Vegie Smugglers

I’m giving away an advance copy of my new cookbook!

May 14, 2014 · Filed under News · Tagged cookbooks, feeding the family

Over the past few months you may have thought I’ve slacked off, what with my posts appearing less frequently. Don’t be fooled though, no! I’ve been busy, first putting together my Thermomix e-book (you can link to it here) and in my spare time I’ve whipped up another hardcopy, hold-it-in-your-hands cookbook.

The amount of work that goes into my books is quite overwhelming. Initially I planned on launching it for last Christmas, then it was the new school year, then it was Easter… you get the idea. But the delays were all me taking my time and ensuring that I was producing something AMAZING. So many cookbooks in the shops are a bit… well… dull, and I was keen to give you something gorgeous AND hugely helpful. Finally after months of design, edits, production (blah!) and more production (blah! blah!), these pretty as punch advance copies arrived on my doorstep.

I was so happy that possibly I squealed (very not me) and hand-clapped a little. If I don’t say so myself, I’ve done a bloody good job!

Ohh! It’s called “Kitchen Collection”

There’s a section on basics, then a chapter for snacks and lunchbox items…

Then it’s the serious business of DINNER, since that happens tediously often…

I’ve converted a bunch of recipes so that there’s oven, slow cooker or pressure cooker instructions…

Next chapter is full of ways to feed friends and family….

And I finish off with celebrations with recipes for all kinds of dietary needs.

And there you have it – a nice little sneak peak of my new 160page, 125 recipe tome. I’ll have the bulk of the books in another month or so – at this stage I have just THREE COPIES and one of them could be yours.

To win, you must be a Vegie Smugglers subscriber (PS, I do check- last comp a few people missed out on prizes because they weren’t) and you must have a postal address in Australia.

I’d love for it to go to someone who will really enjoy it as much as me. So to enter, please comment below on which Vegie Smugglers recipes are currently a hit in your house, or tell me about your fussy kids and how my recipes have helped you. There’s no need to crawl or kiss my butt – just honest truths about the success you’ve had with my recipes. So often I feel that I work in a vacuum – it’ll be nice to get the warm and fuzzies and feel that the effort I put in is making a difference somewhere.

~~Entries close Friday May 16 at 8pm, AEST, which also happens to be Food Revolution Day. Nice timing!~~ THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED – IT WAS FANTASTIC TO HEAR ALL OF YOUR FEEDBACK. THE LUCKY WINNER IS AMANDA SULLIVAN!

And of course, you can buy my other books here.

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Adorable orange-mega-seed muffins

May 7, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged feeding the family, lunchbox, recipe, treats

I guess it’s time to accept that Miss F is officially a ‘tween’. Somehow in a brief flash of light my baby girl has turned from a pink-clad muppet dancing to the Hooley Dooleys to a fully fledged Ke$Ha wannabee, leading with the hips and a vocab that both irks and blows my mind.

The word of the moment is ‘adorable’. Said with the emphasis of a much-older girl. EG. “Did you see her little sister? She is ADORABLE. Especially in her winter uniform, that is just, like, too, you know, ADORABLE. [Squeal] PUPPIES! ADORABLE! Check out my new boots….like, adooorrrrrraaaabbbble”

Sigh.

Thankfully she also thinks that these orange poppy(+)seed cakes are also adorable. (Do you like the added punctuation? It’s Ke$Ha and P!nk inspired.)

Anyway, these cakes are ADORABLY AWESOME, since they’re nut free and school-friendly. But they pack in poppy, chia and pumpkin seeds (sesame seed allergy is on the rise, so I’ve left them out). So there’s nutrition here – pumpkin seeds in particular are high in protein. They make a perfect protein punch (nice alliteration) for the daily tween (and younger kid) lunchbox.

Orange seed muffins

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/2 cup unrefined golden caster sugar (or whatever sugar/sweetener you like to use)
2 tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2 tbsp poppyseeds
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
Juice 1 orange
1 overripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup grapeseed oil

Grease a 12-hole muffin tray or line with paper cases. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Tip the flour, sugar, baking powder, zest and seeds into a large mixing bowl and combine well.

In a jug or bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, juice, banana and oil.

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Divide evenly between your muffin cases.

Cook for 20-25 minutes until golden and springy when touched.

Makes 12

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Enjoy dinner-time thrills and empty plates

May 4, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Vegetarian · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, ideas, vegetarian

Mealtime stress often causes us to lose our perspective, doesn’t it? Caught up in the angst of kids rejecting food we’ve slaved over, the misery of power plays over whether or not they are going to EAT THAT PEA or worried sick over whether our child is getting their nutritional needs met from one mouthful of meatloaf last Tuesday, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that food should be nourishing, happy and FUN.

I was reminded of this last week when I had a super-poshy dinner out at Sepia Restaurant. It was one of those Masterchef-y type places with foams and odd concoctions and food bordering on art and theatre. The dish that stands out was the mid-course sorbet, which arrived as a little perfect white globe on a huge dark blue dish scattered with icing sugar. It was the galaxy on a plate. Unsure how to approach it, or even what it was, I pushed my spoon into the sphere and it, like, EXPLODED. Sherbet-like substance in a range of colours sprinkled over the plate in a food event so fun and gorgeous that apparently I squealed. By that stage I was onto wine number 4, so possibly I can’t really tell you what it tasted like (it was citrus, I do recall), but the event was so memorable and damn fun that it was worth every extravagant penny.

And it reminded me, that sometimes it’s good to step back from nutrition and focus instead on food being fun. Make dinner enjoyable and you’ll have a much better chance of success when feeding your kids, too.

Sometimes it’s as simple of giving a slightly ugly dish a fun name, like this witches stew – a green split pea soup that my kids adore. Serve it in a black dish like a cauldron. Or place three of these traffic light swirls on a plate in a row and let them decide which colour they’re going to scoff first.

Simple presentation ideas can help your cause.

With the last of the basil (yes, gorgeously perfect out of my vegepod), I whipped up a pesto. My kids love it and it was even more fun when served through some squid’s ink pasta. Adults might baulk of the look, but the kids thought this was awesome and spent the meal scoffing it while trying to decide if it was monster’s intestines, mermaid hair or giant snot.

Food from Atlantis? Or deep space? Your kids can decide.

Possibly not the most flattering appraisal of my cooking, but a success, nonetheless.

The original pesto recipe is here. I also blitzed in a cup of cooked broccoli florets. It’s a super fantastic addition, an idea I stole from Collette at Cut out the Crap. Works brilliantly.

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Searching for food joy (for the whole family)

April 29, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, ideas, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

Do you think the internet is good for humanity? Big question, I know, especially this early in the week, but it’s something my husband and I have been debating a bit lately.

Generally I think the internet is awesome. All that accessible knowledge. So many ways to open your mind, connect with people and experience worlds that were beyond us just 15 years ago. What a shame then, that so much of the internet tends to be a place of pointless extremes, dominated by violence, pictures of Kardashians, cats and people hating on one another. The intolerance and abuse from people hiding behind screens can be mind-boggling.

I cop a bit of hate myself. My website and my food philosophy aren’t extreme enough for many folks online. Breaking some of the current healthy eating taboos, I admit to eating all kinds of ‘poison’. A bit of sugar. A bit of gluten. Often I eat just for fun, rather than taking a strict nutritarian stance and quite often, I eat meat.

Usually I suck it up and take the abuse with a grain of salt – admiring the vehemence with which my various e-pen-pals argue their causes. Their devotion and commitment to a single philosophy does impress me and sometimes I worry that my laissez-faire attitude needs to be tightened up a little. But last week I was reading, “14 Habits of People with a healthy relationship to food“. Turns out I have nearly all of these habits. The one that particularly jumped out was, “swear by everything in moderation.”

Hallelujah.

And that’s me. I swear by everything in moderation and I keep food in perspective. No amount of kale can replace a glass of wine (and laughs) shared with good friends. And how lucky we are to live in such an affluent society that this whole food debate is even possible.

So here’s the thing. I’m not a gluten free site, although often my recipes happen to be gluten-free. If I have GF suggestions, I’ll list it in the recipe. And if I don’t, possibly you’ll have to come up with your own substitution, or skip the recipe and find something else to make.

I’m not a dairy-free site. Although I am personally lactose-intolerant. Many of my recipes ARE dairy-free and dairy-free substitutes are pretty easy to manage.

I do cook with eggs and nuts. If you’re dealing with a nut allergy, you’ll have to skip those recipes rather than emailing me demanding a nut-free version. If you’re wanting to swap out eggs, here’s a good article here to give you a range of options.

I do cook with meat.

As a 41-year-old educated woman, I’ve made that choice. I understand the ethical, environmental and health implications of my choice. There’s no need to try to convert me. The irony is not lost on me that the most abusive messages I receive are from people trying to protect animals from violence. Perhaps the animal-advocates should quit using that tactic – save the abuse and instead just seduce me with links to vegetarian fare that I can’t resist. Because, actually, I eat vegetarian food all the time. I love the creativity and diversity of it. Lots of recipes on this site ARE vegetarian, including these falafel burgers, which just happen to be egg-free and suitable for vegans, too. There’s no dairy and I’m offering some GF suggestions (although I’ve not tested them). They’re high fibre and easy to make.

Despite all that, I eat these burgers because my whole family thinks they’re delicious and they fit in perfectly with my extreme food philosophy of moderationarianism.

Something for everyone.

Falafel burgers

1 piece sliced bread (or about 1 cup of GF breadcrumbs)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
handful of parsley (optional)
2 x 400g cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained
1 small red onion
1 carrot, roughly chopped
juice of ½ lemon
¼ cup plain flour (I’ve not tried, but I strongly suspect that besan flour would be perfect here)
oil spray
bread rolls (obviously optional – use a GF wrap if you prefer), salad and barbecue sauce (also optional – a bit of plain yoghurt would also do), to serve

Use a food processor or mini-processor for this recipe.

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

Blitz the bread, garlic, spices and parsley together to make flavoured breadcrumbs. Place in a large bowl.

Pulse the chickpeas to a paste and add to the bowl. Repeat, using the pulse function to chop the onion then the carrot. Drizzle the lemon juice over and mix in well. Sprinkle over the flour and use your hands to combine.

Shape the mixture into eight equal patties. Place on the baking tray, spray with oil and bake for 25 minutes, carefully turning once during cooking.

Serve on rolls with salad and barbecue sauce.
MAKES 8 PATTIES

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An apple cake to impress your kids with

April 23, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, fruit, recipe, treats

Apples are tippety-top at the moment, especially if you can grab some from a farmers market or grocer. Lucky, isn’t it, that their peak coincides with the time of year where there’s nothing better than a warm fruit dessert. Somehow a mouthful of them magically reaches right down to my toes and spreads a happy glow right back up to my heart.

Seeing as it’s also still school holidays here, it seemed right to make a good ol’fashioned cake recipe. Miss F and I made this one together the other day. There’s a bunch of traditional baking skills to pass on while you whip this up. There’s lining the tin, creaming butter and sugar and all the little baking tips, like making sure everything is at room temperature and if the mix starts to curdle when you add the eggs, chuck in a spoonful of flour to pull it all back together.

Even if you’re not a proficient cake maker, this recipe is easy enough that you can fake your way through it and earn some serious kudos from your kids who will be delighted by the smells and textures and very pleased with the end result of your handiwork. Particularly if you drizzle over a dollop of cream.

Apple heaven, and easy, too.

Traditional apple cake

3 eating apples (I used royal gala)
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Juice 1/2 lemon
150g butter – cubed, at room temperature
Just over 3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs – at room temperature
Just over 1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

Glaze:
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line the base of a 23cm springform tin with baking paper and grease the edges with oil spray or butter.

Core and slice the apples (about 4-5mm slices). Toss them into a bowl with the combined cinnamon, vanilla & lemon juice. Combine well.

Add the butter to a bowl and cream using hand held beaters (or do this in your mixmaster if you have one). Add in the sugar, a large spoonful at a time until combined well and your mix is creamy and pale brown (it’s worth taking your time with this step).

Beat in the eggs, one at a time. (If the mix starts to curdle at this stage, adding a spoonful of flour will pull the mix back together.) After the eggs are well combined, mix through the flour (mix the baking powder into the flour). Drain off the juice from the apples and stir that through gently.

Transfer the mix into your cake tin. Use a spatula to spread it our evenly. Tip your apples on top – make them look a bit pretty if you like, but don’t go crazy, the cake mix rises up to engulf them quite a bit.

Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes until a skewer pushed down into the cake part comes out clean. (Check the cake at 40 minutes and if the edges of apple are starting to burn, cover it with foil).

Mix together the sugar and boiling water. Use a pastry brush to dab it over the whole cake while it is still hot, straight out of the oven. Leave to cool slightly before undoing the pan.

Serve warm or cold, delicious on it’s own, but a bit of cream will make it even more indulgent.

_____________________________

Like apple desserts? Try this recipe for stewed apples.
Or try these apple, pear & prune pastry squares.

_____________________________

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A quick easter treat – bunny tails!

April 14, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged celebrations, fruit, ideas, treats

Sick to death of Easter eggs? Needing a bit of crafty-cooking to fill in half an hour of school holiday time? Why not whip up some of these bunny tails. They’re easy as, too. Just melt some white chocolate (I’m lazy and do mine in the microwave, but feel free to use the bain marie method over simmering water). Dip cut slices of banana into the chocolate then toss them into a bowl of coconut (desiccated or shredded – whatever you have on hand will do) and coat well. Transfer onto a plate and leave to set in the fridge for half an hour.

Chocolate is an inevitable fact of Easter life and one that I don’t fight too much. Especially in this week before, I just let the kids get excited and have fun. At least with this piece of the sugar-a-thon you have an activity that you can do with them and you know that a couple of nutrients might be making into them, too.

I’m having an Easter sale! 15% off storewide, until midnight, April 17, 2014 (AEST).

Wishing you all a wonderful break.
x

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The best recipes for busy parents

April 8, 2014 · Filed under All recipes · Tagged recipe

This is my cookbook collection. I'll be doing well to cook 3 recipes from each.

Here’s all my cookbooks. I haven’t even cooked once from each one.

Should you ever find yourself in the midst of a toilet-paper emergency (ie, there isn’t any), solve the deficit by grabbing your nearest cookbooks, tear the pages into strips and wipe your be-hind with those.

Why? Research has shown that people only cook an average of three recipes from each cookbook they own, meaning that there’s a good chance that the pages randomly ripped out won’t be crucial to your future.

Most certainly, my cookbooks are the exception, right? I’ll consider myself a success if you’ve whipped up 5 or 6 recipes from each of mine. However considering that most of my books are now ebooks, maybe reconsider using them for bog roll – your ipad might never be the same again afterwards. Although I’ve heard immersion in a bag of rice fixes most device misadventures.

Sadly there’s no research on recipe usage on websites. Possibly it’s the same, but a website is so much harder to flick through. To save you time, here are the three recipes that I cook from Vegie Smugglers the most often. And if you like these, you might want to check out all of my products, here.

Classic noodle & cabbage salad – a summer staple.

Chicken & udon soup. Especially good after sickness or overindulgence.

Berry & oat muffins. Freezer & lunchbox friendly.

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Is that something green in your teeth (and thumb)? PLUS a discount offer on a great product

April 1, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, gardening, recipe, vegetables

Part of the ongoing challenge of feeding kids well is getting the balance right between educating them about food but not making nutrition into such a big issue that they’ll grow into teenagers who rebel and reject us and our quaint “here, have a carrot stick” ways. I think I sometimes do tip into the food-nazi zone. Like when my 6-year-old pushed his spoon through his noodle soup and questioned, “Where’s the protein?” it seemed obvious that we’d had one healthy food lecture, too many.

Luckily, there are more subtle ways of making food education part of the every day. Growing stuff is a perfect way to educate kids quietly. A nice way to practice what you preach.

Problem is though, that some of us have green thumbs and others don’t. I don’t. I’m too sporadic with watering, too forgetful. I’ve got possums and snails and caterpillars that love to party, gorging their green little asses on my outdoor sweat & tears.

All of which adds up to making me a perfect guinea pig for Matt, who offered me a bit of Vegepod salvation.

Generally I avoid PR posts and I’m proud to say that I don’t get paid to talk about anything on this blog (I make a coin by selling my products, instead). So if I do, it’s because it’s a product I like, generally from a small, local business that is working hard with minimal budget to promote big ideas.

Rather than blabber about the Vegepod itself (you can visit the website and find out all about it, instead), I’ll just show you this pic of what I’ve managed to grow in just over 5 weeks. With my little microclimate under the hood, I’ve even got late season basil underway, long after my other stuff in pots has all gone to seed.

Hand clap!

Best yet, is that the kids are totally excited about the more exotic stuff that we’re now managing to grow. I’m always astonished at how much more enthusiastic they are about eating something that they’ve picked themselves. This silverbeet is a perfect example.

And if you’re interested in a Vegepod, Matt has offered VS readers a 10% discount by entering “smugglers” into the coupon field. Offer expires April 6.

Thanks Matt & hope you sell heaps of Vegepods!

You don’t have to hide vegies, so long as they’re delicious!

Creamed spinach

1 bunch silverbeet, washed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
150ml pouring cream
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
pinch of ground nutmeg
pepper

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Drop in the silverbeet, a few leaves at a time. Use tongs to remove them after about 30 seconds. Transfer to a colander. Continue until the whole bunch is cooked. Set aside to cool slightly.
Squeeze out the excess water from the silverbeet, slice the leaves off the stems (discard stems) and roughly chop the leaves.

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion for 6-8 minutes or until golden and soft. Toss in the spinach leaves and cream. Stir until hot, mix through the cheddar and sprinkle over the nutmeg. Season with pepper.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS as a side dish

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Those stinking, overripe bananas are your new best friend

March 25, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged fruit, ideas, lunchbox, parenting, recipe, treats

At some stage throughout the week I find myself dashing into the supermarket to ‘grab a few things’.

The list of ‘those things’ was clear as day in my head while I was driving to the supermarket. But once inside the frenzied walls, surrounded by 40,000 products and a clock that is reminding me that I’ve only got 10 minutes to shop, pay and get to the school gate, my mind goes amazingly blank. All I’ll remember is that the list had four things on it, and that they were eclectic. So in a panic, I’ll grab milk, bananas, marinated tofu and tampons. Only to get home and find that I actually needed udon noodles, olives, deoderant and cat food.

After a few trips just like this, I end up with a dulux-colour-chart worth of banana bunches in varying states of decay. And despite lunchboxes, icecream and smoothies, I seem to constantly have a bunch of near-mush that is a degrading reminder of the inadequacies of my brain.

Lucky then, that I’ve got four sure-fire recipes that use them up in ways that transform my self image from harried, forgetful, middle-aged-woman to sexy and resourceful domestic goddess.

Click to visit the recipe…

Basis banana bread. Always delicious.

vegie smugglers choc chip almond and banana muffin

Choc chip, almond & banana muffins.

Carrot & muesli muffins

And finally, this piece of recipe gold….

Gluten free, egg free banana cookies

‘2 ingredient’ banana cookies

These are called ‘2 ingredient’ since the only essential elements are the bananas and oats. Beyond that, you can add dried fruit, nuts and flavouring to suit your family.

2 overripe bananas, peeled
1 cup oats (gluten free is fine here)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup choc chunks (I just cut up choc melts)

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

Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl.

Add the oats, cinnamon and coconut to a mini food processor and blitz it up a bit to break the oats down a little.

Mix the oat mix into the banana, roll into balls, press onto trays and bake for 15 minutes until set.

Makes 16

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Enjoy watching your toddler feed themselves lentils!

March 18, 2014 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, freezer, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

Yes, it’s true, these little balls of deliciousness are perfect toddler food but they’re also a popular snack with older kids, too. The secret is that the sweet potato (or kumara), is ROASTED, so they’re rich and enticing which means the lentils aren’t noticed at all.

To get the mash, I chuck the whole sweet potato into the oven (don’t peel it or anything so tedious) and cook it for about an hour at 180C. Then, whenever you’re ready during the day, you can get onto making this super-healthy, egg-free snack.

Perfect for independent toddlers

Sweet potato, lentil & rice balls

1 cup roasted sweet potato
1 cup cooked brown rice (or white rice is ok, too)
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup cooked brown lentils (I use tinned – give them a good rinse)
1 tbsp tomato chutney (or beetroot relish is also good)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or gluten-free breadcrumbs are good, too)
Spray oil

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a large oven tray with baking paper.

Mash the cooked sweet potato in a large bowl. Evenly mix in the rice, cheese, lentils and chutney.

Roll bite-sized balls of mixture, coat in the breadcrumbs and place on the tray. Spray them with oil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Turn once during cooking (if you can be bothered) and give them an extra spray of oil part way through.

Makes about 30

*THESE FREEZE!
Usually you’ll have more than one cup of mash after roasting a whole sweet potato. Just up the quantities of the other ingredients to suit and make a heap – these freeze well. Just remember for reheating that you need to thaw them then bake them in the oven – they go soggy in the microwave.