Bread Repurpose - Meat Balls

Earlier this week I shared how simple it is to make breadcrumbs from your bread scraps (see this previous post) Now, I've been meaning to share this recipe for *ages* and admittedly I've changed the recipe a little each time I make these. But here's a good start!

Grate or finely dice one onion, one carrot, one stick of celery and a clove or two of garlic to taste.

Combine with one egg, one cup of breadcrumbs, and around 500g of your chosen mince. Beef or pork & veal are our favourites.

Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and place onto a lined, greased baking tray.

I julienned the carrots for this batch, but tend to grate them now.

Bake for around 20 minutes at 180 degrees until cooked through. You can glass with BBQ sauce for a tastier morsel.

I tend to serve with fettuccine, store bought pasta sauce and parmesan cheese. Also great for a leftovers lunch.










Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Bread Repurpose - Japanese Slow Cooker Curry

In yesterday's post I shared how I often make crumbed chicken with my bread off cuts. Well, here's something I make with the crumbed chicken!

I used to make this in the frypan and still do on occasion, but I love walking into a house filled with aroma of this curry cooking. So now I like to make it in our Kambrook Quattro Multicooker.

First brown some onion in a little oil.






 Then add some celery & carrot and cook until it begins to soften.












Next add some capsicum, broccoli and cauliflower. I've added potatoes at this point as well, but this day I didn't.












Not-so-Secret-Ingredient time. My sister put me onto this curry base which I've found at Woolworths, Coles & IGA. It comes in mild, medium & hot. For us I use a pack of mild & a pack of medium.








Break apart & add to the pot.

Next add 2 cups of water. I realise this is half the amount the packet recommends, but I prefer a thicker curry.








Stir and bring to the boil. At this point if you are using a frypan continue to simmer until all the veggies are cooked through and the sauce has thickened. If you're using a slow cooker, now's the time to cover & walk away.









Come back in 4-8 hours depending on your machine to a house full of gorgeous curry fragrance.











Now add your leftover crumbed chicken and heat through.

Serve on a bed of rice alongside some seasonal greens (let's just pretend they're hiding at the back here ^-^)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Bread Repurpose- Crumbed Chicken & Nuggets

I've been meaning to write this post for such a long time now! One question I get asked a lot is what to do with bread off-cuts & scraps. One of my favourite uses is to make breadcrumbs and then crumb chicken. I don't tend to do it too often as it can get messy (especially with little helpers 'helping') and can be time consuming.

You will need:
* a bowl of plain flour (which can be flavoured with herbs & spices if you wish. Salt pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika and mixed herbs all work well)
* a bowl of egg wash (egg with a little milk, beaten well)
* breadcrumbs (see this previous post)

[EDIT: I have started using a ziplock bag for the flour & shaking the chicken in it. Works wonders!]

You can use breast or thigh fillet for this, we tend to go for thigh. Cut into whatever size suits your final dish. I've done whole fillet, half fillet. strips and bites. All work equally well. Keep in mind the larger the piece of chicken, the less crumbs you will need.

Flour your chicken, dip in the egg wash, and coat with breadcrumbs.

Place onto a lightly greased baking tray. Bake in a 180 degree oven for around 40 minutes, turning half way. Your cooking time may vary depending on the size of your chicken pieces.

We usually have the cooked pieces that night for dinner along with mash and seasonal coloured veg. It makes a great leftovers lunch. This one Miss M took to daycare with her ever so long ago. .

This was my work lunch one day.

So I added some 7s Sauce - super yummy & perfect with crumbed chicken.

Another day care lunch.

and yet another daycare lunch

A simple chicken parma - using whole or half fillets bake as per usual. In the last 10 minutes of cook time, add some store bought pasta sauce and top with you favourite melty cheese. Bake until the cheese has melted and started to turn gold.

Another option for a plain schnitzel, served with a simple DIY salad.

Do you make your own chicken nuggets?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Bread Repurpose - Meatloaf Muffins

Truth be told I normally do all my blogging one night over the weekend, but this weekend was just so busy I haven't even put the photos from last week's lunches onto the computer yet. So instead I decided to finally publish some bread repurposing that I've been meaning to do for *ages*! A whole week's worth of recipes! Woo-hoo!

This one is based on one I read from Neat2Eat a few years ago.

Combine 1 egg, 1 finely diced onion, 1 grated carrot, 500g beef mince. 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (see this previous post)

Divide the mixture into a greased 12 hole muffin tin. If I'm terribly organised and get this part done early in the day, I then cover with cling-film and leave in the fridge until I'm ready to cook dinner.

You can bake as is, or glaze with some tomato/worstershire sauce mix. I tend to use store bought BBQ sauce these days.

Bake at 180 degrees for around 30 minutes until cooked through.

These can easily be frozen and popped into lunches.

We like to serve with potato mash and seasonal veg.

Delish!

And some for my lunch this time!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Bread Repurpose - Bread Crumbs

One of the questions I get asked a lot is what to do with bread off-cuts & scraps. One my favourite ways to use them is to make bread crumbs.

I keep a zip-lock bag of offcuts in my freezer and when it gets full I bake the crusts/off-cuts at 180 degrees until golden. The length of time varies depending on the size of the scraps and how full I stuff the tray ;-). You may need to turn after 15 minutes and let it go for another 15, but the best way to tell is to 'keep a nose' out for it.

About 6 cups of loosely packed toasted crusts will blend down to about 1 cup of bread crumbs. These can be stored in an air tight container in the pantry and used for all sorts of goodies. I'll share some of my favourite recipes this week with you, so stay tuned!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Rock Star Lunch

 Last week I shared the lunch I made for Miss M's first Disco of the year, and before it gets away on me I'm going to share the one that represented the Term Two Disco. 'What You'd Like to be When You Grow Up'. Apparently Miss M no longer wishes to be an Astronaut, opting instead for the lures of Rock-Star-dom. I wonder what she will want to be next week :-)

 Every star needs their glasses and a little bling so a food pick and some writing icing were the perfect touches for this star Vegemite sandwich. If you squint you can see the Sinchies food pouch under the sandwich saver of our Nude Food Movers Rubbish Free Lunchbox. The stickers were part of a set I picked up at back to school time. I love the idea of them, but would prefer a card or something reusable. These are definitely a one-use item.

Her double snack pod holds some *rock*melon (did you see what I did there?) cut into star shapes with some more fun food picks. I also left the fork attached to the top of the pod in case she preferred that to the picks.

Her juice box had a few stars quickly drawn on as well.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

The Cow That Laid an Egg Lunch

Every morning at school drop off Honey loves to run to the reading corner and pick a book (or ten!). And Miss M's friends love reading them to her which is so lovely to see. One of the new books she noticed this term was The Cow That Laid an Egg. All three of us really enjoyed it and in the back of my mind a quick lunch began to take shape!

I've been looking for an excuse to try out our Fred & Friends Chicken Egg Mould. What could be more perfect? And our favourite Lunch Punch cutter got a work out too. (The cow was part of a limited edition set, sadly no longer available). I trimmed baby cow's legs and set to with some FooDoodlers to turn it into a chick. 

Image source

I also (poorly) attempted to recreate Marjorie's (the cow) expression when she found out she'd laid an egg. A few food picks complete the scene.

While we're here I found this cow lunch amongst my un-blogged photos. Let's pretend these were the sides I sent along with the feature lunch since I can't actually remember what I did send that day! All in our Nude Food Movers.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Tinkerbell Tea Party

Our local cinema is great with fundraising! The most popular movies are premiered at a party to raise funds for assorted local groups and schools. Our Gymnastics club scored a double premier of TinkerBell & the NeverBeast and Cinderella. At intermission there was a TInkerBell Tea Party. I thought that was the perfect excuse to do a spot of baking!

These cute little toadstool cakes were a cinch to make.

Basic vanilla sponge

Removed from silicon baking mould.

I used a mini cutter to give a straighter edge to the base

Like so

And trimmed with a knife.

Giving a more toadstool look. In the end I think I gave up as these were so small you couldn't really tell, but in a muffin size I would recommend trimming. Or you could fill your moulds a little more so the mixture naturally overflows in the cooking process.

Add some bright red buttercream icing and some mini marshmallows, et voila!

I also made some sushi bites with nori cuttings.

I was quite proud of my Tinkerbells, what do you think? I think the hardest part was searching for the perfect image to cut.

I think this was my favourite. Adapted from this gorgeous photo.

The rice bites were made using this set of rice moulds.

This was regular rice cooked so it was a little stickier than usual. Some of these bites were plain, others were filled with pre-marinated teriyaki chicken. I love having a skewer or two on hand, they are the perfect size for a few sushi rolls.

Some peas helped to complete Gruff.

Being that it was a double movie premier (and I've always wanted to try) I also made some high-heel cakes.

Mini patty cake/cup cakes with buttercream icing then decorated with a wafer biscuit and a Rondoletti stick held in place with a little more icing.

So simple!

For the Gruff inspired ones I used some black chocolate melts with chocolate icing and topped each with a green M&M. I also used two toned wafer fingers for the heel.

I think my melts were heat affected and they didn't really melt properly making piping them quite interesting. I still think they looked cute though!

I failed miserably at these sunflower balls but still love them. I used a cake pop mould for the yellow chocolate (again heat affected I think - the joys of living in central Queensland. Good thing I had some coconut oil on hand). The truffles are TimTam cheesecake balls rolled in chocolate sprinkles. You can see the Pinspiration for them here.

I was so happy with how my little TinkerBell slippers turned out! And just 3 ingredients! Well, I made the coconut balls with condensed milk & desiccated coconut, but you could quite easily use store bought. 

And Miss M had a great time helping colour the biscuits.

And using a little condensed milk to attach the coconut bites.

I can't remember now why we couldn't make it to the movies that day, but you can see some of the spread in this post from the Club.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.