Carrot Cake Cookies

I've had a hankering for carrot cake this week but really couldn't be bothered making a whole cake. Plus I've been meaning to make a big batch of something to stash in the freezer for after-kindy snacks and a cake doesn't really work.

I spotted some Sunflower Seed Cookies on Planning with Kids a while back and have had them bookmarked to try.

As always when I find a recipe I like I very rarely make it as written. Here I've switched around quite a few of the ingredients using wholemeal flour, carrot and pumpkin seeds which weren't in the original. I've also used dextrose instead of sugar to make them lower in sugar/fructose and added extra baking powder so they are more cakey. Think a not-too-sweet carrot cake but in cookie form.

My boys went nuts for these! They had 2 each with a glass of milk for afternoon tea desperately wanted more but mean mummy said no.

This recipe makes a huge batch so they will last for more than 5 minutes. Most of the batch is in the freezer and I'm looking forward to bringing them out for after-kindy afternoon teas. As they are nut-free they would also be suitable to pack in Oscar's lunchbox for kindy.

Carrot Cake Cookies
Inspired by Sunflower Seed Cookies on Planning with Kids
Makes 4 dozen

225 grams butter, softened
1 ½ cups dextrose (or white sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup grated carrot (about 3 carrots peeled then finely grated)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius /160 degrees fan-forced. Line 4 baking trays with non-stick paper and set aside.

Place the butter and dextrose a large bowl and beat with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir to combine then pour over the butter mixture. When roughly combined add the grated carrot and enough milk to make a thick and slightly sticky batter.

Roll heaped tablespoons of dough into balls and place them onto the trays (12 per tray), leaving plenty of room for spreading.

Bake for approx 12 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through, until lightly golden brown. Leave the cookies to cool for 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will be soft but will firm up when cooled.

Makes approx 48. Suitable to freeze.

BWJ - Foccacia

It must be said that we love foccacia in this house so this was always going to be a winner. It didn't disappoint!

I made a mix of crushed garlic, dried Italian herbs and a good slug of olive oil and brushed most of it over the foccacia before baking. The I brushed the remainder over as soon is it was baked and wow, it smelt amazing!

We just happened to be having lasagne for dinner the day I made this and it was perfect accompaniment. Both boys kept asking for 'more bread please'. Gotta love that.

Our host this week is Sharmini of Wandering Through so make sure you visit her blog for the recipe and visit the LYL section of the Baking with Julia website to see how everyone else did.

Lamington Cupcakes for Australia Day

 Happy Australia Day! The rain has put an end to our normal Australia Day activities of bbqs and catching up with friends so we are instead we at home just hanging out, watching kids movies and of course, baking!

Last year I made real lamingtons with the kids but it was a bit fiddly for little fingers. This year I decided lamington cupcakes were the go. Much easier. We did most of this while Charlie was having his nap. We still ended up with 1 smashed plate and 3 smashed cupcakes but such is the joy of cooking with kids!

At almost 4 years old Oscar loves to help in the kitchen. He can pour in ingredients, stir and is even getting quite adept at cracking eggs! For these cupcakes he also placed the paper cases in the muffin tray, spread icing and sprinkled on coconut.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood are helping to cook and of course licking the spoon. I really hope to pass on such memories to my boys.

One of my goals for this year is to get both boys more involved with daily tasks. They both help a lot but don't really have any little jobs that are always just for them. I have already started getting them to help set the table with their own plates, bowls and cutlery. They have been their things in the sink almost since they could walk.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. I won't bother posting a recipe here as it is a basic vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing, raspberry jam and dessicated coconut. A quick google search will give you a recipe.

These lamington cupcakes were absolutely delicious and the perfect sweet treat this Australia Day. Hope you're all having a good one!

BWJ - French Apple Tart

I'm not off to a great start with BWJ this year, seeing I completely forgot about the last one (seriously how did the 8th of January come around so quickly?!) and only just scraped in with this one!

I knew there was an apple tart coming up so I bought 2 bags of green apples assuming they would last. When I got ready to bake however, I realised there was just 1 lonely apple left and this recipe would require some major tweakage (that's totally a word).

I think the beauty of this tart lies in the swirled apple slices on top so that's what I save my apple for. Rather than trying to sub another fruit for the filling, I went with a frangipane filling as I happened to have some almond meal. Apple and almonds are a great combination so I knew whatever happened this tart would at least be edible!

The taste test ...

Flaky buttery pastry topped with smooth almondy frangipane and fragrant apples. There really is no way this could be bad. I'm really keen to try the original version with the apple filling but this was a great substitute. Seeing as this tart bears little resemblance to the original I have included my recipe below.

My apologies to Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen for not making the actual tart. It's now on my to-bake list!

Mini Apple Frangipane Tarts
Makes 2 x 4 inch tarts

Pastry
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 pinch salt
1 ts sugar
120g cold butter, diced
1-2 tbs cold water

Filling
25g almond meal
25g sugar
25g butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
1/2 ts vanilla extract

Topping
1 granny smith apple
1 tbs melted butter
1 tbs honey, warmed

To make the pastry - combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips, being sure to leave some pea-sized bits. If the butter starts to get too soft, place the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes. Once the butter is rubbed in add 1 tbs of the cold water and start to bring the dough together. If the mixture is too dry add extra water just a few drops at a time. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to approx 5mm thick and fit into 2 x 4 inch tart pans (there will be dough left over). Place the pans in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsisus.

To make the filling mash the butter together with the sugar and almond meal then stir in the egg yolk and vanilla. Set aside.

Bake the tart shells for 20 minutes or until dry to the touch and very lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before spooning in the filling and smoothing the tops.

Slice the apple into thin wedges. Lay the slices across the top of each tart and brush with melted butter.

Reduce the oven temperature to 170 degrees and bake the tarts for approx 25 minutes or until the pastry and frangipane are golden brown and the apples are tender. Remove from the oven and brush with warmed honey.

Serve just warm.

New Year, New Name!

I can't believe after making such a major change I then promptly forgot to tell anyone! oops.

After much deliberation food.baby finally has it's own URL and a slight name change to foodbabylife.

Over the past few years I have started to feel constrained by the old name and wanted a new name to take the blog in a slightly different direction. It will still be predominantly a food blog but with more family and lifestyle posts tossed in to the mix.

The old blogger address does redirect to the new site but please subscribe using the new URL so you don't miss anything! Thank you :-)

Sistema Quaddie Lunch Box Review

Well it's almost back to school time! I always loved this time of year when I was a kid. The holidays had dragged on long enough that I was looking for something to do and it was exciting getting new books, uniforms and stationery.

Oscar starts kindy at the end of this month (sniff) and I am just starting to get organised. Luckily he has a bag already, leftover from his daycare days, and doesn't need sheets etc now that he no longer has a daytime nap. What we really needed were labels to make sure all of his things come home and of coure, the all important lunch box.

My baby loves his food so finding something practical that he also really liked was important.

My requirements:
- BPA free
- easy for him to open and close
- big enough to hold both morning tea and lunch
- dishwasher safe

We are lucky that our kindy stores all lunchboxes in the fridge so we don't need an insulated lunch bag and special cold bricks. That narrowed our choices down to a few but the Sistema Quaddie (Itsy Bitsy Lunch range) in blue and yellow was a clear winner.

It has 3 compartments on top, one of which fits an included bottle which can be frozen to keep lunch cold. I plan on using the largest compartment for some sliced fruit, then separating out either cheese, crackers, carrot sticks or a homemade treat in the other 2.

Underneath there is plenty of space for a sandwich, muffin, tub of yoghurt or whole apple/orange. We saw lots of lunchboxes which had space for a sandwich but not much else. For the sake of variety I would like to be able to include a savoury muffin instead of a sandwich or include a proper tub of yoghurt rather than those small-but-full-of-sugar tubes of yoghurt with cartoon characters on them. Those things simply wouldn't fit or would be pretty squashed in some of the other lunchboxes.

We have had a few trial runs and Oscar found it easy to open all the individual lids and we have already made it a rule that it will be morning tea on the top and lunch in the bottom.

Not to be left out, Charlie has an identical quaddie lunchbox and I'm planning on packing his lunch up the same as Oscar's on kindy days. This should be a bit of a timesaver and also be special for Charlie who is going to miss his big brother terribly.

We bought our Sistema Quaddies at Kmart but they are pretty widely available. You can find stockists and more information here.

Note - this is not a sponsored post and no brand associations exist with Sistema or Kmart. I just wanted to share something that I like!

Meatless Monday - Potato Curry with Naan and Crunchy Fried Tofu

Happy New Year!! Hard to believe we are already 2 weeks into 2013.

In an effort to start the year off on the right foot, food wise, my first post for the year is a Meatless Monday meal. And even better it is one that is so seriously delicious that even the meat-lovers amongst us will be practically licking their plates clean!

Just don't be like me and take photos before adding one of the major elements of the dish, namely the crunchy fried tofu. Oops. While it definitely needs to be there for protein and crunch, it would have only added another layer of brown so it's no great loss.

Potato Curry with Naan and Crunchy Fried Tofu
Serves 4


For the curry:
500g sweet potato
500g potatoes
2 tbs curry paste
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 tbs coconut oil or ghee
2 cloves garlic
1 tin coconut cream
1 tin's worth of water
Salt, pepper and dextrose/sugar to taste

I cooked mine in the slow cooker but this works just as well on the stovetop. Directions for both are below.

Peel and chop the potatoes and sweet potato into 2 cm dice. Fry the onions in the coconut oil until starting to soften and go golden then add both lots of potato. Add the curry paste and extra garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and the paste is coating the potatoes. Add the coconut cream and water and mix well.

At this point you could pop the whole lot in the slow cooker on low and head out for the day! Or if you are cooking this at dinner, just simmer until the veges are tender and the sauce has reduced. Serve with a dollop of plain yoghurt, tofu and naan.

For the breadmaker naan:
Recipe adapted from here
185ml warm water
2 tbs coconut oil
90g greek yoghurt
1 ts salt
1 ts dextrose/sugar
1 ts onion flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g wholemeal flour
350g bread flour
2 ts dried yeast

I made the dough in the breadmaker which simply involved adding all the ingredients in the order listed and using the pizza dough setting. After 50 minutes I had gorgeous soft dough ready to cut into 6 even pieces and shape into oblongs around 20cm long. Drizzle the top of each with coconut oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 250 degrees celsius for around 10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

If you don't have a breadmaker follow the link to the original recipe above.

For the tofu:
250g firm tofu of your choice
Seasonings

I used a pack of sesame tofu nuggets which I chopped roughly then fried in coconut and sesame oils. I added a drizzle of rice malt syrup and some extra sesame seeds. Delish. Fry until nice and crispy and serve on top of your curry.

So that's my seriously delicious potato curry with tofu and naan. Enjoy!

My Favourite Recipes of 2012

I feel like 2012 has been a year of changes for us, both personally and in terms of the types of food we have been eating. Not sure if this has really been reflected on the blog but I have big plans for 2013 in that regard so stay tuned!

The end of a year is always a time for reflection though so I have been trawling through the archives to choose my favourite recipes of the year. Perhaps they were some of your favourites too?

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
While we've always tried to have a balance of meat and non-meat meals, this year I really got into Meatless Mondays. My family's absolute favourite vegetarian meal of the year were these sausage rolls. My boys always go back for seconds and even thirds. Make a double batch and stash some in the freezer.

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Well this one doesn't need much explanation. It's cheesecake, with chocolate in it, and you don't even need an oven. This beauty is so simple but will really impress.

Peanut Sesame Noodles
Another Meatless Monday recipe, this is the meal that converted my husband to a satay-lover. Yay! Filled with ginger, sesame and of course peanuts, it makes a substantial meal that is somehow not too heavy with the addition of lots of crunchy fresh veges.

Best Ever Custard
So 2012 was the year I finally figured out how to make good custard! This makes the smoothest, most luscious vanilla custard ever. Perfect to serve with pudding but good enough to eat with a spoon straight from the pot.

Milo Muffins
Another thing I really tried to do this year was bake especially for lunchboxes. I love having a stash of freshly-made treats ready for my husband and kids to take when we're out and about. The benefits of course being I know exactly what's in it and we save some money too. With my eldest starting kindy in 2013 this will something I'll really be focusing on next year.

So that's it! My 5 favourites of 2012. I'm planning big things for the blog in 2013 so make sure you come back and check it out!

I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2013 :-)

Christmas Rice Salad

I know I said I wasn't going to post any of my Christmas recipes but I made an exception for this salad. Because it is exceptional!

The original version was supposed to be made with quinoa rather than rice. We had the quinoa cooked on Christmas day but with all the other food we had, we totally forgot about it sitting there in the pot and ended up having to throw it away.

So a couple of days after Christmas I decided to make it with rice and use up all the yummy herbs etc that I had bought specially for it. While the nuts and cranberries do make it very festive and therefore perfect for Christmas, I guarantee it will be welcome at any BBQ anytime!

Christmas Rice Salad
Recipe by me

4 cups cooked brown rice
1 red capsicum, diced
1 green capsicum, diced
3 shallots/spring onions, finely sliced
100g cashews, roughly chopped
100g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1 bunch mint, chopped finely
1 bunch parsley, chopped finely
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbs soy sauce

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Serve warm or cold. Especially good served with leftover ham or roast turkey. Serves 8-10 as a side dish.

Christmas Day Recap

Well another Christmas over. It seems like the build-up to Christmas is getting longer but then the actual day is over so quickly!

We had a really lovely day at home. We all slept in until 7 (amazing) and then came downstairs together for the kids to find their stockings full of lovely things. My dad arrived before the kids were up which meant he got to see them open their presents and have breakfast with us.

Here is my favourite pic of my 2 big boys with Oscar's new bike:

We took our tree down yesterday but still have presents in boxes and a fridge full of leftovers. Speaking of which we had way too much food. My 'simple' menu could have fed 20 people as it turned out, instead of just the 4 adults and 2 kids that we actually had. Oops.

Here's what I loved about our Christmas meal:

- mango smoothies for breakfast (a real hit with the kids and filled them up for the morning)

- prawn and avocado salad (loads of fresh king prawns, diced avocado, crisp iceberg lettuce and a homemade seafood sauce. Just delicious)

- roast turkey on the BBQ (a fresh turkey with a herb butter under the skin and wrapped in bacon. Cooked and then rested for 2 whole hours it was the moistest, most flavourful turkey we have ever done. Just make sure you have enough gas. We ran out half way through and hubby had to dash to the service station to buy a new bottle!)

- frozen christmas pudding for dessert (cool and refreshing but still with all the flavours of Christmas)

I didn't really get any good photos of our food so I won't post any of the recipes.  Some of them will definitely be made again next year so I will be sure to post then.



Also speaking of food, there were hot cross buns in Woolies this morning! Craziness!

So that's Christmas 2012. Full of family, food and lots of fun. Just as it should be :)

Christmas Menu 2012

Source

I though today I would share our Christmas menu seeing as we are now only hours from the big day!

We are having Christmas at home for the first time since having the boys and it is going to be wonderful for all of us not having to pack up and leave for the day. Much less disruptive for the kids. We will have my dad and N's mum with us so it will be a lovely family day.

As there will only be 6 of us I have kept the menu pretty simple. I will post recipes and photos after Christmas but I have my fingers crossed all will go smoothly tomorrow and everything will taste as good as I hope!

Breakfast
Mango smoothies
Cinnamon toast

Nibbles
Roasted Pumpkin Hummus
Pistachio Cheese Log
Assorted nuts, crackers and cheeses

Entree
Prawn cocktail (very retro but so yum!)
Salad

Main
Roast turkey (on the weber)
Ham on the bone
Pork and sage stuffing muffins
Gravy (Jamie Oliver recipe)
Christmas tabouli with quinoa
Warm potato and macadamia nut salad
Broccolini with almonds

Dessert
Pavlova with berries and cream
Frozen Christmas pudding

We have chosen to decorate with lots of purple this year, both on the tree and for the table. I love the photo above but I can guarantee our table will not be so elegant!

I wish you all have a very happy and safe Christmas! xx