Menu Plan Monday (2nd May)

Happy May everyone! Can you believe it's May already??

This week is a special one for us with our anniversary on Wednesday. My wonderful mother-in-law is coming to look after the boys so we can go out the evening, probably for a quick dinner then a movie.

So we've factored in dinner out for us on Wednesday, then we're out for a BBQ with friends on Saturday night and then on Sunday it's Mother's Day! Should be a fun week :)

What we're eating this fortnight ...

Monday - Roast chicken with sweet potato, pumpkin and beans

Tuesday - Chickpea curry (leftover from freezer)

Wednesday - DATE NIGHT - sausages and wedges for the kids

Thursday - Curried sausages

Friday - Chicken and potato salad (chicken leftover from freezer)

Saturday - OUT

Sunday - Pulled pork with tortillas and coleslaw

Monday - Beef madras with rice and pumpkin mash

Tuesday - DF GF Lasagna (with leftover bolognaise from freezer)

Wednesday - Sweet potato and bacon risotto

Thursday - Slow cooked lamb and veg curry

Friday - DIY

Saturday - Sweet potato hash browns with poached eggs and bacon

Sunday - Leftover curried lamb wraps

What's on the menu for you this week? Leave me a comment with your dinner ideas ... I'm always looking for inspiration!

Healthier ANZAC Slice

It just wouldn't be Anzac Day without Anzac Biscuits. I did a round-up of healthy Anzac biscuits on Friday and then posted on Facebook yesterday that I also made some Really Healthy Anzac Biscuits. But I couldn't just leave it at that!

We had friends around for breakfast today and I wanted to make something sweet to finish our meal. A quick search found lots of different recipes for Anzac Slice and I chose one to tweak. This is still very sweet and definitely a sometimes food but overall far healthier than the regular white flour and golden syrup varieties.

It went down a treat - this recipe is a keeper!

Healthier Anzac Slice
Adapted from Cooking in the Chaos

130g white spelt flour
90g rolled oats
65g shredded coconut
150g butter
120g rice malt syrup
40g coconut sugar
1/2 ts bicarb soda

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 160 degrees fan-forced.

Grease a slice pan (mine was 15 x 23 cm) and line with baking paper.

Mix together the flour, oats, coconut and coconut sugar in a large bowl.

Place the butter and syrup into a small pan and melt over medium heat. Add the bicarb and stir as it bubbles and froths. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden brown and pulling away from the sides. Leave to cool in the pan before slicing into squares (12) or bars (16).

This is a really forgiving recipe and you can easily swap out the flour or sweeteners for whatever you happen to have.

Enjoy!

Chili with Beef, Chocolate and Pumpkin (SRC)

This month marks the last official month for Group D in the Secret Recipe Club. Group D has been my home within SRC since I started back in February 2013 so it feels a little strange to be moving on!  Next month I will be in Group C which posts on the third Monday of the month and I'm really excited to discover a whole new group of blogs and bloggers.

This month I was absolutely delighted to be assigned Lavender and Lovage by Karen, who is truly living the dream dividing her time between England and France. Karen's blog is absolutely beautiful and she has recipes for everything from simple home cooked favourites to regional specialities to fabulous breads and desserts.

I've had Karen's blog before and last time I chose to make her Saffron and Cardamom Sweet Buns which were so amazingly good my kids still talk about them! This time I wanted something seasonal and luckily Karen has some wonderful Autumn recipes to choose from.

I loved Karen's description of Autumn in Bonfire Chili with Beef, Chocolate and Pumpkin - she speaks of crisp misty mornings, crackling leaves, log fires, fireside suppers and hot chocolate. Where I live Autumn simply means that night time temperatures might finally slip into the teens but don't get too excited because it could still be 30 degrees during the day! I really do think I live on the wrong continent.

I initially planned on baking her Harvest Apple Cake which is a wonderfully simple apple sponge cake that would be equally good for afternoon tea or dessert. 

But whether it was from dreaming of being in a true northern hemisphere Autumn or just the fact the recipe sounded so intriguing, I ended up choosing to make the Bonfire Chili. I've never made a chili quite like this one with chocolate and pumpkin and when the weather actually turned cool and rainy it seemed it was meant to be.

I chose to make the chili in the slow cooker which I love doing at any time of the year but has become my default these days as it makes dinner time so much easier to have a meal sitting there ready to go. We served the chili with some plain rice but it would be equally delicious with corn chips and cheese.

It was a hearty and warming dish to have on a cool night and my Mr 7 cleaned his plate not once, not twice but three times! I've never used chocolate in a savoury recipe before although I know it's quite common in Mexico. The chocolate made the sauce much richer and more complex without being overly chocolate-y. My husband also gave it the thumbs up despite hating pumpkin with a passion and having to pick around it to get his serve.

Slow Cooked Beef Chili with Chocolate and Pumpkin
Adapted from Lavender and Lovage

1kg casserole beef, diced into large chunks
2 medium onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
500g pumpkin, diced the same size as the beef
1 small red chili, finely sliced
2 ts ground cumin
2 ts ground coriander
1 ts dried oregano
1/2 ts cinnamon
1/2 - 1 ts chili powder
500g tomato passata
1 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs coconut sugar
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans
70g dark chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 70%)
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients into the slow cooker and mix well.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Serve with rice.

Serves 6-8

Thank you Karen for a lovely recipe and a wonderful final month for Group D!

An InLinkz Link-up

Turning 7

I can't even believe it but my big boy turned 7 yesterday. 7! We couldn't be prouder of this kind, curious, funny boy with the infectious laugh and big heart. Love him to bits!

No birthday party this year (we've decided to alternate birthday parties for the boys and he had one last year which I talked about here), instead he took some cupcakes to share with his classmates and we had family over for birthday cake and pizza - his choice.

Being a wholefood and low sugar family birthdays always pose a dilemma for me. While we don't want to take an 'anything goes' approach, we also don't want to restrict treats when to me, having something once a year on your birthday is the very definition of a treat.

So while these recipes definitely contain more sugar than is normal for us, they are also free from artificial additives and full of less-refined ingredients such as spelt flour, raw cacao, coconut sugar and grass-fed butter. And I'm totally ok with that.

Mr 7 was very clear that he wanted mini chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing for school, and chocolate number 7 cake with vanilla icing and sprinkles for home.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

125g melted butter
100g coconut sugar
2 eggs
1 ts vanilla extract
170 g white spelt flour
2 1/2 ts baking powder
40g raw cacao
2/3 cup coconut milk

Preheat oven to 150 degrees fan-forced / 170 degrees Celsius. Line 2 mini cupcake pans with 36 paper cupcake liners and set aside.

Place all ingredients into a large bowl, in the order listed, and mix with electric beaters for about 1 minute until smooth and well combined.

If you have a thermomix, place all ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix for 30 secs / SP 4, scraping down the sides as needed.

Spoon heaped teaspoons of mixture into the prepared tins, filling each just over half full.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed lightly. Do not overcook!

Makes 36

Chocolate Icing

90g softened butter
1/3 cup raw cacao
1 1/2 cups powdered coconut sugar (grind coconut sugar in thermomix or high powered blender until as fine as icing sugar and measure after grinding)
1 ts vanilla extract
1 tbs coconut milk

Hoppers 00s & 000s to decorate

Grind the coconut sugar first and then measure out 1 1/2 cups, reserving any extra for another time. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Pour 00s & 000s into a small bowl.

Spread icing on the top of each cupcake then dip lightly into the sprinkles to decorate.

I'm told the cupcakes went down very well at school!

Next was his birthday cake for home. Now I've tried many recipes over the years and I knew that not all of them would work for a shaped cake like this one. I need something that wouldn't fall apart when it was sliced. Rather than reinvent the wheel I decided to tweak a few recipes I've made before and come up with my own.

Wholefood Chocolate Sheet Cake

400g white spelt flour
100g raw cacao powder
2 tbs baking powder
250g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 ts fine sea salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
500g rice malt syrup
250ml water
1 ts vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius / 150 degrees fan-forced. Grease a 23 x 33cm tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Place all ingredients into a large bowl and using electric beaters, beat together at low speed until combined, then on high speed for 2 minutes until smooth and glossy.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approx 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Icing

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup organic icing sugar*
1/2 cup powdered coconut sugar (see chocolate icing above)
1 ts vanilla extract
1-2 tbs coconut milk

Combine all ingredients in thermomix or large bowl with electric beaters and beat until smooth and pale.

*I have experimented using all coconut sugar for the icing before and while the flavour was amazing it was quite caramel in colour which was not the look I wanted here. Next year I will be pushing harder for a chocolate icing so I can use all coconut sugar and some avocado as well.

I used a template to cut out the number 7 shape and did a crumb coat and second coat of icing before decorating with Hopper's 00s and 000s which are free from artificial additives.

So that's it. Our sweet but additive free birthday cakes for our sweet Mr 7.

How do you handle birthday parties at your place? Do you have certain foods that you just won't serve or does anything go?

Menu Plan Monday (18th April)

Is is starting to get cooler where you are? The weather is definitely changing here and we are loving the cooler Autumn nights. It means that soups, casseroles and slow cooked meals are well and truly back on the menu. Yippee! My big boy turns 7 this week and he has chosen homemade pizza for his birthday dinner with birthday cake for dessert.

On the menu this week ...

Monday - Slow cooked roast chicken with cinnamon sweet potato and greens

Tuesday - Leftovers from freezer

Wednesday - Pizza and birthday cake

Thursday - Slow cooked beef madras

Friday - Grain free pancakes with bacon

Saturday - Hash browns with poached eggs and avocado

Sunday - Baked veggie spring rolls

Monday - Sausage and vege bake

Tuesday - Lemon and coconut dahl with rice

Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise

Thursday - Chicken and cauliflower risotto (with leftover roast chicken)

Friday - DIY

Saturday -  Pumpkin and apple soup with focaccia

Sunday - Nasi goreng

What's on your meal plan this week?