Spinach and ricotta rolls

With the summer school holidays just about over, the Cheeky Monkeys and I have been baking up a storm of easy freeze meals they can defrost and throw into their lunchboxes on those days when we've all had enough of sandwiches.

Although my Cheeky Monkeys aren't vegetarians, they do love a good spinach and ricotta pie, so I put together a "sausage roll" version for easy lunchbox storage.

Here's how to make your own delicious lunches for yourself and your little ones.

Makes 12.

Ingredients

- 500g frozen, chopped spinach

- 500g ricotta

- 1-2 eggs

- 1 onion

- 3 sheets puff pastry

- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

- a pinch of sea salt

- 2 tsp dried mint

- olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 180C.  Finely chop the onion and saute in a little olive oil until softened.  Add in the chopped spinach and cook until most of the moisture has cooked off.  Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix one egg with the ricotta, cheddar, pepper, salt and mint.  Add the cooled spinach mix and stir to combine well.

3. Cut each pastry sheet in half.  Place a line of spinach and ricotta filling along the long edge of pastry, leaving about 1 cm gap.  Roll the pastry to enclose the filling fully, overlapping the two long pastry edges to seal in the filling.  Repeat with remaining pastry.

4. Cut each pastry roll in half to create 12 smaller rolls.  Place the pastry rolls onto baking paper-lined trays and brush either with a milk wash or an egg wash made from the remaining egg.

5. Bake the spinach rolls for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed and beautifully browned.  Enjoy!