Very Vegie Bolognese

I needed to throw dinner together quickly this evening. It was a busy day out, and I arrived home at 4:30 by myself with my two littlies. I had nothing defrosted, and no plan for dinner.... I decided on bolognese.

This bolognese is packed full of vegetable goodness. Eight different vegetables in total, and you would never know.... I use only a small amount of good quality beef mince in this bolognese so the bulk of the dish really is vegetables.

You will need:

A splash of Olive oil
An onion
A clove of garlic
Some dried herbs
A teaspoon of beef stock powder
An assortment of vegetables. You can use whatever you have to hand. I have used Mushrooms, Carrot, Zucchini, Brocoli, Cauliflower, and a small cube of frozen spinach. In total, I use about 3 cups of vegies.
A 400g can of tomatoes
A tablespoon of tomato paste
200g of good quality beef mince
Salt and pepper to taste.

I chop all my vegies quite small and saute in some olive oil.





When the vegies have softened, I add the mince and stir to break up any lumps, until the mince
has browned.
Add the tomato paste and cook, stiring to coat everything, for a minute or two. At this stage you can add your dried herbs.
Pour in the can of tomatoes, then fill the empty can with water and add to the
saucepan with the teaspoon of beef stock powder and salt and pepper to taste.




Simmer uncovered until the sauce reduces.


Now, if it were just David and I eating this, we would eat this just as it is, but to hide the vegies from Madeleine I pop the bolognese into my food processor and blitz. The vegies become completely undetectable!

Chicken Meatballs and Spaghetti

I am always looking for ways to add hidden vegetables to our meals.... Madeleine has been going through a rather long stage of not eating vegetables. It can be stressful, and of course we still offer vegetables at all meals, and suggest that she tastes them... And sometimes she will suprise us, but other times we have no luck at all!

For those nights where you have a little time on your hands to spend in the kitchen, this Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe is perfect! You can hide some extra vegies in the meatballs. (It's funny that Madeleine doesn't consider tomatoes a vegetable!!!) In the batch pictured, I have just added one carrot and no other vegies to the meatballs.

It's quite simple to make, actually, and it's even something that the kids can help cook - Get them in the kitchen with clean hands to roll the little meatballs for you. They will have fun!

To make the tomato sauce you will need:

1 onion
1 stick of celery
2 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of dried thyme (or a sprig of fresh)
2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes plus 800ml of water (just fill the cans with water once you've emptied them)
1 teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

and to make the meatballs:

500g Chicken mince
1 egg
3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of onion and garlic
1 teaspoon of worcestershire
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
For the vegies - I like to add half a carrot and half a zucchini but you can add whatever you like




To start the sauce, finely chop your onion and celery. Put 2 tablespoons of this aside to add to the meatballs.

Warm the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, celery and thyme and cook over a medium heat, stiring every now and then for about 10 minutes.

Then add the cans of tomatoes and the water to the pan. Season with the sugar, salt and pepper and then bring it to a simmer while you make the meatballs.




To make the meatballs, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. It's best to use your hands to combine everything. Then take small amounts of the mixture (about a teaspoon worth) and shape in to balls. If you wet your hands slightly, they will be easy to roll. You will need to put these aside as you want to add them all in to the sauce at the same time, so place them on a tray that you have lined with some baking paper.





Once you have made all the meatballs, you can add these carefully in to the sauce. They will need about half an hour or so to simmer.

We cook a 500g pack of pasta for this quantity of sauce, and it feeds us (two adults and a 3 year old who usually goes back for seconds) for two meals! It freezes well and you can just defrost when you need and reheat.

Don't forget some Parmesan cheese on the top!