Tag: quick

The Lunchbox Mum

When Ashton was five and Felix was 6 months old, I quit my job to be a stay at home Mum. As I envisioned myself as a school Mum … a stay at home school Mum. I envisioned being that Mum that turns up to school pick up in activewear, because I’ve actually done yoga or gone for a run. The Mum with the slick pony tail who always knew what day it was, and sent her son off to school every day in clean clothes with a healthy 100% homemade packed lunch. The Mum who turned up to help out in class occasionally and paid the school fees on time. The Mum who was always smiling, and organised, with a clear head and a clean car.

The last two years has taught me, that I am in fact, none of those Mums! I’m the Mum that stays in the car at school drop off because she is wearing her slippers, and the toddler is in his pyjamas. I’m the Mum who may have actually been for a walk or a run, but is wearing track pants because she hasn’t shaved her legs in 6 months. I’m the Mum with the un-brushed messy bun, probably still up from overnight, and clothes covered in baby puke, snot and possibly poop, maybe chocolate – but probably poop. I’m the Mum who hasn’t been in to meet the new teacher except through the car window one time. I’m the Mum whose son goes to school regularly wearing odd socks, and on occasion, odd shoes. I’m The Mum who has no idea what day it is, but can tell the time by how heavy her eyes feel. And the Mum who can’t see the floor of her car (last time I checked there was an open jar of mayonnaise in the back seat). But I am also the Mum who tries her best to send her boy to school everyday with a lunchbox made with love. Love doesn’t have to be homemade, or tidy, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Love just has to try it’s best.

Here is what it looks like when I am that Mum, the one who is messy, unorganised, covered in baby excretions, and tired beyond belief, that tries to send her boys off with a nourishing lunchbox every day. My lunchboxes aren’t perfect, they are not 100% homemade, they are made quickly, on little sleep, and sometimes empty cupboards. When my boys open their lunchboxes, I hope that they see the love.

Don’t worry about perfection, because even the most experienced of us don’t get it right, all the time. Be inspired to pack lunchboxes out of love and the kids will have everything they need 💞

And if you need a little helping hand, this resource I created helped to make sure the kids had somewhat healthy lunchboxes packed daily, in my manic attempt to get everyone out the door on time

https://mailchi.mp/b75eda91781a/chefashton_lunchboxplanner?fbclid=IwAR2zWqBO66IABaMZNqWiyNpDMObZCwe_TTv5MeQgwt92_PsHLadMMrU41Eo

Kayla

Veggie Loaded Nachoes


You Need

500 – 700g beef mince
1 grated carrot
1 grated zucchini
200-400g mushrooms – blitz to tiny pieces in food processor
1 head broccoli or a few handfuls of leafy greens (spinach, kale, silverbeet) chopped to tiny pieces by hand or in a food processor/ blender.
Optional extra – Up to 1 cup of any other veggie you have lying around that you feel like hiding – i’ve put in grated parsnip, pumpkin, sweet potato, extra greens.
2 T diced garlic
1/2 bottle tomato passata (350g)
1/2 cup water / stock or broth
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp salt
Chilli to taste (we add ours after to the adult dishes)

1 avocado
1/2 lemon or lime
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander
Optional: small clove of garlic or 1 T garlic olive oil

Chips – corn chips (make sure they are just corn, oil & salt)
kumara chips, grilled kumara slices, or baked tortilla wraps (gluten free if needed)

What to do

Brown the mince, add the spices and stir through over the heat for a few minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer, stirring every now and then on a med to low heat for 10-20 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened. Often I put the tomato passata, garlic and leafy greens in the blender, and blend them all up together so the greens disappear into the sauce and I don’t have to chop the garlic! Then pour in to the mince mix.

While it’s cooking, make the guacamole by mashing the avo and stirring through the rest of the ingredients. Or add everything to a stick blender or mini blender (if I use my full size blender I need to double the mix and add some water so it flows freely through the blades, but it comes out super smooth that way.

Put the mince in the middle of your plate, then surround with your chosen corn chips, grilled kumara slices or baked tortilla chips. Top with grated cheese of your choice (dairy free, zucchini cheese or cows cheese). And guacamole, and then at our house the adults add chilli flakes or chilli oil to their plates to taste.

Kayla

Pumpkin Soup


You Need

1 whole crown pumpkin
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 rashers bacon
400ml stock or broth (water also works if you have neither)
1-2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp natural sea salt

What to do

Wash any dirt off the pumpkin and put the entire pumpkin skin, stalk and all into either your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.

Slow cook: On high 4-6 hours, low 6-8 hours.

Pressure cooker: Add 1 cup water pressure cook 30 mins and leave to rest 30 mins.

Oven – 180 deg c for 2 hours

Once the pumpkin is cooked, leave to cool. Then peel the skin off – it should only take a minute to get all the skin off and should come away like paper. Pluck the stem out and then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and discard.

Add the flesh to a large stock pot along with the rest of the ingredients and cook until bacon is heated and liquid is simmering. (Usually I pop the lid on and leave to simmer 10 mins).

Blend everything until smooth, I use my vitamix and blend in batches.

Serve with more salt, cracked black pepper and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you can have it. Fresh herbs that lend well are parsley, chives & coriander.

Notes:

If it seems bland or unbalanced it usually means it needs more salt.

Sometimes I cook the pumpkin then store the cooked flesh in the fridge to make soup later in the week. Sometimes I save some flesh to put in baking (like these muffins or waffles) or to hide in other dishes like mince (my kids don’t like plain pumpkin).

Kayla

Confessions of a Healthy Food Blogger

I share a fairly popular recipe for zucchini cheese – but I never make it myself, and always buy that super expensive vegan cheese from the supermarket.

I don’t like Brussel sprouts, I think they taste like farts. I live with three males (five including the cat and the dog) yes, I know what farts taste like.

My kids won’t eat frozen peas, in fact they won’t eat frozen mixed veggies either. Purely to make my life difficult. Except this one time I told my friend that my kids don’t eat peas and my 1 year old then stole and ate all the peas from her sons lunchbox.

Ashton, just Ashton. Ashton is incredibly fussy. He has the most ginormous list of foods he won’t eat, and bunch of finicky food preferences that I often comply with because I hate the moaning at the dinner table. If you want a winge-fest serve roast chicken (unless it’s a supermarket rotisserie basted in all sorts of non allergy friendly crap that he shouldn’t eat), or potatoes, especially mashed, roasted is marginally acceptable but only if they are cut into 1cm cubes, and crisp, but not too crisp, heaven forbid. Or try soup – if it’s soup, it’s inedible. Make sure you have you best gag face at the ready to make a performance at the table on soup night. Also if its marginally spicy, it may as well be poisonous. Someone save me from this kid he is a healthy food bloggers worst nightmare.

My kids won’t eat my homemade hummus, the two little ones just straight up won’t touch the stuff while Ashton will only eat “Lisa’s” hummus original flavour.

Sometimes I eat proper crisps for breakfast … and let the baby join me.

None of my kids eat raw carrot sticks, but I put them in their lunchboxes all the time because they look good in photos.

When I was a kid I used to steal meal mates crackers from the pantry and eat raro juice sachets like it was sherbet.

My mum buys the kids allergy friendly biscuits and chocolate and I eat it all myself.

Our children are allowed pudding once a week. But every night when they go to bed we eat chips and chocolate and mug cakes.

Most of my blog photos are taken on our bed covered in white sheets, or on the floor of our snail infested sunroom (best lighting in the house 😆)- I peg an upside down piece of scrap vinyl to a portable clothes rack to bounce the light off. Once I spilled a milkshake all through the bed during a photo shoot.

Sometimes I lie to the kids about what they are allergic to, so they don’t eat too much sugar, because I can’t handle the meltdowns.

Anyone else got anything to confess?!

Kayla

Dairy Free Butter Chicken |Coconut free

This dairy free and coconut free butter chicken is one that the whole family can enjoy. When we were coconut free I missed curry so much, I spent a lot of time trying to create something that was just as delicious as the cream or coconut laden version, that was family friendly as well. At the time I made this we were dairy free, coconut free and cashew free (among other things) and it was so hard to find recipes that could resemble anything creamy without any of those ingredients. It’s safe to say that iv’e nailed this one. No dairy or coconut required as the cauliflower helps to achieve that creamy texture. It’s fragrant, smooth and delicious.

Anyone else struggle to get veggies into the kids at dinner every night? Eight veggies crammed in and disguised as butter chicken in here! This one is solving all sorts of problems! 

The lemon juice

If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you can replace that with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. 

Veggies out of season?

Here in New Zealand when veggies go out of season, you either need to take a second mortgage to pay for them, or they are just straight up not available. Seeing as i’m also budget conscious I’ve adapted to do without certain veggies when they are out of season:

Zucchini – replace with another ¼ of a cauliflower. 

Tomatoes – replace with another ½ cup tomato passata / puree. 

If you would like a delicious gluten, dairy, soy, egg, nut, yeast, grain and coconut free (instant!) naan bread recipe to go with this, you can find that here. 

I love to hear when you make my recipes, don’t forget to tag me on Facebook and Instagram. 

Print Recipe

Butter Chicken – Dairy Free, Coconut Free

This butter chicken recipe is not only dairy free and coconut free, its also free from gluten, eggs, nuts and made predominantly of vegetables, that your family will have no idea are in there!

Ingredients

The Spice Mix

  • 2 teaspoons Cumin
  • 2 teaspoons Garam masala
  • 2 teaspoons Paprika
  • 2 teaspoons Ginger
  • 2 teaspoons Turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

The sauce

  • ¼ large cauliflower or 1/2 a large
  • 2 small carrots or one large
  • 1 large zucchini
  • 1 red capsicum
  • 1 small onion
  • 3 large cloves garlic (about 2 Tablespoons)
  • 3 mushrooms
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 cup water or broth
  • ½ cup tomato passata or purée
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 500 – 700 g boneless chicken breast or thigh.
  • Chilli to taste

Instructions

  • Measure out all your spices into a small bowl and set aside. Half will go in your sauce and the other half will coat the chicken.
  • Cut up the veg into rough pieces, the carrot needs to be the smallest as that takes the longest to cook. Add them to a pot with a swig of olive oil and gently sauté. Add Half of the spice mix and sauté for a few minutes until everything is coated and it smells fragrant. Add the water / stock and cover for ten minutes or until all the veggies are cooked through. (See notes for pressure cooker instructions).
  • While it's cooking, cut up the chicken into 1cm slices, all of similar size and coat with the remaining spice mix. Set aside to marinate, until the sauce is done.
  • When the veggies are cooked add them with the cooking water to a blender. Make sure you leave the top open where you would feed things into for the steam to escape or the hot pressure might build up and you will be cleaning butter chicken off your walls! I usually cover the top with a tea towel as I'm blending so none escapes. Blend it all together until the sauce is thick and smooth. Add the tomato passata / purée & lemon juice and mix through. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. If it seems quite sharp or bitter, it may need more salt.
  • Now you can either put the sauce aside in the fridge and let the chicken marinate further until dinner time (I usually prepare the sauce earlier and then cook the chicken in the sauce at dinner time). Or you can add the sauce back to the pot, gently heat and add your chicken to cook in the sauce. It’s a thick mixture and sometimes thick molten bubbles can erupt from your pot, I tend to cover the pot and keep the heat low, so I don’t have molten butter chicken bubbles erupt in my face! Check every five mins and remove from the heat when the chicken is all cooked through.
  • Serve with your choice of rice (basmati, jasmine, white, brown, cauliflower) and if you have more time (said no Mum, ever 😆) you can make my naan bread to go with them.  I add chilli oil or flakes / powder to the adult dishes after serving and leave mild for the kids. We dont want to risk any complaints at this point!
  • Now watch your family inhale their invisible veggies and ask for seconds!

Notes

To make the sauce in a pressure cooker, simply roughly chop all the veggies into page chunks, add to your pot with half the spice mix, and the water, and set to pressure cook for 7-10 minutes. Then Follow the rest of the instructions as above. 

Kayla

Egg Free Mayo

Ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil (light olive oil works best)
2 T Dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup chickpea brine (yep the stuff you usually tip down the sink from your can of chickpeas!)
1/2 tsp salt

what to do

Put all the ingredients in a narrow blender (or tall narrow container if using a stick blender). If your blender has a wide jug it may not work, and you may need a stick blender or NutriBullet type blender, my vitamix works fine.

Blend starting slowly, then increasing speed slightly, until it is thick and creamy, usually about a minute. Store in a glass jar in the fridge for a week. It will thicken slightly more after refrigeration.

This recipe can be temperamental to work with, and even with exact measured ingredients can sometimes end up with two completely different textured mayos! I suspect maybe the temperature and exact measurements might play a part. If it’s not thickening up, adding a scant 1/4 cup wholegrain mustard turns it into a really delicious tangy mayo, add then blend until thick. Often now I will add wholegrain mustard from the start (and omit the Dijon mustard) because I like the flavour.

Kayla

Mac and Cheese – Gluten free, dairy free, soy free, yeast free, egg free, nut free

Paula’s Mac n Cheese!

Over on facebook I said I wanted to help you guys, to do a meal make over by creating a dish of your choice and make it fit your dietary requirements. This Mac n Cheese Requested by Paula, proved to be quite popular, so i thought id better put it on the blog for easy reference. Mac n Cheese – free from gluten, dairy, nightshades, yeast, (no nutritional yeast or dairy free cheese) low histamine and also free from soy, eggs, nuts, coconut and packed with veggies.

I made the recipe and tested it on my family. I made a huge pot and there was not a scrap leftover. So I’ll take that as a big thumbs up!

Feeds 4 hungry people

Ingredients

You need:
3 zucchini, peeled & diced
1/2 cauliflower – chopped
1 carrot – grated
2 T fresh garlic
3 rashers bacon
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika (omit for nightshade free)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper (ideally white pepper but any is fine)
Juice of one big lemon

What to do

Fry off the bacon and garlic, then add all the other ingredients, except the lemon, and cover.

Simmer over medium heat with lid on until the veggies are tender. Add the lemon juice and blend up the mixture until smooth.

Stir through 250 – 300g cooked gluten free macaroni and serve with crispy bacon and fresh cracked black pepper.

Kayla
Thai chicken curry in a bowl with carrots, broccoli, garnished with fresh coriander, red chilli, next to a grey plate with a dome of white rice and chopsticks

Thai Chicken Curry – Quicker Than Take-Aways

This Thai curry is sooooo quick and easy, it’s faster to make than it is to order take out. A bonus is that it’s free from dairy, soy, wheat, gluten, eggs, nuts and tomato.

Serves 5, probably with leftovers.

Ingredients

Packet of Thai red (or green) curry paste (become a label reading detective – I’ve found the very best ones with no vegetable oils (often means soy) come from Asian grocers or fruit and vege shops.

500g chicken or fish
2 cans coconut cream + 1 extra can if you have kids who don’t like spicy food (yep, Ashton, I’m looking at you)
500 – 700 g of frozen veggies of your choice, Or chopped fresh veggies like carrot, capsicum, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin
Splash of oil

What to do

Put your splash of oil in a large wok or pot / pan that’s going to be roomy enough for a great big curry.

Follow the instructions on the packet of curry paste as to how much to use. Sometimes the super authentic ones don’t have instructions – in which case I use two scant tablespoons, but could start with one and add more later. It’s easier to add spice than to take it away!

Heat your oil and curry paste over a low – med heat until fragrant. Chop the meat into thin slices. Add the meat*, veggies and one can coconut cream to the paste. Simmer gently for ten mins until everything is cooked through. Add the other can coconut cream and heat through.

*If using fresh veggies, add these first, after the paste, cook gently with the lid on for 10 minutes before adding the coconut cream, and then the meat.

Wallah, done!

Serve with rice and garnish with coriander if your feelin fancy.

For the boys, who don’t like a really spicy curry, I laddle out a couple spoons of chicken and veggies and mix with half a tin of coconut cream for them in a separate bowl. So they have meat, veggies and coconut cream with a hint of red curry.

If you find you’d like more spice or flavour in a small pan you can sauté more curry paste with oil, then add it to the main curry. It’s important to cook it first to help release the flavours.

Some curry paste instructions recommend you add some sugar and soy sauce or fish sauce to your curry near the end. I usually use 2 t coconut sugar and either 1 T fish sauce or coconut aminos for soy free.

Kayla

Super Simple Muffins

This muffin recipe is a super simple, one bowl wonder that can take so many variations and substitutions there is sure to be something for everyone. The basis of the recipe is banana muffins but I’ve adapted it to also be berry muffins, chocolate muffins and carrot / zucchini muffins disguised as chocolate! They have no added sweetener and are sweetened using only bananas. I have managed to be able to move our ‘everyday’ baking & lunchbox items away from having any added sweetener, but if your kids are not used to this, then start with adding the optional sweetener, and you may be able to reduce it down over time, if you like.

Ingredients

2 bananas
1/4 c milk (almond, coconut, cows milk, rice milk)
1/4 c oil (light olive oil, coconut oil (melted), avocado oil – some sort of oil! – melted butter would probably work too.)
1 egg or egg replacement
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour (buckwheat, gluten free, wholemeal, white, spelt – whatever you use!)
2 tsp baking powder
Optional – 1/4 c sweetener (sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, honey – whatever you use)

adaptations / notes

Choc muffins
Swap 1/4 c of the flour for 1/4 c of cocoa, i even swapped 1/2 cup flour for 1/2 cup cocoa once when i ran our of flour. I have also used carob powder, which worked great too. Cocoa is naturally a bit bitter, so if you are on the fence about using a sweetener, now would be the time to think about that!

Zucchini & carrot muffins disguised as chocolate
I used the cocoa sub as above an also swapped one of the bananas for about 1 cup of very finely grated carrot and zucchini. I put a tiny sprinkle of coconut sugar on top of each muffin before baking since i swapped the sweet banana for veggies, just as insurance that they would get eaten!

Berry muffins
Add about 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries to the mix with the flour.

Banana free

You can make these muffins banana free by replacing the bananas with 1 cup apple purée. You can also use 1 cup pumpkin purée – and be sure to add the sweetener to the pumpkin as well, taste the batter and adjust sweetness accordingly. I love to add cinnamon, orange juice (in place of the milk) and rind to the pumpkin muffins.

Egg free

My favourite egg replacer in these muffins is 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds + 1/4 cup water. Soak the chia seeds in the water for 5 mins, then add with the wet ingredients. You can find more egg replacement options Here.

This recipe makes a kinda odd number of muffins in two of my tins, but fills up my larger silicone 12 mini muffin pan perfect. Id say the silicone ‘mini’ muffin pan is slightly larger than your average ‘mini’ muffin. It makes about 10 regular sized muffins, and about 15 – 20 mini – mini muffins.

what to do

Preheat oven to 180 deg c, fan-bake. Grease or line a 12 hole muffin tin, or two 12 hole mini muffin tins (see notes above on muffin tin sizing!). Mash the banana and mix together with all the wet ingredients. Alternatively, chuck them all in the blender and blend away until smooth – then put into a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet and carefully fold everything together. Spoon the mixture into muffin tin. See cook times below depending on your muffin tin size.

Cook times:
Regular muffin size: 18-20 minutes
Large mini muffin size: 15 mins
Mini muffins: 10 – 12 mins

Kayla

Chicken Noodle Soup

This meal is based on leftovers from the night before’s roast – which for us usually includes an organic / free range chicken, potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, parsnip, broccoli, cauli, mushrooms, roast garlic and carrots. I use the bones to make broth and the leftover veggies in the soup – so it only takes about 10 mins to put together!

serves 4-6

Ingredients

5-6 cups chicken broth or stock*

Oil (coconut or olive oil)

200g rice noodles (about half a standard size packet) – check ingredients to make sure GF (best is rice flour, water)

leftovers from roast chicken and veggies

Some extra greens if you have some handy – parsley, spinach, kale or silverbeet

what to do

*When you have removed all the meat from your roast chicken, simmer the bones in 1.5L water for around 3-4 hours. During the last hour you can add some garlic, tumeric, onion and veggie scraps like carrot tops, celery leaves, parsnip peels – whatever you have handy. Strain the liquid into a container to store in the fridge, and add a generous pinch of salt. Store your leftover chicken and veggies in a container in the fridge. Sometimes i save my veggie scraps, onion and garlic skins and freeze them to put in the broth.

In a deep pan or pot add a decent dollop of coconut oil or olive oil, add the leftover chicken and veggies – and some garlic and / or ginger if there wasn’t any with your leftovers.

Brown everything up a bit, then pour over the broth.

Bring to the boil. Add the rice noodles and simmer for 10 mins, or until cooked.

Stir the greens through last and season well with salt and pepper. If your broth tastes a bit lifeless, chances are it needs more salt!

This is one of my favorite breakfasts and when pulled together from the leftovers, doesn’t take any longer to make than a bowl of porridge!

Kayla