Veggie Sausages

These are lovely veggie sausages and tasted really yummy. The recipe is for 8 sausages and takes about 45 minutes - taken from Annabel Karmels wesite here.  I was impressed how easy they were.

Ingredients:

• 175g sliced white bread
• 25g butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 175g courgette, grated
• 150g Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 egg, separated
• a little salt and pepper
• vegetable oil for frying
• flour for your hands

Method:

Tear the bread into small pieces and shred them in a food processor or with a blending stick in the little "herb blender" until they become fluffy bread crumbs. Try and squeeze as much liquid out of the grated courgette as possible (it will make the courgette look rather squashed). 

Melt the butter in a frying pan and saute the onion until soft. Add the grated courgette and cook for roughly 3 minutes or until soft.

Add the graded cheese and 3/4 of the bread crumbs and mix the egg yolk and salt and pepper under. 

The mix will be quite hot so you may need to wait a little bit until you can shape it into 8 sausages. Best way to do it is flour your hands before trying to shape them. Either dip them into the whipped white of the egg or use a brush to coat the sausages in the lightly beaten egg. 

Roll each sausage into the bread crumbs (I had to really press them on, they wouldn't just stick). Fry in a frying pan until nice and golden. 

According to Annabel Karmel's recipe these only take 7 minutes to prep and 17 to make. However, I found that unless you're master chef quick with grating cheese, courgette and whipping all the ingredients out of the cupboard in no time, it takes closer to 45 minutes by the time you'll be serving them.

Our sausages vs Annabel Karmel sausages. I need a little more practice but think I did ok

We all enjoyed the vegetarian sausages as a family meal and I will definitely cook them again. If I were to change anything I would use less cheese (although the cheese binds the ingredients as much as the egg), and even add more little bits like sweet corn or tiny bits of red pepper. Time to experiment!

"Baby-tax"

It is a beautiful thing to see a young child enjoying their food. We have our ups and downs when it comes to our Monkey's enthusiasm for eating. I blame it partially on teething, because surely it couldn't possibly be our cooking ;) So it's always a pleasure to see that little mouth open wide, that noodle being sucked in, those hands shove a stray piece of veg back in.

What give us little giggles is seeing our son speed-crawl across the room when he sees us eat something. He is coming to claim his baby-tax. Nowadays there is no chance of us eating anything without paying the baby-tax. Sometimes it is just a small bite size tax. Sometimes it's a hefty 50% claim we have to satisfy. But we don't mind, we like to share.

Left over pasta, eating standing up in the kitchen (it didn't go unnoticed!)

On the downside it means we have to be careful what, when and how we eat. Grabbing a quick bite while standing up, before we pop out...what message will that send? - that food is a quick fast commodity? What about a sneaky piece of chocolate? - admittedly we're actually rather good when it comes to chocolate (or other sweets) and rarely have them in the house. Either way, it goes to show that we can't get away with bad eating habits and that we need to fix them now. After all we need to lead by example and I would like food to be special and meal times to be a family affair (without TV but rather talking about our days and listening to each other).

Bon appetit!

Semolina porridge

The veggie toddler is on food strike. Perhaps it is the increasing amount of teeth that seem to be sprouting in his mouth, or perhaps he is getting a cold and can't taste too well. Whatever it is, it is frustrating. Food lands on the floor, gets spit out, gets thrown. Since I feel slightly disheartened that he won't even eat his usually favourite Sweet Potato, Pea, Spinach dish, I will just add a little recipe for my own breakfast porridge. No point posting about lovely food we cooked, only to show you pictures of it on the floor.

Ever since I have traveled to Nepal many many moons ago, before the Annapurna track had roads going through it (so I am told), I have been in love with semolina porridge. It's so simple, quick and yummy.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk (almond, soya, rice - your choice)
1/4 cup of coarse semolina
Sweeten to taste with: maple syrup / brown sugar / honey
Optional: handful of: raisings / blueberries / one sliced banana / strawberries (go wild!)

Recipe:
Warm the milk, stir in the semolina until it thickens. If I am adding dried fruit I like to stir in in with the semolina so it softens and warms. If I add fresh fruit I add it at the end, once the semolina has thickened. Add an extra splash of milk if the semolina has set. Sweeten with your choice of sweetness. Enjoy!

Yumy semolina porridge with raisins and maple syrup