Not Another Sandwich!

At our school we have kids with a bunch of different allergies and, as a consequence, a number of different foods are banned. The two that most readily spring to mind are peanuts and eggs. The kids are not allowed to take any food containing nuts or nut products and, while food with eggs as an ingredient are okay, they are not to take foods with whole eggs in them, ie egg sandwiches, hard boiled eggs in salads, wedges of bacon and egg pie, etc.

For a mum whose kid would have a peanut butter sandwich every single day if he could this can prove a little difficult. I refuse to send jam sandwiches every day, he no longer likes polony (devon, bologna or whatever it's called in your part of the world) and isn't over keen on other cold meats in his lunch. He will happily eat a salad sandwich (I know, weird but easy!) but some days we don't have salad-left-from-the-night-before and I don't have time to start shredding lettuce, grating carrot and generally ballyhooing around the kitchen. For those times this recipe is fabulous. Savoury muffins make a nice change from sandwiches. They can still be sliced in half and spread with butter, just one fills a little person's tummy very nicely and if you use this recipe you'll still have a bunch in the freezer for next time. Offspring #2 was the only member of our household to not take an immediate liking to these and I think it was the capsicum that did it. If that's likely to be a problem in your house simply substitute something else or, gasp of horror, leave it out altogether.

Pizza Muffins

from The Australian Women's Weekly Little Pies and Cakes

4 rindless bacon rashers, chopped finely

4 green onions, chopped finely

3 slices (120g) bottled roasted red capsicum, finely chopped

3/4 cup pizza cheese

1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes (ummm... call me chicken but I used parsley instead!)

basic muffin mix

2 cups self-raising flour

80g butter, melted

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a 12-hole, 1/3 cup capacity, muffin tin.

2. Cook bacon in heated medium frypan , stirring until lightly browned. Add onion; cook, stirring until onion softens. Cool.

3. Meanwhile make basic muffin mix.

4. Add capsicum, cheese, chilli and bacon mixture to basic muffin mix; mix gently to combine. Do not overmix; mixture should be lumpy.

5. Divide among holes. Bake, in oven, about 20 minutes. Stand muffins 5 minutes before turning top-side up, onto wire rack. Serve muffins warm (they were great warm but they were also just fine at room-temp.)

basic muffin mix Sift flour into medium bowl; stir in combined butter, egg and buttermilk.