When I asked my daughter yesterday what she had eaten for lunch, the answer was ‘meatballs and rice’. When I asked her what she had actually eaten, she looked away and mumbled ‘rice’. So I asked the dreaded question, ‘Did you eat the meatballs?’ Sadly the answer was no.

So I realised that she needed to have some protein at dinner. Unfortunately, pizza was on the menu. And whilst cheese is a great form of protein, I needed to think of a way to get protein into her that evening.

Now, ordinarily, I would have just given them meat for dinner, but I had another little lady (my niece) over for dinner, and when we have guests, I tend to stick with easy food. Pasta, pizza, fish fingers. Don’t deviate from the system. Plus, she’s always eaten my pizza.

So I decided to shake things up a bit. I used my regular dough  (225g plain or spelt flour, or half and half, 1 x 7g sachet of fast action dried yeast, a splash of olive oil and 120mls warm water to bring to a dough. Knead and roll out. I don’t let rise generally as I find the taste too yeasty!)

In a pan I put a good amount of mince meat, probably about a large handful, with diced yellow peppers. You could do this with any veg you like, I just happened to have this. I let it boil up together so the meat cooked and the peppers softened. When ready, I tipped into the magimix and blended until completely smooth. Added a jar of tomato pasta sauce and blended again until smooth.

I spread the sauce on top of the base, topped with cheese and baked at 200 until the crust had set and the cheese was golden.

Well. Nobody noticed. Not even my niece. And she’s smart.

My sister-in-law and I did a celebratory dance behind the fridge.