Dinner Hacks with Gobble

The kids have been back at school and their regular activities for a week now. While that means I have a little extra time during the school day to get things done, it also means that I am much busier after school. Between karate class and swim team/swim classes, we've got after school activities five days a week. That's five days a week that we're not home before 5:30pm at the very earliest, which means that's five days a week that I find myself scrambling to get something made for dinner. 

As we live on top of a Trader Joe's supermarket, our dinner often comes in the form of their ready meals. It's quick and easy, and most of them are pretty tasty. However, they're not always the healthiest option and I miss the satisfaction of knowing that I made dinner from scratch.

I'm always looking for new quick and easy options for dinner so when I heard about Gobble dinner kits I was excited to give them a try. Imagine this... a healthy and tasty home made meal cooked from scratch in just ten minutes! No peeling, no chopping, no measuring amounts... None of that time consuming stuff that stops me from making home cooked meals. Just fresh, ready chopped ingredients, perfectly portioned and ready to cook in just one pan. Oh, and less clean up too! Perfect!

We gave Gobble a try last week and made two super tasty meals: Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice and Naan, and Miso Glazed Salmon with Soba Noodles and Edamame. Both were so easy to make that the kids were able to help out which was great. They love being helpers in the kitchen but with their busy after school schedule we don't always have time. 

Cooking with Kids: Slime Pie

Earlier this week Ava brought home a recipe from school. A recipe for Slime Pie. She's been so eager to try her hand at baking and cooking so we thought this would be the perfect recipe for an afternoon of cooking together.

Slime Pie is pretty disgusting looking! It's green, it's full of worms and of course, it's slimy! In reality though, it's really just a take on key lime pie, and it actually tastes pretty good.

Lots of worms

Here's how to make Slime Pie...

Hot Cross Buns

This year there were no store bought hot cross buns in our house. 

Every hot cross bun that we ate at home was made by Ava and I.

Ava pipes on the crosses

Now this wasn't necessarily because our home made hot cross buns are fantastic (which they were, if I do say so myself) but rather due to the fact that we couldn't buy hot cross buns anywhere.

Paper Food

Ava loves drawing.

Ava loves cooking.

Ava loves combing the two and making her own food with paper, textas and scissors.

Here's a meal that Ava cooked up recently.

Mmm... carrots, beans, broccoli and a tomato.

Don't forget to eat your vegetables!

Two Little Chefs

Kim received his Father's Day gift from the girls in the mail today so I can finally share it now on Little Hiccups!

This year for Father's Day Ava and Lola dressed up as little chefs, Ava in an apron and Lola in a chef hat, and made a special Father's Day breakfast for Daddy - or at least they pretended to for the camera!

I had originally intended to use the photos for a card in a collage style similar to some our Mother's Day card from this year. However, there were so many good photos that I wanted to use that it just ended up looking messy. I couldn't bring myself to cull the photos so instead I decided to turn them into a little book with a short story about two little chefs.   

Here is the finished product...

The completed Father's Day books

Bon apetite!

For my birthday recently my husband Kim organised for my friend Kylie and I to attend a workshop at Mulots, a lovely little French patisserie here in Adelaide.

This patisserie is located across the road from where I was taking yoga classes while pregnant with Lola. So every Saturday morning after my 90 minutes of pre-natal exercise I'd treat myself to one (or more!) of their mouthwatering pastries, in particular their croissant aux amandes (almond croissant), pain au chocolat or pain aux raisins (snail). Of course, I'd take home extras for Kim and Ava as well. Ava loves the snails - I think partly for the name as well as the deliciousness!

In addition to selling their delicious pastries, Mulots run workshops throughout the year to teach the art of pastry and French desserts.

So last night, while the wind and rain were playing havoc outside, Kylie and I found ourselves in the warm and inviting kitchen of Mulots learning the art of the croissant. Mmm... croissants!

Mulots sign glowing in the dark, stormy night