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.

Child friendly restaurant: Outback Jack’s

Outback Jack’s
Westfield Shopping Centre
Belconnen

I have been meaning to try Outback Jack’s for a very long time. One, because I am obsessed with ribs. Two, they have ribs.

We went in for a late lunch on the weekend, so the place wasn’t too crowded. We were served promptly, a highchair provided and our orders taken. We were impressed by the effort they took to cater for children, Little E was given his own menu which doubled up as an activity book. He was also provided with a small bucket of crayons. When we looked around the place, we saw that they also have a children’s corner! It’s amazing.

Yep, they have xbox!

We were a quite nervous about the waiting time as there were a few tables still waiting for their meals and Little E started to act up. Understandable, as I was about two hours late giving him his lunch #mummyfail Luckily, our orders came within 20-30 minutes (which isn’t too bad).

I had their ribs and wings combo with medium and “ass burner” sauce. Mr E had a medium rare porterhouse steak with spicy Jack’s sauce. We gave Little E a bits of our meals, which he enjoyed. I think he liked the wings best, with carrots next. He also shared Mr E’s banana milkshake, served in a cool boot-shaped mug.

I liked my meal, the ribs were all tender and the wings crunchy and moist. I didn’t think that the chilli sauce was particularly hot, and weirdly, the “medium” sauce had more of a lasting heat. The serving size was too big though, with it almost defeating me. Mr E had to help me eat all of it, and towards the end, I didn’t think it was good anymore 😉 Sadly, my tummy has shrunk but my eyes haven’t followed suit.

I tried a little bit of Mr E’s steak and I liked it. It had a nice red meat taste without being too strong, though it was too rare for me. Mr E thought it was delicious and said that he had made the right order. Yay.

I like how the restaurant pays a lot of attention towards families with children. They offer “children eat free” deals on some days, and if you look at the menu on the photo above, children’s meals are $3! Amazing!

If you’re a big eater, you could attempt the 1kg challenge and have your name on the board with the other champions. Mr E said that you’d also win something with it. Or, go there every Mondays to Wednesdays for all-you-can-eat wings and ribs!

Other than it being slightly too pricey, Mr E said you are also being subjected to listening bad country music the whole time 🙂 However, the fact that they obviously cared about their younger patrons, I would go back there for special occasions where I can have Little E preoccupied while I enjoy the event.

Anyway, ater all that food, we hopped next door and had dessert. As the Japanese would say, I have a betsubara. Behold………

Yogurtland: plain and dragon passion fruit froyo with cinnamon donut, choc brownie, choc fudge, oreo biscuit and mini mochi

We then rolled our way through the mall to our car…

Child friendly food joint: A Taste of Pastry

A Taste of Pastry
Gartside St
Wanniassa (Erindale shops where Pizza Hut and Domino’s are)

I get a little too excited when I discover a new place that has yummy food. A little too much, if anything. I would want to go to the same place repeatedly, ordering basically the same thing, before I move on to the next good place.

My latest obsession is Vietnamese pork roll. All crunchy and tasty, I would eat it every day if I could. I have been getting my fix from one of the place at the nearby food court, though it isn’t as good as the others, it was close and easy. So when we picked up a recent pizza order, I almost jumped out of the car, threw out the pizzas and march straight in to A Taste of Pastry when I saw they serve pork rolls. Luckily, common sense prevailed, and I waited a whole week to go.

Last Thursday was the day. I packed Little E with me, armed with bibs and wipes, and ordered us lunch. He had a vegetable pasty, which he ate by himself quietly, while I had one of these.

A freshly made Vietnamese pork roll with hot red chillies. It was crunchy and sour and meaty and hot and was just delicious. It was a good thing too that Little E was able to have his unassisted, because I hardly took a breath between mouthfuls. It was so good.

Then, I saw the sign.

A coffee and a cronut for $6.50. Cronutssssss!!! I couldn’t say no, even though they only had jam cronuts left. I am not a fan of jams, but I am of cronuts. So I just wiped off the jam and ate my delicious morsel of fattening heaven.

I was so impressed with the place that I took Mr E for lunch on Friday. Yep. The very next day after I first went 😛 That time, the bakery had the full range of cronuts: chocolate, salted caramel (which wasn’t caramelly nor salty but still delicious), chocolate hazelnut, jam and custard. Again, we had the Vietnamese rolls while Little E had his leftover vegie pasty from the day before lol

The owner (?) is friendly and didn’t bat an eyelid at all to our apologies for making a big mess. She made okay coffee (need to be stronger but still good), the prices of the goods are reasonable and she has cronutsssss! I sure will go back there again (and again and again).

In a typical Asian manner, you could also get some fresh eggs, 1kg packs of salt, sugar and sultanas. Random.

Child friendly restaurant: BentSpoke Brewery

BentSpoke Brewery
Ph: 02 6257 5220
38 Mort St
Braddon
Website here

After a whole week being cooped up inside, we decided to go out for lunch last Sunday. Mr E wanted to try a new place so we went to BentSpoke Brewery. We arrived just as they opened (11am FYI) and were served straight away. It was their 5th weekend since they opened on the weekend and you could feel it too. The restaurant is decorated in a “warehouse” style, it’s open and airy, with cool decor using old bike parts. Mr E said that apparently the owner’s wife did the welding herself! So cool.

I really want to recreate that vertical herb garden on my top right picture.

The menu isn’t extensive but I think it caters for a lot of people. I couldn’t go past the ribs and wings so that’s what I ordered. Mr E went for the Ploughman and I was glad that he did, because I wanted it too. We were able to give Little E bits of our food for lunch so he was happy too. There is also Kids’ menu if you prefer, which I think are reasonably priced at $8 each.

I liked my meals, though there were things that I think they could have done better:

• heat up the sauce that came with the meals, as it was weird having hot things with cold sauces
• or even better, marinade the ribs with the sauce
• the Ploughman needed a bit of “something” like chutney, salsa, cranberry jam or even just a knob of butter, as it was a little dry

In saying that, I think Bentspoke Brewery has way better food than the owner’s last gig. I will go back to try their other meals, definitely. It’s also in a cool area, so I need to hang around there more often 😉

I didn’t mind the beer that Mr E ordered but as I’m not really a beer connoisseur I couldn’t say anything other than that I liked the fruity beers that the owner’s old joint did. Mr E liked it though, so I guess that is good. They seem to have a number of selections, which they of course brew in-house, so for any beer-people, do check it out. The menu for last weekend, the place isn’t cheap but as I said above, it is located in a hip area so I guess we have to allow for that. I like that they have a highchair available – though they have only 1 that we could see, so you may need to mention when booking a table. The beverage menu indicated that they’ll have a bigger range of beer as they go, so I can foresee Mr E wanting to visit loads in the future.

Fussy little eaters: Vegetarian noodle cups

A recent recipe inside an Aldi brochure got me inspired to make noodle cups. They’re freezable, they’re compact (ie. Not messy) and can be made in advance/bulk. Unfortunately, the recipe calls for instant noodle packets,  so I had to change it a bit.

Vegetables noodle cups

A picture of the picture on the actual recipe – mine look significantly uglier than these but still tasty! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 150g noodles/pasta
• 3 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1/2 finely chopped (or grated) vegies – I had cauliflower, carrots and capsicum
• 1/2tsp chicken stock powder
• 1/4tsp each of cumin, tumeric, sugar, paprika
• Pepper

Method:

1. Cook noodles, drain then stir through the spices, pepper and chicken stock
2. Line a muffin tray, divide noodles into portions
3. Top with vegies
4. Then pour in the egg mixture evenly (you will need to put it in slowly else it’ll overflow)
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180C (preheated)

Little E had one of these for lunch today and he liked it. It was one of the least messy lunch ever, that’s a plus for me 🙂 Mr E had yet to have one but they’re in the freezer for him to take to work for lunch-emergencies.

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

Food food food

For the entire time we’ve been in Canberra, I always lament how there’s a lack of good Indo food here. Good as in proper authentic Javanese food. Unlike Sydney, there’s only a couple Indo food joints here but none has yet come to my liking. Unfortunate really, most especially when I was pregnant, because wouldn’t you know it, Indo food was what I was craving.

Actually, there is one, but it gave Mr E his very first gastro. So he banned me from going back, which is unfair, because I didn’t get sick. Anyway, I never did go back.*

Last week, Mr E told me that there’s an Indo food market in Canberra every Friday. What what? I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it. It was almost like I have hit the jackpot. Then I got angry. Why have I only heard about it now???

Anyway, we got ourselves just presentable today and made our way there. I had to restrain myself from buying everything there, quickly paid for our goodies and get home to eat them.

It was AWESOME! Hallelujah! And cheap! Huzzah! And Little E ate almost the entire nasi gudeg! Hooorah! So here’s my photo for day 37: Authentic Indo lunch packs with potent chili paste (which I may or may not accidentally gave Little E some. Hmm.)

Nasi kuning campur, nasi gudeg and ketoprak at $6 each!

If you’re in Canberra and are looking for good authentic cheap (!) Indo food, please go to the Canberra Mosque Fridays from noon to 2pm. You sure will see me there 😉

The mosque has a pretty good playground too!

A word of warning though, they’re served in an authentic way (ie. Not heated, at room temperature), including the chicken dishes. I didn’t warm it up for Little E, but you may want to if you’re scared of barely-luke-warm dishes like Mr E 😉

Yaaaay! 🙂

*Mr E, if you are reading this, this is proof that I do listen to you. Sometimes.

Child friendly restaurant: Vietnam House, Woden

Vietnam House

Ph: 02 6282 0288
Westfield Woden Shopping Centre

Woden

We’ve been to the restaurant quite a bit, our Vietnamese restaurant of choice, but never with Little E, until very recently. I actually didn’t know the name of the place, as we’ve always referred to it as “the Vietnamese place in Woden” 🙂 I love Vietnamese food, I find them very fresh and light, quite different to most cuisine. I have yet to have a bad dish from Vietnam House, every single one I have had has been delicious, of generous serving size, reasonably priced and like most Asian restaurants, served quite quickly.

This past visit was not different. We ordered four different dishes, all coming at around the same time and were yummy. Little E was able to sample every single dish and loved it. He was seated in his own high chair, and was given his own cutleries and bowl. The waitresses were friendly and left us to our food.

One interesting info: when we first went to the restaurant, we were served by a little girl, whom I assume is the owner’s daughter. On this visit, we were served by the same girl, but this time, she’s so grown up! I feel so so old!!! 🙂

Anyway, you could always tell when I enjoyed my experience at a restaurant when I have no photos whatsoever to post 🙂 I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Vietnam House and recommend it for families with young children.

On a separate note, day 33 of 100: my outfit today makes me happy, featuring my new jumper. I love prints and mixing them with each other 🙂

I have to thank Mr E for not saying anything other than “all your purchases are lovely” when I showed him what I had spent our money on recently 🙂

Child friendly restaurant: Lemongrass Thai, Tuggeranong

Lemongrass Thai

Ph: 02 6293 1455
Shop 9c Hyperdome Shopping Centre
Anketell Street
Tuggeranong

My inlaws brought Little E and I out to lunch when they were here a couple weekends ago. We were starving at the time and opted for an easy choice of Thai, so we seated ourselves at Lemongrass Thai. The place was packed with office workers having their Friday lunch sessions so I was a little nervous about the waiting time. Even so, when I asked for a highchair, a clean one was quickly presented to me. We were given our menus, glasses and a bottle of water straight after. Efficient indeed.

We decided to go for the lunch specials as they sounded really good and at $12.50 each, how could we not? We each chose one to share, amazingly we had a chicken, a pork and a fish! Usually we have double up 😉

When they arrive, and they arrived quite quickly, we were surprise at the serving size. In a bad way. They were so tiny! So tiny that Little E ate more than one serving! So tiny that we had to order another to share, and left not hungry. We saw the order of a table next to us, which weren’t from the special menu, and they were substantially larger. Next time, I’m going for their full size!

On a good note, they were rather delicious 🙂 Little E loved the chicken and vegetables with peanut sauce the most! I liked the fish fillets and sweet chilli sauce best. I would not hesitate to go back for it.

They were patient with the mess Little E created, though we were seated outside. Every request we made, extra cutleries, sauce on the side, etc, were not difficult. I definitely recommend the place for families with children 🙂

Fussy Little Eaters: Curried Sausages

As I’ve mentioned before, I am having a problem with Little E not eating any meat dishes I cook for him. So, as much as it is “unhealthy”, I take this recipe as a win because he ate some! Hooorah! He did eat them last, after every single mini molecule of vegies 😛 This dish is also cheap, simple, quick and it’s a winner for the whole family. There is a million of different versions of it, and it’s such a traditional old-fashion dishes, but this is my version and Little E likes it.

Curried Sausages

Ingredients:

• 8 BBQ Sausages
• 1/2 tbs curry powder (please see note, it’s important)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 cup of vegies (I used frozen mix vegies)
• 3 tbs cream
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• Oil

Method:

1. In a boiling water, boil the sausages until cooked, skinned them then chop into 2cm pieces.
2. In a heated pan with oil, brown the onions, then add the curry powder.
3. When they become fragrant, add the vegies, cream and stock.
4. Once the vegies are almost cooked, stir through the sausages.
5. I served this with mashed sweet potato.

Note:

This dish was hot. I didn’t realise the Kirk’s curry powder was that hot. So, when serving to Little E, I put his serve in a strainer, then run water through it – “washing” them in a sense. However, if you don’t like hot dishes, and would rather be safe, I would only use 1/4 tbs of curry powder.

 We bought the best sausages the butcher had to make it as healthy as we could. Now that I know he likes sausages, I am going to have to see if I could make my own. Is it hard?

Fussy little eaters: Cauliflower Fritters

A dear friend gave us some cauliflower for Easter, along with a copy of a cauliflower fritters recipe. I finally gave it a try tonight and had great success with the boys. I adapted the recipe to our own palate and what we have in the pantry 🙂

Cauliflower Fritters

Ingredients:
450g cauliflower, chopped into little bits (see note)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup of SR flour
1 cup of shredded cheese
2 cloves of garlic, chopping
1tsp curry powder/paprika
Pepper
Oil to shallow fry

Method:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl
Spoon some mix into heated oil
Cook over low/medium heat until golden
Serve with yogurt/fruit chutney/chilli jam

Note:
I mixed some cooked pumpkin in my mix to make up the 450g because I have some in the fridge that needed to be eaten. So I reckon you can do it too with any vegies you have on hand. Just make sure that they’re cut uniformly so they cook evenly.

Mr E loved it so much that he had seconds, and told me that he’d have it again and again lol I probably should have served them with a side of salad to make it a “full and proper” meal but I was tired and to be honest, couldn’t really be bothered.

Next time, I will either add some mince or tuna in the mix because it seems that I am the only mother in the world who has to hide meat. Little E doesn’t seem to like them, at least not my meat dishes. He eats all his lunch without fail at daycare, including the meat. But at home? He’s pretty picky! What’s the dealio, Romeo?!

Anyway, please do try this recipe, it’s a great hidden vegies recipe!