Month: September 2014

Autumn Leaf Wreath

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Friday was one of those beautiful autumn days where it’s sunny and still warm enough to be outside in t-shirts.  Bird Girl and I made the most of the fabulous weather to spend some time in the park after pre-school before we had to go and collect Chief Stick Collector from school.  Our local playground is surrounded by huge mature oak, plane, sycamore and horse chestnut trees. The horse chestnuts, who seem to get their leaves first in spring are all looking a bit tired, brown and droopy already; whereas the oaks, who are late with their leaves, are still wearing their summer foliage proudly.  But the plane trees are offering some spectacular autumn foliage, and the grass in the playground was carpeted in a blanket of reds, oranges, and yellows from the fallen leaves. After some time on the play equipment, we decided to collect some leaves, but one quickly led to another, to another, and soon we had armfuls of foliage. But what to do with them all? During some after-school quiet time, …

Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta

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Do you always manage to eat your ‘5 a day’?  Count them up.  Be honest now – I’m pretty sure a glass of wine doesn’t count as one portion of fruit! When I feel like I’m edging into vegetable deficit, I make Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta.  It’s a really easy way to slam-dunk your 5 a day in one go, but the addition of the halloumi cheese stops it feeling too sanctimonious! What’s more, once you’ve chopped everything up, you can really just leave it in the oven to cook itself while you have that glass of wine, just for good measure. Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Pasta Ingredients (serves 4) 1 Aubergine 2 Courgettes 1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 1 green pepper 500g cherry tomatoes 2 leeks 250g block halloumi 1 clove garlic 1 dsp balsamic vinegar 1 dsp olive oil 2 bay leaves 1 tsp dried basil 400g pasta shapes Directions Preheat the oven to 170c (fan) or 180c otherwise. Slice the leeks into 1cm rounds, chop the other veggies and the halloumi into …

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

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I have recently been thinking of cutting back on the amount of red and processed meat that we eat, not least after watching the recent BBC documentary investigating the relative health-and environmental impacts of eating various kinds of meat protein. But Chief Stick Collector and Bird Girl definitely fall into the carnivorous camp, and love their bolognese sauce and beef meatballs.  Vegetables are either just about tolerated (on a good day) or outright refused (unless hidden incognito in something else!).  So the question was whether I could replicate one of their favourite beefy meals with something else? Step forward Turkey Mince.  The challenge? Make some meatballs with turkey mince that were not only edible, but tasty. A bit of internet surfing revealed a large number of recipes for turkey meatballs, but none seemed exactly what I was looking for, so I mixed and matched and added and subtracted and threw in a variation of one of our favourite tomato pasta sauces, and ended up with the recipe below. The results? Well, the children loved the sauce …