Eggplant and chickpea curry

I am loving my veggie curry right now.  I'm really enjoying learning about and using more spices.

This recipe is very similar to the curry I took to an indian potluck recently.

I've been making a point of buying and trying out new vegetables. Eggplant has been one of those, and I always, always have a can of chickpeas in the pantry.

Eggplant and chickpea curry

1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter/marg
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1 1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground ginger(or 1 tsp fresh finely grated)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper(or 1/4 tsp if you don't want it too hot)

2 onions sliced
4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 a cauli, cut into florets
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 eggplant, cut into 2cm cubes
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water

Heat oil and butter. Add garlic and spices, cook on low for 1 minute.
Add onions and saute for 3 minutes.
Add rest of ingredients, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• replace cauli with 1 sliced carrot
• use 1 cup of beans or peas instead of chick peas
• replace eggplant with two cubed potatoes 
• if you don't want the heat, use paprika instead of cayenne pepper.

Zucchini Slice

I have never been too successful with zucchinis. I haven't had one off my plant this year because of end blossom rot, where the zucchini starts out well but slowly dies off from the flower end. I've had heaps do this, but the latest two on the plant are looking like they might be OK, fingers crossed.

End blossom rot is caused because of not enough calcium in the soil, and infrequent watering. 

Mum can grow them with her eyes shut, so I've been getting them off her. 

This is what I made with them, besides eating them with other veggies and making ratatouille, like I did when we went camping recently. 

Zucchini Slice

1-2 grated medium zucchini(about 2 and a half cups)
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup chopped bacon
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup SR Flour
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs
salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in a big bowl. Mix together well.
Grease a pie dish or cake tin.(I line the bottom of a spring form cake tin and spray with some olive oil spray).
Bake at 200 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

An InLinkz Link-up

How to get yor fussy eater to eat vegetables

Guest post by Bronwyn, part of the Grasshoppers team. 

It’s easy to forget, but adults can be fussy about their veggies too. Around this time of year, there is often a debate about whether sprouts should be loved or hated and whether parsnips are delicious or deadly.

Having said that, some children aren’t just complaining about the odd sprout or carrot, many refuse to eat anything that comes from the ground. While this can be frustrating for parents, it’s important to remember that there are often reasons behind your child’s eating habits.

However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Getting your fussy child to eat vegetables isn’t impossible, but it certainly isn’t easy either.

Reasons behind fussy eaters

The first thing parents need to remember is that your child is not avoiding vegetables just to annoy you.

Research says, there are two main reasons for fussy eating behaviour: being afraid to try new foods – known as neophobia – and a preference for sweet tastes. 

If you think about it, it’s easy to see a dislike of bitter foods in children. While you might live off a diet of dark chocolate and coffee later in life, they are two foods that children tend to hate.

This is apparently instilled in us as a defence mechanism to prevent us from eating poisonous foods at a time when children may have picked berries straight from the plant. Bitter foods were likely to be poisonous, whereas sweet foods were usually considered safe and nutritional.

The second reason, called neophobia, doesn’t usually start until children are around two years old. This is also the age when children are no longer reliant on their mother’s breast milk and so by avoiding new foods, they are protecting themselves from unsafe food.

Top tips for eating vegetables

1. Set a good example

Why do you think your child will eat new foods if you won’t? Children often follow in the footsteps of their parents, meaning that if vegetables don’t appear on your plate, they’ll start to question why. Remember, young children only know what they are taught.

2. Let them join in

By allowing the kids to get involved with the process of shopping, preparing and cooking, they’re far more likely to be interested in eating it. Whether they’re picking the ingredients in the supermarket or washing vegetables, it’s good for them to join in in any way they can.

3. Make vegetables sweeter

As mentioned, one of the reasons for disliking vegetables is the bitter taste. However, by adding honey or lemon juice to the veggies, it will make them seem sweet. You could also choose to serve them raw as most are sweeter before they’re cooked.

4. Don’t force them to clear the plate

You might remember being told that if you didn’t finish your dinner, you would eat it for breakfast, but this is not a good method. Forcing your child to eat something they don’t want will only create a negative atmosphere and in turn, negative associations with the food in question.

5. Try the ‘one bite’ rule

It may not be beneficial to force them to clear the plate, but encouraging them to eat one bite of all food served is a good way to increase exposure. It has been found that kids have to try rejected food up to 10 times before accepting it.

These are five great ways to start getting your fussy child to eat vegetables, but most importantly, keep at it.

Bronwyn is a member of the Grasshopper Jumping Castle team. Grasshoppers is a Brisbane-based jumping castle hire company specialising in fun and good times. We hire castles and zorb balls for parties and events of all shape and size. We'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch by email at: info@grasshoppercastles.com.au and phone: 0438 737 332

Winter warmer soup #openslather

I have started making big pots of soup again, the days are getting very cold with icy winds straight from the southern ocean. Lunch for me has been good the past month. Yesterday I made a lentil and veggie soup, it was especially good with a ladle full over some baked fish, it was seriously good.

Gorgeous minestrone, made with an Italian dried soup mix.

 

When my sister and I first moved out of home, I wanted to make lasagne and my sister berated me because I didn't know how. "It's on the packet", she scowled at me, like I was some sort of idiot. Or she was just a bitch. My lips are sealed.....but all the same, and how was I supposed to know, the recipe was on the lasagne sheet packet, probably still is. This is the one I make now, I am a little older and wiser. I've even managed to make my own pasta. 

Soup making is not hard. I've been buying bags of dried split peas, lentils and soup mixes, there are recipes on the packet and they make great additions to winter soups. Tinned equivalents would work just as well. 

I usually make soup with whatever's available in the fridge, and it is a great thing to make when there are vegies perishing, begging to be used up. I even freeze stuff when it's getting almost past it to defrost later to use in soup and casseroles. A good start to any soup is onion, carrot and celery. They rest is whatever you have on hand

Note the ends of broccoli stalks. Flavour and veggie goodness. I freeze these too, for casseroles.
I even freeze the celery ends for soup or casserole. 

I fry the onion, garlic and bacon, then add chopped vegies and a
few bay leaves. They are my secret ingredient. Add half a cup of dried yellow split peas.
 Cover with stock or water. Slowly simmer away for an hour. Add brown rice and simmer
until rice is cooked.

I have been having my soup with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and chilli oil. I love chilli oil in this sort of soup. You can make it easy with some fresh chilli or dried, and olive oil. Keep the jar in the pantry. The oil will go a loverly red colour and be packed with a flavour punch.

I used to garden for an old Italian couple, they used to make me lunch. Old Georgio made me fried eggs with chilli oil on top one day with crusty bread. I thought it was the best thing I had ever tasted. 

The garden has closed down and no one is living there now. I have big dreams about that place, if only the universe would see fit to letting me win the lotto.

What is your favourite winter warmer soup? Have you got something earmarked for that big lotto win?

Five things to have instead of a biscuit binge

Some of you may remember me babbling on about trying to lose weight. Well it worked somewhat. I lost 9 kilos, but put four back on. I am extremely shit at keeping it off, so I'm on the 'stop eating crap' bandwagon ....again.

So what's my downfall. It's not chocolate, I am not much of a chocoholic, I don't keep a stash in the house, but I wouldn't say no. 

I do like potato chips. And ice cream. But I don't have them much. Hubby likes to have them, it seems it's becoming a usual Friday night thing, and I try to stay away, sometimes badly.

My achilles heel of keeping the chub at bay, is the biscuit barrel. It's there, right in front of me when I open the pantry door, and awfully easy and convenient to twist off the lid and grab a quick snack. Just not 5 times in a row!

Five or six goes of the biscuit barrel, depending on the type of biscuit, could equate to a whole meal. Not good. Not good when there is no nutritional value and just about all those calories are from fat and sugar. 

Hoping I can practice what I preach, here's five alternatives to the dreaded 3 pm biscuit binge.

1. Get out of the kitchen, away from the pantry and take a bottle of water. Drink it.
2. Grab some fruit. Apple, orange, pear, watermelon. Keep the fruit bowl stocked.
3. Eat a carrot, or cut it up with celery, cucumber, capsicum. Use cottage cheese for a dip, if plain vegies are too boring.
4. A tub of yogurt. Try some chia seeds mixed through. (Try it, you'll like it). 
5. Nibble on a healthy handful of nuts and seeds, like almonds and pepitas.

Take your time. Chew. Appreciate the flavour, texture. Sit, let it settle. 

What do you do when your 3pm cravings set in? What is your diet undoing?

Veggie Pancakes

I've been getting a little bit over thinking of new things for lunch for the girls. It's getting close to our big shopping day and there is not a heck of a lot of variety in the pantry or the fridge.

I had a flick through my recipe book, it has hand written recipes in it and of late just sticky taped in print offs from the web. This recipe is written in there, it's been on my mind for a while, just haven't got around to making it.

Veggie pancakes

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/2 cup grated cheese

salt and pepper

Veggies of choice eg carrot, zucchini, peas, corn, spinach.

Combine egg and milk. Mix in flour until smooth.

Add cheese, seasoning and veggies.

Use 2 tablespoons full to make small pancakes, and fry off in a little oil.

I used a grated carrot, a grated small yellow squash, some silverbeet and parsley.

  

I dipped the cutters in oil first so the pancakes didn't stick. 

With the fabulous Yvette providing fantastic ideas on her Little Bento Blog, when I saw these cutters at the market in Port Fairy I had to buy some. It was an awesome market stall, with cutters laid out in front of me in the shapes of just about everything! Two young teens sold them while the metal craftsman made more on the sidelines. Amazing! I wish I had of bought more and will from the Bisk Art website soon. 

I tricked her into eating vegies!! Sucker!

She loves her salad, but hasn't eaten a cooked veggie for donkeys ages, except for corn cobs. 

Peruvian purple potato pizza

Mum grew these strange looking spuds this year, given to her by a friend. Brett commented they look like dog turds when he saw them on the kitchen bench. I thought they looked like short stubby fingers.

The smallest ones I planted in my garden and the rest I boiled up to use on a pizza. Below are the boiled potatoes I peeled and sliced up, check out the colour. 

Potato Pizza

I used my scone dough base.

Firstly I smothered on some oil. Call me strange or clever, but I always keep the jar of oil that is left over from anchovies. Flavour central! I use it for starting onions and garlic for pasta sauce or even for frying a flavoursome egg. If you are gagging at the thought, you could just use plain old olive oil.

Next I scatter and rub in a finely chopped clove of garlic. If you don't want to get your hands all oily, just scatter the garlic over.

Place sliced boiled potatoes on base, you could put them on all fancy like or just willy nilly like I did. I have used left over roast potatoes for this too. 

Scatter on some rosemary leaves and a drizzle of olive oil and bake at 200 deg.  for 15 - 20 minutes.

Eat it like that, or drizzle some more oil over it and eat. Very delicious.

Spaghetti Squash

I have to admit, my mum is the master veggie grower in this family. I'm not very good at it really. I can grow tomatoes, and I seem to be able to grow onions, and herbs. But mostly my harvest is pretty dismal. 

Lately when I have visited Mums place, I have come home with bags and bags of stuff. From great heads of green caterpillar infested broccoli, zucchinis, carrots, beans(which I did successfully grow this year, til the dog ransacked the garden), capsicums, baby corn and cucumbers. She also offered me a spaghetti squash. I will give anything a go, and hey its free, so why not?! She said to steam it (yeah right, I can't see myself steaming anything that big), so I googled to see how the experts people in the know do it, and most baked it. So spaghetti bog night came around and I baked my squash for an hour before the sauce was ready.

Using an icecream scoop to get rid of seeds

Forking strands of squash (Batman!)

I was wingin' it. I took the squash out of the oven and cut it in half and took to it with a fork. I scraped away at the cooked flesh and low and behold (total awesomeness) it came away in strands just like spaghetti. It tasted alright too. What was even better, and this is where my diet comes into it, 250 grams of this stuff is only 68 calories, compared to the 350 calories(this was a shock) of two fiddy grams of real spaghetti. Winner!!

I wrapped the other half in glad wrap, put it in the fridge and rehashed it(took to it with a fork, microwave reheated it) for lunch the next two days. I had it with olive oil, garlic, oregano and parsley(out the garden, coz I can grow that), and then with parmesan, thyme and garlic the next day.

Olive oil, parsley, oregano and garlic

Parmesan, garlic and thyme

Mum revealed that she had thrown one back in the compost because she had too many. I was shocked and appalled and told her at once, I would have some more!

Curried mince and veg

This is a recipe that I have conjured up. It's a bit like a chow mein without the noodles, you could have it with noodles if you have them. I served it in a lettuce cup with some rice on the side. 

2 garlic cloves, crushed

115 grams onion, diced

olive oil spray

500 grams veal mince

2 Tblsp curry powder

150 gr zucchini, diced

110 gr cabbage, sliced

100 gr carrot, halved and sliced into half moons

100 gr frozen peas

Spray a large saucepan or deep fry pan,  with olive oil.

Saute onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add mince and brown. Add rest of ingredients, give it a good stir. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Serve.

I cook a cup and a half of brown rice with a diced onion, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of turmeric and a bay leaf. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

You could exchange veal mince for whatever mince you have.

I weighed the finished dish and then divided by 6. 1 serve was 1/6th of the total weight.

Serves 6. 1 serve = 159 calories(just the mince curry and lettuce).
Bugger all!