treats | Vegie Smugglers

Posts tagged treats

Muffin mania

June 30, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged cooking for kids, lunchbox, recipe, treats

Geez I make muffins a lot. Probably once a week. Possibly because I’m too lazy to cut up a whole cake (and also the fact that my oven is too crappy to cook a whole cake well). I love the fact that with minimal kitchen skills I can create so many varying culinary delights. They can be savoury for lunch, as a side dish with a soup, or of course, sweet and fantastic for lunchboxes and afternoon tea. You can make luscious large ones, mini ones that freeze well for lunchboxes or use pattie pans to make ‘muffin tops’ that look nice and large but are actually only a small amount of batter.

Since they’re so simple to make, you can get the kids onto cooking them and quite possibly they’ll stay focused for the entire recipe before getting bored and wandering off to cause destruction elsewhere.

Here’s a selection to try this week, while the kids are looking for things to do…

Cheese & vegie.

vegie smugglers choc chip almond and banana muffin

Choc chip, almond & banana.

Ready for this arvo & tomorrow (if there are any left).

Oat & berry.

vegie smugglers apple and sultana mini muffins

Apple & sultana muffin tops.

Chocolate, bran & zucchini.

What other flavour combos are popular in your house?

We also like strawberry muffins (from Vegie Smugglers 1), Cheese & ham muffins (from Vegie Smugglers 2) and Blueberry muffins (from 10 quickbakes/10 sandwich spreads).

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Choc-chip & chickpea cookies

June 4, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, lunchbox, parenting, recipe, treats

So here is the recipe for the biscuits that made Mr Meat&Potatoes cry.

The sight of these freshly baked goodies had him so excited that he was dancing with joy and then he spotted the chickpeas and came to an abrupt and dramatic halt. It was the moment when he realised that THERE ARE ALWAYS VEGETABLES IN HIS FOOD. Even the biscuits. The tears came. He cried to me, “But why mummy, WHY are there always vegetables in everything?”

After a bit of explaining about how I’m the vegie-smuggling lady, and that surprise nutrition is kind of an occupational hazard, he sucked it up and ate one. Then asked for another. Because they taste delicious.

And that’s the thing, see. Kids need to learn that healthy food is normal and part of every day. They need to accept that while it doesn’t always thrill them, they’ve got no choice so they may as well eat it. And if it tastes good, they’ll learn that healthy food is normal and yummy.

These are also the biscuits that make Mr VS fat. Or so he says (just quietly, it could be the beer, prolonged commuting and lack of exercise). But he can never eat less than three of these at a time. I manage to stop after two, so long as I know that there will be one more of them with my cup of tea after dinner.

Even better, they’re a tongue twister. Try saying ‘choc chip & chickpea cookies’ a few times, fast.

Good.

Choc chip and chickpea cookies

100g butter, softened
1 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
1 cup brown sugar (use 3/4 cup caster sugar instead if you want to give the cooked biscuits a longer shelf life)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 1/4 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup choc chips (I like the dark ones)
3/4 cup cooked chickpeas (I use tinned ones, just rinse and drain well)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line oven trays with baking paper (you’ll probably need 3 trays).

Use hand-held beaters or your mixmaster to cream the butter, oil and brown sugar together. Start with the butter, then combine in the oil, then add the sugar and whip for a couple of minutes until it’s lovely and creamy.

Add in the vanilla and egg. Beat well, then sift over the flour & baking powder. Fold it in (don’t worry, it seems like too much at first, but trust me it will combine in). Mix in the choc chips and chickpeas.

Use your hands (wet them slightly first) to roll ping pong-ball size quantities of mixture, press (& flatten slightly) onto the trays (allow a bit of room for spreading) and bake for 15 minutes until golden.

Makes 24ish good-sized biscuits.

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Other biscuit recipes on Vegie Smugglers…

Anzac biscuits
Oat, sultana & sesame seed biscuits
Marmalade biscuits

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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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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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Dig out the lunchboxes… again

January 22, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged feeding the family, lunchbox, parenting, treats

How are you feeling about the upcoming return to school? I’ve enjoyed spending time with my kids and I’ve had a house full of them and their friends throughout January (I actually did a tally and I’ve had a total of 34 different kids pass through my doors!) – it’s been nice to listen to them all play and get to know the personalities of my children’s friends.

But the prospect of the return to routines and of empty lunchboxes staring at me every morning does fill me with a bit of dread. As always, I’ll turn to my Lunchbox planner, which has 40 weeks of plans which takes some of the thinking out of it! I keep everything pretty simple, but throw in a weekly recipe and use lots of seasonal fruit and veg to keep things interesting. You can buy a copy of the e-book here.

There’s been a bunch of great posts around lately full of back to school ideas and advice. I liked this post from Natural New Age Mum with biscuit ideas – they all look great! At the moment I’m working on a new quick-bake e-book and here’s a little preview. It’s another biscuit suggestion that pops a bit of fibre into the lunchbox and gives them some energy for the afternoon session.

Best wishes to all of those sending off your kids for the first time. I did that last year, and it was extremely bittersweet. This year is much more relaxed, there are no nerves, just excitement about which class we’ll be in with which friends. What a difference 12 months makes!

Biscuits. They make me happy.

Oat, sultana and sesame biscuits

½ cup self-raising flour
1½ cups oats
¼ cup Allbran cereal
3 tbsp sesame seeds (optional, but recommended)
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
½ cup sultanas or currants
60g butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a medium sized bowl. Mix in the oats, bran, seeds, cinnamon, salt and sultanas.

In a separate, larger bowl, use hand-held beaters to combine the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and mix well.

Use a spoon to fold in the dry ingredients. Pop on kitchen gloves to avoid mess and roll out ping-pong sized balls of mixture. Place on the trays and bake for 12-15 minutes until just brown.

MAKES ABOUT 24.

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What’s your food intolerance?

January 15, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats, Vegetarian · Tagged fruit, recipe, treats

A lot of people I know have an allergy or intolerance to some kind of food. Maybe they can’t eat gluten or eggs or meat or nuts.

For me, it’s dairy. And it’s getting worse as I get older. I manage it with a combination of substitution, abstinence and patience. I understand and accept that I’ll always feel sick after eating in most (non-asian) restaurants, where it is apparently incomprehensible that you can cook without oodles of butter. And I accept that I’ll never be able to eat dessert at most restaurants since ‘dessert’ is apparently a code word for ‘cream’ with the only other option being cheese.

It does frustrate me when I have to pay extra for soy milk in my coffee. With food sensitivities being so widespread, surely a café should allow for all of the soy/skim/rice milk variants when they set their basic prices. 50c extra seems like highway robbery – it’s not like us soy latte wankers are particularly rare.

And while I’m ranting, I went to a restaurant recently that didn’t have a single vegetarian main meal on the menu. And no, waitress, fish is actually meat. As is bacon. And chicken – that’s meat too. I was horrified that a pretty ritzy place wouldn’t even whip up a ‘off the menu’ option. My strict vegetarian friend had just two entrée options to choose from. Lucky she likes raw beetroot and dairy-laden artichokes.

Surely these days, all cafes and restaurants should be creative enough to offer up one allergy free option. Maybe something like this is tapioca dessert. It’s vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and delicious.

Proof that dairy-free, gluten-free desserts are possible!

Coconut & mango tapioca (from Vegie Smugglers 2)

7-8 cups water
2/3 cup tapioca pearls
400ml coconut milk
2–3 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

To serve:
Sliced mango and banana

Add the water to a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.

Add the tapioca pearls to the water and simmer until they are mostly cooked and translucent (this can take up to an hour for large pearls). Check often during cooking; stir to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan (if this is happening, add another cup of water). Err on the side of undercooking – a small opaque centre is fine, they will finish cooking in the coconut milk (overcooked tapioca just dissolves into sludge).

Drain and rinse.

Return the tapioca to the pan with the coconut milk, sugar and vanilla. Simmer gently over low heat until warm and thick.
Serve in bowls with the fruit.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

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Every day ice-cream (fruit smuggling at its finest)

December 6, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged feeding the family, freezer, fruit, ideas, recipe, treats

Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream

When I put this dessert down in front of my kids last night, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Post-dinner treats at VSHQ consist of fruit and yoghurt (they get ice-cream at nanny & pa’s house) so they didn’t know WHAT they had done to deserve this magnificent creation.

Little did they know that there was some serious fruit smuggling taking place and there wasn’t a single unhealthy thing before them.

You see if you blitz up a frozen banana, you magically get the consistency of ice-cream. You can leave it as a magic one-ingredient dessert if you like, or you can add in some honey or other fruit. In this case I’ve used a couple of mango cheeks, then drizzled over some pomegranate seeds and ‘sprinkles’ of toasted coconut.

Best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally flexible to suit your family. You could replace the mango with berries and experiment with other toppings like pistachios and toasted almonds. I suspect frozen kiwifruit would work too, although I’ve not tried it. Maybe you can all do some experimenting and let me know what variation works at your place.

Magic fruit ice cream

1 mango
2 bananas (ripe but not over-ripe)
Pomegranate & toasted coconut to serve (optional).

Cut the flesh away from the mango skin (if you’re not sure how, watch this video). Pop into a plastic bag and freeze along with the whole bananas. When solid, peel the bananas (totally do-able – the skin comes away in chunks).

Place the bananas into the bowl of a food processor (a mini one will be fine for this quantity) and blitz until smooth.

Add in the mango and again, blitz until smooth. Pop this back into the freezer to harden up again (blitzing may have softened it all a little). Spoon into pretty bowls and serve to your astonished and amazed children.

Serves 4 kids, or 2 kids and 2 non-greedy adults

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Naughty and 40

November 18, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged celebrations, chocolate, lunchbox, treats

Have you ever had that experience of waking up, looking in the mirror and being a bit shocked by what you see? I had that moment over the weekend when I looked and welcomed another significant wrinkle. Not content with adding to my collection of laugh lines, this one actually crosses over the laugh lines forming a nice mesh, reminiscent of fishnets but far less alluring.

Apparently the phrase ‘aging overnight’ is based on fact, not fiction. It’s true, people don’t age gradually, but in ‘clunks’ and after the age of 35 we’re in aging freefall.

Having a second non-sleeping baby at 34½ apparently gave me a double whammy of aging. My ‘overnight’ seemed to stretch for one blurry four-year period and then when my focus cleared enough to look in the mirror, I was 38 and not the youthful flower I had been seven years earlier when I breathlessly announced my first pregnancy. (Incidentally, women feel at their most beautiful at age 32).

Searching the web on all things aging, I was thrilled to discover ‘Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome’ which is the sudden aging of soap characters. Like when Bridget Forrester suddenly got old enough to be in a love triangle with her mother and Deacon. And I’m wondering if all those university hours spent watching ‘The Bold & The Beautiful’ was detrimental to my health and somehow it twiddled with my gene structure to leave me stuck with that syndrome. You see, in my mind, I’m still 25. Which is weird, because my daughter turns 9 next birthday and she’s nearly as tall as me.

Actually the truth is that I’m pondering all these things because I’m turning 40 this week. And no matter how I try to deny it, people keep doing things like giving me birthday cards with ’40 and naughty’ on the front and cheery messages like “you’re another year more wonderful”. The sentiment is sweet, but I can’t help but think of people saying, “gee you must be lucky” when a bird craps on your jacket. They’re trying to make you feel better, but really, it’s all a little bit bullshit.

So sticking with sweet, it seems right to do a chocolate slice recipe this week. And when you bite in, think of me, huddled in the old lady corner, lamenting the loss of my youth.

Happy birthday to me, I live in a tree…

Chocolate slice

1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup oat bran
40g butter, melted and cooled
140g tub apple purée
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly whisked

Icing
1 1/4 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp water
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a lamington/slice tin with baking paper (leave some to hang over the two long sides).

Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, coconut and oat bran. Mix lightly.

In a separate bowl or jug combine the butter, purée, eggs and vanilla.

Pour the wet into the dry and fold until totally combined. Spoon the mixture into your tin and patiently spread with a spatula until even. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tray.

Sift the icing sugar mixture and cocoa into a bowl. Add in the water and mix well then pour over the slice and leave it to harden in the tin.

Use the sides of the paper to lift out and slice into 20 pieces.

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Fat bum? Empty wallet? Try these cheap school holiday ideas.

September 20, 2012 · Filed under Craft for non-crafty parents, News · Tagged craft, family, ideas, parenting, treats

DISCLAIMER: This is a Levis curve ID ad, NOT my ‘ass’.

Bracing for the chaos of school holidays, I scheduled in a bit of ‘me’ time this week. I planned a long overdue hair appointment and time afterwards for a masochistic quest for a new pair of jeans and a vaguely flattering cozzie.

With the kids dropped off, I made it to the shops just in time to dash to the loo and discover that my period had started. Profusely. Obviously, it was a bad sign. But we all know how precious and hard-won a few hours to ourselves is – NOTHING was going to stop me.

Three hours and $250 later I left the hairdresser feeling drab. Stuck in that female twilight land between young and cool and old and forgotten I looked like a nice sensible newsreader. But I persevered. It was my ‘me’ day, after all.

Searching for swimmers was no more gratifying. I’m too stretch-marked for bikinis, but about 25 years too young for one of those scary pre-shaped nanna cozzies.

Feeling my nerves fraying, I gave up on that and headed for jeans. With only an hour until pick up, I grabbed several pairs and headed for a change-room where I analysed my arse up close for the first time since I last bought jeans. It wasn’t pretty. I tried to remember if the rule is that small back pockets make your arse look fat, or if it’s big pockets will make your arse look fat and then realized that actually my arse just looked fat because it IS fat. Despairing, I chucked my own old favourite jeans back on, only to discover that they indeed ALSO MAKE MY ARSE LOOK FAT. Sigh.

I bought a scarf. Abandoning all hope I headed to the car only to discover that I’d slipped over into hour 5 and now needed to pay $25 to get my crappy old car released from this hellish torture centre known as Chatswood Chase.

On the bright side, after a terrible day of focusing on myself, I’m now more than happy to shift over to simpler places and focus on the kids for a couple of weeks. I’ve done some planning and researched a few free, fun ‘Spring’ activities to keep us busy. Which is lucky, considering in my unsatisfying vanity quest, I’ve spent all our money.

Miss F will be delighted to combine her two favourite things (pressing flowers & rock collecting) in this project to make a decoupage paperweight. Once that’s gotten boring, she can move onto making coasters for Nanna (sorry Nanna, we won’t mind if they disappear after a couple of visits).

More on the flower theme, girls of all ages will enjoy whipping up these Martha Stewart tissue pom poms.

Boys might want to skip the florals and head straight for bugs, with these cool critter craft ideas. And here’s a weird little spider to make. You need an empty soft-drink can for the last one, which you’ll have after you’ve introduced your kids to the joy of a spider you can drink. Not healthy, but hugely fun, place a small scoop of ice-cream in a really big tall glass, then pour over enough soft drink (lemonade is the least offensive, but traditionally you should use creaming soda) to get a good fizz going. Serve with a big long spoon. Your kids will not believe their luck. Ice cream AND soft drink all in one dish.

While they’re on a treat theme, why not astonish them with your awesomeness by helping them make honeycomb. Practically sunshine in your mouth, you make it by boiling up sugar and golden syrup, then popping in some bicarb. There’s a nice easy recipe for it here.

With sunshine in your mouth and sugar in your veins, it’s time for a holiday YouTube disco (with a sunshine theme of course). Go retro with Katrina & the Waves – Walking on Sunshine, Stevie Wonder – You are the sunshine of my life, The Animals – House of the rising sun, Len – Steal my sunshine or Dario G – Sunchyme (remember that video clip with all the people being animals? The kids will love it).

And if they’ve still got energy to burn, then head to the park for some running about. There are some great activities to choose from here. (I particularly like the ‘giant, wizard, elf’ game, which is a whole body version of ‘scissors, paper, rock’ that ends with chasings).

And with all that to keep you busy, you won’t have to go anywhere near a shopping centre. Praise the lord.

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For more school holiday ideas, visit here (with the psychedelic marble cake) or more ‘on the cheap’ ideas here.

The easiest cupcake recipe ever

September 9, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged celebrations, feeding the family, freezer, lunchbox, parenting, recipe, treats

It’s true that I own an embarrassing amount of cookbooks. It’s a compulsion that lures me into every second hand bookstore I pass. There are cookbooks for baking with yeast, Danish sandwich making and Pritikin diets. Most are curiosities, mostly unused. But amid the novelties are essentials and the Sally Wise cookbooks are ones I refer to over and over again. Possibly because her food is a perfect fit for me and how I cook. Family food. Flavour over fancy. No smears, no complicated reductions, just page after page of family winners. Her gluten free book should be a first port of call for those of you needing help in that area. Her slow cooker book is fantastic and her preserves books are the only ones you will need (should that be your thing).

So I was keen to get her new book, ‘Sweet’. It’s perfect for those of us heading towards a spring season of cake stalls and fete days.

Our school fundraiser was last weekend and I’d pledged 24 cupcakes. Thinking I’d be making my life easier, I went to buy a packet mix. Looking on the back I saw I’d need to add my own eggs, oil and milk. Soooo…. ummmmm…. what exactly is in the packet then? Just flour, sugar-like substances and a stack of preservatives, thickeners and colourings. I popped it back, pretty sure I could do better.

So straight to Sally and she came to my rescue. This cake mix is SO incredibly easy and the cakes were really good.

A tiny teddy never goes astray.

Sally Wise’s Chocolate Cupcakes (from Sweet!) My comments are in italics.

Makes 10 (although I made a triple batch and ended up with about 3 dozen).

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup milk
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
90 g butter, melted

Heat oven to 160C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for two minutes until thick & creamy. (YES, TRULY, THIS IS ALL YOU DO!!!!)

Fill cases to 2/3 full and bake for 12-15 minutes or so until the middle of the cake is springy (IN MY CRAP OVEN, THE COOKING TIME WAS ACTUALLY JUST OVER 20 MINS)

Cool completely, then ice.

Icing
180g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp softened butter
boiling water.

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl, mix in the butter and enough boiling water to make a smooth consistency.

I dipped my iced cakes in sprinkles and topped with a tiny teddy. I noticed during my time of the cupcake stall that lollies and really colourful toppings were MUCH more popular than the more measly, spartan looking ones.