Bread sticks and scones with "hidden veggies". A smash hit with my kids.

I struggle to get my kids to eat veggies at all, yet alone the recommended daily intake of veggies. Recently my kids and I invented a recipe called potato snakes, which my kids love, especially when they get to roll the potato dough into snakes.
So last night I decided to try something similar in order to get a few other veggies into them. It was successful! So here's my recipe for bread sticks (grissini) and scones with some hidden vegetables in. And the great thing is, you can say things like, "You can only have another bread stick if you eat the veggies on your plate first!"

Basic dough (scone dough).
2 cups self raising flour (you can use gluten free but may need to adjust the quantity)
30g butter (approximately, or 1 heaped tablespoon. I used salt free butter).
Milk (cows milk, almond, coconut or any other type of milk you like)
Cheese, salt, pepper and any other flavourings are optional
extra flour for rolling the dough.

Now for the veggies...
I had some baby spinach, sweet potato and a zucchini. I steamed the spinach and sweet potato, but just grated the zucchini. Make sure you squeeze the excess moisture out of the zucchini. You could really use any vegetable you like. I didn't use any broccoli due to the strong taste (I thought I might be pushing my luck getting my kids to eat it).

Blend the vegetables until you have a puree. I blended each separately so I could make different batches.

Preheat the oven to 225C or about 450F. If making bread sticks, line a baking tray (like one you use for biscuits). If making scones, line a deep oven dish (such as a lasagna or lamington tray) so that they rise up beautifully.

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the pureed zucchini and mix in. Add in whatever other vegetable(s) you want and just enough milk to make a stiff dough. Do not knead too much, otherwise your breadsticks and scones won't rise nicely. I did one lot with just the zucchini added in, another lot with sweet potato and a third lot with the spinach.
For making scones: Roll dough out to about 2cm thick. Use a scone cutter to cut out shapes and place in lamington tray so scones are touching (a great tip for getting scones to rise up rather than out). Brush with milk and place on top tray in oven (hottest part of oven so they rise quickly before starting to actually cook).
For making bread sticks: Roll dough between hands to make a snake shape. Place on biscuit tray, brush with milk and you can top with things like sesame seeds or poppy seeds if you so desire.

For both, bake for about 10-15 minutes until they have browned on the top and make a hollow sound when you tap them. Place on a cake rack to cool.

My kids ate the bread sticks with dinner last night and had the scones for morning tea today, and then asked for more!

Zucchini and Prosciutto quiche with gluten free pastry in the slow cooker

I wanted to make this recipe but it's too hot to have the oven on today, so I adjusted things a bit to make it in the slow cooker as well as make a gluten free pastry.

Zucchini and Prosciutto quiche with gluten free pastry.
To make the pastry: 3 cups gluten free pastry flour, 5 tbsp margarine or butter, 1 cup water. Combine ingredients to a smooth consistency. Roll out dough on lightly floured board to desired thickness.
Line sc with baking paper. Place dough into sc so it goes up the sides a bit.
To make the filling: olive oil, 150g prosciutto, 1 onion chopped, 3 or 4 zucchini (depending on size), 4 eggs, 2/3 cup cream, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup grated parmesan.
Fry prosciutto in olive oil until crispy. Remove from pan and drain. Fry onion until soft, then remove from pan. Fry zucchini until soft (add more oil if required). Whisk together the eggs, cream, milk and most of the cheese.
Layer the prosciutto, zucchini and onions into the pastry and then pour the egg mixture over it. Top with remaining cheese. Cook on high for 2.5 to 3 hours with tea towel under the lid.

Garden update...200kg of produce and counting!

Three years ago I planted a vegie patch. The first year I got 104kg out of my garden and was pretty excited. Last year I got 120kg and was even more excited. Yesterday I picked the last of the tomatoes as well as some oranges and was extremely excited when I weighed the days takings and found that my garden has produced 200kg this year so far (and it's only the middle of September!). I have a set of kitchen scales and I weigh everything I pick so that I can keep a record of how economical my garden is.
I spent the weekend digging out unwanted flowering plants as well as the tomatoes and pumpkins that have died off. I went out and bought the following seedlings: rockmelon, watermelon, corriander, sweet basil, zucchini, tomatoes (4 varieties, one seedling of each...I do it each year), cherry tomato, peas and beans. I had some corn seeds that I got from the Adelaide Royal Show and some pumpkin seeds that I saved from the last pumpkin picked out of my garden. I don't usually have much luck growing things from seed, apart from parsley and lettuce that self seed in my garden, so will be looking out to see if the corn and pumpkin germinate. If not, it will be a quick trip down to the nursery to get seedlings. I also bought some manure and sugar cane mulch. I love the smell of fresh sugar cane mulch on the garden! I had a very busy day yesterday, with lots of soil preparation and planting. I didn't get to plant the rockmelon and watermelon as I have to remove the grass that has grown in the spot where I will put them. I will have to do it sometime in the next week.
Does it cost much to set up a garden? Yesterday the mulch, manure and seedlings (and Seasol spray) cost me about $130.00. Not bad considering how much I will get from it in regards to zucchinis and rockmelons, etc. It will pay for itself over the season.
My husband got me some editions of the Grass Roots Magazine from the library and I read an interesting article about how much food is NOT eaten from our vegie patches. The author started going out each day and picking produce from their garden and making a point of using it in a meal. It didn't matter if it was one spear of asparagus and a few leaves of lettuce, it still went towards a meal. I think I will give this a go, as I find there is so much in my garden that doesn't get used. My cos lettuce are huge, so I think I will pick some today and maybe make a Caesar salad for dinner. I also have a lot of spinach and silverbeet, so will pick a few leaves and make something with them (and pick the snails off them at the same time).
I am also excited that the asparagus that I planted last year has shown a new lease of life this year. After I planted it my husband and I moved it just as it was dying off at the end of the season as it was where my husband wants to plant a fig tree. After transplanting I cut it back to ground level. Recently we looked at it and declared it dead, as it certainly looked that way. A week later Spring started and new spears popped out from under the ground!