Picnic snacks

My little daughter has a 'picnic day' at her kindergarten each week and she has to take a healthy snack in to school on this day. I could just pick up wholewheat cookies I guess but I'd rather not, well at least not every week!
So I've been planning a few things and here is a quick list of some of my favorite ideas that work:
happy face cream cheese sandwiches (eyes and mouth with raisins)
fruit cut into little pieces: strawberries/ blueberries and grapes work well
cupcakes with chocolate frosting no sprinkles
pretzels
I will be trying mac and cheese (homemade version) and let's see how it goes because it shouldn't become too sticky by the time she eats it.
Will think of more stuff and add on to the list.

Waffles

Pixie's new favorite food: waffles!

I have a simple basic waffle iron and my batter is easy enough, flour, 1 egg, sugar, milk and oil. Mix till creamy, pour 1 to one and a half tablespoons on a hot iron brushed with oil, cook 2-3 minutes till lightly browned. Tastes delicious! For a more grownup version, I add a handful of chopped walnuts to the basic batter.

Food notes

Baked potatoes is the new family favorite! I do it the most basic way, only thing is I rub the potato with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt on it before baking for a nice long time. Don't forget to prick it in several places with a fork before baking. Tastes delicious as it is but good fillings include boiled chicken mashed with cream cheese and coriander and in our noodle-crazy family try boiled noodles tossed with a few steamed shrimp and broccoli all lightly spiced and seasoned (i used a mix of a dash of cumin, tumeric and dried basil)-- a meal by itself and delicious!

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To add real flavor to a regular fried rice add cubed avocado just minutes before you take the fried rice off the heat (I use a mix of vegies like broccoli, mushroom, baby corn, chinese cabbage, snow peas in this fried rice). Delicious.

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A new breakfast I enjoy: whole wheat raisin bagel with a handful of walnuts and a hard- boiled egg. Washed down with fresh brewed tea.

Happy little treats

I am always looking for easy little food ideas to make for my two-and-a-half year old and her friends. She is a good eater which makes it quite a bit easier. Here are some fairly quick ideas that have worked out well:

Happy Face Sandwiches

Use a mix of wholewheat and white bread for an extra bit of color.
You will need:

1 loaf wholewheat and 1 loaf white sliced sandwich bread (depending on the number of sandwiches you want to make)
Diced well boiled potatoes
cream cheese
hard boiled egg
Raisins and thin slivers of carrot (for the happy face decoration)

Mash the poatoes with the cream cheese and season to taste. Keep aside. Use one slice wholewheat and one slice white bread for each sandwich. Butter the bread on one side lightly. Use a round shape (I used a small canister cover) and cut the bread into small circles (you can use leftover bits in your bread and butter pudding); put some cream cheese-mash potato filling into each sandwich; top the filling with a thin slice of hard boiled egg in some of the sandwiches and press the sandwich down firmly. Finally press in two raisins for eyes and the carrot sliver to make a smiley mouth. Of course you can use any kind of filling you like, this one works well for us and is easy to make ahead and keep.

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Tasty, quick fried drummettes

Some chicken drumettes (washed well and boiled for about 15 minutes with garlic and some salt)
dash of cumin powder, dash of tumeric, salt to taste

Cool the boiled chicken drumettes, then mix well with the cumin and tumeric powders and salt. Shallow fry very well making sure chicken is nicely cooked and crispy. Serve after the chicken has completely cooled down.

Mushroom omelette

My little one loves mushrooms, this omelette is easy to make with swiss brown mushrooms sliced fine. Simply add the sliced mushrooms to a well beaten free range egg, season lightly and cook gently in an egg pan folding over as it cooks to make a small delicious omelette.

Chocolate dip for fruit

2 150g bars dark chocolate
2-3 teaspoons honey or golden syrup
1 small pot single cream
1 tablespoon cornflour

Melt all ingredients together very gently in a double boiler. When cooled serve with strawberries and grapes on long bamboo skewers.

Tasty chicken

I like trying out new dishes that use a lot of ingredients and can get done in under 30 minutes. This morning I came up with this rather delicious chicken bake, I used a few pieces of chicken as the dish was small -- to serve one adult and a kid -- so I didn't need to add a whole lot of meat in, but like all my recipes the quantities are hugely adjustable.

The Recipe:
1 large tomato chopped
2-3 garlic cloves smashed + another 2-3 cloves whole
handful baby portobello mushrooms sliced fine
2 potatoes boiled and mashed
1/2 cup steamed spinach
1/2 cup grated good quality cheddar
organic chicken drumettes and wings
pinch tumeric
1 tablespoon good quality tomato paste

Boil the chicken in water with a pinch of tumeric; salt and two to three cloves of garlic for about 15 minutes. Add some olive oil to a heavy bottomed pan, saute the smashed garlic for a few minutes, add the tomatoes, spinach, mushroom, tomato paste and saute till nice and mushy. Add seasoning and cheese and keep mixing till the tomatoes have broken down well. Add boiled chicken to this mixture and finally the mashed potato. Take off from heat and spoon mixture into a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake about 25-30 mins at 150.

Serve warm with steamed white rice or flake the chicken, mix into baked tomato mixture and use this as a pasta sauce. Delicious either way.

Chicken soup for the soul

I believe in chicken soup. A clear rich delicious chicken soup can do something wonderful for you especially if you have a stuffy nose, heavy head and aching body. I like making a clean tasting soup, almost broth-like using fresh root vegetables, a few spices and organic chicken. Here is the recipe:

chicken wings and drumettes (8-10 pieces)
leek
carrot
potato
onion (about one each, washed peeled and roughly chopped)
2 bay leaves
handful of pepper corns
1 large tomato chopped
fennel cut into quarters
garlic (2-3 large flakes)
a 2" stick of ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the chicken; put into a large stockpot with the vegetables (except fennel) and whole spices. Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer about 90 minutes. Add fennel just before the last 20 minutes or so. Check seasoning. Remove from heat. Remove chicken pieces and flake with a fork; discard vegetable pieces. You can serve this in a couple of ways:

*Add flaked chicken back to pot and serve just as a clear soup

*Put bits of flaked chicken in deep soup dishes, pour in some broth and top with freshly boiled udon or egg noodles and a teaspoon of soy sauce. Add a few pieces of thinly sliced red or green bird's eye chilli for extra zest

*Use broth in risotto or noodle dishes use chicken in salad/ sandwiches or as pizza toppings

Crunchy veg delight

I like making these nice, quick pie quiche-like dishes and of late I have started making them with a crumbly, crunchy cracker base. After experimenting with a few different types of crackers I've found simple saltine crackers to be the best. I bash them up in a small ziploc with a pestle and then mix the crumbs with a bit of olive oil and pack them tightly into the base of the baking dishes and then fill up the cracker shell with a delicious filling. The recipe below is a nice enough one:

1 medium tomato chopped

1 onion chopped

half a packet firm tofu crumbled

half cup chopped washed spinach

a generous pinch cumin powder

about 2 tablespoons grated cheddar

salt to taste

1 tablespoon flour

1 egg

Saute the tomato and onion in a little olive oil, till soft and mushy, add spinach and tofu and saute couple of minutes. Add cumin, cheese and salt stir well and remove from heat. In a large bowl combine flour and egg and bit of water, mix into a smooth paste and add cooled vegetable mixture. Mix very well and spoon over cracker base. Bake about 25 mins at 180.

Variation: Add other veg to this combination, swiss brown or portobello mushrooms, boiled potato, boiled corn. Eat warm or cold. Delicious!

Eat healthy

Ever since my father-in-law (a lifelong vegetarian who has followed a strict excess-free life) was diagnosed with colon cancer we are trying to eat healthier, to fight the carcinogens that have invaded our ecosystems, to make dietary changes that may help us all in the long run.

Certain foods and spices are known to have a positive effect in preventing and retarding growth of cancerous tumors. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, blueberries, tumeric just to name a few really do help. I have been reading up on this and it seems that betacarotene (or the orange/ yellow colored) foods are really good. Try pumpkin, papaya, carrots. Then avocado is another good food; good spices include cumin and ginger.

I am working on creating recipes that are anti-carcinogen + delicious. I came up with a pretty good 'barbati dhal'. Barbati beans are the black eyed peas lentil, I made this dhal with a shrimp stock, many veggies and spices and pomegranate seeds (another good food).

Try the recipe:

Ingredients:
barbati dhal (1/2 cup soaked overnight, then drained and pressure cooked with 3 garlic cloves, 1 chopped onion, handful or a little more of pomegranate seeds and 1 tomato till soft)
2-3 cups prawn or shrimp stock (make this by simmering shrimp, heads and tails with garlic, celery, carrot and onion bay leaf about 30 mins)
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tomatoes
little oil
salt to taste

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Blend pressure cooked dhal with celery, carrot, onion from simmered stock + a few more garlic cloves.
In a heavy pan, add some oil, then add spice powder and tomatoes and fry very well till oil separates from spice and tomato mixture.

Add the blended dhal to spice tomato mixture + the stock. Add salt to taste. Simmer for at least half an hour before serving hot with plain steamed white rice.