Here are the favourite ways we enjoy it…

• • • Serve with vegetable crudités and Mountain Bread Chips
    • Spoon over steamed green vegetables, fritters, chicken or fish
    • Use as a dressing on salad
    • Stir through pasta with some sustainable tuna and olives
    • Spread on some sourdough with some feta, tomato and rocket
    • Fold through scrambled eggs
    • Serve on baked potato

  If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my lunchbox recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

  It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar-free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

• 

  Print

  Lunch-box Friendly Pesto

  Prep Time 5 minutes

  Cook Time 5 minutes

  Total Time 10 minutes

  Author Brenda Janschek

  Ingredients

  • 4-5 healthy bunches of basil or a mix of greens coriander, parsley, baby spinach or rocket
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts or pepitas
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
  • 1 garlic clove
  • Good squeeze of lemon
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4-1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

  Instructions

  • Put all the ingredients except olive oil in food processor or thermomix and blend to form a paste. Add olive oil and blend to preferred consistency.
• If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life.

  And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes here.

  Here are is another dip recipe for you to enjoy, Roast Pumpkin Dip and a round up of some of my favourite dips here.

  Bren x

  • 

    Free Breakfast Recipe eBook

    As far as breakfast cereal goes, I always say, “you may as well eat the box’, it’s probably more nutritious than what’s inside! Here are 5 things to think about before you reach for the boxed cereal in the supermarket.

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Kim is a trusted friend who loves to unearth and share her favourite recipes with me. Like me, she’s a busy mum who is passionate about home-cooking and discovering tasty ways to get more goodness into her family.

We have her to thank for discovering and sharing the heavenly Slow Cooked Lamb Shank & Barley Soup with Lemon Gremolata a couple of months ago. It’s now one of my family’s faves, and if not one of yours, then you’re nuts! (allergy free, of course). We love the recipes she unearths and think your family  will too.

Over to you Kim……

I have a confession, I am a bit anti some food for no logical reason. Quinoa is one of them. Obviously my first issue with the grain (technically a seed) is how you say it versus how it is written. Why is it pronounced “keeeeen-waaaaah” rather than “kwin-oh-ah” ? Maybe not a reason for me to exclude it from my cooking repertoire, but I do. Well, I have until last night when I decided to tackle it again.

A few months ago when I was following Brenda’s health coaching program I did, begrudingly feed the family kwin-oh-ah porridge which we all agreed was quite edible as we went back for seconds. It was actually really nice (there, I said it). However, the packet of grain stayed relegated to the back of the cupboard.

Last night I decided to go crazy and make a kwin-oh-ah frittata. I knew my kids wouldn’t like it, I knew I wouldn’t like it but I threw caution to the wind and made it anyway. I think I mainly did it so I could use up the rest of the packet and then never buy it again. Here is the problem – we all liked it. I think I may have to come around to saying keeeen-waaaah and promote it up the ranks in the pantry. Maybe not in front of the pearl barely but I think it can go neck and neck with chick peas for the moment.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

White quinoa
Olive oil
Milk

Print

Pancetta, Spinach and Leek Fritatta

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Servings 6

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 100 g white quinoa throughly rinsed
• 250 ml 1 cup water
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 100 g pancetta finely chopped
• 1 large leek thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 200 g baby spinach leaves
• 8 eggs
• 185 ml 3/4 cup milk
• 25 g 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan
• 75 g goat's cheese crumbled
• 1 tbs chopped fresh chives
• Rocket leaves to serve

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line a 20 x 30cm rectangular baking dish. Add the quinoa and water to a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until the water is absorbed. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and leek and stir for 5 minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute or until aromatic. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Place spinach in large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside for 30seconds. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Drain, squeezing out any excess water. Coarsley chop the spinach.
• Whisk the eggs and milk in a large bowl. Stir in the quinoa, leek mixture and spinach and parmesan. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Top with the goats cheese and chives. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the frittata is golden and set. Serve with rocket leaves.

Notes

This recipe was found over at Good Taste Magazine, the June 2013 edition.

Thank you to Kim Brill – mum of two, wife of one and fellow food lover who adopts a 70/30 rule to good health.