vegetables | Vegie Smugglers

Posts tagged vegetables

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) »

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) »

Because wrapping stuff in pastry makes it yum

March 15, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Red meat, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged cooking techniques, dinner, feeding the family, kids, parenting, pastry, recipe, vegetables

vegie smugglers beef triangles with vegetables and puff pastry

Yum.

There are several universal truths when it comes to raising Australian children.

1. Getting them into and out of cars is going to be a painful and long-winded exercise. Shoes will be missing; toys lost and drink bottles astonishingly empty (and car seats wet).

2. The more disgusting the public toilet that you find yourself in, the longer your contented child will wish to languish (“the poo is almost here mummy”). And the bigger the incident, the fewer tissues you will have handy.

3. If they are to be struck down with a sudden and violent episode of projectile vomiting, it will be between 3-6am, usually just before you are due to do some incredibly crucial work thing.

On a brighter note, it is also true that things covered in pastry are yummier and much more likely to be eaten by your delightful youngsters.

Which is why the Vegie Smugglers cookbook features quite a few recipes making the most of the adored, yet not exactly healthy stuff. Being a mum, not a dietitian, I have the advantage of not freaking out at the idea of utilising some less healthy ingredients for the greater nutritional good.

Puff pastry though, is very high in fat – even the 25% reduced fat stuff. Use it occasionally and make sure that you make the most of it by cramming in all sorts of good ingredients – like my sausage rolls, which are full of mushrooms and lentils. (In the book I’ve got salmon pots full of broccoli and a fruit treat jammed full of apples, pear and prunes – which may help speed up your public toilet visits considerably).

Today’s recipe is a glorious Indian-inspired dish. Just a hint of spice gets the kid’s palettes keen for more exotic flavour and opens the door to a whole new cuisine (unless you’re Indian, in which case you might prefer a bolognaise or lasagne for a bit of cross cultural goodness). This mince filling is also good on baked potatoes and freezes perfectly for a couple of months.

Beef triangles

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
500g beef mince
1 tsp curry powder
1 carrot, peeled, grated
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
½ red or yellow capsicum, deseeded, finely diced
½ cup beef stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
Black pepper
5 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 egg, whisked, for glazing

Fruit chutney, to serve

Preheat oven to 190C.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft. Add mince and brown, breaking up lumps as you go. Add curry powder and all the vegies and mix well.

Add the stock and soy sauce and simmer vigorously over medium-high heat until most of the liquid is evaporated and the vegies are soft. Season with pepper.

Cut each pastry sheet into four squares. Place 2 tbsp of mixture in the centre of each square. Fold diagonally to create triangles, pressing firmly on the edges to seal well.

Brush with egg and bake on oven trays lined with baking paper for 10-15 minutes until golden. Serve beef triangles with chutney.

MAKES 20

A ‘one-of-those-weeks’ survival guide

March 2, 2011 · Filed under All recipes · Tagged feeding the family, parenting, recipe, vegetables

It turns out that this week is ‘one of those weeks’.

You’re probably pretty familiar with them yourself. All of the regular commitments dot the calendar with the addition of quite a few extra curricular thingys too. And then to get really razzed up, I’ll throw in a school hours classroom visit, extra graphic design jobs, a burglar alarm that mysterious and randomly is going off throughout the night, a child’s birthday and all of the ensuing extravaganza (two parties + one in-laws-for-the-weekend visit) and a car that is mysteriously ‘clunking’ every time I turn left. Did I mention that I’m having root canal this morning? Yep, 10.30.

Still, I had it all vaguely under control and scheduled. My mind was spinning but mostly clear when I kissed the top of Miss F’s head after school on Monday. But then I looked down and saw the hellish sight that triggers fear in the hearts of even the bravest parent….. a nit.

Schedules toppled as my mum-brain went into overtime trying to find the extra time and access to water needed to smoothly slot nit treatments into the mix before bell time the next day.

We work hard, don’t we, us life administrators.

Food is so totally NOT high on the priority list this week. The main requirement for this week’s dinners is anything easy and quick. With no time to devise something new, lets find the quickest of quick vegie smugglers fixes…

10 minutes mixing, 25 mins cooking (just enough to bathe everyone)

15 minutes prep. 30 minutes cooking (while you help with homework)

Grill capsicum & boil water while you do washing; then ready in 10.

Hope your week is going better than mine. Will report back once things calm down.

Hippie food for hi-tech kids

February 24, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Vegetarian · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, parenting, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

It’s time to brush off the cookbooks from the 70s and revisit the health food section of the supermarket. Don’t be scared, everything is going to be OK.

Remember that kids have no inborn aversion to cliched hippie food like lentils and tofu. They will take their cues from YOU, so challenge your own food aversions and experiment a little. You might even find, that ‘health food’ meals like these lentil burgers are actually delicious and quickly become family favourites. They’re nutritious, quick and easy to make and individual patties can be frozen (find full freezing and defrosting instructions in the book).

Lentils made delicious.

Lentil burgers

400g can brown lentils, rinsed, drained
1 cup mashed sweet potato (or plain potato)
1 carrot, peeled, grated
3 spring onions,
finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Grated rind from
1 lemon
1 egg, lightly whisked
2 tbsp tomato chutney
½ cup fresh breadcrumbs
Salt & black pepper

Canola oil cooking spray

Avocado and tomato slices, lettuce, burger buns and plain yoghurt, to serve

Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to really combine everything well. Form patties (whatever size suits your family) and place on baking paper on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-20 minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Spray pan with cooking spray. Cook the patties for 5-6 minutes on each side.

Serve with avocado, tomato, lettuce and a dollop of yoghurt on a burger bun. These are also delicious in wraps dolloped with tzatziki.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

Comments (5) »

What the kids eat in… Mexico (part 2)

February 17, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques, What the kids eat in... · Tagged cooking techniques, dinner, feeding the family, ideas, recipe, vegetables

Recently we were having all sorts of discussions about quick summer dinners and the challenges of vegie smuggling in salads. Hiding vegies in salads is much harder and these dishes are best for kids further along on the smuggling scale (ie, they’ll tackle vaguely identifiable stuff).

If you’re lucky enough to have herbivorous kids like that, then you’ve got a great range of tasty dishes awaiting you. Including these Mexican-inspired side dishes. They’re perfect in tortillas (jumbled together, with or without some grilled chicken or fish) or dollop small amounts on crackers for pre-dinner snacks. They’re even good on burgers and on top of hotdogs.

Adults can top theirs with some pickled jalapenos or fresh chilli and before you know it, dinner is served. Quickly, freshly and packed full of nutrition.

I’m giving you my guacamole recipe here. For the salsa and mexi-beans recipes…. well you’ll find them on page 121 of the cookbook.

Margaritas, sombreros and a bit of goodness on the side

Guacamole

1 avocado, peeled, diced
2 spring onions, finely diced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 garlic clove, crushed (optional, but recommended)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander (optional)
Salt & pepper

Combine everything in a small bowl. Season to taste.

January 4. Time to put the chocolate DOWN

January 4, 2011 · Filed under All recipes, Chicken, News, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged chicken, Christmas, feeding the family, recipe, vegetables

How much chocolate, how many chips and how many glasses of wine have you had since mid-December? I’ve no idea either, but I do know that it’s been A LOT. Daily, in fact. Whilst I’ve still been getting good quantities of fruit into the kids, and some vegies, a large amount of sugar, salt and fat has been passing their lips too. And now, with the work year back underway, it’s time to stop.

The first few days back on track are difficult. I know at 4pm today, my fingers will be itching for chips and my thirst for wine will be difficult to ignore. After dinner I’ll be digging through the cupboards to see if maybe there’s just one piece of something a bit naughty left… (there’s not)

Best news is that within a few days I’ll be starting to feel much, much better. My energy will return, the kids will settle down, and the world will be a shinier, happier place. And I’ll remember why it is that I love eating well and why I bother trying to get so many vegetables into my children.

Start your detox gently, with this chicken & pasta soup. It’s satisfying enough to fill our overstretched tummies, but the flavours are clean and there’s a good hit of vegies. Best of all, it works well for the whole family. Blend it up for baby food, drain off most of the liquid for the smaller kids. Leave as is for the rest of the kids and the adults can add generous amounts of parsley, pepper and parmesan.

vegie smugglers chicken pasta and vegetable soup

My kind of detox – pasta, chicken and bacon amongst the vegies…

Chicken, vegie & pasta soup

1 tbsp olive oil
500g chicken thigh fillets, fat trimmed, sliced into thin pieces
100g bacon, diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 potato, peeled, finely diced
1 swede, peeled, finely diced
1 large carrot, peeled, finely diced
1 zucchini, finely diced
½ cup finely diced celery
3 tbsp chopped herbs of your choice (choose any combination of basil, parsley, oregano and chives)
6 cups chicken stock
1 cup frozen peas
¾ cup risoni
Salt & black pepper

Crusty bread, to serve

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken for 4-5 minutes until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same saucepan, cook the bacon and onion, stirring often, for 5 minutes until onion is soft.

Add the diced vegies and cook for another 7-8 minutes, stirring often to avoid sticking.
Mix through the herbs, then add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chicken, peas and pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes until pasta is cooked. Season to taste.

Serve in bowls with crusty bread. Try topping soup with chopped parsley and grated parmesan.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

Like this recipe? Check out my cookbooks to find a bunch more meals that your family will love.

Comments (5) »

Bring a plate

December 15, 2010 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Vegetarian · Tagged celebrations, Christmas, feeding the family, pastry, recipe, vegetables

It’s night after night of celebrations this week. Picnics, carols, swimming parties. It seems never ending. So to avoid the kids eating 16 straight meals of chocolate, chips and candy canes, these little swirls provide a vague notion of health on these balmy evenings.

Have a great party season, I’ll see you all next year…

Stop, go, stop, go, stop go, slow down!!!!!

Traffic light swirls

3 sheets frozen puff pastry

Red
1/2 cup roasted capsicums
1/2 cup semi-dried tomatoes

Amber
125g creamed corn
1 small carrot
Handful grated cheese (mozzarella or pizza cheese is good)

Green
Store-bought pesto
1 small zucchini, grated

Egg, for glazing

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cover two baking trays with baking paper. Separate out the pastry sheets and leave to thaw.

For the red: blitz together the capsicums and tomatoes. Spread over the entire pastry sheet.

For the amber: blitz together the corn and carrot. Spread over the entire pastry sheet. Sprinkle cheese over the top.

For the green: Spread the pesto over the entire sheet. Scatter over the grated zucchini.

Use the plastic backing on the pastry sheets to help you roll them up into a swirl. Cut through the roll into 15-20mm slices. Place on the trays (so they look like little sushi rolls). Brush with egg. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden.

MAKES 30

Comments (5) »

‘tis the season…

November 15, 2010 · Filed under All recipes, News, Vegetarian · Tagged celebrations, feeding the family, kids, parenting, recipe, vegetables

…for tacky concerts tra la la la laaaaaa la la la la.

December fast approaches and around town the extracurricular schools are competing to convince the parents of their students that all the money forked out throughout the year was worthwhile (and therefore we’ll see you again next year). There are concerts, art exhibitions and martial arts displays bombarding thousands of poor parents who are already brain and schedule overloaded as the logistics of Christmas looms.

This is Miss Fruitarian’s first end of year concert. And I am in a state of shock. When I chose the local ballet school, it was on the grounds of proximity, parking and convenience. I had seen the snazzy-troupes-in-fluorescent-lycra pictures in the foyer, but was sure the whole escapade wouldn’t be too bad.

The notes started arriving mid-year. ‘Save the dates’ for concerts, rehearsals and photo days. Scary amounts for costume deposits were mentioned. I started to feel scared.

Reality hit in earnest two weeks ago with the arrival of a skimpy costume covered in metallic polka dots. With matching headband and bike pants that cost me a small fortune. Miss F is delighted with it all and I don’t want to taint her happiness with my own misgivings. But I am wondering what it is in our culture that has turned a simple dance concert into a Jon-Benet Ramsey tribute night? Why the curled hair, red lipstick and tacky costumes?

And why my passive acceptance of the situation? I did complain about the make-up requirements and was treated with disdain, told “they look too washed out on stage without red lipstick”. Other mothers seem fine with it all. Am I alone? My pathetic protest is to use lipgloss only and make plans for new activities next year. Which is a shame. Dancing has been good for Miss F’s coordination and confidence. And performing in front of an audience is good experience. But why all the pizzazz? What’s wrong with a bit of age-appropriate low-key pink tulle? My daughter is 6, and has so many years ahead of her to be a slut. I don’t need the sexploitation of women to be bombarding her just yet.

I look forward to gymnastics next year.

In an attempt to reclaim some innocence, here’s a healthy and cute pink dip to serve at your end of year celebrations.

Just a bit of innocent fun

Beetroot tzatziki

1 small cucumber
200ml plain Greek yoghurt
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed (to taste)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt & black pepper
225g can sliced beetroot, drained

Water crackers and carrot sticks, to serve

Grate the cucumber. Drain excess liquid and then press with paper towel (this will stop your dip being too runny) and place in a bowl. Mix in the yoghurt, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Season to taste.

Blitz the beetroot in a stick blender. If needed, add some of the yoghurt mixture to the blender to give the beetroot a nice smooth consistency.

Mix the beets into the yoghurt mixture (little girls like this stage), and mix until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with water crackers, carrot sticks, green beans, breadsticks, falafels, grilled chicken strips for dipping – anything that takes your imagination. Also delicious on Turkish bread salad sandwiches.

MAKES 2 CUPS