Glorious Plums

I just love all the plums we get at this time of year.  Our tree has some beautiful Omega or Black Doris Plums - never quite sure what the difference is actually.  And my mother-in-law has 2 prolific trees.  We made some jam, some dessert topping and froze plenty for later.

With friends coming over for dinner, I decided to try and make a plum cake for dessert.  I found this recipe for German Plum Cake (or Pflaumenkuchen) and being risen with yeast rather than eggs, I didnt have to make any changes for the allergy kid.

I have never made a yeast risen cake before, and I must say kneading the dough was a great stress reliever.  Both the girls joined in the fun.

Sticky dough

After waiting for the dough to rise, we pushed the halved plums into the dough and sprinkled the struesel topping on to it and into the oven.  It sure smells good.

Just out the oven

The cake was really nice, not to sweet and the plums were really tasty.  But I think I need to work on my dough making skills.  For a first attempt I got rave reviews from hubby & the friends we shared it with.

Enjoy

Barbs x.

Ahhhhh - Summer

There is nothing better in our books than long summer evenings and barbeques.

A couple of weeks ago we got this brand new Barbie, complete with rotisserie!  We tested it out on some friends on friday night.  A big thumbs up for the succulent chicken and a few of my favourite salads. Yum.

6 Burners, a rotisserie and more...

Rotisserie Chicken

Pumpkin and Chick Pea Salad

New Season's Asparagus

Taboulleh

 An enjoyable evening, just cant wait until we can eat outside too.

Barbs x.

My Junior Master Chef's

We are definitely a foodie family and love watching cooking programs on the telly.

Emma has told me, when she grows up, she wants to have a cooking program on the tv just like Jamie Oliver, but for people with allergies.

On the first Monday of the holidays I asked the kids to choose two meals each that they would like to have for dinner that week.  They were excited and out came the favourites and some that we hadn't had for ages.  Here is the menu they created.

Monday - Bacon & Egg Pie (Big Boy)
Tuesday - Schnitzel with vegies (Emma)
Wednesday - Macaroni Cheese (Bear)
Thursday - Chicken Curry (Hubby)
Friday - Minestrone (Emma)
Saturday - Burgers (Big Boy)
Sunday - Roast Chicken (Bear)

"Guess what?" I said to the kids "Not only did you get to choose what we will eat, you are gonna cook it too!"

They have been loving watching Junior MasterChef.  The kids on it are amazing and they are the same age as my kids and they can turn out gourmet meals.  This inspired me to get my kids into the kitchen and to let them go for it.  Just like on the the show, we judged each of the meals on taste and presentation.

They were so excited and relished being in charge of the kitchen.  Giving up control to the kids is really hard.  Some of the meals they chose weren't safe for Emma so they had to make her something special that would make her happy.  I think the big boy now has a bigger appreciation for her allergies and why we dont eat things that she cant very often.

The big boy did all his meals completely by himself

Emma's snazzy schnitzel
Yep you do see right, there are brussel sprouts on the plate
Yep she chose them, she always does
They're one of her favourite veggies
We call them baby cabbages

Bear's creative plate of Emma's cheeseless Macaroni Cheese

The next week we did it again, this time we added in a couple of desserts

Monday - Mexican Mince (Bear)

Tuesday - Pumpkin Soup with foccaicia bread (Big Boy)

Wednesday - Sushi, followed by fudge cake with raspberry coulis (Emma)

Thursday - Beef Olives (Emma was not impressed as they didn't have any olives in them!) (Me)

Friday - Chicken Pies, followed by Bear's microwave pudding (Bear)

Saturday - Baked potatoes (Emma)

Sunday - Lasagne, followed by Pavlova (with cupcakes for Emma instead) (Big Boy)

 

Emma's first attempt at making sushi
Love how she plated this

Emma's Fantastic fudge cake

Cupcakes trying to look like pavlova

My big boy spent almost all of sunday afternoon in the kitchen, making pavlova, then cupcakes, then lasagne.  He had to be so very careful to avoid cross contamination and he did an absolutely amazing job and it all tasted very yummy.  

They were so careful with their plating up and really thought about what would go well with each dish.  When it came to the desserts, they totally wowed us with melted chocolate decorations and little extra touches, like Emma serving Raspberry coulis with her cake.

I was blown away by how clever my kids are at cooking.  

And now, even though they are back to school, we are going to continue having kids cooking nights.  And we are being more varied with the menu planning to make sure we keep getting a whole range of different meals to broaden their taste and make them try new foods.

I'm looking forward to trying their next efforts this week.

Barbs x.

Soup, Glorious Soup

The thing I love most about the weather turning colder is that we can eat pots of hot soup and crusty fresh bread and call it dinner and nobody complains.

Tonight we scoffed a pot of our family favourite Lentil and Kumara soup with lovely fresh bread rolls from Brumby's.  All their bread is egg and dairy free (except the ones with cheese in or on top) and they are so yummy too.

This soup is really easy to make and comes from my trusty Alison Holst cookbook and takes about 1/2 hour from start to eating.

You will need
2 Onions
@ 2 Tbsp Olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp chilli - less/more to taste
3 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 C red lentils
6 cups water
2 large carrots
2-3 medium kumara (can use regular potato but it isnt as yummy)
2 sticks celery (I leave it out if I dont have any)
about 1/2 c coconut cream
salt & pepper to taste

First saute the onions in the olive oil for about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and spices and fry for about 1 minute.
Add the lentils and stir them into the mixture, then add the water.
Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer.
Add the kumara, carrot and celery and continue to cook until the vegies are soft.
When ready add the coconut cream and salt and pepper to taste and bring back to the boil.
Then puree - I use a stick blender straight in the pot.

Then ladle into bowls and scoff down greedily with fresh bread.

Everyone rates this soup as a real winner - even hubby who is not a real big soup fan.  And it is a really healthy vegan dinner recipe to have up your sleeve if you are ever entertaining a vegan!


Enjoy.


Barbs x.

The Luckiest Mum in the world

Yep.  That's me.  Mother's Day today and I am spoiled.

I joked with my kids yesterday, saying that since daddy was going away to see his mum, they would have to cook me dinner for mothers day.

No rolled eyes, no groans.

 A resounding "YES" came from them.

"I'm making my famous fudge cake" said the big boy.

"I'm doing the main course" said Emma.

"I'll do the starter" said Bear.

Hubby took them off to the supermarket for a special shopping trip.

Before heading down to see his mum in Raglan, Hubby cooked me my favourite breakfast - pancakes with bacon and fruit salad washed down with some good strong coffee.

After brekkie I went off to read my book whilst the big boy busied himself cooking not just one fudge cake, but a secret second one as well.

After a quick walk around North Head, we decided that Bear's starter could actually be lunch before we headed out to do some errands.

When we returned Emma got busy making the main course.  Individual mince pies with some of my favourite veggies.  She busily chopped and stirred and rolled out the pastry (with just a little help from me), then she filled them and put them in the oven.  

Perfect wee pies

Meanwhile the big boy was secretly decorating his double layer cake.

Double layer choc fudge and choc banana cake 

And before I knew it dinner was served.

Pies and veggies (plus mushrooms that were added later)

The big boys double layer chocolate cake.

And all this yummy food was safe for Emma to eat and prepared lovingly by my gorgeous kids

Hope you had a fantastic mothers day too.

Barbs x. 

Loving Pasta

Emma loves pasta!

She would eat it everyday if she could.  Last weekend she decided to make Minestrone soup - All by herself!  She chopped all the ingredients up and carefully added them to the soup pot and stirred it on the stove top.  She tasted and seasoned it.  I think she is a budding chef.

Carefully chopping the veggies

Minestrone is such a yummy soup - filled with lots of veggies, pasta and beans.  It makes a nutritious vegan dinner in about 1/2 an hour.  We don't really use a set recipe but it goes something like this

1 onion, 2 carrots, 1 stick of celery, a couple of cloves of garlic - all chopped up and sautéed in olive oil for about 10 minutes until soft.

Add about 4 cups of water, a tin of tomatoes and some fresh herbs, salt and pepper and bring to the boil.

Once it is boiling add about a cup full of dried pasta and bring back to the boil - boil for about 5 minutes then add about 3 cups of fresh green veggies (cabbage, zucchini, beans, peas, spinach - it doesn't really matter).

After another 5 minutes (when the veggies and pasta are cooked) stir in a tin of kidney or canellini beans.  

Do a quick taste test to see if it is good, add more salt and pepper if you need to.

Then serve with a big slab of fresh bread and you will have a scrummy quick and easy and tasty dinner.

Yum!

Later in the week she had this scrummy pasta salad for her school lunch.  It was made with risoni pasta and had spring onion, red capsicum, celery, cucumber, olives and salami in it.  She would love to have this for her school lunch everyday.

I've always been amazed at how many interesting things Emma will eat.  I guess when you take out so many of the usual kid type food from the diet, the door is opened for lots of other exciting ingredients to come in it.

Happy eating.

Barbs

Fussy Kids, Food and Famine

I've been stewing over this for a few days now.  A friend of Emma's has been making comments to her recently about the food I give them for afternoon tea when she comes to play.  "Why does your Mum always give us fruit for afternoon tea?".  Well this week it got worse.  She didn't want to come to our house, prefering to go to another friends house where she knows she will get chips and chocolate.  Now I love chips and chocolate too, as do my kids, but in our house, you gotta eat the good stuff too. 

We eat fruit for afternoon tea because the kids dont like it in their lunches much.  So I usually put a platter of cut up fruit out as soon as they get home from school. My kids have little bits of fussyness with fruit - Bear doesnt like bananas and Dan's not a fan of grapes and Em is allergic to kiwifruit.  After compulsory fruit eating, there is always something else, it may be some home baking (muffins, scones, slices, biscuits), or crackers, sandwiches, toast, crumpets depending on what activities are to follow and what time dinner is going to be.  I dont think that this is unusal food to offer after school. Do you?  (Of course this food is put out only once lunch boxes have been inspected to make sure they ate all their lunch - if not, they must finish that before they get anything else).

I have been reading a few other blogs recently where people are struggling to find food that everyone likes and my kids have fussy friends and to be honest it just plain bothers me.  We deal with restrictions on food daily, yet we all eat the same dinner every night.  If dinner is not eaten, they cant complain about being hungry later, and there is no pudding or milky drink on offer.  Again they have fussiness - Em cant stand stirfry, but will happily eat all the veges raw with the cooked meat and rice/noodles,  Dan doesnt like mushrooms, so he picks them out and passes them to his sisters,  Bear just knows she has to eat it and usually does, she's not big on meat, so I only give her a little bit.

My kids are really good eaters (I mean really good, they think brussel sprouts are awesome and Em always picks them up and begs for them when we go to the vege shop....or is that just plain weird???)  as are most of our extended family, yet my kids seem to have lots of fussy friends.  Em's friend I mentioned above, never eats when she comes to my house, yet I can  usually tempt the other kids fussy friends with fruit of some description.  There will always be things we dont like - I hate sausages and processed meat like salami and a little bit of fussy is fine, but there is a boy in Dan's year at school who doesnt eat anything except those frozen chicken nugget things in the shape of chips ( he even took them to school camp.......).

What is going on in the world when here in our first world economy, we have kids refusing food and copious amounts of uneaten food thrown away. http://www.sustainability.govt.nz/rubbish/food-waste

In America there is an obesity problem which is spreading around the world. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1082739.stm

Yet in Africa there is a famine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/696803.stm
The children in Ethiopia and Somalia are again dying because there is no food to feed them and they are going at a 1000 a day into refugee camps where they recieve about a cup of some kind of gruel or rice.  The droughts have killed off their livestock and their crops and the prices of food at the markets are too high.  Here are some pictures of what life is like in East Africa at the moment. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/gallery/2011/jul/08/east-africa-drought-in-pictures

We have banned the phrase "I'm starving" from our house, if it is mentioned they get a lecture about life in third world countries.  When they refuse to eat their dinner, we tell them again about the children in Africa who would love their dinner, and how it would probably be more food than they got in a whole day.  Em and I saw a documentary on the news recently about the children going to the Dabaab refugee camp.  She was horrified by the skinny arms and legs and misshapen bodies of the children.

I dont know what we can do about it on a global scale. Those mega corporates have a lot to answer for I think.  But I feel a little better knowing my family is appreciating the food that I give them, that we dont give in to all the prepackaged hype food that kids just have to have and that we have minimal waste (by modern standards, but I know we can do better).

Getting off my soap box now..... Just had to say something though.

Young chef!

Emma absolutely loves cooking and watching Masterchef.  It is one of the few tv programmes that totally absorb her.  It is sad to think she probably will not be able to be a chef when she grows up as her allergies will make it an unsafe career choice.

However, even if it cant be a career, Emma works hard at home, baking safe biscuits, cakes, desserts and helping out with dinner.  Yesterday Emma and Sarah made some yummy afghan biscuits.  Then Emma made this yummy tuna pasta dinner pretty much by herself. 

Afghan Biscuits (adapted from the edmonds cookbook)
200g olivani
1/2 c Sugar
1 1/4 c flour
1/4 c cocoa
about 4 weetbix crushed
Creamed butter and sugar until light & fluffy.
Stir in sifted flour and cocoa then fold in weetbix.
Roll into balls and flatten with fork.
Bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

The Tuna Pasta is a quick and easy dinner for when you dont have much time.
Saute a chopped onion and garlic in some olive oil until soft.  Then add a tin of tomatoes and some herbs (Emma likes fresh basil) when you are nearly ready to serve, add a tin of tuna and warm through.  Serve over cooked pasta with a salad on the side.