Power Bars

POWER BARS 

I confess I forgot all about school tomorrow! It is 8pm and I am washing uniforms, packing lunch boxes and discovering I have not prepared anything awesome for lunch.

Tonight we had pizza for tea – I have discovered mashed roast pumpkin is incredible as a sauce base and as long as I call it orange sauce Moo eats it up. I cheated and made tonights on Gluten Free wraps and topped Moo’s with cheese (I know sounds gross but oddly it worked and he couldn’t get enough of it!) Us grown ups had other roast vegetables like eggplant and red onion mmmmm

I had some left over pumpkin and some fruit going off so I whipped up a batch of our favourite power bars (great name if you have a super hero mad child – gives them super strengths!)

RECIPE 

2/3C Nut Butter

10tbs Cooled Roast Pumpkin (roughly)

1.5C Shredded coconut

1 whole ripe banana

2tsp Cinnamon

2tsp Vanilla

pinch of salt

METHOD 

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees
2. Combine ingredients in order as listed above in your blender or food processor (this is a time saver if you don’t have or want to use a machine – Mash the nut butter, pumpkin and banana together then stir in the remaining ingredients)
3. This mixture will go mushy, almost cake like
4. Place into prepared lined tin, I think mine is 20cm x 20cm and it filled this nicely.
5. Bake for about 1 hour (keep an eye on them to avoid burning like I dod … whoops)
6. Let cool in the tin then transfer to a wire rack, slice and serve.

I just adore this recipe, and whilst I would rather he willingly eat vegetables and fruit I take comfort knowing that he thinks he is eating super hero cake and not picking bits and bobs out of it!

You can make this recipe in mini / individual loaf tins also and serve as a breakfast with some fresh berries and a drizzle of honey – YUM

The best part about this recipe is it doesn’t have to be exact – you can play with it – add and take bits out – tonight I fell short on the pumpkin and coconut and they are still amazing!

Here is a picture of our thrown together lunch for tomorrow

I think I will also let him take some left over pumpkin pizza as I fully expect the fruit salad to make it home along with the vegetable sticks – but I mum can dream right? At least the power bars will keep him moving and focussed!

xox

Roast vegetable Nidi

ROAST VEGETABLE NIDI

I first saw this recipe on the Food Network and drooled my way through – I couldn’t wait to make it for dinner. I am famous for having these wonderful ideas but it never quite coming together the way it should – and true to form by the time I made it to the store not only had I forgotten the ingredients but I had forgotten which show I saw it on so have muddled my own way through – hoping it is close enough. We thoroughly enjoyed it in our house – there were plenty left over and fed us for lunch the next day -I ate mine cold which was delicious and H2B warmed his up and gave it the thumbs up also. MOO picked at his but insisted it was still nice.

RECIPE

-Pancake Mix-

1C Flour

1C Milk

1 Egg

Small knob of butter

-Filling-

250g Ricotta Cheese

Fistful of Basil

1x Chilli

Zest of one lemon

6 – 8 slices of prosciutto

125g Motzerella

2x Capsicum – Quartered

1x Eggplant – diced

1x Zucchini – diced

Olive Oil

Parmesan Cheese

METHOD 

-Pancakes-

1. Beat together the flour, milk and egg until you have a smooth, thin batter – add a drop more milk if necessary
2. Heat non stick fry pan to a high heat
3. using a ladle pour in one pancake at a time, tilt the pan to cover the base
4. Leave on the pan to set then quickly flip to other side. Add a little butter if you are struggling to flip the pancakes
5. Repeat this 6 times
6. Lay 3 pancakes on a clean tea towel with edges slightly over lapping – use a small amount of butter to “glue” the edges together. This should make a rectangle shape and there should be no gaps.

-Filling-

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
2. Combine, ricotta, basil, lemon rind and chilli in a bowl. Season with Salt and Pepper
3. Spoon an even batter onto the pancakes, leaving a 2cm gap around the edges
4. Lay the prosciutto on top, followed by some mozzerella – keep the layers flat, careful not to pile them too high
5. Griddle your vegetables in a hot pan until charred – season with salt and pepper
6. Tip vegetables onto a chopping board and roughly chop – then top pancakes
7. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese
8. Using the tea towel – with the shortest ends of the pancake facing you – roll the pancake tightly. Then chop into 1inch thick discs – you should get about 8.
9. Lay flat in a shallow baking dish – sprinkle with some parmesan and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden and cooked through
10. Enjoy