Sesame Beef Stir-fry

Here's a great family-friendly stir fry that we all enjoyed. Something that is great about it is that it doesn't need any allergen substitutes for my kids. My sister-in-law Soph has done a post with my recipe on her blog so click here to check it out. You can also read an interview she did with me the day before.

Pizza Bianca

Miss 2's pizza bianca

This is an entree pizza that my husband and I love, especially when it was made at a fabulous Italian restaurant in Perth that we used to visit. Pizza bianca means white pizza so it basically means no tomato sauce. We make this version (not as skillfully!) at home regularly on a small pizza base and we make a separate one for Miss 2 and these serve as a starter (not the whole meal - not enough vegies for us! It's more of a garlic-bread-type side).  We use the normal base recipe (sometimes we add the chia seeds) and then here is what we put on top:

olive oil
garlic thinly sliced
fresh rosemary, removed from stalk (we have some in our vegie patch - it's so easy to grow - but you can use dried)
Salt

Drizzle the olive oil so that it is generous but not leaking off the sides, place your preferred amount of garlic slices and rosemary on top and then season with salt.

Place in the oven and cook until garlic is cooked and pizza is looking pale golden. Yum!

Beef Stir-fry

This was one of the quickest meals I have cooked in a while and everyone really liked it! I just made it up on the run. Winner!

Serves 4

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or whatever you use)
2 beef steaks (probably about 300-400g), sliced into stir fry strips
1 packet baby corn, broken in half
handful green beans, ends removed and cut in half
2 carrots, julienned (as much as you are able!)
2 tsp GF Hoisin Sauce
2 tsp GF Oyster Sauce
Sesame seeds (optional)

1/2 pkt rice vermicelli (enough for 4 ppl), prepared according to packet (normally just immerse in boiling hot water for a few minutes) and then chopped (I use scissors) to make it easier for young children to manage.

Fry meat until almost cooked. Add vegies, stir fry until almost cooked. Add sauces (more if you want it more saucy, I went minimal in case the kids weren't keen on the flavours) and stir fry until everything is cooked through.

Place vermicelli in bowls and top with stir fry. Sprinkle with sesame seeds (you could toast them if you have time).

Enjoy :)

Autumn Spicy Rice

This is a Donna Hay recipe that my sister-in-law introduced us too. So yummy. You can get less spicy Chorizo sausage reasonably easily if the kids aren't keen on spice.

Serves 4-6 - it makes a lot!

1 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, sliced (but you can use any type of onion)
2-3 chorizo sausages, sliced (ensure GF - usually are)
200g butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (less if you prefer)
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups chicken stock
2 zucchinis, thinly sliced
Rocket to serve (optional)

Heat a deep fry pan over a medium heat. Add the oil, onion, chorizo, pumpkin and chilli and cook for 2-3 minutes or until onions are soft.
Add the rice and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 15 minutes.
Stir through the zucchini and allow to stand for 2 minutes. Top with rocket to serve.

Nachos

Serves 2 adults, 2 toddlers

300-400g beef mince (depends on how much meat your family eats really)
1 packet plain corn chips
1 sachet of taco seasoning or just some mexican chilli powder (mild/medium). If you want it a bit saucy, use the taco seasoning, if more plain mince with flavour use the powder.
1/2 carrot, finely grated
1/2 zucchini, finely grated
1/4 cup rinsed canned chick-peas or red kidney beans or cannelini beans
1 ripe avocado, mashed
1-2 tomatoes, diced

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Cook mince until browned, add in carrot and zucchini then add in seasoning/powder and some water. Once it has reduced again, add in chick peas/beans to heat up.
Place corn chips in individual bowls. Add meat on top. For people who can have cheese (or you could use soy cheese), put grated cheese on top. Place in oven for ~5min or until chips are heated and cheese is melted.
Add tomatoes and avocado on top. You could add more things like rocket or lettuce or more grated carrot. For those who can, add sour cream.

Frozen food

I mentioned Bayview Seafoods a while ago. They contacted me to let me know of their new website. Click here to see their gluten free range of things like chicken nuggets, crumbed fish, vegetable patties etc. Please note that they are not always dairy or egg free, so do read the ingredients list before buying it.

Meat and 3 veg

You really can't go past meat and 3 veg for a healthy complete meal. I mean, we lived on it when we were growing up. It is perfect for my children because there is nothing they are allergic to. that being said, they both seem to react to tomatoes, so we are going to avoid them (how to make cooking even harder!) because they get an itchy rash around their mouth.

Last night for dinner I gave them steak with vegies (boiled potato, broccoli and crunchy carrot sticks). I cooked the steak (half a piece of blade steak, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper) til it was medium, rested it (for half the time it was cooked - thanks Masterchef!) and cut it up into manageable pieces. Yum.

Sausages

Sausages are such a kid-friendly food. They aren't particularly good for you (unless you know what goes in them or have a butcher make them for you).

We have sausages once a week, sometimes less. I just buy beef sausages from either Coles or Woolworths and make sure they are gluten-free. Coles has a larger range of gluten-free sausages but sources tell me that Woollies are working on it. Great for a BBQ or big family dinner where the kids eat first :)

I usually serve them with boiled potatoes, broccoli, corn on the cob and some 'crunchy carrot' (my son's favourite way to eat it) and have tomato sauce on offer.

BBQ chicken beware

So far we have been fine with BBQ Chickens, but today my daughter had a reaction. We can't be sure what it was - the seasoning, what the chicken was sitting next to at some point, or if it was cooked on the same rotisserie that cooks ones with stuffing (?? is that possible or does the stuffing go in afterwards?), or the person cooking mixed in something when serving it (the tongs to pick it up, the gloves etc). So, we will just have to take note of the store we bought it at, keep asking questions about the seasoning when we can and keep buying the plainest ones we can, making sure there's no stuffing.

Tonight I served it with corn, broccoli and my rosemary potatoes.

Hurry Tuna, Please

From what I can gather from Google, this is a pretty well-known recipe in the US.

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1 apple, chopped and cored
1 small onion, chopped
3 tbsp GF flour
1/2 cup rice/soy milk
1 cup chicken stock (ensure gluten and dairy free if using store-bought)
475g can tuna (you can get away with less if you only have a smaller can), drained
1/2 tsp curry powder (ensure gf. I use Keen's.)
GF Pasta or rice for 4

Fry apple and onion in oil until lightly cooked.
Add flour and slowly stir in milk and stock to make a white sauce.
Add tuna, breaking it up well and sprinkle in the curry. Mix well.
Serve over pasta or rice.

The other night I served it with broccoli on the side, but if you want more vegies, I tend to use frozen peas & corn and a little fresh/frozen chopped spinach and put them in before the tuna to allow for a few minutes cooking time.

Macaroni with beef

Changing the type of pasta you use makes meals exciting!

San Remo GF (etc) macaroni - enough for 2 toddlers
100g beef mince
5 large cherry tomatoes, cut into eighths
3 tbsp Cannelini Beans
2 tbsp canned corn kernels
1 tsp olive oil

Cook the pasta as per directions.
Brown the mince with the oil in a frying pan, add in the other ingredients and cook until tomatoes are heated through.

Add cheese on top for those who can eat it.

Things in the freezer

For an easy Sunday dinner tonight we gave the kids chicken nuggets from the freezer with baked shoestring fries, cauliflower, avocado, broccoli and carrot. On a trip to Coles the other day I discovered Bayview Seafoods' Gluten Free Range. I bought the Crumbed Chicken Breast Nuggets and the Fish bites. They will be good to have in the freezer for throw-together meals. The homemade ones were still better for my daughter because, with only 4 teeth, she found the crust a bit too hard to get through. I quite enjoyed the bits I had off her plate. I think they will be better once she is older and more into things like chicken nuggets. A great one to remember.

NB The website says that some are lactose free, but they are actually dairy free (the nuggets and fish bites at least), which is good news for us.

Fish Fried Rice

We ate this tonight. My son asked for second helpings and my daughter ate all of hers (and she is unwell)! This amount gave us enough for seconds for 3 of us.

Cooked rice for 3-4
4 broccoli florets cut into smaller florets
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 capsicum, diced
1/2 corn corb, corn removed (keep the corn!) :)
1/4 (or more if you want) brown onion, finely diced
2 fillets of white fish (I used Basa I think), cut into 2x1cm 'cubes'
Soy sauce (I use Fountain brand because it's gluten free)


Cook the rice and the broccoli together until cooked. Drain. (I think for proper fried rice the rice is cooked a lot earlier and cooled. I didn't have this liberty and it worked fine. It was just softer.)
Heat large frying pan, add olive oil. Fry up onion, capsicum, corn and zucchini (I reckon mushrooms would be great too!) for a few minutes until softened, add fish and stir-fry until fish is cooked.
Add rice and broccoli and mix through. Sprinkle soy sauce (probably 1-2 teaspoons, but you can add more if you want) and stir through again. Serve.

If I had green onions I would have put a little bit on top as a garnish for the adults. I also mildly beat some egg and fried it up in a separate pan, cut it up and put it in the dishes for those who can eat it. The visit to the dietician also reminded me that I need to keep an eye on the rest of our nutrition and make sure we aren't missing out just because my daughter has to - she is only at risk if she eats it or comes into direct contact. She also doesn't get anaphylaxis with any of the allergens, so we can eat them around her.

Quick lunch starters

My daughter is usually very hungry by the time we are ready to start lunch. And since an easy lunch is pretty tricky for her (no nice soft yummy bread or tasty cheese that you can just put in front of her) I keep some things in the cupboard that I can just pull out so I can make the rest of her lunch.
Today she had:

a 1/4 can "everything-free" spaghetti (Orgran brand)
a slice of 'The Real Bread' bread toasted and spread with Nuttlex (dairy free margarine)
2 slices of ham (thankfully processed ham has maize flour in it so she can eat most hams out of the packet)

Normally she would have some fruit afterwards but we were at playgroup today and had a good amount of fruit for morning tea.

Canned baked beans are our other fallback meal. Full of protein, folate and iron.

Vegetables with Rice

This was a "what's left in the fridge" dinner that both my kids ate their whole portion!

Feeds 2 adults and 2 young kids with leftovers (so probably 4 adults)
Ingredients
1 small zucchini, finely diced
1 medium capsicum, finely diced
a handful of mushrooms, finely diced
a handful green beans, chopped
1 green onion finely sliced
1 carrot, grated
1 small can cannelini beans, rinsed
rice for 4
soy sauce and sesame oil to taste (for adults)
sesame seeds as garnish


While the kids were asleep I prepared the vegetables, put them in a bowl and placed them, covered, in the fridge.

15 minutes before dinner time I boiled some rice, rinsed the cannelini beans and then cooked up the vegetables with some olive oil in the frying pan.

When everything was cooked I cooled some of the rice down and added the cannelini beans and vegies on top for the kids and then returned the rest of the rice to the pan where I added some soy sauce (you can get gluten free if required) and little bit of sesame oil and fried it briefly to mix everything up. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and it was ready.

It is easy to leave out the soy and sesame if you need too or just add to those who can.