Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas (Baking with Julia)

So you know the saying 'if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all'? Well that pretty much sums up my feelings about this week's pick, Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas. This will be a short post.

I thought I would love it but this was seriously one of the blandest things I have ever eaten. It's my own fault really, for not tasting and adjusting but I was in a hurry and thought I would just trust the recipe. Big mistake. It was bland to the point of being inedible, even topped with a dollop of greek yoghurt and a scattering of coriander. It also wasn't helped by the fact our lamb mince was incredibly greasy.

I can see the potential though, so if I were to attempt these again I would at least double the cinnamon and all-spice and also add some ground cumin and coriander and probably chilli flakes as well.

Hopefully others had more success!

MyProsperity (Review)

Recently I was approached by Nuffnang to review an online personal finance platform called MyProsperity, as part of their Nuffnang Product Talk. Now I know at first glance finance has very little to do with a mostly food-based blog but bear with me!

As a stay at home mum of 2 little boys and (spoiler alert!) with bub #3 due in October, life is very busy! It's all too easy to rely on takeaways and cut corners to make things a little easier. However, I have found all those little things cost money and can add up very quickly. My solution has simply been to become more organised.

Over the past 12 months we have made lots of positive changes that are already having a great impact on our financial situation. Things like buying some of our basic food items from Aldi, making my own laundry powder and other cleaning products and cutting out most the processed (and pricey) food that we used to eat.

The bottom line is I want to be able to stay home with my kids, at least for the next few years, and keeping track of our money is a crucial part of that. MyProsperity is a free, simple and secure way to handle your finances.

So how does it work?

You visit the MyProsperity website and sign up for free, which only takes a few minutes. The hardest part was coming up with a complicated enough password (which is actually very reassuring as I know it will be secure).

You link up all your existing bank accounts, credit cards, loans, shares, super and property. The program finds your accounts, gathers all your transactions and even values your car and house to give you an up to date picture of your net worth.

What is especially useful for us is seeing exactly where we are spending our money.

Despite having made a budget some time ago, it required a fair bit of work to open up the spreadsheet and manually enter our purchases. MyProsperity does all of this automatically and even categorises your spending as groceries, petrol, entertainment, travel etc. I did find some of my purchases were wrongly categorised. Anything I purchased online for example, was listed under online services rather than clothing or healthcare. It took about 10 minutes to go through and correct these categories so they are ready for next time.

Will we stick with it?

Definitely. I feel like we have only just scratched the surface of what MyProsperity can do for us but already I am loving having all of our information in one place and being able to see at a glance where our money is going. Seeing it all laid out is a great incentive to try and spend less!

Image Source

My top 3 tips for spending less on food:

1. Make your own

Lots of basic foods can be so easily made at home - pizza bases, stewed fruit, granola, cakes/muffins/biscuits and even almond milk - all at a fraction of the price you will find them at the supermarket and much better for you too.

2. Plan your meals

We have started shopping fortnightly and writing out a complete meal plan for that time. I do mine in Excel but you can just write on a piece of paper if that's easier. I choose a main meal for each night, making sure there will be enough leftover for my husband to take for lunch the next day. I then check the freezer and pantry and list out any ingredients we will need to buy. I add in anything we need for breakfast, kindy lunches and to stock the pantry with essentials and then I'm done. I print the list and head off shopping. At the end of the fortnight the fridge is practically empty and we haven't wasted a thing.

3. Cut out the crap

As I have mentioned before, we have made a real effort to cut out snack, junky and processed foods. I am very proud of the fact that Oscar's kindy lunchbox has never contained anything in a packet. I buy yoghurt in 1kg tubs (and planning on switching to homemade soon) and spoon it into his own little container, I make wraps and sandwiches, cut up fruit and vegetable sticks, add a homemade treat like a muffin or just some rice cakes with cream cheese. I did a review of the lunchbox we chose for him here and it has been working brilliantly with no need for any extra packaging or even gladwrap.

Full disclosure - I received a $50 Myer giftcard for my time in reviewing MyProsperity. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I have published this review in good faith.

Spiced Apple Baked French Toast (Secret Recipe Club)

My blogging has been a bit sporadic lately but there is no way I would miss the Secret Recipe Club! This month I was assigned A Cook's Quest by Jenn. She and I seem to have a very similar outlook on food and what we like to feed our families. I love that there was a good mix of healthy and not-so-healthy recipes. Everything in moderation!

We love Mexican food around here so my first pick from Jenn's blog was going to be her Mexican Lasagne. But then I saw her Apple and Spice Baked French Toast and couldn't go past it!

Breakfast here tends to be pretty straight forward - lots of porridge, muesli and toast. On weekends we might do pancakes or bacon and eggs but that's about it. One of my favourite desserts is bread and butter pudding and this baked french toast is pretty much the same thing with the addition of apples and spices. Love it.

Spiced Apple Baked French Toast
Adapted very slightly from A Cook's Quest

1 loaf French bread
8 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1 cup sugar, divided (I used dextrose to cut down on the fructose)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
6 Granny Smith apples
2 tablespoons butter
Cream and maple syrup to serve

Grease a 9 x 13 inch glass pan with butter. Slice the bread into 1 inch slices and place in the dish, packing the pieces quite tightly together.

In separate bowl, use a whisk to beat together the eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, milk, cream and vanilla. Pour one-half of this mixture over bread.

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples and layer them over the top of the bread to cover. Pour the leftover milk mixture evenly over the apples.

In a small bowl mix the remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the spices and sprinkle evenly over the top of apples. Dot with small pieces of butter, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 160 degrees fan-forced. Uncover the dish and bake for 1 hour. It should be risen and browned and smell amazing. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

To serve, slice into squares (and if you're feeling really indulgent drizzle with maple syrup and cream). Be prepared not to be hungry for the rest of the day!

We LOVED this. It was a bit like having dessert for breakfast so in future we will definitely be saving it for special occasions like birthdays or Easter!

I actually made only about 2/3 of this recipe and it made a huge amount which we ate over a couple of days. Half the recipe would be plenty for most families. My favourite bit would have been the sweet and spicy apples on top. Could not get enough! Next time I will layer some apple slices in amongst the bread and also add some spices into the custard mixture to really boost the flavour. Thanks for a great recipe Jenn!

Sprinkles Biscuits

This is second of the yummy goodies I made for a cake stall at Oscar's kindy this weekend. You can see the Triple Chocolate Brownies here.

To me these biscuits/cookies just scream childhood. I mean, what kid doesn't love sprinkles??

These hundreds & thousands contained no artificial colours or flavours, and this is something I cam starting to notice more and more. Such a good thing although I know some kids (and adults) do react to natural colours and flavours as well.

I adapted the recipe for these beauties from Averie Cooks. Hers were for Chewy Sprinkles Cookies. They were much smaller and baked for less time so they come out of the oven very blond. However, my perfect biscuit is crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle so that's how I made them. I love the golden brown colour and their sweet buttery aroma was incredible.

I think I showed great restraint not tasting even one of these, but I gave one to my littlest taste tester Charlie and he gave it a huge thumbs up.

Why not make these this weekend? You won't be disappointed!

 

 

Sprinkles Biscuits
Makes 18 large biscuits/cookies
Adapted from Averie Cooks

250g unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
1 tbs dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg at room temperature
2 ts vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
1/2 ts baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hundreds & thousands (plus 1/2 cup extra to decorate, optional)

Place the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and whisk together to combine. Set aside.

In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and vanilla. Beat for 30 seconds, until just combined.

Switch to a spatula and fold through the flour and sprinkles until just combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 5 days) before baking.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees fan-forced. Line 3 baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.

Divide the dough into 18 balls (my batch of dough weighed 968g so I got 18 x 54g pieces from the batch). Roll each ball in the extra sprinkles and place on the prepared trays, 6 per tray leaving plenty of room for spreading. Use your hand or lightly grease the bottom of a glass to flatten each ball to about 1cm thick.

Depending on your oven size you can bake these all at once or in batches. I did 1 tray at a time, with the remaining trays waiting in the fridge.

Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the trays halfway. They will be just golden brown around the edges and pale golden in the middle. Remove and allow to cool on the tray for at least 5 minutes before carefully lifting them onto a wire rack to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Store the biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can also store unbaked cookie dough in an airtight container or plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 5 days before baking.

Triple Chocolate Brownies

I love an old-fashioned cake stall and remember them fondly from childhood. There were always cupcakes, anzac biscuits, coconut ice and little toffees with hundreds and thousands on the top. A sugarholics dream!

There is an open day at Oscar's kindy on the weekend and I couldn't pass up the chance to bake something delicious to give to the cake stall. I'm not baking like this for us much lately but it was so much fun to do it and give it all away!

After much deliberation I decided on my Triple Chocolate Brownies and some hundreds & thousands biscuits, figuring they would go down a treat with the kids and parents alike. I will post the recipe for the bikkies later but today, it's all chocolate baby!

Triple Chocolate Brownies

1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
120 grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips (reserve a few tbs to scatter over the top)
120 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C / 140 degrees fan-forced.

Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter and line the bottom with baking paper. Butter the paper, dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk the flour and salt together and set aside.

Place the butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat. Once the butter has melted, sift the cocoa over the top and stir until combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Using a whisk beat the eggs into the butter/cocoa mix one at a time. Next, whisk in the sugar and vanilla until smooth. Switch to a spatula and fold through the flour, salt, dark chocolate and most of the white chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the pan. Scatter over the remaining white chocolate chips so it looks pretty.

Bake for 30 minutes. The brownies will still be gooey but the top will be dry and papery. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely. Cut into desired size (I do 12 pieces).

WINNER UPDATE - AntiOx Chocolate Giveaway!

Calling reader Merryl, you have now won an AntiOx Chocolate Gift Pack!

merryl

I am a chocoholic and I am always looking for new chocolate to try. This new Anti Ox sugar free dark chocolate sounds irresistable.

Please send your mailing address to food.baby.food.baby @ gmail.com as soon as possible to receive your prize.

AntiOx Chocolate Giveaway winners!!!

Well the winners of the AntiOx Chocolate Giveaway have been drawn! Congratulations to:

Rockn

I am currently trying very hard to be good and healthy and lose a little weight, but I miss my chocolate!

and

sapna

because these are high in anti-oxidants and will come under healthy snack category.

Could you please email your mailing address as soon as possible to food.baby.food.baby @ gmail.com and I will arrange to have your prize packs sent to you!

 

Baked Yoghurt Tart with Cherries and an Oatmeal Crust (Baking with Julia)

I've never heard of a baked yoghurt tart before but when I read it was similar to a custard tart I got very excited! I love a classic custard tart (as I've made before here) but I'm always looking for healthier options. A tart filling based on natural yoghurt and flavoured with vanilla, fruit and almonds sounded perfect.

Fresh berries are ridiculously expensive here, even in season, so I chose to use frozen cherries instead. I thawed, drained and patted them dry before using and they worked really well. 

I also opted for a different crust. I found someone else's version of this yoghurt tart here and they had used an oatmeal crust which sounded delicious so that's what I used.  I made it fructose-free by using dextrose instead of brown sugar. It was more like a cheesecake base than a tart base and I loved it. In fact it could become by go-to cheesecake base instead of biscuit crumbs!

I'm going to blame my oven but this took more than double the stated time to cook, 1 hr 10 mins as opposed to 35-40 minutes.

The taste test ...

We loved this! Much more similar in texture to a cheesecake than a custard tart. Which makes it even more of a winner in my book because I adore cheesecake! I loved the nuttiness of the base with the almonds and cherries, and the filling was smooth and only slightly tangy. Just delightful.

The recipe is available online (just google Julia Child Baked Yoghurt Tart) but I have included the recipe for the crust here. Click on the link below for the orginal recipe made on brown sugar.

For the Oatmeal Crust
Adapted from Wellsphere

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup dextrose
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100 grams butter, melted and cooled
1 egg yolk

Lightly grease a 9 inch springform pan and line the base with non-stick paper.

Place all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the oats are finely chopped. Add the melted butter and egg yolk and process until combined. It should resemble damp sand and stick together when pressed.

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and press evenly over the base and halfway up the sides. Chill for 30 minutes.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and blind bake at 170 degrees C / 150 C fan-forced for about 20 minutes, then remove the pastry weights and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes. (I put foil around the edges which were starting to get a little dark.

Cool to room temperature before filling.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

Winter has well and truly arrived this week. While we're still getting glorious sunny days, the nights and early mornings are absolutely freezing. We have so far avoided having heaters on but a few more days like this and that will change!

In our house cold weather is soup weather. I love the fact that both my boys love soup, especially my 4 year old. If you haven't tried soup with your kids yet it's really worth a go, just be prepared for some mess!

We've had pumpkin soup a few times recently and I've always stuck to my tried and true recipe which includes garlic, ginger and coriander. This time I thought I would make something a little lighter and sweeter, so decided to not only include some apple but also to roast all the ingredients first, something that really brings out the natural sweetness.

The taste test ...

Pumpkin and apple really are a match made in heaven! My kids absolutely devoured this for lunch. Both had seconds. You'll notice from the photo how thick this soup is. Not only does it make quite a hearty meal it also makes it easier for little kids to handle.This was a winner and will be added to our regular rotation.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

1/4 large pumpkin (I like jap or kent for soup, my piece was 1.6kg)
2 small green apples
1 potato
1 large onion
1/4 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts cumin
3-4 cups stock (chicken or vege work well)
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C / 170 degrees fan-forced.

Chop up the pumpkin into thick slices, removing the seeds but leaving the skin on. Wash and core the apples, leaving them whole with the skin intact. Wash the potato and chop into quarters, leaving the skin on. Top and tail the onion and remove the skin.

Place all veggies into a large baking dish. Sprinkle over the spices, drizzle on the oil and toss to combine.

Place in the oven and roast for 45 -60 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft, golden and cooked through. Keep an eye on the apples and onion as they will be done before the potatoes and take them out if they are getting too brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before scooping out the flesh of the apples and veggies into a food processor or blender. Leave any hard or overcooked edges and all the skin behind.

Blitz until well combined. Add the stock and blitz for 2 minutes or until completely smooth (if you want a thinner soup just add more stock now). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the soup into a large saucepan and simmer gently until warmed through. Serve with hot buttered bread rolls.

Serves 4.

Snow White Popcorn Treats (Secret Recipe Club)

SRC time again! This month I was assigned Life and Kitchen by Lindsay. I love that Lindsay posts so many veggie and meatless meals but after doing something savoury for the past few months of SRC I had already decided to do something sweet this month, and was delighted that she had so many to choose from!

The instant I saw these Snow White Popcorn Treats I was sold. It actually is winter here, but this is as close as my boys will get to snow!

We make popcorn a few times a week using our air popper. I like mine with a little melted butter and sea salt but the kids are totally happy having it plain. But let me tell you they were very excited about their special sticky popcorn!

The recipe called for 1 large or 2 small bags of popcorn but I have no idea what size that would actually be. I just did the usual 1/4 cup we always do and hoped for the best. It was pretty much spot on.

So how did it taste? Totally amazing as you would expect! I did find it VERY sweet though and added extra salt to mine (love that sweet and salty contrast). This would be perfect bagged up and given as gifts at Christmas and I will be doing just that this year.

Thanks for a great recipe Lindsay!

Snow White Popcorn Treats
From Life and Kitchen

1/4 cup popping corn
20 white marshmallows
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup white chocolate
sea salt

Pop the corn and spread it out on a lightly greased baking tray, making sure to remove any unpopped kernals.

In a medium pan over lowish heat gently melt the butter and the marshmallows, stirring constantly. Once they are completely melted and liquidy, add in the white chocolate and stir until smooth.

Quickly pour the mixture over the popcorn using a silicone spatula to toss it all together, coating as much of the popcorn as you can.

Sprinkle generously with sea salt and leave to set for about 10 minutes before devouring.

Naked Chocolate Mini Cakes with AntiOx Chocolate Ganache

If you missed my review of the AntiOx Chocolate and Snack Bar range yesterday make sure you check it out. You could win a $30 chocolate gift pack!

While it has certainly been lovely having some chocolate in the pantry to nibble on, I wanted to showcase the chocolate in a recipe. Given it is a sugar-free chocolate I chose to make an equally healthy and allergy-friendly cake.

These mini cakes are gluten, dairy and sugar free but most definitely don't lack taste! They are rich and intensely chocolate-y and when paired with the chocolate ganache make a truly decadent dessert. Keep in mind they are not very sweet so you could add a little stevia into both the cake and ganache to up the sweetness or just serve with some lovely sweet strawberries. Yum!

Naked Chocolate Mini Cakes
Very slightly adapted from The Healthy Chef

Ingredients

1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts ground cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt
4 eggs
1/4 cup rice malt syrup
1 ts vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C / 140 C fan-forced.

In a medium bowl mix together the cacao powder, coconut flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sea salt.

In a small bowl mix the eggs, syrup, vanilla and coconut oil.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until smooth and well combined. Spoon into 6 mini cake moulds (mine were 2 inch square).

Bake for approximately 20 – 25 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before covering with the ganache. Makes 6.


AntiOx Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

80 grams AntiOx Chocolate with Acai
40ml pure cream*

Instructions

Finely chop the chocolate and place in a heat-proof bowl.

In a small saucepan heat the cream until very hot but not boiling. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir gently from the middle until the ganache is smooth and glossy.

Allow to cool slightly before smoothing over the tops of the mini cakes.

Serve immediately or store in fridge until required.

* For a dairy free topping you could use chilled coconut cream and fold through the cooled melted chocolate.
 

And don't forget you could win your own gift pack of AntiOx chocolate. 

Just click here for all the details!