Carrot and Zuchini Slice

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Ness

This easy carrot and zucchini slice is one of our family’s favourite meals. It’s quick and simple to make, is delicious warm or cold so it’s perfect for lunch boxes and picnics, it freezes well and it contains lots of hidden vegetables.

INGREDIENTS
1 large zucchini (see note)
1 large carrot (see note)
1 onion, finely chopped
100 grams (3.5 ounces) bacon, chopped
1/2 cup grated cheese plus extra for topping (I use parmesan but cheddar cheese would also work well)
3/4 cup self-raising flour
4 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
Note: I never measure the quantity of carrot and zucchini when I make this and it always turns out just fine. If I don’t have a large zucchini then I’ll use two small ones. I just use what I have and it always tastes great.

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease a shallow 20cm (8 inch) square baking tray and line with baking paper.

2. Melt the butter in a fry pan over medium heat and gently fry the onion and bacon until the onion is soft (2 – 3 minutes). Transfer to a plate and set aside to cool. (I put mine in the fridge to cool).

3. Grate the carrot and zucchini into a large bowl.

4. Add the cooled bacon and onion to the carrot and zucchini.

5. Add the flour and cheese to the bowl and mix together.

6. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add them to the carrot and zucchini mixture and combine well.

7. Pour into the baking tray. Sprinkle with extra cheese and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden.

Fry the bacon and onion in the melted butter over medium heat then set aside to cool.

Grate the carrot and zucchini into a large bowl.

Add the cooled bacon and onion to the bowl.

Add the flour and cheese to the bowl and mix together.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the the carrot and zucchini mixture and combine well.

Pour into a greased and lined baking dish and sprinkle with extra cheese. Bake in a moderate over for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden.

Looking for more quick and healthy family meals? Check out my simple, kid-friendly, vegetable pasta sauce.

Every Monday I share a kid friendly recipe, healthy snack ideas, and fun ways to prepare kids meals. To see earlier posts in my Little Bites of Fun series, click on the photo below.

If this is your first time visiting One Perfect Day – welcome! If you like what you have found, please join us on Facebook or follow us on Pinterest or Twitter where you will find lots of ideas for fun kids activities, thoughts on parenting, family recipes and more.

French Toast Dippers with Maple Syrup

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Ness

These little rounds of deliciousness make a quick and easy treat for afternoon tea. They are melt in the mouth goodness, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They take just ten minutes to whip up and they will disappear in less than ten seconds. They are also a great treat for breakfast. I like to make a batch of these for family movie night when we huddle on the sofa together, enjoying the movie and sharing a plate of dippers. So good!

FRENCH TOAST DIPPERS WITH MAPLE SYRUP (Makes 16. Prep time: 10 mins. Cooking time: 5 mins)

Ingredients
4 slices of bread (I use wholegrain because that’s just what we eat, and it adds some fibre to this dish, but any bread will work)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
Maple syrup
30g butter
Cinnamon for dusting (Optional)
Icing sugar for dusting (Again, this is entirely optional. For my Northern Hemisphere readers, icing sugar is the same as powdered sugar).

TO MAKE FRENCH TOAST DIPPERS

1. Use a circle shaped cookie cutter to cut four rounds from each slice of bread.

2. Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk together lightly.

3. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a low heat.

4. Dip the bread rounds into the egg mixture and then fry them over a low heat. Turning once, until they are golden.

5. Arrange the french toast dippers on a plate and serve with the maple syrup.

6. Sprinkle with icing sugar (powdered sugar) and cinnamon if desired.

Now watch them disappear! Yum!

These can also be enjoyed as a savoury snack. Simply omit the maple syrup and icing sugar. They are just as delicious and you then have a sugar free treat.

Each week I share a kid friendly recipe, simple snack ideas, and fun ways to prepare kids meals. To see earlier posts in my Little Bites of Fun series, click on the photo below.

Quick, Simple and Healthy Pasta Sauce (or how to get your kids to eat vegetables without them even knowing it)

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Ness

Do you have a fussy eater in your family? When R (4 yrs) was just starting out on solids, he would eat anything I served him. I felt so lucky to have such a good eater. As he has grown, he has become increasingly picky with his eating. There are days when he will just flat out refuse to try something new or eat any vegetables. Those are the days I turn to my secret weapon – my healthy pasta sauce that contains up to SIX vegetables! It’s quick and simple to make. It makes up to six child servings, and it can be adapted to suit your tastes or the ingredients you happen to have on hand. The best part? R LOVES it and will often ask for seconds. Hooray to that!

I first came across a similar pasta sauce recipe at Multiple Mummy last year and right away I knew R would enjoy it. I changed several ingredients to suit our tastes and voila! R has been devouring vegetables ever since. I will always be grateful to Kerry for turning R’s diet around!

Look at all those vegetables! It just makes me feel so much better knowing that R is eating all of those when he’d usually flat out refuse to even taste them. So here’s what I usually put in my sauce, but as I mentioned, the beauty of this recipe is that it can be personalised so just add what you enjoy eating or what you have on hand.

INGREDIENTS
1 medium brown onion
1 – 2 cloves of garlic
2 – 3 sticks celery
1 large carrot
1 large or 2 small zucchini (courgettes)
half a small capsicum. Green or red is fine. (This is a pepper for my US readers)
1 bottle store-bought passata sauce (see notes below).
olive oil for cooking

All of the ingredients above are optional. Your kids don’t like garlic? Leave it out. If you only have a white onion on hand, not a brown one, that’s fine. If you don’t have any celery, it doesn’t matter, leave it out. These just happen to be vegetables that we regularly have on hand. I add the capsicum for sweetness but if I don’t have one in the fridge, I just leave it out. Pumpkin and cauliflower would also work well in this sauce.

Passata sauce is a fresh tomato puree, seasoned with basil. I don’t use canned tomatoes in any of my cooking (just personal preference) and I don’t have time to make my own fresh tomato puree so I buy bottled Passata. It is readily available in Australian supermarkets but if you can’t find it in your area, simply substitute canned tomatoes.

HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY PASTA SAUCE FOR KIDS: Begin by chopping all of the vegetables. The great thing about this sauce is that it is blended after being cooked so your veges don’t have to be cut too perfectly or evenly. It makes the preparation very fast. Once they are chopped, heat the oil in a pan and fry the vegetables for 5 – 6 minutes over a medium heat until they being to soften. Usually when cooking with onions, I would fry them first before adding the other vegetables but I never bother with this recipe. I just throw it all in at once and it turns out just fine.

When the vegetables have softened slightly, add the jar of Passata sauce (or the canned tomatoes if that’s what you are using). Stir everything together, reduce the heat to low and simmer for ten minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through and soft. Stir occasionally while simmering.

When the sauce has cooked, remove it from the pan and transfer it to a heat proof bowl. Use a hand held stick blender to make a smooth sauce. A regular blender would work as well, of course. Sometimes the sauce may be a little thick (depending on how many vegetables you added. If this happens, simply add a small amount of hot water to thin it out a little.

Add the sauce to some cooked pasta, top with some grated cheese and watch those vegetables disappear! R would eat this every night if he had his way. The recipe makes enough for 6 – 8 child sized servings. It freezes well so I portion it out, pour it into zip lick bags and freeze them. Using zip lock bags means I can store them flat in the freezer and they take up barely any room at all. It’s great when I know R hasn’t been eating too well. I can just grab one of these from the freezer and in minutes I have a healthy lunch or dinner that I know he’ll devour!

Every Monday I share a kid friendly recipe, healthy snack ideas, and fun ways to prepare kids meals. To see earlier posts in my Little Bites of Fun series, click on the photo below.

Irresistible Chocolate Fudge Cake

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Ness

I first made this cake back in high school when a friend passed me the recipe. I didn’t even like cake all that much back then ( I KNOW!! Imagine!) but this cake was love at first bite. I lost the recipe and for many years and I never thought I’d taste that chocolatey fudgy goodness again. Imagine my delight then, when I discovered my crumpled, cake-batter-stained handwritten recipe amongst some old yearbooks a couple of years ago.

I love this recipe because it doesn’t even require an electric beater. You pretty much just melt, mix, and toss it in the oven. The smell that permeates through the kitchen when it comes out of the oven is divine. It travels well and keeps fresh for at least four days when stored in an airtight container. Perfect for making a day or two before a picnic or party and taking it along with you.

A word about the icing (frosting) for this cake. Firstly, it tastes INCREDIBLE. It is more like caramel fudge candy than icing. It is very gooey and runny until it sets. It is made on the stove top so it needs to be cooled before being spread onto the cake. Let it cool A LOT before adding it to the cake. If you don’t, it will just pour down the sides of the cake and your cake will be sitting it a puddle of fudgy goodness. You want that stuff ON the cake! I sometimes make the icing as soon as the cake has come out of the oven. By the time the cake has cooled down, the icing is ready to be used. You could also try putting the icing in the fridge for 5 – 10 minutes if you’re in a hurry. No matter what you do, some of it will pool around the cake. There’s no avoiding it, but you want to try to minimise it if you can. The icing will set completely on the cake top by the following day. Another great reason to make this cake a day or so ahead of when it is going to be served.

Just before we get to the recipe, I thought I’d share this little photo collage with you. This cake is baked is a square pan. Have you ever wondered how to cut triangle shaped cake slices from a square cake? If you follow the instructions below, you’ll have 16 slices from your square cake. Here’s how to cut triangle slices in 4 easy steps.

1. Cut the square cake in half.
2. Cut one half of the cake in half again.
3. Now cut those two portions in half again so you now have four equal rectangles.
4. Cut each rectangle in half diagonally. There you have it. Eight triangle slices from each half of the original cake. Repeat for the other side of the cake.

Irresistible Chocolate Fudge Cake

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 25 mins

Serves: 16

Ingredients

200g (7 oz) milk chocolate
200g (7 oz) unsalted butter
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
100ml (6 tbsp) warm water
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups of self-raising flour
4 tbsp cocoa
1/3 cup sour cream
sprinkles to decorate (optional)
For the icing
100g (4 oz) milk chocolate
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
80 g (3 oz) unsalted butter

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160C (320F)
Grease and line a 22cm (8″) square baking pan
In a large saucepan, combine the chocolate, butter, brown sugar and water. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly until the ingredients are melted and well combined. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking them into the mixture until well combined.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the chocolate mixture.
Add the sour cream and stir gently until combined.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool completely before adding the icing (frosting).
For the icing, place all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted. Remove from heat, stir until the icing thickens and allow to cool before spreading onto the cake.
Spread the icing on the cake and decorate with sprinkles if desired.

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How to Mask and Ice a Cake – GUEST POST

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Ness

Today’s post is about one of my favourite things (cake!) and it has been written by one of my favourite bloggers – the lovely Pauline, creator of Lessons Learnt Journal. Pauline is also one of my fellow contributors over at KidsActivitiesBlog.com Thank you so much for being here today Pauline and sharing with us your expertise on cake decorationg.

~ Ness

How to Mask and Ice a Cake – GUEST POST

Cake decorating is an art. It’s creative, fun and here’s the wonderful bit – - – it’s delicious!

Now, with my brood of four children, I value cake decorating even more.

With each birthday comes an opportunity to create. The possibilities are endless. Well, there are limits set by my creativity and technical cake decorating skills; but that’s what art is all about isn’t it? Imagining, stretching our skills through practice. We learn through our flops and celebrate our achievements.

I’m still learning and practicing. Hopefully, I still have many more birthdays to make cakes for.

I have learnt this though: masking and icing a cake does wonders!

Masking is the process of putting on a layer of buttercream to seal in the crumbs on a cake and create those crisp, straight edges for the final coating of icing or fondant.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Place a scoop of buttercream on top of the cake. Using a spatula, spread and smooth the icing over the surface of the cake. Extend the icing over the sides of the cake by about 1/2 an inch. Remove any excess buttercream and make sure the top of the cake is level.

2. Working in small sections, mask the sides of the cake. Build up a ridge that is about 1/2 an inch taller than the cake.

3. Stand back and make sure the icing is straight. Add or scrape away buttercream until the sides are straight. Don’t use too much icing on the sides and so build up the top part of the cake, making it uneven.

4. Smooth the sides with the edge of a palette knife.

5. When you’ve created a ridge around the entire perimeter of the cake, smooth the ridge one small section at a time. Glide your spatula across the ridge towards the centre.

Now your cake is masked and ready for decorating. (Did you manage to get through all that without testing some of that buttercream?)

My darling Miss K turns one in about a month’s time. My creative cake decorating wheels have begun spinning!

About Pauline

Pauline is a Christian, Wife, Mother and Primary School Teacher. She lives in Sydney, Australia and has four children born within the tiny space of three and a half years. Visit her at Lessons Learnt Journal: enjoy working, resting and playing creatively with children. Follow along via her Facebook Page and Pinterest Boards.

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How to Make Chocolate Spoons

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Ness

Chocolate spoons have become a bit of a tradition for us – we make them for every birthday party and I’m thinking that some mint flavoured ones might be fun for Christmas time. They are super simple to make and the kids will have fun decorating them. Although these are incredibly quick and fun to make, there’s still a trick or two to getting them just right so I’ve shared some tips in the tutorial below.

To make chocolate spoons you only need three items – plastic spoons, chocolate and sprinkles or candy to decorate. The quantity of chocolate that you need will depend on how many spoons you want to make and the size of your spoons. As a rough guide, 100 grams (7 ounces) of chocolate will be more than enough for 15 spoons.

Begin by laying out your spoons. NOTE: It is important to have your spoons laying level, that is, you need to slightly elevate the handle, otherwise, when you pour the melted chocolate into the spoon, it will slide right out of the bowl of the spoon. I usually prop mine up against a magazine but if you were laying them in a baking tray you could rest the handles on the edge of the tray.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler as shown or in the microwave, whatever you prefer.

Use a spoon to pour melted chocolate onto each plastic spoon. TIP: Do not over do it! A little goes a long way and the chocolate will spread and settle into the bowl of the spoon after a few seconds. If you are too generous, the chocolate will overflow.

Now the fun part! Decorate with sprinkles or any small candy you like. TIP: Wait a minute or two before adding the sprinkles. If you do it too soon, the heat from the melted chocolate will melt the sprinkles. They will either lose their colour or they’ll disappear into chocolate.

I usually just leave them on the counter to set but you could put them into the fridge if you were in a hurry to serve them. We love to eat them before they’ve set. They are smooth and creamy and wonderful!

I usually serve these in a glass or plastic cup that has been dipped in chocolate. It’s pretty simple – dip the rim of the glass into the melted chocolate and then dip it into a bowl of sprinkles. TIP: Don’t overdo it with the chocolate. If you add too much chocolate to the glass it will simply pour down the sides instead of sitting in a nice line around the rim. I’ve learnt this the hard way. I even tried putting the glass in the fridge and the freezer but it still poured down the sides. The only way I have found to avoid this is to be sparing with the chocolate.

There you have it. Quick, simple and oh so delicious. They are always the first thing to go on our dessert table at parties. They’d make great little gifts too, simply wrap clear cellophane over the bowl of the spoon and tie with a ribbon.

What kind of candy would you add to your chocolate spoons?

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Honey and Strawberry Ripple Ice-Cream Popsicles

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Ness

It might be the middle of Winter here in Australia, but in this house, we don’t let a little thing like freezing temperatures get in the way of doing the important things in life – like eating ice-cream. It’s never too cold for ice-cream! So when R saw our popsicle moulds in the cupboard and pleaded with me to make a batch of icy treats, who was I to argue? We had bought most perfect, sweet, plump strawberries from the market, and so our decision was made – strawberry ripple ice-cream was on the menu!

I’d never made anything like this before so I kind of winged it but it’s not rocket science. Really, we’re talking ice-cream, strawberries and honey ~ there is no possibility of error. Whatever you do it’s going to taste amazing. All of the measurements listed below are approximates. I just used however many strawberries we had on hand, added a few dollops of yogurt and just used however much ice-cream I thought would go well with the quantity of syrup that we had made. Trust your own judgement and have fun with it!

Honey and Strawberry Ripple Ice-Cream Popsicles

INGREDIENTS

250gm (1/2 pound) of strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon of water
4 heaped tablespoons of plain yogurt
2 tablespoons of honey 1 litre (2 pints) of vanilla ice-cream
(The lemon juice is totally optional. If you don’t have a lemon on hand, just substitute with water)

HOW TO MAKE

1: Mash the strawberries using a potato masher

2: Add the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and water to saucepan

3: Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally,until sauce thickens. Ours took about 7 minutes

4: Pour the mixture into a baking tray lined with baking paper or a bowl and place in the fridge until it has cooled. The mixture will be VERY hot. This step is definitely not for the kids.

5: Take the ice-cream out of the freezer and allow to soften slightly, then spread it into a baking tray lined with baking paper.

6: Add the yogurt to the ice-cream and mix together.

7: Drop spoonfuls of strawberry sauce onto the ice-cream as illustrated above.

8: Using a spoon, drag the sauce through the ice-cream so it forms ripples. Next, drizzle the honey over the top of the ice-cream.

9: Scoop the ice-cream into the popsicle moulds and freeze. We also froze some of the mixture in the baking tray, to be served in bowls. If you’re having trouble removing the popsicles from the moulds, try running hot water on the outside of the moulds to soften the ice-cream. They should slide our pretty easily after that.

10: ENJOY! This was sooo good! The yogurt was perfection and the honey ripples were little bursts of heaven. A word of warning though – don’t grab a spoon for a quick “taste-test”, you know, just to see. R and I tried that and before we knew it, we’d devoured half the bowl. We were jut standing there at the kitchen bench, two spoons, one bowl and lots of “mmmm’s” and “yummm’s” and before you could say “who says ice-cream has to be a summer dessert”, it had all but disappeared!

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Rainbow Cupcakes Tutorial

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Ness

When I asked R (3) what he would like to do today, his response was immediate and loud – “MAKE CUPCAKES!” Ok then! When it came time to decide what colour they should be, the response was a little less decisive. Pink? Green? Blue? So in the end, we decided to make them all of those colours. Rainbow cupcakes!

Here’s a super simple tutorial for making these rainbow cupcakes. Continue reading →