cooking with kids – CraftyGuider

Meal Planning Monday – 4th January

One of the things I want to get under control this year is my food shopping. Dinners are always a balancing act in our house. I don’t eat meat, and Mr CG is gluten (and onions, leeks, spices, garlic…) intolerant. The Craftyguidelets, even though they have a bit of childhood fussiness, are probably the most normal eaters in our house. I usually cook from scratch because of this. Add to this my volunteering and the girls’ after school activities, planning what to cook for dinner, and having the time to cook it, is a juggling act.

I used to participate in At Home With Mrs M‘s Meal Planning Monday from time to time. After a break, it’s back today (yay!), so it ties in with my need to get discipline back to plan my week’s meals. This will hopefully lead to less food waste, healthier meals, fewer trips to the shops and a reduced spend.

Most of our Christmas leftovers are gone now, but I still seem to have some food to use up including a bit of veg, loads of apples, some sausages and a bit of cheese. I also have a stash of frozen bits and pieces to use up, so this week’s menu is this:

Monday: sausage pasta in the slow cooker (and veg bolognaise from the freezer) – it’s my birthday so I don’t want too much hassle cooking!
Tuesday: salmon, mash and veg
Wednesday: freezer dive
Thursday: tuna pasta bake with sweetcorn (the girls’ favourite!)
Friday: gammon (and quorn burgers)
Saturday: salad and jacket potatoes with cold meat (and cheese)
Sunday: whatever my mum and dad are providing

The apples will go in muffins and I’m sure baked apples will make an appearance at some point. See you next Monday!

If you have any great recipes or books to recommend, please fill my comments with suggestions!

Great British Bake Off – Patisserie and The Final

Yes I know. The Bake Off has finished and we all cried along with Nadiya when she won and gave that lovely speech. Back at Craftguider Towers, I was really busy with my volunteering, followed by tonsillitis and a stinking cold and a back that went twang. I’ve been waiting for a good time to do my soufflé for chocolate week, but there hasn’t been the time, so I’m summing up my patisserie efforts and the final traditional bake now before you all forget what a bake off is!I made choux pastry for the first time this year when I chose to make éclairs for my turn on the WI cake rota. This stood me in good stead for my Religieuses that I made for the Great Girlguiding Anglia Bake Off. Even though they didn’t win, they tasted delicious, but I still needed to perfect them. Cue patisserie week on Bake Off and Religieuses à l’Ancienne. Yes, those nuns were back, but this time they were Dalek shaped constructions. Instead of the construction element, I spent my time perfecting my pastry, and I finally managed the crisp choux shells I needed.To represent the traditional bake in the final, eldest Craftyguidelet wanted to make a gluten free Victoria sponge. She roped in Mr CG to replace me, and used the Cake Angels recipe to make a nice sponge.Youngest Craftyguidelet didn’t want to be left out and made some more gluten free custard creams from the Honeybuns cookbook. My originals from biscuit week were mentioned in Homemaker Magazine in October as I used the cutters and stencil from a previous free gift. I won’t let the fame go to my head!

I must make time for the soufflé so I can finally finish my bake along. Ingredients bought so watch this space…

Have you been inspired by the Bake Off to create anything new?

Great British Bake Off – Biscuits

Week 2 of Bake Off and it is biscuit week! As I didn’t fancy biscotti, and arlettes seemed a bit out of my league, it was the biscuit selection in the biscuit box that were this week’s CG household challenge. Time to dig out a couple of books off the shelf that I’ve neglected. I’ve had the Honeybuns book for a while. It isn’t my gluten free recipe book of choice as some of the recipes need flour blends rather than basic off the shelf gluten free flour. However, I managed to find a biscuit recipe using my store cupboard ingredients plus polenta and custard powder.The Craftyguidelets loved cutting out the bright yellow biscuit dough.The resulting gluten free custard creams, sandwiched together with a custard flavoured butter cream were lovely, even for the 75% of the CG household who eat gluten.Next came the box. I bought the Biscuiteers book some time ago but have never used it, however I thought that the recipes would help me with creating a decorated box.The book is set out differently to a normal recipe book. There is a section on dough making over a few pages. I made the basic biscuit dough, although there are lots of different flavours of dough in the book. The next section is on the different royal icing consistencies and how to colour, pipe and embellish the icing. The largest section is on the different themes of biscuit shapes e.g. Christmas, Bridal, Animals etc. with comprehensive icing instructions, and templates in the back of the book.I just made rectangles based on an ice cream tub. The icing was my first attempt and a bit rushed as I had Craftyguidelet assistance and the time pressure of dinner to make – not something the Bake Off contestants have to deal with!The box was roughly glued together with royal icing and held up with various objects until the icing dried.And the final ‘Ta-dah!’. The pink hearts were made from left over dough and iced by the Craftyguidelets.

I’ve learned new techniques, made recipes from two under-used books on my shelf and completed a real personal challenge. It hardly matches the fantastic creations from the Bake Off, but I’m rather chuffed that the whole thing stayed up!

What baking challenges have you given yourself recently?

The Great Girlguiding Anglia Bake Off

I am a fan of the Great British Bake Off. I love baking and come from a long line of bakers. When I heard that Girlguiding Anglia, the Guiding Region I belong to, was doing a Bake Off badge, I knew I had to look into it.

As well as the badge, Girlguiding Anglia is running a baking competition for Guides (aged 10-14), Senior Section (Rangers and Young Leaders aged 14-25), and adult leaders (aged 18+). The idea was to have units find their own star bakers, send them up to the next level to find their local area (District) champion, and then to their wider area (Division), County and finally the Anglia Region final.Our unit competition resulted in 4 cakes coming in from the Guides. They were asked to bake a Victoria sponge at home, and the leader team had the task of tasting them. Sometimes, being a leader is tough. We selected 2 Guides to go through to the next round.For the District round, I was asked to help organise a bake sale to run alongside the bake off to raise money for local Guiding. Our local tea room hosted us one evening and all the Guides, Senior Section members and adults were invited to bake something to sell to parents and friends.

The Guide winners from the two local units had their Victoria sponges judged by 2 members of the WI, the owner of the tea room and Henry the Mercury Newshound from the local paper (the reason why there is a 6ft dog in the background of the photo!). Senior Section and leaders were also invited to enter scones for the Senior Section and a ‘light fruit cake’ for the leaders. I did my duty and several fruit cakes later in a quest to find a qualifying recipe, produced probably the worst thing I have baked in a while for the competition. As the only adult entrant, I progressed to the next round.At the Division bake off round, I was up against 2 other leaders to try and make amends for my earlier failure. One of the leaders was unable to finish, so my new recipe cake was up against this lovely, bunting festooned fruit loaf.Somehow I managed to win by 1 point and fruit cake number 8 (yes, I took this competition seriously!) got me to the County semi finals.At the Hertfordshire County semi finals, I needed to bake Religieuses. For those who are up on their Great British Bake Off trivia, they were Mary Berry’s technical challenge in pastry week of series 4. Do you remember the ugly nuns?

I practised a couple of times as choux pastry is something I’ve only ever baked once before. I asked for hints and tips and managed to get my little practice choux buns to rise into something resembling the cakes they make on the Bake Off (yes, I did watch the episode on YouTube!).Three Guides, Senior Section members and adult leaders competed with apple pies (Guides), chocolate fruit tarts (Senior Section) and Religieuses (adult leaders) following the same recipe.

When the County team gave out comments after judging and included the word ‘dainty’, I knew I hadn’t won. My effort to get a choux bun to rise as much as possible worked against me, and I think they were a bit soft once filled. I also had a few nuns who were a bit wayward so choosing my best ones for judging was tricky.I took the remaining cakes home with me to be enjoyed by the gluten eating side of the family. This cake was my lunch and I really enjoyed it. The Craftyguidelets have said lovely things about my cakes, and they are the only judges I want to impress (well, apart from my Master Baker dad who I have impressed about 4 times in my lifetime with my bakes).

I will now go back to baking for fun and baking lots of gluten free cakes so husband can share in the calorie intake.

The Bake Off is only one of the many varied activities open to girls, young women and adults in Guiding. Come and get involved in the largest youth organisation for girls in the UK today during Volunteer’s week.

Guides do : Chinese Year of the Sheep

On the 22nd February every year, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are encouraged to think about all their fellow Guides and Scouts around the world. The day is named World Thinking Day and was chosen because it was the shared birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting, and his wife Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the first World Chief Guide.Another Guiding tradition is the donation of the Thinking Day Penny. It was suggested that as it was the Founder’s birthday, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts could send gifts in the form of a voluntary contribution. Olave Baden-Powell suggested a penny, and the money has gone to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) ever since to support girls and young women around the world. Even though a penny could have got you much more in those days than now, we still collect pennies to donate to the World Thinking Day Fund. We don’t get the Brasso out and shine them any more like I used to in the 80’s though!For the international element of our meeting, the adult leaders had already chosen China as a theme due to the Chinese new year being next week. We then handed over to the two Young Leaders to choose some extra activities with the Guides, and then I was despatched to Hobbycraft with a list for the following week.As it is going to be the Chinese Year of the Sheep, I’d already decided to contribute this decorated cupcake idea that I’d spotted on Pinterest. See – all that procrastinating does pay off!I’m not sure how many sheep made it home in one piece, so I made sure I emailed pictures to the parents to show them that the Guides had actually done something!Another idea was making lanterns which turned out really well, especially with the battery powered tea lights in the bottom.Not so successful were the fortune cookies. I was a bit dubious when I was asked to provide ingredients, but one Guide told me she’d made them at Brownie Pack Holiday once. If a Brownie can make it, it must be easy. They’d obviously had more experience, or not used the recipe I found online. They tasted nice though and the Guides all swapped fortunes which they’d written inside.Our finale was our Chinese dragon. The Young Leaders asked for boxes and bottles, and I think the Guide parents took the opportunity to lighten their recycling bins this week. Not many were used in construction, but it had a head, body and tail, and every Guide managed to get underneath so a success!

If you think that you would enjoy being surrounded by icing, despairing over cracking fortune cookies and helping to engineer lantern bases, come and join the fun! Click here for more details.

Meal Planning Monday 7.10.13

Last week was a week of in and out and dashing about which meant meal preparation was tricky. A lot of the meals were either pre-prepared or quick to cook so I could just pop them into the oven or bung a few ingredients in the slow cooker.

Sunday was the exception. For the second week in a row we had a roast dinner. I always make sure we have lots of veggies as I don’t eat meat, and this week we even had a home cooked pudding.

The Craftyguidelets made a gluten free apple crumble. It tasted delicious with a big dollop of custard.

This is what we have planned for this week:

Monday Macaroni cheese

Tuesday Ham egg and chips

Wednesday Freezer dive

Thursday Cider braised pork chops

Friday Fish pie

Saturday Take away or freezer dive

Sunday I’m out all day. Do I get Mr CG to cook a roast on his own whilst looking after the Craftyguidelets?

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday link party. What have you got cooking this week?

Meal Planning Monday 23.9.13

Last week’s menu had it’s successes and failures. Last minute changes to my afternoon schedules meant that the ratatouille had to be made in the slow cooker and turned out a bit soggy. However the chicken cordon bleu went down very well with the family and I’ve been asked to add it to the list of regular meals.

I love making vegetable goulash. The smell of smoked paprika is divine, and look at all these lovely colours together.

I’ve also been busy on the baking front. Rather than make a loaf of bread, I chose to make some rolls from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book. I’m so pleased how they came out, although I’m yet to try one and they went straight into the freezer.

I’ve also been baking with the kids. Eldest Craftyguidelet saw a truffle recipe in her Moshi Monsters magazine which contained biscuits. As Mr Craftyguider is gluten intolerant, I chose a truffle recipe from the Eat Yourself Thin book instead, and we coated them with the hundreds and thousands that were in the magazine, with some gluten free sugar strands for Mr CG. I don’t think chocolate and honey mixed with coffee is ever going to make me thin though, so I might leave the family to munch through these.

We also made the Millionaires Shortbread recipe from my favourite gluten free baking book, Cake Angels. The Craftyguidelets rechristened it Minionaires shortbread due to their obsession with all things Despicable Me.

This week is a bit on the busy side so the menu will be fairly simple.

Monday: Ham, egg and chips

Tuesday: Bolognaise

Wednesday: Fish pie

Thursday: Something in the slow cooker

Friday: Vegetable pasta

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Roast something!

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday. Have a look to see what everyone else is cooking up this week.