Miss J is proving to be quite the fussy eater at the moment. She loves banana smoothies, but wont go anywhere near an actual banana. Apples and pears are eaten by the bucket load, but grapes and watermelon are nothing short of offensive. Pasta is a firm favourite, as are prawn dumplings (!), but getting her to try new things is generally difficult.
So when she came home from day-care boasting a new love for celery (!) and hummus – well that was a combination I could embrace with gusto!
Since then, I’ve been making a batch of regular ol’ hummus most weeks. Although, recently I thought I would be a little clever and sneak some veg in by adding roasted pumpkin.
Did it work? Not even close. She turned her nose up at the combination, preferring her usual hummus instead.
On the plus side, though, we now had ourselves a lovely recipe for an appetiser to contribute at a recent lunch with friends.
We topped the hummus with parsley, sesame seeds, chilli flakes and olive oil, and served it alongside toasted pita chips, cucumber and olives. Unlike Miss J, we loved the roasted pumpkin addition – and the chilli added a little extra zing!
But I guess it will be back to regular ol’ hummus for Miss J next week…
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
|
- 1 butternut pumpkin peeled and cubed
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 400 g tinned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 3 tbs tahini
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp chilli flakes
- 2 tbs water (as needed)
- Chopped parsley, sesame seeds, chilli flakes and olive oil (to serve)
Ingredients
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|
- Preheat the oven to 220C.
- Place the cubed pumpkin on a lined baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with cumin.
- Roast for 25-30 minutes, or until tender. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Place the pumpkin, chickpeas, garlic, tahini, salt and chilli in a food processor - and process until smooth. Add water, as necessary, to reach desired consistency.
- Spoon into a serving bowl, and top with parsley, sesame seeds, chilli flakes and a little drizzle of olive oil.
After realising that I can be a bit of a frozen puff-pastry hoarder, I’ve been looking for ways to make sure we use up the packets before they are lost in the depths of our chest freezer. Sausage rolls, in the traditional sense, have been baked in abundance for this reason, and are definitely a ‘go to’ for parties and entertaining. As are my favourite 
And just like that, the Summer holidays have come to a close. School uniforms have been ironed, school and day-care bags have been cleaned, and school lunches are again, inevitably, on my mind.
These were made even easier by using ready-made puff pastry. For all I had to do was top the sheets of pastry (I went with cheesy vegemite and “‘pizza”), roll them, slice and bake.
And while the kids demolished quite a few scrolls straight from the oven, the others were packaged up and placed in the freezer for a quick ‘grab and go’ addition to the lunchbox. My kids don’t mind eating the scrolls cold once thawed, however you can easily re-heat them for 10 minutes or so in the oven if you are wanting a nice after-school treat. 
So one dreary morning, my helpers and I got to work. Lemons were juiced and zested, biscuits were crumbed and condensed milk and butter were heated. And before too long we had ourselves a big tray of lemon slice, sprinkled with coconut, and ready to be sliced and served.
This was a great slice to make with the kids too. They had a lot of fun turning the food processor on and off, and stirring the coconut and melted ingredients into the biscuit crumbs. Bowls and spoons were licked not long after, and coconut was liberally sprinkled over the iced slice (and most of the kitchen benchtop, but let’s not talk about that…!)
This week’s healthy lunchbox treat was named by Miss C. For she is a big fan of lamingtons, and declared these little balls to be rather similar to lamingtons when I packed some in her lunchbox.
But, unlike their cake counterparts, these little balls have no butter, sugar or flour. Rather, they are sweetened with medjool dates, and given their chocolate flavour with some cacao powder.
Others I kept ‘plain’…
Kid approved!