Puffed Quinoa Snack Bars

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent a mystery box of ingredients from Food Compass, an online food shopping website with lots of great products (I actually bought some really interesting looking pasta that I am looking forward to trying and I have fallen in love with Cogo Bites – they are soooo yummy!).  In the box I received was puffed quinoa, LSA powder and coconut nectar syrup – all products I hadn’t tried out before, so I decided to use them all together in these snack bars.

I love home made muesli bars and the these Puffed Quinoa Snack Bars are a delish option to add in to the mix (I’ll link our other great muesli bar recipes at the bottom of this post – check them out for other ingredient ideas).  They are held together with honey, so they are best kept in the fridge, as they fall apart a bit if kept at room temperature.  Make them using whatever you have on hand – if you don’t have a certain ingredient, swap it out for something else.  There’s no baking either, just throw everything together and you’re done.  Easy.

Ingredients:
½ cup shredded coconut
1 cup puffed quinoa
2 tablespoons chia seeds
½ almond meal
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons LSA powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon almond essence
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon coconut nectar syrup (or try golden syrup)
½ cup liquid honey

Method:
Grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square tin. 
Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the wet ingredients and mix to combine. 
Press into the prepared tin.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before cutting into squares and serving.  Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Other great Muesli Bar recipes:

• Easy Muesli Bars
• White Chocolate and Cranberry Muesli Bars
• Chocolate Muesli Bars
• Oaty Banana Nut Bars

Sarah’s Soda Bread

Simon and I share our house with our flatmate Sarah, who is from Ireland.  She had a pang of homesickness the other week and was craving the comforts of home, so she wanted some Soda Bread.  I’d never heard of Soda Bread before, but offered to make it for her and went about doing some research.  I ended up shirking the responsibility of making it off onto Simon (I’ve been really lazy when it comes to baking lately) as he loves to make bread; so he gave this a go on the weekend, excitedly assisted by Sarah.

Soda bread is really quick and easy to make.  We made ours using a ‘cake’ method, where you mix all the ingredients up and bake it in the oven.  You can also make Soda Bread by making your dough, then cutting it into ‘farls’ (a word meaning ‘four parts’) and frying each segment until it is cooked through, then piecing all the farls together to get your round bread look.  There isn’t any yeast in this bread, so you don’t need to wait around for it to prove either.

To me, Soda Bread is kind of like a massive scone.  I ate my pieces simply buttered and with jam.  However, in Ireland I think it is more a savoury thing – Sarah cooked up some eggs and ate them on the bread with HP sauce and I’ve also read about it being something you can serve with stew to soak up the gravy.  It was pretty yum; we’ll be making some again and I think we will give some other Irish baking a go soon.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add 1 cup of the buttermilk.  Combine dry ingredients and buttermilk with a fork, gradually adding more of the remaining buttermilk until a soft dough is formed.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface for 1 minute.  Form into a slightly flattened circle. Place the dough on the prepared tray.  Mark a large 2cm deep ‘X’ with a sharp knife and bake the soda bread for 35-45 minutes. The bread is ready when it is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Once the bread is cooked, remove from the oven.  To serve, but into segments, then cut the segments in half horizontally before topping with whatever you fancy.

Kumara and Bacon Mini Muffins

I made these Kumara and Bacon Mini Muffins a few weeks ago when we had a long weekend.  We were away with my parents ‘up North’ and I wanted something that I could snack on when I was feeling peckish.  Mum usually has chips and dip, along with crackers and cheese on hand, which I wanted to avoid.
The muffins had a nice savoury flavour to them and were delicious heated a little with a smear of butter (yeah, I could’ve just eaten the chips and dip).  I think they would also make a great snack to take to work or school in the lunchbox.  Mum reckoned they would be great made in a jumbo muffin tin (cooking times would differ) with a green salad for a lunch or light dinner.  Keep this recipe in mind for after Christmas too – you could swap out the bacon for leftover ham.

Makes 24.

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups self raising flour
½ teaspoon rubbed parsley
½ teaspoon sweet basil
½ teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup grated cheese
2 – 4 rashers bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces
1 cup milk
1 egg
30g butter, melted
1 cup mashed kumara (I used orange kumara, but whatever variety is your fave will be fine)
¼ cup sunflower seeds

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Grease 2 x 12 hole mini muffin trays.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, parsley, basil, curry powder, sugar, salt, cheese and bacon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and butter.  Add the whisked mixture to the dry ingredients, along with the mashed kumara.  Mix together until just combined.
Divide the mixture between the prepared muffin holes and sprinkle the sunflower seeds over the top.  Bake for 10 –12 minutes or until golden.

Olive, Salami and Cream Cheese Muffins

These muffins were created out of stuff we had left over in the fridge.  I wanted to make something savoury that we could take as morning tea to work.  There was a container of olives and half a block of cream cheese left over from various salads we had made and I had a packet of salami waiting to be used in a pasta dish I kept putting off making because it needed tomatoes and they have been so expensive lately!  So, I made these muffins and they were a hit.  Simon loved them.  I couldn’t lazily put off photographing them because we both wanted to eat them!

Ingredients:
1 egg
220ml skim milk
¼ cup olive oil
1 ¾ cups self raising flour
½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
½ cup salami, chopped into small pieces
½ cup cream cheese, broken into small chunks

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease or line a 12 hole muffin tin.
Beat together the egg, milk and olive oil.  Mix through the flour.  Fold through the olives, salami and cream cheese.
Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared muffin holes.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre a one of the muffins can be removed cleanly. 

Charlie and George Cafe

Charlie and George is a very cool new cafe in the Auckland suburb of Stonefields. The cafe is owned and run by the very lovely Rebecca McRobie and is named after her sons. The cafe manages to strike the balance of being trendy while still being a child friendly place to eat. I loved the terrariums on the tables, I’m inspired and thinking of making my own for our dining table at home.




Shane, Max and I popped along on their first Sunday open a week and a half ago and word of mouth about this place had quickly spread – we were lucky to get a table and that is saying something as seating options are ample. Charlie and George have both indoor and outdoor seating, there’s tables for couples/small groups, communal seating on large outdoor concrete tables with a variety of herbs potted in terracotta pots through the middle as well as some larger tables inside - great if you want to meet a group or have a big family.




Charlie and George have a great selection of wholesome and filling meals on their menu as well as a selection of cabinet foods – the cabinet baking was so popular on the day we were there that it was almost sold out. But, I was told by another patron that the baked goods she selected were to die for. They also serve Kokako coffee in the cutest moustache mugs, the bagels are supplied by Best Ugly Bagels, and the bacon and eggs come from Freedom Farms.  They also stock Nice Blocks and have an excellent selection of preserves for sale at the counter!



If you are in Auckland and want to check out this great new cake you can find them here:
Charlie and George
Stonefields Ave
Mt Wellington, 1050
You can also check them out on Facebook

Remember that you can follow us on Facebook too and if you’d like sneak peeks of what Mel and I are up to in the kitchen (or what cafes we are visiting) you can follow us on Instagram as well!

Cheese and Bacon Pull Apart Loaf

When I was younger I lived within walking distance of a ‘Baker’s Delight’, my favourite thing to buy was their cheese and bacon pull apart loaf. Last weekend I decided to try and whip one up myself, I used the same method as my Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf but tried a more savoury dough recipe.  I love the cheese and bacon combo but you could change it up with other savoury fillings or add something like chives if you have them on hand.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1½ teaspoons dry active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons warm water
¼ cup warm milk
1 large egg, whisked
½ teaspoon salt
50g butter, soft cut into cubes
1½ -1¾ cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
250 grams crispy bacon, crumpled into small pieces
25 grams garlic butter, melted

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer stir together the water, yeast and sugar. Leave it for a few minutes until the yeast dissolves and starts to bubble. Then stir in the milk, egg and salt.
Then add the flour and softened butter and combine using your dough hook, this could be done by hand with a wooden spoon as this is quite a soft dough. Let the dough hook knead the dough or knead it vigorously with your hand for a few minutes in the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, knead in a bit more flour by the tablespoon. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside somewhere warm to rise for about 90 minutes, it will double in size.
Grease your loaf tin with butter and set aside. Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out your dough, it should be roughly 20cmx40cm. Use a pastry brush to spread melted garlic butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with the cheese and bacon.
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book – you can check out pictures here.
At this stage you can cover your loaf with glad wrap and place it the fridge overnight, you can then remove it the next morning and set it aside for 30-45 minutes for a second rise while you pre-heat your oven to 180°C, or if you want to bake it the same day you can give it it’s second rise straight away and then place it in your preheated oven to bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden and it is cooked through.
After cooking set it aside for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing it to serve warm.

Pizza Muffins

These are yum.  And pretty healthy for baking too.  I like the pineapple in them.  Simon loved them too and we both enjoyed taking them to work as snacks to have at morning tea.

Ingredients:
2 – 3 rashers of bacon, cooked, rind removed
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup milk
3 teaspoons tomato sauce
1 egg, beaten
100g butter, melted
225g can pineapple pieces in juice, drained

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease or line a 12 muffin tin.
Cook the bacon, remove the rind, then cut into small pieces.  Set the bacon aside.
In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients, including the cheese.
Roughly chop up the pineapple pieces.  In a medium bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, including the pineapple and bacon.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined. 
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.  Bake for 15 minutes or until the muffins are lightly golden.  Leave to cool in the pan for five minutes before leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Raspberry and Vanilla Mini Muffins

These Raspberry and Vanilla Mini Muffins are so cute, and so yummy!  They are quick and easy to make and are a great little treat.

Makes 24.

1 ½ cups self raising flour
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup reduced fat vanilla yoghurt
80g reduced fat margarine or butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease two 12 hole mini muffin tins.
Mix the flour and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the yoghurt, margarine, egg and vanilla to the flour and stir until combined.
Roughly chop the raspberries, and then fold through the mixture.
Fill the muffin holes with the mixture.  Bake for approximately 18 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden.  Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  If you like, dust with icing sugar before serving.

Easy Muesli Bars

With school having been back a week already (crazy how fast time goes), I thought I would share another muesli bar recipe.  These Easy Muesli Bars make a great addition to any lunchbox and the recipe makes quite a few, so hopefully you’ll have some for a few days at least!
You can throw whatever nuts and seeds you like into this recipe.  I lazily scooped pre-mixed nuts and seeds out of the bulk bin at the supermarket to use, but you could buy individual quantities of just your favourites.  I added in dried cranberries, but again, you could swap these for your fave dried fruit; apricots, banana chip pieces, sultanas…

2 ½ cups rolled oats
½ cup shredded coconut
2 cups mixed nuts, chopped
1 cup mixed seeds
¼ cup chia seeds
¼ cup chocolate chips, optional
1cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup honey
½ cup peanut butter
½ brown sugar*

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 22 x 22 cm tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, coconut, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips and cranberries.
In a medium sized saucepan over a low heat, mix together the salt, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, peanut butter and sugar until smooth.
Pour the syrup mixture into the dry mixture and mix through until all the dry mixture has been coated by the syrup.
Press the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the top is golden.  Allow the muesli slab to cool in the tin before cutting into bars.  Store in an airtight container.

*I used Billington’s Light Muscovado Unrefinded Cane Sugar.  You can use normal brown sugar if you wish.

Oaty Banana Nut Bars

I’ve been experimenting with muesli bars this weekend (so expect another muesli bar recipe soon).  These Oaty Banana Nut Bars are a bit of a twist on your traditional muesli bar.  They are a super quick snack idea which would make a great addition to school lunchboxes.  Instead of the muesli being held together with honey and the like, a mix of peanut butter and mashed banana is used.  the result is a soft cake-like bar.  They remind me of Banana Cranberry Cookies I made a while back.
To speed things up, I used my food processor to prepare most of the ingredients I was using.  I also used pre-mixed nuts out of the bulk bin at my local supermarket.  You can use an assortment of your favourite nuts, it’s totally up to you.

Ingredients:
1 cup mixed nuts
½ cup pretzels
1 ½ cups oats
¼ cup chocolate chips
4 bananas
1 cup peanut butter

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 16 x 26cm tin. 
Place the nuts and pretzels into a food processor and process for a few seconds to roughly chop them up (alternatively you could chop them with a knife).  Place in a medium sized bowl and mix through the oats and chocolate chips.
Place the bananas in the food processor and process until smooth (alternatively you can use a fork to mash them).  Pour the banana into a microwave safe bowl.  Add the peanut butter to the banana.  Microwave the banana for 1 minute on high, remove from the microwave and stir the mix thoroughly for 1 to 2 minutes.
Mix the banana mixture through the oat mixture.  Press the mixture evenly into the prepared tin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the mixture is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before cutting into bars to serve.  Store in an airtight container.

After some more muesli bar recipes?  Check out our White Chocolate and Cranberry Muesli Bar and our Chocolate Muesli Bar recipes – they are delish!  Also, I got the cute bakers twine that I tied around these bars from The Pretty Baker.

Olive, Spinach + Pine Nut Tart

This Olive, Spinach and Pine nut Tart is great with a salad and chutney.  It can be served hot cold, and travels well so it is good for a picnic.  I think this is one for true olive fans as the olives give the tart a real salty kick.  I loved it, but David (Simon’s brother) was not as enthusiastic – I ate the rest before Simon could try it!

I find photographing rectangular shaped food hard as we usually use landscape photographs on our blog and I find it hard to get the composition right.  The funny thing about editing the pictures for this post was that I noticed the subject matter kept becoming less and less as I kept playing around with more ideas, cutting pieces of the tart off and eating them.

Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry, thawed
200g baby spinach leaves
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives (my fave!)
125g cream cheese, cubed or broken into chunks
4 eggs
½ cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons pine nuts

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Line a 33 x 9 cm lose based tart tin with the pastry.  Trim off any excess pastry and prick the bottom all over with a fork.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until lightly golden.  Set aside to cool.  Drop the oven temperature down to 160°C.
In a frying pan, stir the spinach and olives over a medium heat for 1 – 2 minutes or until the spinach has just wilted.  Cool slightly.
Spoon the spinach mixture over the base of the pastry.  Layer the chunks of cream cheese over the top.  Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt and pepper, and pour over the top.  Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top.  Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes or until set.

Mini Spinach and Feta Pinwheels

I really like these Mini Spinach and Feta Pinwheels.  I’ve made them a few times now and they are quick and easy to make.  I made a batch for our picnic just in case we needed more food; we didn’t, but I also don’t recall having any of these leftover.  I’ll be making more Spinach and Feta Pinwheels during the year to take to work as my morning tea snacks.

Makes about 30.

Ingredients:
250g frozen spinach, thawed
100g feta cheese, crumbled
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 sheets puff pastry
1 egg

Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C.  Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Squeeze out the excess moisture from the spinach, and chop it up roughly.  Spread the spinach over the pastry sheets.  Combine the cheeses, then sprinkle over the pastry sheets.
Roll the pastry up to enclose the filling.  Cut into 1 cm sections and place them on the prepare baking trays.
Lightly whisk the egg.  Brush the sides and top of each pinwheel with the egg. Bake the pinwheels for 15 – 20 minutes or until a light golden brown colour.

Pork and Apple Sausage Rolls

These are delicious and so simple! Perfect for a summer picnic which is exactly what I made them for, these were my savoury contribution to our High Tea Picnic. I loved them and everyone else seemed to enjoy them as well. They are definitely on my ‘must make again soon’ list.

Ingredients:
6 Italian pork sausages (500 grams or there about)
400 grams pork mince
1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 granny smith apple, grated
1 tablespoon curly parsley, finely chopped
4 sheets pre-rolled flaky puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
Using your hands, squeeze excess moisture from apple. Lay on paper towels and set aside to ensure as much moisture as possible is removed.
Cut sausage casings. Squeeze sausage meat into a large bowl (discarding the casing).
Add pork mince, caraway seeds and parsley to the sausage meat.
Add apple to mince mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
Place pastry sheets on your work surface and cut in half horizontally.
Spoon approximately one eighth of the mince mixture along one long edge of each pastry piece.
Brush the pastry edges with egg and roll up tightly to enclose filling. Cut each roll into quarters. Brush tops with egg (at this stage you could score the pastry to create a pattern or sprinkle with sesame seeds or similar). 
Place rolls, seam side down, on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Repeat with remaining pastry, mince mixture and egg.
Bake sausage rolls for 20 minutes or until golden.

Beautiful serving plate c/o The Vintage Table

Lunchbox Bakes – Ham, Egg and Courgette Cups

These Ham, Egg and Courgette Cups are quick to prepare and are something just a little more special to have for breakfast or lunch (they go well with a salad).  Great for feeding a crowd too!

24 slices shaved ham
2 large courgette (zucchini)
3 eggs
⅓ cup cream
⅔ cup grated cheddar cheese
4 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease 8 holes of a 12 hole muffin tin.  Line each hole with the ham (use three pieces and overlap them so there are no gaps).  Grate the courgette and squeeze out the excess liquid.
Whisk the eggs and cream in a medium sized bowl.  Stir in the courgette and grated cheese.  Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin hole and top with a segment of tomato.  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked.  Stand for 5 minutes before serving.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes, head along to our Lunchbox Bakes page.

Lunchbox Bakes - Empanadas

Here’s something a little bit different to try. These Empanadas made a great afternoon snack / pre dinner nibble in my house!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
½ cup marinated chargrilled capsicum, drained, chopped
125g corn kernels (defrost first if using frozen ones)
¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped (you can use kidney beans if you prefer)
1 cup grated tasty cheese
2 cups plain flour
40g butter, melted
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
Lemon wedges, to serve

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place two eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Boil the eggs for 7 minutes before draining them and refreshing under cold water. Peel the egg shells off and chop up the eggs.

Combine the egg, capsicum, corn, olives and cheese in a medium sized bowl. Whisk the remaining egg in a small bowl.

Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the butter, ½ a cup of cold water, whisked egg and vinegar into the swell. Whisk together with the flour using a fork. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a smooth dough (check out our Pizza Making video to see how to do this). Roll out to form a 45 x 35 cm rectangle.

Using an 8cm round pastry cutter, cut the dough into circles. Top each pastry circle with a tablespoon of the filling. Fold the circle in half over the mixture, then use a fork to press the edges together. Place on the prepared baking tray.

Brush the tops of the empanadas with milk. Sprinkle the cumin seeds over the top. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Serve the empanadas with lemon wedges.

For more delicious lunchbox bakes recipes and to find out how you can participate in this feature, check out our Lunchbox Bakes page.

Lunchbox Bakes – Banana Cranberry Cookies

These cookies are a little weird; there’s no flour, oats act in place of the usual dry ingredients.  So, they are a bit gooey.  But yum.  Really yum.  Guess what, they are also gluten, egg and sugar free.  How brilliant is that?  They are like little breakfast in a cookie ball.  And, they are easy; a one bowl, chuck everything together and you are done deal.  I like them a lot.

Makes about 30 cookies.

3 medium ripe banana, mashed
⅓ cup butter, melted
2 cups uncooked gluten free oats
¼ cup milk
½ cup craisins (dried cranberries)
½ walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, then let the batter stand for 5 minutes.
Scoop out teaspoons of the dough onto the baking tray.  Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

For more lunchbox food ideas or how you too can take part in ‘Lunchbox Bakes’, check out the Lunchbox Bakes page!