Feed The Kids – Zucchini Fritters

It’s school holiday time again and what that means in our house is a continuous cycle of food preparation!  I have been thinking about how to conquer the problem of the endlessly hungry child and have come to realise there is only one solution…have lots of food on hand!  Try these tasty zucchini,  chickpea and feta fritters.  They are delicious hot or cold, pack well for picnics and bike rides and can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Zucchini Fritters

 Zucchini Fritters

Inspired by Guy Mirrabella’s recipe in Hungry… just adapted a little to suit what I had on hand…fritters are great like that!

Makes 16 smallish fritters:

Ingredients:

2 large zucchinis, washed and grated with skin on, squeezed of excess juice and placed in a big bowl

1 can of chickpeas, washed, drained and chopped

1 cup of flour, I used spelt, normal would be fine…or maybe try quinoa, gluten free or besan flour so your fritters are gluten free

1 cup of parmesan, grated

1 cup of chopped fresh herbs – any you like but mint, parsley, oregano and coriander work well

2 eggs

100 grams of feta, crumbled

zest of one lemon

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season

(Rice bran oil for shallow frying)

What to do:

Put all of the ingredients in the big bowl with the zucchini and mix well.

Heat a large frying pan and add a little rice bran oil.

Add about a large tbsp of mixture to the pan and flatten slightly to make one fritter…you can fit about four in the pan at a time.  Fry for a couple of minutes on each side until your fritters are golden and crispy.

Drain your fritters on some paper towel and keep warm on a lined tray in a low oven while you cook the rest.

How to eat them:

There are lots of ways to enjoy your fritters…try some of these…

• Eat warm for breakfast with some yummy sour dough toast spread with hummus
• Enjoy warm for lunch with a green salad and a yummy yoghurt and mint dressing
• Put on a platter with some crispy snow peas, good quality ham, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and some grainy crackers for an afternoon snack
• Eat in a sandwich with mayo and spinach if you are going on a picnic
• give them out to hungry kids to eat with their fingers out in the garden while you finish your cup of tea!

What is your families favourite school holiday food?  If you would like some new ideas to try you might like to have a look at these yummy recipes…

Super food Goji Balls

Carrot and Apple Cup Cakes with Zesty Lemon Icing

Easy Tasty Pastries

Ultra Healthy Oat and Banana Cookies

And….thank you to Lee from Mummy Issues Part 2 for passing on the Liebster Award..a special acknowledgement for small blogs with less than 200 followers…

Now, the rules of the Liebster Award are as follows…

1. Copy and paste the award to your blog.

2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

3. Choose five blogs to pass the award on to and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

4. Hope that people you have sent the award to forward it on to their favourite bloggers.

Here are some of my favourites…(I think they are all small blogs, it’s sometimes hard to see how many followers people have…but these are great blogs anyway!)

Farmer K’s Kitchen - great healthy recipes…gluten and starch free!

Cherry Blossom Adventures - fun adventures of an Aussie mum living in Japan

Yogimama - Finding peace amongst the craziness of family life

Mummanubble - a lovely new blog written with honesty and integrity…go and support Lisa!

Becky and James - Beautiful photography and stories about family life

Enjoy your holidays!

mamacino x

Feed the Kids – Delicious Fruity Spelt Muffins

Delicious Fruity Spelt Muffins are perfect for breakfast, morning tea or a lunch box snack.  Dairy free and made with spelt flour, they are easier on little tummies (and big ones too) are sweet and tasty without the use of refined sugars and are full of fruity goodness.

Spelt Muffins with Pear, Dates and Walnuts….

Is anyone else missing summer fruit?  I am!  I LOVE having berries with breakfast every day but I’ve noticed the organic strawberry lady hasn’t been at the Farmer’s Market for a few weeks and the strawberries in Woolies are $7 a punnet!  Never mind, we always have our wonderful Autumn fruits to devour.  Apples, pears, bananas…they all lend themselves wonderfully well to baking and especially well to my favourite…muffins!

This recipe is adapted from my new favourite foodie blog, Whole Promise.  It is a delightful resource with wonderful, healthy recipes that the whole family will love.  For the original recipe, see here.

I used pear and date puree for my muffins but you could use any fruit you like…apples, bananas, pineapple, just to name a few.

Spelt Muffins with Pear, Dates and Walnuts

Makes 7-8 medium sized muffins

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of spelt flour

1/2 cup ground walnuts (ground to a small crumb in the food processor)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Wet ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup pear and date puree (or your own favourite fruit puree)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup rice milk

What to do:

Heat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.

Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl.

Mix your wet ingredients together in a seperate bowl.

Add wet to dry and stir gently until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.

Leo looking a bit worried about his chances of getting a second muffin!

Cool a little before digging in…these are SO lovely when still a little warm…you could even have them with a little yoghurt and extra fruit puree for a delicious breakfast treat.

Do your kids love a sweet treat?  Be sure to let me know what you think of these yummy delights.

Enjoy,

mamacino x

 

Super Snacks for Kids…Superfood Goji Balls

It’s the holidays and I don’t know about you but my kids are eating me out of house and home!  

Eating habits have relaxed once again and food that is designed to be a treat…biscuits, corn chips, bloody EASTER EGGS…are being demanded on an hourly basis.  It feels like I am trapped in a food preparation nightmare when really I should be curled up on the couch reading my book with a cup of tea (well, that’s what I would like to be doing!).  And so, in an attempt to banish the sugary biscuits and endless popping of packets, we have been doing a little experimentation..and it seems we have a winner…

Master L helping himself to the granola...

Superfood Goji Balls are a great little snack for kids and mums too…they are sweet, chewy, filling and moreish.  They are full of super food goodness like oats, maca, cacao and goji berries but without wheat, dairy, egg, nuts or refined sugars.  They don’t need to be baked so it is a great snack for the kids to make…that should entertain them for a whole half an hour!

Chocolate-y wholesome goodness...

* Just a warning…if you go and buy all the ingredients for these little delights in one go, you may need to re-mortgage your house…I have been stocking up on things like cacao and maca over a couple of weeks.  A little goes a long way, so once you have them in your stores, you will find lots of different uses for them and the investment will be totally worthwhile.

The original recipe can be found on The Wellness Warrior but here is how I made them to suit what I had on hand…

Makes 10

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

4 fresh dates, pitted and chopped

1 tsp maca powder

2 tsp cacao powder

1/4 cup maple syrup

1-2 tablespoons of water if needed

1/2 cup goji berries

Pretty and delicious...

1.  Place 1 cup of oats, dates, maca, cacao and maple syrup in the food processor and whiz.  If the mixture doesn’t quite come together, add the water too and whiz again.

2.  Transfer mixture to a bowl and add the rest of the oats and the goji berries.  Mix well with your hands.

3.  Use about a teaspoon of mixture to roll in to firm balls.  Dampening your hands first helps.

4.  Ready to eat and enjoy…delicious, chocolate-y, tastefull, wholesome and healthy…kids – knock yourselves out!!

If you like these, you might also like our no-bake muesli slice and our healthy oat, banana biscuits…

Happy Holiday Eating!

mamacino x