What's been happening in my kitchen?

Well I haven't posted in a while. The reasons for this are many and varied but include:

• taking my daughter to three high school open days in a week
• finding all the paperwork for high school applications
• a day of freezer cooking
• my camera deciding to play up
• my computer hard-drive giving up the ghost
• my husband helpfully misplacing his camera that I took back-up photos on

As with so many things in life sometimes it does feel just a tiny bit as if the universe is conspiring against one.

My freezer cooking day last week was a big effort but has made the past week's abundant crazy so much easier. So far we've eaten a gnocchi bake, a meatloaf, twice baked potato and sweet potato crumble from the day.

I think I mentioned before that I don't do all chicken dishes or all pasta dishes because that's just not what we like to eat or how we eat so I do a big mish-mash of things. I know that doesn't work for everyone but for us a freezer full of chicken won't help because we don't want to eat that every night for two weeks. Here is what I finished up with:

• meatloaves x 2
• sweet potato crumble x 2
• twice baked potato x 3 serves for us
• lamb and mushroom pie filling
• gnocchi bake
• zucchini slice
• potato soup

I definitely need to do another batch of baked goods. My daughter made the ever simple lemonade scones on the weekend. These are a super easy thing for kids to make.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6036/lemonade+scones

Carrots were on sale this week so I can see banana carrot cake and hummingbird cakes on the horizon.

Anyway, hopefully the hiccups have ended and I can get back to blogging in earnest again.

A healthy lunch box treat.

Now that the price of bananas is returning to normal after the price hike that came from the Queensland floods it is nice to be able to enjoy the humble banana again.

Banana bread is a popular treat in lunchboxes and at cafes but the reality is much of it is high in fat and not as good for us as we would like to believe.

This banana carrot cake is low-fat and uses wholemeal flour and as such is a great option. You can omit the nuts if your school or work place is a nut-free environment as so many are. Alternatively I have used chopped nuts or walnuts rather than pecans if that's all I have had on hand.

Banana carrot cake

90g butter

1 cup raw sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 cup grated carrot

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 ½ cups wholemeal flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder sifted

1 teaspoon bi-carb sifted

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup chopped pecans (I leave these out due to nut-free school policy)

1. Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in carrot and banana
2. Fold in sifted ingredients and pecans. Spoon mix into greased and base lines 20cm round cake pan.(I use a lamington pan because the slices are a better shape for lunch-boxes etc).
3. Bake in a moderately slow oven 180C fo 50-55 minutes of until cooked when tested. Stand 5 minutes before turning out.

I cut before I freeze. Enjoy!