Zucchini Bread

I have been on the hunt for 'food fillers'. Max never seems to be satisfied with the food I give him (it's not that he doesn't like it, it is just never enough!). I have put off snacks so they won't ruin their appetites for dinner but now it is getting out of hand and I don't want them filling up on heavily processed snacks- however I also don't want to be or have the time to bake something every day for the little princes.

Nic suggested some bread ( I already feel like we should be buying shares in a bakery!) but then I thought about zucchini bread and thus began my search for a good recipe. The internet is very useful for a quick search as I am sure you all know. After looking at about 5 different recipes I decided on one- due to the fact it made two loaves! It is very quick and easy and I thought it was a winner, however when I ate some it was really sweet and not a good choice for an everyday snack so I have decided to cut the sugar back and add whole wheat flour. The results were great. Boys shovel it down and don't bother me until dinner and I feel better knowing they are eating a little vegetable before dinner- so be it it's mixed with sugar but that is OK with me. I think the breakfast cereal has more sugar than the bread!

Zucchini Bread (my version)

2 cups All purpose flour (plain flour)

1 cup Whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon- ground

1 tsp all spice

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 & 3/4 cups sugar (other recipe 2 & 1/4 cups)

3 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup nuts (walnuts or almonds)

Preheat oven to 325 (165) and grease two 8x4 inch pans or there about.

Sift flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices into a medium bowl- set aside.

In a large size bowl- beat eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla until well combined and thick.

Add dry ingredients to wet and beat until well combined.

Stir in zucchini and nuts then pour into pre-greased pans.

Bake for approx 1 hour or until the skewer comes out clean. One of my dishes took an additional 20 minutes so it does vary.

Cool for 5 minutes before taking out of pan and then leave until cold. I put one in the freezer and it freezes really well.

Enjoy!

A Sunday at home

When you work 6 days a week (or if I was to be honest it's more like 7 these days) you look forward to that one day when you don't have to set the alarm; you can take a few moments to listen to the rain outside before thinking of getting up and better yet, you have the option to roll over and go back to sleep!

This is what I did this morning folks and I loved every minute of it. I even decided the rain wasn't too heavy so I could have my first run for the week on the last day of the week! It's all about the little things I can achieve outside my working world these days.

What does one do on a day like today?

Sydney was having a wet one and that suited me just fine.  I was in the mood to potter about and do a spot of cooking at home for a change. After my run it was a family affair in the kitchen this morning. Max is now our poached egg man, so while he ordered me around with jobs to do like, heat the baked beans and cook the bacon, he was at Nic to cook the toast and make the coffee (juice for the boys), while Alex informed us all he was our waitress as he set the table and then wondered off until breakfast was ready.

This is about the only time you can get three of us in the kitchen at once without causing a scene. Sunday morning- calm and relaxed, I love it!

With breakfast all done and dusted it was my turn to have a flip through some of my old recipe cards and see what I could make that I hadn't got to in a while.  I'd bought some pistachio nuts on Friday and wanted to do something with them, so when I spotted my recipe for zucchini bread I knew they would be a perfect match.
I have made zucchini bread before this is true but I altered the measurements yet again (after all that was was back in 2008!). I cut the sugar down to 1 cup, cut the oil down to 3/4 of a cup and only put in 1/2 cup of nuts. This recipe seems to be very adaptable and I was not disappointed with the end result. The bread was moist, and soft just as it should be. I really don't like it to taste to sweet, so cutting the sugar by half has finally gotten me to my perfect sweetness, however if you have a rocking sweet tooth then stick with my second recipe!

While the bread was cooling the lunch hour was approaching. Nic was up to his ears marking papers for work and wanted something to warm him up- soup. This is when I O.Ded on zucchini because the only veggies I could see for a quick yummy soup were asparagus, potatoes and zucchini.....I wondered if the kids would notice?

Seriously easy soup
50 grams of butter
1 large brown onion,peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
4 medium zucchini, thickly sliced
1 bunch of asparagus, chopped
300 grams potatoes, chopped (I had leftover chat potatoes and left the skin on)
chicken stock
2 tablespoons light sour cream
lemon and chilli flakes to serve

Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat.
Once melted add onion, saute for a couple minutes then add garlic, zucchini, potatoes and asparagus.
Stir until slightly softened and great smell fills the kitchen.
Add chicken stock (now important info here- only add enough stock to not quite cover veggies, you want to see some still poking out).
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 6-8 minutes.
Once veggies are some, remove from heat, add sour cream and a pinch of salt and pepper then blend until smooth. (I use my stick blender but any blender will do).
Serve soup in bowls, squeeze lemon juice over soup and sprinkle with chilli flakes

The soup is VERY green (picture doesn't do it justice), a fact I couldn't hide. When I was asked what type of soup it was I really didn't want to tell them zucchini and asparagus because they are two veggies the boys struggle with, so I stated it had lemon, potato and 'did you notice I made cheese toasties to dip in your soup?'

Max dipped a little corner of his toasty in the soup and announced he loved it and that was all Alex needed. Seriously yummy soup and the kids were devouring it!
I did tell them what it was made with when they only had a few mouthfuls to go. Max looked at me, thought for a second then said he loved pumpkin soup but hates eating pumpkin, so that's cool(?). I think Alex felt like he had betrayed himself and told me he didn't actually like it after he had eaten 3/4's of it.
No matter, I just told them it was nut bread for afternoon tea and I think Alex was the first to finish.
Cunning mum = happy mum!

Pizza night

I have to say I am a pizza fan. When in Naples for my honeymoon almost eight years ago, Nic took me to some fabulous restaurants, hole-in-the-wall places for truly delicious pizza. A couple of years ago we had the good fortune of living in Italy for 10 months and really got to taste some of the best produce I have eaten. We lived in Florence, in the 'Nonna' neighborhood and every weekend we would wake up to the most delicious smells of the up and coming family lunch.

 OK so it has nothing to do with pizza (being that Florence isn't known for pizza) but I still remember the zucchini's having flavor and tomatoes so juicy and sweet you ate them like peaches- which does being me to our pizza last night. I really love zucchini and I really love butter. Since living in Lexington Virginia for the past year I was deeply saddened to find I couldn't buy my favorite- Kerrygold unsalted butter, so as you can imagine when we arrived back in Chicago it was one of the first things on the list. I knew the boys would dry reach and chuck a fit if I suggested putting zucchini on their beloved pizza, so I let them choose their own toppings of calamata olives, salami, red peppers and cheese. I on the other hand lightly fried some zucchini rounds in butter and popped them on top of our pizza with a liberal shake of the chili peppers- hot and sweet, one of my favorite combinations.

When it comes to pizza in our family I use Jamie Oliver's basic bread recipe and have never made a bad pizza yet. It is great! Depending on what flour I use gives me a chewy crust or a firm crisp crust.

 As for the tomato base I get a little cheeky. I use to cook the base first and reduce it down to a rich thick sauce but I have to say I like making pizza because it is fast and no fuss (the sauce was not fitting into this equation). One day I was running low on time so I banged whole fresh tomatoes (skin and all), olive oil a diced onion and garlic into a food processor and pulsed it for a few seconds. It was a little runny so I added tomato paste and a handful of chopped green beans (I'm sorry but a few shreds of red pepper isn't enough veg for dinner in my opinion) and a pinch of salt. Perfect consistency and it was made in a matter of seconds not minutes- lovin' that!

The boys have never questioned the sauce and always gobbled the pizza up. Max did ask me once how I made the sauce and I told him, he looked at me for a few minutes and then said 'I don't think you remembered the beans this time, I would of tasted them' Believe what you will!

Lunchbox

It is that time of year again when we have to start thinking- school lunches!

 Now I don't know about you but the mornings in our house are not leisurely, we don't have a lot of time to make glamour lunches. I once saw a magazine with 'back to school lunch ideas' in it (before I had kids) and they were making 'sushi sandwiches' flattening out the bread, making a concoction of carrot sticks the size of matches and rolling them with a delicious looking chicken and sour cream mix. I thought YES- that is what I am going to do!

Well reality struck and Max isn't getting anything of the sort. One of the main reasons he doesn't get the chicken and matchstick sushi sango  is the fact that half his lunch use to come home untouched  because he complains "Mum you don't understand..... I hardly have any time to eat!" Twenty minutes is not long enough for him to deconstruct the sandwich, see if it passes the 'do I really want to eat this in front of my friends test' and then eat leaving at least 15-minutes of 'playtime'. 

Having said that I do think that roasting a chook on the weekend then stripping it down for sandwich meat for the coming week is a great idea and one I do. I also like the idea of making a zucchini slice and popping that into his lunch box. It is protein packed with egg, loaded with cheese, grated zucchini and carrot for the 'healthy' angle. I can only get away with doing this every now and again as it isn't very 'cool' to stand out from the crowd at lunch time so I hear. So for us the above Vegemite and cheese sandwich on nutty whole wheat bread is going to have to do- followed by a muesli bar and fresh apricots due to Max's busy lunch schedule. I do however have to make sure I have the meat lasagna and milkshakes waiting for him when he gets home for his 'after school snack'- Max is bitterly disappointed when he arrives home to find a glass of milk and an apple awaiting him instead. I guess having a chef as a mum isn't all that is cracked up to be on a day to day level. The surprise baked cheesecake or scones with jam and cream are very few and far between, I need a few more years of experience, or I just need to open up my own cafe to satisfy the after school starvation!

Fennel and orange salad for kids

It is a boring kind of family meal I know. Why is she blogging about every day pork sausages and salad you wonder? well let me tell you why.

It was Wednesday of last week, I'd done half the shopping but hadn't managed to get to the fruit and veg shop down the road so when it came to whipping up dinner on Wednesday night after swimming lessons all I had in the fridge was some yummy pork sausages, zucchini, onion and an orange.... or so I thought.
Come on! I thought to myself, if I serve zucchini and onions to the boys I'll hear nothing but complaints (it was a hot and humid day so I was not interested in complaints!). We had got back from swimming late so I knew I didn't have long to whip up dinner, in fact Alex hasn't been able to last long enough to eat with us, so all I managed to give him before he fell a sleep was a sausage, carrot sticks, orange slices and bread- really healthy!
While the sausages were cooking I managed to find a tub of cherry tomatoes and hidden beneath the zucchini was a fennel bulb. Without even thinking about Max and his likes and dislikes of fennel (I knew he disliked cooked fennel) I began to make a salad of cherry tomatoes, orange segments and shaved fennel because that was all I had going, bar a few carrot sticks.
It hadn't even hit me that Max might not like fennel until I was tossing the salad and he came up and asked me what the white stuff was?' Umm, it's.....shaved fennel' I said 'it absorbs the orange flavour, you'll love it'.
Sitting down for dinner I think I was holding my breath waiting to see if he ate his dinner without complaint- VICTORY!
Max devoured the salad and even said he liked it, how cool was that. If I had had a fridge full of other veggie stuff he liked I wouldn't of even given the shaved fennel a second thought so I have taught myself something very valuable- don't get stuck in the family vegetable rut of carrots, corn and beans, lash out a little, try something new a few different ways and if it still gets rejected then perhaps then and only then I will come to the conclusion they really don't like the stuff.
So note to self:
 Max likes fennel raw, hates fennel cooked.
Alex hates fennel raw, cooked or even being in the house.....he has a few years to go before I give up on him completely!

101 ways to do Mac and cheese

Rich and creamy mac & cheese
Mac and Cheese- it would have to be one of the most talked about meals between kids on either sides of the world.  Alex was asked today by his dad what he thought would be his first meal at school. To this he said 'noodles.....NO wait, mac & cheese' and he just so happens to be right. I have a feeling he won't be getting the mac and cheese he is use to, though I can live in hope!

 What is it about Mac&cheese that sends kids to grin like monkeys when told it is the evening meal? Is is the creamy texture, the intense flavor of cheeses or the fact that it is comfort food?

 I was never brought up on mac&cheese, in fact I can't remember having it until we moved to the States over 6 years ago. Just like so many other parents all over the Western world, I have made my fair share of mac&cheese and will continue to do so seeing as it is so versatile, delicious and FAST! I have different stages of mac&cheese I make for us as a family.

1. Quick as you can- This is our favorite for the weekend lunch when we have been out all morning and are starving by the time we get home. 

While the water is boiling I grate 1 part aged cheddar cheese and 1 part parmesan. While the pasta is cooking, I chop up any herbs lying around like parsley and have it on the ready with the cheeses. Once the pasta is cooked I strain the water, add a dollop of butter to the cooked pasta along with a splash of cold milk then pour in the cheeses and herb. Give it all a good stir, check for seasoning then serve and watch it disappear.

2. Rich and creamy- This is one of my favorites. I will also add extra sauce to this and turn it into a mac and cheese bake if I need to make dinner a day ahead. 

While the water is coming to a boil, make a basic white sauce (you can find these in just about any cook book), I use regular milk no cream. I cook some fine diced onion and garlic in with the butter then continue to follow the recipe. Once the white sauce is made, remove it from the heat. When the water is boiling cook the pasta and chop up the veggies that you will add to the water 5 minutes before you strain the pasta. (Veggies I usually add are corn, carrot, beans, peas, grated zucchini and roasted squash. The squash and zucchini get added to the white sauce NOT the pasta water).

Now with the white sauce add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a good handful of grated cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan, asaigo, tasty cheddar etc) a mixture or one kind, what ever you have available. Stir the sauce well to combine- while the sauce is warm add an egg yolk for the richness and a good source of iron. You can leave it as is and add your sauce to the strained pasta noodles or add a can of tuna/salmon to the dish and really turn it up a bit.

When I turn it into a bake I sometimes add a little extra cold milk to the dish, depending on how wet the mix is. I then butter a oven proof dish, pour in my mix, sprinkle the top with bread crumbs, extra cheese and pop it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (if pasta is still warm) or 40 minutes if you are putting it in cold from the fridge.

3. Naughty but nice- With a name like that you know I go to town with the cream in this one! We don't often have it but when we do I go all the way and chop up bacon as well. Once the bacon has cooked I add crushed garlic (the kids don't mind if I only put in one clove) and cracked pepper, followed with a very good pour of thickened cream. Bring it to the boil then reduce heat until your sauce thickens a little. Remove from the heat, add your grated cheese and fold through pasta. Again I will toss beans or peas into the pasta water with this one, the color looks great and you need to have a bit of vegetable if it is a main meal. Once I have served the kids I tear up fresh basil leaves for Nic and I and sometimes chop up cherry tomatoes to fold through. A really yummy meal where nothing is ever left on the plate!

Although I have only stated three ways to cook mac and cheese, there are 100's of different flavour combinations you can use to change it around. So the next time Jake or Sienna ask for mac and cheese, why not show them another way to eat it.

Pork tenderloin with salsa verde

Pork is really underrated in Australia, I think I have mentioned this once before. I was talking with a customer the other day and she was asking me what would be a healthy meal other than chicken. When I suggested pork she quickly added 'but that is so fatty'--not true!

After living in the States for a good while, I got to realise a few things and one of them is -pork is not our enemy.
Didn't we have that ad a few years back 'get some pork on your fork'?
 I am sure that must of been in Australia because whenever I sung/verbalised that phrase to my American friends, I was always looked at with a curious look (more than usual!).
Pork tenderloin is just as mouthwatering as eye fillet if you ask me. It is extremely versatile, tasty, and simple to cook.
I came up with this little number a little while ago, while living in Virginia. I had to do a cooking demo at a client's house and she requested pork and something to do with vegetables. I knew this lady was a foodie so I had to come up with a really yummy, interesting, and flavour packed dish.
At the time I was having a bit of a thing for herbs and sauces. I decided I wanted to serve the pork and veggies with a bread based salsa verde (the Italian way). The end result was a huge success. Not only did the meal take a very short time to prepare but they loved the fact that they could use the leftover verde for a pasta sauce later on in the week.

One of my testers, Barbara, uses this recipe quite a bit. She told me it was a great crowd pleaser and quick to prepare especially if you make the verde and marinate the pork the night before.
Of course when I cooked this I didn't make it the night before, however I did have the luxury of an extra half hour up my sleeve. So with the music cranking out the tunes, a cold beer in hand, I took my time in the kitchen and was not disappointed. In the original recipe I served this dish with couscous, but I forgot that (and didn't think to look at the recipe that was inches from me) and proceeded to par boil new potatoes, sliced them and popped them on the grill along with capsicum, zucchini and green beans.

 To my surprise, Max didn't like the verde, or was it the colour he didn't like? Anyway he didn't even taste it (sticking your tongue out in the same direction as your fork with the green stuff on the end is NOT tasting as far as I am concerned), while Alex on the other hand spread it all over his pork and of course, left his zucchini- will I ever win that battle?
The boys and I throughly enjoyed getting some pork on our forks and also looked forward to leftover pork sangos for lunch the next day.
 If your ever looking for a healthy change from chicken, I highly recommend a pork tenderloin for any occasion, be it roasted, stir fried or pan seared- you wont be disappointed.

Tuesday night Veggie burgers

I love veggie burgers, and my husband enjoys a good veggie burger but when I was asked what Tuesday nights meal was from Max (a very hungry almost 8 year old) I was greeted with "Wahhh mum, you know I'm a meat eater.....I NEED it to survive!"
After explaining that is good for the body to have other sources of protein in the diet, he looks at me like I have gone completely mad and comes out with "What are you trying to do to me? just PLEASEEEEE make beef burgers".
I stuck to my guns and promised he would love them--just wait and see (with that you know all I got was an eye roll and the longest face you've ever seen!).
I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed as my original recipe didn't really excite me anymore (I was in a peanut butter phase at the time). I had just finished a big day at work and needed to rush off to pilates within the hour but needed to get dinner on the go before I left. I have to confess I almost abandoned the burgers but then Nic asked earlier in the day if we could have the potato and lentil ones I made for a function last week as they smelt fantastic....
Great idea but I wasn't quite sure what I did? I know I pre cooked potatoes, peeled them and then re cooked them with oil infused with spices.
In the beginning it sounded like too much work (seriously, I was really tired) but decided while the pots were cooking the first time I'd get everything else ready so when I refried them with spices all I needed to do was throw it all together in the end.
Another way of saving time was to grate my veg (carrot, zucchini), shred a corn husk and add frozen peas (no effort at all!). By the time potatoes were ready and I had mushed them up a bit, heated the olive oil, added spices and onion I was ready to go with everything else. I placed all the raw veg in a big bowl, added my hot potato mix followed with a cup of drained lentils (from a tin), added an egg then mixed it all together.
The smell was wonderful and I was starting to get excited that it might actually work! Just before rushing out the door I crumbed the burgers so they would have a lovely crunchy coating of bread crumbs (always have some in the freezer) and also hoping this would entice the boys into thinking they were good enough to eat.
 Nic got home just as I needed to leave; something that happens way to often in our house lately so I yelled out directions on cooking and serving burgers while trying to find my yoga mat. With that done I left him to feed our hungry boys.
When I got home I was starving and looking forward to MY burger.
"How did the veggie burgers go down?" I asked
"Well Max ate all his, salad as well but made sure he told me it was ONLY because he was so hungry and we better be having meat tomorrow night". Alex ate half, decided that was enough and agreed with Max that it really isn't a burger if it doesn't have meat! (a classic really seeing as he doesn't even enjoy meat that much).
Ok so I didn't serve them in buns but I think they are still classified as a burger, it tasted delicious and to my surprise I did manage to make them in under an hour from scratch and that included crumbing them so I am going to work on this recipe and tweak it a bit more then swap it over....or dare I have two veggie burger recipes?