Healthy chicken sausage roll - An idea to make kids eat their vegetables

Like most kids, I have noticed that my child is getting fussy with his food. Once kids learn and understand the definition of “no”, they think that they can choose everything in their life especially food! Hmmm…That’s why it has been a constant challenge for me to convince my child to eat his vegetables.

Then, I remember seeing a healthy chicken and vegetable sausage roll recipe from Taste.com.au with lots of good reviews. So, I made the rolls and they taste great! The most rewarding part is that my child loves the rolls too and ate them all. 

Here is the recipe from Taste.com.au  
(with my slight modifications in brackets)

Makes

60

Ingredients

1 cup (70g) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

500g chicken breast mince

1 egg, plus 1 extra lightly beaten egg

1 zucchini, finely grated

1 carrot, finely grated

1/2 onion, grated

1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
(I replaced these herbs with more grated zucchini)

4 sheets frozen puff pastry, just thawed

1 tbs sesame seeds

Tomato or sweet chilli or sauce, to serve

(I have added 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce and 1 tbsp tomato sauce and pepper to season the fillings)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.

2. Process crumbs, chicken and unbeaten egg in a food processor until well combined. Place in a bowl, mix well with vegetables and herbs, then season.

3. Place 1 pastry sheet on a floured surface and halve. Spoon an eighth of the mixture lengthways along centre of each piece. Fold 1 edge of pastry over and tuck in beside filling, then fold over other side to make a roll, pressing down lightly to seal. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling. Cut rolls into 3cm pieces and cut two small incisions into each roll to prevent splitting. Place on baking sheets, cover and chill for 30 minutes. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the rolls are lightly browned and cooked through. Serve with sauce on the side.

Happy Baking

Cupcakes for Daffodil Day

Since the day that I posted my 1st blog, I’m been looking forward for this day to bake these cupcakes. I was so excited that I woke up at 6am to take the butter out from the fridge so that they will be softened by the late morning.

As planned, I measured out the ingredients and worked as according to the instructions in the recipe. I was confident with this recipe because I bake these cupcakes before and so I left the mixer beating the batter without showing much attention. Out of the sudden, I was shocked to see smoke coming out of the mixer! I fried my mixer!!!

Apparently, I assumed that all cupcakes recipes from the Australian women weekly books are the same. Instead of using my usual cupcake recipe from the “easy cupcake” book, I've used the one from the mini baking cookbook and both are different!

For a second thought, this is the chance that I can own a Kitchen Aid this time. This could be a blessing in disguise! Being married for too long, my husband can see my “evil” thought instantly. He said “no” to my Kitchen Aid dream. We made a quick dash to the local electrical shop and eventually bought an ungraded version of mixer with less than half the price of my dream mixer. Better than nothing…and my baking continued for the rest of the day.

Then I realised that there was not enough eggs this time. Luckily, I remember seeing another recipe that use lesser egg and decided to use this one this time.

These are the cupcakes that I have made for fundraising for Daffodil day...

Here's the recipe from the book, “I want to be a chef baking” by Murdoch books

Vanilla cupcake (make 24)

250g butter

11/3 cup sugar

3 cup self raising flour

250ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

Buttercream

125g butter

11/2 cup icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

Cream all until pale colour

1) Preheat oven at 180°C

2) Beat butter, sugar, flour, milk, vanilla and eggs on low speed until combine

3) Beat at high until pale colour

4) Spoon butter into each cup and bake for 20 min

5) Pipe buttercream as desired.

Here are my cupcake decorating ideas...

- I made Daffodil cupcake toppers to promote this event

- Create flowers with buttercream and decorate with yellow sprinkles

- I’ve cut out the top of the cake and fill the inside of the cupcakes with lemon curd which give the cupcakes lots of yellow colour

Despite my drama in baking, it was fun baking and blogging. Hope to post more blog soon…

Wear yellow for Daffodil day, 27th Aug 2010

With lots of encouragements from friends and my husband, I’m proud to present this, my very 1st blog entry.

For this coming Daffodil day, 27th Aug 2010, I will be baking yellow cupcakes for this fund raising event. I’ve been doing lots of thinking for my cupcake designs. My husband laughed at me when I bought a bunch of daffodils, searching my kitchen high and low to find every possible item that is yellow. A few ideas have come into my mind so check out my blog to see my yellow cupcakes next week…

 

To get into the mood of Daffodil day baking, I’ve baked simple custard biscuits last Sunday and decorated the biscuits according to this theme. I’ve cut the biscuits into rabbit and bear faces and make them wear yellow flowers biscuits :D