Feeding Families

Tasty Tacos

~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

I have never been a mince fan … and my family and friends harass me constantly for it. ‘ But it’s just so versatile’, ‘what if I just grind up a steak for you?’. There’s just something about the texture that makes me feel all squeamish.

Anyway, it turns out that I have a husband and children who adore Mexican food … hello minced meat.

Since our diet is already restricted, I figured that I needed to try and learn to eat mince so that there were some more options open to us – I find I can manage it when it is in a largely veggie based meal like this one, or in our bolognese.

Tacos are are MASSIVE WINNER in our house so we hope you enjoy them too!

**If you are after a vegan option for your tacos – check out below the main recipe for how we make the switch.

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My veggie loving little sous chef
  • 400g mince (beef, turkey or chicken)
  • 2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
  • 1 finely diced brown onion
  • 1 400g tin brown lentils, drained and rinsed
  • Taco Shells
  • 1 large jar Mexican salsa
  • 2 tbsp Mexican Seasoning
  • 1 fist sized piece of pumpkin
  • Toppings – spinach, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, corn, cheese etc etc

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion til soft. Add the mince and brown.

Then add the seasoning and salsa. Then add the lentils and mix well.

Finely grate the pumpkin.

Add the pumpkin to the meat mix and stir to combine.

Bring to a gentle simmer for about 20 mins until the meat is cooked and the veggies are soft..

Heat Taco shells according to pack directions and while they are heating, prepare all salad ingredients.

Serve with mince mix at the bottom, salad next and sprinkle of the cheese your diet allows. It’s a great ‘make-your-own’ meal for the kids too.

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**The Vegan option:

Omit the minced meat and add in 300g of finely diced firm mushrooms, use them at the same place in the recipe as the mince goes.

Then when you are adding in the lentils, add 1 more additional tin of drained and rinsed lentils.

Make sure you use a suitable plant based cheese – and that’s it! Super easy and very tasty!

This recipe makes enough meat mix for 2 family dinners for us – we freeze the other half in an air tight container – perfect for when you neeeeed tacos next time 😉

Extra Tip: If you need or want to go grain free – then using large lettuce leaves as your taco cup works really well, and you still get a lovely crunch (and messy hands!). This is also a good option if you are soy free as I’ve yet to find pre made shells without soy.

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Enjoy 🙂

(Not so) Fried Rice

~ desertcook ~ 3 Comments

‘The best dinner in the whole world of ever time’ …. This is how Will describes my fried rice.  So nice when you get something right!!

This is a fairly regular feature on our menu because; it’s a meal that everyone loves, is easy to make, can be easily adjusted to cater for allergies, you can make most of it in advance, you can make it in bulk, it freezes well for emergency dinners later on and it is a muuuuch healthier option than the Fried Rice you’d get in a restaurant! What is not to love?!

  • 2 cups brown rice*
  • 4 cups of finely chopped veggies (peas, corn, carrots and bean shoots are our regulars)
  • 200g sliced mushrooms
  • 3-4 diced chicken thighs
  • 6 rashers short cut bacon, diced
  • finely grated, fresh ginger, to taste
  • 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup coconut aminos
  • 2 tbsp garlic olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock (Massel for a store bought variety)

We have recently been increasing the veg to 6 cups and leaving out the chicken, to make this a cheaper meal. To make it a completely vegan meal we simply leave out the meat and double the mushrooms.

*We prefer to eat Brown rice, but if your family prefers white, go with Basmati.

 

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The night before (if possible, but even a couple of hours before is ok), cook the rice so that it is just tender, rinse and drain it well, then spread it out evenly in a baking dish and refrigerate.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onion, chicken and bacon and cook for a few minutes. Then add the ginger and aminos. Cook until the chicken is browned, then add in the sliced mushrooms. Continue to cook, stirring, until the chicken is cooked through.

Separately, steam veggies and keep aside.

Just before dinner (if you’ve made up to this point in advance), reheat meat in the frying pan, add rice,  stock and warm over low heat for a couple of minutes. Stir in meat, mushrooms and veggies.

If your diet allows, you could also mix through some fried and chopped up egg.

It takes a few minutes to all warm through. This quantity easily makes 2 meals for all 6 of us.

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Chicken Risotto

~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

My kids aren’t terrific at eating pieces of meat, so meals that have everything mixed in together usually go down well – and this risotto is no exception. It gets scoffed down by everyone – in fact, after a torturous few months it was the very first meal that my Harry ate when he was 9 months old!

It’s easy to make and easy to adapt with whatever veg you have left and lastly (and possibly best of all!) it sticks together well, so it stays on spoons when little people are learning to feed themselves 😉

See below the recipe for the vegan option

  • 5 cups chicken stock (for an instant variety I use ‘Massel’ stock powder)
  • 70g nuttelex/vegan butter
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 brown onion, finely diced
  • 2 cloves crushed garlic
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or about 1/2 tsp dried)
  • 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
  • 2 cups steamed veggies (green beans and corn or pumpkin and broccoli are popular combinations in our house, but you can use whatever your family enjoys)
  • Approx 300g coarsely chopped cooked chicken.

Bring the stock to boil in a saucepan

In a large frying pan, melt the butter and oil and cook onion, garlic and thyme, stirring until onion is soft.

Add rice and stir for about 1 minute, ensuring the rice in coated with the herb mix.

Add approx 1/2 cup of stock at a time and stir consistently over a low/medium heat until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy and just tender.

Remove from heat and stir through the chicken and veggies. Serve immediately. Feeds 5-6 adults.

If your diet allows it, you could also stir though 80g of finely grated parmesan cheese before the chicken. Or use 1/4 cup of Nutritional Yeast for a cheesey flavouring.

For a vegan option for this dish, remove the chicken and use 2-3 cups of sliced button mushrooms. Don’t wait until the end to add them in though. Add them to the meal about 2 minutes after the onion and garlic go into the pan.

Total cooking time will be about 25-30mins.

I’m not sure about your house, but in mine, the half hour before dinner is filled with bathing, dressing and wrangling 3 hungry little people, so standing in front of the stove for 30 mins doesn’t work very well!

So I’ve experimented a bit and I’ve found that an hour or 2 before dinner, when I have a bit more time, I can follow all steps through until there is about 1- 1 1/2 cups of stock remaining in the saucepan. Turn off both pans and leave them covered. Then just before dinner, bring the stock to the boil and put the risotto on a low heat and finish adding the stock before following the final steps.

This one isn’t really suitable for freezing. If you do have leftovers, you could reheat it the next day, but add a bit of stock (a couple of tbsps) before you zap it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!