Easy as pie II: Vegetarian broccoli, champignon & cherry tomato pie

I made this vegetable pie on a lazy sunday, so I used dough from the supermarket instead of making it myself. This time I used fresh shortcrust pastry. You could use puff pastry as well, but I think shortcrust is nicer for this combination of vegetables. I haven't forgotten my promise to post some recipes with dough made from scratch, I definitely will do that at some point!

Broccoli, Champignons & Cherry Tomato Pie:

• 1 shortcrust pastry pie base (from the supermarket)
• 300 g broccoli florets
• 250 g champignons (quartered)
• a handful of cherry tomatoes (the sweetest you can find)
• 2 handfuls of  grated cheese (I used a mixture of parmesan, rigatello & mozzarella)
• 150 g cottage cheese
• 1,5 dl condensed milk (unsweetened)
• 1 tbsp wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• olive oil
• a pinch of thyme
• tsp of marjoram
• (salt) & pepper

- Briefly steam or cook the broccoli (4 or 5 mins). It should still be crunchy, as you still have to cook it in the oven.

- Fry the champignons in olive oil. Again, don't fry them too long as they still have to spend 20 mins in the oven. Season with thyme, marjoram and salt and pepper to taste.

- Preheat the oven to 200°C (or 180°C for a fan assisted oven). Beat the 2 eggs and mix them with the cottage cheese, the flour and the condensed milk.

- Put the pie base in a quiche or pie pan (I tend to use a regular pie pan, which means I have to 'fold' the dough a bit at the sides.)

- Now put the broccoli on top of the pie base. You can just throw it in and spread it out a bit, or you can create nice circles with it, that's what I do ;-). Then add the champignons and decorate with the cherry tomatoes.

- Sprinkle with the grated cheese.

- Pour the egg 'mixture' on top of the vegetables and put it in the oven for 15 - 20 mins.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Cold soup for hot days (or teething pains): cucumber soup

Yes, I know, it's very definitely not a hot day in Belgium today... But my nearly 17-month-old has been eating cold soup nearly every day for the last month or so. He loves soup in general, but the cold soup is especially popular when he's teething.

This week I made a classic: 

Cold cucumber & yoghurt soup

• 3 cucumbers, seeded and roughly chopped
• 350 ml Greek yoghurt
• 250 ml vegetable stock, chilled
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (and if you want, some extra to garnish)
• salt and ground black pepper
• paprika for sprinkling
• (4 spring onions, cut into lengths and finely shredded to garnish)

- Purée the cucumbers in a blender until smooth. Add the yoghurt and stock and pulse briefly to combine.

- Pour the soup into a plastic bowl. Stir in the mint and salt and pepper to taste, then chill for at least 2 hours.

- When you serve the soup, sprinkle each portion with paprika, and if you prefer, some more mint and/or spring onions.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Lazy Sunday Food: Zucchini and Bacon Omelette

Omelette, tortilla or frittata is so easy to make, and there are so many different combinations of vegetables and/or meat/fish you can use. I bake my omelettes in the oven, as that, according to me, is quickest and gives the nicest results.

I made this one with lots of zucchini and bacon. Normally I tend to use 4 eggs (sometimes even less), but in this case I think I used 5 because I feared 4 wouldn't be enough to hold the omelette together.

Zucchini and bacon omelette:

• 100 g bacon, slices or lardons
• 2 zucchini (or approx 400 g, as sizes can vary a lot)
• 1 onion
• 5 (large) eggs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp tarragon
• (salt)
• pepper

- Preheat the oven to 180°C or 160°C for a fan-assisted oven.
- Either slice the zucchini and then cut the slices in half, or dice it, if you prefer.
- Chop the onion.
- Heat the olive oil and fry the bacon briefly or until it's brown, according to your taste.
- Add the onions and once they are glazed, stir in the zucchini and fry for approx. 5 mins.
- Beat the eggs with the tarragon, salt and/or pepper in a bowl, and add the bacon, zucchini and onion. Stir well.
- Grease a (silicone) pie pan with a little olive oil and pour in the mixture. Put it in the oven for 20 - 30 mins.

This can be served with rice, pasta, potatoes,... and also eaten cold on a picnic or day trip.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Lunch at the Zoo: Tabouleh

Often when we are going on a day trip or a picnic, I'll prepare some kind of tabouleh. A cold 'salad' with couscous or bulghur. One day we were going to the Antwerp Zoo and I thought I'd try to make tabouleh with entire wheat kernels instead. It loved it and the children finished the entire bowl, so I think they agreed ;-).

Lunch @ the Zoo: Tabouleh with cooked entire wheat kernels, lemon juice, chopped celery, spring onions, black olives, raisins and capers (served with hardboiled eggs & sliced cucumber)

Tabouleh with entire wheat kernels

• 1 cup of entire wheat kernels (In Belgium: Ebly)
• 1 bouillon cube
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 white celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• a handful of black olives, finely chopped
• a handful of raisins
• 1 tbsp capers
• (salt)
• (black pepper)

- Cook the wheat with the bouilon cube according to the instructions on the packaging (should take about 10 mins). Pour it in a sieve and let cool.

- Once it has cooled down, mix it with the lemon juice, pieces of celery, spring onions and black olives and the raisins and capers and season to taste.

I served this with hardboiled eggs and slices of cucumber, but you could obviously serve it with meat/fish/tofu and/or other fresh vegetables, too.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Cheese, please! Quesadillas

Time for something a little more 'exotic': Tex Mex food! My children love flour tortillas and this  is one of their favourite ways to eat them:

Quesadillas with peas instead of kidney beans. I'm not too fond of kidney beans, brown beans, flageolet beans, ... so I tend to either leave them out of certain dishes altogether, or replace them with peas. As a child, whenever I had to eat those beans, I would swallow them whole ;-). I do make sure the children get to eat them every once in a while, and so far, they even seem to like all kinds of beans. The older they get, the more I'll have to pretend I'm a beanlover, too. Who knows, maybe I could even grow to really love them?

Anyway, these quesadillas are vegetarian. No meat, but obviously there's cheese inside.

Quesadillas with peas

• olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground chilipepper
• approx. 400 g frozen peas, cooked
• 60 ml sweet chili sauce
• salt and ground black pepper
• 1 cup grated cheese (mixture of parmesan & old Gouda cheese)
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander and/or spring onions, chopped
• 8 fresh wheat flour tortillas (supermarket)

- Heat the oil and fry garlic, cumin and chilipepper for about 1 min.

- Put the cooked peas in the blender and mix them with the garlic, spices and sweet chili sauce. Season with salt and black pepper.

- Spread 2 large spoonfuls of the pea mixture on one tortilla, put it in a hot (pancake) pan with the tortilla at the bottom, sprinkle some coriander and/or spring onions on top and approx. 1 tbsp grated cheese.

- Put another tortilla on top and bake until the bottom one turns light brown (check by lifting it with a spatula or something similar, not a fork as it will tear).

- Turn the quesadilla over and bake the other side until lightly brown. Repeat until you have 4 quesadillas.

(Dutch version of recipe available on demand)

Ice, Ice, Baby (Making Ice Rubies)

Summer is nearly over in Western Europe, but today the weather forecast here in Belgium says it should be 22°C. Ideal weather for a cold but healthy treat! My Australian friends can look forward to making this in a couple of months, when the rest of us are freezing ;-).

Sugar-free Ice Rubies made with fresh strawberries, lemon juice & organic blackcurrant juice concentrate.

Ice Rubies

• 100 g strawberries
• juice of 1 lemon
• approx. 2 tbsp organic cherry, raspberry or blackcurrant juice concentrate
• ice cube trays (with nice shapes)

- Put the strawberries in the blender and blend them.
- Add the lemon juice and juice concentrate and mix well.
- Pour the strawberry lemon mixture into ice cube trays, preferably trays with nice shapes. If you want to, you can put a wooden or plastic stick into each ice ruby.
- Put them in the freezer for at least 2 hours

You can use fruit and juice concentrate with different colours to make Ice Citrine (yellow = mango and apple juice concentrate), Ice Emerald (green = kiwi and apple juice concentrate),  ...

I found the original recipe in the book: "Mijn kind eet gezond... maar weet het niet" by Lien Willaert. She suggests putting elastic bands in the ice cubes, so children can wear the gemstones on their fingers.

So far, I haven't used elastic bands or sticks, the children just pop the ice gemstones into their mouths. Obviously, they do end up with sticky fingers and faces ;-). Before I forget, I bought my Ice Cube Trays at Ikea: flowers, stars, hearts and little fish...

(Once again, if you would like the recipe in Dutch, leave a comment or send me a message)

Easy as pie (with broccoli, champignons & bacon)

Let's start with something nice and easy. When I posted this picture on Facebook, I received a lot of messages asking me for the recipe:

Little Elf's 'Special Request Pie': My daughter (3 years old) wanted a pie with broccoli and champignons in it, so I made one for lunch during a weekend and added some bacon. I bought the dough for this one at the supermarket, though it's probably healthier  to make it from scratch, but I don't have the patience to make my own puff pastry ;-). I will be posting some recipes for other vegetable pies with home-made crusts at some point, I promise!

Broccoli, Champignon & Bacon Pie:

• 1 puff pastry pie base (from the supermarket)
• 450 g broccoli florets
• 250 g champignons (quartered)
• 150 g bacon lardons
• 100 g grated gruyere cheese
• 150 g cottage cheese
• 1,5 dl condensed milk (unsweetened)
• 1 tbsp wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• olive oil
• (1 clove of garlic)
• (salt) & pepper

- Briefly steam or boil the broccoli (4 or 5 mins). It should still be crunchy, as you still have to cook it in the oven.
- Fry the bacon lardons in a pan. I prefer them quite well done, but that's a matter of taste (and it's actually not that healthy, I know ;-)).
- Add some olive oil (and some garlic if you like it) and the champignons. Again, don't fry them too long as they still have to spend 20 mins in the oven. Season to taste.

- Preheat the oven to 200°C (or 180°C for a fan assisted oven). Beat the 2 eggs and mix them with the cottage cheese, the flour and the condensed milk, then add the champignons and lardons and stir well.
- Put the pie base in a quiche or pie pan (I tend to use a regular pie pan, which means I have to 'fold' the dough a bit at the sides.)
- Now put the broccoli on top of the pie base. You can just throw it in and spread it out a bit, or you can create nice circles with it, that's what I do ;-).
- Pour the champignon 'mixture' on top of the broccoli, sprinkle it with gruyere cheese and put it in the oven for 15 - 20 mins.

Enjoy!

(If anyone wants the Dutch translation of this recipe, send me a message and I will make sure you get it.)

Welcome to Mmmhmama!

Maybe I should stop bothering my Facebook friends with pictures of the food I like to make for my children. It might be nicer to give them the option to decide whether they really want to see what I'm cooking/baking or not...

So here's an idea: my own blogspot with pictures and recipes of 'real' i.e. non-processed, healthy food for children. Not the kind of food you tend to find on 'children's menu's' in restaurants, as that tends to be almost ridiculously unhealthy and there are mostly hardly any vegetables in it.

Mmmhmama! is born!