Friday Lunchbox #18

Today's lunchbox:

Morning Tea:  Seaweed rice crackers and mix of craisins (dried cranberries) and sultanas.
Lunch:  Chicken, sweetcorn and green capsicum cream cheese pinwheels with fresh fruit mix of green grapes, red grapes, blueberries and strawberries.
Drink: Iced water

The pinwheels are made with mountain bread which is a type of flat bread - simply spread your chosen filling on, roll up and slice into bite size pieces.  They are a great party finger food too.

Miss Six will be finishing school for summer holidays next Thursday so this is the last Friday Lunchbox for quite some time.  I think I have done what I set out to do when I started this series - to inspire myself out of  the lunchbox boredom I was getting into!  I'm finding it much more fun now and a whole lot easier to be thoughtful about what goes into them on a daily basis.  I really hope I've inspired you too!

Have a brilliant weekend, everyone : )

Friday Lunchbox #17

Today's Lunchbox:

Morning Tea:  Fresh orange pieces, homemade gingerbread biscuits
Lunch:  Sweet and Savoury Jaffles - Savoury is "vegetarian pizza" with herbed tomato paste, cheddar cheese, corn kernels, green capsicum, tomato and kalamata olives in wholemeal bread.  Sweet is "custard and cinnamon apple pie" with vanilla custard, pie apple and cinnamon sugar in homemade fruit bread.
Drink: Iced water

Miss Six is on a jaffle jag at the moment and has asked for jaffles every day this week.  She calls them "baffles" which is way too cute for me to want to correct her just yet.  So I've had to get quite creative with the fillings.  The great thing about todays jaffles is that I get the other halves of both jaffles for my own lunch - yum!  Also, gingerbread is her most favourite kind of biscuit - this is the very first time I've ever iced them though and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be!  I used a "royal icing" which is basically whipped egg white, icing sugar, a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of cream of tartar (I'd link to a recipe but I'm feeling a bit lazy...just Google it!).  It set beautifully.  I did end up with piping-bag-cramp though, which I'm still recovering from!

Have an awesome weekend, everyone!!

Friday Lunchbox #16

Today's lunchbox:

Morning Tea: Mixed grapes and two sorts of savoury mini muffin - 1.Curried cheese, chive and corn
2. Kalamata olive, feta and italian herbs

Lunch: Homemade spiced fruit loaf fingers with cream cheese filling, cherry tomatos, carrot stars and celery pieces

The spiced fruit loaf is made in our breadmaker - I have substituted the usual "mixed fruit and glace cherries" for our own mix of fruits - organic sultanas and prunes, homemade candied orange and lemon peel pieces (my mum makes those and they are much, much nicer than the stuff in bought mixed fruit) and uncrystallised preserved sweet ginger pieces.  If you don't have a bread maker, an internet search for fruit bread recipes is sure to turn up one you like and you can substitute your own favourite mix of dried fruits.  Or simply buy a good quality raisin bread loaf from the store!!  It's delicious toasted for breakfast too.

And here is the muffin recipe - it's one of my absolute favourite recipes and is also my mum's - I have absolutely no idea where she got it from, though some sort of baking workshop way back in the '90's seems to ring a bell.

It's the best ever recipe because it's a really simple base recipe which you can then choose to make sweet or savoury and the add-ins are limited only by your tastebuds and imagination. I simply divided the base recipe in half once it was made and mixed two seperate flavour combinations through.  To give you an idea of amounts, I used 1 tspn of curry, 1/2 a tblspn of fresh chives, a 125g can of drained corn kernels and about 1/3 cup cheddar cheese in the curried cheese, chive and corn muffins.  The olive, feta and italian herbs took 7 chopped olives, about 2 tblspns of chopped feta, and fresh, very finely chopped herbs - 1 tblspn parsley, 1 tblspn oregano, 1/2 tblspn rosemary.  Remember, these amounts are for mixing into batter halves, if you wanted to do just a one flavour batter, you'd double the amount of your chosen add-in combination.

Miss Six calls my mum "Nonna" so here is...

Nonna Lillabilly's Awesomely Versatile Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour

1/4 cup caster sugar (ONLY if you are making sweet muffins, leave out for savoury)

1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn baking powder

1 cup full cream milk

1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 egg (I use jumbo size)

Your choice of "add-ins" - (see ideas at end of recipe)

Method
1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, add salt and sugar (if using) and mix.
2. Combine milk, oil and egg with a fork in a seperate jug
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix lightly with a fork - do NOT beat or over mix, the batter is supposed to be lumpy.  ( If you over-mix you'll end up with tough muffins!)
4. Lightly mix in your choice of add-ins.  Use your judgement for how much to add - remember there needs to be more batter than add-in if muffins are to rise well.
5. Spray muffin tin with spray oil or grease with butter or use paper muffin-cases.  Divide batter evenly into muffin tin.
6. Bake in preheated 180 deg celcius oven for 15-20 minutes (8-10 minutes for mini muffins) until golden.  Cool in tin for a minute or so before turning out to cool on wire rack.

Add-In Ideas - Savoury
Cheese, bacon, corn and herbs
Salmon, dill and brie
Spinich and feta
Pizza (ham, cheese, onion, olives, tomato)
Greek (feta, olives, sundried tomato, red onion)

Add-In Ideas - Sweet
Apple and cinnamon
Blueberry and raspberry (you can use frozen if not in season)
Cherry, coconut and dark chocolate
Date and pecan
Banana and milk choc chips
Ginger and macadamia

Hope you enjoy the recipe, I can't wait to hear what flavour combinations you all come up with - please share!!

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Friday Lunchbox #15

Today's lunchbox:

Morning Tea: Tropical fruit salad of strawberries, watermelon, mango, pineapple and baby mint leaves, pre packaged muesli bar.
Lunch: Chicken and vegetable noodle cakes with cos lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cheese cubes
Drink: Water


I just have to say that I LOVE the fruit that is around at this time of year!  YUM!  It makes being healthy so very easy.  Also, I tend to steer clear of pre packaged foods for Miss Six's lunch, (Miss Six...that  sounds so weird) due to her peanut allergy there is not a great deal that she can have anyway.  But it's nice to slip something in every now and then as I know it makes her feel that she is "just like the other kids".  I only recently discovered Food For Health's range of products and am quite happy to give Miss Six their lovely muesli bars on occasion.  The allergy information on the package does state that the product may contain traces of treenuts, but definately not peanuts - so if you are allergic to both this would not be the product for you.  But it is also gluten, wheat and dairy free (if you have issues with those) and the dried fruit contained in it is sulpher free.  And as an added bonus, they are Australian made by an Australian owned company.  I'm  happy to support that!  If you are an Aussie with allergies, you can find their range at many of your local supermarkets in the health food section.  Hooray!

And here's the recipe for the noodle cakes ( they're soooo good and don't taste like vegetables at all!)

Chicken and Vegetable Noodle Cakes

Ingredients
200g vermicelli rice noodles
3 eggs
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 tblspn chopped parsley
3/4 cup chopped cooked chicken
1 tblespn sweet chilli sauce
Pinch of salt
Small amount of oil for frying

Method
Soak the vermicelli noodles for about 5 minutes in boiling water and drain.  Place noodles in a bowl and chop into smaller pieces.  Thoroughly mix through eggs, carrot, zucchini, shallots, parsley, chicken, salt and sauce.
Heat oil in frypan until hot and place 1/4 cup amounts of noodle mix in, flattening with spatula and turning when golden brown.

These are totally great hot or cold and make a really quick and easy dinner too.  If you are after a more adult flavour, swap the parsley for coriander, throw in an extra tablespoon or two of sweet chilli sauce and a teaspoon or so of fresh grated ginger.  You could also try using chinese barbequed pork instead of chicken.  Or go meatless if you're after a vegetarian meal.  Serve with more sweet chilli sauce for dipping and a fresh green salad and you're set!


Happy weekend, everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #14

Today's Lunchbox...

Morning Tea -  Fresh mango cheeks, homemade trail mix of sultanas, raisins, popcorn, croutons and oven roasted pumpkin seeds.

Lunch - Chicken and vegetable risotto arancini with cheddar cheese centres, salad of cos lettuce, mini tomatoes and carrot stars.

Drink: Water

If you make risotto, then you can make arancini with the leftovers!  Wear a pair of disposable gloves to ball the risotto up (do a half ball and add a cheese cube to the centre, if you wish, before adding more risotto to make the other half) , roll your arancini in plain flour, dip in egg, roll in breadcrumbs and fry in a little hot oil.  Fun and a bit messy but very easy and they are delicious hot or cold!

Have an awesome weekend, everyone!!

Friday Lunchbox #13

Today's Lunchbox...

Morning Tea - Strawberry yoghurt and nut-free choc-chip biscuit (both homemade)
Lunch - Chicken, cheese and salad "Mountain Bread" wraps, fresh watermelon pieces
Drink - Water

I am a little excited that I now know how to make yoghurt.  Basically, you heat some milk, then cool it a little, then stir in a big spoon of natural yoghurt, then put it in a warm place (like a pre heated thermos - I have bought an "Easi-Yo" maker which is a bit thermos-like) and leave it for 8 or so hours.  Who knew it was so easy!?  Did you?  I didn't.  I've flavoured this yoghurt with strawberry jam and fresh strawberry pieces and the last lot I made I flavoured with honey.  But you can use anything you like - your imagination is the limit.  I cannot believe how delicious and fresh it is!  And did I mention easy?  If you want a little more detail as to how to make yoghurt, check out Amanda's excellent post on SouleMama.  She uses a thermometer for the milk heating which I don't bother with - and all of my yoghurts have turned out well so far, so I figure it's a little forgiving just as long as you are aware that mixing in the yoghurt while the milk is too hot will kill the live cultures and you wouldn't want that! (Unless of course, you feel like making milkshakes instead of yoghurt!)  I totally can't wait 'til it gets a bit hotter and I can start making (and eating!) frozen yoghurts.  Mmmm, YUM!

No Friday Lunchbox Today...Sad Face

So, I was really hoping my blog would go viral but instead, I have.

You guessed it, I'm sick.  Bleh.  Hopefully by next week, yours truly will have returned to her regular programming but until then here's a sneak peak of one of my current projects. I hope you have a lovely weekend.  I'm going back to bed.

Friday Lunchbox #12

Today's Lunchbox...

Morning Tea: Seaweed and plain rice crackers with tomato dip.
Lunch: Homemade pizza fingers, fresh blueberries with canned apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.
Drink: Water

Because of Miss Five's peanut allergy we tend to avoid bought dips (not to mention the fact they often contain preservatives and other nasties) but it's no hassle as it is so very quick and easy to make our own.  The tomato dip here simply contains a few spoons of Light Philedelphia Cream Cheese (I use "light" because it's softer than the regular, so is easier to mix and we only buy the one in the rectangular box as the one in the tub has preservatives.  Why on earth do they do that, I wonder?), some chopped fresh tomato (no seeds), and a squirt of organic tomato sauce.  Whip it together with a fork for about 30 seconds and voila!  This dip can contain any number of yummy things depending on your child's tastes and is also marvelous for adults too.  Try any one or mix of the following - chopped beetroot (pink dip!), diced capsicum, garlic, herbs, sweet chilli sauce, spinich, avocado and lemon, fried bacon and onion, chopped kalamata olives (great with tomato, basil and red onion), mashed pumpkin...I'm sure you can think of more!

The pizza fingers are leftovers from our homemade pizza which we had for dinner.  Again, top this how you like.  While you could easily use the bread base recipe from Friday Lunchbox #1 as a pizza base, I personally find it a little soft for pizza.  I prefer to use the following recipe which is my own personal one:

Homemade Pizza Base

Ingredients:

1 tsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet of dried yeast

2 tblspns olive oil

1 cup lukewarm water

2 2/3 cups plain bread flour

Method

Combine sugar,salt, yeast, oil and water in a large bowl.  Sift in flour and mix to a dough.  Knead for a few minutes until it reaches an "elastic" consisentcy.  Reflour bowl and leave dough, covered, for approx 40 minutes until it has doubled in size.  Punch down dough and reknead breifly before using a rolling pin to roll into desired shape.  (This amount of dough makes a big rectangular pizza which fills my  38cm x 24cm tray and ends up being a thick base.  You could also cut the dough in half and roll thinly to reach the same size for two thin base pizzas.  If you have a smaller circular tray it will definately be enough dough to make two bases of a good thickness.)

Spread with sauce and desired toppings before baking in a 200 degree celcius oven for approx 20 minutes.

Delish!

It absolutely leaves store bought bases for dead.  Let me know how you get on making it, I know you'll love it.  Have an awesome weekend, everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #11

Today's lunch...

Morning Tea: Ladyfinger banana and mini honey joy (see here for how to make these)
Lunch: Spaghetti bolognaise and cheese open-topped pie, fresh blueberries in vanilla yoghurt (Jalna all natural pot-set yoghurt)
Drink: Water

Do you like our mini honey joys?  Miss Five loved the ones we made for camping but while they were the perfect size for adults she found them a bit much and could only manage about half at a time.  But these ones have been declared "just right"!

The open-topped pie was made in our pie-maker.  We have this model which is very handy for all sorts of snacks and even comes with a recipe book.  But if you don't have one, that's quite fine 'cause you can still have fabulous open-topped pies too!  Just use your muffin pan - a normal size pan for mini pies or a texas size pan for larger pies.  Cut a slice of bread with a scone cutter or egg ring depending on the size you need and spray lightly with olive oil on the outer side.  Push into your pan, top with spoonfuls of your leftover spaghetti and a little grated cheddar cheese and whack into your preheated oven (about 180 deg Cel should do it) until it looks golden and melty.  Cool them on a rack, top with a little grated parmasen and pop into the fridge until it's time to pack for lunch.  And don't forget to put an ice-brick in your lunchbox to keep your pie cool.

Miss Five is a huge fan of leftover spaghetti and cheese in sandwiches normally, so I think this is a nice take on that and looks way more exciting to eat than your normal everyday sanga, don't you think?

Hope everyone has a great weekend - if you are still on holidays then lucky you!  I hope you're having loads of fun!!

Friday Lunchbox #10 - Holiday Special - Lunchbox Treats

In keeping with the theme of vintage treats, here is a treat that's not only the right size for a lunchbox (and very treat-ish, I'm definately not claiming these to be healthy, but they are fun and it's nice to have a special treat every now and then, don't you agree?) but they are also a great party food and I really don't think you could get more of a classic Aussie treat than these!  And, more importantly, they are super easy!

Presenting...Honey Joys!

Yuuuuuuum!!  As we are a nut free household over this way, I used this brand of cornflakes for our Honey Joys - if you are in Australia, they are available at Woolworths...

And here is the recipe - I collected this years ago (before Miss Five was born!) straight off the side of the Kellogs Cornflakes box.  I really can't believe this is the very first time I've ever made them.

Honey Joys

Ingredients

4 cups cornflakes

1/3 cup sugar

90 gms butter

1 tblspn honey

Method

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius.

Melt butter, sugar and honey together in a saucepan until frothy.

Add cornflakes and mix well.

Spoon into paper patty cases.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool in tray.

Hints:  The recipe card says that this makes about 20, it only made 10 for me but I used big patty cases and piled them high!  Also, you can have them plain but if you want something that looks a little more fun you can sprinkle some 100's and 1000's or coloured choc chips (or anything you like really!) over the top of them after they come out of the oven but before they cool. And having the patty cases in a muffin tray means it's really easy to spoon in the mixture.  See? Wasn't that easy?

I hope you give these a try and enjoy them!  We are off camping and are taking ours with us as an after dinner treat round the campfire, yaaaaay!!!  Have a brilliant weekend, everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #9 - Holiday Special - Lunch Box Treats

Whether in a lunchbox or not, who doesn't love themselves some treats?!  And especially, who doesn't love themselves some vintage treats?  No, no, I'm not talking about treats from 1987 that I happened to find hidden in the back of the pantry ('cause, ewww) but treats based on vintage recipes that whoosh you straight back to your childhood.

When I was small, I used to go up north to stay with my grandparents every year during at least one set of school holidays.  They lived on a sugarcane farm and the things I remember the most about those holidays were things like the sound of green tree frogs croaking during summer showers, the smell of oil in the gravel near the huge shadowy shed that housed the tractors and harvester, the humid breeze in my face as it blew down from the nearby mountains and rustled through the cane, the roar and blaze of the cane fires and the pitch black of the night with a trillion stars overhead because there was not a town with it's blinding night-lights in sight.

There were freezing cold dips in the local mountain creek and piggy-back walks down the cane tracks with cousins and hide and seek games in the fruit tree groves and the farm dogs who'd follow you anywhere.  There were afternoon teas with homemade sponge and  caramel slice topped sky-high with marshmallow.  After every night time meal there was what my Nanna called "pudding" consisting of canned fruit salad, jelly and ice cream.  Every night!  You've no idea how awesome I thought that was, considering I came from a household where dessert was always fruit, fruit and more fruit and would you like some fruit with that?  The only icecream I ever had was the one we'd get as a treat at the end of the day on our annual beach trip (Bubble O' Bill incidently) so to have it every night with jelly and canned fruit was completely amazing.

And as an absolute constant there were my Nanna's biscuit barrels which were always, without fail, chock full of two sorts of biscuits, just right for hungry city kids, when the need struck, to bolt in from outdoors, grab two or three generous biccies and bolt straight back out again.  The barrels were huge, repurposed Nescafe bottles (so thrifty of you, Nanna!) - giant, clear glass, cylindrical numbers with wide mouths and plastic screw top lids - one yellow and one brown (or maybe it was orange, I'm a little hazy there).

Anyway, I hadn't really thought much about those barrels 'til I was browsing through my Mum's recipe book shelf and came across this...

And you guessed it, inside are Nanna's biscuit recipes.  Specifically, Coconut Biscuits.  YUM!  Not only are these a perfect lunchbox (or anytime!) treat, they go pretty nicely with a hot cup of tea for grown ups too.

See?  I feel all satisfied and cosy just looking at that.  So without further ado, here's the recipe - do try it!

Coconut Biscuits

Ingredients
115 grams unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
Pinch of salt

Method
Beat butter and sugar to a cream.
Add egg and beat in.
Add sifted flour, salt and coconut.
Measure and roll tablespoons of mixture. Flatten with fork on baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake at about 150-160 degrees until light brown.

In the tradition of my Nanna, I made a double batch.  They fill up my biscuit barrel perfectly too.

Thanks, Nanna.

Friday Lunchbox #8

Today's Lunchbox...

Morning Tea - Carrot sticks, cheddar cheese cubes, mini egg tomatoes, pumpkin scone with butter.
Lunch - Mini hot dog containing barbequed beef sausage (preservative free), grated cheddar cheese and organic tomato sauce.  Fruit salad of strawberries and Pink Lady apple pieces (dressed in lemon juice)
Drink - Water

I cannot take credit for the mini hot dog idea - this was Miss Five's request.  I used the stromboli bread base recipe from  Friday Lunchbox #1 to make some mini rolls - you can make 8 rolls with that amount of dough (I have frozen the rest for future lunches).

Also, the pumpkin scones are a big favourite in our household.  I got the recipe from my mum who believes she possibly got it years ago from The Australian Women's Weekly magazine - it's Lady Flo's recipe - for those who don't know, she was the wife of one of Australia's premiers - she was famous for her pumpkin scones!  If you'd like to try pumpkin scones at your place, here's the recipe -

Lady Flo's Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup cold mashed pumpkin (MUST be cold)

2 cups self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius

Beat butter, sugar, salt and vanilla to a cream then add egg until mixed.

Beat pumpkin through briefly.

Sift flour and baking powder and then fold these into the mixture.

Use a 1/4 cup scoop to drop heaps of mixture fairly close together on baking tray and bake in oven until they begin to brown approx 15-20 minutes (my oven takes 12 minutes, if they come out dry try baking for a little less time as they should be cooked through but still moist) 

These are also completely delicious warmed through with jam and cream and a good cup of tea - you can't get more aussie than that.

School will be on spring break for the next two weeks (yaaaaaay, holidays!) so instead of a full lunchbox I will be doing a special "lunchbox treats" for the coming two Fridays.  Are you on holidays too?  We plan to have some fun!  What will you be doing?  Let me know if you decide to try the scones - I hope they turn out for you!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! 

Friday Lunchbox #7

Today's lunchbox...

Morning Tea:  Orange pieces with sultanas, plain and seaweed rice crackers
Lunch:  Cold chicken tenders, wholemeal sandwich with Philidelphia Cream Cheese, Mini egg tomatoes, cheddar cheese cubes, green peas.  Strawberries.
Drink: Water

We had the chicken tenders as part of our dinner last night.  I made them by slicing fresh chicken breast, coating with egg and rolling in a mix of breadcrumbs, paprika, garlic powder, cracked black pepper, salt, fresh thyme leaves and lemon thyme leaves.  Delish!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #6

Morning Tea - Canned peach pieces in vanilla yoghurt.  Two mini-pikelets (buttered).
Lunch - Salad of tri-coloured pasta bows, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, english spinach leaves, feta cheese and kalamata olives dressed in drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cracked black pepper.  Fresh watermelon pieces.
Drink - Water

It's the first time I've given Miss Five a salad like this for school.  She eats and likes all the ingredients seperately and liked the idea of having them all together so we'll see how we go!  Do your kids like salads?  Perhaps they can't stand them?  Did you like them as a kid?  (I did!)  What 's in yours (or your kid's) lunchbox today?  Do tell!!

Friday Lunchbox # 5

In keeping with last week's theme of mini-food...

Morning Tea - Red and green apple slices*, seaweed and plain rice crackers
Lunch - Mini-burger containing garden fresh cos lettuce and tomatos, cheddar cheese, beef patty and  organic tomato sauce.  Strawberries and blueberries.
Drink - Water

*Hint: Use a squeeze of lemon or lime juice over the apple slices to stop them browning.

You could probably buy those small dinner rolls to make these burgers, but here's the cool thing.  Remember the easy bread base recipe for the stromboli from Friday lunchbox #1?  It makes the BEST bread rolls EVER.  All you need to do after the dough has risen is knock it down and give it a quick knead before dividing it up and shaping into small rounds.  Pop them on a tray covered in a little clingwrap which has been sprayed lightly with oil and put them in a warm place until they have doubled in size.  Glaze the tops with a little milk ( sprinkle on sesame seeds if you like - we didn't since these are going to school and there is someone there with a sesame allergy) and bake in a hot, hot oven for 15 to 20 mins - you can tell they are cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them.  You could probably make about 8 or 10 mini ones from one batch of dough, I made a variety of sizes as we enjoyed burgers for our dinner the night before!  And it's super easy to make a few tiny beef patties when you are making those too.  I don't really have an exact recipe for my patties but they usually contain high grade low fat beef mince, fresh (not dry) breadcrumbs, onion, egg,  parmasen cheese, fresh parsley, thyme and rosemary, cracked black pepper and a smidge of salt.

Maybe you'll try out making some bread rolls this weekend?  Go on - they make your house smell delicious and I know you'll love them!!

Have a good one!

Friday Lunchbox #4

Todays lunch...

Morning Tea - Stewed apple and natural sultanas with cinnamon sugar sprinkle
 Lunch - Cold beef curry and cheddar cheese mini-pies.  Fresh strawberries in vanilla yoghurt (Jalna All Natural pot-set yoghurt)
Drink - Water


The mini pies can be filled with what ever you have on hand as leftovers from your nightly meal - a hearty stew or casserole filling would be just as lovely!  We had delicious beef curry leftovers, so that's what I used, especially as it's one of Miss Five's favourite meals.  Take a small amount of your leftovers and chop any chunky meat or vegetables so it's a fine consistency.  I mixed a little cooked leftover rice in with ours too.  Then use two circular scone cutters to cut bottoms and tops for your pies from ready-made frozen puff pastry.  (Miss Five liked helping with that part!)  The cutters we used were 7cm and 6cm in diameter.  Spray a muffin tray lightly with olive oil and place in your larger bases.  Top with a spoon of your filling and a small amount of grated cheddar cheese.

Then top with the smaller circles and press edges down gently.  We used some baby shape cutters to cut shapes from the leftover pastry to top the pies with but you certainly don't need to do that if you don't want to.  Instead you could try sprinkling with sesame or poppy seeds if you fancy those!  Or just leave them plain - whatever floats your boat!

Bake in a 180 degree celcius oven until brown and crisp.  Mine puffed up an awful lot and leaked a little - I just used a knife to push all that yummy goodness straight back in as I popped each one out of the muffin tray to cool on a wire rack.  Once cooled a little, store in the fridge until needed. If you have a piemaker, you could make larger size ones for adults too (or just use this size as a snack).  Delish!

To make the stewed apple and sultanas, peel and core a whole large cooking apple and add it to a saucepan with a handful of natural sultanas and a dash of water.  Cook on a low heat until apple is soft and sultanas are plump.  Remove from heat and sprinkle a small amount of cinnamon sugar - stir through.  Once in lunch container, sprinkle an additional small amount of cinnamon sugar on top and refrigerate.  (This is also a lovely one to use for dessert with caramel or vanilla icecream or custard.  Mmmmmmm!)

Hope you've enjoyed our lunchbox today.  Have a great weekend!

Friday Lunchbox #3

Today's lunch...

Morning Tea - Strawberry and tinned pineapple fruit salad and "Mousetraps"
Lunch - Cold cheese and baked bean mini-jaffles with matching "mini" apple : )
Drink - Water

Miss Five begged for cheese and baked beans today so I had to at least do something a little different with them.  To get "mini" jaffles, just use your jaffle maker as you normally would, then once cooked, turn your jaffle 90 degrees and close the lid again.  It cuts the jaffle in half and seals it (hopefully!) to make mini-versions.  These are great for a warm and healthy after school snack as well as popping in the fridge to chill for the next day's lunch.  I chanced upon those tiny apples at our local greengrocer - they are just the right size for kiddies.  I love mini food - it's all so cute!!

The "Mousetraps" (in the pink container) are just slices of wholemeal bread sprinkled with cheddar cheese and baked in a slow oven (about 150 deg celcius) for about an hour until the bread and cheese are both completely dry and crispy. You should take them out of the oven at the halfway mark and use a sharp bread knife to cut them into whatever shapes you want - fingers or triangles are the easiest.  They end up tasting like wholemeal cheese crackers but without all the yukky additives those foods tend to have, so a lot nicer, really!  (And a whole lot cheaper!)

Hope you have a great weekend, everyone!

Friday Lunchbox #2

Today's lunch...

Morning Tea - Orange and Strawberry fruit salad, plain rice crackers and chedder cheese triangles
Lunch - Double decker sandwich fingers (Light Philidelphia Cream Cheese & Lettuce, Tomato), Ladyfinger banana
Drink - Water with mint leaves

Both the tomato and lettuce are from our vege patch.  Delish!!  To stop the tomato making the sandwiches soggy, I press it in between some paper towel to remove the excess moisture before putting it in the sandwich.  I'm normally not a "crusts-off-sandwiches" type of mum, but I think you have to with double-deckers, they just look so much yummier!  I took the crusts off before I made the sandwiches and they've joined the bag of bread ends in the freezer.  They'll end up being breadcrumbs or croutons!

A few garden fresh mint leaves make the iced water mildly minty - I think Miss Five thinks it's special 'cause that's what I do with my water sometimes!  At the very least, it encourages her to drink lots.

Friday Lunchbox #1

In an effort to inspire myself a little more when making my daughter's school lunches, thus begins "Friday Lunchbox".  Hope you feel inspired too!

Here is today's...

Morning Tea - fresh strawberries, stove popped popcorn (gotta love those Nude Food Movers containers)
Lunch - Stromboli and banana (yes those are butterfly and flower stickers on that banana, Miss 5 gets all excited when she finds those)
Drink - Water (not pictured)

The stromboli recipe comes from this book...

...which I picked up a number of years ago at one of those discount book places that pop up in the middle of shopping malls every now and then.  Basically a stromboli is like a pizza which is rolled up, baked and sliced.  YUM!

Here's how you make it.

Stromboli

Easy Bread Base Ingredients
2 tspn dried yeast
1 cup plus 2 tblspn warm water
2 tspn sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 tspn salt
2 tblespn olive oil
3 cups of high grade/bread flour

Method
Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
Measure the first 5 ingredients and 1 cup of flour into a large bowl.  Mix until well combined.  Cover bowl and leave for 15 minutes.  Stir in remaininig flour (adding extra if necessary) to make dough just firm enough to knead.  Knead for 10 minutes, then return to bowl, cover and rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Roll dough into a very large thin rectangle (sorry about the poor picture quality here, it was a gloomy day and the indoor lights just didn't cut it!)

Top like a pizza (use toppings SPARINGLY).

I used a sachet of Fountain Pizza Sauce, about 1/4 red capsicum, 1 mushroom, 1/2 brown onion, 10 kalamata olives, fresh basil, Masterfoods "Italian Dried Herbs" and about a half cup of grated cheddar cheese.  I chopped the capsicum, mushroom and onion very finely as Miss 5 won't eat them if they are chunky, whereas she loves the olives in bigger pieces.

Before the cheese...

After the cheese...

Roll the dough up and press any openings firmly shut.  Slash the top diagonally to prevent splitting, then bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.  If it is cooked all the way through, the stromboli should sound hollow when you tap it on the top.

Before cooking...

After...

You can see it's a little mishapen on the left side near the base (toward the top of the photo) - it actually split a little.  I will make the cuts on top a bit deeper next time as the ones I made just seemed to seal up rather than open to let the heat and moisture out.  It was no biggie though - as I didn't overstuff the inside, not much came out.

And here is the final product...

It's completely delicious and despite my dodgy oven, an absolute success - the bread is lovely and soft (kneading the full 10 minutes really helps here) and I know I'm going to have lots of fun experimenting with the fillings.

If you get the time, do try it - I'd love to hear how you go!