the mother of all chocolate cakes

Yummo! Katie's chocolate cake so easy and delicious!

Yesterday when I was doing my usual blog roll scan, I came across a fantastic guest post by Katie at Planning with Kids. Katie is a mother of eight children, and her guest post Our Big Family Story was so inspiring and uplifting to me. At the end of her post, Katie shared a recipe for her chocolate cake that she often bakes to feed the tribe when they come home from school. As an avid baker, and a working mother, I am always looking for an easy recipe for something delicious. And well after reading this post and recipe, I just HAD to bake it!


Katie's really easy chocolate cake recipe (as it appeared on Planning with Kids). 

Katie says she uses a large square cake tin or two loaf tins, how ever I used a large round spring base cake tin, and it worked a treat!

Ingredients:

• 125 grams unsalted butter (softened)
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 ¾ cups SR flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• Dash vanilla in 1 cup full cream milk

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients (I don’t sift – ever!)
2. Add wet ingredients
3. Beat together with electric/hand mixer for approx 5 mins
4. Bake in moderate oven (160 C) for 40-45 mins.

Ice with chocolate icing. Approx two cups icing sugar, 1/3 cup of cocoa, one tablespoon softened butter and water to mix.

Do you have a favourite cake recipe that is really really easy?

Be Happy,

Nicola 

It's Green, it's Pesto, it's Good!

Pesto is a staple in our family, along with vegimite, yoghurt and weetbix. It serves as an easy Sunday pasta dinner or a base for pizza's. Many friends and family have even received a jar of our Pesto for Christmas or a welcoming home baby gift. We love to make our own Pesto using ingredients fresh from the garden, where possible. And the rest sourced from local producers in the Margaret River Wine Region.

On a rainy Saturday just gone, when the heavens had opened up, the kids were climbing the walls. I'd had enough of football on the telly. I rounded up the boys for a good old fashioned Pesto making session. Junior went out to pick the remainder of the leaves and stems from the basil plants. And Mini Hoges enjoyed the task of picking the leaves off and putting them into the blender.

Add a good parmesan cheese, nuts, garlic and olive oil, and the pesto was processed to a chunky paste of green goodness.

      

Pesto

Large Bunch of basil leaves
1/2 cup of pinenuts, lightly toasted
2 large garlic cloves
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
Olive Oil, anywhere between 3/4 cup to 1 cup, depending on your tastes.

Place basil, garlic and pinenuts into processor and blend. Add parmesan cheese and process. Add lemon zest. While machine is still going, pour in olive oil to combine it all together, achieving your desired taste and texture. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper.

Five Ways With Pesto

1. Pesto Pasta, serve it with spaghetti or penne. Sneak in some more veggies like grated zucchini and finely shredded spinach, add bacon or prosciuto, sun dried tomatoes....yum!

2. Green Eggs, and Ham. Add a good dollop of Pesto to your scrambled eggs the nest time your have eggs and bacon for breakfast...delicious!

3. Lamb lollipops with Pesto. French lamb cutlets, grilled and served with a spreading of Pesto on the outside, mash potato and green beans, cherry tomatoes....mmmmm!

4. Pesto tart. Puff pastry with a thick spread of Pesto on the base and topped with tomatoes, feta, roast pumpkin and spinach leaves, bake in the oven....lovely light lunch!

5. Savoury cheese and pesto muffins. Add a tablespoon or two of Pesto to your favourite cheese muffin recipe.

Have fun on your Pesto Adventures!

Be Happy, 
Nicola

Sneaky Vegetables - Chocolate zucchini cake

chocolate zucchini cake...sneaky sneaky

Sometimes I just love to be sneaky! Especially when it comes to vegetables! There is nothing more satisfying than sneaking vegetables into food, hiding it here and there.

This recipe is definitely one of those more pleasurable sneaky ones. It's a Chocolate Zucchini Cake from the Country Classics cookbook, by the CWA.

Here's the easy recipe:

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of cocoa
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup choc bits


Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a ring tin. Sift bicarb soda, flour, salt, cinnamon and cocoa together and set aside. Place butter, oil, sugar, orange rind and vanilla together and mix well. Add egg, then mix in zucchini until combined, add dry ingredients and milk. Pour into tin, sprinkle with choc bits and cook for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool and serve with cream or ice cream or on it's own. It is very moist and holds well in kid lunch boxes.


Be Happy, 
Nicola

Grateful for One Pan Wonders

I love you one pan wonder dishes! This ones' from Donna Hay

This week I am grateful for the humblest of dishes, the One Pan Wonder. I love a good tasting dish that you can easily throw together and cook in the oven or slow cooker. It saves time, due to the minimal prep and is always tasty and nutritious. And it generally satisfies all the family.

This week I have made three One Pan Wonders. A chicken, chorizo, cherry tomato, potato roast thingy (inspired by Donna Hay's roast chicken chorizo dish), A vegetable pilaf with lamb cutlets and a big fritatta. I love the simplicity of using one pan. I love the fact that I often use up left over roast vegies or those veg that are starting to turn in the fridge. I love that there are less dishes and I love that it gives more time for other things, like family or getting ready for work in the evening.


What are you feeling grateful for this week? Check out other Grateful Goodness at Maxabella Loves for a Grateful Fix!

Be Happy, 
Nicola

Snacks to keep the Little People Happy

Yesterday, Multiple Mum wrote about Food Wastage on her blog, And then there were four. This is an issue I take very seriously. And just like most parents know, when you have Little People around the house, there is often an awful lot of food waste. And expense. Take bananas, for example. Gill at Alice Becomes yesterday wrote about the cost of bananas and whether people factor that in when purchasing them (or not). She also wrote how she hasn't bought any for awhile as M1 has a tendency to waste them on his pram, brother or hair.

In our household, we have two boys, so there is sometimes food wastage. The biggest culprit of food wastage in our house is Mini Hoges, the nearly 4 year old. He is a grazer. He will eat small amounts of food all day long, and mostly in the mornings and late afternoons. It can be challenging keeping up with his grazing appetite and satisfying his ever changing palate. Hence the food wastage. He's the sort of kid who will grab an apple, take a bite and proclaim it's yucky. He will also ask for one thing for breakfast, have a mouth full, then say he doesn't like it or he's full. I can hear you groaning in sympathy. I know it is a phase, and he will grow out of it, just as his older brother did.

Inspired by yesterdays posts, and the constant asking for "something out of the cupboard", I decided to put together a big bowl of foods that I can pour out into a nutricious, easy snack to satisfy Mini Hoges. I call it the Cup of Fun!


I used up the last of some Mini Weetbix, threw in some dried apricots, apples and cranberries, and a very small handful of smarties, some marshmallows, grissini sticks, cashews and pepitas. And when Mini Hoges asked me for "something out of the cupboard mummy" I presented the snack in his favourite cup and said "Here you are my darling, a cup of Fun!" to which he giggled, and is now happily munching. Looks like it worked!


How do you combat the ever persistent requests for food in your household?

Be Happy
Nicola


image source

Lamp Chop Wednesday

lamb chop wednesday...delicious!

It can be challenging to feed the family at times. Everyone has a different palate and are at different stages of growth. But one thing I know I can make, with out fail is lamb chops. That's why every Wednesday is Lamb Chop Wednesday in our house hold. 

Char grilled lamb chops, parmesan mash, steamed greens, gravy and mint sauce...it's simplicity at its best, and its a winner!

What's your fail safe dinner that you just know everyone will eat?

Be Happy

Nicola

Beaut Breakfasts - apple crumble

desert for breakfast...love that!

Breakfast at our house can sometimes be a bit of a hit and miss. Whilst Junior has happily grown to enjoy a variety of breakfast foods, Mini Hoges still struggles with the idea, claiming "I don't like that" to almost everything I make for him. And that includes those breakfast foods that he loved two days ago.

With a surplus of apples slowly softening in my fridge, I decided to turn them into a healthy breakfast apple crumble.

Breakfast Apple Crumble

12 Apples, peeled, cored and sliced into chunks

2 cinnamon sticks

1 large piece of orange rind

1 cup of rolled oats

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

50 grams of butter

Stew apples with cinnamon and orange rind until they begin to soften. Place in a baking dish. 

In a bowl, rub together oats, flour sugar and butter so that the mixture resembles a crumbly texture.

Spread over the top of the apples and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

Serve the crumble warm or cold with a big dollop of natural vanilla yoghurt.

What different types of breakfasts have you served to fuel and nurture your family?

Happy Days

Nicola

Nurture the Little People

carefree and fun, feeling nurtured

Hello and welcome to Nurture the Little People! 

On this blog you will find useful information to support you in your journey as parents and caregivers. My goal is to share with you my experience and what has worked for me. And to provide you with a valuable resource when all else fails. 

I believe that it is our role as parents, to provide the most nurturing and supportive environment for children so that they grow up to be resilient, feel loved and worthy and are confident in reaching their full potential.

My posts will be based around six main themes:

Touch - integrating massage and healing into your child's life as a way of bonding and expressing love

Fuel - food glorious food - what you eat and what you child eats is the most fundamental way to nurturing our bodies

Play - sharing ideas and exploring new ways to play imaginatively and with nature

Read - we love books and will share with you our favourites and new finds and essential reads for the parenting journey

Create - craft based fun, using mostly recycled and repurposed goods 

Big People - adults need nurturing too! Explore ways to give yourself the time to re-energise so you can Nurture the Little People in your life.

You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus

I look forward to connecting with you in the future!

Nicola