Grain Free Lazy Lunch Box Ideas - Mini Sausage & Egg Balls.

Whilst my blogging friends turn out perfectly pristine sourdough or schiatta (my attempts at the first not a million miles away from my pronunciation of the latter), I'm blogging about sausage balls.  Something which qualifies as a recipe about as much as "mash a banana with baby's usual milk" does, although hey many years ago I bought a book full of such gems.

This is definitely more a chucking together of a few items, but since I keep getting stuck in a lunchbox rut, I thought I would pin some things that go down well.

These are a mini scotch egg without the breadcrumbs.  If you prefer them coated, or have mastered that perfect loaf and have some left - dip the balls in seasoned flour, egg and then crumbs.  Redunk in egg and crumbs again (to prevent splitting whilst baking).

The size of these makes them ideal for smaller hands and with summer on the way, picnic food!  Stick on a cocktail stick for extra glam.

What you need:

Quail eggs
Good quality sausages
Seasoning if sausages are plain
Egg (optional.)

To go a step further in the "how quickly can we pack tomorrow's lunchbox" stakes, some supermarkets sell quail eggs pre cooked and peeled...

Otherwise cook your eggs as per guidelines here, plunge into cold water when cooked.  Then unless you want to spend the rest of eternity trying to pick of minuscule bits of shell from a rather fragile egg, let them cool before peeling.

Whilst waiting, snip the end off your sausage skins and squeeze out the meat into a bowl.  How many you need depends on the size of your sausages; if they're a chunky cumberland number one per egg would suffice I'm sure.  If they're skinny you might need one and a half.

If you're not using seasoned sausages add that now - if you want them to taste more like traditional scotch eggs, 200g sausage needs approx 1 heaped tsp sage/thyme/parsley, a pinch of ground mace and a heaped tsp english mustard.  If you want a kick add some paprika, cayenne and black pepper.

Sneak in healthy extras like spring onion finely diced, garlic, fresh herbs etc now if desired.

Add a small amount of egg if using, a tsp is usually enough for 6 quail eggs to make it slightly looser and easier to wrap around the egg.

Take a small meatball sized amount of meat, and squash flat to a depth of approx 0.25cm.  Place the egg on top and bring the edges together, smooth out any seams and roll them about until you have neat ball shapes - or until you get bored and figure one flat side isn't the end of the world.

Sit them on a baking tray (or in a muffin pan if you have rolling issues), and bake at 180 for 20-30 minutes as you would sausages.  Turn them regularly to cook all sides evenly.

I should really have cut one in half to attempt a suitably arty shot, however then the kids wouldn't consider it lunch boxable and this was around 11pm - so strategically placed chives were never going to happen.

If you have other quick, grain free lunch box ideas - please share and I will repost :)