Bubble and Squeak is the queen of leftovers, particularly if you have leftover mashed potato. As it’s full of vegetables, Bubble and Squeak makes a healthy breakfast alternative to cereal, or a great lunch.

The recipe below isn’t really a recipe, more a description of the last lot of Bubble and Squeak we made. The whole point is to use up whatever leftovers you have in the fridge. Some nice additions might be leftover roast meat or even leftover rice.

Serves: Depends on how much leftover ingredients you have.

Method

1. Combine mash, greens, egg, cheese and salt until well mixed. If the mixture is a little on the sloppy side, you can add a little flour to help bind the mixture so that it stays together as it cooks.
2. Heat a frypan to medium and add a little butter or oil to the pan. Dollop spoonfuls of mixture into your frypan and cook until golden on both sides.
3. Serve warm.

What’s your favourite way to eat Bubble and Squeak?

I’m thinking topped with some cooked bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup would be nice, but maybe that’s pregnancy cravings kicking in.

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If you’re wanting to increase your vegetable intake, these fritters are a quick and easy way to do so. Kids and adults alike love them, and they make great lunches. Serve hot or store in the fridge for a speedy snack.

I served these with a homemade tomato relish, I’ll share that recipe next week.

Makes about 10 fritters.

Method

1. Squeeze excess moisture out of grated vegetables.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Heat a fry pan with a little oil or butter (I like to use a little of both). Form / dollop fritters in the pan with about 2 tablespoons of mixture. Fry on both sides until lightly golden.
4. If serving hot, keep warm in the oven until all fritters are cooked.
5. Serve with homemade tomato relish (recipe next week) or bottled relish or chutney or sour cream.

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2. Vegetable Patties
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This vegetarian dish is packed full of goodness, is inexpensive and tasty. There is a little bit of prep work, especially if you make your own cottage cheese before hand, but you can make this dish ahead of time and just top with cheese and bake before serving. The protein comes from the eggs and the beans, and along with the brown rice, is actually quite a filling dish. Serves 4 – 6

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a casserole dish.
2. Boil rice for 30 – 40 minutes or until cooked through. Drain.
3. In a large fry pan, lightly sauté mushroom in a little butter or oil. Remove from heat.
4. Add a little extra butter to the pan and sauté onion until soft. Add cabbage and sauté for a further 5 minutes.
5. Add the grated vegetables, garlic and thyme and continue to cook until vegetables are softened and cooked – another couple of minutes.
6. In a large bowl beat the eggs the eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream and mustard. Add the cabbage mixture, cannellini beans and rice.
7. Pour into casserole dish, top with grated cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

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My homemade hummus is the best ever. Why? Because I can adjust it to taste exactly how I like it. And so can you. Prefer a garlic hit? Add more garlic. Like the tang of lemon? Add some more. While cooking from scratch may not save you time, it does mean you can have perfect tasting food.

I’ve been making hummus as a protein / fibre snack lately to eat on whole wheat crackers or with vegetables. I’ve never been a huge fan, but lately I’ve fallen in love with it’s subtle flavour. The biggest challenge is to make the lot last more than one day. Makes just under 500g.

Method

1. Blend or process until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little water to loosen it up or until you have your preferred consistency. Taste and season, adding more garlic, tahini or lemon juice as suits your tastes.

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It’s Halloween today, so I thought I would share another pumpkin recipe: mini muffin- tin pumpkin quiches.

These mini quiches are similar to this recipe, previously shared, except that they are baked in a muffin tin, and therefore take much less time to cook. Of course, you can make any quiche recipe ‘mini’ by following the directions below.

These make great finger food, picnic lunches, school or work lunches or an out-and- about lunch. Makes approx. 8.

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a muffin tin.
• Over a low heat, sauté onion and garlic until softened, without browning. Add the dried herbs and sauté for a further minute, then set aside to cool.
• Beat the eggs and cream, then beat in the mashed pumpkin and cheese. Finally, stir in the onion mixture.
• Cut rounds from the pastry using a pastry cutter or glass, and line each muffin tin hole with pastry. Spoon or pour quiche mixture into each hole.
• Bake for 10 – 20 minutes or until quiche is set. I find that in my oven, things cook more evenly if I turn them half way through.

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Chilli powder? Fresh chilli? Tabasco Sauce? I was looking around for different ideas to spice up our fairly plain bean enchiladas and I came up with this ingredient as a flash of inspiration (if it’s been done before, I haven’t seen it).

I tell you, these went straight to our family favourites list! They have so much flavour and DH thought they were tasty even though they are vegetarian. And of course, as a bean meal, it’s a pretty inexpensive dinner. We made six enchiladas with this amount of mix.

I’ve been reading about enchiladas so much on American websites and as we’re eating a lot more vegetarian meals, I thought that we would have to give them a go. They have certainly become a winning meal in our house.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Sauté the onion, capsicum and carrot in a little oil over medium to high heat for five minutes or so.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes and sweet chilli sauce and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 – 20 minutes or until reduced and thickened. Stir in the kidney beans and heat through.
4. Spoon bean mix onto tortillas and roll up. Place on a greased baking dish, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.
5. Serve with the avocado, sour cream and shredded lettuce.

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These mini pizzas are so quick and easy to make and are great served for lunch as a way to get your five serves of vegetables a day.

If you have the toppings already cut up and ready to go, this lunch can be on the plate in under five minutes. Add an extra minute to cut up your toppings – it’s that easy.

We make vegetarian pizza toast with whatever is in the crisper, but you can use your favourite pizza toppings. Serves 1.

Method

1. Lightly toast bread.
2. Spread with tomato paste, sprinkle on oregano and capsicum, top with sliced mushrooms and grated cheese.
3. Toast under a hot griller until cheese is melted and bubbling and mushroom is cooked.

We are currently trying to get our yard into shape before summer hits. With the left over tree stumps that have been sitting around the yard for over four years, we made a little kid’s table and chair, where the little fella eats his lunch:

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I have just discovered quesadillas (or at least, the American version of quesadillas).

If you’re wondering what planet I’ve been living on to not know what these are, my excuse is that Mexican cuisine isn’t big in Australia.

Yes, I’ve had my fair share of Old El Paso tacos and I’ve even made my own tortillas from scratch a long, long time ago, but Mexican food is a bit, well, foreign to me.

If you’re uninitiated like I was, a quesadilla is basically a toasted tortilla sandwich. I’m not a big fan of lots of bread, so I like how this is a lower-carb sandwich, where the emphasis is on the filling.

You can put anything on it you like, we had mashed banana and cheese the other day. This is my bean and salad version. Serves 1.

Method

1. Mash the kidney beans slightly and stir through the cumin.
2. Spread one of the tortillas with avocado, then top with lettuce, tomato and kidney bean mixture.
3. Grate a little more cheese over the beans and place the remaining tortilla on top.
4. Toast in a sandwich press until golden and cheese has melted or in a hot pan, pressing down slightly with an egg flip and turning half way to toast both sides.
5. Slice into segments and serve.

Variations: add cooked chicken; top with sour cream or stir through the kidney beans to make more of a spreadable bean; add a sprinkling of chilli if you like things with a little heat.

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The little fella is pretty good with his vegetables, but broccoli always ends up on the floor. Unless it’s covered in cheesy sauce! This is so easy if you use leftover veg and pasta, otherwise steam some finger food sized vegetables to make this dish. Exact measurements will depend on how much leftovers you have, I find a little sauce goes a long way – just enough to make things tasty but still ‘pick-up-able’ (and ‘clean-up-able’ for mum).

Method

1. Sauté onion in butter over low heat until soft. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute before adding the milk and stirring well over low heat to make a thick sauce.
2. Stir in the grated cheese, pasta and vegetables and heat through.

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I’ve been making a variation of roast pumpkin risotto for quite a few years now. I think it was the first risotto variation I ever made and I got the original recipe off the back of a stock packet.

Well the other day I had an inspiration. I’ll roast the pumpkin in honey. It was yum. It was a revelation. Several days later I came across a recipe for – you guessed it – honey roasted pumpkin risotto. My idea isn’t such a unique revelation after all. I get that a lot. Nevertheless, this is my version of the risotto. Serves 2 –4

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. On a baking sheet, toss the pumpkin in the oil, garlic, rosemary and honey. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until cooked through, giving the pan a shake halfway through cooking.
2. Meanwhile, heat a little oil or butter in a saucepan over medium heat and sauté onion until soft. Add the rice, stirring to coat in the oil.
3. Add the wine and stir until absorbed into the rice. Add a little stock at a time, stirring until it is absorbed. Keep adding stock and stirring until the rice is cooked through.
4. Stir in the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper (to taste – you have to taste) and cream if using. Gently stir in the cooked pumpkin and serve.

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