Lazy Sushi for School Mornings

My kids love sushi and it works for me because it's naturally GF, filling and nice and healthy. But when I think about making it, it seems way too hard - especially on a school morning. I know, I know, it's not really that hard. But on a school morning it never hurts to make things just that little bit easier - yes?

So this is my lazy sushi. I'm pretty excited about this because it's so fast and my kids love it. When Ben in particular brings home an empty lunch box I'm always happy.

Firstly, the rice. Buy your sushi rice (has to be sushi rice) from an asian supermarket not a normal supermarket. It's much much cheaper that way. I cooked mine in a pressure cooker - 2 C rice with 2 C water for 7 mins on low. Then I mixed in 3 Tbsp of rice wine vinegar (check for GF status) with a fork and left it to cool.  This was enough for two lunches for two kids, with some left over which I froze for next time.

The next thing you'll need is a rice mould. I bought mine for $2.80 from a Japanese shop but I bet there are loads of them online too. If you don't have one you could also just make balls from the rice or try to make the rolls with your hands.

These two halves fit inside a plastic frame  - so you put one half in the frame, fill it to the top with rice (pressing down firmly) then put the other half on top face down and squeeze. The frame slides off and you remove the two halves of the mould to reveal three rolls like this:

Then all I do is cut or rip a piece of nori and wrap it around the outside. I've also seen them with sesame seeds sprinkled over the top but my little guy wasn't so keen on that. The whole thing takes less than a minute.

My daughter likes filling in her sushi and it didn't work too well when I tried to do layer of vegetables in the rice mould. So instead I made her a sushi salad. Just add whatever you like to your sushi rice, rip up some nori and dribble over some GF soy sauce.

There we go - lazy sushi. No rolling, no bamboo mats! Have a great day everyone.

Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Applesauce Muffins

GF, VG, EF, DF, NF

I had a request for this recipe so I'm posting it now, but the photo above isn't mine. It's taken from yummly.com and it's of the muffins that I used as my starting point. The original recipe is far far too long for me to bother with. I need quick simple recipes that are easy to remember so I've taken bits out and made it much less work. I'll try and make these this weekend so I can post you a photo of the real thing, they look pretty similar.

The first step is to make some applesauce. You can buy it of course, but it's so cheap and simple to make and you can store it in the freezer for months. I use applesauce like you would use an egg in baking, it's so adaptable too - porridge, desserts, cakes, muffins, pancakes... you can use applesauce just about everywhere.

To make the sauce I de-stalk then chop up as many apples as I have on hand. I don't peel them or deseed them, I just make sure they're washed well. I try to only get organic apples but if they're not then I will add some white vinegar (about 1/4C) to a sink full of water and let the apples soak in there for about 30 mins before cooking with them.

Once they're chopped up into chunks I put them into my pressure cooker and add 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 C of water. Then I cook on medium pressure for 10 minutes. I allow them to cool a little and then I blend everything up using a stick blender.  That's it - couldn't be simpler. I do this when apples are in season and defrost a container of it as I need it.

If you don't have a pressure cooker then boiling them up in a big stock pot would work, a slow cooker would be just as good too.

Now on to the muffins!

Ingredients:

1 C GF flour (I tend to use 1/2 C brown rice flour, 1/4 C buckwheat and 1/4 C tapioca starch but you can use a store bought blend).

1/2 C cane sugar or maple syrup

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 C grated carrot

1/2 C applesauce

1/2 C non dairy milk such as rice or soy milk

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and carrot in a bowl. Add the applesauce then add the milk slowly. Depending on your flour you may need more or less milk so add it slowly and stop when it reaches a good thick batter consistency. If you like you can add raisins or nuts at this stage.  Spoon into a greased muffin pan and bake at 180 degrees C for around 20 mins but keep checking as it will depend on your oven and muffin pan.

Although I don't really like baking in silicone pans I do use one for GF muffins. They never stick and it's easy to get any kind of muffin out of the pan. If you use a metal pan make sure it's very well greased or use muffin papers. I get 8 big muffins or 12 smaller ones from this mix.

Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

GF, VG, DF, EF, NF
(Photos will be added this weekend!)

This is my never fail cookie recipe. It's an adaptation of an Apricot Thumbprint recipe from Flying Apron and I have added all sorts of things to it - mixed spice, cacao powder, jam topping, nuts and chocolate chips.


Ingredients

1 2/3 C brown rice flour
3/4 chickpea or garbanzo flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
small pinch sea salt
1/2 C vegan chocolate chips (dark chocolate is often dairy free, otherwise there are specialty allergy brands like Sweet William)
1/2 C canola oil or other neutral oil
1/2 C cane sugar
1/2 C rice, soy or almond milk

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C or 375 degrees F.

Combine the brown rice flour, chickpea flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl with a whisk.

In another bowl combine the oil, sugar and milk and stir until everything is mixed well and thick.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well, then add the chocolate chips.

Form small balls and bake on a tray lined with baking paper for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get too dark.

Makes about 20 cookies.

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School lunches - Planetbox Review.

Last week an exciting online purchase arrived at the front door. It was my long awaited Planetbox lunchbox. Well, Ben's lunchbox actually. These things are expensive and because you can't purchase them in Australia I also had to spring for a substantial shipping cost as well. It was with a lot of thought that I finally hit the 'confirm' button at the checkout!

Was it worth it? I can honestly say that it was. We bought the Rover complete set which came with an insulated lunch bag, magnets for the top, two dipper containers and the stainless steel bento style lunchbox. I also bought the cold sleeve which you can freeze and pop into a pocket inside the lunch bag to keep things cool. The lunch bag also has a spot for utensils and two pockets on the outside - one for a drink bottle and one for the big dipper container. Ben chose a black bag with space magnets but there are lots of options, and thankfully the accessories aren't too expensive on their own so you can change them as your child gets older.

The insulation and the cold sleeve were two reasons I really liked the idea of this lunchbox. Because it's metal it cools down really quickly and stays cold. That's important because we live in a hot climate and without sandwiches to fall back on I am often packing meat or rice for Ben's lunch. I've never been comfortable sending meat to school to sit there for hours so this gives me peace of mind and opens up some new lunch ideas that I would have considered unsafe before.

We've used the lunchbox for a full school week and it's been brilliant. I've packed fruit and we haven't had any leaks. Ben can easily open and shut the latch on his own and he's had no trouble opening the dipper containers. I love that the box stays in the lunch bag so that it won't get scratched and knocked about like his other plastic lunch boxes (we have been through 3 plastic ones this year already).

I have loved not searching for containers and lids in the morning. Even better is not having to tackle the complicated jigsaw puzzle of fit-the-containers-in-the-box. Ben is eating more lunch than he ever has because he can see it all in front of him and doesn't have to bother with little screw top containers. My biggest issue with him and his lunches has been that he can't be bothered opening anything to see what's inside, so he often won't eat for the whole day. He doesn't have a huge appetite so I guess the incentive wasn't there.

I never would have thought that a lunch box could be a game changer, but it really has made my mornings better. Making school lunches used to be one of my most hated chores but I really am enjoying them now. So much so that I bought another set for my daughter and a larger 'Launch' set for my husband.

Here are some photos of 4 of this week's allergy friendly lunches in the new box.

(GF, vegan apple sauce and carrot muffin, GF vegan choc chip cookie, walnuts, avocado and cucumber sushi, kiwifruit)

(apple sauce and carrot muffin from freezer, brown rice crackers and roasted broad beans, GF pizza bread with home made hummus, strawberries and GF marshmallow treat)

(white corn tortillas toasted and cut up with home made hummus, roasted broad beans and rice crackers, thai coconut sticky rice pudding with peaches, kiwifruit)

(GF, vegan chocolate cake, chickpea chips, GF vegan bread roll with avocado and salmon, strawberries)

Recipes for the baked items will follow in the next couple of days. The bread roll is a brand called Zehnder that I discovered by accident in the freezer section of our local IGA. They make a great, fluffy bread roll which we use for hamburgers or the occasional lunch roll like the one above.

So the low down?

The rover set cost us USD 59.95 plus shipping. All up it came to almost $100 Australian.

It's easy to wash, strong, and can fit enough food for my kids (6 and 9). There is a larger version for older (or hungrier) kids and adults.

The only downside for me is the price, particularly the shipping costs. There is no shipping discount for buying more than one item and when my next parcel arrives I will be checking carefully to see if I have been overcharged. I do think that the lunch box will pay for itself after a while because I won't be buying wrap or any more containers / snack tubes / lunch boxes (hooray!).

For more info see: Planetbox

Steamed Rice and Chicken Buns with Asian Noodle Salad

GF, DF, EF

Asian food can be tricksy when it comes to allergy friendly cooking. My kids love the bold fresh flavours of asian food so tonight I decided to try out something new. Not only was it new, it involved a dough. I have a history of GF dough flops so I was a bit nervous about trying this one. As it turns out, it was pretty easy and they came out really soft, sweet and delicious. The recipe looks a little long, but most of it you can prepare and leave.

The chicken (filling for the buns and for the salad)

500g good quality boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 C water
1/2 C balsamic vinegar (GF)
2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/3 C GF soy sauce such as tamari
1 clove garlic
1 bunch of asian green such as bok choy washed and chopped finely

Mix together all ingredients except the chicken in a shallow pan and place on medium heat. Add the chicken and simmer for approx 20 mins until the liquid has reduced and is sticky. Keep turning the chicken so that both sides are nice and brown. When the liquid starts to go sticky remove the chicken and add the greens to the sauce. Continue simmering until the liquid reduces further and becomes a glaze. Chop the chicken and place in a bowl then add the greens and remaining sauce.

For the buns:

1 Tbsp dry yeast
1 1/2 C luke warm water
1/4 C honey
2 C glutinous rice flour (this is GF despite the name, and found in Asian supermarkets)
2.5 C fine rice flour
1/2 C olive or vegetable oil
Sesame seeds

Place the warm water, the yeast and the honey in a bowl and stir until dissolved. Whisk in the 2 C of glutinous rice flour and cover the bowl with cling film. Place in a warm spot for 30-40 mins until the mixture is bubbly.

Add the 2.5 C of rice flour and the oil and stir until combined. Knead with your hands and form into balls a little bigger than a golf ball. It's not going to be a smooth elastic dough but never fear - it'll work. Wet your hands if that makes it easier. I got around 10 balls from my dough. Place the balls onto a tray lined with baking paper.

To form the buns press each ball with the heel of your hand to form a disc. Add 1 Tbsp of the chicken mix and fold the edges around the chicken. You're meant to pinch it to seal but my dough was rather cakey and difficult to handle so I made a ball as best as I could using wet hands. If there are some cracks just smooth them over, and if some sauce leaks out don't worry about it! You can see from the pic below that it's a dry dough rather than a traditional elastic wheat based dough. You can use this recipe for dumplings as well by rolling it out thinner and placing filling inside before folding it over.

To cook the buns place a bamboo steamer over a wok or large pan with water covering the bottom of the pan. Line the steamer with baking paper and use some spray oil if you have some. Place 3 - 4 buns in the steamer at a time, making sure that they don't touch each other or the sides of the steamer. Place the lid on and steam for 15 mins. Don't peek! But do make sure the pan doesn't boil dry. Keep topping it up as you go. Keep the first batch of buns warm while you make the second. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you wish.

For the salad

1 'cake' of vermicelli noodles (rice)
2 carrots grated
1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into batons
1 bunch coriander leaves
Sesame seeds

Place rice vermicelli noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water.

Add vegetables, coriander, sesame seeds and remaining chicken in a bowl. After 10 mins add the drained noodles. Run a sharp knife through the noodles in the bowl a few times to chop them up. Toss everything together.

There we go! And you thought you'd never be able to eat dumplings or steamed buns again.

Vegan Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Stew with Millet (from Veganomicon)

VG, GF

Yesterday the weather was a bit cooler so I decided to use up an eggplant I had in the fridge in the form of a stew. I'm eating a lot of vegan dishes at the moment and really enjoying them. My absolute favourite vegan cookbook is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It has everything you need to know about vegan food in it and is great for beginners.

So, back to my stew. After I decided to make it I realised that my cookbook is with a pile of precious things at my husband's work due to the bush fires we've had here recently (see, I told you the cookbook is good - it made it into the "must take" pile!). We evacuated on Wednesday and now we have things scattered about all over the place so that if the fire hits our house we'll still have a few important bits and pieces. Another thing that's been evacuated is my DSLR camera. The pics of this post were taken with my phone, so my apologies. Without my recipe book this is an adaption of the original using other blog posts I found and my memory.

The first step to this stew is roasting some eggplant, garlic and red capsicum on a tray. I heated the oven to 200 degrees C and put 1 eggplant sliced up, two capsicum halved and seeds removed, and some cloves of garlic with the skins on onto the tray. I sprayed a bit of olive oil over everything and popped it into the oven for around 25 mins.

This is it when it came out. Yummo right? Then I put the capsicums into a plastic ziplock bag and sealed it up so that they steamed. This is to make the skins easier to peel off.

While that was happening I sautéed a diced onion in some oil and then when it was turning brown I added 2 cloves of minced garlic.  After that I added 1/2C vegetable stock, 1 tin diced tomatoes, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp salt. Once that was all happening I added the eggplant, squeezed out the garlic from the skins, and added the peeled and chopped capsicum. The last step was to add a drained tin of chickpeas. You can add a little more water at this stage if it's too thick.

Once it was all mixed up I let it sit for 20 mins off the heat with the lid on while I made the millet. 

Millet is a really yummy GF alternative to couscous. We buy hulled millet from the food co-op and  use it in place of rice or couscous with a casserole or a stew.  You can add flavouring to it or vegetables for a complete meal or have it cold as a salad. It's cooked using the absorption method with a 3:1 ratio of water to millet. Once it's boiling turn the heat down as low as it'll go and place a lid onto the pot. 1C of millet takes me around 20 mins to cook. Check it regularly so that it doesn't catch on the bottom. Once the water has almost absorbed take it off the heat and leave it for another 5 mins or so with the lid on to steam then fluff with a fork.

We served it with a little parsley over the top. 

The kids had the stew and millet and also some beef which I covered in rice milk and then rice crumbs. Even though I'm eating vegan food a lot I still want to give meat to Ben regularly because he's already on such a restricted diet, and he needs the protein.

I got a great deal on some organic beef from Coles, this will do 3 meals for the kids.

Ingredient list:

1 large eggplant

2 red capsicum

olive oil

garlic

1 onion

vegetable stock

1 tin tomatoes

1 tin chickpeas

salt

paprika

oregano

millet, polenta, couscous or rice

Gluten Free Anzac Biscuits

GF, DF (option), VG (option), EF

Everyone down this end of the world loves an Anzac right? There's no reason why those of us on gluten, egg or dairy free diets should miss out. Here's an easy and delicious recipe for allergy friendly Anzac biscuits.

Ingredients:

125g ghee (or use a DF margarine for a DF option)
1C GF flour (use your favourite baking blend, or try 1/2C buckwheat and 1/2C brown rice flour)
1C quinoa flakes
1C desiccated coconut
2/3C raw or brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp boiling water
2 Tbsp golden syrup or maple syrup

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Mix flour, quinoa flakes, coconut and sugar in a large bowl.

Melt ghee or margarine and syrup in a pan on medium heat.

Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix well. Make sure that when you press a spoon to the side of the bowl that the mixture sticks together and is not too crumbly.

Grease and line a baking tray. Using a tablespoon, form flat shaped balls and place on tray.

Cook for 16 - 20 mins (depending on whether you like a darker, chewier Anzac or a golden soft Anzac)

Makes approximately 15 medium sized biscuits.

Enjoy!