Dinner on a run: courgette, ricotta and ham quiche

Oh, Mondays! It's that day in the week when everything seems to need to happen at high speed. Maybe it's because we've grown accustomed to the slightly slower pace of the weekends, but Mondays always shake us up and cries in our ears "faster, faster, no time, no time".

Monday evening, Bibu has his swimming lesson, so it means I have to first pick up baby Pingu from daycare, then drive with Pingu to get Bibu and take him to the swimming pool, where I need to help him get dressed into his swimming trunks/ pester him for doing silly stuff and not hurrying up/ run after baby Pingu who wants nothing else than to touch everything in the changing room (other kids' dirty underwear included). En fin, you get the picture. Relaxing it is NOT.

And, when we get home, it's about 18:30 and there are two small kids demanding food NOW, so no use starting to cook at that time. The solution: it's quiche time!

I am working from home at the moment, so I can afford to make it at some point during the afternoon, before all the mayhem begins. If you work full time, a good idea is to make it the night before (great Sunday-night blues-beating pass-time)

Anyway, it's also a good way of getting kids to eat veggies without realising. The ricotta gives it a light flavour and both kids devour it in no time. Baby Pingu eats his virtually unaided (with his hands. Hey he's only a toddler) and will not leave a single crumb left.

Again, this is a courgette quiche (or tart? Does anyone know the difference?), but you can make a version with other vegetables of your choice.

Ingredients (for one tart, 8 portions)

• bit of olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped as small as you can
•  3 medium courgettes, chopped in little cubes
• 1 ready round puff pastry (pate feuillete)
• 1 pack of ricotta cheese (about 250gr)
• 1/2 a cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 eggs, beaten
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven at 180° C. Cook the chopped onion in a little olive oil, in a pan, on low heat, until it becomes transparent. 

Then add the chopped courgettes (or zucchini), cover with the lid and let them "sweat" for about 10 to 15 minutes, until they are cooked but now brown. Check every now and then and give it a stir with a wooden spoon.

Take out from the stove, and set aside to cool for a bit.

Roll out your ready pastry on a round baking tray (leave the baking paper, it will avoid the tart getting stuck to the bottom) and pinch it with a fork a few times. Line the bottom of the quiche with a layer of ham. This also helps to avoid the sogginess which can be quite common in this type of quiches.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, the ricotta and the Parmesan together, season to taste. Add the cooked courgettes to the mix and then pour the whole thing over the ham-lined pastry. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Et, voila!

Once it's cooked, I usually just turn the oven off (mine is an electric one) and leave the quiche inside until I come back with my two hungry little caterpillars, ready to attack it.

Autumn walk through the Tervuren Park

Weather was quite good on Saturday. I was beginning to feel better after a horrible bout of flu which had me confined at home with over 38 degrees fever for three days. I was not fully recovered, but desperately wanted to get out into the fresh air.

So, around lunchtime, off we went to the Tervuren Park, which has to be one of the biggest, nicest parks in Brussels.

First we went for lunch. We headed to the Bootjeshuis, which serves typical Belgian brasserie-style food: Belgian carbonnades (beer beef stew), sausages with stoemp (a typical Belgian pure) and the like. While the setting is lovely and the food and service are quite correct, it was a bit of a let down. The restaurant had just started the lunch service and already they did not have a few of their specialities. On top of tat, at the end of the meal Mr M had to go to the nearest cash machine as they did not accept credit cards..... I don't know if they had a particular issue with their system that day, but I found it quite odd that such a big restaurant only accepted cash. Anyway, be warned.

On the plus side, they had a very nice baby-changing station, so I give them credit for that. Most restaurants in Brussels don't cater for families with babies that need a diaper change every once in a while, so it was a nice surprise.

After lunch, we went for a walk through this lovely, huge park. Due to its location close to the British School of Brussels, lots of English-speaking expats live in the area. It felt a bit like walking through a huge Regents Park.

There were many geese, ducks and swans to watch.

And even some spiky, weird-looking caterpillars

The Tervuren Park also houses the Royal Museum for Central Africa. It's set in a magnificent building built during Leopold II reign and houses all sorts of interesting pieces that give testimony of Belgian colonial history in the Congo. Neglected for a few years, the museum will finally undergo mayor renovation works that will last several years. You can still visit the old museum until December 1 2013, so hurry up if you want to see the "before" and "after" effect.

Our walk took us up to the "Spaanse Huis" (Spanish House in Flemish), which, besides not looking very Spanish at all, is a beautiful former water mill that since last year houses a nice cafe with a charming little terrace.

It was a great autumn walk, definitely worth taking your camera and recording the beautiful colours of the trees. Kids will love to walk, cycle or dart around in their "trotinettes" (scooters) through the parc (and they will sleep like angels on the way back home) :-)

Donating kid's stuff: Les Petits Riens

Pingu just turned 15 months and he's a baby no more.....sigh....

Now that he's officially into his toddler period, that time has come for the first "baby stuff clean-up".

I believe in "reduce, reuse and recycle", so since birth, Pingu has used Bibu's old clothes. We have bought hardly anything brand new for Pingu, and the few things he did get were presents from other people. Up until recently, as soon as Pingu was outgrowing his clothes, I would pass them along to a good friend of ours, whose baby boy is a few months younger. But now, both boys are wearing the same size and I have no other acquaintances with babies, so it's time to go the donation route!

The same for toys. I kept all of Bibu's old baby toys for Pingu to play, but he has consistently insisted on playing with his older brother's stuff (pfff) So early baby toys were hardly used and also on the list to be donated.

I find the simplest way to donate kid's old stuff is to do it through "Les Petits Riens"/ Spullenhulp. They are a non-profit organisation that collects all kinds of used goods in good condition (mostly clothes and shoes, but also toys, furniture, electronics, etc), which they recondition and sell through their boutiques. With the resulting money they provide shelter to homeless people, among other charity activities.

Their clothes containers (or "bulles") are dotted all around Brussels (there are about 900 in Belgium), so there is bound to be one close to you. In them, you can deposit clean clothes and shoes, inside a closed plastic bag. Here is the "bulle" closest to my place (vandalised a bit, poor thing) :

For other donations, you have to either go to Les Petits Riens donations reception centre in Rue de Prevost 30-32 in Ixelles (very close to Parc Tenbosch) or, if you have a large piece of furniture to donate, make an appointment for them to come pick it up at your place.

This week, I gathered a bag full of old baby toys and threw them in the wash, then bagged them and off I went to the Rue de Prevost.

The donation centre is in the Chatelain area. You recognise it immediately by the three yellow "bulles" standing by the door.

You just need to head inside the garage entry, and there in the back you'll find lots of volunteers sorting through bags and bags of goods. It has to be said that 25% of the donations they receive are in such bad condition that they have to just throw them into the garbage. So please, make sure what you give is clean, not broken and inside a sealed plastic bag.

After unloading my donation into the hands of one of the volunteers, I headed to their "Baby Paradise" boutique in Rue Americaine 97, which sells the donations for laughable prices. They have plenty of baby and toddler clothes and piles and piles of toys and baby paraphernalia such as potties, car seats, car booster seats, playing mats, etc. I saw a brand new Bumbo seat for 3,5 EUR and a Maxi Cosi baby car seat for 18 EUR.

I got a book and a little toy piano for Pingu (which works perfectly) and a toy beetle for Bibu for the large sum of............... 2,5 EUR!!!!

I wholeheartedly encourage anyone to donate and buy from Les Petits Riens/ Spullenhulp. Our kids' unwanted old stuff can become another child's favourite, while helping those who need it more in the process.

If you are interested in donating more than material things, Les Petits Riens are constantly looking for volunteers. Check out their job section.

And to finish, a very nice video from their Christmas campaign of last year.

It's cold (and rainy) out there: Carrot curry coconut soup for the masses

It's officially autumn! Maybe I should exclude the exclamation mark, as I am not really that fond of cold weather, specially in Belgium, where it seems autumn-winter is an almost ever present season....

Anyway, Sunday was such a horrible, miserable, rainy and cold day that I decided there was only one thing to be done: cook comfort food! And so I did. I took advantage of Pingu sleeping a very nice long morning nap and spent lots of time in the kitchen cooking a delicious and calorific lunch (recipe to come soon)

But then, of course, for dinner I wanted something a bit lighter, but equally warming and comforting. And what better than a nice vegetable soup?

I know, I know, for many "soup" is not compatible with kids. I get it, kids can be fiddly with soup: it's too warm, they don't like the "green bits" floating in it, etc. But this soup is a blended soup, so although it has a few ingredients, there is only one colour and one texture to it, in the form of coconut milk.

We had lots of carrots at home, so carrot soup it was. I wanted to try something a bit different and decided to add a bit of spice (curry powder) and a bit of creaminess to it.

Ingredients (serves 4 big bowls plus 2 small bowls for the kids)

• olive oil
• 1 medium size onion, chopped (I used two small ones)
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• half a red bell pepper (paprika)
• 1 kg carrots, peeled and cut
• 1 l chicken stock (bouillon)
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 brick coconut milk (about 250 ml)

The process is very simple and in fact you can apply it to the vegetable of your choice. First you need to put some olive oil in a pan in low to medium gas and cook the garlic, paprika and onion until the onion is translucent. The great thing is that, as you will blend the soup, it does not matter how small you cut the onion, for example. You can do it really fast.

Then add the carrots and let them "sweat" a bit in the pan for a couple of minutes. Add the stock and the curry powder. Put the gas on medium-high and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling, leave to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots are cooked and you can split them using a fork. 

Take out of the stove and blend using a hand-held blender until the soup is really smooth. Then add the coconut milk and blend a bit more. There has to be no lumps on it.

At this point, I think it would be great to add a few chopped coriander leaves on top, but Mr M hates it and the kids are not too fond of green bits floating around, so it was a no go for me.

I served the soup with "croque monsieur" for the kids and something slightly ligther for the grown ups. 

Organic box delivered on a bike

For a while, while driving through Brussels wih Mr M and the kids, we often spotted a guy riding a cool delivery bicycle with organic fruit and vegetables. We could make out the website, so we noted it down and we decided to give it a try.

The company is called L'Hereaux Nouveau and it offers a weekly delivery service for organic/ bio fruit and vegetables straight from the farmers. They have a shop in Saint Gilles but you can order your delivery through their website (only available in French, I am afraid) in a fairly straightforward manner. Every week, deliveries are made on Fridays, so orders can be placed until Wednesday afternoon. You can view the composition of the organic box (or "panier") and choose between Belgian-only produce or European-wide produce and go for a small, medium or large box. For a few extra euros, you can ask for the box to be delivered straight to your home address, or choose one of the delivery points in St Gilles, Forest, Ixelles, Etterbeek, Uccle, Brussels centre and St Josse.

Last week, we went for a medium, European box, which weighted about 7 kilos.

The produce is delivered in a paper bag and it contains a description of the contents and also a leaflet with some recipe ideas. When you register in the service, you also receive a weekly newsletter with more recipes info about their producers, and a whole array of events they are involved in.

I think organic box delivery services are a great way of encouraging eating seasonal, organic produce that is healthier than the average supermarket variety. It also makes you discover less popular fruit and vegetables. and kinds of forces you into planning your weekly menus around the contents of the bag, making sure nothing goes to waste. It definitely pushes you a bit out of your comfort, tried-and-tested zone, but it is definitely worth it.

Family dinners: baked white fish with lemony crust

It's always a bit of a challenge to come up with weekday meals that will go down well both with the kids and us. Up until recently, I still had to prepare a "baby" meal for Pingu, but since he is now almost 15 months and shows interest in attacking anything edible, I decided I will only cook dinner once for the whole family to eat.

This recipe is a variation from my mum's and a few other recipes I gathered from magazines or found online. It's super easy, requires minimum hassle, it's ready in 30', and, most of all, the kids LOVE it.

Plus, it features fish as the main ingredient. What's not to like? I've been doing for a long time and it never lets me down. Tried and tested at its best.

Ingredients (for 2 adults and 2 kids, including second helpings)

• 1 pack of white fish fillets (I use 1 tray -about 700 gr) of the packed pangasius from Colruyt, but you can use any type of white fish)
• 1 cup of bread crumbs (chapelure in French/ paneermeel in Dutch)
• 1 table spoon dried parsley (persil in French/ peterselie in Dutch)
• juice of half a lemon
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Start by pre-heating your oven at 180 C. While the oven gets to the right temperature, pour a little bit of olive oil on a baking tray, just to coat the surface. Cut the fish fillets in two, so that the pieces are more manageable, place the fist on the tray and season to your taste.

In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, parsley, olive oil and the lemon juice, until you get a "wet sand" consistency. With a spoon, put this crumb mix over the fish fillets until the fish is completely covered. Just make sure the layer is not too thick, just enough to cover the fish. Then drizzle a bit of olive oil over the whole thing.

Once the oven is at the right temperature, pop the baking tray inside and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs look golden.

Voila, done. No fuss fish. You can serve it with some steamed broccoli, or any other green you fancy. Enjoy!

Sunday in Antwerp: Zoo and Anwterp Streetkicks

Today we decided to make good use of our zoo membership cards (also valid for Planckendael), so we jumped in the car and drove to Antwerp.

We have been a number of times to the Anterpen Zoo, but it is always a great day out. We parked just behind the Antwerp Central Station, whose main hall is a beautiful sight and; as it is just opposite the main zoo entrance, it's more than worth the detour.

The entrance to the zoo is currently 22.5 EUR for adults and 17.5 EUR for children over 3 years old (always best to check the zoo website for updated prices) My husband gets a reduction via his work for the yearly pass, so that is what we have. We just need to show our passes at the entrance and swish...... it's done. The pass also offers interesting discounts at the zoo shops, which is definitely a plus.

Although the famous Kai-Mook, the elephant born in 2009, has moved to the bigger Planckendael zoo near Mechelen,  the zoo in Antwerp still has lots to offer. The huge new lion enclosure is particularly well done and I could also notice some renovations in the tiger area.

Regarding facilities for the little ones, there are two baby-changing stations near the main entrance, one of which even has a microwave oven, which is a great detail. The zoo has three restaurant areas: the "Flamingo" (a self-service restaurant, close to the main entrance and the best in terms of variety) then the "Stokstaartje" (only hamburgers and other fast food nasties, not my favourite) and the "Paon Royal", which is a real restaurant and perhaps the least attractive if you're visiting with small children. Besides this, there are plenty of snacks little places and drinks vending machines along the way.

The size of the zoo is also very manageable, which is particularly handy when you have small kids who get tired easily. So, after a couple of hours, we decided to continue our day in Antwerp with a visit to the "Antwerp Streetkicks" festival, which was taking place in the Spoor Noord Park, a good 15' walk from the zoo.

The festival had an impressive array of skateboarders, free-style bikers, slak-liners and all sorts of other 'urban extreme sports' lovers. It's not something we are too familiar with (and probably too old for, anyway, sniff) but it was a different crowd and it was certainly a hit with the kids. For baby Pingu, it was probably a bit too noisy, but even he managed to sleep through for a bit.

So, a great last day before the start of a  new school year. Have a great week everyone!

Home made chocolate-banana ice lollies

So, summer is about to end.....(sigh). Next week is "la rentree" and, although we DID finally get a decent summer here in Brussels (after a non-existent spring) it is still incredible how weeks have flown by.

But hey, just because the countdown to another school term (and shorter, cooler days) has begun, it doesn't mean we cannot still enjoy one of our summer time favourites: home made ice lollies.

It started a few years back, when I bought some ice-lollies molds from IKEA, full of good intentions but little else. The molds remained untouched in a drawer in our kitchen until this year, when I found a number of nice looking recipes online and decided to start experimenting.

This summer, I've done from the really easy, virtually no work required lollies made of frozen supermarket-bought smoothies (I know, I know, but sometimes one is really short of time and ideas) to the more elaborate ones. This is a recipe for banana-chocolate ones, which have proved a big success with Bibu. It features the good, old, hard-working banana (is there a house with small children without a bunch of bananas lying somewhere?) and cocoa powder, which is apparently full of antioxidants and a super food. Here we go:

Ingredients (for 6 ice lollies)

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used the 100% cocoa powder from Carrefour, but you can even go organic if you prefer, so ensure healthy credentials)
• 4 tbsp natural yogurt
• half a small carton of cream (creme fraiche)
• 1 tsp of sugar (or honey, or agave syrup)

Just put everything into a blender, whiz until  you get a chocolatey, creamy texture and pour into the molds. Put the molds in the freezer for at least 4 hours (best overnight) and then enjoy. They won't make summer any longer, but they will definitely make it sweeter!

Oh mamma, I wanna go swimming!

We've been all under the (crap) weather at home, so some blog silence ensued. First it was Bibu and me with flu, and last week baby Pingu got croup first and then a bout of conjunctivitis. Fun............it was not. Anyway, the spring is slowly rearing its pretty head and with the sunny days coming along, I started thinking about sports.

A while ago, when Bibu turned 4, I started thinking which"organised" sport should he start with and I instinctively steared towards swimming. His school is quite close to Watermael-Boitsfort's communal swimming pool Calypso 2000, which is part of the Trois Tileuls/ Drie Linden sport complex (where you can also play tennis, basketball, rugby and fencing) so there we went.

The entrance looks like this:

Yes! There is a parking! Yee-ha!

Swimming lessons for kids are held mostly in the "Petit Bassin" (small pool), which is in a rather ancient buidling behind the main building. The swimming pool at the Petit Bassin is about 1 mt deep, so perfect for small swimmers. The water is also warmer than in the main building. The dressing rooms are a bit ancient as well, but overall clean and warm (quite important during winter months)

The cost for each level  (10 lessons, 1 time per week) is 50 EUR. Children can start as of 4 years old and there are classes every day of the week, except Sundays. Of course, Wednesdays and Saturdays fill up quickly, so bear that in mind. Every 10 weeks, a new cycle starts, so ask when is the next one starting.

In addition to the swimming lesson at the Petit Bassin, if what you want is just go for a swim with your kid, the main building (the one you see on the photo above) houses an olympic size swimming pool and two small pools for kids: one for babies (water up to a toddler's knee and very warm) and one slightly deeper for kids of up to 5 years old. Prices to access the main building start at 1.2 EUR for children up to 4 years and 2.9 for adults who live in Watermael Boitsfort.

Also in the main building, there is a course for babies (bébé nageur) on Sunday mornings. This I did not try it myself yet, but will maybe take Pingu.

And now, the "piece the resistance" of Calypso 2000 and something that amuses me no end. Just by the reception of the main building, next to the cafe entrance, there is a vending machine for........... swimsuits! Yes, imagine that you've suddenly decided to pop into the pool but, oh, no! you've forgotten your trunks! No problem, just put a few coins (or your banking card, even better) into this bad boy and you can get adult and kid-size trunks or swimsuits, googles and even silicone hats. My hat to that!