Sneaking in some veggies!

Ok, so I may the tendencies of a small child when it comes to veggies.  In general it’s best if they’re snuck into a recipe rather than the star…  And egg fried rice is wonderful for that!  The last couple of nights I’ve only been feeding myself so I took this opportunity to have egg fried rice (the boy doesn’t really like rice…).

Except, because I’m feeling poor and penniless (the new job forgot to pay me at the end of the month…), I couldn’t afford prawns so I had a red pepper, chopped mushrooms and grated carrot.  Do you see how I snuck the carrot in there?!  And grated as well so you don’t accidently end up with a mouth full of just carrot!

Chopping veggies up really small or grating them is an excellent way to try them, or to get small children to try them!  Butternut squash is pretty good grated in the egg fried rice.

Just be warned, this will not work for all veggies, cutting an onion up really small will not fool me or the boy, we will find it and we will reject the meal!

Wonderful Wednesday

Thankfully Wednesday is here – we are half way through the week!  This week seems to be dragging its heels…  And also seems to be rather short on time for crafting – last night we went to a talk about the churches around our area, tonight I’m going for coffee and Friday we’re going to the pub.  So all I have is Thursday which I’m hoping to use to draw and cut out a pattern for a fabric box.  My partner has requested some way of putting badges on display so I thought a fabric box would be a good idea – he can pin the badges to the side and use it to put stuff in!

Despite having very little time last night I managed to finish off the craft projects I had on the go:

A ladybird magnet:

A sock penguin:

And a hungry caterpillar:

I was thinking about the hungry caterpillar and I think you could make a really nice mobile out of it by making all the things that he eats along the way.  I might try that one day but this caterpillar is fated to join my sister.

Foodwise today is a bit of a write-off.  Lunch is gorgeous herby bread with lactofree cream cheese but dinner will likely end up being something really quick and easy.  At the moment I’m thinking that might be toast followed by chocolate porridge so a really nice comforting quick meal.  Don’t you just love toast?  It’s so flexible – you can have it sweet or savoury and it’s ready in minutes, for me it’s the ultimate in comfort food.  The chocolate porridge is a relatively new idea for me, in fact I’m only a recent convert to porridge but again it’s so comforting.

Chocolate Porridge

Oats
Milk or water
Cocoa powder

• In a saucepan mix half a cup of oats with a tablespoon of cocoa powder.
• Add about 2 cups of water or milk and bring to the boil.
• Simmer for about 8 minutes and serve.

For added chocolate yummyness add chocolate chips once served!

Gorgeous Easter weekend food

This bank holiday will be a time for lots of yummy food, eating out and at home:

Sushi from Yo Sushi as mentioned in my previous post

Indian Restaurant because we love Indian food.  I love being able to have lots of little bits of different food, for example I’ll probably have popadoms, veggie samosas, rice and pakora.  I love all the different flavours and textures in one meal.  We make curry alot at home and have attempted some of the other Indian dishes we are partial to but I think we need to venture out and try making more of our own.  It’s so much more fulfilling!

Fish Pie is such a comforting meal and is really filling as well.  Perfect for the cold weather which seems to have hit us!

1 puff pastry sheet

some fish

some prawns

a couple of eggs

potatoes

oat milk

sunflower margarine

lactose free cheese

flour

salt and pepper

• Peel the potatoes then slice and boil them until cooked then layer in the bottom of an oven proof dish
• Hard boil the eggs then peel and quarter them
• Make cheese sauce (am a bit sketchy about how to do this as my partner always makes it…)
• Stir the fish, prawns and eggs into the cheese sauce and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes
• Pour the cheese sauce, fish, prawns and eggs over the potatoes
• Cover with pastry, cover with a bit of grated cheese adn pierce the pastry a couple of times
• Cook for approximately 30-40 mins
• Enjoy!

Yummy Fish Pie

Homemade Pizza is so much better than shop bought.  Although being lactose intolerant and not like tomatoes I would say that wouldn’t I!  We normally use a breadmaker to make the dough for our bases (we used to use shop bought bases but this is much nicer).  For my pizza I use lactose free cheese and go crazy with the mixed herbs and red pepper.  I also find it tastes that bit better if you drizzle a little olive oil over it before putting it in the oven; I’ve been using chilli oil to give it an extra tang!