Zucchini, cacao and seedy muffins

Hello!

We currently have a MASSIVE zucchini crop and I'm putting them in basically everything.  Crumbed zucchini, chicken and veggie lasagna, mexican chicken and veg, roasted zucchini soup, stuffed zucchini flowers etc etc.  My kids are about to head back to school and kinder (sob!!!) so it's time to start filling the freezer.  I'm trying to use more coconut flour lately just to give us some variety from wheat flour.  After googling I found this recipe and changed it up to make it nut free and also added extra seeds on top and make use of what ingredients I had on hand.  These are full of protein and will keep my little busy bees going during their long days at school and kinder.


My 4 year old is super fussy with what he eats, but he picked the zucchini from the garden and helped me make these and he loved them! Whoo hoo!

Zucchini, seed and cacao muffins

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of seed butter (I used half sunflower seed butter and half tahini because I had half a jar of each on hand)

- 1 cup of finely grated zucchini (liquid squeezed out)

- 2 eggs

- 1/3 cup maple syrup

- 4 tablespoons of coconut flour

- 2 tablespoons of chia seeds

- 1.5 tablespoons of raw cacao

- 1 teaspoon of baking powder

- sunflower seeds to sprinkle on top

Method:

- preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius

- line your muffin tray with paper cases - this recipe makes approximately 12 large muffins, or 18 smaller medium sized ones

- mix together seed butter, eggs & maple syrup until no lumps are left - I used the kitchen mixer

- gently stir in coconut flour, chia seeds, cacao, baking powder and zucchini until smooth

- fill cup cake cases half full with mixture 

- top with a sprinkling of sunflower seeds

- bake at 170 degrees for 15-18 minutes depending on the size of your muffins

Enjoy!!!!

Love Amy xoxoxo

Nut Free Chocolate Protein Balls

Hello lovely folks!

Apologies for the radio silence around here. Head over to Instagram if you'd like to see my misadventures on a more regular basis!

Just a quickie today.  Mostly because they were a hit and I don't want to forget what I chucked in!!!

I've been seeing LOADS of chocolate protein balls (also called Bliss Balls or Amaze Balls) on Instagram over the past 6 months or so. I decided I needed another high protein snack for my kinder boy's lunch boxes and for my preschooler who doesn't love healthy food yet so I like to add some super charged foods in to the mix. And I wanted it to be nut free for kinder.

I consulted my gorgeous friend Amelia (you can find her recipe here) and from there I concocted this version based on the ingredients I had on hand and my boys favourite seeds.

My 4.5 and 2.5 year olds made these with me. Mr 4.5 rolled them out really quite well. Mr 2.5 chose to eat the mixture with a spoon instead ;-)  They had a great time making them and they both loved the taste!  We have 3 little ones packed for kinder tomorrow and the rest are in the freezer for quick snacks in the future.

Nut free chocolate protein balls

Ingredients:

- 1.5 cups of dates (Medjool if available)

- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

- 1/2 cup Quinoa flakes

- 1/2 cup coconut

- 1/2 cup raw cacao powder (this is different to cocoa!)

- 3 Tablespoons Chia seeds

- 2 Tablespoons Linseed

- 4 Tablespoons Tahini

- 2 Tablespoons Coconut oil

- 2 Tablespoons of 100% pure Maple syrup (you can omit this if you like, I decided to add it this time for extra sweetness but I will try it without too and see.  I wanted to ensure Mr 2.5 ate these and I'm ok with him having maple syrup.)

Method:

Blitz all together in food processor. The consistency should be like wet, grainy sand so that it can come together in to a ball. Not runny and not dry. Add a touch of liquid (tahini, maple syrup or water) if you need more moisture or some more Quinoa flakes if you need it to be drier.

Roll in to balls.

Keep in the fridge or freezer in air tight container.

Mr 4.5 rolling amongst the pencils and Mr 2.5 eating the mixture with a spoon!

Mr 4.5's good work.

Done! Yum!!! 

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I'll try to post my recipes more regularly on here! I have a quinoa, oat, apple & raspberry muffin recipe and my home made muesli bar recipes that I've been wanting to post, not to mention Mr 4's birthday party post from last October!!!  I'll get them up over the next few weeks now that I'm in the swing of this 3 kids business!!!

Love Amy xoxo

Yummy Chicken & Veggie Soup With Parmesan

I made this soup today and it was so awesome and so chucked together that I thought I'd better write it down so I could replicate it!  I made a huge batch so I could freeze extra portions.   The Parmesan rind in the stock was the stand out flavour addition.  This would be equally good without the chicken as a vegetarian soup.

Ingredients:
- 3 litres of stock
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 piece of Parmesan cheese rind
- 1 small piece of pumpkin
- 2 zucchinis
- 1/2 a head of cauliflower
- a small bunch of silverbeet
- 1 packet of small soup pasta

Optional - roughly 500 grams of chicken breast cut into small, thin pieces - roughly 3 cm square in size and 0.5 cm in thickness.  I used Lilydale free range chicken stir fry pieces that I cut up in to smaller pieces - they happened to be on sale and worked well for a post kinder, quick cook up.

Directions:
- put the stock in a large pot on the stove and bring to a simmer. If you have any tired but flavoursome veggies in the fridge, add them in large pieces (so you can remove them later!!) to the stock.  I added a bunch of wilting spring onions and the chunky stalks of the cauliflower.  Add the Parmesan rind and the crushed cloves of garlic.  Allow to simmer gently while you prepare the other veggies (10-20 minutes for a lovely flavour).

- grate the pumpkin and zucchini and cut the florets of the cauliflower into small pieces.  Wash the silverbeet very well and tear or cut it up in to pieces.

- fish out the large extra flavouring veggies (spring onions & cauliflower stalk in my case) from the stock as well as the Parmesan rind and set aside.

- add the pasta and cauliflower and gently simmer for 5 minutes.

- add the grated pumpkin and chicken (if using it) continue to gently simmer for 5 minutes.

- add the grated zucchini and the silverbeet and continue to gently simmer for 5 minutes or until the pasta is al dente and the chicken is cooked through but still tender.  Take off the heat and add 500ml of cold water. This helps to stop the soup continuing to cook (so the pasta doesn't overcook and break apart). You don't want to overcook at this stage if you're reheating it so portion it up quickly to also help it cool. Freeze any leftovers.

If you like you can serve with a small sprinkle of finely grated Parmesan cheese and some fresh bread on the side - this is how my boys enjoyed it, but I think it's already a meal on it's own.

Yummo!!!!

I am already looking forward to having this for dinner again tomorrow night!

Love Amy xoxo

Roast Pumpkin & Pine Nut Lasagna

This is one of my favourite recipes.  I often vary it greatly and have outlined some options below the recipe.  Adding other veggies or changing the "white sauce" are all good variations.  You can definitely make it lower in fat with some of the variations too - eg using low fat ricotta and less mozzarella and Parmesan, roasting the veggies in just a tiny bit of oil spray instead of liberal amounts of olive oil.  I usually do make it lower in fat when I make it for a regular family dinner, but this version is the tastiest and most rich and pumpkiny in my opinion.

Ingredients:
- Lasagna sheets - I either use the dried instant ones or make my own fresh - I don't think the "fresh" from the supermarket are as good for this recipe (although I've used them several times). I like the thickness of the dried, instant ones and the al dente texture which you can't really achieve with fresh pasta.
- 2 very large pieces of pumpkin - I usually use 2 different varieties - this time I used Kent and Grey.
- 3 whole garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 12 fresh sage leaves, washed and dried
- good quality olive oil
- a few good handfuls of freshly grated, good quality Parmesan cheese
- 300 grams of grated mozzarella
- 180 - 250g mascarpone - (I had a 250g tub which I'd already used some of for another recipe. If you're only using the mascarpone for this recipe, then you use the entire tub so as not to waste it.)
- raw pine nuts

Method:
- preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
- peel and cut the pumpkin in to large chunks and scatter on two oven trays lined with baking paper
- add the garlic cloves (unpeeled), drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper & roast for 20 minutes

- Turn the pumpkin around, add the sage leaves and drizzle with more olive oil if needed
- When the pumpkin is well roasted and the sage is crispy, remove from the oven and turn it down to 180 degrees Celsius

- set aside the crispy sage leaves

- squeeze the garlic out of the skins and discard the skins
- roughly mash the pumpkin and garlic together with a fork

- finely crumble the sage leaves and mix through the pumpkin

- *important* Add some water to your mashed pumpkin so it's runny. You need the extra moisture so the lasagna sheets have enough liquid to cook them through and so the final dish isn't too dry. I used probably about 180mls this time as I used dried instant lasagna sheets.  If you're using homemade fresh lasagna sheets then you'd only need to add a little bit of water to loosen the mixture.  You can see the difference in texture in the above photo and the one below.
- divide the pumpkin in to 3 decent sized portions and 1 smaller, half sized portion
- spread a layer of the pumpkin mixture on the bottom of your dish and top with one layer of lasagna sheets

- add another layer of pumpkin mixture, this time add a large handful of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese before you add another layer of lasagna sheets

- another layer of pumpkin and lasagna sheets
- spread the final, smaller amount of pumpkin mixture over the top lasagna sheets, add the mascarpone cheese and spread evenly (the mixture will become a pumpkin and mascarpone combination rather than two separate layers)

- top with lots of mozzarella and Parmesan, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, cover with baking paper and foil and bake in 180 degree oven for 45 minutes

- remove the baking paper and foil and bake until starting to lightly brown (approximately another 10 minutes)

- scatter the pine nuts on top and bake until browned

- serve hot on it's own or with a rocket salad.  It's even better the following day and it freezes very well.

Variations:
- add a layer of thinly sliced half moons of roasted zucchini
- add a layer of balsamic roasted cherry tomato halves
- add a layer of wilted spinach
- make a traditional white sauce with flour, butter, milk & cheese
- use a combination of ricotta and feta for the "white sauce" layer
- use creme fraiche or sour cream for the "white sauce" layer
- use low fat ricotta and some milk stirred together for a lower fat version


I hope you try this and love it as much as I do!

Love Amy xoxo

Faux Mexican Lentil Soup

Firstly, apologies to all Mexican people for this meal. It's certainly not authentic in any way!!!  However, it is delicious, easy and super duper healthy, so hopefully I can be forgiven it's name!!!

I like to cook soup in bulk so I can freeze it in portions for my husband's lunches or for dinner when I don't have time to cook (or can't be bothered!).  You can easily halve this recipe for a more reasonable serving quantity.  It's a thick soup, but feel free to add more stock if you prefer it thinner.

You could definitely make this in a slow cooker if you have one - I have before and it turned out great.  I'm not usually organised enough for this though, so a chuck it in and ready in 40 minutes is more my way. ;-)

Serves 12-16 depending on your portion sizes. (I use the little yellow bowl which is about 1 cup and my husband uses the blue striped bowl which is a standard size so we got about 16 serves, but if you all use standard size bowls, it would be more like 12 serves.)

Ingredients:
- 3-4 carrots
- 2 zucchinis
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 3 cups of red lentils, rinsed well
- 1 cup of french lentils (or green lentils or whichever other type of lentil you like really - just check cooking time), rinsed well
- 2.5-3 cups of stock (veg or chicken)

- 1.5-3 teaspoons of ground cumin (depending on your spice/flavour preference and if your kids might be eating it.)
- 2 teaspoons of oregano
- 2 teaspoons of paprika
- 1-3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper (depending on your heat preference)
- 2 cans of tomatoes (if using whole ones, which I prefer, chop/mash them up)
- a bag of baby spinach or a bunch of silverbeet

Directions:
- finely chop the carrots and zucchini
- roughly chop the spinach or silverbeet
- saute the carrots in some olive oil for a minute or two (in the photo below you can see that I added the zucchini at the same time, but I prefer to add the zucchini a bit later.)
- add the spices and cook for another couple of minutes

- add the red lentils, hot stock and tomatoes

- cook, covered, on low/medium heat for 15 minutes - stir once or twice
- add the zucchini, spinach and French lentils and cook, covered, for 25-30 minutes - stir occasionally and add extra stock or water if it's getting too thick

- add salt and pepper to taste

Serving suggestions:
- on it's own
- with a dollop of light sour cream
- with a dollop of natural yoghurt
- with some chopped avocado and a squeeze of lemon or lime (and coriander if you are that way inclined - I'm not!!!)
- with some natural corn chips on top or on the side - my husband uses a bowl of corn chips as a spoon to eat the whole bowl of soup - his metabolism allows this, mine does not!!!
- or any combination of the above!  My fave is light sour cream and natural corn chips - yummo!!!!

Happy cooking!

Love Amy xoxo