Bolognese

This is cooked in one pot (apart from your pasta) and it is PACKED with goodness. If you have picky eaters you have the option of blending the veggies & tomatoes into a sauce and they will eat everything without knowing it!

Serves 4

Ingredients

500g minced beef, lean & organic if possible
400g tin chopped tomatoes or chop fresh
75g button mushrooms, diced fine
1 red pepper (bell pepper), diced fine
1 carrot, diced fine
1 courgette, ends removed & diced fine
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped fine
Dash red wine vinegar
1 tbsp basil, dried or finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 portions of cooked whole wheat or GF spaghetti
Pink Salt & Pepper to taste



Brown mince in a large pot with the onion in olive oil

Add garlic, peppers, carrot, courgette & mushrooms. Cook until
tender

**If you want to blend these with the tomato, simply
remove the mince from the pot before adding the veg.
You can then add the cooked veg, wine vinegar & tomatoes to 
a blender and blitz until smooth. 
You can then return the mince to the pot in the next
step**

Add tomatoes, wine and basil. Season with salt & pepper and bring to 
the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 mins until your pasta
is ready to go


Serve & enjoy the goodness!

Sesame Chicken

This is pictured with white rice but we have since switched to brown. I don't know why we decided to go with white rice. It just never makes us feel GOOD and if it doesn't make you feel good, don't eat it!

This is part of the Take Out, Fake Out series. Sometimes you just really want to sit in front of the TV with a chinese. This is totally fine! Call your take out and order 1 meal between 2 people OR eat half and bin the rest so you're not tempted to go crazy. If though you're trying to avoid the temptation altogether, try something from our Take Out, Fake Out.

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 lrg chicken breasts, no skin, cut into chunks
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
100ml honey
50ml organic tomato sauce
90ml soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp corn flour, made into a paste with a little water
140g brown rice
Some sesame seeds
2 spring onions, green only, chopped

Once all your prep is done this comes together quickly.
First get that rice cooking because it will take the longest.

Brown the chicken all over in the olive oil with the onion and garlic. You want the chicken almost cooked through
Add the honey, tomato sauce and soy
Add the corn flour paste

Keep some water to hand in case this thickens too much for your liking. Add no more then a 1/2 tsp at a time. You'd be surprised how far water goes when thinning something like this.

Once you like the thickness of the sauce you're done! How easy was that?!

To serve sprinkle with sesame seeds and top with spring onion

Gluten Free Pancakes

When we first moved our four year old to a GF diet, my first thought was "oh no, she loves her weekend pancakes" I'd always heard GF pancakes were rubbery and tough. I wanted light and fluffy like she loved. The search began but I ran into a wall. Any recipes I found either said "very tough when cold so eat straight away" or they contained an obscene amount of sugar! Which I know a lot of store bought GF products do contain. No no no. Wasn't happening. I couldn't willingly put so much sugar into her food. Plus she'd be bouncing off the walls for hours!

So I put out a call and a family member in Australia came to the rescue. She gave me a good base recipe I could work from. So I altered it, reduced the sugar and general amounts and this is the result

This recipe makes about 6 - 8 pancakes

1 cup GF Flour, we find tritamyl the best at the minute

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 egg

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Aprox. 1/2 cup Milk

Dark Chocolate Drops

Blueberries

This is pretty normal as far as pancakes go. Add flour, baking soda, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk and mix well until all lumps are removed. Now I've said aprox. on the milk amount because I will use more or less depending on my mood. The thinner the batter the easier they are to cook, in my opinion, because they cook through quicker meaning less time on the heat, meaning less chance of over cooking and burning.

I let the first side cook until the uncooked side starts to bubble and look like it's drying out

Flip the pancake

Now, while it's cooking, drop a few chocolate drops onto the cooked side of the pancake. Give it a second to melt and the spread very gently with the back of a spoon. There is your chocolate spread. We use organic dark chocolate but use what every you like. It's a handy trick even for non GF pancakes

With the blueberries you can just drop them on top of the stack. All I did here was pop them into a bowl and give them 30 seconds in the microwave. Pour on top and there you go.

Rocket Salad

We love this salad. It's our true guilty pleasure. I know the chorizo isn't healthy but I figure this is still better than pigging out at the local chip shop. This has green in it!
We normally have this with a veggie thin crust pizza divided between the two of us. Not meat and thin crust so you're not adding calories to it and can enjoy the chorizo treat. You can use either spicy or normal chorizo, it's totally up to you.

1 Chorizo Sausage, sliced
1 Red Onion, sliced thin
Handful Pine Nuts
40g (lrg handful) Rocket, added to bowl (Arugula)
2 tbsp balsamic




Let start with those tasty pine nuts. We're going to toast them so on your stove, heat a pan on high. You do want the pan hot because you want to quickly toast these guys. No one wants a burnt pine nut...trust me
So to a hot pan add the pine nuts. Now keep them moving!!!
*Practice that fancy chef shimmy they do with pans. My husband does it. Flips them all fancy...I try and they end up on the floor*
Once lightly brown all over, set them aside

Now add a drop of olive oil to the pan. No more than 1 tbsp is needed. You're going to crisp up that chorizo. Pop them all in a keep turning until they have darkened and are nice and crisp. DO NOT DRAIN THE PAN. Lift out each piece and place onto some kitchen towel to drain any excess oil

You are now left with a chorizo juice/oil mix in your pan

To this, add the onion and cook until soft

Again DO NOT DRAIN but lift the onion and set aside

Now you have a pan of onion/oil/chorizo and you're going to add your balsamic. This will be your dressing. Scrape up any pieces left in the pan while mixing.

Once you have everything in a large bowl add the dressing and give it all a gentle mix

Gluten Free Lunch Challenge Week 2

I'm a day late! I lost the picture. How do you lose a digital file? *sigh*
Any who, after a panic driven search.....

However... It is Tuesday which means I should have two lunches to post but... I forgot to take a photo of Tuesdays lunch :( At least I think I forgot. I can't seem to find it but at the same time I don't remember forgetting to take the photo. Yep. That totally made sense in my head.

This is Monday's Lunch (Picture)

Raisins & Pistachios

Blueberries & Grapes

Mini Salad: Sliced Ham, Cheese Cubes & Cherry Tomatoes

Yogurt (camera shy)

Now i'm wondering if I forgot to take a picture or if I deleted it because I thought it was an old one.

Tuesday's Lunch (Honestly, I fed her)

Melon Balls with Blueberries

Mini Salad: Sliced Ham, Cucumber Chunks, Chopped Tomatoes (no seeds)

Chopped Dried Mango, Raisins & Pistachios

2 Oat Crackers

I won't pretend I remembered that easily. That was a brain teaser. I may need to lie down.

Lunch 3 in currently in the making and I WILL remember to remember not to forget to take a photo!

Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

This is a quick tasty recipe

This serves 2 - 3

Ingredients

2 heads Baby Gem, shredded

3 pieces Bacon, cooked crispy & chopped

1 chicken breast, sliced thin

Handful Green Beans, cooked

6 Baby Potatoes, halved and cooked with skin on

Honey Mustard Dressing, Ready Made or *see below*

Another easy, toss everything into a bowl, give it a mix and sit down to enjoy!

It doesn't really get much easier than these salads. They take minutes to prepare with very little wash up and they are filling. Hope you love this one, it's another of our favourites.

*You can easily make honey mustard dressing using Greek yogurt, Dijon mustard, honey, salt & pepper.

  3 parts yogurt to 1 part mustard and then honey & season to taste*

Not a cure for Man Flu but CLOSE!

As I went to begin typing, my dog poked her head out from under the dining table (her fort) looking for some attention. I will gladly rough the fur on her head because she's about the only living contact that doesn't make me shiver right now. I have a sick 4 year old and a husband DYING from man flu.... In other words, they're both pretty gross, moaning and snotty. Yay me!

So apart from needing to wear a mask and gloves to try and protect myself (i'm actually considering this) when looking after these two, there was a little time for food. Now with sickies in the house and a lot less free hands, on account of my four year old not wanting to walk anywhere right now, I took an easier option.

Introducing the BLT Salad

There isn't much in here and it's very quick (apart from the wedges but you can either use store bought or pre cut and freeze your own but i'll write another post about that) Now we find this VERY filling so we usually use half this recipe for the 2.5 of us but we all find potatoes filling so it could just be us. Plus we're usually planning a work out soon after so no one wants to be stuffed

You will need;

2 lrg tomatoes, sliced very thin
1 red onion, sliced very thin, center removed
8 strips thin bacon, fat removed, cooked crispy, chopped
3/4 iceberg lettuce, shredded (we use 1/2)
4 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp dried parsley
2 portions wedges, cooked crispy

Pretty simply, everything goes into a large bowl.

The dressing is mixed separate. Add the Mayo, vinegar and parsley  If it's too thick, add a little water. I like a light dressing but each to their own.

Get your hands in there and give it a good giggle, toss and mix

Chow down!

Like I said we normally wouldn't eat this much in one sitting. We serve in breakfast cereal sized bowls and 3/4 full there is more than enough. You can cover and pop in the fridge for the next day if you like but if you're not making it for more than 2 people i'd suggest cutting back on the wedges and use 2 tbsp of mayo instead of the 4 tbsp because you won't need as much dressing

There is no hard fast rule to these types of salads. You may eat it and think, next time i'll add more onion or I don't like so much bacon ect. *seriously does anyone ever want to cut back on bacon* That's the great part. You can end up with something completely unique and just loved by your family.

Enjoy foodies :)

Gluten Free Lunch Challenge Day 3

Well Day 3 is here and it's the last one for this week. Whew! I'm glad I made it. I was worried about fitting in these lunches. I know that sounds silly but sometimes life just about feels balanced with family time, time for Mr Collie and time for working out. Sometimes there is a little me time when I watch a favoutite tv show once a week. *Tonight is that night*
I wondered if i'd be up to chopping, prepping and packing this kind of lunch every day. Let's face it, a sandwich or wrap takes 3 minutes tops and there is very little mess to clean after. I'm rather surprised I talking my brain into doing this after my nightly workout but i'm glad I did. Probably helped by the fact that the little foodie has been eating everything perfectly with no fuss. If I had to add in frustration of her refusing to eat anything I made...well i'm sure i'd have given up and bought some GF bread. I don't want to do that. Plus i'm pretty sure THAT would cause frustrating lunch avoidance.

Day 3 has one less item because there was a request for a yogurt. Who am I to refuse when she asked so politely?

Starting from the left we have;

Sliced Ham with chopped cherry tomatoes

"Trail mix" I popped in some peanuts, organic banana chips and GF cornflakes

Chopped strawberry & kiwi

Empty lunch box and her only request was an apple with peanut butter (tsp amount) when she cam home from school so at least she was filled up. No food complaints today. Well not regarding HER lunch. She did have a little issue when her best friend didn't eat his blueberries and she was insisting they were good for his tummy. The poor boy!

Have a great day foodies :)

Gluten Free Lunch Challenge Day 2

Wowza this is a late post! What a day...
All went fine, got some painting done, workout ect ect. Busy, busy until....
SOMEONE (not naming anyone, but it's a male who is not typing this post) misplaced the house keys and we had a very stressful drive home wondering where they were! Thankfully they were found safe and well *eye roll*

Anyway, back on topic. Today was day two for Miss Bear and her GF school lunch. All has gone well and she ate everything. She has adapted so well to this and i'm so impressed with her. It's just shows it's all about approach with children and healthy eating.

So today I decided to be a little daring and include peanut butter for her to dip her apple "chips" into. What puzzles me is, I included a napkin for her to clean her fingers after but it returned unused. Peanut butter in every nook and cranny of the lunch pot and box...none on her clothes... Why do I feel like there will be a surprise pocket full of dried peanut butter when I go to do the laundry tomorrow?!


Here is what was on offer for Day 2

Starting Top Left we have;

Apple "Chips"

Peanut Butter

Sliced Strawberries & Melon Balls

Ham Rolls with Cucumber chunks inside

So far so good. Her only complaint was the lack of yogurt so I'll pop some in tomorrow. Now you know one of tomorrows items! It's been a long, long day! Bed is calling...

Gluten Free Lunch Challenge Day 1

Well that was a relief! The first day of no wraps, no bread and my child did NOT starve! Woohoo!

*Picture Fantastic Happy Dance*

Miss Bear has been doing well over the school holidays on her new GF regime but I was worried she wouldn't eat anything once she was out of the house and saw her friends with sandwiches ect. Now normally she's a fantastic little eater. She'll eat salads no problem and rarely we have issues with a meal but when she's not at home for it, I do worry a little.

I knew I couldn't just send her to school with a salad so, inspired by the Bento Box I bought some small storage boxes to pop inside her lunch box. I'm hoping to try out some different things (hopefully getting more creative as she gets used to the idea) and eventually make her favourite sushi to pop in too. All going well i'll splurge on a Bento Box for her "big school" in September. Though I have to say these little boxes are really handy and I got a pack of 6 for €1.49 (can't go wrong) I did have to remind her not to recycle them. Everything from their lunch boxes seems to end up that way at the minute.

So day 1, this is what we went with

So going clockwise starting from top left we have;

A mix of raisins & pistachios

Diced cucumber and cherry tomatoes

Grapes & Cheese

Ham rolls

I know it's not super fancy but normally she would have a wrap with ham and cucumber or something similar so I wasn't sure how she'd go but she arrived with an empty lunch box! Success! I can start to get more adventurous *grin*

Strawberry Salad

This is what happens in our house

Mr Collie (insert Australian accent)
"Aw I made this wicked salad today. Just off the top of my head but it
turned out great. Was really nice"

Me "Eh...Where's mine?

So he had to make it for me and I was able snap a pic and here it is!
Small amount of dressing but no mayo in sight! You'll love it

You've a little bit of drool...not there... Yes you've got it 

Ingredients

Serves 2

1/2 Head Lettuce, Shredded *Iceberg*
6 lrg Strawberries, Sliced
100g Soft Goats Cheese
1/2 Red Onion, Diced Fine
4 Slices Deli Style Ham
1 Tomato, Diced Fine
4 tbsp Natural Yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp Strawberry Jam
Sml Handful Pine Nuts

Get everything sliced, diced and ready to go

You'll need a good sized bowl for mixing

Add shredded lettuce, onion, tomato and strawberries to a bowl and toss

Add the pine nuts to a hot pan and toast gently until lightly browned

Cut the ham into strips and add, along with the pine nuts, to the bowl

**Notice to get messy**

Add the yogurt & jam and use your hands to gently mixed it through *please note washing of hands is advised but you may lick your fingers afterwards* Break the goats cheese in and gently mix it evenly through.

That's pretty much it. Save a few sliced strawberries to adorn a top your creation if you're feeling fancy ;)

Enjoy!

Aubergine Bake

I don't know about where you are but IT. IS. COLD here. It doesn't look too bad out. There was sun poking through the clouds when I dropped little foodie to school this morning but we were still layer up! To think two days ago we were outside, painting without coats and we're back in hats, gloves and layers. Well on that depressing note, here is some warmth. This is a simple bake with chicken and aubergine. It's really tasty and warm. Comfort food without being packed with crap.





Serves 4

Ingredients

3 chicken fillets, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
220g Aubergine(Eggplant), sliced thin
125g Mozzarella, sliced
350g Tomato Pasta Sauce, Jar or Homemade (recipe below)
3 tbsp grated Parmesan


Pre-heat oven to 200C

Press slices of aubergine between 2 sheets of kitchen paper towel. Absorb as much moisture as possible. 
Then in a pan, brown both sides of each slice. Remove and set aside.

Brown Chicken in pan with a dash of olive oil.

In an oven proof dish, cover the base with chicken. Add a layer of aubergine, then a layer of mozzarella. Pour over the sauce. Top with a sprinkling of Parmesan

Bake for 20 - 30 mins until center is hot and the chicken is cooked through. There may be extra liquid to drain off at the end depending on what type of sauce you use

If you want to make your own sauce simply blend 4 tomatoes, 1 brown onion, 2 tbsp tomato paste and some salt and pepper to taste. You can also add some fresh basil for a really fragrant sauce.

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Asian Lettuce Wraps

This was one of the first meals when we changed our way of eating and removed processed meats ect from the freezer. It was a great one to start with and an excellent way to replace take out night. Now I'm not saying never eat take out but just do it as an occasional treat. Once every 2 weeks or something like that. You'll will enjoy it even more when you eat it.

We are very into Asian style food and Asian fusion cooking so this was an enjoyable start to bring that into our home and introducing it to our little foodie.

We had great feed back from this recipe on our old blog so I hope it will be enjoyed again!

OK so here are the Asian Lettuce wraps

Serves 4

Sauce:
1/3 cup orange juice (about 80ml, fresh squeezed if possible)
1 tbsp sugar (brown if possible)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp dried chili flakes *optional*

Make this up, whisk in a bowl and leave to stand. I left mine for about 2 hours

You want to really let the flavours infuse

Wraps:
1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked)
400g minced turkey, tofu or beef
2 tsp very fine chopped garlic
2 tsp very fine chopped fresh ginger
1 lrg red pepper, cut to thin strips
6 spring onions, sliced thin
2 tbsp hoisin sauce (or 3 because it tastes amazing)
8 lettuce leaves, Iceberg works well


Before doing any prep, cook the rice. Add it to boiling water or steam and it will take up

to 20 mins

Prep away!

Pre heat a wok. Add your choice of meat or "meat" with the garlic and ginger
Cook through. Break up the meat as you cook

Add the red pepper to warm

Drain rice

Add the spring onion & hoisin sauce

To serve, add rice, meat mix to the lettuce "cup" and drizzle the sauce over


I want to eat this again just typing about it!

Welcome to our new blog!

Now that a few posts are up, welcome to our new blog! We loved having you on our old blog (Big Red Kitchen) but our family has changed and the blog no longer reflected who we were or what we were eating SO here we are.

Welcome to No Cookie Kitchen!

Chef husband, foodie wife, healthy living and eating. No gluten since we discovered there was an intolerance to the darn stuff in our house. We did a huge over haul of our eating habits and needed a new space to share these recipes!

Now don't panic! It doesn't mean there will be no amazing sweet tooth posts, it just means they will be kinder to your waist line...now that's not a bad thing is it?


So please do join us and share away.

Spaghetti Bolognese

This is cooked in one pot (apart from your pasta) and it is PACKED with goodness. If you have picky eaters you have the option of blending the veggies & tomatoes into a sauce and they will eat everything without knowing it!


Serves 4

Ingredients

500g minced beef, lean
400g tin/fresh chopped tomatoes
75g button mushrooms, diced fine
1 red pepper (bell pepper), diced fine
1 carrot, peeled & diced fine
1 courgette, ends removed & diced fine
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped fine
100ml red wine (optional)
1 tbsp basil, dried or finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 portions of cooked spaghetti



Brown mince in a large pot with the onion in olive oil

Add garlic, peppers, carrot, courgette & mushrooms. Cook until
tender but not soft

**If you want to blend these with the tomato, simply
remove the mince from the pot before adding the veg.
You can then add the cooked veg, wine & tomatoes to
a blender and blitz until smooth.
You can then return the mince to the pot in the next
step**

Add tomatoes, wine and basil. Season with salt & pepper and bring to
the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 mins until your pasta
is ready to go


Serve & enjoy the goodness!

Rhubarb Salad

This may sound like an odd mix and I wasn't totally sure until I sat down to eat it. Let me just say this is our new top salad! Really tasty and filling. I served with lamb chops and I think they really complemented each other. This needs to go top of your list for any summer BBQs this year. How great would this colourful delight look as a gift to the host?

Pretty simple to make

3 sticks of rhubarb, cut to 2cm cubes
A good drizzle of honey
Pickled beetroot (in a jar or make your own)
Fresh spinach leaves
100g goats cheese
Good handful chopped walnuts

Dressing made with Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper


Pop the rhubarb onto a baking tray and drizzle with honey. Into an oven to soften. This won't take long. Maybe 10 mins at 180C. Keep an eye on it. Allow to cool.

If not already done, quarter the beetroot

In a bowl whisk 3 tbsp of olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

Into a large salad bowl add spinach, 3/4 each of the nuts, rhubarb, beetroot, crumbled goats cheese and dressing. Toss gently with hands

Top with the remaining goats cheese, walnuts, rhubarb and beetroot

Drizzle remaining dressing on top

Organic Carrot & Thyme Soup

I'm sitting in my garden writing this post. The evening is cool but not cold. Just enough to pop something around your shoulders. I'm sitting at a wooden bench surrounded by my pots & crates where we are growing our veg. My 4 year old is sleeping soundly, my lovely husband is at work and our dog is throwing a toy at me wanting to play...again...

I did an awesome food shop this week. Loads of fresh, organic produce that I found at great prices. We only have one meat dish on our menu this week so that also helped stock the house with lovely fresh smelling veg. My daughter doesn't eat much meat and we decided to not try and encourage her but instead to up her intake of vegetarian meals which she happily eats. So do we! Lately my mini foodie has a love for fresh made soup. This week I made her a carrot soup and she ate two bowls. So I decided I would share the recipe with you :)

Mrs C x


Of course you don't have to use organic produce!


You need;

1 tbsp butter
1 lrg brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
750ml vegetable stock
250g carrots, ends removed, washed & chopped
1 tsp (roughly) of thyme, dried or fresh
Salt & Pepper

Heat the butter in a large soup pot

Add the onion and cook until soft. When making a soup, don't worry about chopping the onion too carefully because you will be blending it at the end

Add garlic & thyme

Add stock & carrots soon after and bring to the boil

Season with salt & pepper

Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are soft. This took about a half hour

Once the carrots are soft you can blend the soup. Be careful if transferring to a standing blender because it will be hot. No burns on my watch!

I left the remaining soup to cool and portioned it into Ziploc bags and popped them into the freezer. I'm planning on building up a soup stock for winter. You know, for those days when it's more appealing to snuggle under a blanket watching a movie than to potter around the kitchen.


**I didn't peel the carrots to retain (in my opinion) goodness in the soup**
**You will need a hand blender or standing blender**