Whats for dinner- Vol au vents

Not one I cooked!!  But you get the picture!!

I used to make these all the time and out of sheer desperation and lack of imagination and inspiration made them again the last couple of weeks in a row.  Not only because they are easy and the kids ate them but because meat is so bloody expensive and mince and chicken are on our menu at least once or twice a week and it is hard to come up with ways to make it interesting and different.  I love our local butchers but simply cannot afford to buy meat from them everyday.  I save the butcher meat for the weekend when we can bbq!!

I used 500g mince, grated onion, carrot and zucchini, garlic and a jar of bolognaise sauce.  Fry meat and veg until mince is browned add sauce, put into vol au vent cases (1 pack 4 big ones and 1 pack 6 medium) sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven until cheese is melted.  Dinner done and eaten by every single family member, Happy Days!!

The week before same again except when it came time to cook I realised I had no bolognaise sauce, no chance I was going back to the supermarket and I didn't feel like "savoury mince" so I scoured the cupboards and came up with a jar of salsa and tin of baked beans.  Hello mexican vol au vents for the adults and plain meat and baked beans for the kids.  After the mince (plus the grated vegies!!  I always grate vegies into my mince dishes!!) was cooked I added the tin of beans and spooned some out for the kids and added a squirt of tomato sauce, then in ours just added the jar of salsa.  Same again put in cases sprinkle with cheese, in the oven, dinner done.

The vol au vents are a lighter alternative for dinner in summer and served with a salad make an easy dinner!!  As the HOTH takes leftovers everyday these also travel fairly well in their own container.

The only downside is the price, about $4 a packet, but I do see them on special sometimes.

Now the fun part.  You can basically put anything in them and not all recipes need cooking!!  When I was googling some images I cam across hundreds of recipes but here are some I have tried or want too

• Pizza sauce, ham and pineapple.  Mix it all together in a bowl, spoon into cases, sprinkle with cheese and into the oven until the cheese melts.
• Chicken, spring onion, mushroom.  Cook chicken, add other ingredients, add some cream (I used to make a white/ cheese sauce but laziness made me try cream!!) parmesan cheese works well on these ones!!  If you are using the small cases the ingredients have to be chopped up very well.
• One I haven't tried making but have eaten is nutella.  Yep simply spoon some nutella into the small cases.  No cooking required and bloody delicious!!
• Mini shepards pies.  Savoury mince with mashed potato on top.  I will try this in winter for sure!!

I would love to hear any other suggestions as vol au vents are here to stay at our place!!

Its Monday which is Open Slather over at One Mother Hen!!