This giveaway is now closed, winners will be announced soon.
This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.
I was recently in Sydney for three days for a blogging conference. I always get excited about going away on my own when I book it and look forward to the opportunity to speak at these events. However as the time to leave gets closer, I do start to get a dose of the mother guilts and feel self indulgent about going away on my own.
I logically know that I am traveling for work and it is part of what I need to do to grow my business, but because going away also means days completely by myself, dinners and drinks with friends, long runs around unfamiliar streets of a interstate city, it is also a lot of fun.
So I leave without feeling guilty, I have developed a pretty standard going away lead up process:
- I create a detailed plan for my husband so he knows exactly what everyone is doing, when they are doing it and what he needs to do.
- I make sure I see the bottom of the washing basket and have the folded sorted before I go.
- I cook and bake lots, so with the exception of some reheating, meals are taken care of in my absence.
Now my husband is a very capable man and if I left without doing these things, he would survive. But it isn’t about him. It is about me. By doing this preparation and planning, I comfortably leave my family and head interstate or overseas and can enjoy my time away, not feeling guilty about doing so.
Cheese and Vegetable Muffins
These muffins are a great lunch box filler. They do freeze well and you can easily increase the quantity to bake in bulk. I baked up a batch of these before I went away. You can see some other recipes which are good for baking up in advance here – Simple Recipes You Can Cook For The Freezer.
I am continuing my experimentation with new products in this recipe. It uses coconut oil, but if you don’t have that on hand you can use extra virgin olive oil.
I also tried out Kraft Livefree cheese. It is new to supermarkets around Australia (Woolworths, Coles and Independants). Kraft Livefree is four times lower in fat than other ‘light’ tasty cheeses* and melts very well, making it perfect for a recipe like this.
Read more about Kraft Livefree Cheese and how you can win a $100 Stayz voucher after the recipe!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 ¼ cup grated Kraft Livefree cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Add flour to a medium sized bowl.
3. Grate the carrots and add it to the flour. You need about 1 cup of grated carrot.
4. Grate the zucchini and add it to the bowl. You need about 1 cup of grated zucchini.
5. Grate the cheese, but only add half of it to the bowl.
6. In a small bowl, add eggs, milk and oil and whisk until combined.
7. Pour this into the flour mixture and mix lightly with a wooden spoon.
8. Add the muffin mixture to the patty pans / liners, then top with the remaining grated cheese.
I wanted to try using baking paper as liners instead of patty pans, thought they might look a little bit fancy like a cafe muffin! But worried they wouldn’t turn out okay I opted for half and half!
9. Pop them in the oven and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until nicely golden on top.
Once the muffins were ready, I wished I had made them all using the baking paper. Not only did they look better, but the muffins in the patty pans stuck to the sides of the patty where they didn’t in the baking paper.
- 1½ cups self raising flour
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 ¼ cup grated Kraft Livefree cheese
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Add flour to a medium sized bowl.
- Grate the carrots and add it to the flour. You need about 1 cup of grated carrot.
- Grate the zucchini and add it to the bowl. You need about 1 cup of grated zucchini.
- Grate the cheese, but only add half of it to the bowl.
- In a small bowl, add eggs, milk and oil and whisk until combined.
- Pour this into the flour mixture and mix lightly with a wooden spoon.
- Add the muffin mixture to the patty pans / liners, then top with the remaining grated cheese. I wanted to try using baking paper as liners instead of patty pans, thought they might look a little bit fancy like a cafe muffin! But worried they wouldn’t turn out okay I opted for half and half!
- Pop them in the oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until nicely golden on top.
- Once the muffins were ready, I wished I had made them all using the baking paper. Not only did they look better, but the muffins in the patty pans stuck to the sides of the patty where they didn't in the baking paper.
Kraft Livefree Giveaway
Kraft Livefree is Australia’s lowest fat tasty cheese, containing 80% less fat than regular tasty cheese*. It is vegetarian friendly, gluten free and made in Australia with only only natural ingredients. Kraft Livefree is made starting with fresh milk and a combination of salt, cultures and enzyme (non-animal rennet) and provides a good source of calcium and protein.
To celebrate the launch of Kraft Livefree, they would like to hear how you live free. Simply leave a comment below (if you are reading via email you will need to click through to the blog here to leave your comment) and you will be in the running to win either a $100 Stayz voucher or a $20 Coles voucher.
The giveaway is open to Australian residents only and will close 11.59 pm AEST on 26th April 2013. Please see the full terms and conditions here.
But this isn’t your only chance to win. Kraft Livefree are also hosting an instagram competition. To enter all you need to do is share a photo on instagram of how you “live free”, add the hashtag #KraftLiveFree and you could be the lucky winner of an all inclusive trip for two to Thailand, where you can live free and unwind guilt free. Find out more information and full terms and conditions here. (Winner for the instagram competition will be the entry deemed ‘most creative’ by the judges.)
* Compared to Australia’s leading regular tasty cheese brands.