What have we been eating?

The Hungry Twins have had a tough week and a half.  They have battled new molars (how many new teeth can you get at one time??), gastro (from childcare) as well as (in the case of Skye) a raging case of severe nappy rash.  All this has meant that I haven’t quite had the energy to blog but the Hungry Twins are back on track now!

Although a bit grizzly from a bout of mild gastro, this didn’t really dim the Hungry Twins’ appetites – they still managed to put away a surprising amount of food.  Here’s what they have been eating….

Crispy chicken, pumpkin mash and zucchini

Chilli basil chicken and rice

Bangers and mash (with zucchini)

Cauliflower and bacon pasta

Custard powder chicken stir fry

More bangers with potato wedges, broccoli and mushrooms

Meatball pasta and zucchini fritters

Cauliflower cheese mac

Skye says more more more!!!

Perhaps I can eat this faster than Skye?

 

 

Not bad for too hungry girls!  One thing has happened in this time – the Hungry Twins have decided broccoli is passé and zucchini is IN!  Might have to grow some in a polytunnel to keep up with demand….

Semi-leftovers

A bit of chicken tarragon mince was leftover from last night’s dinner.  What to do (and still keep it interesting)?  The Hungry Twins have become pretty discerning lately – plating up the same food as yesterday just doesn’t quite cut it anymore!  Thankfully, there was just enough mince left to make some meatballs, cooked in the oven together with a tomato sauce.

Chicken meatballs – even better second time around

The pasta was immediately gobbled down by Skye, but Grace decided she would rather start with veg – zucchini to be exact!  After eating most of this, Grace then was happy to move onto the pasta and the chicken meatballs.  Skye was unperturbed by her sister’s antics and happily ate everything.

Now I’ll eat pasta…..

But meatballs are even better!

Yum to everything!!

The rule of leftovers didn’t seem to apply to the cauliflower cheese, however.  It was eaten with as much gusto as yesterday!  Dessert was another of the apple and oat muffins cooked last night.  I can classify those as a distinct success!!

 

Curry-led recovery

On the up and up, the Hungry Twins enjoyed one of their favourite dinners – Kirra’s curry.  A recipe given to us by a good friend, the twins love it with pasta to soak up the sauce.  Stir-fry veg and BBQ corn and the meal was complete!

Kirra’s curry with veg

The Hungry Twins ate all of the corn (none left for us) in the blink of an eye.

More corn, more corn!

I can’t have eaten all the corn already?

Next to go was the stir-fry veg and then onto the curried chicken and last (but definitely not least) was the pasta.  It’s good to see the Hungry Twins hungry again!  It was quite a shock to have them off their food when they were unwell this week.  I’m pleased to report that they appear to be back to their old selves again!

Curry tastes good!

Did somebody say curried pasta?

Another pear (although this one was a little under-ripe) finished off dinner.  Not bad!

 

 

Broccoli, peas and pumpkin

The Hungry Twins have been feeling a bit delicate these last couple of days.  A cold has left them with a lack of appetite, this is a new experience.  Last night’s dinner was broccoli pasta, which was easy to make and went down well (although the volume was a lot less than usual).

A family favourite

Well, this I will eat!

And it’s even good for me…..

Leftovers from dinner were re-worked for lunch today – you can’t beat broccoli and pasta!

For dinner tonight I thought I’d try a new dish – risotto with pumpkin and peas.

And now for something different…..

It was met with mixed results.  Skye really liked the peas, but refused the pumpkin completely and only deigned to eat a couple of mouthfuls of risotto.  Grace devoured the pumpkin but tossed the peas overboard (usually she loves these!).  Thank goodness for dogs….

Peas not pumpkin, please!

Hmmm, no peas for me!

And thank goodness for fish fingers and cheese!  A couple sticks of each and a bowl of yoghurt (just like when they were tiny) and that was dinner.  A bit hard to believe that the Hungry Twins can eat so little…..  Hopefully they will be back to their usual ravenous selves soon!  Although, I can’t say that the dogs are complaining – all the more for them.

 

 

 

Pasta with broccoli sauce

Dinner last night was a house-hold favourite – my pasta with broccoli sauce.  The Hungry Twins lapped it up, or should that be gobbled??

This pasta dish uses broccoli to make the sauce – sounds confusing?  It’s not – it is very easy to make and is always a standby dish in our house when I can’t really be bothered to cook.  The traditional version of this uses orecchiette (“small ears”), which is delicious but I don’t always have it in my cupboard.   The dish works just as well with more common types of pasta, such as spirals (fusilli) or bows (farfalle).   The bacon (or pancetta, whichever is in the fridge) adds a bit of saltiness to the dish and it works well with the broccoli.  We add chilli to our own dishes after it has been cooked, as we prefer different levels of heat.

Pasta with broccoli sauce

• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cooking time: 10 minutes to cook pasta (or as per maker’s instructions), 5 minutes to coat the pasta in the sauce
• Makes: 4 serves

 Ingredients

• Head of broccoli, cut into florets
• 300 gm dried pasta (orecchiette, fusilli or farfalle)
• Pinch of table salt
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 rashers of bacon or pancetta, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• OPTIONAL 1 small red chilli, finely chopped (you can use chilli flakes or we like to use homemade harissa)
• Grated parmesan

Method

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add a pinch of salt.  Add pasta and broccoli florets to boiling water, cook for 10 minutes (or as per the maker’s instructions).
2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon pieces in a large frying pan on medium heat until they start to brown.  Turn heat down slightly, add garlic and chilli (if using) and stir until garlic is soft.  If pasta is not yet ready, turn heat down to low to prevent garlic burning.
3. When pasta is just al dente (you won’t want to overcook it as it will cook in the frying pan a little), reserve about a cup of the cooking liquid and then drain the pasta and broccoli.
4. Add the pasta and broccoli to the frying pan, turn up the heat to medium high.
5. Stir the pasta to break up the broccoli florets and spread over the pasta.  Use the spoon to crush any broccoli stems to a pulp.  If stems are a little woody, discard them.  Add half of the reserved cooking liquid to help the broccoli coat the pasta (add the rest, if needed).
6. After five minutes, remove from heat and add freshly grated parmesan to dish and stir.
7. Serve, with extra grated parmesan (for those who like more cheese) and chilli on the side (for those who like it hot!).

Yum, yum. Love that broccoli pasta!

Keep the pasta coming!!

Peanut butter curry

Lunch was mix’n’match today.  Vegemite and peanut butter sandwiches to start and then onto the leftover cheat’s curry from the other night.  The sandwiches were eaten enthusiastically, although the tough crusts were tossed on the floor (a hazard of homemade bread – hard crusts!).  Cheat’s curry was ok second time around, but the pasta was the most popular item in the curry.  The Hungry Twins rummaged through their offering to find the elusive pasta pieces before moving onto the less-choice bits.  A bit left for Monty the golden retriever to eat for dinner (he won’t complain!).  A few slices of plastic cheese, some bits of pear and then grapes and lunch was all over!

And there’s another bit of pasta….

I can’t have eaten all the pasta already!!

Peanut butter for dinner

Butter chicken with pasta and veg

Made a butter chicken curry for dinner for the Hungry Twins, together with some pasta to soak up the sauce and some veg.  It wasn’t received so well.  Grace threw several pieces of chicken and pasta (usually a winner) on the floor and then proceeded to eat the corn and peas quite happily.  Skye, suffering from the imminent arrival of some new teeth, wasn’t too keen on anything.  A few pieces of pasta were eaten but everything else was rejected!  Some plastic cheese kept the Hungry Twins happy until we could devise another dinner plan….

Peanut butter on fresh homemade bread to the rescue.  Good thing we have a large jar of peanut butter in the pantry!

Saved by peanut butter!

Soft bread is ok on sore gums….

Then it was bread and honey (a recent favourite), followed by some slices of nectarine (probably the last for the year).  Perhaps their morning orientation visit to their new child care centre wore them out?  We’ll try the dinner leftovers tomorrow for lunch and see if we have better success.

Plenty of food thrown onto the floor.  At least the dogs had a tasty dinner…..

Pasta curry

Power was on tonight, which was a good thing seeing as it was 38 degrees today!  The Hungry Twins had a culinary mash-up of curried veg (our dinner from last night, cooked after the power came back on) with pasta and some Barossa chicken.  The chicken is another wonderfully easy thing to cook from Barossa Farm Produce – the chicken marylands are marinated in a Marrakesh spice, all you need to do is pop them in the oven…..

As well as being super easy, they taste great and the Hungry Twins ate a thigh chop each in about 60 seconds, so I guess they agree!

Is there more chicken over there?

Perhaps there is some chicken left down my bib….

This was followed by the curry pasta.  The Hungry Twins weren’t too enamoured of the veg part (Grace kept dropping the zucchini over the side for the dogs) but the pasta!  I am always impressed at how much the Hungry Twins can eat – at times I am astounded.  They easily ate a large adult-sized portion between them and I think if there were more, they would have eaten it as well.  Particularly Skye – she just kept putting each piece of pasta into her mouth and then looking for another.  Grace had a bit of entertainment by eating most of a piece of pasta and then dropping a little bit over the side for the dogs again.

Looks like dogs like curry too!

More curry pasta please….

Dessert – good old grapes and pear, some of which ended up in the dogs…..  I’m sure the pear will help to settle the dogs’ stomachs after the curry!

Pasta makes perfect!

Yum – pasta with chicken cacciatore is the best!  Perhaps my sister can share….