What he eats: lunch boxes

Hi everybody,

I thought that I would cross post the lunch boxes I have been packing the little man recently. We are mid-term 3 now and I am still having so much fun doing it 🙂

Fussy little eaters: lemon coconut balls

 

I am always on the hunt for easy, healthy baked treats for kids. I like to have one in a packed meals for school, either as part of lunch or as afternoon tea. As all Australian schools are nut-free,

This week’s: What he eats

This week, I gave Little E the choice of what to have for lunch.

What he eats

Little E has been at school for almost a whole term now and he is loving it! 🙂 I have also been enjoying packing his lunch bag every week, all those years I have been practising on Mr E has finally paid off.

Inside the May Goodness Me box: my favourites!

In our May Goodness Me Box, we received this cocoa spread and OMG! it is SO

The Goodness Box: review

We started our trial run of The Goodness Box recently. I have been wanting to try out subscription goody boxes for a looong time. I think they are

HealthIER Chocolate Fudge Brownies

If you can’t tell already, I am an emotional eater. When I feel down and sad, baking is my escape. I try to give away most of my baked goods, just so that we don’t eat them all ourselves. Last night, I tried a new recipe I found online and tweaked it to make it slightly healthier.

Healthier Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Ingredients:
1 well mashed avocado
3 beaten eggs
1 cup of self raising flour (can use Gluten Free option)
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla essence
300g dark chocolate chips (can use Lactose free option)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.

In a pot, heat coconut oil and chocolate chips until well combined, take off heat.

In batches, add flour, sugar, essence and baking powder, continue stirring the whole time.

Stir in avocado until well combined.

When mixture is cooled, stir in eggs.

Pour into baking tray then in the oven for 25 minutes.

Cool for 20 minutes before serving 🙂

The original recipe uses almond meal, but I didn’t have any. You can’t taste the avocado at all, but it must add moisture in the brownie. I love having a piece of the brownie warm, Mr E said that when cold, it is more of a fudge texture 🙂

Enjoy!

Fussy little eaters: Slow Cooked Sweet Soy Pork

I cooked this recently and gave a dear friend some to try. It is a dish that I grew up with, though we would have it with sausages and intestines instead 😉 Mr E would never eat that so I used pork shoulder instead. My friend liked it so much that she asked for the recipe. Since I had to write it down for her, I thought I’d post it as well, in case you would like to try it out too 🙂 My little one liked this dish as the meat is very tender.

Slow cooked Sweet Soy Pork

Ingredients:

• 4 stalks of shallots, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 6cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 600g pork shoulder, trim most fat
• 4tbs kecap manis (Indo sweet soy sauce, you can get this at any supermarket now)
• 2tbs soy sauce
• 200ml boiling water
• 1 long green chilli, chopped (optional)
• Any vegetables you like, I added about 4 potatoes (halved)

Method:

1. Pan fry garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add shallots and chilli until tender.
2. Quickly brown the pork then add all the rest of the ingredients.
3. Once all of the sauces are combined, put everything into a slow cooker for 6-8 hours.
4. Serve with rice, stir fried vegies and a dollop of sambal (Indo chilli paste)

You can use chicken or even tofu for this dish. When I’m feeling ultra extravagant, I also add in peeled boiled eggs into the slow cooker. The eggs will end up soaking the juices, making them sweet and spicy and eggy. It is definitely one of my comfort food dishes, I normally make this when only food can make me happy 😉

Happy cooking (and eating)!

Ps. Let me know if you would like me to post the recipe on my Indo chilli paste. That one is definitely not child friendly! 🙂

Fussy little eaters: Wasabi Chicken and Greens

I miss the food in Japan. How I wish we have good authentic reasonably-priced Japanese food here in Canberra. It was great timing that I saw this recipe in a cookbook that was given to me for my birthday this year by Mr E’s uncle!

I didn’t follow the recipe completely as I didn’t have some things and I didn’t want to use too many pots 😉

Wasabi Chicken and Greens

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, chop into strips
1 bowl of chopped vegies (I had broccoli, potatoes, carrots, green beans and snowpeas)
Oil for cooking

For sauce:
1 tbs wasabi paste
2 tbs plain yogurt
1 tsp lime juice
Pepper

Method:

1. Steam vegies until cooked (you can boil too if you prefer)
2. In a frying pan, cook the chicken until just cooked
3. Add the rest of the ingredients then stir
4. When vegies are cooked, carefully mix well with the chicken until coated with sauce (vegies are a tad fragile when cooked so make sure you don’t mix them too roughly)
5. Serve with salad or over rice (though if you’re having it with rice, I would triple the sauce)

My loves liked this meal, with the little one having thirds! Mr E liked his wasabi so he said he would double the wasabi if it was just for him (it’ll be too strong for babies). You could also steam the chicken with the vegies if you want to be extra healthy 🙂

Please let me know if you tried this recipe and if you like it 🙂

Fussy little eaters: Two-ingredients Pizza Base

Here’s our dinner tonight!

The simplest, fastest and “healthiest” pizzas we could make from scratch. Little E ate his whole dinner, with no fuss!

Two-ingredients Pizza Base

Ingredients:

• 1c plain Greek yogurt
• 1c self-raising flour (we’ve tried GF flour before, it worked out fine)
• Our toppings tonight: cheese, chicken breast pieces, slices of capsicum, grated carrots, BBQ sauce, mixed herbs and garlic

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Mix both ingredients, then knead until they come together into a ball (adjust the flour if the dough is too wet. Unfortunately, different yogurt has different water content)
3. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1cm thin
4. Put toppings on top then into the oven for 15-20 minutes

Voila! Dinner for the entire family! 🙂 Easy peasy.