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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.

Comments (2) »

Learning their shapes

April 7, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News

Because a circle is always MORE than just a circle

Just a quickie today – a PDF download to help toddlers and preschoolers learn their basic shapes. They can practice their tracing skills and then colour them in. Or if you’re feeling creative, show them how the shapes become other objects – draw a ribbon and bow on the square and VOILA – a present, turn the circle into a sun with a smiley face and the triangle into a piece of pizza… you get the idea, I’ll leave the others up to you!

If your child has trouble holding the pencil correctly, check out Draw your world, for some good advice (the whole site is interesting), and there’s good practical advice for a pencil holding trick here.

I’m off to get organised for Billycart Markets this Saturday (April 9). I’ll be giving away bite size versions of my Oaty Banana Pancakes… and I always love a chat. Come and astonish me with tales of what your kids will and won’t eat! See you there…

Hmmmm, I'll be at the stall that smells great!

Comments (2) »

What a lovely pear

April 5, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats

A lovely pair?

Yes, I know, it’s the worst fruit joke in the world but I just couldn’t resist.

And you’ll have to forgive me – I’m looking for jokes and a bit of cheering up at the moment. Each year around this time, I start to get the seasonal blues. They increase with the cold and dark, turn a slight corner after the winter solstice, but don’t evaporate entirely until mid-August.

I have strategies in place to deal with it – regular yoga practice helps. Getting enough sunlight too. And just trying to enjoy the passing seasons and the particular pleasures they reveal.

Which is why I’m preoccupied with pears this week. Especially these cute mini ones from a market in the Southern Highlands. Apples are good at the moment too. My favourite type is Gala, and they’re freshly picked and filling the shelves right now. They are a happy part of Autumn.

Combine them together and (of course) wrap them in pastry to create a delicious wee snack that warms the toes. This recipe includes prunes, with a hit of fibre that does us all good. Although you’re welcome to omit them and be really naughty and add a dollop of Nutella to your mix instead.

I know they smell great, but try not to burn your tongue!

Apple, pear & prune squares

3 sheets frozen
puff pastry
1 apple (Granny Smith or Gala), thinly sliced
1 pear, thinly sliced
½ cup pitted prunes, finely chopped
½ tsp vanilla essence
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp almond meal
1 tsp caster sugar
1 egg, whisked, for sticking and glazing
Caster sugar, for sprinkling

Icing sugar, for dusting, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Line an oven tray with baking paper.

Before the pastry thaws too much, use a sharp knife to score each square into two rectangles. Snap apart. Then score each rectangle into 4 pieces (so each sheet yields 8 rectangles). Break apart and leave to thaw.

In a large bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients except the egg and caster sugar. Dollop 1 tsp of mixture at one end of each piece of pastry, leaving a 1cm border. Brush the edges with egg, fold over and press the edges together. Brush the tops with egg and sprinkle with a little caster sugar.

Transfer to the oven tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. These will be HOT when they come out of the oven. Dust with icing sugar. Serve plain or with ice-cream.

MAKES 24

———————
And check out these other Vegie-Smuggling pastry recipes…
Chicken sausage rolls
Beef Triangles
Traffic light swirls
———————

Comments (2) »

End of term fatigue (and the rot sets in)

March 29, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, News · Tagged feeding the family, parenting, recipe, rice, tuna, vegetables

As we saw in NSW over the weekend, all good things must end. And before they end, they will usually become corrupt, festering things, self-interested and spoilt. And so endeth the first school term of Miss Fruitarian. Without checking the calendar, I knew when week 8 had dawned.

The mornings have been getting progressively tougher. Teeth brushing is taking a good 15 minutes, even with me keeping a watchful eye over proceedings. Uniforms are being put on back-to-front, school hats left in the car and the reading folder is never ready for return on time.

The exhaustion comes like a wave and finally crashes down to shore. Today, Miss F has collapsed and is in need of a day at home. Luckily, being a WAHM, I can accommodate it. In the olden days it would have been tears all around as I forced her into a uniform and off to early morning care. These days, it’s just tears on my part as I try to get work done around a complaining patient who has perked up considerably since I announced she didn’t have to go to school.

Dinner tonight needs to be something comforting yet healthy, that I can make whilst being constantly interrupted. This baked rice dish fits the bill – and it uses up the last of the eggplant and basil from the garden.

A more-ish, pick-me-up dinner for tired kiddlies

Baked tuna & tomato rice

Butter, for greasing
4 cups chicken stock
1½ cups arborio rice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 finger eggplant, very finely diced
1 medium zucchini, grated
500ml passata (bottled tomato puree found in the supermarket near the Italian pasta sauces)
½ cup boiling water
150g cheddar cheese, grated
125g can corn kernels, drained
185g can tuna in oil, drained
Handful of basil leaves, torn
Black pepper

Parsley sprigs, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a lasagne or casserole dish.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the stock to the boil, then add the rice and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times until par-boiled. Drain.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and eggplant and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid sticking.

Add the drained rice and zucchini and cook for a minute or so, stirring. Add the passata and water. Stir until well combined. Add the cheese, corn, tuna and basil and mix thoroughly. Season to taste and remove from heat.

Spoon into lasagne dish and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes until the top is golden. Top with parsley sprigs and serve with green salad.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 3 KIDS

Comments (17) »

The best way to smuggle… beetroot

March 23, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, News, Red meat, The best way to smuggle... · Tagged dinner, feeding the family, recipe, vegetables

So, since we can’t have the beetroot brownie too regularly for dinner, I guess I’ll move onto recommending this delightful pink meatloaf as a way of getting beetroot into your kiddies. Using fresh grated beetroot gives it a definite pink tinge, which is perfect for little girls with a meat aversion (like Miss Fruitarian). A 225g can of beetroot can be substituted, but boring brown will prevail.

Apparently (so you’ve told me on Facebook), meatloaf is a bit popular. It IS a perfect easy-cook, that can sit in the fridge all week and be easily reheated or put on toasties or spuds. And an egg-free meatloaf recipe was requested, which is why you’re getting this snippet recipe from the second Vegie Smugglers cookbook (buy the digital cookbook here).

All hail the photographers and stylists who can make meatloaf look good.

Pink meatloaf

500g beef mince
1-cup fresh breadcrumbs (about 1 slice of bread)
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 zucchini, chopped
1 beetroot, peeled, quartered
1 carrot, peeled, chopped
3 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 180C. Spray a 10x18cm loaf tin with canola spray and line with baking paper.

Add the mince to a large mixing bowl.

If you have a hand-held food processor, use it to make the breadcrumbs from a slice of bread. Add to the mince. Pulse the onion and garlic, add to the mince. Pulse to chop the zucchini, then carrot, then beetroot (use gloves to avoid staining your hands), adding to the mince mixture each time. (NOTE – A grater will work perfectly for those of you without small kitchen contraptions).

Pour over the sauces and season really well. Use your (gloved) hand to mix everything together really well, then press into the loaf tin.

Bake 45-50 minutes until cooked through.

SERVES 2 ADULTS AND 4 KIDS

Comments (10) »

Dear DOCS, I can explain everything…

March 17, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News

A couple of weeks ago, in yet another champion-mummy-moment, I inadvertantly exposed Mr Meat & Potatoes to porn.

Not sure where that fits on the crap-parenting scale, but I suspect it’s well above not packing any warm clothing in their daycare bag, but below dropping them on their head in the park.

We were having a lovely mummy/son day, full of laughter, songs, funny sound effects and craft. He loves nothing better than to colour-in, and while the things I draw are good, he is much more dedicated to cool-boy-stuff subjects, mainly Ben 10, Ironman etc. So we were doing a bit of online searching and printing. My google image search revealed a thumbnail of THE COOLEST IRONMAN COLOURING EVER. He was ‘awwwwwing’ and pointing, too excited to talk. We clicked the image and then….. well it loaded into some kind of spammy template with porn images all around the edges. The ‘awwwwing’ stopped abruptly and I saw his little head tilting as he tried to make sense of it all. Perhaps luckily, it was all super scary-closeups that are pretty abstract to a 3-year-old. He couldn’t make head nor [ladygarden] tail of it. I breathed calmly and hit the back button, vowing to spend a bit of time bookmarking a few legit colouring sites that wouldn’t make me feel all icky.

Did I mention that he only likes to colour with green & blue?

Sorry Mr M&P, mummy didn’t mean to.

Try these colouring resources…

This US government site is guaranteed porn-free, but with page titles like “E is for Environment”, the kids may only stay absorbed for a short time… There’s a great range of stuff here, but to avoid printing out tonnes of guff, you have to download the image then print it out yourself. There’s Transformers colouring for boys and for older girls, you can’t miss these Royal wedding paper dolls! Religious folks will like these bible-based colouring pages. There’s cute, simple pictures for toddlers to enjoy. Crayola (as you’d expect) has good quality pictures with a print functionality that actually works. Top Aussie kids may like these local topics at Kidspot and there’s a bunch of dog breeds to choose from here. And of course, you can never beat reliable, local content at the ABC playground and at the BBC CBeebies site.

Happy colouring, may your children remain porn-free until they’re much older than mine.

Comments (2) »

School-readiness for unready kids

March 10, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News

With less than a year to go before school, I’m realising that Mr Meat & Potatoes is nowhere near as ready (or keen) for the schoolyard as his big sister was at the same stage. She could write her name, knew the alphabet and count to 40. He can barely distinguish between a square and a rectangle. She participated in the daycare school readiness program as a fun activity to keep her busy, he will actually need it to avoid being totally overwhelmed next year.

Without seeming too neurotic, I’ve done up some quick worksheets for him to play with at home too, starting with some really basic and fun visual discrimination exercises. He can try to pick out the differences and then colour in the monsters. Nothing too hard, but all helpful.

Is your little monster ready for school? Click for fun early education pages

Here’s a 4 page PDF so that your kids can get ready for school too.

Comments (1) »

Maybe we should get a baby… or a snake made from toilet rolls?

February 22, 2011 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News · Tagged craft, parenting

It would seem that Mr Meat & Potatoes is feeling clucky. Everywhere he looks there are adorable toddlers that make him go ‘aaawwwwwwww’ in a perfect imitation of his 6-year-old sister who saves that sounds for puppies, kittens and anything pink.

In the playground today Mr M&P was eyeing off a cute little Japanese toddler. He said, “Maybe we should get a baby?” I was caught off guard and perhaps didn’t handle things too smoothly.

“No, Angelina,” I gasped, “no more babies – Mummy is too old (and over it) for more babies”.

He looked slightly crushed as the full realisation of a life as the youngest child sank in. No cute little Asian baby sister, no fun little brother in a Superman cape.

I tried to console him. “What about we go home and make a snake?”

He brightened considerably. If you can’t have another sibling, then a snake made out of loo rolls is a pretty good substitute.

a craft snake made from toilet rolls for boys

Colouring his cares away - Mr M&P finds consolation in some craft

And voila! My third child is born

Download a PDF of your third child (or pet loo-roll snake) here.

Comments (6) »

Love is… having someone to check you for nits

February 14, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News · Tagged celebrations, dinner, parenting, recipe, tuna

Adult-only ingredients and wine? Check. Kids in bed early? Fingers crossed

It’s safe to say that my better half and I have never been overt romantics. We have our special moments, of course, but rarely the prearranged kind. So Valentines Day flowers and gifts has never really been our thing.

However, one night last year, my best-friend arrived home with a romantic brown paper bag full of presents that touched my heart and got me all teary – chocolates and a Tiffany’s box? No, it was nit treatments and a matching pair of his ‘n’ hers nit combs.

Even for us it was a pretty unromantic moment, but looking at him, home after hours out in the big bad world, earning all our money and then running our errands, I had never loved him more. Perhaps it was his commitment to our family through good times and bad that got me all ‘awwwww’ over it. Or maybe I was just pre-menstrual. I can’t remember. But I do know that I look at single parents and wonder just how they cope during the dreaded nit infestations, night terrors or emergency dashes to hospital.

I’m hugely grateful that I have a lovely partner. And to say thanks, this Valentine’s Day he’s getting something special. A little special romantic dinner pour deux.

Our relationship history is littered with memorable meals both in restaurants and at home. Possibly no dish means more to us than this Tuna & Mango Salsa recipe. I made it for him on our first proper dinner together after we moved into our first apartment (almost exactly 11 years ago). Apparently this dish smoothed over any apprehensions and made him think that maybe he’d made the right decision, after all.

So try it on your man (or woman). It’s easy, but special, and with the chilli and coriander, definitely an adult’s dinner. For this night of the year, feed the kids fish fingers and pop them into bed early. Hopefully they won’t re-emerge too many times, you’ve got some serious romancing to do…

Adapted from the Family Circle 1997, ‘Tex mex’ cookbook.

Coriander Tuna with mango salsa

1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 small red chilli, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tbsp olive oil

2 tuna steaks

Mango Salsa
1 mango, peeled, diced
½ small red onion, finely sliced
½ cup coriander, chopped
2 tbsp lime juice

Crush up the first five ingredients in a mortar and pestle until you have a paste (you can also do this in a blender). Smear it over the tuna steaks, cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Combine all of the salsa ingredients together in a bowl.

Heat a char-grill pan, bbq or frying pan until really hot. Sear either side of the tuna for 3 minutes or so, until cooked to your liking (I like mine still raw in the middle).

Serve with the salsa, fresh salad and wine.

Show me the money – Vegie Smugglers fundraising is back for 2011

February 10, 2011 · Filed under News · Tagged fundraising

And we're off! Book your 2011 fundraising program soon.

OK folks, around the country P&C and parent groups are meeting up, planning their fundraising activities for the coming year. To make it easy for you to suggest a Vegie Smugglers fundraising program, I’ve designed a leaflet that you can quickly download and print, and a 1-page information sheet, which outlines the two options for using the cookbook to raise money at your school, daycare or charity.

All programs come with free healthy-living worksheets that can be used in class to complete the positive theme of how to grow, choose and cook good food.

A few daycare centres around Sydney are even getting me!!! I’ll be popping by and doing a quick talk to give parents ideas and tips on ways to get their kids eating more vegies. Hope to see you there!

Visit the fundraising page for more information.

Vegie Smugglers

Archive for News

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

Learning their shapes

What a lovely pear

End of term fatigue (and the rot sets in)

The best way to smuggle… beetroot

Dear DOCS, I can explain everything…

School-readiness for unready kids

Maybe we should get a baby… or a snake made from toilet rolls?

Love is… having someone to check you for nits

Show me the money – Vegie Smugglers fundraising is back for 2011

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