Savoury Corn, Cheese & Bacon Mini Muffins

Here's another great and super easy recipe which freezes well and therefore is excellent for your kids' lunchbox freezer stash!  And as always, I love the sneakiness of hiding veggies in something I cook and then watching my son gobble it up.  Then admitting to him that there are veggies in there.  Nowadays he just laughs when I tell him that because he knows that veggies are good for him and he loves it when he has eaten something with veggies hiding in it that he couldn't taste!

Ingredients (makes 12):
- 1.5 cups light spelt flour
- 2 free range eggs
- 1/2 cup freshly grated cheese of choice (I used sheep's milk cheddar)
- 1/2 cup grated zucchini
- 1/2 cup corn kernels (I used organic frozen ones)
- 1 rasher of nitrate free bacon, diced
- 1 cup milk of choice
- Sprinkle of rosemary (I used dried organic rosemary)
- Optional -  Superfoods for Kidz Vital Veggie Power
- Sea salt and pepper
- 2 tsp baking powder

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake cases (or you can grease)

2.  In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the baking powder and stir to combine.  Then add the baking powder and stir it in.

3.  Divide the mixture evenly among the 12 cupcakes cases and bake for 15 minutes or until the muffins are golden on top and spring back when pressed lightly on top.  These are delicious served warm with a big dollop of butter!

Grain Free Pizza

As many mums out there would know, sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle to get veggies into your kids!  I have been blessed with 2 beautiful kids.... but only one of them loves veggies!  The other, who is now 6 years old, still hates most veggies (though he is slowly but surely acquiring a taste for a slowly increasing variety of veggies) and often I have to resort to hiding veggies in the meals that I cook.  Here is one example of such a meal - the main ingredient in the pizza base is cauliflower, which Ben would not otherwise eat.  But he does love pizza, and this one was no exception!

Ingredients (makes 1 large pizza):
Base:
- 1/2 a cauliflower (about 400g) cut into florets
- 3 free range eggs
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (or some freshly grated cheese)
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- Squeeze of lemon juice or splash of apple cider vinegar
- Season with sea salt, pepper and Herbamare

Toppings:
Whatever you like but I used organic BBQ sauce, sprinkle of dried organic herbs, diced nitrate free bacon, sliced mushrooms and freshly grated sheep's milk cheddar.  I also served the pizza with a side of baby spinach leaves dressed with some extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a pizza tray with baking paper.

2.  In a food processor or Thermomix, pulse the cauliflower until finely chopped.  Add remaining base ingredients and process together until combined (20sec/sp3 in Thermomix).

3.  Tip out onto the lined pizza tray and spread out the mixture evenly. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

4.  Top the base with toppings and put back into the oven until cooked to your liking.

Choc Mint Ice Cream with Magic Chocolate Topping

I haven't always liked the chocolate with mint flavour combination.  Must be my taste buds changing as I get older or something but I have recently started enjoying it.  So here's my recipe for choc mint ice cream.  Super easy if you have an ice cream machine, but if you don't that's OK!  You can still make your own ice cream.  And also the extra special part of this recipe is the topping (think "Ice Magic" but without the nasties) - so yummy!

Ingredients (makes about 1L):
Ice cream:
- 400ml coconut cream (or other full fat milk of choice)
- 200ml water
- 2 free range eggs
- 3/4 cup rapadura sugar
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 2 tsp vanilla essence (I make my own using this recipe)
- 1/4 tsp natural mint flavouring (I used Medicine Flower mint extract)

Chocolate topping:
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1.  In a saucepan on low heat, whisk together the coconut cream, water, eggs, sugar and cacao powder.  Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth and slightly thickened.  Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla and mint flavouring.  Set aside to cool.

(Thermomix: add coconut cream, water, eggs, rapadura and cacao to the TM bowl.  Cook 7min/90deg/sp4.  Add vanilla and mint flavouring and mix 10sec/sp3.  Set aside to cool)

2.  Churn through ice cream maker.  Or if you don't have an ice cream maker, blend the mixture in a high speed blender for about 30 seconds (speed 9 in Thermomix)  to aerate.  Freeze for a couple of hours.  Take out and blend for another 30 seconds on high speed.  Put back in the freezer until completely frozen.

3.  When ready to serve, allow the ice cream to sit on the bench for about 10 minutes to soften to a scoopable consistency.

4.  To make the chocolate topping, melt the coconut oil on low heat and then whisk in all the other ingredients until smooth. 

(Thermomix: melt coconut oil for 1min/70deg/sp1.  Add remaining ingredients and cook for 1min/70deg/sp4).

Passionfruit & Coconut Custard Filled Tartlets

One of the girls at uni came in one day handing out some beautiful fresh passionfruits which she had grown at home.  I adore passionfruit so I decided to make these little tartlets for the kids.  There was lots of custard leftover (what a pity right?) which we decided to churn through our ice cream maker for some beautiful coconut and passionfruit ice cream!

Ingredients (makes 24):

- 3 sheets Pampas butter puff pastry

Custard:

- 400ml coconut cream

- 200ml water

- 2 free range eggs

- 3/4 cup raw or rapadura sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- 2 tbsp gluten-free cornflour

- Pulp from 3 large passionfruit

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 200 degrees and grease a 24 hole mini muffin pan.

2.  Using a 7cm diameter round cookie cutter, cut 24 circles out of the pastry.  Line the greased muffin holes with the pastry circles and bake for around 10 minutes or until the pastry is golden.  Take out of the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. 

3.  While the pastry is baking, make the custard.  In a saucepan on low heat, whisk together all the custard ingredients (except passionfruit) until the custard has thickened.  Set aside to cool for 15 minutes and then stir through the passionfruit pulp, reserving a little of the pulp for garnish.

(Thermomix - add all ingredients except passionfruit and cook 7min/90deg/sp4.  Stir through passionfruit pulp, reserving some for garnish)

4.  Fill each pastry case with the custard and then garnish with some of the remaining passionfruit pulp.  Serve.    

Hummus

It is finally feeling like spring in Perth and it's been such a lovely, relaxing day.  I felt like something super easy for an afternoon snack (but it was so good that I probably won't be hungry at dinner time now!).  Since buying my Thermomix in 2010, I have been making loads of different dips.  One of my faves is the hummus from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook, but I'm not a fan of using tinned legumes (where possible), so I have tweaked that recipe a bit to make the hummus just as I like it!  If you're wondering what the issue is with tinned legumes, they are usually cooked without soaking.  Soaking legumes prior to cooking helps to neutralise the phytic acid and makes the legumes much more digestible.  It's well worth the effort I think!

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in water for 24 hours, then drained and rinsed and simmered in water for about an hour or until tender, then cooled and drained

- 1/2 clove garlic

- 1 tbsp tahini

- Small handful of fresh parsley

- 2 tsp onion powder

- Good splash of extra virgin olive oil

- Juice of half a lime

- Sea salt, pepper and Herbamare to taste

Method:

Put all the ingredients into Thermomix or food processor and process until desired consistency is reached.  I processed for about 30sec/sp4 in my Thermomix, stopping and scraping down the sides a couple of times.  Serve with crackers or veggie sticks and an extra drizzle of olive oil on top of the dip!

Chocolate Coconut Self-Saucing Pudding

I had a major craving today for chocolate self-saucing pudding.... I realised it's been years since I last had it!  So seeing as it's school holidays (and long weekend here in Perth) and it was cold and rainy today... my keen 4yo helper and I got cooking!  This recipe is literally just throwing everything into 2 separate bowls and then into a baking dish and into the oven to bake!  So simple yet so delicious and very warming!  We served this pudding with a dollop of coconut yoghurt, recipe for the yoghurt is courtesy of Alisha, the Naughty Naturopath Mum and Essence Practitioner. 

Ingredients (serves 6):

Batter:

- 1 cup spelt flour (I used light spelt flour)

- 3/4 cup rapadura sugar

- 1/2 cup cacao powder

- 1 + 1/2 cups coconut milk (or coconut cream plus water)

- 1 free range egg

- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tsp vanilla essence

Sauce:

- 1 cup freshly boiled water

- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar

- 1/4 cup cacao powder

Method:

1.  Grease a square 20cm baking dish with coconut oil and preheat your oven to 160 degrees.

2.  Combine all the batter ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.  Pour the batter into the baking dish.

3.  In another bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients.  Then using the back of a large metal spoon, pour the sauce all over the batter.

4.  Bake for around 25 minutes or until the centre of the pudding springs back when lightly pressed on top.  Allow to cool down a little and serve warm with yoghurt or cream or fruit!

Pear & Cinnamon Cupcakes with Quick Caramel Sauce

Keeping the kids' lunchboxes interesting can be a bit of a mind boggling exercise sometimes.  They do have their favourites that they like me to make but I like to keep things interesting.  This is a super easy recipe for cupcakes which freezes well (without the caramel sauce on top - the sauce is just for us to have at home but for the lunchboxes, I use un-iced cupcakes) and the cupcakes are super moist on the inside thanks to the pear sauce. 

Ingredients (makes 12):
Cupcakes:
- 1 large pear (to make pear sauce)
- 1 cup light spelt flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup milk of choice
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tsp baking powder

Caramel sauce:
- 6 fresh Medjool dates, pitted
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut cream
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Pinch of sea salt

Method:
1.  Make pear sauce: peel the pear, chop into pieces and boil in some water until tender.  Drain off the water and mash the pear.  Set aside to cool.

2.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases.

3.  Into a large bowl, add all the cupcake ingredients and stir to combine.  Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake cases.

4.  Bake for around 15 minutes or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed on top. 

5.  Allow the cupcakes to cool.

6.  To make the caramel sauce, blend all the ingredients until smooth in a high speed blender or Thermomix (around 1min/sp9).  Drizzle over the top of the cupcakes.