Low Fat Friday with Lucy: Veal Stroganoff - not spiky!

Hi everyone!  Today I have the lovely Lucy from Diminishing Lucy here to give us a low fat Friday option - I'm very sure I'll be giving it a go myself.  Lucy who lives in Adelaide is someone I became 'twitter mates' with about a year or so ago and we just 'clicked'.  We have a very similar approach to blogging, and our kids are of a similar age - and she has an Olivia. We finally met a few weekends ago and it was one of those times where someone is exactly how you expect them, and our online life easily transitioned to a 'real life' friendship.  Whilst swapping kiddy pics on our phones we were very shocked to discover that her Lexie and my Olivia look like identical twins, seriously!   We'll be catching up again over the Christmas holidays with the kids - will be great to see how they measure up in real life!

Liss has a number of stroganoff recipes, so I wondered at the benefit of another. But then we both realised that everyone loves a strog, especially as the seasons change and the slow cooker comes out.

And this version is a very easy, very low fat, very child friendly stroganoff.

My children (Olivia who is 7, Charlie who is 5 and Lexie who is 4) are all enamoured with it, and it was at their request that I cooked it this week.

It is mild but still has a little zing to it. My children like spicy food. They eat mild curries and chillis and mustard and if a dish is spicy, Lexie tells me "it tastes SPIKEY Mumma...I luff it."  I use veal as it is naturally leaner and lower in fat than beef.  Instead of sour cream, I use natural yogurt - it contains a fraction of the fat and a much higher protein value. The carrots add colour and sweetness.

It is far removed from a traditional stroganoff, but delicious and comforting and creamy and entirely guilt free.

Low and Slow Veal Stroganoff

500g lean veal strips or cubes
1 onion, chopped into chunks
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup of beef stock
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup button mushrooms, cut into quarters

200g tub of low fat natural set yogurt

1. Place the veal, the onions and the carrots in the slow cooker

2. Combine tomato paste, beef stock, cornflour, garlic, praprikas and mustard in a jug and mix well to combine
3. Pour this liquid over the meat and veggies in the slow cooker, stir to combine.

4. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 7 hours.
5. 30 minutes before serving, add the mushrooms and combine.

6. Stir in the yogurt to combine and warm through.

7. Whilst you cook some pasta, the mushrooms will soften and take on the paprika flavour, and the yogurt will dissolve to give the strog a divine but healthy creaminess.

Enjoy!

Sunday Baking Project: GUEST POST: Cooking with toddlers and for those you love - LEBKUCHEN

Well that's a mouthful that title isn't it? The lovely Megan from Writing Out Loud has so very generously shared her family recipe for Lebkuchen below and shared her tips on both cooking with toddlers and seeing past the mess, what long term benefits it can bring to your child's approach to food.


It's a wonderful piece and I really couldn't agree more, as you'll see from the recipe (we roadtested it and took loads (!!) of photos) my girls all love cooking and have done it since they could step up to the bench or at the kitchen table.


Lebkuchen translates as 'ginger cakes' and I often call them 'leibkuchen' (love cakes) as they certainly are something I think you make for or give to someone you love.  I first came across them when a schoolfriend of mine went to Germany on exchange and bought some back for me.  I got hooked - as I'm a big lover of ginger (and if you are I would suggest upping the ginger in the recipe by 1/2 tsp) I never looked back - this is a fab recipe that's a stayer in my house now!  Thank you Megan!

Megan's 2 year old princess Abbey - demonstrating 'The good bit'

Megan writes:

My daughter has been in the kitchen with me since she was a baby; first in her bouncinet, laughing at me as I cooked, then crawling into cupboards and rearranging their contents. Now, at two-and-a-half, she climbs atop a stool and gets more hands-on with the whole cooking process. 

Toddlers are never happier than when they feel they’re helping out. My daughter will stir, add ingredients, cut cookies, knead, roll pasta, attempt washing the dishes and, of course, lick the bowl (she may or may not have learnt that from me).

Some people question my sanity when I talk about cooking with a toddler, but so giving her little jobs in the kitchen is an ideal way to keep her busy and entertained. And seeing how much she loves it – she’ll abandon any other activity if anyone is in the kitchen – makes it worth the effort.

Why?

• Every meal or snack that my toddler helps prepare, she’ll eat, which has helped avert the pickiness that can appear around this age. TIP: if your toddler won’t eat vegetables, try letting them help prepare dinner. Let them pick at raw bits of things like carrots and beans.
• There are a bunch of skills that toddlers learn when they’re helping in the kitchen, including counting, seeing mum/dad read recipes, motor skills, and creativity. TIP: count measurements aloud, sing little songs as you stir, and let them unleash their creativity in decorating or serving.
• Toddlers also learn a lot about safety in the kitchen – but be warned, this can take some bravery on a parent’s behalf. With supervision, my daughter will now stir pots on the stove, turn on the mixmaster, and help me chop ingredients (by holding the knife handle with me). TIP: try giving your toddler a little bit of leeway with less dangerous things first, and only let them do as much as you’re comfortable with allowing them to.

Here’s a fun recipe to try with your toddler (sssh! don’t tell my mother-in-law I’m sharing her best cookie recipe!)…

Ingredients:

60g butter

2/3 cup golden syrup

1 ¾ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon cardamon

½ teaspoon cocoa

1 tablespoon milk

30g mixed peel, finely chopped

2 tablespoons plain flour, extra

Raspberry jam

Method:

Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add golden syrup and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and stand for 10 minutes.

In bowl, sift dry ingredients.

Add milk and peel and stir in the butter and golden syrup with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Cover and stand at room temperature for 1½ hours; the mixture will become thicker during this time. {Time for another activity with your toddler!}  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Turn mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly, working in only enough of this flour until the mixture loses its stickiness. Divide the mixture into two.

Roll dough out to 8mm thickness. Cut out biscuits with a heart-shaped cutter or any other cutter about 5cm diameter {Give your toddler some different shaped cutters and let them do this bit}. Place on lightly greased oven trays.

Using the end of a wooden spoon {or a toddler’s finger – they’ll LOVE this bit!}, gently push an indentation into the centre of each biscuit, but don’t push right through.

Fill with about ½ teaspoon jam.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Leave on trays until cold.

OPTIONAL: Melt 125g dark cooking chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.(Liss cheated by melting it in the microwave - 1 minute on 50% power, stir and another minute on 50% heat) Spoon on to a saucer for easier handling and dip the bases of biscuits into the chocolate. (Do this if doing it with the kids, they can have a saucer each) Smooth excess chocolate off with a small spatula or knife. (kids will do this with fingers) Place cookies, jam side down, on to trays lined with foil and refrigerate until chocolate is firm.

It is a totally delicious treat for Daddy (or Mummy) with a coffee or hot chocolate -enjoy!

Low Fat Friday with Lucy: Crunchy Vietnamese Style Salad

Thanks to Lucy for this wonderful (and flavoursome) recipe today - great for these hot nights!  Hope you enjoy and see you on Sunday for the Baking Project! xxx


Lucy writes:

This salad is a wonderful favourite of mine, and my husbands. Especially during spells of really hot weather - the flavours are gorgeous and it is so easy. And so healthy. But so tasty.  Plus, of course, it's low in fat. High in protein. Very low in processed carbs. And low GI. A perfect diminishing recipe!

This salad can also be made with beef, cooked prawns or sliced cooked chicken breast or simply without meat at all. To enjoy the fresh flavours combine the ingredients just before serving.


Crunchy Vietnamese Style Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:
250g bean sprouts
400g beef steak, grilled to medium rare OR grilled chicken breast OR cooked prawns
Handful of fresh mint
Handful of fresh coriander
Handful of small basil leaves
1 carrot, chopped into sticks
200g snow peas, sliced into strips
1 Lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 fresh red chilies, finely sliced
½ cup roasted peanuts or fava beans*, roughly chopped
Juice of two limes (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 tablespoon Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

Method:

Pull the leaves from the mint and coriander stalks. Place in a large bowl with the bean sprouts, cucumber, garlic, chili and nuts.

Mix remaining ingredients, whisk well to combine. Pour over salad mixture and toss gently to combine.

Divide the salad mixture amongst four deep plates, top with sliced beef/chicken or prawn.

* I use roasted fava beans as they are much lower in fat than peanuts, and much higher in protein. And they are low GI.

If you do try this, let me know how you enjoy it? And whether you used chicken, beef or prawns?

Sayonara 2010 - what a year you have been!

And I mean that - what a big year! Not just for me on a personal level but on this blog.

This little place I call my 'online home' has had a huge year too - with some of the recipes appearing over at Kidspot along with some others I did along the way (birthday cakes/food the prime-minister grew up on) and of course the Christmas on the Cheap Series.  I also did a few editorials over there with the very popular Meal Planning Prowess probably a standout amongst those - the Kidspot Team are very encouraging and just lovely people - which I guess the world has worked out too because their Kidspot Social has grown enormously over this year too.

I've contributed to Kleenex Mum's blog, their Mum's the word eBook and recently the KleenexMums Guide to Giving eBook.  Stay tuned because I'll be doing more work with KleenexMums in the new year (hint hint, go and subscribe!)

Frills has had some wonderful guest posters this year and I've also guest posted elsewhere - it's fun to do that sometimes!  I'm excited to share that there will be at least one regular guest poster next year which I know you'll LOVE. I was also very lucky to be asked to be a contributor over at Make it from Scratch, Sydney Film Festival and Sydney Children's Festival this year which was LOADS of fun.

The highlight of my bloggy and personal life was something you guys had a lot to do with - and was winning the 2010 Kidspot's Top 50 Blogger and my family will holiday in Dunk Island!  We'll be taking this in early June and I can't wait!!

I almost forgot the launch the Facebook page which is where I like to connect with so many readers every day and the newsletter which I'm getting the hang of - I love learning new things.

2010 is also when we started giving away subscriptions monthly to Super Food Ideas - and on new years day I'll be announcing TWO people who have won subscriptions - there's still time to be in the running for that one!   Do you know we had 17 giveaways this year? Wow!


254 RECIPE POSTS THIS YEAR!!! 254!!

I'm hoping to make-over my blog a little in 2011 - and give some new features which will stop me from waking up in the middle of the night writing them down time and again (or perhaps not) and also make it a little easier to use and access.

So here's to a fabulous 2010 - most unexpected and exciting success and here's to 2011 - whatever it brings!  Thank you for visiting, commenting and ENCOURAGING me.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Happy St Nicholas day! Enjoy some dutch gingerbread (Taai Taai) Guest post!

Now those people who said the Dutch didn't have a sense of humour - take hold of yourself - my friend Di (yes the one who chastised me the other day for bastardising her lolly wreath) has written a guest post for me today (probably because she doesn't trust me not to change it too much and offend Dutch people everywhere) about Dutch gingerbread.  Because you know, I know you haven't had enough gingerbread yet. Yep, me neither. 

So please enjoy this very humourous and helpful recipe from Di - and follow her on twitter - she's really funny there (and in real life too - wish she would resurrect her blog though...) - Thanks Di xxx

It’s St Nicholas day today, which means that all the good girls and boys put out their shoes last night  and hoped to find them filled with goodies this morning.

At least the ones with Dutch heritage. Yes, we get to have two visits from Santa.  Woot!

And if you are especially good, you will find in your shoes some Taai Taai, which is generally translated as Dutch Gingerbread, but which actually has no ginger in it atall. The English version o the name is “Tough Tough”, and yes, they are a bit. They are very chewy and hard. And delicious.

My sister sent me a recipe for taai taai many years ago, which I have never actually made, because traditionally Taai Taai takes 2 weeks to produce. Much easier to pop to Coles and buy some.

However, this year a hunt for recipes on the web let me discover this version at best recipes, that is almost exact.

I won’t be following it exactly, I use wholemeal flour instead of ordinary plain (and,really, it should be rye), and aniseed seeds instead of the essence. Mine is basically a mix of this recipe and the traditional one, and I am doubling the amounts used, because I need to bake for school and work as well as my own addiction. The parts in italics are not actually the recipe, but things that happen if you are me.


Ingredients

250 g plain flour

200g Honey

1 ½ Tbs Golden Syrup or Treacle

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

3 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cloves

aniseed essence

In a small (or large) saucepan, put 400gms honey, great big splodge of treacle, 2
tablespoons aniseed seeds. Wonder why you have a sudden urge to have sour dough
with dukka , olive oil and caramelised balsamic for lunch....

Over a low temperature, heat until it is almost boiling. This takes ages. Far more ages than you think it will. Don’t give into the urge to turn it onto high so you can get it over with. You’ll need to stir this a lot too.


Foolishly dip your finger tip in it to see how close it is to boiling. Burn your finger.
Curse.

Turn off and cool.

Sift 500g wholemeal flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 6 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp of ground cloves together into a bowl.


Wonder where on earth your cinnamon is. You had a huge packet of cinnamon the other day. You didn’t use it all. Where could it have gone? Look in spice drawer. Nup. Look on benchtop. Nup. Look on floor near benchtop. Nup. Sigh and realise that if you were tidy like Liss, you wouldn’t have this problem. Add heaps of cinnamon sticks to your honey mixture instead. Curse. And then add some ginger to the flour mixture, just in case.

Strain the honey mixture into the flour. Realise if you had your cinnamon, you wouldn’t have to do this

About now you should probably turn your oven on. 160C

Mix everything together with a spoon.

Now it is time to get your hands dirty. Get in there and knead that baby. Add more flour if necessary. You should end up with a squishy ball.

Line some baking trays with baking paper Run out of baking paper. Why was there only about 2cms left on the roll? Curse, and go the traditional butter route.

Roll out your mixture, or if you are me, pat out your mixture, and cut out shapes. These traditionally are ones of St Nicholas or Windmills or shiz like that. Mine are stars.

Taste the mixture. OMG, this stuff is mega yummy. Wonder if people at work and school REALLY need your taai taai. I mean, they aren’t Dutch, right? They might not even like it. Maybe it’s like Dutch licorice, where you really have to have been brought up with it, otherwise it tastes like burnt asphalt. Ignore evidence that everyone you have ever met loves taai taai.

Bung into the oven for half an hour or so. Take out and cool on tray.

Eat whilst hot. Remember that the traditional way says you have to keep these babies for at least a week before eating. Laugh sneeringly at the traditional way.

This stuff will theoretically keep forever in a sealed container. In reality, it lasts until people realise you have taai taai.


And a final note of warning: If you don’t have Dutch or German heritage, you may not have grown up putting your shoes out for St Nicholas. You may think “Ha! I now DECIDE to have Dutch or German heritage, because I also deserve to wake up on December 6 with a shoe full of dutch chocolate and specalaas and taai taai.” If you do this, make sure you HAVE been good this year. Because St Nicholas isn’t a woosie like Santa. None of this “just don’t get a present” if you’ve been bad. Nope, if you have been bad, St Nicholas’ companion Black Peter puts you in his bag and hauls you off to the coal (or salt) mine.

Low Fat Friday with Lucy: Crispy Turkey Goujons with Cauliflower “Couscous”

Today we have a guest post from the wonderful Lucy over at Diminishing Lucy - as Molly says: 'Do yourself a favour and check it out!'  I so love this post and hope Lucy comes back soon for another guest post - don't you agree?

The first time I had the pleasure of coming across Liss's gorgeous blog was via Twitter, when I placed a call out for cauliflower recipes. Straight away she linked me to one of her "Season Savvy" posts, and I was hooked.

I am on an ongoing journey to health, so I am always looking at ways to convert recipes to make them fit with what works for me: with what helps me feel good, have loads of energy, and enable me to lose weight. This means a recipe must:

• be low in fat
• be low in processed carbs
• be real food
• be full of flavour
• be filling
• be high in fibre and high in protein

I'll be honest, when Liss asked me to guest post for her, I was thrilled.

And then terrified. She has so many brilliant recipes - how can I ever hope to give her (or her readers!) anything new?

But then I remembered this - a firm favourite of mine, fits ALL the above criteria.

Crispy Turkey Goujons with Cauliflower “Couscous”

For the crispy turkey goujons:

750g turkey breast steaks, trimmed and cut into goujons
1 cup stale breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 egg whites, beaten
1 teaspoon sumac (Lebanese spice)
Olive oil cooking spray

For the cauliflower “couscous”:

½ a head of fresh cauliflower
The juice of 2 lemons
Sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
1 punnet (200g) cherry tomatoes, halved
1 Lebanese cucumber, halved cut into chunks
1cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup chopped fresh mint


1. Break the cauliflower into florets and steam in the microwave for 3 minutes

2. Drain, and allow to cool

3. Half all the tomatoes and chop the cucumber into chunks. Chop the herbs, and juice the lemons

3. Process the cauliflower finely, so that it resembles the texture of couscous

4. Combine the ground cauliflower with the lemon juice and the salt and pepper

5. Add the tomatoes, the cucumber, and the herbs and mix gently to combine. Chill.

6. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

7. Combine breadcrumbs, parsley, and parmesan in a bowl.

8. Beat eggwhites and sumac together in separate bowl.

9. Dip turkey in the eggwhite mixture, shaking off excess.

10. Toss in breadcrumb mixture. Place on trays.

11. Spray turkey goujons with the olive oil spray. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and crispy and cooked through.

12. Serve turkey on top of a pile of cauliflower "couscous" and with sweet chilli sauce on the side.

Guest Post: Cat's family 'Heirloom' bread

Hello friends!


Cat was sharing with me recently about how her grandmother taught her to bake bread.  Of course I jumped on that straight away, because I love how families share recipes and pass down traditions of food, and secondly, I wanted the recipe... for all of us.. of course..


So thank you Cat - and people, if you like what you read (of course you will) head over to Be Loverly.


Like many of you I'm a mad MasterChef fan and I've been quite excited by the commercials for Junior Masterchef which starts on Sunday evening. I just know those kids are going to blow me away...a bit like watching the gymnastics during the Olympics and seeing kids a third of my age achieving things I was never able to do myself!

I got to thinking about my own food influences and who taught me to cook. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time with my Grandparents and like a lot of kids, I baked with my Grandma who I call Bako. Here's a pic of my Mum, Bako and me on a special day some (nine!) years ago now.

My favourite thing that she made though was a traditional, non-yeasty bread called pogača which is eaten in the area from which my Mum's family comes from. It's actually cooked several different ways and there are loads of recipes out there but the one I grew up on is a dense, damper like bread. I say that as a point of comparison but really, it's nothing at all like damper and is far more moist and dense with a crunchy crust.

I was (and still am) really close to my Bako and she and I are similar in nature and I was keen to learn from her at a really young age. I asked her for recipes for my favourite recipes and found my little notebook circa 1983 when I was about 8 not so long ago.

You can see my "immature scrawl" here. Not my Bako's correction of my spelling in the title - cute!As kids my brother and I called it "Fork Bread" because part of the process is stabbing the top of the bread with a fork.

Now that I have an almost two year old little man myself I'm uber aware of what we eat and I'd much rather make things from scratch than buy them and I'm particularly mad about perfecting various bread recipes. Despite all of that it's been ages since I gave cooking up some pogača a go (I'd say before I moved out of home which is err, again far more years ago than I care to remember).

The recipe is super dooper hazy and I found it amusing to try and reinterpret it mainly because my Bako used teacups rather than what we know as "cup" measurements and cos she's MAD on both salt and oil in her cooking.

I did manage a pretty good batch though with the following recipe which I happily gift to you:


Ingredients:
4 and a half cups plain flour
3 cups of water
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon salt


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Mix flour, salt and butter together.3. Add water.
4. Knead to a smooth-ish consistency, adding flour as needed until it no longer sticks to the bench.
5. Push out to roughly the shape of your tin which should be a flat-ish baking dish (the one I used in the pic was a bit large actually).

6. Place in (oiled or sprayed) dish and stretch it out to fit at an even thickness and so it fills the whole dish.
7. Prick the dough all over with a fork (that bit's actually quite fun).


Until it looks kind of like this:

8. Place in oven and bake for 10 mins at 200.

9. Turn oven down to 160 and bake for around 30 mins or until quite golden brown on top and on the bottom when you lift it up to see.


10. Break apart - don't cut with a knife as it tastes not as good and serve with lashings of butter whilst still hot. It's actually very traditional to serve it up with sour cream.


The bread will last for several days in a fairly airtight bag and it's worth warming it up in the microwave a little to serve as it always tastes better warm.

I must have done an ok job as my house smelled exactly like my Bako's house.

My Bebito's verdict: "Mama, crunchy bread TASTY, more please!" Thumbs up methinks.

This is really simple "peasant" food and it brought back so many memories for me in cooking it. I'd love to know any traditional recipes your family has, especially if they're a little out of the norm like this one.