Fetch it out and transform them into this delicious, savoury snack.

Straight out of the oven they are crunchy and crispy. Once stored, they soften back up again, but follow my notes in the recipe section if you want your chickpeas to stay crispy for longer.

Serve them sprinkled over salads or soups, or eat them by the handful as a moreish snack.

Chickpeas make a great high fibre, high protein snack in your kids’ lunchboxes which they’ll just love munching on.

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:

Chickpeas
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Garlic powder
Paprika
Cumin
Chilli powder
Cracked black pepper

Print

Roasted Spiced Chickpeas

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 400 gram tin chickpeas drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon sea salt extra for taste
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• pinch of chilli powder optional
• Cracked black pepper

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Dry chickpeas in a tea towel REALLY WELL. Remove any skins which have come loose. Leave the chickpeas to air dry for a few minutes.
• Place chickpeas in a medium bowl. Stir through olive oil to coat the chickpeas..
• Pour chickpeas onto the prepared baking tray. Roast for 25-30 or until golden and crispy. I like to stir them half way through.
• Remove from oven and toss with spices and salt while still warm. Allow to cool.
• Store in container for up to 3 days.

Notes

If you want your chickpeas to stay crispier for longer, switch off the oven and leave the chickpeas in there to dehydrate until the oven is completely cool. Even leave overnight.

If you know someone who could use some wholefood recipes please share this recipe with them. Feel free to share my FREE breakfast ebook below with lots of ways to “think outside the cereal box”

If you make my recipes please take photos and send them to me, or if you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek or #brendajanschek,  I’d love to see what you make!

Here are a couple of other easy savoury snack recipes you might like – Auntie Helen’s Hummus or my Taco Popcorn.

Bren x

You can find out a little more about her below.

This is the first of 6 new recipes we can’t wait to share with you!!

Print

Summer baked meatballs with kale and juicy tomato sauce

Lunchbox friendly, batch and freeze

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Author Berleena Eberle for Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• Meatballs
• 1 kg grass fed organic beef mince (ground)
• 2 eggs
• 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped (reserved half for tomato sauce)
• 1 large brown onion grated or finely chopped, can use food processor (reserve half for tomato sauce)
• 1 cup of kale leaves stripped and chopped finely
• 1 tspn ground cumin or seeds
• 1 tspn ground cinnamon
• ½ tbsp of dried or fresh dill
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup of sourdough bread chopped into small pieces
• Salt and cracked black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tspn olive oil
• Basil for garnish
• Parmesan cheese to taste
• Tomato Sauce
• 1 tspn olive oil
• 1.5 cups of passata sauce
• 3/4 cup stock or broth
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 sprigs basil finely chopped
• 200 g spelt pasta ½ cauliflower (grated to make rice) or 3 medium zucchinis (spiralized)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• To make the meatballs, combine the mince, eggs, half the garlic and onion, kale, cumin, cinnamon, dill, lemon rind, bread, salt and pepper in a bowl. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes so the kale and breadcrumbs can absorb some of the moisture.
• Roll meatballs into balls and set on baking tray, brush with olive oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top.
• To make the tomato sauce, saute the remaining onion in oil for 1-2 mins in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, stirring for a further minute. Add passata sauce, broth and apple cider vinegar, season well with salt and pepper. Let sauce simmer on low heat for 5 mins.
• Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer on low heat for a further 5-10 mins. Turn off heat and mix through basil.
• Serve meatballs on a bed of spelt pasta, cauliflower rice or spiralized zucchini of your choice, drizzle tomato sauce on top, garnish with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Bren x

Meet Berleena….

Berleena specialises in helping her clients develop a healthy relationship with food and their body. Her clients know how to deal with food triggers, let go of guilt, identify cravings and make healthy eating simple again with nutrient-rich, real food. Berleena strips back nutritional confusion to develop an intuitive eating approach.

Growing up in a Middle-Eastern family, one of those dishes was a popular cultural dish, mums delicious and comforting spinach, lentil and lemon soup.

Mum still cooks it for me. Well, to be honest it’s my kids she’s really cooking for these days. Every second week she’ll come around and stock my fridge full of foods to last up to three days, the selection based on the specific requests of my kids. Some of her popular dishes are za’taar, homemade pies, spanokopita and her cannelloni. It’s really special to see that they also love her lentil soup as much as I do.

It’s unassuming in in it’s simplicity, but manages to pack a truly delicious punch, and makes a perfect mid-week meal the whole family will enjoy and leftovers can be packed to take to work or school for lunch.

I’m often asked how to keep the food hot until lunchtime.

Well, it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Boil the kettle and then pour the water into the thermoses, be sure to pop the lids on
2. Heat up the food
3. Pour out the hot water  add the warmed up food into the container,  then pop the lid on immediately.

Here are my fave insulated jars which have lasted me years:

Lunchbots Insulated Stainless Steel Container 470ml 16oz
In these containers I pack soups, pastas, any hot meals and also cold salads.

Kleen Kanteen TKCanister with insulated lid 8oz 237ml
I like this smaller size option to keep things cool like yoghurt, granola and fruit, overnight oats or to keep things warm like the chicken nuggets or smaller serves of things like soup, stew, pasta.

If you’re looking for more lunch inspiration, take a look at my new 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!

There’s even a delicious recipe for Kale and Cannelleni Bean Minestrone which my kids love taking to school in their insulated container.

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:

Olive oil or coconut oil
Lentils
Salt and pepper

Print

Spinach, Lentil and Lemon Soup

Prep Time 15 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 5

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• Splash of olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 2 cups red lentils
• 6 cups water or vegetable stock I throw in a couple of my frozen chicken stock ice-cubes too
• 1 bunch English spinach leaves washed and chopped
• 1/2 lemon juiced
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat oil in a large saucepan or stockpot over medium heat
• Add the onion and gently fry for up to 5 minutes
• Add the lentils and water/stock and bring to the boil
• Reduce heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until lentils are tender and starting to fall apart, adding in spinach in the last 5 minutes of cooking
• Stir in the lemon juice just before serving and season with salt and pepper
• Ladle into bowls and serve with toasted buttery, garlicy sourdough and extra lemon juice to taste

Notes

You can blitz the soup until smooth if texture is an issue for little kids

Scallops are a great source of protein, vitamins like magnesium and potassium and Vitamin B12, and minerals like selenium and zinc, as well as Omega-3’s.

Thank you to Kady O’Connell for sharing this delicious recipe and photo with me.

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:

Salt and pepper
Coconut oil

Print

Seared Scallops with Leek and Cauliflower Puree

Servings 2

Author Kady O'Connell for Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 12 Scallops without roe
• sea salt
• black pepper
• coconut oil
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped leeks
• 1 tbsp hot water can use water cauliflower is boiling in

Instructions

• The scallops need to be bone dry. Put some kitchen roll out on a counter and place the scallops onto it - then cover with another sheet of kitchen roll and gently press to absorb water. Do this twice with fresh kitchen roll if needed.
• Boil cauliflower for about 10 minutes in salted water or until soft
• Sautee leeks in 1 tsp coconut oil for 5 minutes on a low-medium heat until soft
• Add cauliflower, leeks, 1 tbsp hot water from cauliflower pot, lemon juice to a food processor/blender. Blend until smooth. Season with salt & pepper.
• Put a frying pan on the highest heat and wait a few minutes until the pan is extremely hot. add 1 tsp coconut oil and spread around the pan.
• Place the scallops on the pan and season them with salt & pepper while cooking.
• Cook for 1 minutes then turn and cook for 1 and a 1/2 minutes on the other side. They don’t take long to cook but you want to get them nice and brown on the edges so you will need a very high heat.
• Spread puree on a plate and top with the scallops!

Coconut flour is high in fibre, healthy fats and protein and has a low GI.

The flour is  made from ground and dried coconut meat and it’s good to remember that it can’t be used as a direct swap for other flours in recipes. That would be a recipe for disaster. So please don’t try to take a traditional recipe and convert to a coconut flour recipe, it just won’t work.

Bascially, when using coconut flour, you will inevitably need less flour and more liquid in the ratios.

Here’s a bunch of recipes from some very talented recipe writers, follow these and you won’t go wrong.

Chocolate Pudding with Gooey Bits by Low Tox Life

Almond, Lemon & Coconut Steamed Pudding by Quirky Cooking 

Berry Mug Cake by Becomingness

Gluten and Nut-Free Apple Bread by Becomingness

Berry and Walnut Crumble Slice by Mummy Made It

Carrot Cake by Natural New Age Mum

Healthy Tiny Teddies by Mummy Made It

Lemon Drizzle Cake by Yummy Inspirations

Paleo Banana Loaf by Dom’s Kitchen

Brownie Cake by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle

And a few savoury recipes…

Carrot and Parsnip Muffins by The Joyful Table

Super-simple Salmon Patties by The Holistic Nutritionist

Gaps Wraps by Quirky Cooking

Enjoy!

If you’re not lucky enough to be soaking up some Fiji sunshine (hint: I’m not), you’re probably at home where kids can tend to get bored and Mums become chained to the kitchen.

So why not kill two birds with one stone without breaching any child labour laws? Go ahead and welcome the kids into the kitchen. It will give you a helping hand, keep them busy, and they’ll learn a thing or two at the same time. And I don’t even need to mention the bonding opportunities and memories this creates.

Kids learn so much when they chop, crumb, stir, roll, stuff, slice, measure and decorate. But remember to make it as much fun as possible. So, grit your teeth and be prepared for some, well, a lot of mess. Here are some fantastic recipes which may just help to unearth some new family favourites. Pick a few to make and instil confidence and the art and skill of cooking into your kids these school holidays.

Cooking with kids is one of the best ways to unfuss your fussy eaters too! It’s so important to help your kids have a healthy relationship with food from as young as possible. Involving kids in meal prep makes them active participants and gives them a sense of control from the very get-go. When your kids help with picking groceries, preparing food and setting the table, their curiosities are peeked, and they want to be part of the end result, which is eating the prepared meal!

TURN FUSSY EATING AROUND WITH THIS LIFE-CHANGING RESOURCE!
The Fussy Eating Bundle has you covered. Use our tried and tested strategies and solutions and help your children eat and love a wide variety of foods today!

You can source many of the ingredients in these recipes from my one-stop-favourite-shop, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They offer amazing quality ingredients and value for money and they stock  all my favourite products and I don’t even have to leave the house!

Savoury

It’s oh so tempting just to make sweets when you are cooking with kids, but based on my kids cooking classes, I can promise you they love making (and eating), savoury dishes just as much.

Hearty Black Bean and Sweet Corn Quesadilla by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle.

If you haven’t made this already, do yourself a favour, and get cracking on this recipe with the kids these school holidays.

It’s my son’s favourite recipe from the recipe ebook we wrote together Real Food for Hungry Teens, which has received rave reviews from kids of all ages. Such a super fun recipe to make and eat these holidays.

Avocado Brown Rice Sushi by Stace from A Healthy Mum.

Stace reckons her 3yr old loves mashing the avocado through the rice and popping it on the nori. Such a fab sensory experience for them!

Cheese and Seed Crackers by Georgia from Well Nourished.

Full of goodness , this recipe offers lots of opportunity for grinding, grating, rolling and cutting.

Perfect holiday fun!

Paleo Zucchini Bacon Bites by The Merry Maker Sisters.

With lots of opportunity for mixing, sifting and rolling, these delectable bites make for a perfect rainy afternoon activity for your toddlers or even your grumpy teens!

Baked Chicken Nuggets  by yours truly.

I love this recipe because kids of all ages can get involved in the cubing, peeling, dicing, rolling, coating and lining up on a tray…and who doesn’t love a chicken nugget? These ones are the bomb!

Stuffed Cucumber and Celery Boats from my recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes

From experience in my kid’ cooking classes I know that kids just love to stuff food! From potato, to tomatoes, zucchini, celery and lettuce leaves. Look out for their faces beaming with pride when they serve the whole family their little stuffed boats : )

Baked Eggs by Lisa Corduff from Small Steps Living.

Now here’s an idea for the school holidays.

How about you have a sleep in, and let the kids make you this for breakfast? Often kids favourite meal of the day is breakfast, which means they love making it too.

Another great recipe for the tweens/teens to handle themselves, little siblings can help set the table, sprinkle the side with feta and herbs and a crack of salt and pepper.

Sweet

Oat, Seed and Date Bars by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle.

My kids are teens now, yet they still love making simple recipes like this.

It’s a great way to show them how easy eating tasty, healthy can be and they love the quick result.

Healthy Chocolate Crackles by Sonia from Natural New Age Mum.

You won’t find large amounts of refined sugar or hydrogenated copha in this version. No siree!

Your kids will see for themselves what goes into the healthy version when they get stuck into making this easy, simple treat.

Rowdy Roll Ups by Amy from The Holistic Ingredient.

The kids will love seeing how all this comes together from scratch, with so few ingredients no less to get this delicious result.

Berry Smoothie Bowl by me is a great one to prove to kids that maximum deliciousness doesn’t need to come with a truck load of sugar and additives, just simple ingredients for the kids to whizz up before devouring it.

Coconut Rough by Ness from Becomingness reinvents a childhood favourite.

With your guidance, let older kids learn how to turn on the stove, and get their confidence up doing all the stove top bits (with your watchful eye), while the younger kids can stir and pour.

No Bake Peanut Butter Balls by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle.

Enlist the kids and stock up the fridge with these power-packed goodies perfect for snacks.

Younger kids get to practise their motor skills with the rolling, older kids love measuring out just the right amount and ensuring all the balls are the same size (they do in my family anway).

My Favourite Home made Granola by Brenda Janschek Health and Lifestyle.

Great for breakfasts or snacks on the go, lots of opportunity to talk about the goodness in nuts and how fruit is dried.. Remember, cooking with our kids allows opportunities for learning all about food too.

There you have it, 14 fantastic recipes to make from scratch during school holidays. Remember, surrender to the inevitable mess and you’ll find so much joy in passing on the lifelong skill of cooking onto your children.

If mealtime is always a struggle in your house check out The Fussy Eating Bundle where our tried and tested strategies and solutions have helped thousands of parents help their children develop a healthy relationship with food. 

Bren x

Ok, now back to apples. I really didn’t think we were ready for the change from Summer to Autumn. Surely the kids would mourn the end of summer’s succulent bounty of stonefruits like mangoes, peaches and nectarines, wouldn’t they? Well, no, actually. As much as they love those fruits, they seem to have naturally and instinctively followed the rhythym of the seasons to embrace the sweet flavours provided by Autumn’s apples and pears. Because we try to eat seasonally, the replacement of Summer fruits with Autumn fare follows a natural progression, and we are always ready for the introduction of a new set of tastes. Out with the old, and in with the new. We’ll be naturally craving our mangoes soon enough, but for now, it’s all about the delicious, crispy sweetness and juiciness of the pome fruits.

So cue the ritual of cooking with apples and the endless ways they can be used in recipes. And as the air starts to chill, wrap yourself in a blanket and try this homey Autumn fare by some of my favourite real foood bloggers.

Let’s kick off with my Apple Crumble Slice

Apple Cinnamon Upside Down Cake by Wholefood Nutrition and Wellness

Choc Chia Quinoa Crumble by Naughty Naturopath Mum

Easy Gluten-Free Apple and Fig Crumble by Natural New Age Mum

Apple Berry Custard Crumble by Quirky Cooking

Apple Rhubarb Pie by Wholefood Nutrition and Wellness

Upside Down Apple Cake Puddings by Alexx Stuart

Anyone salivating yet!!!!

Carrot and Apple Cake by The Nourished Psychologist

Apple and Lemon Cinnamon Ginger Quinoa by The Wholefood Mama

Apple and Cinnamon Brown Rice Waffles by Wholefood Nutrition and Wellness

Apple Oat Fritters by Quirky Cooking

Sweet Potato Apple Hash by Barefoot Kitchens

Chia Apple Porridge by Healthy Natural Changes

Cheesy Chicken Apple Balls by Barefoot Kitchens

Turkey Leg Confit with Cranberry Vodka Sauce and Baked Apple by The Wholesome Cook

There you go, now you can put those big bags of apples to good use.

I wonder which recipe will be first cab off the rank? I’d love to know in the comments.

Enjoy!

Sign up to my newsletter to receive your free ‘Think Outside the Cereal Box’ breakfast ebook

It’s not every day you can just go and strike up a conversation about Tahineh (a delicious breakfast spread) or Mann al-Sams (Iraqi Taffy and my all time favourite sweet). Ta-what? Ma-who? So it was was a real thrill to be able to discuss these dishes with a real foodie after my own heart!

I don’t really cook traditional Iraqi food that much for my family. I leave that to my mum who visits every second Tuesday night with a truckload of Cooba bil Leben (Arabic meatballs in yoghurt soup), Fasoulia (white beans with lamb in tomato sauce) and Baklawa (Lebanese sweets, which she forgot this week, and is now in the bad books!).

Mjaddra is a wholesome, tasty vegetarian dish of lentils, rice and caramelised onions that I have always looked forward to when visiting my Lebanese Aunties and cousins. Having a fair idea how this simple recipe would go, I checked with my foodie Auntie (who made my favourite version … sorry mum …!) to get the benefit of her experience, and tweaked it to make it right for me (and you!).

Apparently this is an ancient dish that has roots in the Old Testament, being mentioned in Genesis as the dish Jacob gave up his inheritance for. He clearly had good taste, if not financial matters!

The recipe is inexpensive, easy to make and delicious. You could try to soak your lentils in an acidic medium and rinse off well before cooking (I did my rice too) the night before. This makes them both more digestible and quicker to cook. Don’t stress though if you don’t have time. It’s delicious served with Fatoush (a beautiful Arabic salad, which I will blog for you at some point) or a Cabbage salad and minted yoghurt.

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:

Lentils
Basmati rice
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Cumin
Parsley

Print

Lentils and Rice (Mjaddra)

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown lentils
• 1/2 cup basmati rice
• approx 2.5 cups water use home-made chicken stock if not vegetarian
• 3 medium onions diced
• 2 tablespoons ghee or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp celtic sea salt
• pinch of cumin
• Parsley chopped

Instructions

• Soak lentils and rice overnight and rinse well before cooking.
• Heat ghee or olive oil n a skillet and fry the onions on medium heat until golden-brown (approx 15-20mins). Pop in a splash of water to the pan if the onions start to stick to the bottom. Make sure the onions don't burn. Reserve half of the onions for garnish.
• Meanwhile, place the lentils and rice together in a saucepan, along with half of the caramelised onions and the water (or stock).
• Bring to the boil, then simmer gently with no cover, add cumin and mix.
• Stir occasionally until the mixture starts to thicken (10-15 mins)
• Add the salt at the end of cooking and stir.
• Serve on a platter and garnish with the onion set aside earlier and a sprinkle of parsley.

Notes

Mjadra can be eaten hot or at room temperature with a side salad and some natural yoghurt mixed with mint, lemon juice and some ground coriander. You could even add some Lebanese bread if you like. We ate it with a thinly sliced raw cabbage salad with some salt, lemon and olive oil drizzled on it.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook which is getting rave reviews, 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!

If you make my Mjaddra recipe, please 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.

Other recipes you might like are Roasted Spiced Chickpeas and Mediterranean Buddha Bowl.

Bren x

I haven’t had enough time cooking my warming winter dishes to comfortably move onto lighter spring-like offerings. So, I may be busting out the thongs and singlets on the streets
but in my kitchen I am ignoring the fact that spring is with us to allow me more
time to get my autumnal cooking urges out of my system.

My favourite dinner of this week was a lamb stew/pie creation (Actually called French Baked
Lamb with Crispy Potato Topping, thanks to Delicious Mag, September 2013).

Pros about this dish: It is quick and easy to make, requiring only a
few ingredients and tastes like you have been slaving for hours.
Cons: Zero.

Next time I make this recipe I will make my own sugo
(passata) and chicken stock but if you are looking for a quick and
delicious midweek dinner, this is it. If you want to make it more seasonally
appropriate perhaps whack some zucchini on the side. We can call this
‘trans-seasonal cooking’.

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.

French Baked Lamb with Crispy Potato Topping

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

4 waxy potatoes such as dutch cream
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to brush ( or you could use coconut oil or ghee)
6 x 200 grams lamb chump chops
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 rosemary sprigs, leaves finely chopped, plus extra sprigs to serve
1/2 cup (125ml) chicken stock
1and 1/2 cups (375ml) passata

Preparation

Place potato in a saucepan of cold, salted water.Bring to the boil then reduce heat to medium and cook for 5-10 minutes until par-cooked. Drain, cook and thinly slice.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Heat oil in a large frypan over high heat. Season the lamb then cook, turning, for 8-10 minutes until browned. Remove from pan and reduce heat to medium.

Add the onion and carrot, then cook, stirring, for 4-5 minutes until softened. Add the rosemary and cook for a further 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the stock and pasta sauce, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring to a simmer, then season and cook for 3-4 minutes until slightly reduced.

Place lamb in a baking dish and pour over the tomato sauce . Layer potato over the top and season, then brush with your oil of choice. Bake for one hour or until potato is golden.
Rest for 5 minutes then serve garnished with extra rosemary sprigs.

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

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.