When I was back in Scotland this summer I rediscovered several things I had completely forgotten about. One of these things was, oh joy, Flapjacks.

Flapjacks are not, as in the US, pancakes, but rather a gooey cereal bar consisting mostly of butter and golden syrup and oats, cut into squares and served almost anywhere you can get a cup of coffee or tea. They might have stuff in them (dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, lemon, spices, anything you can imagine, really) or they might have stuff drizzled on top (icing, chocolate, sticky stuff of all descriptions), or they might come gratuitously naked (it is Europe, after all). In any form however – as long as the baker has included the right amount of gooeyness – they are universally delicious.

Since we’ve been back I’ve fallen into the trap of buying bags of factory-made, individually-portioned, never-go-stale snacks for the boys. This, in spite of the fact that I love to cook, I prefer to feed them real food ¹, I don’t like to encourage the deforestation of the rainforest ², I like to be frugal where I can ³, and I have major guilt about waste ⁴.

So, thanks to the magic of the Internet I was able to find a few recipes for UK-style flapjacks to set me on the right path. I made a trial batch. The boys’ eyes spun around in their heads several times and I had to hide the rest of the batch (in the freezer, in case you’re coming over), which I took to mean that they wouldn’t mind finding these tucked into their lunch boxes from time to time.  So I made another batch today while waiting in for a dishwasher repair man who, it turns out, isn’t coming. Again. ⁵

And, because I know you’ll ask, here’s today’s version.

(It is very caramel-y, not overpoweringly sweet⁶.)

JULIE’S DATE FLAPJACKS

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 oz butter (I like salted)
• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons Golden Syrup (can be hard to find in the US, but makes all the difference to the taste)
• 1 3/4 cups Old-fashioned/Rolled oats
• 1/3 cup chopped dried dates (taster’s note: you could definitely use more if you really like dates)

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Line a 7×9 or 8×10 pan with baking parchment and butter (you can go more eco-friendly by avoiding the parchment, but you’ll have to butter the pan generously and it might be a bit more difficult to get the flapjacks out). I used a ceramic pan and the edges did not burn.

2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan or in a large bowl in the microwave, being careful not to burn.

3. Stir in the oats and the dates until coated with the buttery mixture. You can add spices at this point if you wish. I know how much you Americans love your cinnamon…

4. Slop the whole lot into the prepared dish, flatten it out, and bake for 30 minutes. Cooking time may have to be adjusted if you are a, using a smaller pan; b, using a metal pan – watch out for charred edges. You’ll know the flapjacks are ready when the oats look toasty, there is no evidence of bubbling liquid at the edges and your house starts to smell so good that the squirrels are tapping impatiently on the windows.

5. Pull out of the oven and allow to cool slowly. When it is still slightly warm and soft, pull the whole thing out onto a chopping board. Slice the big flapjack into 12 little square flapjacks and allow to cool the rest of the way.

You can store these in the freezer and they’ll last quite a long time. A frozen flapjack, pulled out and tucked into a lunchbox, should be perfect for eating at lunch or snack time. And honestly, if you have strong teeth, you can treat yourself to one with just a few minutes notice…

NOTES FOR THE ECO-FRIENDLY

I’m currently using cling film/plastic wrap to wrap them, but will soon be investing in some Wrap-n-Mat pouches to hold them (I already like their sandwich wrappers but only 50% of my children will eat sandwiches…)

NOTES FOR THE FRUGAL

Convenience food is so pervasive where I live that I think people lose confidence in their ability to make something delicious without setting aside great amounts of time or effort. I also think people lose sight of how much money you can save with a little effort. These flapjacks are an awesome illustration of both these issues. The prep work takes almost no time. They bake quickly and it’s hard to screw them up, unless you put too little mix in too big a pan and end up with paving stones, instead of flapjacks. But you have to try pretty hard to get them wrong.

In terms of cost, I worked it out for you. Even allowing for the exotic Golden Syrup (which was far and away the most expensive single item, but which will last through 21 batches of these babies), these flapjacks came out to $0.17 per serving (assuming you can eat only one at a time and call that a serving). My little pre-packaged snack packs cost $0.50 each.

If I served a snack like this to both of my children every day for a year, the pre-packaged snacks would cost me $365. The home-made snack would cost me $124.

Holey moley. Quite apart from the fact that I just blew hundreds of dollars on snacks for the boys alone (ha!), at least the home-made version saves me $241 ⁷

So go forth: cook good food for your little ones … and treat yourself to something nice with the savings ;)

I like to feed my kids real food as much as possible – rather than something processed and canned and overpriced — so I like to cook for them.

Back when they were babies I cooked everything for them. But when they were hungry, there was no time for  waiting around for chopping, steaming, pureeing.

One of my friends introduced me to the genius idea of making batches of steamed, pureed vegetables, freezing them in iceblock trays and then tipping them out and quickly zapping one or two whenever I needed them.

Fast-forward six years. My kids are still hungry NOW! (with the exclamation mark).

Last month when I was cooking up some pasta for lunch, I realised (ka-pow!) that I could make a huge batch and freeze some individual portions for later. But how to store them? I dont’ have much freezer space so lumpy bagfuls of unidentified frozen dinner tend to get buried and forgotten and quickly fill up the freezer. I’ve toyed with squeezing the storage bags flat, but even at that, they end up slipping and sliding and causing a slippery, pointy avalanche whenever I open the freezer; plus I run into the problem of reheating them quickly inside their plastic prisons which, I’m assured, is not the most healthy option. (mmm, melted plastic).

Enter The Dinner Brick

While an icecube tray would no longer fill the stomachs of my growing lads, I realized I had, in my pantry, a nine-portion mini-loaf pan.

I lined the pans one at a time with cling film ¹, dolloped in a three quarters of a cup full of pasta and meat sauce, wrapped up each portion and shoved the whole pan into the top of the freezer.

When they came out: bricks of nutritious goodness ready for the zapping.

(Sorry I didn’t take any pictures.  We just polished off the last one at lunch time)

Updated: I took a picture of the next batch!

The Fun Part

When I first pulled one of my little packets out of the freezer I was being hounded by a hungry six year old.

“What can I have? What will you make me?” he repeated.

Losing patience I slapped one of my nutritional super-packets down on the quartz surface where it made a KLONK loud enough to silence the boy for a moment.

“That.” I said. “A dinner brick.”

Admittedly, I did have to endure about five minutes of wailing about how he didn’t want a brick for dinner while I defrosted and reheated said item, but when he was finally presented with a steaming plate of pasta and meat sauce (liberally dusted with grated parmesan), his face lit up, and he dashed off to tell his brother that he was getting to eat a Dinner Brick, like it was the most exciting thing in thing in the world. ²

I’m planning on making more batches of Dinner Bricks in different flavors and contents, so that the journey of discovery can continue! I’m thinking mini shepherd’s pies, next…

And so, I give you: the Dinner Brick. Use it well.

This is a delicious, rich dark chocolate butter-cream frosting recipe, with hints of orange. Perfect for icing an 9×13 cake or 8″ or 9″ round layer cake.
Rich and chocolatey. No eggs in the mixture, but firm enough to spread.  Substitute vanilla essence or other fruit flavoring if you don’t want the Cointreau/alcohol.

Julie’s Orange Chocolate Icing

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4oz salted butter, softened
1/2 cup Dark Hershey’s cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp Cointreau

Method

1. Pile all ingredient into a bowl and beat until smooth.

2. Eat.

(This much icing will more than ice the middle, top and sides of an 8″ double-layer sponge cake.

I’ve never been a fan of salads.

It could have something to do with growing up in a country where a salad consisted of a few limp lettuce leaves, a slice of tomato and spoonful of Salad Cream. Salads were only ever served in the summers (which were notoriously short. Sort of regarded as a day here and there, rather than a proper season), and even the one dressing available is still marketed as “pourable sunshine” because the taste of it inevitably reminds us of those summer salads of childhood.

The introduction of the exotic ‘vinaigrette’ dressing some time during the 80s made salads a little more palatable, but still, i couldn’t get excited about them, but still never something I was likely to choose over a big plate of pasta and meat sauce or something with chips.

There is no denying, however, that a big salad is a great way to get in your 5-a-day if, you know, looking after your body is something that’s important to you. Which it is to me.

It’s also a lot of food-in-the-mouth time for the amount of calories it contains, if that sort of thing is important to you. Which, sadly, it is to me. (Sometimes).

So I’ve been experimenting with chopped salads and I’m actually, GASP, enjoying them.

What is a Chopped Salad?

Can you guess? Yup, salad. All chopped up.

The thing I like is that you just pick foods that you like, dump them on a big chopping board, get a big cook’s knife and start whacking away at it.

As you chop, things spread out on the board, so you corral them with the knife and scoop them back in to the center, mixing as you go.

It’s entirely up to you what to put in: if you like iceberg lettuce’s crunch, throw some in. If you like spicy mustard greens or spinach’s iron boost, use those as well/instead. Toss in peppers or don’t. Any type of onion, or go pure. Want nuts? Go nuts!

Today’s Chopped Salad

Today I used iceberg lettuce, because that’s what I had. I added a spring onion, some shredded carrots, some slivered almonds and flax seed, a couple of slices of deli ham and turkey.

Then I threw them all into a big bowl and gave them a final toss with my latest favourite salad dressing: 1 tbsp salad cream and a dollop of Scotch Bonnet sauce (thanks to Neil & Fiona for turning me on to scotch bonnet sauce) ¹

Oh, and then I threw on a handful of Cranberry Trail mix on top for occasional sweetness and crunch. ²

Mmmmmmm!

With all that healthy goodness in there, how could this salad not help save my life?!

More on Chopped Salads:

Jamie Oliver salads: http://www.jamieoliver.com/about/jamie-oliver-videos/ministry-of-food-green-salad

Tracy Porter’s All-American Airhead Chopped Salad video about how to make a chopped salad http://tracyporter.com/blog/more-tracy-porter/tracy-porter-salad-videothe-all-american-classic-chopped-salad

My Better Breakfast quest continues. Mr Kellog may have had a point (we do need more fiber in our diets) but his cereals just don’t cut it as a morning meal for me. The carbs burn off and leave me hungry. The sugar makes me sluggish. I need protein! I need ‘no hunger’ breakfast recipes. I also need to lose weight. So here’s my latest Better Breakfast Recipe:

Eggs make a good breakfast food: they are quick-cooking, protein-packed and satisfying. But I get really, really sick of the taste of eggs.
So I came up with this scrambled egg recipe. You’d barely know there were any eggs involved, but you get 1-2 servings of veggies and all the protein you can handle before noon!

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp butter (you can use a low fat alternative if you like, but I’m using a little butter. It’s natural and tastes good and satisfies my body’s need for a little fat)

1 egg, scrambled or two egg whites if you’re watching cholesterol/fat  (buy free-range eggs. They taste better, although that might just be the absence of guilt…)

Spash of milk

1/4 cup salsa (I use organic, medium or hot. Your taste may vary)

1 big handful of baby spinach, washed (if you don’t like spinach, throw in some other soft, quick-cooking veggie for added virtue)

1/2 cup black beans, rinsed (I used organic black soy beans which I bought by accident, and really liked)

A few shavings of Parmesan cheese  (because I love that umami taste. Use a potato peeler to shave a few thin slivers off the block)

METHOD

Heat your butter (or wimpy non-fat cooking spray) in your frying-pan/skillet of choice. I use a small, thin non-stick omlette pan. Medium heat, don’t let the butter burn.

Mix an egg with a splash of milk. Pour into pan. Allow to cook for a minute, until you can see that it’s starting to firm up at the edges.

Turn the heat up and stir like crazy until the egg is mostly cooked, but still looks kinda moist.

Toss in the spinach, stir until it starts to wilt.

Throw in the salsa and black beans, give it all a stir and allow to cook through.

Serve on a nice side plate, with shavings of Parmesan arranged artfully on top. Get yourself a cloth napkin and some water in a crystal wine glass.

Sit down and enjoy.

TIME

(Prep: 2 mins; cook: 3 mins; eat: 2-3 mins) 8 minutes

GOOD STUFF

Protein from eggs, cheese and beans, 1-2 servings of veggies with associated fiber, vegetarian (though no vegan, obviously), small portion, enough fat to tell your body to stop whining for it.

WW Points: 6ish

With me trying to eat healthily and watch my portions, Kev eating low-carb and the boys being 6 and 4, feeding the whole family can get a bit complex. Especially when everyone wants to eat exactly when they’re hungry, not a moment before or after.

I know I shouldn’t do it, but last night I made a multi-part meal — the kind my sister will be very familiar with (she has a carnivorous husband, a vegetarian teenage daughter, a son who doesn’t eat anything that isn’t bland, a chocoholic and a fourth child who is, I think a bit more catholic in her tastes than anyone else). I know I shouldn’t start dividing up our meals, but this one didn’t seem like too much hassle.

I started a batch of potatoes boiling, threw some meatballs in the microwave for the boys, and thawed the frozen sea scallops.

Meanwhile I grated some Parmesan and made a batch of Guy Kawasaki’s Teriyaki Sauce (see? This is why it’s useful to buy real food. If you don’t have a particular bottled sauce, you can just whip it up from five ingredients that you do have).

I threw some frozen peas and corn into a pot for me (the sole vegetable eater), then set to work searing the scallops.

This isn't my picture. We ate ours too fast. And they weren't this pretty.

picture credit

Don’t tell Kev, but there was some sugar in that Teriyaki recipe. A small price to pay, I feel for the lovely, crunchy seared coating on the scallops.

So, to recap, dinner was:

• The boys: garlic mashed potatoes, meatballs, Parmesan
• Kev: Scallops (a lot).
• Me: Scallops (a couple), garlic mashed potatoes (a little too much if I’m honest), peas and sweetcorn.

Overlapping ingredients. This is probably the key to my future family cooking schedule.

Oh yeah, and I’m glad Angus liked the potatoes and meatballs because I think he’ll be taking them to school for lunch tomorrow, in a food flask!

Round, frozen, hard, white.
Watery now, shedding your ice.
Patting, drying, there-there.
(Heating butter, adding garlic, a dash of oil.)
Take a teriyaki bath, there you go. Scrubba dubba.
Time to come out now!
Lift you, Sea Scallops, gently out of your tub.
Thrust you into the searing, flashing, firework pan.
Scorch your edges.
Throw some acid on top.
Press you into the hot metal until you squeal.
Grab you with shiny tongs and turn your unharmed side down — to the point of the burn.
There there, now. All done.
Cradle you, lay you down.
Admire you.
Devour you.

OK, so I’m watching my portions but I worked hard today and hadn’t eaten much so i decided to have a little supper.

Two small slices of bread, some thinly-sliced Brie, two slices of shaved ham, and a couple of cherry tomatoes, topped with some basil harvested from the garden in the summer and frozen.

Hey, if I’m going to have a sandwich, it might as well be tasty. Small and tasty.

Oh, and the small glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape isn’t hurting.

I LOVE soup. I could live on it. And when I’m not eating soup, I’m using stock to boil rice or other grains.

It occurred to me recently that buying stock is probably quite a lot more expensive than making your own. I haven’t steeled myself for boiling up fish heads or giblets yet, but I did make a rather nice vegetable stock last weekend, and it was extremely simple.

The frugal beauty of this is that the most expensive thing in this were the dried mushrooms that I threw in (and they probably cost me about 50 cents). Everything else was stuff I had anyway, and stuff I would have thrown away (I wasn’t planning on using the beet leaves or the hard stems from the kale, the outer cabbage leaves or its heart).  Shopping around, I found that vegetable stock can cost $6 for the same amount of the cheapest one I could find, $11 for the nice organic brand I like.

So here’s my recipe. It’ll need salt, of course, but I thought I’d leave that out until I’m actually using it.

JULIE’S VEGETABLE STOCK
4-5 Red cabbage leaves and heart
Beet leaves (from a bunch of three beets)
3 spring onions
thumb-sized piece of ginger, chopped
Kale stems
1/2 red pepper
soy sauce (a few splashes)
handful of flat leaf Italian parsley
5 dried morrel mushrooms
1 potato
10 black peppercorns
3 taps of ground sage (sprinkler lid)
16 cups of water

Chop up vegetables roughly. Place in large stock pot. Heat until it reaches the boil (which takes quite a long time) then simmer for 30 minutes (or longer). Leave to cool. Put 2-4 cups into freezer bags, mark quantity on bag, and freeze. Use as needed.

Makes about 12 cups of stock

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This is a great way to use up left-over baked or boiled or roast potatoes (if you ever have such a thing).

Delicious, nutritious and super-simple. Even my kids will eat this, and Weight Watchers approves too!

INGREDIENTS

1 large potato or several smaller ones
Olive Oil
Salt

METHOD

1. If your potato is already cooked, slice it cross-wise into circles about half or three-quarters of an inch thick. If not, scrub it, prick with a fork and cook in the microwave for 5-8 minutes, turning over once. No need to over-cook.
2. Heat a layer of oil about as deep as the potatoes are thick  in a skillet until it is almost smoking (if it’s smoking, it’s too hot. Taking off the heat for until it cools a bit).
3. Slide your potato slices into the sizzling oil and cook for a couple of minutes until bottom is golden brown and a little crispy. Turn and cook for another couple of minutes.
4. Drain on paper towels and dust with salt.

This can be left to cool and packed into a lunch box and, my five year old swears, makes a great accompaniment to a packed lunch.

SERVES 2

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