Category Archives: Recipes

Healthy Apricot Log Rolls

I loved apricot log rolls when I was little. Being raised by a fairly health-conscious mother we rarely had sweets or chocolate so these little delights were a big treat for us.

Apricot Log Rolls ~ Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids

After making these for my family this week, I can’t believe how similar they are in taste to my childhood ones nor how easy they were to make. With not a scrap of added sugar and plenty of added healthy bits I love that my children are devouring them and my husband is enjoying snacking on them for a quick energy boost.

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Healthy Date and Pecan Cookies

These Healthy Date and Pecan Cookies are so easy to make that even my two and a half year old could do it! They were a perfect choice for my Tasty Tuesday recipe of the week.

Healthy Date and Pecan Cookies ~ Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids

Date and Pecan Cookies

I have two very active toddlers who both seem to have boundless energy stores keeping them going all day long. Neither of them stop for sleeps during the day to recharge so I have found that it is important that they have a balanced diet that consists of foods which have a low GI (slow release, long lasting energy).

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Ravioli Bake (Aka Cheats Lasagne)

My family loves lasagne. Served with vegies or a salad, it is easily a favourite. My mother’s lasagne is second to none with a creamy béchamel sauce combined with a rich mince mixture, it is easy to get lost in the deliciousness of it and sneak back to the kitchen for extra spoonfuls, stolen straight from the dish. Unfortunately, with the hecticness of life with children, the luxury of spending bucket loads of time fiddling around making this meal can no longer always be afforded so this ravioli bake is the  perfect alternative.

Baked Ravioli (Cheats Lasagne) ~ Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids

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Fresh Pineapple and Banana Muffins (With Added Healthy Bits)

It’s Tasty Tuesday and time to share our best weekly recipes…

I love fresh pineapple and we ended up with a large amount of it this week after a two for the price of one deal at the local markets. After devouring a significant amount of it with the children there was nothing left to do but to use it in my weekly baking spree and make these delicious Pineapple and Banana Muffins.

Fresh Pineapple and Banana Muffins ~ Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids

We are in the process of reducing the refined sugar we consume in our house. We have recognised the ill-effects of consuming too much of this sweet substance, both in the behaviours of our children and in our own feelings of well-being.

Having said this, we are not going cold turkey and I am happy to include a little bit of white goodness in my baking so as not to compromise on taste. I found that if I cut it out completely, the children would be happy to eat the first helping I offered them but would less than politely decline when offered again in another sitting. I would rather my children ate the food I made for them from scratch (with a little sugar), than consume too many highly processed, packaged products.

So these muffins were an experiment to see whether I could get the balance right between tasty, healthy and palatable (texture) and am pleased to say they have been a huge hit. The children love them and I am happy that they have a good dose of healthiness in each one.

Fresh Pineapple and Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

Just over 1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup pepitas

1/2 cup sultanas

2 teaspoons rice malt syrup

1 cup mashed banana

450g fresh pineapple (whizzed in the processor until finely chopped)

1/2 cup healthy oil (I used rice bran oil)

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line muffin tins with patty papers (I used baking paper cut into squares as we were out of proper liners). Combine sifted dry ingredients, sugar, pepitas and sultanas in a large bowl. Stir in wet ingredients until just combined. Spoon mixture into prepared cases (about 3/4 full). Bake for about 35 – 40 minutes, checking after 30 minutes with a skewer.

Please share a snap of something you have baked or a meal you have cooked on instagram and be sure to use the hashtag #ppcktastytuesday

 

Banana and Yoghurt Cake

Banana and Yoghurt Cake is one of my children’s favourite treats. I love the nostalgia this cake brings me and I am so excited to share the recipe with you as I step out of my comfort zone on my blog and begin what I hope will be a weekly series delivered to you on Tasty Tuesdays!

Banana and Yoghurt Cake ~ Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids

Delicious home-cooked banana and yoghurt cake.

 

My mother was a great cook when we were growing up and, well, she still is. She cooks real food, from the heart and seems to make even the most boring food taste like it should be in a five-star restaurant.

Everything we ate when we were children, came from our farm. Most of the ingredients she used she made from scratch. It wasn’t that my Mum was a fanatic about health (although she was conscious of eating healthily) or being a hippy, 70s parent, it was merely because my parents had very little money.

They used the space they had on the farm to grow fruit and vegetables, rear beef and chickens and milk cows. Nothing was wasted and Mum became very efficient at making ordinary, everyday ingredients into beautiful, country-cooked meals.

Now, I don’t profess to have inherited her gift with food but I have, overtime, managed to nut out some of her (and my) favourite recipes. It has been a trial as often her descriptions for recipes go something like this:

“Beat a handful of sugar and an egg together. Add a dash of milk and stir in a pound of flour” ~ Mum

Ok, Mum, so how many tablespoons of sugar would that be? Yeah, so as you can see, she’s not so great on the details but I think I have managed to get some proportions together and replicate some of her delicious meals and scrumptious baking.

I intend to share these with you for as long as I can get her to share them with me.

First up, I would like to share this delicious Banana Yoghurt Cake with you. My Mum actually dislikes Bananas a lot! But we grew them in abundance on our farm and therefore they had to be used.

So I have many fond memories of smashing up bananas whilst my mother gagged over the smell and then eating warm banana cake straight from oven. It was the only cake, Mum let us eat more than one piece of at a time because she just wanted to see it gone. I hope you enjoy it!

Banana and Yoghurt Cake

125g softened butter (free tip 1: if it is not softened it will not cream!) (free tip 2: warm the bowl and beaters with hot water before creaming if the butter is not quite soft enough)

3/4 cup castor sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup mashed banana (3 overripe bananas)

200g greek yoghurt

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1 cup white self-raising flour

Grease a 15cm x 25cm loaf tin and line the bottom with the wrapper from the butter. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add egg, beat until combined. Stir in banana and yoghurt then add sifted flours. Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake in oven for 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.

(Free tip 3: check cake with a skewer when the baking aromas in the house start to intensify as this is a good sign it is nearly done. An over-cooked cake is a dry cake!)

I would love for you to take a photograph of your Tasty Tuesday Meal and share it with us all on the Peaceful Parents, Confident Kids Facebook Page with a link to the recipe or on Instagram using the hashtag #ppcktastytuesday

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