forget to track down your local Mamabake group, where you can team up with local parents and have lovely big social cook-offs. Feed everyone AND join in with your local community. Perfect!

You also might like to try these flexible recipes…

Cook the meatballs ahead then stretch the meal with extra pasta

It’s easy to double or triple quantities of these Vegie Dots

Comments (3) »

Fixing “I’m bored” – Easter School holiday ideas

April 12, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Craft for non-crafty parents, News, Sweets & treats

The grooviest cake in town!

We’re sticking to home these holidays, so it’s time to trawl the web for my round up of good things to suggest to the little lovelies when they mutter ‘I’m bored’. Last October I posted a bunch of good budget ideas, and here’s a few more (with a vague Easter theme)…

If you’ve ever spent ages pondering how to decorate boiled eggs so that they look like scuba divers, then have I found the website for you! Familyfun.go.com has such great Easter craft ideas, bound to keep you busy for ages. There’s a good unisex Egg hunt container to make here and older girls might like to have a go at making this chocolate lip balm. There’s a mix of colouring and educational Easter themed pages here.

On the Youtube disco these holidays, we’re thoroughly enthralled by the Jackon 5’s ‘Can you feel it’ which has enough fire and explosions to keep even Mr Meat & Potatoes dancing. Although he really prefers the 1978 Green Machine commercial. I catch him (with his dad) watching it ALL THE TIME.

And in the kitchen, I’ve introduced the kids to the joys of marble cakes. I like mine bright – there’s no insipid cooking in the VS kitchen. The cake is pretty firm in texture, which transmits the colour well. A nice glossy chocolate icing would be great, but we were too impatient to see the patterns to wait for that. A scattering of icing sugar is a nice understated finish for a pretty outgoing cake.

You'll have a bunch of very eager helpers for this one.

Psychedelic marble cake

200g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Zest & juice of 1 orange
Food colouring of your choice (I used yellow, green and red)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a Kugelhopt cake tin.

Add the diced butter into a large mixing bowl. Use electric beaters to cream the butter for a minute, and then gradually add in the caster sugar. Don’t rush. Take your time until it is all light and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

Sift over the flour and baking powder. Fold through. Stir through the zest and juice.

Divide the mixture into quarters. Keep one plain, and then use the food colouring to make the others whatever colour and however vivid you like. Take turns spooning the different colours into the tin. Drag a skewer through to ‘marble’.

Bake for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Dust with icing sugar.