Kids in the Kitchen

The primary school my children go to run a Kids in the Kitchen program, it is a spin off of the 2 fruit and 5 veg healthy foods campaign and is a great government initiative in my opinion. When I was given the opportunity to be coordinator I must admit I was quite excited. I like the idea of getting kids busy in the kitchen, I know how tempting it is to tell them to scoot while I am cooking, because it is easier doing things on my own, so this gives the kids an opportunity to get involved and enjoy the end result. One boy in the year 1 class the other week was such an eager helper and while I could understand where his enthusiasm stemmed from, my daughter has ADHD and does the same thing, it was hard not to dampen his spirits by not letting him do everything, he said to me while we were cleaning up that he always gets in trouble for helping, which is really sad, I can totally understand why, having my own little energiser bunny, but it made me think more about my little squirrel and how keen she is to help and I have resolved to include her more and bite my tongue and not get so frustrated with her when she spills the milk and gets flour all over the floor.

Beef Curry Pasties

I go through stages where we will eat a lot of meat, usually chicken and beef and then I will cook vegetarian meals for a couple of weeks. The other day I pulled out a kilo of rump steak but didn't feel like a steak meal so I ground it into mince and divided it into two portions, the lasagne last night, which was a huge success was made using half the steak and the other half I cooked on Friday night, again I started cooking without having any idea what I going to make, my original intention was pasta with a savoury mince, topped with grated cheese but decided I wasn't keen on pasta so in the end I cooked curry puffs. Compliments all round, and when feeding 8 people with 8 different taste buds to have them all enjoy their meal without complaint is always a bonus.

Preheat oven to 180deg
1 tablespoon olive oil, this is the only oil I use for cooking, there maybe a better oil out there for weight loss, but this fits within my budget and it's gotta be better than gm canola
1 large onion roughly sliced
2 gloves of organic russian garlic,
1 punnet of grape tomatoes, grape tomatoes were on special in Coles this week so I bought a few punnets purely for cooking. I usually use tinned tomatoes but they have added sugar so they are off the list now and cutting up tomatoes is messy and I don't like it so the grape tomatoes are a good substitute, I throw them in whole and once slightly cooked I just crush them.
500g mince
2 finely chopped carrots
2 finely chopped zucchinis
and I cheated and used about 5oog frozen mixed veggies

Cook over a low flame until meat is cooked and veggies are soft, not soggy, I then decided to make curry pasties so mixed a heaped tablespoon of curry powder in a cup of water and stirred through, once the water had absorbed it was ready
In the mean time I thawed 4 short crust pastry sheets, cut into quarters.
I put a heaped spoonful of meat mix into each quarter and folded them into triangles pressing around the edges to seal.
I line my baking trays with baking paper, it's less mess than greasing trays, arrange the pasties on the trays and give a quick spray with oil and in the oven until ready, I left them until they had slightly browned and were crunchy around the edges.

Served up with a salad they were quite popular and will be making them again.

I don't profess to be a talented cook, I like cooking and sometimes I succeed in what I am making, other times are a dismal failure. I have a large family to feed and I need to be able to provide them healthy meals while still coming in under budget.

Beef Lasagne

So I splurged and bought myself a Cobalt Blue Kitchenaid, it is the K5 model which is only available in red or blue, I think I would have liked a purple one but the blue is noice. I went a little overboard tonight with it though, I have a grinder attachment and was mincing up some beef for dinner, at that point I wasn't too sure on what I was actually making but that is nothing new, and before I knew what was happening in went all the other veggies that I usually just roughly chop and throw in. Didn't look that appealing but it was smelling ok by the time it cooked, there is a lasagne in the oven as I type.

Preheat oven to 180C
1 tablespoon olive oil
500 grams of beef
1 large onion
3 cloves of russian garlic, grown in my very own back yard. The cloves are larger than the imported stuff from China and have a milder flavour.
2 large carrots
1 head of broccoli
1/2 cauliflower
2 zucchinis
a handful of fresh kale
1 red capsicum
punnet of grape tomatoes
and a good shake of ground paprika

I heated the oil in a large heavy based fry pan and then basically just threw everything in, the tomatoes, capsicum and paprika didn't make it to the grinder but everything else did. I added a little water to prevent it drying out
While the meat sauce was cooking I made a basic white sauce,
I use real butter, wholemeal flour and full cream milk. I don't like substitutes when preparing food and detest margarine, I don't measure when making white sauce I just melt a chunk of butter and add enough plain flour to mix in with it and then just add milk and stir while heating, if once it reaches a rolling boil it isn't thick enough I simply add more flour.

To put together the lasagne, I layer meat sauce, white sauce, pasta sheets, repeat and on the final layer cover with white sauce and sprinkle cheese and bake for 40 minutes.
One thing about grinding everything prior to cooking is that it made it easier to assemble the lasagne.

The beginning

James and I have decided to get married, well James decided a while ago that he wanted to marry me, as for me, this is my second time around and there were doors to close before I could open other ones. The house I shared with my ex sold this month cutting any remaining ties that I have with him, essentially setting me free. I now feel free to move on with my life.
James is happy to go with the flow, we had a laugh and he agreed that as long as I tell him the time and place he will be there. As for the particulars I can make our wedding as elaborate or as simple as I like. We are both down to earth and I envisage an intimate gathering on the beach. So I have set a date 20th November 2011. Again he is happy with whatever I decide and gives his opinion when asked. This works for me, I am the control freak in the relationship.
I have also, as I am sure 99% of brides do, lose some excess weight. Not only for our big day but I am now motivated enough to do something about my health. I have PCOS, among other issues, but Diabetes is a real concern, it is also in my family health history. I am fairly keyed up about this and figured that instead of boring friends and family to tears with my progress I would bore you guys instead.
I have cut out sugar, and for someone who likes to spend time baking and cooking nice meals I now have a challenge to find yummy foods to make without any sugar, hidden or otherwise. I will add recipes as I try them out, also any other hints and tips I learn. But for now I have it's time for collecting kids from school. I will also let you know what my brood think about the recipes too. James tested the sugar free ice cream I made last night, his comment was that it wasn't very nice and then proceeded to eat two bowls of the stuff. Go figure.
Bye for now.