When Miss E goes through a bad sleep stage, I go through a bad food stage. I know it's not going to help me lose my flab, but when I'm so tired, it's too difficult to concentrate on controlling my cravings as well as my temper!
Sometimes nothing beats a last minute dessert, and growing up, that was always banana splits. Mum would whip up a chocolate sauce from pantry items and a few minutes later we'd be enjoying one of our favourite treats.
This recipe is a result of trying to figure out how Mum makes her sauce. It's not quite the same, but it's still pretty fab! Mum actually gets me to make it for her now.
There are so many things I love about this sauce: the fact that it's cheap and quick to make is always a plus, and I like that it is lower in fat than other recipes I've seen. But its fudginess that turns to chewiness when it hits the icecream - that's what gets me making it over and over (and making extra so I can lick the saucepan while I'm doing the dishes)!
Chewy Gooey Chocolate Sauce (serves 3-4)
30g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tbsp milk
1. Place butter in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Once butter has started to melt, add the cocoa and sugar. Mix to combine.
2. Add milk and stir continuously until sauce starts to boil.
3. Keep stirring while boiling for 1-2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and serve immediately over icecream and fruit.
YUM!
Today Brise & I celebrated having been together for 7 years (boy, that's gone fast!), so while he slept in, Master W & I made breakfast.
Pancakes are the perfect breakfast for a lazy Saturday morning, especially if you can sit in a sunny spot to devour them. And this fruity variety has so much flavour, you don't need to add loads of maple syrup to enjoy them.
Banana & Blueberry Pancakes (makes 8)
3 bananas, mashed
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 3/4 cups milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1. Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add banana.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and butter. Add to dry ingredients and whisk till smooth. Gently stir in blueberries.
3. Spray a non-stick frying pan with a bit of cooking oil and heat over medium heat. Once hot, spread a cup-full of mixture in the pan.
4. When bubbles start to form on the surface, flip the pancake and cook for another minute before removing from pan.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all mixture is used. Serve hot with some vanilla or mixed berry yoghurt.
6. For something different for the little'ns, try making their pancakes in their favourite shapes. Simply grease some metal cookie cutters before placing in the greased frying pan, then fill with a thin layer of mixture. Keep the cookie cutters around the pancakes while you flip them to be sure they keep their shape.
It might not quite be to masterchef standards, but for something so easy, it's pretty delish!
Baked risottos are another of my favourite hands-free dinners. I got the idea from one of my many Donna Hay recipe books and I'm so glad I did! I just adapt the recipes to what I feel like and what's in the pantry.
It's been a while since I'd made a baked risotto, but I made this one last week and, for the first time in ages, Master W actually ate all of his dinner! I'd forgotten how much he liked it.
Baked Risotto with Chicken, Mushroom & Pumpkin
3 slices shortcut bacon, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced or minced
1 large chicken breast, diced into 2cm cubes
2 leeks, halved length-ways and finely sliced
200g butternut pumpkin, diced
6 button mushrooms, finely sliced
2 cups arborio rice
5 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
salt & pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Heat a splash of olive oil in a stovetop to oven casserole dish. Fry the bacon until browned. Remove from heat.
3. Place all remaining ingredients in the dish, other than the parmesan. Stir briefly to combine. Cover tightly and place in the oven.
4. Cook for approximately 40 minutes, but it may take a bit longer, as the shape of the dish will affect the cooking time. There should still be some liquid but the rice should be tender (but not mushy).
5. Stir the risotto for 5 minutes or until creamy. Add the parmesan and stir gently through. Season to taste.
Notes:
I find that I need something refreshing with this, so I serve it with a salad in summer or steamed greens in winter.
I ran out of arborio rice last time I made it, so I used half sushi rice and it worked fine.
If you don't have a casserole dish that can go on the stovetop, fry the bacon in a frying pan and add 1/4 cup of the stock to the hot pan before adding to the risotto. That way you won't miss out on that extra flavour stuck to the bottom of the pan.
These muffins are a great, tasty way of boosting your children's vegie intake!
Master W isn't a big fan of eating dinner, so I try to get as many nutrients into him as possible during the day. As he's a lover of all things cake-related, my muffins go down a treat! Plus they're packed with vegies, dairy and a bit of protein too.
I have been asked for this recipe several times, so I thought I'd share it on the blog in case anyone else is interested.
Cheesy Vegeful Muffins (makes 12)
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| "This is how you grate" |
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| "Can I help?" |
2 cups self-raising flour (you can use wholemeal if you're feeling particularly virtuous!)
1 cup grated cheese
2 slices shortcut bacon, finely diced (equates to about half a cup)
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 small zucchini, grated
1 carrot, finely grated
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1/4 capsicum (red or green), finely chopped
1 cup milk
1 egg
25ml extra virgin olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 190°C and grease a muffin tray.
2. Fry the bacon in a non-stick pan until browned and crispy. If the corn kernels are frozen, put them in the frying pan to defrost briefly before turning off the heat. Allow to cool.
3. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the cheese, bacon and corn.
4. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, oil, carrot, zucchini, capsicum and onion, until well combined.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. If you mix too much at this stage, the muffins will not be as fluffy and moist.
6. Divide the mixture between the 12 muffin holes and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before removing from tray and cooling on a rack.
To get the muffins out of the tray more easily, loosen the sides with a knife, then gently twist the muffin - it should just slide out then.
These are especially nice straight from the oven with a little bit of butter. They can also be kept for 2-3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
Another little budget and time-friendly tip: I like to buy shortcut bacon, because it has much less fat on it. I buy a kilo of it when it's on special and freeze it so there's always some there if I need it. I'll lay half of it flat in a single layer in a large snaplock bag, and dice the other half finely and put it in containers. That way, it's easy to get to and ready to use for a last-minute meal! (You can cook it straight from frozen.)
Anyone who's had a baby knows about "witching hour": that time of the day (usually somewhere around 5pm) when bub just won't settle! This makes it particularly difficult for a new mum to prepare dinner, especially if it involves lots of chopping, stirring and other hands-on steps.
Mum has told me several times about how her solution to this problem when we were young was to do all the preparation for dinner first thing in the morning when we were all happy. That way, no matter what else happened in the day, at least we'd be able to eat at a reasonable hour.
I sometimes follow Mum's advice; other times I stick Master W in front of Playschool (I always think that's on at a brilliant time!) and Miss E in the Baby Bjorn and hope for the best. Whether you're a morning person or a last-minute type, this dish is great! You can do the prep work (which isn't that much) whenever you have the chance, and chuck it in the oven just before everyone gets hungry.
It's actually one of my favourite recipes, not just because of its simplicity, but because it's just so tasty! And because you don't need to saute anything before putting it in the oven, you don't need to add any oil, which makes it that bit healthier. Master W (age 2) loves olives and feta (and slurping up pasta) so he'll usually eat this quite happily. If he's having a fussy day though, he just eats the plain pasta (it could be worse!).
Mediterranean Chicken Pasta (serves 4)
1 chicken breast (you can add another one if you like more meat in your sauce)
2 tsp/4 cloves crushed garlic
4 spring onions
6 button mushrooms
1 small zucchini
100g mixed marinated olives
100g marinated artichokes
100g marinated feta
700g jar tomato passata or plain pasta sauce (I like to use Bertolli Provista Sugo Classica)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
salt & pepper to taste
Your favourite pasta variety, to serve
1. Cut the chicken, zucchini and mushrooms into 2cm cubes (approx.) and chop the spring onions as finely as you can be bothered. If the feta is not yet in cubes, chop it into 1cm cubes; halve the olives and the artichoke pieces (but only if they're too big).
2. Place all sauce ingredients in a casserole dish. If you're not too worried about the fat content, put in some of the marinating oil from the olives & feta for a bit of extra flavour.
3. Cover and bake in a moderate oven for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
I like to serve this with a bit of parmesan and, if I have time, a green leafy salad or steamed green beans. And, of course, a bit of garlic bread will never go astray!
On the topic of garlic bread - in my opinion, the store-bought stuff is not very good for the waistline: it's far too oily and there is more than is really needed for 2 adults and a toddler (of course, we'd eat it all, but don't need to!).
I like to make my own, of course! I buy the packets of 6 crusty long rolls (I think they call them Vietnamese Rolls) from the supermarket when they are on special. I make up a batch of garlic butter using 1 tsp crushed garlic, 100g butter and about a tablespoon of chopped parsley. I cut the rolls into 6-8 pieces, spread with the butter and wrap them individually in foil ready for the oven. Then I chuck them in the freezer ready for whenever we have pasta! That way, we only have the option of having a couple of pieces each, I can control how much butter is on them, and it's a much more budget-friendly option.
