Carrot + apple muffins - toddler approved!

Brought to you by Heinz

#S1 For full details please see my disclosure policy

What is with kids and liking food one minute and then acting like it poisonous the next?

It can change from week to week, even hour to hour at my place, and maaan it drives me mental some days. That's why I'm always after easy toddler recipes that hit the toddler food holy grail - delicious, nutritious and toddler approved trifecta!

These muffins are on high rotation at our place and so far they've never been refused! I'm always varying the ingredients slightly. Adding a handful of chopped nuts if they're not going to school, a sprinkle of seeds, a few sultanas here and there, or even adding some honey to make it sweeter when we have some sweet-tooth visitors coming over. But the basic recipe is as follows:

Ingredients
1 medium carrot - skin on, washed
1 small apple - skin on, washed (that's where all the good stuff is!)
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil or melted butter
1 packet of Heinz apple, blueberry and strawberry puree or any flavour you like!
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1/4 cup honey
1/8 cup brown sugar - optional
1/8 cup oats - optional

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F
Grate your carrot and apple in to a mixing bowl, then add eggs, oil, Heinz puree and flour. If you are using honey, nuts, seeds or sultanas, add them in now. Mix until just combined.
Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cases
If using, combine brown sugar and oats and sprinkle over the top of each muffin.
Place in the oven for 15 minutes - have a peek at 12 minutes to make sure they're OK.

I like using the pouches of Heinz puree to add different flavours to our muffins to change it up and help prevent Bobbin becoming bored of the food I give her. I like that their apples, pears and peaches come from Goulburn Valley and are steam cooked in country Victoria.

These freeze really well and even though I say they're toddler muffins, I often put a frozen one in Tricky's school lunch box in the morning and it will be thawed by the time he eats it. MG will take one to work... if there are any left.

I like putting these in mini muffin tins sometimes so that they are nice and small for Bobbin to eat in two bites, reducing the chances of crumbs going everywhere. Also it lets her believe she is having two treats. SNEAKY!

For more easy recipes that hit the toddler trifecta, find Heinz and their quality products online and on Facebook.

Easy Chocolate Pretzel Christmas Mix

If you know me, you know I like things that are insanely easy to make but look somewhat impressive. Anything that can make people go "oooh" when you present it to them, but hasn't taken hours and hours to make is perfection in my books. I have better things to do than slave away in the kitchen. Things like watch Netflix, check my Facebook or have a nap. IMPORTANT THINGS!

I'm the master of two and three ingredient yumminess:

Fudge Christmas Trees with only two main ingredients? Check!
Three Ingredient Choc Mint Truffles? Check!
Three Ingredient Choc Orange Truffles? Check!

I could go on and on, but I won't because you'll lose interest. Oh, look, something shiny.

So last year I had some pretzels and some Christmas M&Ms hanging around and I put them in my mouth at the same time because every bloody food blogger around was going on about the taste sensation that is salty and sweet and I thought it was about time I tried it.

Oh. My. Christmas.

Yeah. So they weren't bangin' on about it for nothing.

But I wanted more sweet so I had an idea and went about making this Christmas Pretzel Mix all stuck together. I figured I'd make some for friends and family, presented in gorgeous gift boxes, then also had some on hand at home because YUM.

• Grab a baking tray and line it with baking paper
• Place a bag of mini pretzels over the top, making sure they touch and overlap slightly
• Rain down the Christmas M&Ms 
• Drizzle melted white chocolate over the whole lot
• Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until set
• Break in to clumps and pop in a gift box, cellophane, or serving bowl

The clumps of pretzels and M&Ms with the white chocolate "glue" holding it all together create that amazing collision of saltiness and sweetness. So Christmassy and delicious, but you've barely done anything! 

Gotta love the good stuff

Brought to you by Heinz
#S1 For full details please see my disclosure policy

Growing up, my sister and I were Heinz kids. I have the best memories of eating Heinz pureed apples… wait, what? How can I remember shovelling the good stuff in to my gob, you ask? Well, because we ate what we called “baby apples” well in to our teen years.

Mostly we’d eat it if we had a sore throat or had just had our braces tightened and couldn't stand even the thought of chewing, though there were definitely a few times it ended up in our cupboards just because it was delicious. We’d eat it straight out of the tin with a teaspoon, scraping away to make sure we got every last morsel. There were no fancy pouches back then!

Bobbin is past the baby food stage, but we usually grab some pouches to keep for emergency snacks. I'm one of those mums that scans through the empty pouches because my kid has already eaten it while we've done the rest of the shopping. Here’s a tip: don’t go through self-serve checkouts if you do this - it plays havoc with the scales! I may or may not choose the flavours based on the hope that she might not eat it all and I’ll get her leftovers. C'mon, apple, strawberry and passionfruit? You’d do it, too.

I like to incorporate a pouch of the fruit puree in to pikelets to make an easy, take anywhere snack that Bobbin and I can cook together. Measuring, pouring and stirring not only help kids get interested in the food they are about to eat (making them more likely to eat it), but it’s also a bit of a maths lesson. But mainly, it’s FUN! Making memories, and a little bit of mess, well, that’s the good stuff.

1 cup of SR flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 pouch of Heinz fruit puree in one of their delicious flavours
1 egg – alternatively, you can use Heinz apple puree! Roughly 85g of puree is equivalent to one egg.
Water

Pin me!

Combine the flour, baking powder, Heinz baby food and egg. Stir! If the mixture is a bit thick, add some water a little at a time – the amount will vary depending on which product you use and which age range it is aimed at.

Place heaped teaspoons of batter in to a hot frypan and cook for around 30 seconds each side. You’ll know when it’s time to flip them when the pikelet loses its shine – don’t wait for a million bubbles to form and pop, that’s letting the air out! Fluffy pikelets

Allow them to cool before serving, because duh.

These apparently keep well in an airtight container for a few days, but I wouldn't know because ours are usually eaten within a few minutes, especially when we visit our dairy-free friends.

Being completely honest, I've only tried these with the fruit purees, but a savoury version would probably be yummy, too!

I actually didn't know until recently that most of the ingredients are sourced in Australia – the apples, pears and peaches are from Goulburn Valley, the pumpkins from Victoria, and all the meat is all sourced from Aussie farms. Then it’s turned in to the good stuff in Echuca in Victoria where it’s taste tested daily - *ahem* I'm available for this job, if you’re hiring, Heinz.

For more details, recipes and competitions you can check out Heinz for Baby on Facebook.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie in the Cuisine Companion

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

The Cuisine Companion bloggers were challenged to bake on the theme of Spring this month, which is perfect because a) it's spring here, and b) I'm all for seasonal eating, so Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie it is!

There's a few reasons I like to eat with the seasons:

• It's better quality (i.e. more delish)
• It's cheaper (and I'm all about saving money)
• I'm supporting local businesses
• There is a lower carbon footprint getting it to my door

I'm not against buying produce from overseas or out of state if needed (hello, Valencia oranges in Winter), but I do prefer my fruit and veg to have less frequent flier points than me.

I got a whole stack of beautiful fresh, local ingredients delivered to my door for the challenge, and as soon as I saw rhubarb I couldn't go past a pie. Plus we'd just been strawberry picking in Gnangara, and the two are a match made in taste bud heaven.

My family are rather obsessed with rhubarb, and we were even hoping to plant some to harvest in a few years because we go through so much of it.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie

Base
240g plain flour
120g soft butter (you can use Nuttelex to create a vegan base)
70ml water
pinch salt

Filling
A bunch of rhubarb, chopped
500g of strawberries, chopped
1 teaspoon of gelatin (you can use agar agar to make a vegan filling)
Optional: 1 tablespoon of sugar/honey/sweetener of your choice (or more if you like - my lot like it really tart!)

Place all the base ingredients in to the Cuisine Companion with the kneading/crushing blade, press pastry program and start. Yep, that's it. When it's finished, ball up the dough in cling film and leave it to firm in the fridge for 15 minutes, clean the bowl, but don't panic about being super thorough.

Chop your rhubarb and strawberries in to 1-2cm pieces and whack them in the bowl with the stirring blade. Set on speed 4, 100C, for 8 minutes. Your kitchen will start smelling amazeballs.

While that's happening, grab your dough out of the fridge and divide it. If you'd like a fully topped pie then use half the mixture, or if you'd like a lattice style pie with a bit of the ol' peekaboo happening, take out 3/4. This will become your base.

Roll out your pastry portion on a floured surface until it's big enough to cover a lightly floured 24cm/9.5inch pie dish. Gently lift the pastry on to the dish and push in to the edges, trimming any overflow. You can put the excess back with the rest of the pastry if you need to, but the more your work the pastry, the less forgiving it becomes.

Blind bake the base using baking paper and ceramic stones or uncooked rice in your oven for 15 minutes at 190C. When done, remove the stones and put aside until it is cooled slightly. If the Great British Bake Off taught me one thing, it's that blind baking helps minimise the chances of a "soggy bottom". Nobody likes a soggy bottom!

When your Cuisine Companion beeps, add your sweetener and the gelatin, set on speed 4, 100C for a further 4 minutes. When finished, pour the mix on to your base.

Roll out your remaining pastry on a floured surface and shape or cut how you'd like it. If you are covering the entire pie make sure to leave a steam hole somewhere or your pie will explode in the oven. It's not pretty. Trying to keep with the spring theme, and also because I'm a bit of a wanker, I used a flower cutter and arranged the blossoms around the edges and worked my way in.

Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 190C or until golden.

Allow to cool slightly before serving because the pie filling will be like molten lava at first. Serve with a dollop of vanilla bean icecream and enjoy!

Strawberry Fields Forever

I remember going strawberry picking in Perth with my mum and sister, way back in the day. We'd get in the car and drive forever to this insanely remote strawberry farm, I'm talking middle of nowhere. Or, at least that is how it seemed to us at the time, because there was nothing around - these days, it's tilt-up city right up to the farm gates as Perth sprawls and spreads.

My Facebook feed has been full of people picking strawberries lately, and with all the memories rushing back, I just had to get in to it and take the kids these school holidays.

As if she was reading my mind, my bestie was about to take her boys, so we went together. MG, me, Tricky, Bobbin, a preggo Mrs O, and her boys L and B. I had visions of us having a fabulous morning out together, but I underestimated the crankiness of a tired toddler who doesn't particularly like the wind on the windiest day ever. 

We rocked up to T & H Holl & Son Strawberry Farm on Badgerup Road, Gnangara at 9:30am, grabbed an empty box for $5 and proceeded up the hill to fill it! The boxes don't look that big, but strawberries are small and it will hold around 3kg of them.

Look for this sign and a big shed with T&H Holl & Son

Fat, juicy strawberries hung heavy on lush green plants all around us and the air smelled sweet. It was heaven. We couldn't wait to get started so the boys ran up the hill ahead of us all. The best strawberries were in the far corner - possibly because some people couldn't be bothered walking that far, but we were on a mission so we did it!

Super sandy! 

My lot were in gumboots because the weather bureau had forecasted rain and a friend had told us it was very sandy. The weather turned out beautiful for us, but the gumboots were still great - my two didn't have any sand in their shoes at all. Winning!

Bobbin complained incessantly about the wind, and demanded to be held in the carrier most of the time... except we didn't bring the carrier because, oh, we were meant to be bloody picking strawberries! I really thought she'd be in to it - she was eating enough at first to give that impression, but soon got tired and whinge, moan, grizzle. 

 

The boys had a great time and most of their conversations were:

"We picked one thousand strawberries!"

"Well we picked a million!"

"I mean we picked a billion!"

"Actually we picked INFINITY strawberries!"

Ahh, five year olds. 

The farm isn't open every day because the strawberries need a chance to ripen and buggers like us keep on going and picking them, but finding out when you can pick your own is like pulling teeth. The owners, although lovely, weren't sure when the next strawberries would be ready.

They have pre-picked boxes for sale there, too, so on days when you can't pick your own you can still buy. The "jam boxes" are $2 and have about 2kg of sub-optimal strawberries in them... although they looked pretty damn optimal to me. They also have drinks available for a few dollars if all that pickin' gets you hot, and when we were there they had local garlic for sale.

Tricks was so happy pottering around, trying to find the best strawberries and took great pride in helping me make jam when we got home. Which means I only have 2.6kg of strawberries left... um, what should I make next?

. . . ___ . . . ___ . . .

Other places to pick strawberries in Perth:

Ti Strawberry Farm - 263 Old West Road Bullsbrook. I haven't been there but my friends highly recommend it. They're open every day of the school holidays and charge a per person entry fee on top of the box fee. You're still getting a cheap and healthy activity. 

Choc chip cookie dough protein balls

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I've been playing with some recipes for protein balls lately. Bliss Balls. Amaze Balls. Whatever you want to call them, it's just fun to be able to say balls a lot, right? Balls.

Most of my recipe creations invovle me throwing random seeds and nuts in, whizzing it up and hoping for the best. This has resulted in me having some very sad balls. Over processed balls. Powdery balls. Even cardboard tasting balls. When you're including these in your diet to replace delicious Mars bars then cardboard balls just ain't gonna cut it.

I've been working on this one for a while now. I could have googled someone else's recipe but I really wanted to see if I could translate what was in my head (and what my taste buds were calling out for) in to a recipe. I think I've done it. Because these Amaze Balls really are amazeballs.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds
• 1/3 cup cashews (I use roasted unsalted)
• 16 dried dates
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 tablespoon protein powder (vanilla flavour preferably)
• 1/3 cup choc chips

Method:

•  Soak your dates in the boiling water for a few minutes
• While they're soaking, place almonds, cashews, vanilla and protein in the Cuisine Companion and blitz on speed 12 for 10 seconds. If you're using a different food processor, you want it to be small chunks after this stage
• When your dates are a bit soft, add them to the bowl and blitz again on speed 12 for 10 seconds. Don't discard the water just yet
• If the mix is not coming together, add a few teaspoons of the date water to help it combine
• When it's at your desired consistency (don't over process, it will be like nut butter and won't form) take a teaspoon of the mixture out, add two or three choc chips to it and roll it in to a small ball. It's easier if your hands are slightly damp but not wet
• Repeat until you've done it all, I usually get about 25 from this recipe
• Refrigerate until set, try not to eat them all at once!

These are a great little hit of sweetness to help with cravings and they're not terrible for you. You can use cacao nibs or sugar free choc chips if you'd like to make them healthier, and if you're using fresh dates, start with half the amount and add more if necessary.

Enjoy your balls!

Five reasons I love my Cuisine Companion - plus healthy brownies recipe!

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I've been playing with Tefal's new Cuisine Companion non stop since I got my paws on one last month. It's been an interesting ride, seeing what it can do, checking out new recipes and adapting old ones. Mostly I've made one meal at a time, but I did do a bit of bulk cooking, whipping up some freezer meals for a friend who is about to welcome twins in to her family, and some yummy "I can't believe they're healthy" brownies for her older kids lunchboxes.

I've been trying to think of the five things I love about it the most, and narrowing it down to five is actually bloody hard. Akin to choosing your favourite child, if your child was a kitchen wonder machine. But I'm being ruthless and capping it, otherwise I'd be here all weekend, sounding like I was writing a brochure.

1. Clear Lid
You know how little kids sit and stare at the washing machine? Well, I stand and stare at Cosette. Oh, you don't name your appliances? This is awkward. French machine, French name, a nod to Les Mis, it had to be. But I digress. The clear lid is just so freakin' handy! If you're cooking and the condensation stops you seeing in, the centre does pop out so you can have a peek through. The lid comes apart for easy cleaning if needed - but I've only needed to do that if I've been milling my own flour or crushing up nuts and the teeny particles get everywhere.

2. Big Bowl
A whopping 2.5L capacity bowl means making large batches a breeze. But it's not just big, the mouth and base are wide enough to get in to with your spatula without turning yourself in to a contortionist.

3. Easy Blade Swap
Slide blade in. Mix things. Slide blade out. Pick up new blade, slide in. Repeat. There is no locking and mucking about, it goes in and stays in. When it's time to pour out the mixture, slide out the blade and away you go. It makes it sooooo easy to get every last drop of soup or sorbet out when you don't have to be dodging blades. Although you may want to leave a few traces of cake batter for bowl licking purposes. Let's not ruin childhoods, OK?

4. High Display
My eyes are not the best, even with contacts, so I have been known to bend down close to appliances to find out what the remaining time is, what setting I've got it set to, or even if it's turned on. Not any more. Hurrah! It seems so simple to have the display higher and angled up. Clever.

5. One Touch
A heap of the recipes in the Million Meals book are one touch recipes. Chuck in the ingredients and select the pre-set function and off you go. So say you're cooking a soup, it goes slowly at first, stirring it all together, then when it's all cooked through, it changes speed and temperature by itself to whizz it all up in to a creamy deliciousness. It even changes temperature again to keep it warm when it's finished, so you don't have to worry about it either burning or going cold.

Grating cheese, finely dicing garlic, blending chickpeas to hummus,
cooking bolognaise, perfecting "cauli rice", and mixing cakes and loafs

I could have mentioned so many other things (it's quiet, the temperature increments are great, the adjustable steam vent, the stay cool handle on the steam basket, and heaps more), but I'm trying to restrain myself.

I've had a few questions thrown my way from readers about what I don't like about it, and so far I can't find anything - I was originally saying I didn't like that the lid didn't come apart for cleaning, but then I realized it does and I was just a bit daft. Others have asked if the fact that it doesn't have in built scales is annoying, and for me, it isn't an issue - I rarely used the inbuilt scale in my competitor product because my pouring skills suck. Instead of gradually adding 30g of flour I would add 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g, 80g. SHIT. Then the next five minutes are spent trying to fish out excess flour or whatever or adding more liquid and OMG TOO HARD!

So let's get to the best bit:

Healthy Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Because I can never just leave something be, this recipe has come about from experiments with a few different recipes and is most heavily influenced by a Get Commando Fit brownie that has been all over the internet for a while now. I have to play  with recipes until it suits me, my budget and my taste buds! And duuuuuude, these are gooooood.

You'll need:
250g sweet potato, peeled & roughly cut in to large cubes
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup of evoo
1/2 cup of rice malt syrup (use honey if you want it to be sweeter and don't mind adding sugar)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
2 tablespoons of protein powder (if you don't have this, you can use flour but it won't be as high in protein obviously)
1 cup of cocoa
2 tablespoons of plain flour

Grab Cosette, or your own Cuisine Companion then:

• Preheat your oven to 180C
• Place sweet potato in to Cuisine Companion bowl, using the Ultrablade*, set to pulse for 30 seconds (the machine automatically selects speed 12 for pulse)
• Add in your eggs, vanilla, evoo and rice malt syrup** and mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds then scrape down the sides
• Add protein powder if using, cocoa and flour and mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds, scrape down the sides and mix again for 10 seconds if necessary
• Pour in to a lined lamington tray and bake for 20-22 minutes DO NOT OVER COOK!
• Allow to cool slightly before cutting - I usually get 20 brownies from this

These are so rich, moist and utterly delish! You won't feel bad for eating one (two? three?) because they're full of the good stuff.

To serve in lunchboxes, cut them in to your desired size and freeze in an airtight container with a layer of baking paper or similar between so they don't stick together. Grab one out, wrap it in an eco wrapper and put it straight in to the lunchbox frozen and they'll thaw by recess.

*HOT TIP: If your sweet potato is super hard, maybe use the Crushing blade for the first step.

**HOT TIP: Measure your evoo first, pour it in, then use the same measuring cup without washing it to measure the rice malt syrup - the oil coating will mean the syrup comes out easily and you don't waste any.

If you have any specific questions about the Cuisine Companion or a recipe you'd like me to make in it, please let me know in a comment below as I'll be doing a full twelve month review.

Mini Pancake Stack with Caramelized Fruit #pimpyourpikelet

My friends call me the Pikelet Queen. Partly because I'm fabulous at making pikelets, and partly because sometimes it's the only name I'll answer to.

I make pikelets all the time. I think they are a supremely underrated snack and I'm going to do my best to remove the stigma that pikelets are plain. I'm creating the #pimpyourpikelet series. Hold on to your seats, folks, this shit is about to get delicious (and just a little bit wanky).

The other week I wanted to make a dessert that was easy but pikelets just didn't seem desserty enough... so I figured if I pimped them up by chucking a bit of fruit on top, layered those buggers up and called them mini pancakes they'd be perfect. As if by magic, they became 300% tastier and when dusted with icing sugar the wank factor went through the roof. But we all still know they're pikelets!

Mini Pancake Stack with Caramelized Fruit aka Pimped Pikelets!

1 cup SR flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk (though you might like more if you like thinner batter)
Fruit in season, sliced thinly
Brown sugar (optional)
Icing sugar for dusting
Salted butter for greasing the pan before each batch

• Place a pan over a medium heat to warm up - this ensures you don't have the dreaded dodgy first batch!!
• Sift your flour and baking powder together in to a bowl, whisk in egg and milk until a smooth-ish batter forms.
• Melt a small amount of butter in the (now perfect temperature) pan then use a teaspoon to gently drop dollops of batter in to the pan. If you can make the dollops the size of the fruit slices you'll get bonus points.
• The perfect time to place the slices of fruit on the pikelet is between the sheen on the batter starting to dull and bubbles forming. Too shiney and it loses shape, too bubbly and all the air has escaped and they'll be heavy. You want light and fluffy. Practice makes perfect and I'm more than happy to come over and test the results to let you know for sure that you got it right. Ahem.
• Sprinkle the tiniest amount of brown sugar on the fruit if you want. I did on half of mine and found that with the fruit I was using (plums) that it really wasn't needed.
• Flip that sucker over and let the heat go to work on the fruit, making it all melty and caramel-y. Keep an eye on it and when cooked, probably between 20-60 seconds depending on how thick your batter is, whip it out on to a plate.
• Stack those suckers up, dust with icing sugar and BOOYAH!

The salt from the butter mixes with the sweet from the caramel to create the fabulous sensation that is salted caramel. The burst of soft fruit flesh and the cushion of dough? Droolworthy, people. Droolworthy.

Go forth and flip those suckers and let me know how you go! Tag #pimpyourpikelet if you want to help me raise awareness of this very serious issue. Go the dough!

Ridiculously Easy Fudge Christmas Trees

Last Christmas I came up with ridiculously easy fudge Christmas trees and my god I was so proud of myself. They went within minutes at all the parties I took them to because they're just so darn cute and, well, fudgey. I put a quick instructional together for Facebook and it was shared hundreds and hundreds of times, making my head swell to enormous proportions. This year I thought I should put it on an actual post so people could pin it rather than trawl through their feed from last year.

The base of this recipe is the two ingredient fudge that is my go-to recipe in "oh shit I forgot to make something" scenarios. Add some green food colouring, some lollies for decorations and voila, Christmas trees.

Tricky and I made these on the weekend as part of our advent calendar activities and he was so chuffed. He broke up the chocolate, poured in the condensed milk and sprinkled over the lollies. I tell ya, lettings kids decorate is a fabulous way to see just how much of a perfectionist you are! Let it go, they'll taste the same whether all the decorations are bunched up or not.

You'll need:

• One 395g can of condensed milk
• Two blocks of white chocolate (between 180-200g per block is fine*)
• Green food colouring
• Lollies to decorate - I used mini m&ms and silver cashous

Thermomix Method:

• Line a lamington tray (you MUST do this first)
• Place chocolate in to bowl and mix for five minutes on speed 2 at 50C
• After five minutes, check to see if it is melted, scrape down the sides and add another minute if necessary
• Add a few drops of green food colouring and mix for four seconds on speed 4
• Pour in the condensed milk (see note below) and mix for six seconds on speed 5
• Tip the green slime in to the tray and spread evenly, working quickly
• Sprinkle over your decorations and gently push them so they embed slightly
• Chill in the fridge until firm - allow an hour or so if it is a hot day
• Remove the fudge from the tray and cut it in half length ways
• Cut triangles from each half - I usually get about seven or eight

Standard Method:

• Line a lamington tray (you MUST do this first)
• Place chocolate in to a double boiler or the microwave and melt
• When completely melted, add a few drops of green food colouring and stir to combine
• Pour in the condensed milk (see note below) and mix thoroughly - it will start to thicken instantly, so you'll need to use your muscles
• Tip the green slime in to the tray and spread evenly, working quickly
• Sprinkle over your decorations and gently push them so they embed slightly
• Chill in the fridge until firm - allow an hour or so if it is a hot day
• Remove the fudge from the tray and cut it in half length ways
• Cut triangles from each half - I usually get about seven or eight

Keep these chilled until you are ready to serve them. On a hot day they can get very melty if left on the table so be careful! I find they are less likely to melt if you do use the full 400g of chocolate.

*If you use 180g blocks don't scrape the condensed milk from the can, just pour until it mostly stops - you'll be left with the perfect amount to make a few condensed milk sandwiches and the fudge won't melt so easily!

Three ingredient Choc Mint Truffles

High off the success of the amazing three ingredient choc orange truffles/balls, I have been tinkering.

I thought I'd try a new flavour and also an easier way to decorate them - because it's the decorating that turns them from balls to truffles, ya know!

So here it is, complete with craft Santa that Bobbin and MapGuy made together.

Pin me, I'm delicious

You'll need:
2x packets of Choc Ripple biscuits
250g of Cream Cheese, cubed
Candy Canes to taste
Chocolate for decorating (optional)

I say to taste because some are big, some are small, some are particularly minty and some are just meh. So you'll have to experiment a little yourself. I used three full sized candy canes and it was perfect for me - just enough mint to cut through the chocolate, but not so much that it feels like you're eating toothpaste.

To make:
Blitz candy canes in a food processor until they're smashed up (Thermomix speed 5 for 10 seconds)
Add in the bikkies and process again until it looks like ground up coffee (Thermomix speed 5 for 10 seconds)
Place the cream cheese in and blitz again (Thermomix speed 5 for 10 seconds) until a crumbly dough forms
Take spoonfuls of the mixture, squeeze it in your hands to compact it, roll it in a ball and place on a baking sheet
When you've done a whole tray put it in the fridge to firm them up before decorating

L to R: uncoated with white choc stripes, coated with smashed candy canes, coated with white choc stripes

I love to dip these in chocolate, but it can be a little time consuming and fiddly, so this time I experimented with just putting white chocolate stripes on them and I think it looks just as nice as the chocolate coated ones (see above on the left) - they just look a tad smaller.

Remember they have cream cheese in them so it is best to keep them in the fridge until a few minutes before serving, particularly if it is a stinking hot day (it was 38C here today!).

These are morish. You've been warned. 

Three ingredient choc orange balls (or truffles if you feel like being fancy)

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I never know whether to call these things balls or truffles. I figure any opportunity to say balls just cannot be ignored, so we'll go with that for now. Plus when I hear truffles I think of involved recipes, double boilers, leaving it to cool and that's just not my scene because effort.

So I cheat. Yes, you read that right. I cheat and make DELICIOUS three ingredient choc orange truffley balls that, so far, everyone who has tried them has loved. Even the people who wouldn't call themselves jaffa aficionados have loved them. They have a beautiful, creamy texture and the orange cuts through the chocolate juuuust enough.

I make mine in a Thermomix but you can use any food processor. This recipe makes approximately 50 balls because I've been making them as gifts, but you can halve the recipe if you wanted to make less. Though I have NO IDEA why you'd want to do that.

You'll need:
Two packets of Choc Ripple biscuits
250g of cream cheese, cubed
The finely grated zest of one orange
Dark chocolate for dipping (optional)

Blitz the biscuits to fine crumbs in your food processor (10 seconds on speed 5 in Thermo)
Add the orange zest and the cream cheese in to the bowl
Mix together until a crumbly looking dough forms (10 seconds on speed 5 in Thermo)
Grab spoonfuls of the mixture and squeeze it in your fist to compact it then roll in to a ball
Place on a baking sheet and put it in the fridge until firm (20 minutes or put them in the freezer for 10)

If you want them to look fancy and be called truffles, melt some dark chocolate and dip them in, then add a few orange sprinkles. The dipping process can be a bit time consuming so feel free to skip it and serve them as is.

It's best to keep these in the fridge and take them out a few minutes before serving - though I eat them straight from the fridge sometimes!

Will you make some?

Adventures in Advent Calendars (with Frozen themed cookies in a jar!)

Brought to you by Nuffnang and BIG W

S1 For full details please see my disclosure policy

Traditions around Christmas are what it's all about. I have such fond memories of going Christmas Tree Hunting back in the days when you had to cruise the streets for hours (OK, maybe 45 minutes) for a glimpse of a tree in a front window. Aunty Penny and I would be in the back seat of the tiny little orange Datsun Stanza, windows down, the cool air of the Freo Doctor on our faces after a hot day, shouting out "CHRISTMAS TREE!" and "THERE'S ONE!", keeping a tally to see who would win. I would always win; as the little sister there was a "if I can't win, I don't want to play" policy.

Each Christmas it's our tradition to make an Advent Calendar with a themed activity for each day. Now, before you start thinking you don't have time for daily activities, hear me out! They don't have to be huge things! Some examples of our activities are: go Christmas Tree hunting, donate toys to a charity, sing Christmas Carols, bake festive yummies, visit Santa, colour in a Christmas picture and other super easy things. Activities we can all enjoy together.

Including baking in to our Advent Calendar traditions was done not just because it was something fun, but so we could give out the fruits of our labour as gifts. We get in the kitchen together, listen to Carols, bake things with a shed load of sugar, have fun and get a gift out of it. It's like a cheesy holiday movie playing out in my own house.

If you're stuck for time and turning on a hot oven in 37C heat doesn't take your fancy, then you can prepare the ingredients and give away COOKIES IN A JAR. I personally don't understand the jar obsession - I drank out of jars when I was poor, now when rich people do it I find it quite funny. But it's on trend, or on point, or on something, so let's go with that.

These aren't just adorable, they are a gift that keeps on giving: the baking experience, eating the cookies and graduating to Official Hipster by drinking from the mason jar. But they're also very affordable. I bought mason jars with handles from BIG W for $2 each, lids ($6 for a pack of 6 - kept with preserving items) popped in the ingredients, tied it up with some ribbon ($2 in the gift wrap section) and hung a bag of sprinkles on the side for decoration. I bought the $6.50 Wilton brand sprinkles - it's my absolute fave and used to be really hard to get, but BIG W stock it now! HUZZAH!

To make your own:

• Grab your jars and lids and sterilize them by boiling or putting them through the dishwasher

• When filling the jars, each layer needs to be compressed so that it won't move around in transit. I used a spatula and a melon baller to press it down gently - the only things I could find as Bobbin slept

•  Fill the jars with:

110g SR Flour
50g oats
35g blue M&Ms
35g white chocolate drops
55g brown sugar
35g white sugar
20g macadamia nuts (or substitute 20g extra M&Ms instead to make this nut free)
extra SR Flour for leveling at the top - fill it to the brim!

Pop on the lid, tape on a label, tie a ribbon around it, or some fabric and voila! I put on the Wilton sprinkles because I thought kids would like to decorate the cookies after they'd made them, but you don't have to. You don't even have to have them Frozen themed, you can vary the recipe really easily by substituting any colour M&M, or swapping it out for dried cranberries for a hint of festive red.

As a special treat I've created some printables for you! Click on the images below to download a sheet of labels for the front and back of your jars. They'll be the right size for a two inch punch - the red will go to the edge but the blue will have a white border.

I'm not the only one with a cool Advent Calendar this year though, BIG W have an online Advent Calendar with a new surprise special every day that sure beats a miniscule square of cooking chocolate. And I can tell you now, all secret squirrel like, that on the 6th there will be 30% off all Skylanders and Infinity Storage products. Ooooh storage. Buying storage things could possibly become a tradition in this house...

Tell me your Christmas traditions. Will you be giving cookies in a jar?

Coconut and raspberry pikelets

How do I love thee, pikelets. Let me count the ways.

You're a super quick snack made from pantry staples, you are the perfect size for kiddies, your recipe is flexible and somewhat healthy depending on what goes in, and you're bloody delicious little pillows of yum.

Almost every time I make them, I change the recipe. Banana, choc chip (or the heaven that is banana and choc chip), orange and poppyseed, chia seed when I'm feeling a bit wanky, dairy free with fruit puree and of course, plain with a shitload of butter. My latest fave is coconut and raspberry because firstly I somehow bought a kilo of coconut last week and have been chucking it in everything since, and secondly, everything tastes amazing with coconut and raspberry in it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut (shredded, desiccated, depending on which texture you prefer)
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ~ 1 1/2 cups of milk (this varies on how dry the coconut is)
• 2 eggs, beaten 
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, blitzed (optional - just go for the jam at the end if you want)
• butter for greasing the frypan
• the tinsiest little bit of oil to stop the butter burning
• raspberry jam to serve

Method

• Preheat your frypan. No, really. You don't want the first batch to be rank and half cooked, do you?
• Chuck coconut, flour, baking powder and eggs in to a bowl, gradually add milk until you have the batter at the desired consistency - I like it a little thick to make fluffier pikelets
• Whisk it. Get your arm in to it. Pretend you're a TV chef
• Put the tinsiest bit of oil in the pan and a knob of butter
• Laugh that you used the word knob
• Swirl it around then drop plops of coconutty batter in to the pan
• When the tops dull and a bubble or two form, flip it over - don't leave it until there are squillions of burst bubbles, you want that air inside the pikelet
• Cook on the other side until, well, cooked - ten seconds?
• Flip out those golden orbs of awesome on to a plate and serve with raspberry jam in a vintage thingy you found at an op shop
• Instagram the shit out of it

I have absolutely no idea if these freeze well because none have ever survived long enough for me to find out. Lemme know?

Five Minute Fudge

Just when you didn't think fudge could get any easier than taking five minutes to make, I'm going to tell you it is two ingredient fudge. Commence drooling now.

This fudge comes firmly under the "I was being really healthy and then all of a sudden OMG GIVE ME FUDGE I'M PREGNANT" category. It is in no way healthy and should not be consumed in a single sitting (as I would quite like to do right now) lest you lapse in to a diabetic coma.

I don't eat too much sugar these days so any more than one piece of this gives me a major headache. But when you're the size of a house, ready to pop and so over being pregnant, well, part of me thinks that headache is worth it. I know, a health advocate I will never be.

Ingredients:

• 1 x 395g can of condensed milk
• 2 x blocks of chocolate (between 180-200g per block is fine)
• Anything you want to add to it to make it pretty or yummy

Method:

• Grease and line a lamington tray - you absolutely have to do this first
• Break up the chocolate and melt it using a double boiler - or a microwave if you just can't be bothered
• Add the condensed milk and stir quickly until well combined - it will be thick and start setting immediately so use a strong spoon 
• If you're adding any extras, do it now, lickety split
• Quickly pour the fudge in to your tray and spread it out evenly - if you've been quick enough the clock should be ticking over to five minutes right now
• Chuck it in the fridge for about two hours
• Do something to take your mind off the delicious melty fudge that is teasing you
• When chilled, cut in to squares and try not to eat it all

I used white chocolate this time but it works just as well with milk or dark. Mini M&Ms make awesome extras but so do any small candy type things and nuts, especially macadamias. If you're feeling fancy reserve a small bit of the fudge, tint it another colour and swirl it over the top - if you want supermum status then tint some white fudge green and add some peppermint essence and drizzle it over milk/dark chocolate fudge. Mmmmmmmm choc minty fabulousness!

Pressure cooker takes the pressure off {giveaway}

This is a S2 post

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I am a kitchen appliance aficionado. I’m obsessed with them. Every time a new one comes out I pore over the catalogues and the online reviews to figure out if I really need one. The answer is normally no, I don’t neeeeeed it. But I want it. A lot.

I was sent a Tefal Cook4Me and for the past six weeks I’ve been putting it through its paces. It has created a bit of controversy here and Map Guy and I have had stern words over whether it is pronounced Tef-fal or Tee-fal. I of course think I’m right but am not willing to find out the correct answer in case I’m wrong.

Now I will admit my technodouchery was in full force the first few times I used the Cook4Me. I somehow managed to undercook the risotto and then get the lid stuck closed which required the IT Crowd method of correction: turning it off and on again at the power point.

But I’d heard good things about this bloody risotto and on chatting to a few other people who were also testing it out realised that it was JUST ME. Determined, I started again and haven’t had an issue since. In fact it has become a regular on the bench, using it at least once or twice a week.

I’m going to split it in to pros and cons rather than get really wordy:

Pros:

• Inbuilt recipes are adjustable by number of serves (2/4/6)
• Recipes can be found via name, meal type or ingredients
• Super quick because it’s a pressure cooker
• Whisper quiet (other than the beeps)
• Nice size – big enough to cook a substantial meal but the device itself is not a monstrosity and can easily fit inside a cupboard
• Stay cool handles on the pot
• Simple control panel – two buttons mean even appliance phobic people could use it
• Count down timer showing how much longer you can tweet for before dinner
• A warning beep before releasing the steam

Cons:

• You can’t display the recipe mid-use or go back to check it without the cooking process also going back and re-starting - you have to make sure you get everything ready before you start
• The cord is a bit short – I love me a retractable cord and this would have really benefitted from it 
• Some of the recipes seem to be missing oil as an ingredient - for example with the Beef Stroganoff you get everything ready press OK and it says "add oil" though it was never in the ingredients list like it is in other recipes
• It doesn’t have a timer for the browning function - times everything else
• Doesn’t beep to let you know when it has preheated - beeps at everything else

None of the cons have been deal breakers for me though and the meals on high rotation for us are chilli con carne (which we serve as nachos), the Thai green curry and pesto chicken risotto. I’m not the hugest fan of risotto, mainly because I usually can’t be bothered standing there forever just to end up with a bowl of glug, so to make it from start to finish in around 25 minutes and for it to be tasty is amazing – the book says 6 minutes but that time only starts after you’ve prepped all the ingredients, preheated the machine, browned the meat and preheated under pressure again. But still, 25 minutes is pretty good!

I’ve got one of these babies to give away valued at $349.95 and to win you have to enter your details below. The winner will be the person with the best 25 words or less answer to the question “What takes the pressure off you in the kitchen?”.

How to be a goddess in the kitchen

This is a C1 post

For full details please see my disclosure policy

So you want to know how to be a goddess in the kitchen? Well from everything I can see in my very limited Googling, a lot of goddesses have multiple arms, so by rights if you got an extra set to say, stir dinner with, then whammo, you’re a goddess.

I’ve been playing with the Jamie Oliver HomeCooker for a while now and my first thought was that it gave me an extra set of hands and ipso facto, am now obviously a goddess.

My second thought was “Myself (am a goddess, so can now say this)! That is one gigantic contraption!”. Yes, the HomeCooker has taken the size matters mantra to heart and does look rather imposing on the bench. If you have the all the steaming baskets and the cutting tower too, it, well, definitely towers.

But most of the time I was just using the main pot and the chopping tower and found the pot a really good size for a big family meal – which in this house translates to meal & then leftovers for lunch.

The cutting tower slices and grates with a range of different blades, but if it was up to me, I’d make the feed for the chopping tower much wider as I even had trouble with some carrots being too thick to fit through it. I thought I was going to snap the rotating disk as I inserted the blades but it turns out it was just me being afraid of breaking my new toy and once I got the hang of it, it took a second to do.

As dinner simmered away I’d come back to check on the meal (OK I admit I also came back to just watch it stir a few times) and other than scraping down the sides once or twice because I’m incapable of leaving anything alone, dinner would be ready without any of the food catching on the bottom and burning. Meaning I had a half hour or so to do a quick tidy up and set the table, play with the Trickster or just SIT DOWN.

In all seriousness, my pain levels have been flaring terribly this pregnancy and standing up to cook dinner at the end of the day is bloody killing me. If something can keep a constant temperature and stir itself while I just have a few minutes of rest then it gets the thumbs up from me. Or perhaps that should be feet up since it is normally how I look when cooking dinner these days.

PROS:

• Great for when you have little ones around your feet wanting cuddles
• Handy if you’re knackered and need to sit down
• Huge 3L bowl
• Goes up to 250 degrees C
• Can cook multiple things at a time with the steaming baskets
• Comes with a Jamie Oliver cookbook full of HomeCooker specific recipes that are amazeballs
• Retractable cord – Philips do this a lot, it helps so much with storage
• Timer with automatic shut off

CONS:

• Cutting tower is quite narrow
• Takes up a lot of bench/cupboard space

Even though I wasn't a fan of the cutting tower, overall I think the HomeCooker is great for when you need to be doing something other than standing over the stove stirring and I can see it coming in to its element when Bobbin is born!

Want to be a goddess in the kitchen too? You can win a Jamie Oliver HomeCooker from Philips by telling me in 25 words or less what you would do with a spare half hour while your HomeCooker stirred dinner for you via the ENTRY FORM HERE. If you don't have a Facebook account and still wish to enter please email me with the subject line "HomeCooker Competition" and include your name, delivery address and answer to the question.

This competition is now closed 

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Cheesy Christmas Stars

I've been cooking up a storm this month. Every second or third day Tricky's advent calendar activity is baking because he absolutely loves it - he even has his own apron now which serves the dual purpose of keeping his clothes clean and looking super adorable at the same time.

I've made cheesy biscuits about five times because they don't last long. And no, I don't mean they don't keep well, I mean they're eaten by the end of the day. Can you say moreish? They're based on a recipe I found recently that I've played with a bit (read: MOAR CHEESE, less salt). 

They do keep in an airtight container for a day or two, but are best eaten straight away. When slightly warm. Oooh yeah.

Cheesy Christmas Stars

Ingredients (makes 50 stars... well depending on how big your star cutter is obviously)

• 150g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 75g room temperature butter
• 80g grated cheese (the finer, the better - use pizza cheese for extra flavour)
• Additional grated cheese for the top
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon milk

Apron FTW!

Method

• Sift the flour, whack in the salt, give it a bit of a stir
• Rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs (or cheat and melt the butter - you might have to add a bit more flour but who cares when it's easier, right?)
• Add in the grated cheese and stir it in (it's a bit thick, it's OK)
• Crack the egg in a glass, add the milk and whisk it together with a fork
• Tip almost all of the eggy milk in to the mix and stir, again, to form a dough. All this stirring burns calories, right?
• Need the dough a tad on a floured board, then roll it out about 1cm thick
• Cut out shapes. Stars taste better. I tried trees and gingerbread (or cheesebread) men and it just wasn't right.
• Place the stars on a baking sheet, put a quick flick of eggy milk on the top with a pastry brush and cover them with a bit more cheese. Go the parmesan, you know you want to.
• Bake them at 200C for ten minutes or until golden. Or, if your oven has a cold stop like mine *grumble*, turn then around half way through. GAH!
• EAT THEM ALL!    

Cheesy trees... not as good