Poached Eggs

Eggs are something that my small person has had an issue with for  a long time - it is a texture thing from what I can make out.  We worried for a while that it was an allergy, but if it is then repeated exposure seems to have limited its effects and he now eats them if they are scrambled or poached. 

Poached eggs are a new thing for B.  It is something he seems to struggle a little with, but he enjoys the taste, so we persist.   

I am one of those people who struggle to cook good poached eggs.  I've tried quite a few of the tools and tricks and up until recently the only way I have been able to consistently cook nice poached eggs is using an old fashioned poaching pan.  We don't have one now so I needed to find another method.  Yes I know that you can cook them in hot water that you have created a vortex in but I can't - not if I actually want to eat them.

Eventually we ended up with 2 options, some reusable egg baskets that you hung into a pan of water poach, and some poaching bags that you put in the pan.  The baskets had 2 issues, (1) They were an utter pain to clean due to all the holes.  (2) The results varied dramatically every time you used them and my OH is super funny about how his eggs are cooked so if you could not guarantee how the eggs came out he was not going to eat them.

So we ended up with the pouches, and they worked , really well. We worked through all 20 and always had reliable eggs but at $5 a pack of 20 (and we use 5 for most meals) they were not super expensive but we were generating more compostable waste. Today I discovered we were out of the blighters and of course I had planned eggs for lunch - so after a bit of pondering I decided that we could probably get the same effect using a coffee filter.  Turns out I was right- so here is how we cook our poached eggs.

Equipment:

Pan large enough for all your eggs with a a bit of space between them

Egg poaching pouches (coffee filters in our case)

Kid safe activities (if you want your kiddo to participate)

Counting the egg poach pockets

Counting the eggs

Cracking the eggs (make sure they wash their hands after)

Ingredients

Enough eggs for each person 

Water

Method

Fill your pan with cold water and put on the stove top to bring to a fast boil - you can't do anything else until it is

Turn your pan down to a simmer or light boil

Put your poaching pouch into a coffee cup and make sure its open and crack an egg into it.  Immediately transfer to your pan of water, and lower it in 

Repeat for each egg - work at a good pace as you need them all in within a minute or so

Set your timer for 5 minutes (at this stage for me they are slightly runny in the yolk)

Fish them out at time and place the pouch onto kitchen paper and leave for a minute to cool before you open the pouch and gently put it onto your plate

I use eggs from the fridge, if you use at room temp you will probably want to take a minute off the cooking time 

We love these on a plane tortilla with some home made ketchup (hidden veggie sauce) for B and salsa for the grownups 

Nuggets

Ah the delight that is the chicken nugget.  B is the fussy sort and doesn't really like shop bought nuggets.  Breaded chicken strips are another matter - he would eat these all day.  I don’t like to fry food so this is the compromise.  

This recipe uses minced/ground meat but you can follow the batter and freeze portion of this with sliced breast or thigh to create strips.  They cook in about the same time period 

Equipment:

Bowls

Grater if using veg too

oven trays

3 containers

Kid safe activities (if you want your kiddo to participate)

Passing items 

Mixing 

Ingredients

1lb ground chicken

¼ cup old-fashioned oats

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Salt

seasoning of choice - I use Italian seasoning 

Breading 

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

Eggs

flour

Method:
Mix together evening except for bread crumbs and egg in a bowl - again its kind of a use your hands deal

In a separate dish put out your flour, in another your egg whisked up and in the last breadcrumbs - put a greased foil lined tray at the end

Take a dollop of mixture -  what ever size works for you and make it into a shape  - i just do roughly nugget shaped - you can use cookie cutters to make shapes but I fail epically at this

Dip into the flour mix and lightly coat all over - brush off any excess - this helps the batter stick

Dip into the egg mix to coat lightly and then drop into breadcrumb mix and coat evenly.  

When coated pop onto the lightly greased tin foil 

I make all the nuggets up and then put the trays with uncooked nuggets into the freezer for about 5 hours, at this point you will be able to take them off the tray and stick them in a ziplock to be cooked as you need them

To cook heat oven to 375F (190C) and place on a foil lied backing sheet - I pop a little spray oil on in first and bake for 20-25 minutes turning them over once - they don’t go super brown because they are not fried

If you are cooking from unfrozen use the same temp but they probably only need 10 - 20 mins

I often add carrot or other firm veg to these - I grate it first

Mini Quiche/Pies

Tell either male in this household that it is quiche for a meal and they will wrinkle up their nose.  Pies however are acceptable.  These mini ones are made in muffin tins.  You can also use mini muffin tins for smaller ones and I would think it would work well as a single large one

Equipement:

Muffin tin/pie tin

Whisk

Grater

Kid safe activities (if you want your kiddo to participate)

Cutting the puff pastry and putting it in the tin

Putting non wet ingredients into the tin

Ingredients

1 x pack of shop bought puff pastry

4 x eggs (you may need more)

1/4 cup of milk

1 cup of tasty cheese

meat of your choice

veg of your choice (I usually use 1 carrot or some spinach)

 Method

Heat  your oven to 180C and get a muffin tin (like we used for the meatloaf)

Cut circles from your puff pastry to go into each muffin cup.  Generally you need a cutter thats slightly larger in size than the top of the hole

Put the pastry into each muffin cup (you don’t need to grease before doing this)

Add your meat, veg and cheese into each cup.  Sometimes we don’t do meat but chicken, hot dog, meatballs etc all work well Beck loves Bacon in his - just a sprinkle of pre cooked rasher works well

Whisk the milk and eggs and some seasoning together in a jug and pour the egg mixture slowly into each case to just below the top - I always make a mess but they still taste ok

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden

The can be eaten hot or cold if you want them warm just micro for 30 seconds

If you want to make these for smaller appetites I use a mini muffin tin which makes bite size ones.  Depending on your filling you may need to make up more egg mixture

Hidden Veg Tomato Sauce

Like most other kids B likes Ketchup. To be honest he would have it with every meal.  The only down side seems to be the amount of salt and sugar in it. What we have been doing is making our own tomato sauce.  Now in fairness this is not a ketchup, it is actually a pasta/Bolognese type sauce that I give him.  Yes it is a fib and yes he still gets ketchup - just less of it.

A couple of things to watch out for - when you are buying crushed tomato or passata check the labels - lots of these products have a lot of salt in them already.  There are a few that are salt free - I go for them.  I also try to minimise the amount of tomato puree I use but that is more of a flavour and salt thing

I don't have a lot of measurements/weights for this one as I tend to put in what ever i can get my hands on.  if you add root veg you will be best to at least part cook them first.

Equipment:

Chopping boards

Big pan

Some kind of blender

Kid safe activities (if you want your kiddo to participate)

Washing the veg

passing the veg

Helping blend (if you have an enclosed blender)

Ingredients:

Onions 

Garlic

Spinach

Crushed Tomatos/Passata

Tomato Puree

Bell Peppers

Mushrooms

Egg Plant

Zucchini

Carrot

Leak

Celery

Basil (fresh or dried)

Oregano (fresh or dried)

Worcestershire sauce

Soy sauce

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Method:

Get large pot good and hot and add a little butter or oil and then sauté off any of the harder veggies.  I do onions, carrot, leek, peppers and at the end garlic. When I sauté I add in a little salt, pepper and a small sprinkle of sugar.  If you do this you need to watch it carefully.  

If things are drying out add a little hot water Garlic burns really easily so you want the heat slightly lower for this and you need to keep stirring.  It doesn't matter if it browns but you want it to start to soften a bit

Add in your crushed tomato/passata.  I make a big batch so use 2 cans/jars/packets. Stir it all up and taste.  Re season and then add softer and leafier veg

Add in a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and if you feel it needs it a dash of soy sauce - but not too much as it is heavily salted

Add in your herbs and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally for about 40 minutes.  You want the sauce to become thick like rich pasta sauce 

Throughout the simmer taste and adjust your flavouring - watch out for the salt.  You may need a pinch of sugar to even out any bitterness

Allow to cool when at the desired texture and then blend to desired consistency

I batch cook this and place into different containers.  You can always add more veg for a chunky pasta sauce on a lazy night, use as pizza sauce, put on meatloaf, use as a dipping sauce or add other ingredients like cream/cheese to change it up 

Mini Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a nice quick meal to make and it freezes really well.  This recipe can be used to make big meatloaf if you want but you may need to cook for up to 20 minutes longer if you do that.

This is one of our freezer staples,  the veg list tends to vary each time I make them as you can also use what ever you have to hand.  The only things I have found that don't work well in this are corn, peas and beans.  I think it is due to their thicker skins

Freezing tip:  There are a lot of these.  If you are going to freeze then it works best if you put each mini loaf into a muffin/cupcake case.  This stops them from sticking together

Equipment:

Muffin tin 

Grater

Bowls

Scales

Muffin/cupcake cases

Kid safe activities (if you want your kiddo to participate)

Helping weigh and measure ingredients

Passing items

Mixing 

Scooping

Ingredients

 
500g beef mince (I use 80/20 as it seems to work best but isn’t super fatty)
1 egg
1/2 cup cheese, grated (I use cheddar as for B the parmesan is a bit salty)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 zucchinni, grated
100g (approx. 2 cups) mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Method

• Heat your oven to 200C

• Sauté the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes and then add the other veg and cook it for a bit to soften it down.  Don’t use too much oil as the other ingredients are moist

• In a fairly large bowl add all the other ingredients and the veg and mix it all together.  It needs to be well combined and you want to make sure that the veg is as incorporated as evenly as it can be.  It sounds gross I know but I use my hands

• Get a muffin tin and put a little spray oil in each cup bit and then use about a 1/4 cup measure amount of mix.  You basically want each cup to be filled close to the top but not to be over the top 

• Chuck it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

• When the 20 minutes is up - take the tray out and leave it to cool.  When the wee loaves are cooled you can take them out of the tin (if you try before they fall apart)  If you are going to freeze which I do pop each one into a paper cup cake case and then into a box/zip lock.  The cup cake case stops them from sticking and then you can just reach in and grab what ever you need

• To reheat - micro for 2 bursts of 30 seconds, checking between.  For dinner I serve with veggies and a hidden veg tomato sauce, for lunch just as it with fruit