My cooking today!

I have been rather productive in the kitchen today. I've made what I'm calling "energy biscuits" because they're full of dried fruit and cereal and will keep the kids going. Mini-muffins and chicken and sweet corn soup.

There are a few reasons I decided to make this odd mixture of things to eat. I had a few things in the kitchen to use up before shopping day on Thursday (or Friday, depending on how far I can stretch what I have left!). I'm not going to need a lot tomorrow with preschool and going to Mums for dinner tomorrow night. Not wanting to throw anything out, I've had a specific list of things to use up.

• Just Right cereal. I'm not a fan of it!
• Weight Watchers cereal. It's too expensive for the points to consume, and it didn't really fill me up.
• 1 banana.
• 2 cobs corn.
• 1/2 roast chicken.
• Broccoli.
• Pumpkin.

Tonight I'll cook Chicken and Pumpkin risotto, substituting broccoli for baby spinach leaves, and using up the pumpkin and 3/4 of the chicken.

I'll use the cereal in the biscuits and the muffins, and the banana in the muffins too. Heather gave me a recipe for bran muffins, but I've just substituted and added a few things.

The corn and 100g of the chicken has gone towards the Chicken and Sweet Corn soup.
Great use of what fresh things I have left in the fridge. I'm also pretty proud that I've managed to make a $10 chicken stretch three ways. If I'd been more organised, I could have made chicken stock from the chicken carcass too.

The biscuits and muffins are for the kids and they gave them big thumbs up. I didn't try them, so I haven't counted the points for them as yet! The chicken and sweet corn soup was DELICIOUS. And seriously, took me FIVE minutes to put together and FIVE minutes to cook. You can't beat that for a quick dinner!

Energy Biscuits

125g butter
125g brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup mixed fruit (I used chopped dates and sultanas)
1 cup SR flour
left over cereals

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add egg and fruit.
3. Add flour.
4. Add enough left over cereals to form a stiff dough (2-3 cups).
5. Place spoonfuls on tray. Bake 180C 12- 15 mins.

You could top with a dollop of chocolate icing too, but the kids were happy to eat them plain.

Mini Muffins

150mLs milk
2 eggs
60g melted butter
1 cup cereal (I used Just right, but you could use all bran, bran flakes or other cereal)
1 cup SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp sultanas
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 mashed banana

1. Combine bran and milk and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add beaten eggs, butter and banana to bran mixture.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Blend in sugar and sultanas with dry ingredients.
4. Add to cereal mixture and mix well.
5. Place in mini-muffin tins. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

This made about 30 mini-muffins.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup - Serves 4

1 litre chicken stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
2 cobs corn, kernals shaved off
420g can creamed corn
100g cooked chicken breast (or 1 small (125g) chicken breast fillets, finely chopped)
3 green onions, chopped, or 1/2 small finely chopped onion

1. Place the chicken stock in a large saucepan with the soy sauce, garlic, corn kernels, chicken, onion and creamed corn.
2. Cook over medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Extra step if you didn't use cooked chicken or onion 3. Add green onions and chicken (if you didn't use small chopped onion and leftover chicken) and cook for 3-4 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

I would serve this with fresh bread or a toasted sandwich. If a bloke is having it, you might want to add more chicken - it really depends on how much you have on hand!