Go to meal #3 Chicken dos capas

Laura from Eviedear is amazing at making up meals I would never think of. The other day she made up this great burrito mix that she worked out based on smell! Evie and my Missy Moo find the store bought burrito mix too spicy. The girls demolished this as a side to the vegetable 'tasting plate' we made up of vegetables we found in the fridge!

1 tablespoon of each of the following:
Oregano
Cumin
Paprika
Onion powder
And a dash of salt

Source: littlelioness - check out their review of Zambrero's yumminess!

As a meal we often make up these as 'dos capas' which basically means two shells. We fill a hard shell with the burrito mix (be that chicken, kangaroo or refried bean mix) and a variety of toppings and then wrap in a soft shell. It means that you still get the crunchy taco, but without all the mess! We got the idea from our regular haunt Zambrero on Rundle Street in Adelaide.

Nutella & Peanut Butter Brownie

Missy Moo checking for quality.

I'm not going to lie, these are not healthy.

A girlfriend and I share a love of eating Nutella from the jar. I know we're not the only ones, so don't judge us too harshly!

For her birthday I found this recipe and tweaked it a bit. It got such rave reviews from the girls that I thought it would be cruel not to share.

250g unsalted butter, melted
1.5 cups of raw sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
4-5 eggs pending on their size
1 cup of wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup of cocoa
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of hazelnut spread (I used Nutino)
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup of choc chips if you have no sense of care about your waist line or sugar levels!

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line 2 pyrex or square tin with baking paper. I didn't and should have!
2. Pour in melted butter to a largish bowl. Stir in sugar and vanilla.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in flour, cocoa salt and baking powder, taste mixture to check awesomeness.
5. Melt hazelnut spread and peanut butter together until runny. Then mix thoroughly into mixture. Add chocolate chips. Taste again, awesomeness should be growing!
6. Pour mixture into dishes or tins. It doesn't need to be very deep as it's very rich so you don't need much.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on how eager your oven is. 
8. Cut after it has cooled, if you can wait.
9. Take and share with a friend and enjoy the complements, however be prepared to make this for every future party!

Taste the mixture... go on... you have my full permission.

Ready for the oven...

No, I didn't let it cool.

Do you have any decadent favourite treats?

Soup pack & pumpkin soup

In an attempt to make some seasonal soup I grabbed a 1kg veggie soup pack the other morning. I've never really used one before, but it's a great way to get a kilo of veggies cheap. I also had almost a kilo of pumpkin left over from my mother in law, so I booked a date with my slow cooker!

The soup pack and pumpkin soup was simply an experiment so see if I had the gist of cooking soup. I totally made it up as I went along and was pleasantly surprised that soup is hard to stuff up!

1 Onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 kg Soup pack (2 parsnips, 1 carrot, 1 swede, 2 turnips, 1 celery stick)

750g Butternut pumpkins, diced

1 tin of diced tomatoes

2 tbl spoons of tomato paste

1 cup of red lentils, rinsed

4 cups of vegetable stock

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp sage (or any combo of you fave herbs)

1 cup of frozen beans

1. Turn on slow cooker on high, chop veggies.
2. Brown onion and garlic in a small saucepan.
3. Throw (or gently pour!) all other ingredients, except beans, into slow cooker. When it starts bubbling, turn it down to low. Cook for 6ish hours.
4. 1 hour before serving, put in the frozen beans.
5. Serve with a dob of sour cream and chives if you like.

Mmm, veggies!

My red lentils, proudly on display with some of my other favourite things.

The beans are in!

Do you have any favourite soup pack meal ideas?

Go to meal #2 - Vegetarian Bolognese

You know those meals that you make over and over? The ones you don't have a recipe for they just evolve out of a basic process and adapted to whatever you happen to have in? This is one of mine, and probably for many other households. It's the type of meal that you learn when you first move out, living in some kind of social experiment like a share house. The type of living arrangement where everyone is broke, but super busy with a social life and nutrition is at an all time low. I put on around 10kgs (I lost count) in my pasta laden house. But I have resurrected this meal by deleting the beef and pasta, and adding vegetables and usually quinoa. So with out further babbling, here it is:

Winter version of Veg Bol

A bit of olive oil for the pan

1 Onion, diced

2-3 cloves of crushed garlic

1 tsp basil or oregano or both!

1 tsp paprika or cayenne pepper

4ish mushrooms, sliced (or diced if you need to hide them!)

2ish Carrots/Parsnips/Turnips/Swedes of any combo, to make up approx 4 veg, 

1/4 cauliflower, more if you have it!

2 tins of diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons of tomato paste1 tin of lentils, rinsed and drained

1 tin of 4 bean mix (or whatever you have in!), rinsed and drained

3 handfuls of baby (or any type!) spinach

1. Fry onion and garlic in large fry pan (high sides if you have one).
2. Once onion is soft fry spices for a minute or until it's all you can smell.
3. Sauté mushrooms with spices and onion.
4. Add vegetables and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add tomatoes and paste and bring to the boil then lower to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Add beans and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked. Then add spinach which will wilt quickly.
7. Serve with Quinoa, cous cous, rice, pasta

Mmm... seasonal vegetables, they look so crisp!

I love my Tupperware happy chopper - effortless chopping = happy Heidi!

And as Adam (my very camp Tupperware dealer) would say 

"a few tugs and your done - if only everything in life was that easy!"

It's done!

We were to busy to take a photo of the finished result, but Missy Moo and Nate devoured the lot and Nate even reheated some for lunch at work the next day.

Seed & nut bars

I'm all about nutrition at the moments, it's my latest fad - look forward to seeing many phases of obsession as this blog develops! And although I eat (most of the time) a fair amount of veggies getting a wide range of nutrients I probably fall short. Enter nuts and seeds! It turns out that these humble friends have a whole host of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids. But, I still don't crave them like I would sugar, bread or cheese. But then I discovered home made muesli bars. A girlfriend got me on to this great recipe.

Last night Missy Moo and I gave it  shot and it worked really well. We didn't have any brown rice syrup, so we substituted maple syrup instead. I think I will get some brown rice syrup as it's suppose to be "liked by health buffs" according to the Cook's Thesaurus. Apparently, it's lower GI, so it's absorbed more slowly. I also think I heard Sarah Wilson from I Quit Sugar fame, talking about it. But my adventures of quitting sugar are another story for another day! Here's some of the magic that took place in our kitchen!

The great thing about this recipe is that the first few ingredients are all 1 & 1/2 cups, so for kids they can practice doing the measuring all by themselves. I'm currently reading a book called Bringing up Bébé which is about French parenting. It suggests cooking with kids is a great way to teach them patience. Many preschool children can bake a yogurt cake by themselves! It's been a very interesting read and way better than the bossiness of most parenting books. Plus reading about being in Paris raising a beautifully behaved child is more of a fictional fantasy than a self help book!

All the dry ingredients get thrown in the bowl then mixed. Then you boil the wet ingredients for a minute, mix over the dry ingredients and press into a dish. I'm not really one to stick to a recipe (I have many, many, hilarious stories about the outcome of my cooking as a result!) so I just used the dried, fruit, nuts and seeds that I had on hand. There is cranberries, hazelnuts, not enough almonds and a good dose of random seeds such as pepitas, sunflower and ground linseed in no particular quantities! I just made my seed and nut quantities add up to 1 & 1/2 cups of the listed toasted sliced almonds.

Then it's refrigerated for an hour and done! 

I can recommend this one and it's interesting enough to take out to a night in with the girls without too much healthy judgement!

What snacks do you love to make?

Go to meal # 1 Re-fried Beans

Re-Fried Bean Wraps - I know tomatoes aren't in season, but we had them in the fridge ;)

A girlfriend (who happens to be be a nutritionist!) came over the other week and bought this ah-mazing re-fried beans. I say ah-mazing not lightly: all of our children devoured dinner (an unheard of event for our Missy Moo), it's SUPER healthy, inexpensive and best of all only takes 10-15 minutes. Bliss.

This recipe is Vegetarian, gluten & dairy free. Usually when I hear such a description I'm a little hesitant, but this is so versatile it's become a weekly winter staple! Elke from Core Nutrition says that it can be served as a Burrito/Tortilla/Taco or in Nachos instead of meat. We usually do it in some sort of wrap or taco. Then you can top it with whatever in season veg you have. Winter is a great time to cook this gem as carrots and celery are in season.

The best of all it only take 10-15mins! The other trick with this recipe is I blend it all up and then only cook the amount we need and stick the uncooked leftovers in the freezer for a 7 minute meal!

Elke's Re-Fried Beans

2 cloves garlic 

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped into large chunks

2-3 sticks celery, roughly chopped

2 x 400g cans kidney beans, drained (or 2 cups cooked)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Pinch dried Oregano

Pinch sea salt

Dash ground Paprika

Dash ground Cumin

1-2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (use gluten-free if needed)

Dash Tabasco sauce (optional)

20g (1 tablespoon) Olive oil

Food Processor/Stick Master Method

1. Crush garlic, and set aside. If you don't have a garlic crusher, 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic from the jar will do! If you are looking for a garlic crusher I can recommend the Zyliss Garlic Press. It's easy to clean and you don't have to peel the garlic and even though it's pricey it will last ages and isn't frustrating to use.
2. Place roughly chopped carrot and celery into food processor bowl (or with a stick master with a bit of extra effort & time) and chop for 10 secondson high speed (vegetables should look finely grated).
3. Add remaining ingredients, except garlic, and blend for 10-15 seconds on medium speed, or until the consistency is smoothish for a stick master.
4. In a saucepan, add oil and crushed garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add mixture from the food processor and cook for around 7-8 minutes while continuously stirring. Beans will become a bit darker as they cook.

Half blended, half not.

All blended up!

Cook it up!

Straight to the freezer!

Mmmm, décor love! See how messy it is without it!

Elke from Core Nutrition has some great variations and the Thermomix version if you are oh-so-lucky to have one. If you have facebook you can can check out these and other recipes here.

Tomorrow Missy Moo and I are going to make this car snack, hopefully she loves it as it's filled with goodness (albeit a bit of sugar too!) because I'm really over giving her biscuits. I'll report back later.

Do you have any favorite versatile staples you would recommend?

HJ xo