Puff Pastry Pizza Scrolls with Bertolli Riserva

Our after school schedule gets pretty hectic around here. Between swim team/class and karate class, Ava and Lola have something on every day after school. Swim team three times a week for Ava, swim classes twice a week for Lola, and karate class twice a week for both. They're definitely busy girls, and that makes me a busy mum!

With all of that physical activity after school it's important that the girls have something good to eat to fuel their bodies. They tend to eat a lot of fruit and dairy after school, but sometimes they need something a little more substantial, especially considering that swimming coincides with their regular dinner time.

I'm always on the look out for quick and simple foods that I can make for the girls. Something that will give them a boost of energy and act sort of like a mini dinner to tide them over until we get home. It needs to be delicious, not too heavy, and, most importantly for me, easy to make with little effort.

Thanks to Bertolli Riserva I'm sharing a recipe for a super simple snack that is really fast to make, tastes delicious and fills kids up just the right amount. Adults too! Puff Pastry Pizza Scrolls are so easy. Only four or five ingredients are needed and they're done in around 20 minutes. Oh, and they taste good. So good!

Cooking with Kids: Fresh Pasta

It's been a while since I shared a Cooking with Kids post so when the opportunity to work with Bertolli® (who this year are celebrating their 150th birthday) came up I knew it would be a great opportunity to get the kids back in the kitchen.

Nestlé Crunch Mocha Frappe + A Give Away

Now that my two big kids are at school all day it's just Mathilde and I at home.

For the most part, I'm just as busy as I was with two, or even three kids at home. Being a toddler, Mathilde is definitely the most demanding of my time out of the three kids. Ava and Lola are old enough to keep themselves occupied without getting into trouble - most of the time! But not Mathilde. She's a little trouble maker, this one! If she's not drawing on furniture with markers, or pouring soil from a potted plant on the carpet, or spreading yogurt all over the couch, then she's climbing on top of me to nurse constantly, or bashing at the keyboard while I try to work, or spreading dirty clothes from the laundry hamper everywhere - while getting frustrated as she tries to dress herself in them. Being at home with just one of my kids isn't necessarily as quiet as I imagined that it would be. 

All that said, being a toddler, Mathilde still takes a pretty long nap each day. And what a glorious thing that is! Just one kid at home and she's sleeping. For a whole hour. Sometimes even two! 

Like most busy Mums I usually make the most of nap time by catching up on house work. Or I get a little work done on the blog. But every now and then I take this time just for myself. It's not something I get to do often, but having an hour just to myself, to sit down with a coffee and a book - or even a little trash tv - is like a little piece of heaven. Of course, a little piece of heaven isn't complete without a little piece of chocolate. Ok, maybe a big piece of chocolate!

It's been pretty hot here over the past few weeks so I've been mixing up my coffee break routine with an icy cold coffee rather than my regular latte. To make my coffee break even sweeter I've been adding one of my favorite chocolate bars, Nestlé® Crunch®, into the mix - literally! I call this my Nestlé® Crunch® Mocha Frappe. It's cold, it's frothy, it's chocolatey, it has teeny, tiny crunchy pieces, and it's got that all important shot of coffee to get me through the rest of the day.

Sound's good, right? And it looks good too. Just look at that frothy, chocolately goodness!

Ok, so now you're probably feeling like drinking one of these bad boys. I know I am. Here's how you make it...

Popcorn Ice Cream Cones

Ava's recent birthday party at Fenton's Creamery was a first for me. It was the first time that we hosted a party at a fully catered venue. All of the food, entertainment and decorations came part and parcel with the booking. Apart from the invites, cake and party favors there was nothing else I needed to do. I kind of felt a little lost. Usually I'd spend hours scouring through Pinterest for ideas for party food, party games, party hats, photo booth backdrops... This time there was none of that.

There may not have been much for me to prepare for Ava's party but there certainly was for Lola's ice cream themed birthday back in October. In fact, I made so many ice cream themed goodies that I never got around to sharing them all with you! So before Ava's ice cream party becomes a distant memory like Lola's, let's have a look at some of the ice cream treats I made back in October. Same theme, different party.

First up I'm sharing this super easy recipe for Popcorn Ice Cream Cones. Think Rice Krispie Treats made with popcorn instead of Rice Krispies shoved into an ice cream cone and covered with sprinkles. Actually, that's pretty much it! So easy they almost don't need a recipe, but I'll give you one anyway.

Pumpkin Bowl Ice Cream

Summer may be over but that doesn't mean that we can't have ice cream, right? Every day is a good day for ice cream, but holidays are even better. 

I've partnered with 'Got Milk?' to bring you this simple Halloween themed dessert. It's so simple your kids will be able to make it themselves. It's so much fun they'll want to make it themselves. And what could be better than happy kids getting involved in making their own food?

My kids and I are big fans of making our own ice cream - without an ice cream maker! All you need are a few simple ingredients, some ice, salt and ziplock bags and you can make delicious ice cream in just five minutes. 

My kids love to make ice cream using this technique. Food always tastes better when you make it yourself, especially if it's fun to make. And I like knowing exactly what is going into my kids' food. This recipe combines the goodness of milk and a little physical activity to make a fun, delicious treat. It's a fun way to get a little more milk into your children's diet and to provide their bodies with the fuel they need to grow.

To give our ice cream a Halloween theme we're coloring it orange and serving it up in carved out mini pumpkins. My kids aren't huge fans of pumpkin flavor so we're making the ice cream vanilla however you could add pumpkin pie spice for a more authentic taste of the season.   

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...

Christmas Tradition: Honey Biscuits

Every year in the lead up to Christmas my Mum bakes honey biscuits. They've become one of my family's Christmas traditions, taking the place of gingerbread.

In keeping with tradition, making honey biscuits was one of the Christmas activities in Ava and Lola's advent calendar; the most delicious activity in the advent calendar!

Honey Biscuits

Cooking with Kids: Pumpkin Scones

Last week the girls and I caught up with some of our little friends for a morning of baking. We've done this a few times now. The first time we made sugar cookies together and this time we made pumpkin scones.

Lola loves her scones

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.

Pumpkin Pie & Tofurky

I'm getting a little slow with my posts. 
Here it is, a week since Thanksgiving and I'm only just getting around to posting about it...

Our first Thanksgiving was a nice day. We had one of Kim's workmates (who also happens to be an old friend from Adelaide) over for lunch and stuffed ourselves full of holiday food; turkey, sweet potato, potato bake, green beans, broccolini and crusty sourdough followed by home made pumpkin pie. Oh, and "Tofurky" for our vegetarian guest. I couldn't resist buying the "Tofurky" roast - even just for the name! Actually, the "Tofurky" tasted pretty good. Quite similar in flavor to real turkey however the texture just wasn't quite right, kind of like a turkey meatloaf!

I have to admit that I succumbed to laziness (or lack of time and baking equipment) for a lot of the meal. The potato bake and sweet potato (with maple glazed pecans and cranberries, mmm...) were both ready made side dishes from our local Trader Joe's supermarket. The ready made meals here are fantastic. Nothing like the flavorless mush passing as ready meals in Australia. There are so many good options when it comes to ready made meals here that you could get away with never cooking yet eat a healthy, home-made style meal every night. And now while we're living in our furniture-less new apartment at the moment that's just what we're doing!  

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving...

The one thing that I did make myself was the pumpkin pie. Ok, so there was a little bit of cheating involved (I used a store bought pie base and tinned pumpkin) but I'm still going with calling it home made. I got my recipe from joyofbaking.com. You can find it here. Or, you can follow my much shorter, edited version of the recipe below.