Feijoa muffins and magic bean cake

I'm really lucky that my mum has a wonderful, productive (most years) feijoa tree, and she brought me a bucket full of them in the weekend.  As much as we LOVE feijoas around here, we just don't seem to be making much of a dent in this load.

So, along with needing to use up some homemade yoghurt, I thought I'd try and make some Feijoa Yoghurt Muffins, based on a banana yoghurt muffin recipe I've made before.

I may have gone slightly overboard on the feijoas resulting in a wetter mix, so added a bit more flour.  It took quite a while to cook but looks and smells successful!

Also another batch of "subway rolls" made today for the lunches:

 

I haven't been keeping up with posting about all the things we've made lately (we clearly eat far to much baking!! Haha) but wanted to pop in something about these:

This is "magic bean cake" made into muffins.  They are gluten free and made with red kidney beans, but you really wouldn't know!  The kids think it's a great treat to have chocolate cupcakes, and they have all disappeared.  They stayed lovely and moist for all 3 days they managed to last for.

Pizzas! Dinner and Dessert

Last night's dinner was homemade pizzas.  Here is the meal ready for assembling and cooking:

 After making enough for dinner and today's lunches, I still had dough leftover, as well as some custard in the fridge, so we also had dessert pizzas.

And also made some bread rolls for this week's lunchboxes:



 

Tonight we'd had steamed lemon chicken, but I was too slow to get a photo again!

Gingerbread biscuits (with recipe)

Using my favourite gingerbread biscuit recipe to make a batch of biscuits today. 

Melt 115g butter, 170g brown sugar and 4 tblsp golden syrup together until just melted, but not too hot (using the Thermomix for this was great - set it to 37 degrees, so it wouldn't end up too hot for the next step)
Add 1 egg, lightly beaten, and mix together.
Add 340g flour, 2tsp ginger & 1tsp baking soda and knead until a ball of dough forms

The recipe suggests then chilling the dough before rolling and cutting into shapes, but I prefer to at this stage to roll them into logs and chill before cutting into rounds.  I use my Sushezi to make them nice and even - really handy when making Belgian biscuits or anything you want to make biscuits "sandwiches".

Of course, if the kids are wanting to cut shapes, all that goes out the window, but they are far to busy to help me today!  Playing nicely together which makes a welcome change to the usual antics.  They managed to find a few moments to come and "test" the dough though. ;)

Once chilled, cut and bake at 190degrees for about 8 mins (recipe suggested 10-15mins, but that is far too long in my oven)

And here's the finished product:

 

 



They seem to taste alright too - half a dozen demolished in the first 5 minutes (and not even by me!)

More baking

Yesterday afternoon I made another batch of brioche dough for custard scrolls - here they are before baking.

Also on the list was another batch of yoghurt - made a smaller (1 litre) batch this time, with some added milk powder, and it looks a lot thicker and creamier than the last batch.  We'll have a taste test later today after it's chilled.

And to use up the last of the previous yoghurt and some slight over-ripe bananas, there are Banana Yoghurt Muffins in the oven now. 

Last night was sushi for dinner, which was well received, and I was nowhere near fast enough to get a photo.  Always a good sign. :)

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Last night's dinner:

Strangely enough, I'm usually the one in my family who finds fresh ginger overpowering, but I really enjoyed this, while my husband was not too sure!
The kids demolished the lot though.

Happy Mothers' Day

I was woken up this morning with a "Happy Mothers' Day" from my lovely boy, along with a card he'd made at school.  The message read:
"To Mum
I hope you have a happy day. I lov you.
Lov Anton"

He and his sister (with a little fatherly assistance) made me breakfast in bed (weetbix and a glass of water!), followed by a pancake and cup of coffee all together at the table. 

So a pretty lovely mothers day here!

Since then, it's been business as usual here - have made pizza scrolls for lunch boxes, frittata for lunch and a banana cake to have for afternoon tea today with guests.

More than I expected to make today

Since my son brought a friend home after school today, I've managed to get a surprising amount done this afternoon!

Banana muffins for the lunchboxes

 

 

Roast lamb and vege are cooking away - just about to steam a few greens and we will be eating.

Made some hummus for snacks and lunchboxes

And some brioche dough rising to make custard scrolls (custard is also cooling in the fridge)

Can hardly wait...

Yum, I have some chicken kebabs marinating in a spiced yoghurt mixture with mint and lemon, and it smells delicious! 
Will be served with a kumara & leek soup, which also has a little mint in it.  And with that we'll use up some of the bread sticks made for today's lunches. 

 

And here's how the pesto bread creation turned out:

Pizza rolls with just pesto and cheese on top. 

Needing to find some inspiration for lunchbox fillers again too - I always think what I've made will last longer than it actually does.  Making 3 boxes a day, plus occasionally some for myself, it really doesn't go that far...

This weekend in the kitchen

Not actually too much coming from the kitchen this weekend - we have had birthday parties on both Saturday and Sunday, as well as a night out on Friday (kids stayed with the grampies), and soccer on Saturday morning.

So, just getting into some cooking now...

For lunch, a vegetable frittata with mushrooms, capsicum, onion, courgette & feta.  Served with sliced tomato and avocado.
This was the first frittata made in my new Pizza Maker machine, and it was great.  This is definitely a new favourite gadget!  Have made great pizzas, tortillas and now the frittata. 

Mum harvested a big bundle of basil from her garden for me, so we are EXTREMELY well stocked with basil pesto for a while (made with parmesan, cashews, olive oil and a little garlic....and a lot of basil of course)
It is a bit of a darker green in real life!

 

Not much to look at, but here is 2 litres of homemade yoghurt.  Just milk and the last scraps of last week's yoghurt as a starter.

And some Melted Cheese Dip in one of our new le snak type containers.  I'll pop in some carrot sticks and crackers in the morning. 

And in the oven now is a plain vanilla cake for lunchbox treats. 

I'm yet to decide what bread/rolls make, so just making a very basic dough now and will have to come up with a plan while it rises.  Something with pesto, perhaps...

A quiet day

It's been a pretty quiet day in the kitchen today. 
We made some rice bubble slice, which came out rather crumbly (due to me trying to reduce sugar content, I think).  But the kids still like it, and had the crumbly pieces mixed in with plain yoghurt.  I
actually suspect that will be their new favourite way to eat both yoghurt and the slice.

 

And for dinner tonight, a pickled pork which is being steamed.  Pickled pork is something I'd never encountered before meeting my husband, and not really one of my personal favourites, but I know he loves it, so occasionally he gets one.  I'm not sure if the kids have ever eaten it before, so it has certainly been a while. 

 

And some roast vege to go with it.   

I'll add some greens at the end, but for now, just letting it do its thing...

Dinner time!

The hungry tummies have been filled. 

Steamed chicken, veges and cashews with rice

The kids like me to hide cashews throughout the meal for them to discover

 

And for dessert (well, actually, mostly to be chopped up and frozen for lunchbox treats), Choc Mud Cake.

Getting started

So, I've decided to join in the blogging world, and since a good chunk of my days revolves around keeping the crew fed, this is where I'm starting off. 
As a handy bonus, I use a fair number of online recipes, so now I'll be able to record and remember where the recipes came from! 

Here is where the fun happens - my kitchen, which unfortunately does not usually look quite this tidy...but it did just that one time!  ;)