Category: Recipes

Inigo adores these. I have to fight him off to stop him from eating them before he gets to school. These are mushroom and fetta, chopped into a mini muffin pan, then I pour over a mix of egg and gream and bake. Super simple, but they do require a bit of forward planning. They also freeze relatively well, so if I get organised I can do a few different types to keep in the freezer for days when I can’t get creative.

The dip today is yoghurt with grain mustard.

And now I am off to research school junk food policy, after finding out that the crappy canteen food menu is now even crappier. Met another mum in the school yard who is really angry about it, so we’re going to team up and see what we can do.

When I worked in a Japanese nightclub, the chef taught me how to make Japanese rice balls (onigiri – translates to “housewife obligation). In their most simple form, they are a triangular wedge of leftover rice. My favourite was yaki-onigiri, which are grilled with a special sauce, and I never learned how to make them. There are many variations, with things like grilled salmon or pickled plum inside, or made from rice seasoned with furikake.

There are loads of different furikake, and most of them contain bonito (dried fish) so they aren’t suitable for vegetarians, but this purple one (my favourite) is. Perilla is a glorious herb that is largely unknown in Australia, though you can find it in places like Cabramatta, and it dos crop up in Vietnamese restaurants. The flavour is indescribable, and not really a lot like the furikake. I also doubt that the colouring is natural, and the list of ingredients does go a little bit beyond what I consider to be real food, but as a treat, I don’t mind now and then.

Inigo has had his social life at school pick up a bit, so he has been saying that he “doesn’t have time” at lunch to eat, and he’s been coming home with uneaten lunches. Oh, to be so popular 😉

He liked the Macro pumpkin and corn bites, but these were NOT a hit. I made a tzatziki dip to go with them, and Mark happily ate them after Inigo rejected them, but I don’t think we’ll be buying these again (unless Mark wants them!).

This one has apple slices with sunflower nut butter, which does taste a lot like peanut butter (and is yummy with apple slices!), but it isn’t dangerous for kids with allergies. So glad I tried it, we can’t give Inigo anything including nuts for school because there is a kid in kindy (not his class) with anaphylaxis. So that rules out most of my favourite baked goods, and a few treats as well.

This is a good way to get a bit of protein into his lunch when I don’t have a “main” with protein, and he loves it!

Some mornings I wake up and think “thank goodness I thought about lunch last night, I’ve got a plan”. But many mornings run more like – “holy cow, what am I going to feed the kid today? I really should have gone shopping yesterday”. This was one of those days.

I had some mini pizza bases in the fridge, and my friend Marion had given me a small jar of zatar to keep in the freezer, so I got out of bed a little early, mixed the zatar with olive oil, smeared it on a pizza base, and popped it in the oven for 20 mins.

I put plain yoghurt in the mini dipper, and the treat was leftover Indian fudge from my dinner the night before 🙂