Little Boy makes muffins

Little Boy is going through that phase that all children tend to go through at some point, of not eating many veggies. So I found a great recipe to hide them in - Banana Veggie Bran Muffins. I started making them, when he wandered into the kitchen and asked if he could help. So on went his apron, out came the stool and he got stuck into making his culinary creation...

Here is the recipe in case you'd like to give them a go. Even if you don't have any children to get the better of by disguising their food, they are yum to eat. They went down well at our house, he was very proud of his cakes, and ate two for lunch!

Banana veggie bran muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 large very ripe bananas

1 small-medium courgette, shredded

2 medium carrots, shredded

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 cup wheat bran

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, Gas Mark 5

With a food processor or hand blender, mix butter and sugar until smooth. Add banana, courgette, carrot and eggs, mix thoroughly until bananas are well mashed into mixture. 

Add remaining ingredients, and mix until just combined (over mixing will make them chewy)

Spoon batter into muffin cases, 2/3 to 3/4 full. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes, cool in tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling

Makes 1 dozen muffins

Update on the tadpoles, they are doing great, still munching on lettuce with a bit of spinach too. Once they get legs, they get liver (yuk, rather them than me!). They are actually a bit bigger than this now, i just realised I haven't got an up to date photo and it's too dark to take one now. 

On the house front, OH has been putting a new loft hatch in. The one that was in the house when we moved in was in a silly place, in the bathroom. The ladder came down in front of the sink, which made it very hard to get up the ladder when you were laden with boxes...

So he has put one in the hall, with a much bigger opening and comfy wooden steps (much better than those horrible thin metal ones)

Problem is, we still can't put all our stuff up there yet until the electrics are done up there. I'm really trying not to think about all the work that needs doing; ceilings ripped down, bathrooms replaced etc. Been there done that before and I know what chaos and mess it creates. Problem is we have two children to accommodate now at the same time. I just have to imagine how lovely it will be when it's all done!

Xx

Soup, tart and a roll

Oh dear, I'm a bad blogger - my aim was to post at least once a week, and already I've failed miserably :-(
However I have this one and another one almost ready, so it's a bit like buses - there's none and then two come along at once!

Well weekends mean I have OH on child minding duties, so I usually spend at least one afternoon in the kitchen. 

Before we moved to NZ I was a vegetarian, but having moved and having our own animals to raise and eat, I have lapsed occasionally. But I'm not a real meat lover, and still like to cook a meat free meal

I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food website - Versatile Veg Soup

Do you ever have this problem - I buy ingredients for a certain dish, but only need say half a cauliflower,  and a third of a bag of sprouts, so the remainder grow old in the veg drawer of the fridge until I remember them a week later. By then they look a bit worse for wear. This is the ideal recipe to use these up, as it doesn't matter what goes in, just chop it all up! 

The original recipe used 200g chopped raw veg, and 300g potatoes. I had way more to use up, so put in 1kg chopped veg (swede, carrots, cauliflower, onion and a few Brussels sprouts) and just under 1kg potatoes (just used up what was left in the bag). Basically all you do is chop up all veg quite small, fry in a few tablespoons oil until soft, then add stock (I put in 3 litres for this amount of veg) bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until soft.  Then blend in processor until smooth. Easy peasy!

It sounded a bit bland, so I also added a few tablespoons tomato purée, and a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs when I added the stock. 

I have to say seeing as it was so quick and easy, it was quite tasty, with just a dash of cream on top, and some olive bread....

I have frozen a load so I don't get bored of having it every day. I might try some with a dash of curry paste stirred in (I have two jars of the stuff to use up, and only me likes curry!) and a drizzle of coconut cream on top. Any other suggestions to spice it up?

The two most time consuming recipes of the day were a Caramelised Onion and Thyme tart and Homemade Yeast Rolls 

So was it worth spending just over three hours in the kitchen?

The tart was OK, I'd give it a 7 out of 10 for taste, but don't think it was worth the time it took to make. Plus although the pastry around the top edge was nice and crisp, the bottom was a bit soggy. I thought it might be, as the pastry wasn't baked blind before adding the filling, it just said roll out pastry into dish, then pop in the freezer. So it was only slightly chilled, before the filling was added. 

The rolls however were a resounding success, getting between 9.5 and 10 out of 10 (The mark down was from OH, who said that you can't give 10/10 - why? I have no idea!). They tasted yummy, looked great, and were deliciously fat and soft - I would definitely make them again. The only downside was that everybody loved them, so they were gone in a few days!

Xx