Tag: kids

• 

  PK’s Chicken Puff Pastry Parcels

  These little chicken parcels encourage variety and experimentation when it comes to their fillings. They especially lend themselves to using up leftover chicken and those limp vegetables at the back of the fridge.

  Your kids are going to love them and I found them really easy to make even though I am a pastry novice. I even eat them cold the next day at work for a snack.

  One sheet of puff pastry makes four small rectangular parcels and you can scale the recipe up easy peasy. I’ll show you how I generally make them below but as I said, mix it up. 🙂

  You will be:

  1. Bringing together the ingredients.
  2. Making the parcels.
  3. Cooking the parcels.
  4. Serving.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients (makes 4 small parcels):
    • PK’s NoRecipe Garlic Butter
    • PK’s Pulled Chicken Breast FoodHack
    • 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (I used Pampas brand)
    • Small amounts of:
      • spinach leaves
      • corn kernels
      • coriander leaves
      • ground black peppercorns
    • 1 chicken egg (beaten for the glazing and sealing)
    • 2 Tbsp water (for the egg mix)
  •  Equipment:
    • a chopping board
    • a small sharp knife
    • an oven tray or dish
    • a basting brush
    • a small whisk
    • a bowl to beat the egg

  ---

  Bringing together the ingredients

  1. Defrost your frozen puff pastry sheet and cut it into 4 squares.
  2. Take the garlic butter out of the fridge.
  3. Take the pulled chicken out of the fridge.
  4. Wash and dry the spinach leaves and coriander leaves.
  5. Cook and cool the corn kernels.
  6. Whisk the single egg along with the 2 Tbsp water.
  7. Turn your fan forced oven on to 190°C.

  Making the parcels

  Now for the fun part but remember that with the fillings, less is more :).

  1. Spoon a little of the garlic butter into the middle lower half of the square.
  2. Build up the rest of the fillings in layers.
  3. Brush the egg mix on all four sides of the square to make it stick.
  4. Then fold the square over to make a pillow shape.
  5. Press the edges with you finger to seal the pillow and then brush more of the egg mixture over the whole thing.
  6. Add some air holes with your knife.
  7. Put the parcels in your oven tray and refrigerate if required by your meal’s timing.

  Filling the parcels:

  Add some air holes and and few slices with the knife to make them look nice:

  

  Cooking the parcels:

  1. Put the oven tray into your preheated 190°C fan forced oven and cook until golden brown (approximately 40 minutes).
  2. Slice one and eat it before anyone else gets one. If you get caught say you are just making sure everything is cooked through :).

  

  Serving

  Here I simply served the parcels, about 4 per hungry adult, with some more greens and a glass of white wine.

  

   

  Enjoy,

  PK

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  YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

  MORE KID FRIENDLY MEALS

  OUR OTHER RECIPES STARRING CHICKEN

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  • see more kid friendly meals here

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  Written by

  PK

  ·

  February 12, 2017

• 

  KT’s NoRecipe Chorizo, Chicken and Potato Roast

  KT found the original recipe for this on one of the best blogs on the internet, Baby Mac. It has become one of our staple meals and to this end she simplified it as much as possible.

  It scales really well because you simply whack your desired amounts of chicken thighs, chopped chorizo sausage and quartered potatoes into a non-stick pan. Season with some Italian herbs, pepper and maybe some sliced chilis.

  

  Whack them in the oven on say 200°C until they look like this.

  

  Then serve with a salad and even the kids will like it :).

  

  Yum, thanks KT!

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  YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

  ITALIAN CUISINE

  MORE KID FRIENDLY MEALS

  MORE POTATO DISHES

  MORE NORECIPE GOODNESS

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  Written by

  PK

  ·

  December 18, 2016

• 

  KT’s Easy Mini Quiches

  Thankfully these are as easy to make as they are to eat. In our house, they have a habit of disappearing when my wife isn’t looking :).

  I didn’t even get to take a photo of the finished products cooling on the racks.

  

  You will be:

  1. Preparing the filling.
  2. Cutting and pressing puff pastry into baking tins to make the bases.
  3. Spooning the mixture to bases and cooking.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 2 sheets of puff pastry
    • 125g cheddar cheese, grated (use your favourite hard cheese)
    • 125g ham slices, finely chopped
    • 3 Tbsp heavy cream (whipping cream)
    • 0.5 Tbsp whole grain mustard
    • 1 egg
    • ground black peppercorns to taste
    • ground rock salt to taste (I don’t use any as the cheese and bacon are salty enough)
  •   Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a long sharp knife
    • a mixing bowl
    • 7cm diameter biscuit cutter
    • 2 shallow mini pie/bun trays (12 depressions per tray)

  Steps:

  Prepare the filling

  1. In a mixing bowl add the:
     • 125g grated cheddar cheese
     • 125g finely chopped ham
     • 3 Tbsp heavy cream
     • 0.5 Tbsp whole grain mustard
     • 1 egg
     • ground black peppercorns to taste
  2. Mix everything thoroughly but gently.

  

  Cutting and pressing puff pastry into baking tins to make the bases

  1. Lay the sheets of puff pastry out.
  2. Cut 24 circles out of them using the cookie cutter.
  3. Press the circles gently into the trays.

  

  Spooning the mixture to bases and cooking

  1. Spoon a small amount of the filling into each base.
  2. Cook for 15 minutes at 200°C in a fan forced oven.

  Serving

  Eat them hot or freeze them. Personally I like them cold and think they make a great lunch box snack.

  If they last that long :).

  Enjoy,

  PK for  KT

  Here are some more egg dishes and posts by KT:

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  November 21, 2016

• 

  KT’s Bush Walker Cookies

  My wife has been using this cookie recipe for as long as she can remember. She calls it one of her no fuss recipes. Now we are parents my wife uses less sugar, allegedly but they still come out tasting amazing. My picky toddler never says no to them and he calls them “mummy bi’cuts:” :).

  STEPS:

  1. Combine the cookie ingredients
  2. Bake and store

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 0.5 cup butter or margarine
    • 1 cup raw sugar
    • 1 egg
    • 0.5 tsp vanilla essence
    • 1 Tbsp water
    • 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
    • 1 cup of dried fruit (my wife uses raisins and currants)
    • 1 cup self-raising flour
    • 1 cup rolled oats
    • 1 cup of breakfast cereal e.g. Kellogs Cornflakes or Wheaties
    • 0.5 cup of desiccated coconut

  • Equipment
    • a large mixing bowl for the cookie mix
    • a small bowl to beat the 1 egg
    • a fork or a small whisk
    • a non-stick baking tray
    • baking paper (optional)
    • a fan forced oven

  Combine the cookie ingredients

  Steps:

  1. Take the 0.5 cup of margarine (or butter) out of the fridge and let soften for a while.
  2. Add the margarine to the large mixing bowl and mix in the 1 cup raw sugar.
  3. Beat the 1 egg, 0.5 tsp vanilla essence, 1 Tbsp water and 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda, in the small bowl, with a fork or small whisk.
  4. Add to the large mixing bowl.
  5. Mix in the:
     • 1 cup of dried fruit
     • 1 cup self-raising flour
     • 1 cup rolled oats
     • 1 cup of breakfast cereal eg Kellogs Cornflakes
     • 0.5 cup of desiccated coconut
  6. Roll the cookie mix into balls, flatten with your hand and place on the oven tray, with or without a sheet of baking paper under them.

  Bake and store

  Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes in a fan forced oven set to 160°C. When done, place them on a cooling rack.

  You will find that the whole family loves them fresh and that they freeze exceptionally well. We use a large snap lock bag in the freezer and pull a few out at a time for the kids’ lunch boxes.

  

  Hope you like them,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  August 18, 2016

• 

  KT’s Dippy Eggs and Soldiers

  My toddler loves a soft boiled egg and soldiers and when he wants them for breakfast he asks for ‘dippy eggs’. The name has stuck I am happy to say :).

  The problem was that I had always cooked hard boiled eggs, using this method, growing up. So I had to ask my wife if she knew how to cook a runny egg. Ironically, even though she only eats poached eggs, she remembered a recipe from BabyMac’s blog (see it here).

  I gave it a try and was amazed at the results. Now I cook a couple of eggs for the kids’ brekkie (that is what we call breakfast in Australia) and a sneaky extra one for dad. Add a couple of pieces of toast to make “soldiers” and you are done in under 10 minutes!

  We try and source ethically produced eggs with middling success (we now have a good supplier in Gale Force Farm Organic Free Range Eggs ) but that is a story for another day.

   STEPS:

  1. Gather the ingredients
  2. Boil the eggs and cook the toast
  3. Serving

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • several slices of toast per person
    • one chicken egg per person
    • butter, margarine or butter blend for the “soldiers”
  • Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a butter knife to cut the top off the eggs, butter the toast and cut them into “soldiers”
    • a small saucepan
    • a toaster
    • a timer
    • a small plate for the toast
    • several egg cups

  Gather the ingredients

  Steps:

  1. Put aside a few slices of bread for each person and pop them in the toaster but don’t start toasting them yet.
  2. Take an egg or two per person out of the fridge and let them start to warm up to room temperature.
  3. Take the butter out of the fridge.
  4. Fill a saucepan with water, enough to cover the eggs (one layer deep). Bring it to a rolling boil.
  5. Set your timer to 5 minutes.

  Boil the eggs and cook the toast

  Steps:

  1. I used a slotted spoon to lower the eggs into the boiling water and pressed start on the timer. Be very careful not to put a crack in the shells.
  2. At 2 minutes left, lower the bread into the toaster. We have our toaster set to make semi-frozen bread into golden brown toast in two minutes.
  3. At 0 minutes take all of the eggs out off the boiling water.
  4. Butter the toast and cut into 1.5cm wide strips.

  Here is a video of what I think a rolling boil looks like:

  Serving

  My wife says commit when it comes to taking the top off an egg. Take a butter knife and slice the top part off. It isn’t so much a chopping motion as it is a slow but forceful movement from one side to the other all the way through. Previously I used a teaspoon to crack it all the way around and then scoop off the top but never again. My wife’s way is so much better as you get less broken shell in the yolk :).

  A very important note: take the tops off all of the eggs. If you don’t they will continue to cook past the runny egg stage that we are trying to achieve.

  

  Thanks to Beth from BabyMac,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  June 28, 2016

• 

  PK’s Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

  I love hard boiled eggs served warm with a pinch of salt and pepper or cold and sliced in a salad. I want to share a method for making the perfect hard boiled egg that I learnt as a child.

  Take a small saucepan and fill with enough room temperature water to cover the eggs. Gently place the eggs into the water, turn the hob on high heat (use a small burner) and bring to a vigorous boil.

  

  Once the water is boiling like crazy, leave the eggs in for a minute longer and then fish them out with a slotted spoon or the like.

  Let them cool on the counter top for a bit.

  Under gently running cold water, peel the eggs and then pat dry. The older the eggs the easier the shell will come off. Put the shells in your vegetable garden beds to ward of those pesky cabbage moths.

  Pat the eggs dry and eat them how you like.

  I normally steal a few at this point :).

  Look at this free range goodness:

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Related Links:

  • see more cooking with egg posts here
  • go to all meal ingredients here

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  Written by

  PK

  ·

  June 28, 2016

• 

  Kirsty’s Easy Omelette Muffins

  Thanks to my good friend and super-mum Kirsty DeRoach (https://www.instagram.com/babyderoach), I now know another great use for vegetables and leftovers that are past their best.

  I can add them to the worm farm and compost bins of course or I can give them a second chance in these amazingly good mini quiches.

  Not only are they quick to make (everyone will love that especially parents and lazy cooks) but you also get the satisfaction of reducing the amount of food thrown away unused each week.

  I haven’t listed any quantities for most of the ingredients as they will vary each time you make them. Experiment and have some fun. Kirsty is right though, mix up the combinations but don’t put too many different ingredients in any given muffin.

  STEPS:

  1. Whisk the eggs and chop the fillings
  2. Load your muffin trays
  3. Serving

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 12 eggs
    • any old vegetables at the back of your fridge
    • as much bacon or ham as you want
    • your favourite cheese
    • table salt to taste
    • ground black pepper to taste
  • Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a long sharp knife
    • a whisk
    • several muffin tins
    • a bowl for whisking the eggs
    • a frypan if you are adding bacon.

  Whisk the eggs and chop the fillings

  

  Steps:

  1. Give the eggs a good whisk and set aside. Kirsty told me you can add some cream if it needs using up. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Chop up your vegetables.
  3. Chop up your ham or cook and chop up your bacon.
  4. Grate the cheese.

  Load your muffin trays

  Steps:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  2. Add some of the whisked eggs to the bottom of each hole of the muffin tins. You will have to experiment with how much.
  3. Add small quantities of your filling combinations to each hole and top each with the grated cheese so that each are about 3/4 full.
  4. Push most of the floating ingredients under the egg mixture.
  5. Cook about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

   

   

   

  Serving

  Once cool enough, pop them out of the muffin trays. They freeze really well but most of ours don’t get to the freezer :).

  

  Thanks Kirsty,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  June 11, 2016