Recipe Ideas
How many POPINS you can add in completely depends on your family. It's always best to start small and gradually build up, especially with more hesitant children. Like colours work best together, so creams, yellows and oranges in lighter coloured sauces such as bechemel, cheese and lighter curries and all of those plus green colours in darker sauces such as pesto, red sauces and darker curries, chillis and bolognese.
Pesto Pasta
Easy-peasy and always a firm family favourite, using either bought or home made pesto. It's something my 4 all reliably eat and enjoy (and believe me, meals with universal acceptance are few and far between!
Add pesto to you pan to warm with either one or both:
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spinach and kale POPINS
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red split lentil POPINS
As a guide, in one standard jar of pesto, I'd add 3x spinach and kale POPINS and 3x red split lentils POPINS added in without fuss. That's two whole servings of vegetables!
Pasta with Tomato Sauce
Again, this is a reliable staple in our family. It's so convenient to grab a jar of tomato pasta sauce off the shelf and serve it with the children's favourite pasta shape (I've always liked bow-ties myself), topped with some cheese and a salad on the side. How about adding some protein to the sauce and some extra veg?
Just add the pasta sauce to your pan to warm. At the same time, add your POPINS from the freezer. Add one or all:
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Butternut and carrot
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Red split Lentil
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Spinach and kale (go slightly easier on this one due to the strong colour, but do add some if you can).
For an average sized jar of sauce, I'd expect to add 6-8 POPINS.
Alternatively, reach for our slow roasted Tomato and Ten Veg ready made sauce, lovingly made at home, frozen for freshness and your convenience with only wholesome ingredients you'd find at home, no additives, and nothing out of a chemistry lab. It's so versatile. Enjoy it as it is with any pasta shape, on pizzas, with meat balls or in lasagne.
Macaroni Cheese
I have 3 solutions for you here - all with happy, healthy kids as an end result.
1. USE OUR READY-TO-GO CHEESE SAUCE WITH ADDED VEG
This is home made (no nasties or 'odd' ingredients you wouldn't have in your own cupboard) with 3 added smooth veg - cauilflower, butternut and carrot. Defrost in the fridge and heat on the hob or in the microwave, add to hot cooked macaroni and serve.
2. ADD TO SHOP BOUGHT CHEESE SAUCE
Add your Butternut & Carrot POPINS and/or Split Lentil POPINS as you heat your cheese sauce. Add to the pasta and serve.
3. MAKE YOUR OWN CHEESE SAUCE
I start off by making a bechemel sauce (50g unsalted butter, 50g plain flour, 500g milk, 2 pinches of ground black pepper), then add in Butternut and Carrot POPINS and if you like, a couple of red split lentil POPINS (spinach and kale is not advisable, unless it's Halloween...) to melt once the bechemel has fully thickened, but before the cheese is added. The colour of the sauce will become a little more 'orangey' with the POPINS, add as much as your family will tolerate.
Pasta Bolognese or Chilli
These are dark brown sauces with strong flavours. You can literally go to town here! This is where you can really ramp up the vegetable and fibre levels and introduce some plants they don't usually eat (this makes all of those gut bugs very, very happy). You have 2 options here:
1. ADD POPINS TO SHOP BOUGHT SAUCE
Heat as you usually do, in the last few minutes add a selection of POPINS to warm through - as many as you can:
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Butternut and carrot
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Red split lentil
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Spinach and kale
2. USE MY READY TO GO 10 VEGETABLE TOMATO SAUCE
This is a beautiful slow-cooked tomato sauce that is literally bursting with flavour and packed with vegetables. In fact TEN (and here’s what’s in it……tomatoes, onions, celery, carrots, leeks, courgette, red peppers, yellow peppers, green peppers, lentils and olive oil and seasoning and NOTHING else). It’s deliberately pared back so that it can do in a number of directions in your kitchen. Defrost in the fridge and use either:
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To make into bolognese, fry up some onions and garlic first (optional), add your minced beef (or vege mince) and brown, then add some red wine (or a red wine stock pot), and then the 10 VEGETABLE TOMATO SAUCE, plus a beef stock cube and importantly, season with salt and pepper.
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To make into a chilli, optionally fry some garlic and onion (for texture more than anything), then brown some beef mince (or vege mince), add the 10 VEGETABLE AND TOMATO SAUCE, then add your spices (such as cumin, ground coriander, chili powder and red pepper flakes) and season and sprinkle with fresh coriander to serve (optional).
Lasagne / Pasta with Meat Balls / Pizza
For any of these dishes, you can either use your usual go-to sauce and add in some of the POPINS to taste
Soups (any variety)
Most weeks (apart from hot summer months), I'll do a soup for dinner one weekday evening. Our family favourites are roasted tomato, butternut and also watercress (which is one I've pinched from my Mum, and my personal fave). Essential alongside is some nice bread and butter. You can add any POPINS in good volume here.
Also, to make it more filling and long-lasting, some protein is an excellent addition, so throw in some red split lentil POPINS in the last few mins and let them melt away to nothing.
Smoothies
Smoothies offer numerous benefits by offering a convenient and tasty way to increase your family's intake of essential nutrients, vitamins and fibre. They're the perfect way to increase the diversity of your and your children's diet by adding in nutrient-rich ingredients such as spinach and kale without significantly altering the taste which can be great for more hesitant eaters.
Go easy on the green POPINS as they dramatically alter the colour of the smoothie, (unless you're making a green one, of course).
Flax Seed Flapjacks
These little beauties have flax seeds, raisins, and some hidden butternut and carrot (which you can't taste). They are seriously tasty and pack some nutritional power.
I really love them with my cup of tea - they are to a cup of tea what an amaretti biscuit is to a cup of coffee, perfect companions .
I don't know about your family, but when I divide up a tray of treats with my knife or spatula, I never manage to get things
even and the first thing my children do is eye the biggest piece and 'bagsy' it for after dinner.
These mini flapjacks are cooked in little individual molds, so each one is the same. What I love about this is that it means you can adjust the portion size for each child and yourself too.
For example, my younger children will get 2 in their lunchboxes, but my older children would get 3 or 4. I put them in as I make lunches at breakfast time and they defrost through the day. In fact, they're totally edible straight from the freezer, firm, but still satisfyingly chewy.
