Child Friendly Risotto

Bacon and Courgette Risotto with Parmesan Cheese

After a day at home feeling like poo (I have caught my son's virus) I picked up my children from school and kindergarden, and asked them what they'd like for dinner.  'Rice' was the response.  My youngest would live on boiled rice given the opportunity.  How boring but I can understand the appeal of steaming bowl of rice.  Then it dawned on me that I had not infact made a Risotto for a very long time.  And that my children should expand their eating horizons.  So a look through the cupboards found some arborio rice (a must for an authentic risotto), some bacon and courgettes.  As my children are allergic to all things green, I ended up peeling and grating the courgettes in an attempt to disguise them. 

Arborio Rice for making authentic Risotto

Bacon and Courgette Risotto

Ingredients
1 onion chopped
1 tablespoon garlic oil
2 courgettes peeled and grated
100g bacon pieces (fat removed)
200g arborio rice
4 cups warm chicken stock
knob butter
parmesan cheese

Method
Saute the bacon, onions and courgettes in the garlic oil until soft.  Add the rice and fry for a minute or so until the rice is coated.  Slowly start adding the stock a soup ladle at a time, stirring until the stock is absorbed before adding the next ladle full.  It should take 20 minutes for the rice to absorb all the stock.  Once the risotto is fully stocked, add a knob of butter and stir through until melted.  Check the flavour.  It may not need salt as the bacon and stock are quite salty.  It should require a grind or two of black pepper.  Serve in a bowl with grated parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.

Risotto before adding the Cheese

As I felt the need for greens myself, I ended up adding some chopped baby spinach leaves to my bowl.

Risotto with baby spinach leaves added

A Big Bowl of Sunshine...

Felt like a sunny something for lunch, and came up with this hearty bowl of uplifting goodness.  Found myself eating two big bowls full for lunch. 

Prepare two red peppers for roasting by slicing in half, removing all the white bits and seeds, and spraying with oil.  Prepare a sweet potato for roasting by peeling, cubing and spraying with oil.  Roast in a hot oven for half an hour.

Saute a diced onion with 100g of fat free bacon bits until soft.  The bacon is totally optional.  I just love the flavour a little of it adds to soups.  Add 500g of frozen sweetcorn and 1 litre of chicken stock.  Boil until sweetcorn cooked.

Add the roasted veges to the soup and then blend with your kitchen wizz or in a blender until smooth.

Season with salt and pepper if necessary (stock is salty) and enjoy.

Bacon and Eggs without adding too much junk to the trunk

Every Saturday morning I get woken up to the phrase 'can we have bacon and eggs for breakfast'?  We all love bacon and eggs, but it can end up being quite a calorific meal.  What I do is eliminate bread and all the extra's from my plate, and just have the bacon and eggs.  To make it healthier, I eat low-fat chicken bacon, which doesn't taste that far off the real thing.  On the weight watchers pro points program, this bacon contains 1 point for 2 slices.  And if you add an egg, that equals 3 points for your entire meal.  Not bad really.

Low-fat chicken bacon

 

Fry in a non-stick frying pan with a quick spray of canola oil

My kind of Chicken Pasta

On a recent tour of the South Island, my cousin made a beautiful chicken pasta dish one night which I loved as it contained some of my favourite ingredients. I have adapted it slightly to suit my palate better by adding spinach, as it seemed to be more naughty than good for one, but the addition of spinach allows me to think I am being virtuous.

This makes a good amount for 4...

500g of your favourite pasta
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size chunks
1 chopped onion
crushed garlic
chopped bacon
1/2 tub cream cheese (use the light variety if you are watching your fat intake, it works just as well)
sundried tomatoes
olives
capers
spinach(I use baby leaf or frozen parcels, defrosted)
parmesan cheese
pine nuts

Boil the pasta as per the packet instructions...

While the pasta is cooking, saute the garlic, onions and bacon in a little butter/olive oil and put aside. Fry the chicken breast in a hot pan until golden and cooked through but still moist. Put in a mixing bowl along with bacon/onion/garlic. Stir through the tomatoes, olives, capers and spinach, and the cream cheese. When the pasta is cooked stir this through too, and the season with salt and pepper (remembering not too much salt as the bacon and olives are salty). If you need to add more cream cheese do so. Grate parmesan cheese into the pasta and sprinkle over toasted pine nuts. Serve up with your favourite green salad. Bon Appetito.

Friday Night Dinners...

Our family runs by the 80-20 rule - healthy food most of the time, but we do also need our treats. And so began the Friday night tradition... Basically the most well behaved person in the house gets to choose their favourite dinner and dessert. This person almost always turns out to be my 4 year old son Jack who has a penchant for fish and chips and all things junk. The challenge is to health it up a bit and also add a new spin on it. So tonight Jack would like Chicken Burgers and Chips.

Chicken Burgers are a firm favourite in this household and here follows the recipe for my favourite style of burger - chicken accessorised with bacon and avocado. I like to serve my burgers in mini pita breads as a healthier option as we prefer more protein and less carbs in our diet. Normally I am quite a purist when it comes to all things culinary but when it comes to chips - I can't be asked. I usually resort to buying ready fried chips hot from the local chip shop smothered in salt and vinegar or bags of the cholestrol friendly variety from the frozen section. These are best served with cheats aoli which I whip up by mixing my favourite mayonnaise with roast garlic(chop the top off a whole garlic, drench in olive oil and roast til soft before squeezing it out and mixing it into the mayo).

Chicken, Bacon and Avocado Burgers

2 chicken breasts
4 rashers bacon
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
1 tbs plum sauce
salt and pepper
4 wholemeal pita breads
avocado
tomato
lettuce
gherkins
aoli

In a food processor whizz together chicken, bacon, egg, flour, plum sauce and seasoning. If you don't have plum sauce(a personal favourite of mine), cranberry sauce would be a great substitute. Divide your pulverized burger mix into 4 and shape into burger size patties. Place on a greased baking tray and grill for about 7 minutes on each size until golden.

Spray pita breads with a little olive oil spray then grill on either side to crispen up. Slit open the pita bread and spread some aoli on the base. Then add layers of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, chicken bacon burger and finally some mashed avocado.

Serve with fries on the side and a dollop of aoli.

Tonight these burgers were enjoyed with a bottle of french pinot noir and followed by some very dark and delicious chocolate.