F is for Falafel Burgers for The Kids Cook Monday

I am making an effort to include a least 1 vegetarian dinner meal and 1 fish dinner meal in our weekly menu plan.  We already eat a fairly healthy diet, with everything in moderation but there is room for improvement.  Eating less meat based protein and more fish and seafood is one goal I am going to work on for this year.

For dinner tonight, Bee helped me make Falafel Burgers.  The original recipe can be found here on the Vegie Smugglers blog.  Wendy Blume, the author of Vegie Smugglers, has some fantastic recipes and great ideas for including more vegetables in meals everyday.

Falafel Burgers
Makes 8
Go here for the recipe in full.

I made some slight changes to the recipe to suit our family's tastes.  I left out the ground coriander and the parsley.  I didn't want the flavours to be too strong as Bear and Bee have started trying out new foods more often.  I left out the parsley so there wasn't any green bits for the same reason.

Bee breaking up the bread for breadcrumbs.

Falafel mix

Instead of making 8 full sized patties I made 6 patties and 8 mini patties.  Bear and Bee are more likely to try something if it is a smaller version.  Hence, lately I have been making lots of mini meatballs, mini patties and mini most things.

8 large patties before 2 were divided up to make 8 mini patties.

The original recipe calls for the patties to be baked in the oven.  I fried our patties in a large frying pan over medium high heat with a tiny amount of olive oil.  I wanted to serve our burgers with oven baked chips and found it easier to leave the chips to do their thing in the oven while I cooked the burger patties in the pan.

Mini Falafel Burger

To my surprise (and delight) both Bear and Bee tried their mini burgers without any fuss and hubby actually went back for seconds.  They were delicious and I will be making them a regular dish in our monthly meal plans.

Falafel Burger and Oven baked chips.

H is for Homemade Pizza for The Kids Cook Monday

***I have been updating the layout of some of my old posts and some how this one has published as a new post rather than just updating the old version.  Hope you enjoy this blast from the past!**

This week the threefootcooks, hubby and myself are travelling to visit relatives for Christmas so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to repost a family dinner favourite.

Homemade Pizza is a perfect dish to cook with kids and with most school kids in Australia now (or very soon) on holidays it is a great draw card to get the whole family cooking together.
You may find your kids eating more veggies than they normally do because they are on top of a pizza and covered with cheese.

I like to make my own pizza sauce using home grown tomatoes.  I sauté onion and garlic in a large saucepan until the onion has softened then add the chopped tomatoes, a small amount of red wine and some fresh herbs like basil and oregano.

Pizza night has been a staple in the threefootcooks household for as long as I can remember (long before the three foot cooks came along).  Lately, however, we have been making our own rather than buying takeaway pizzas.  Cost and nutrition are the main factors in choosing to make our own pizzas.  As well as these factors, Bear and Bee are able to make the pizza bases and prepare the toppings.

Hubby received a benchtop pizza oven as a present last Christmas and it is the bomb!  I was dubious at first.  I was sure we could make pizzas that were just as good in the regular oven.  But I was wrong.  The pizzas out of the pizza oven are tastier, crispier and faster to cook.

To make our homemade pizzas I use the Pizza and Focaccia mix by Laucke for the bases (no I’m not being paid to say this, I just think it’s a really great product).  There are lots of different pre-mix pizza base flours on the market that you could use, or you could purchase ready-made pizza bases.

For the first stage of preparing the pizza dough I use my electric mixer with the dough hook attachment.  If you want to knead it by hand this is a skill you could involve your child in.  I wait until the dough has rested for the first time and needs to be kneaded a little ready for more resting to get Bear and Bee involved.  That way it doesn’t affect the final product too much if they don’t knead it enough.

  

Bee helping to knead the pizza dough

While the dough is going through its final resting stage, Bear and Bee help prepare the pizza toppings.  You can start with this step if you are using ready-made pizza bases. 

Bee cutting up our homegrown tomatoes for the pizza.

 Pizza is a great recipe for children to help with as most of the toppings are easy enough to chop up with a table knife.  They can even help grate the cheese if you have a rotary cheese grater.  I wouldn’t recommend letting them use a box grater until they are older and have the coordination needed to avoid grating their fingers.

Next Bear and Bee help roll out and shape the pizza dough for the bases.  I am still not sure where Bear got the idea that pizza dough needed to be thrown in the air!  We roll the dough out on squares of baking paper to stop it sticking to the bench and to make it easier to transfer the bases to the pizza oven.

Bee and Bear practising their pizza throwing skills

Now all we need to do is put on the toppings we like and cook the pizzas for 7-8 minutes.  If you are using ready-made pizza bases and a regular oven you will need to cook the pizzas for longer.  For the pizza sauce we use a homemade version made from the tomatoes grown in our own backyard.  I will write about these tomatoes and the pizza sauce recipe in a future post, so check back regularly.

Bee checking what dad is doing with the pizza toppings

 Bear and Bee’s favourite pizza – cheese and ham.

Here are the links to some more great homemade pizza recipes.

Homemade Pizzas at taste.com.au 

Home-made pizza dough and healthy toppings at Wholesome cook

Easy home made pizza for kids at Planning with kids

What is your child’s favourite pizza toppings?                            

V is for Vegie Pancake Parcels for The Kids Cook Monday

Whoa. It has been a long time since I have been able to do a post for The Kids Cook Monday.  Not that we haven’t been cooking but since our last post our family has moved 1000 kilometres up the coast of Queensland.  We are now renting a home and we also had trouble getting connected to the internet so I am only now getting a chance to reorganise the blogging side of my life.

Bear and Bee absolutely love pancakes and it is our go to dish for weekend breakfasts.  Vegie Pancake Parcels combines the girls love of pancakes with my desire for us a family to eat at least 1 vegetarian meal a week.  And breakfast for dinner is always a good thing.

You may notice that there aren’t a lot of photos of Bear (or Bee) helping to cook this recipe.  Sometimes that happens.  Bear was happy to help at the start but then got distracted by something Bee was doing. Normally Bear loves to help make the pancake batter.  But not tonight.  And that’s okay.

Bear chopping mushrooms. Love the concentrating look.

Bear grating zucchini.

Vegetable Pancake Parcels

Serves 4
Download the printable recipe card for this recipe here.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
20g butter, melted
a little extra butter, or canola oil spray, for greasing baking dish
3/4 cup béchamel sauce (I used a store bought bottled one for this recipe)
3/4 cup grated cheese
Filling
20g butter
2 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into 1cm pieces
200g sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1 cm pieces
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 medium carrot, grated
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup tomato passata

Directions
1. To make filling. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add potato and sweet potato and cook until lightly browned.
2. Add zucchini and carrot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring every now and then.
3. Add stock and passata and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to medium and allow to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and allow to cool while making pancakes.
4. Preheat oven to 180^o Celsius. Grease a large (20cm x 30cm) ovenproof baking dish.
5. To make pancakes. Place flour in a medium sized bowl.  Whisk milk and eggs in a jug. Add milk mixture to flour and whisk until smooth.
6. Heat a medium sized frying pan over medium heat.  Brush with a little of the melted butter.
7. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of pancake batter into pan and swirl to cover base. 
8. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until bubbles start to appear on surface of pancakes.  Turn pancakes over and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
9. Repeat with remaining batter.
10. Place 1 pancake on a chopping board or other flat surface.  Top with 1/4 cup of filling.  Roll pancake up and place in baking dish.  You may like to fold the sides in as you are rolling the pancakes to help keep the filling in.
11. Repeat with remaining pancakes and filling.
12. Spoon the béchamel sauce over the parcels and sprinkle with grated cheese.
13. Bake for 10 minutes.

C is for Chicken Soup and Cheesy Flatbreads for The Kids Cook Monday

The seasons change very rapidly here. We are quickly moving from soups and stews to salads and barbecues in our meal planning but I couldn't resist trying this soup recipe when I spotted it in my favourite cooking magazine.

The chicken and barley soup is easy to prepare which makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner. While Bee stuck to helping wash the spinach leaves and preparing the cheesy flatbreads, older children could also prep the potatoes and shred the cooked chicken.

This soup was delicious and I will definitely be adding it to our winter meal plans next year.  You could easily leave out the chicken and add some more vegies for a vegetarian meal.

Chicken and barley soup with cheesy flatbreads

Original recipe from Super Food Ideas

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large leek, trimmed, halved, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

3/4 cup pearl barley

2 litres salt-reduced vegetable stock

2 potatoes, skins scrubbed, cut into 1cm pieces

4 cups baby spinach leaves (the original recipe used silver beet)

1 cup shredded skinless barbecue chicken

2 whole meal pita pockets, halved

1/2 cup grated pizza cheese

Directions

1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add leek and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until it starts to soften.

2. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add thyme, barley and stock. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.

4. Add potato. Simmer for a further 7 minutes or until tender.

Bee drying the spinach leaves

5. Remove pan from heat and stir in spinach and chicken. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Meanwhile, preheat a sandwich press.

7. Fill each pita pocket half with some of the pizza cheese.  Cook in sandwich press for 2 minutes or until cheese melts and bread is golden.

8. Transfer to a board and cut into wedges.

9. Serve soup with cheesy flatbreads.

G is for Green Curry and Rice for The Kids Cook Monday

Dinner tonight involved a quick curry and accompaniments made from some basic ingredients and a few good store bought items.  Here in the threefootcooks household we have been getting our house ready for sale so quick and easy dinners have been on the menu each night for the last week. Spaghetti bolognaise, tacos, fish and chips and even takeaway pizza (a good quality one) have been the extent of our cooking with both hubby and myself tired out at the end of each day with repainting the outside of the house, washing walls, mulching the gardens and sorting through the accumulated clutter.

Thai green curry has lots of variations. We keep ours pretty simple and fairly mild too. I am hopeful that one day soon Bear and Bee will be wiling to try this delicious curry as a complete dish rather than just the individual components of chicken, vegies, rice and naan bread.

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Serves 2 adults and 2 children

Ingredients

2 tablespoons green curry paste

400ml light coconut cream

300g chicken thigh fillets, cubed

200g vegetables (we used green beans, peas and shallots but capsicum, broccoli and zucchini would work well too)

1 pkt microwave ready brown rice

4 naan breads, toasted

Directions

The rounded edges on beans make them tricky to cut.  Snapping is a good option.

1. Prepare the vegetables. Bear snapped the beans and Bee shelled some of the peas (yes they are sugar snap peas she is shelling. I know they aren't supposed to be shelled but that's the way Bee likes them!)

2. In a medium sized saucepan, fry the curry paste for 1 minute. This increases the flavour.

3. Pour in the coconut cream. Mix well and bring to the boil.

4. Add in the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

6. Meanwhile cook the rice according to the directions on the packet.

7. Heat the naan bread. We like the taste of the bread toasted so we use the toaster to heat it.

8. Serve the curry with the rice and bread.

If you would like to try making your own naan bread check out our past post N is for Naan Bread.

B is for Bread for The Kids Cook Monday

I must admit I was at a bit of a loss as to what to get Bear and Bee to help me cook for dinner tonight.  I normally like to plan with a weekly menu plan but after a busy weekend that started with visiting relatives, ended with manning a stall of preloved baby items at a local market and included Bear suffering from a tummy bug I have ended up being disorganised (and very tired) this week.

Seeing we all like freshly cooked bread in the threefootcooks household and Spaghetti Bolognaise is always welcome for dinner I went in search for a quick and easy bread recipe to try.  As time was limited I needed something that required only a short rising and cooking time.  I have written about our regular recipe for super quick bread in a previous post however with no plain yoghurt in the fridge I needed something different.

I was very happy when I came across this recipe for Fairly Quick Italian Bread on the One Punky Mama blog as it was exactly what I had been looking for.  I love her tip on being gentle with yeast as it is a delicate creature and after making the bread, I love her recipe.  The only change I made was to add 1 teaspoon of dried Italian herb mix to the dry ingredients for an extra flavour hit. 

If you are making this in Australia (like me) remember that the measurements and temperatures are in US not Metric.  The water temperature converts to approximately 37°
Celsius, you need 7 grams of yeast and preheat the oven to 200° Celsius for baking the bread.  Also next time I will make a longer, thinner loaf to shorten the cooking time.  At the size we made it, our loaf took 30 minutes to bake.

Bear measuring the baker's flour.

Mixing together the dry ingredients.

Slowly adding the water and then the oil.

Shhh! It's sleeping.

Punching the dough.

Ready to bake.

Delicious homebaked bread.

C is for Chicken and Brown Rice Salad for The Kids Cook Monday

This super easy dinner recipe is always a hit with Bear and Bee.  They both especially love the brown rice. While I love the fact they prefer the healthier type of rice it can be a problem because it takes a lot longer to cook than white rice.  Thank goodness for the invention of microwaveable packet rice.  It is more expensive than regular rice but certainly saves the day when I forget to put the rice on early enough to cook.

This recipe is great for using up leftover rice.  In fact if you were to use a barbecued chicken from the supermarket and serve the dish as a cold salad, most school aged children would be able to complete this recipe on their own.  The marinade would work just as well as a sauce mixed through the rice with the other ingredients.  How good would that be - a night off cooking!

With there still being a little chill in the air at night time at the moment, we had this as a warm salad tonight.  After cooking the chicken, I added all the other ingredients to the pan and cooked it until everything was warmed through. Also, use whatever vegetables you have available.  Grated carrots, fresh asparagus, sliced mushrooms, peas and red salad onions would all work well in this dish.

Chicken and Brown Rice Salad
Serves 4 (2 adults and 2 children)
Download a recipe card for this recipe here

Ingredients
1/3 cup sweet chilli sauce
juice of 1 lime
400g chicken thigh fillets, roughly chopped
1 cup brown rice
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 x 125g cans corn kernels, drained
1/2 capsicum, chopped
10-12 green beans, chopped
extra sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Directions

Juicing citrus like limes is a good skill that needs practice.

Making the marinade.

1.  Combine the sauce and juice in a bowl and pour over the chicken pieces.  Place in the fridge and allow to marinate for 30 minutes or as long as you have (in our case it was 10 minutes).
2. Cook the rice according to packet directions.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium high.  Cook the chicken pieces for 3 to 4 minutes or until cooked through.

Snapping beans into pieces is easier than using a knife.

Cutting up the capsicum strips.

4. In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, cooked chicken and vegetables.

5. Serve with a little extra sweet chilli sauce.