Steamed Sesame Chicken balls.

I've been thinking about what to do with chicken mince for a while. So tonight, I came up with these.




Sesame Chicken Balls:
500 grams good quality chicken mince
a cup of finely chopped broccolli
a grated carrot
an egg
1/4 cup sesame seeds
3 garlic cloves, minced
a bowl of white rice

Mix everything except the white rice in a bowl until combined. Roll into balls and then roll in the rice to cover. Place in a steamer that has been lined with lettuce/cabbage/silverbeet over boiling water and steam for 30 minutes. Serve with honey soy dipping sauce.

This made too many for us, so I popped some assembled but not cooked into the freezer for a rainy day.

Father's Day Quesadilla Breakfast...and a mistake...

Breakfast Quesadillas.

1 packet Diego's GF Corn Tortillas
Grated mini chol soy cheese
scrambled eggs (free range, organic)
middle bacon
button mushrooms, sliced

To make this all happen at once, I preheated the oven to 230 C and popped the bacon in on an oven tray. Bake for 30 minutes.

I popped the mushrooms in the microwave with a knob of dairy free spread in a covered dish. Four minutes for 1200W microwave.

I scrambled the eggs in a saucepan with dairy free spread and a splash of rice milk.

For the tortillas, I sprayed one side with olive oil spray and heated until soft. Flipped over and sprinkled grated cheese on top. When cheese was melted, I removed from the pan, popped bacon, mushrooms and scrambled eggs in and folded over. Serve with freshly ground pepper and sea salt.

The mistake didn't happen in the kitchen. My mistake is kind of really a vent...
All of this was planned for my ex-husband. He sees the kids EVERY SUNDAY. And sometimes he's late. Like today.

And this means me trying to get the kids to wait for something until Daddy is here ends in tears. So while his lovely breakfast is congealing on the kitchen bench, Torin is howling in his room and Bridie is sulking. And I typed this one handed because the howling woke Edan who is now climbing all over me.

I give up trying to be nice. I really do...

***NEWS FLASH*** Baby Milestone!

Baby Edan can now sit! (Aged 7 months, 1 week).

GFCF Mini Pizzas and some fun in the sun!

These were easy and another thing I could pop in the freezer for the looming school holidays.
Pizza dough:
2 cups SR GF Flour
1 cup water
3 tablespoons oil
0.5 teaspoons salt

Mix together to create a sticky dough. Pre-heat oven to 190 C.
Place on an oiled tray with a tablespoon and pat down to form small circles.
I topped them with tomato sauce (I forgot the tomato paste!!!), small circles of cacciatore, mini-chol soy cheese, oregano and slices of button mushrooms. Bake for 25 minutes and serve (or allow to cool and freeze).

We are loving this Spring sunshine. Finally I can coax the kids outside to explore the garden and enjoy the sun. After all the Spring cleaning it's a good thing too as they're not messing up the house! :)

The Easiest GF Sausage Rolls in the Universe!

Ha! Told you I was lazy!

But in all honesty, I don't completely trust mince some days. Whereas I do know the gluten free sausages we buy are hunky dory. I must write about the brand next time we buy them (I threw the packaging away) but they are marketed as "Kids Sausages" in IGA Supermarkets, are made in Geelong and are Gluten Free.

So anyway, this is how I made the super simple sausage rolls.
I had to pre-heat the oven to 210 C for the pastry. So I figured while it was pre-heating it's little self I'd save energy and use it to do some work while it was getting itself all ready. So I popped the sausages in a casserole dish. Poured boiling water over them (enough to just cover), placed the lid on and sat them in the oven while I made the pastry. My reasoning behind this was after tummy bugs and with all the food issues we've had, the least I could do was make sure the meat was absolutely, positively cooked. Because it's hard to tell once something is encased in pastry.

While they were baking, I again made "The Maggie Beer GF Pastry" replacing butter with Nuttelex and chilled it for 30 minutes before assembly-time.

So basically, 45 minutes after popping the sausages in the oven, I took them out and drained them. I then rolled out the pastry between sheets of baking paper, cut it into sausage width lengths and rolled the sausages up. Placed them on a lightly oiled tray, brushed them with water and sprinkled sesame seeds on top.

I made two lots. One for our tummies and one for the freezer. With school holidays only a few weeks away, I want the freezer stocked with snacks!

Nested Eggs and Red Soldiers!!!

Oops! I had visitors today and forgot all about dinner until it was nearly dinnertime! So a quick assessment of the pantry and fridge and I came up with this kid-friendly dish. Eggs poached in mashed potato nests served with a side of sweet potato chips for dipping!

Red Soldiers (sweet potato chips)
Preheat oven to 220 C.
Peel one large sweet potato. Cut into think chips/wedges. Lightly coat in olive oil, season with sea salt and ground pepper. Bake for 45 minutes (but shake the pan every 15 to make sure they cook evenly).

Nested Eggs (eggs poached in mashed potato)
Make up mashed potato as you normally would. One small potato to one egg is the best ratio.
Spoon mashed potato into baking receptacle. I used ramekins which each fit 2 potatoes worth of mash and two eggs. Muffin trays might work? Or one big baking dish would also be fine.
With a spoon, poke little wells in the mash. Crack eggs into a cup and pour into the holes. Bake for 20 minutes so the yolk is still runny.

Serve with soldiers and dip into runny egg!

I found this dish good because once everything is in the oven, you have time to set the table and so on. Pretty low maintenance dish.
:)

Spring Fever!

I have been madly spring-cleaning. Yes! Even with sick children!

I can see I am going to have a mountain of stuff to get rid of. But it feels so good being organised again!
Next I'll do something really weird like...recipe plan. LOL!

I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to Ms Skipper at Domestic Guru.
Being the type of person who has been distressed about an untidy house, her site has helped me break it all down into "bite-sized chunks" which makes housework so much less daunting.

So I'll recommence blogging ASAP with a tidy house!