Unlikely Recipe Successes

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Thank you to The Dairy Kitchen for supporting our family and sponsoring this post. And for all the fantastic recipe ideas!

The Dairy Kitchen approached me with the idea to chat about the importance of dairy in a family’s diet and proposed I cook one recipe a day with milk, yoghurt or cheese in it to show people how easy it is to incorporate into a family’s diet. They even sent me some links with suggestions and immediately I saw a problem.

“I want to cook all of it,” I told Tracey.

“I want you to cook all of it too,” she said, looking over my shoulder.

So I did.

“Party,” I announced to local family, and we had a lovely evening trying a heap of dishes.

So in keeping with the brief, Day One:

note: all the recipe titles in orange are links to the recipes

Summer Meatball Salad

I have no idea what this dish tastes like. By the time I’d brought all the other dishes to the table this one was finished and there were requests for the recipe from the adults and demands from the kids I march back into the kitchen and whip up another batch. Overall I think that’s fairly positive.

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Turmeric and Yogurt Roasted Chicken, Cauliflower & Eggplant

So good. The only adult at the table who was disappointed with this dish was the vegetarian. For obvious reasons. Even though it looks fancy smancy the whole thing only takes five minutes to prep and then the oven does all the work.

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Orechiette Pasta with Creamy Basil & Broccoli Sauce

Don’t panic: Orechiette is just a fancy way of saying shell pasta. I used our nutrininja to blend up the sauce – too easy, and not much washing up. The fussiest eater in the house, Miss9, loved this dish so much she hid a small container of it in the fridge for afternoon tea the next day.

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Lebanese Lamb Pizza

This was my favourite, although I very nearly didn’t get to taste it either – the way my kids went at the spread a passerby might have assumed the kids hadn’t eaten for days. The lamb mince tasted fantastic with the herbs, Turkish bread and Mozzarella, and the baby spinach and cucumber gave crunch and colour. I liked this so much, and it was as easy to make as a spag bog, that I cooked it for dinner again the next night.

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Kale, Feta and Pumpkin Pie

Not only did the family’s token vegetarian love this dish, the meat eaters were talking it up as well. Because they all loved it, and because it’s so deceptively simple, I decided to do a video of this recipe. Personally I love pumpkin, so it was always going to be a winner with me. I’m not big on garnish, but the pumpkin seeds on top really did add a nice visual touch to the dish. Of course, they taste nice too.

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Vegetable Skewers with Satay Yogurt Sauce

The satay sauce was a huge hit. Huge. “Did you make this?” my mother-in-law wanted to know. She sounded doubtful. BBQ’s the skewers while sipping a beer and chatting with the fam.

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Cheese, Spinach & Zucchini Rice Slice

This was the least favourite dish of the day, probably because I didn’t wring the frozen spinach out enough and was crying out for more salt. To be fair though, it was up against some cracker dishes. Next time I think I’ll use fresh spinach or fresh baby spinach even. So least favourite, but still worth having another crack at. Especially as even if you’re lactose intolerant you can still enjoy recipes like this. Cheeses generally have little to no lactose in them.

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Baked Parmesan Zucchini

Master24 is adamant doesn’t like zucchini. He liked this dish. A lot. Not only did it look beautiful on the table, despite the lack of meat it was the second dish to disappear entirely from people’s plates. Not bad for a vegetable we usually have to grate into spag bog so the kids don’t know they’re eating it. A genuine surprise, and a dish I’ll be adding to our family BBQ staples.

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Day Two:

Lebanese Lamb Pizza

Like I said, good enough to have two days in a row. I’ve never used yogurt much in the kitchen and I’ve nearly gone through two big pots of Greek yogurt this week. It is brilliant stuff. Fun to cook with and healthy to boot – includes lots of essential nutrients like protein, vit B12 and iodine. Plus it makes a dish look a little bit fancy.

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Day Three:

Baked Ricotta Omelette

Tracey and the resident vegetarian enjoyed this dish. I focused on the mushroom half because I have a thing for fungus. Fungus? Fungi? Mushies anyway. Apparently only ten percent of us are getting the recommended intake of dairy each day. Recipes like this can help you address that.

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Day Four:

Banana, Date & Walnut Overnight Oats

The prep for this is done the night before and takes about a minute. All I needed to do in the morning was sip on a coffee while I toasted some walnuts and cut up two dates and a banana. When we go to Wonga Beach for our family Christmas bash we each have to do the cooking for one day. This will be my breakfast offering. Very impressed.

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Day Five:

Berry Breakfast Smoothie Bowls

My kids love making morning smoothies in the nutrininja. I love it too because, although there’s always a bloody big mess, they do it themselves giving me time to focus on important things like making myself a string of very strong coffees. The muesli was a nice touch and one I think they’ll keep. The certainly did the day after I made these for them and they did they whole thing by themselves before I’d even gotten out of bed. A good find.

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Day Six:

Homemade Baked Beans with Grilled Cheese

Confession time – I’ve always wanted to try doing this. Maybe it’s my love of westerns. Can I just say it was just as satisfying as I imagined it would be. Big surprise was two of the kids who won’t touch baked beans out of a can LOVED this.

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Day Seven:

Summer Meatball Salad

Finally, I got to try this recipe and see what all the fuss was last weekend! I get it now, I do. The ricotta in with pork and veal mince makes for really light meatballs. Dare I say they’re amazeballs. This will not be the last time we have these.

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So there we go. A week of including cheese and different dairy products in our meals and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten better. What I loved about these recipes is they weren’t difficult or time consuming. Most of the time it was a matter of mixing things together and letting the oven, pan or fridge do the work.

Dairy is one of the five food groups recommended every day for good health. Milk, cheese and yogurt are bursting with vitamins, minerals and protein, including calcium for building strong bones and teeth for the rest of their lives, so I see including them on my dining table as a great idea for giving my kids a great start.

The fact I’m sick of spag bog and want to eat stuff with flavour might also come into play.

Here’s a link to the actual recipe on The Dairy Kitchen

For even more recipes, check out the Legendairy (clever name – it’s cheesy) and The Dairy Kitchen website and get inspired.

Raising a family on little more than laughs

6 Comments

  • Haha I love the video! I have no idea how you actually do it but it’s great! Love the recipe ideas – that pie looks SO GOOD. I really think some of us cut dairy out unnecessarily – I am all for having strong bones!

  • I made the broccolini and Basil one yesterday – frickin delicious! Had some sauce left over so have frozen it to reuse next week.

    • Yay! I think the thing I loved most about this week was I wouldn’t have chosen these recipes normally, so it was a genuine treat for me and the fam

  • Well I think there is a couple of new recipes I must try! They look delicious. Although husband was very unimpressed with the mention of kale in the pie ?

  • Overnight oats is a winner, had it for breakfast today! But makes 6 servings for us not 2, which is a double winner. Also, don’t like walnuts so I used pecans instead. Gonna try next time with dried cranberries and almonds.

    BTW, that is your next project, a cookbook. If it needs one pot, has veggies and kids will eat it, WINNER

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