Kids Cooking Thursday - Quiche

Kids Cooking Thursday

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Dragons Musings...

Shout out to Susan at Dragons Musings for this recipe!  Really was a hit, I did have to make some changes working around what I had in the fridge.

Mallee quiche

4 eggs
125g grated cheese
125g chopped bacon (I used ham)
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup S.R. flour (wholemeal, it's all I had)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tblspn chopped parsley or 1 tspn dried

I also added some extra vegies - carrot, zucchini, broccoli, snow peas, capsicum, red onion, and some mushrooms

Chopping up all the veiges, I actually threw all of these in the fry pan with the ham and onion

Whisk up the eggs (remove the shell first :-) )

Throw everything else in and mix together

Them bake until set....and presto, delisho!

Rat_girls first serve.  She went back for seconds and had it for lunch the next day at kindy.  Rat_boy also polished off a similar size portion

Jatz Chicken with Blood & Guts Potatoes

No quite as horrible as it sounds!!!

I channelled my inner Nigella for this dinner, so first I put on some nice lippy, let my hair hang down and put on a very sexy, chest hugging top...! Ok, I was actually wearing a pair of board shorts atleast a size too big that don't zip up, some daggy singlet (possibly a bra) and my hair well it could have been mistaken for a birds nest!

But basically I saw Nigella cook this on TV the other night and Rat_girl proclaimed "mum that looks yummy you should cook that, eeewww blood & guts potatoes YUM" HAHA.  There is no doubt an actual recipe with quantities somewhere online, but I'll just make up what I did.

Blood & Guts Potatoes (also known as twice baked potatoes)

This served 4 people (half potatoe each)

2 x large(ish) potaoes, with skin on, scrubbed

Cheese, (cubed) I used just a chunk

Tomato sauce

Pierce potatoes with a fork, randomly a few times and place in a hot oven, straight on the wire rack to bake for about 1.5hours.  They need to be tender (mine weren't quite tender enough, I'm impatient!)

Once cooked pull out to cool for a bit before you handle them

Then slice in half and scoop out the guts...!

Then use a fork to mash with cheese and tomato sauce.  Then spoon back into the skins.

A bit more sauce on top and they are ready for the oven.  They don't need too long, just enough to melt the cheese.

Jatz Chicken

This served 2 adults, a 4yo and a 10month old (plus there are leftovers in the freezer waiting to be cooked)

2 x chicken breasts, cut into strips or nugget size pieces

butter milk, I had a 600ml carton I would have used about half (next time I might use low fat natural yogurt)

box of jatz biscuits, crushed

Marinate the chicken in the buttermilk, the longer the better apparently, it makes the chicken very tender and juicy...this is what Nigella said :-)

Then coat in the crumbs and lay on a baking tray, if you wish to freeze any for future use, do so at this point.

Bake in the oven, moderate, mine took no more than 15mins and my oven is crappy.

and then voila

Kids Cooking Thursday - Banana & Blueberry Bread (well cake)

Kids Cooking Thursday

Banana and Blueberry bread

adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

265g (1 3/4 cups) self-raising flour ( I used wholemeal)

40g (1/4 cup) plain flour (wholemeal)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
140g (2/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) skim milk (I used oat milk, it was all I had!)
2 eggs, lightly whisked
50g butter, melted, cooled
2 overripe medium bananas, mashed ( we had 3)
Blueberries...couldn't even tell you how many I used just threw them in.
 

Sift the flours and cinnamon

lightly whisk the eggs

mash the bananas

mix together the bananas, eggs, milk and melted butter (eeeeeewwww says Rat_girl)

Add the sugar to the flour, make a well in the middle and mix in the wet ingredients

then throw in the bluberries and fold through

Bake for about 45mins, cool in tin for a little before turning out. 

I've never made banana bread before and I'm not cook at making cakes etc from scratch.  This was yummy!!! It was cut up and frozen and put into lunch boxes.

Kids Cooking Thursday - Hamburgers and Porcupine Balls

This week is all about freezing meals and being prepared.

We mixed up some mince and made hamburgers and porcupine balls to be stored in the freezer to be eaten down the track.

Porcupine Balls

Ingredient

Meatballs:
500gr mince
½ cup breadcrumbs
½ cup raw rice ( I only have brown rice)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs (or fresh if you have them) – I use basil, oregano
1 tbsp tomato sauce

Sauce:
Worcestershire sauce
Salt & pepper
Large can tomato soup and ½ can water

Couldn't be easier, throw everything in together

Give it a good mix (squeeeeeeeeze) with your hands

And roll into balls. We've stored ours in the freezer until we're ready to eat.

I promise to add a finished product photo when I make them.

Hamburgers

I don't have a recipe for these, I use similar ingredients as above but I add some veiges chopped up finely and thrown in.

And same as before throw everything together and squeeeeeeeeze!!!

Ours are then pressed into my hamburger keeper

And stored in the freezer until we're ready

Again I promise finished product photos later on.

I thought this was a good exercise to do with Rat_girl...we done the same with some cookies and cookie dough.  I'll have that post coming up soon.

How many serves of vegies do you eat??

Vegetables are a very important part of our diet, full or fibre, nutrients and water and they are low in calories so you can eat more for less.

There are a couple things I do here to help make sure we eat enough vegies.

First thing I do is, peel (if needed) and cut them up as soon as I get them home that way they are ready to go and only a small amount of preparation is required at meal time.  I know a lot of people do this now and it's exteremly helpful.

I've taken it a step further now and I cut up my ham along with any other cold meats, rockmelon, watermelon and also my cheese.  I've stopped buying grated cheese after I actually looked at the price and realised it's dearer per kilo and when I found out they put extra things it it to stop it sticking together etc.  So I now buy a big 1kg block and grate a third of it and cut the rest into pieces for Rat_girls lunch and stacks.

This doesn't just make it easier at meal times for me, it means that Rat_girl can help herself.  She just goes to the fridge and gets some cut fruit or some carrot sticks or some cheese or ham or whatever.  Oh and also boiled eggs, I also boil 6 or so eggs every 2-3days and put them still in the shell in a container in the fridge and shell as I need them.

There are some tips to make your vegies last longer, don't wash them before you put them in the containers, water drips off and sits in the bottom, wash them as you use them.  Put the containers (this goes for anything) in the fridge with the lid off for a few minutes, let the cool air into the container.  And when you open the container if there is condensation on the lid dry it off with a tea towel.

The other thing I do is add as many hidden vegies into my cooking as possible.  Yes I still serve vegies on the side because kids need to still learn it's important to eat them.  But just incase I throw some more in.

Here is an example of a normal bolonese sauce in our house.

I use this to chop them up nice and small

then throw them in, there is all sorts in there broccoli, caulilower, zucchini, carrots, onion, mushroom, capsicum plus probably some other randoms that I found in the fridge

Then meat and sauce, I use passata or a similar home style brand, it's cheaper than pasta sauces and will last (if you freeze left over in portions) for 2 or 3 sauces.

And there you have a bolonese sauce filled with plenty of hidden vegies....mmmm

Valentines Day (catch up post :-) )

I do agree with the masses that valentines day is a halmark holiday, I've never really been into expensive dinners and sending roses and buying cards etc.  I think Concrete_man and I had one expensive valentines day but it was because he had been away for work for 5 weeks leading up to it.

Anyway this year I made a little effort and had some fun with food.

So for breakfast we had pancakes, excuse the ones that look a little burnt...I get a little distracted sometimes.

We also had heart shaped sandwhiches for lunch, but they weren't worth photgraphing.

Then for dinner...we again made our own ravioli...it took 2 takes though as I botched the first batch, opps.

This part is funnnnnnn

Filled ravioli. cheese and spinach and pumpkin and spinach

Served with the usual bolognese sauce, baby spinach and onion salad.

We had pavlova for dessert too, but I think for the time being you've seen enough of my pavlovas.  Though I'm making one this weekend and might make it just a little different.

My first attempt at homemade pasta

Firstly I need to apologise for the photo.  My camera was flashing battery warning so I grabbed Concrete_man's camera managed to snap off just 1 photo as he was pulling his plate away from me!

I've never made pasta before, let alone ravioli, but for a first attempt with not many tools I think I did ok.

The verdict I think m dough was a little dry and even thought I rolled it out as thin as I could I think it was still a little thick.  But it got eaten so that is the main thing.  For the filing I just boiled and mashed some vegies and mixed with some egg and breadcrumbs to help it stick...no idea if that was the right thing to do but it tasted fine.  Rat_boy enjoyed sucking the centre out of his ravioli

Concrete_man is really only a fan of bolognese sauce so that is what it was topped with....that part was delish!  Thank god I made enough to freeze. 

I definatley want to give it another go, I really love the idea of making pasta myself.

Australia Day 2010

With the weather terrible and torrential rain falling from the sky on Australia day for us it ended up being all about the food!

We had planned backyard activities with the kidss, backyard cricket, slip and slide, kiddie pool and all that find of stuff.  But not only was it wet I was kind of afraid that I might lose the kids in the jungle that is my back lawn!!!!!

So we spent the day inside, Rat_girl and I made some lamingtons with a twist....Lamington cake balls, inspired by Bakerella.

They were delish, they tasted just like lamingtons!

Basically it was a cheap cake mix made as per directions, once cooled crumbled into a bowl and mixed with some icing.  I used a packet of icing that I had left over from another cake mix (like a buttercream) and I dyed half green and half yellow.  Mix and mush up and roll into balls, refridgerate for a couple hours or freeze to speed it up. Then I rolled in lamington icing and coconut.

There was bacon and eggs on the BBQ, sausages in bread (none of which I had) and then an Aussie style dinner...homemade meat pie, possibly one of the nicest ones I've made.  Out of the mixture I ended up with 3 ramiken size ones for Rat_girl, so 2 put in freezer, 3 meals for Rat_boy, he had his with mashed spud on top and no pastry and 2 pies for us...so another on standby in the freezer.

And ofcourse for dessert pavlova, yes I know the kiwis will tell you it's yours, but it's Aussie I'm sure of it!!!

Look I even managed green and gold(ish) on the pav!!!  Concrete_man keeps telling me how AMAZING the pavlovas are that I'm been making so I had to have a taste.  And I have to admit, even though I really don't like pav it was the nicest one I've tasted not as sickly, syrupy sweet like most.  The shell was perfectly crisp and inside light and fluffy.  In saying that though, it was only a matter of minutes before I felt sick from eating it!

So Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussies...AUSSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OI OI OI!

Sorry couldn't resist

2010

Well it's only the 2nd day of the New Year and I'm miserable.  I have no idea why, I'm just completely down in the dumps.  I don't want to do anything or be around anyone and I really have to force myself to talk to anyone, even my family!  It's sad and I hate feeling like this but I can't seem to pull myself out of it.

So to try help my mood, today the kids have a swim in the little kiddie pool in the back yard...it's very hot at the moment..so it's good for them, they seem to be like me and don't cope with the heat so well and need some cool down time occasionally, wish I could fit in with them!

Later on Rat_girl and I made some cake mix cookies with mini M&Ms...I'll put the recipe below, so ridiculously easy and can be quite cheap to make also.

Cake Mix Cookies

1 x packet cake mix

60ml of oil (I sometimes find this is a wee bit too much)

2 x eggs

Any add ins you want

Mix together then add your add in's.  Roll into walnut size balls place on a lined tray and bake for about 12-15mins.  Oven I think about 150/170c.

Today we used homebrand vanilla cake mix (cost less than $1) and mini m&ms.  I've also made them plain with no add ins.

Chocolate cake mix (again cheap one) with some rice bubble and dusted with some icing mixture before baking.

The options for add ins are endless really.  And you can use this for any packet cake mix you like and very easy for the kids to help with.

Christmas Eve & Morning

YAY the final Christmas blog.

Don't get me wrong I love Christmas but I also love when it's over.  I like to get back to my normal eating habits, no more junk and also the clutter of Christmas once it's over drives me insane...I don't mind everything in the lead up but afterwards I almost can't stand to look at it.

So anyway this was our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

Christmas Eve both in their Christmas jammies and both looking and smiling at the camera.  Rat_boy was extremely tired and on his way to bed.

Photo taken by Rat_girl, her santa table.  Milo and Christmas goodies for Santa and some water and fruit and veg platter for the reindeer, all her idea and doing.

Santa has been!!  Mind you only a few presents are from him the rest were hiding in the back room from the Southern Counterparts

Christmas morning, the present opening frenzy begins!

 Thanks Nan! Such a big rat.

 My lame attempt to get her to eat her Christmas breakfast, Christmas tree egg, santa and bell shapped toast.  Didn't work!

 This is what she looked like all Christmas day.

 And the finale to Christmas my first ever home made pav.  Apparently I nailed it.  I wouldn't know I hate the stuff...blurgh but now that I've made 1 Concrete_man expects it more often.

 And finally a couple days later all packed away.  I love these boxes from Big W very cheap even before midnight sales.  I also got a big wrapping paper one that has lots of little nooks and crannies to stors cards, tags, ribbon, tape etc..it's massive!

 Labelled LOL love my label maker!

That's it Christmas is over now until next time.  I have so many idea and plan for next Christmas I probably need to start in January!

Oh 1 last one, my present from my sister in law