Baby Led Weaning

Growing healthy babies with healthy appetites

Posts Tagged ‘lunch’

DanielMummy's Pizza Recipe

Monday, September 11th, 2006

…requires a breadmaker. Which would be fine chez nous, were it not for the fact we recently gave ours away because we just weren't using it enough. Typical.

I think the spinach and cheese topping sounds particulalry delish and may yet find myself experimenting using my old student standby – the tortilla wrap as pizza base.  That and 10p noodles kept me going through the lean years, let me tell you.

“Here's the recipe.  This makes two 11 inch pizzas, which Daniel
(9 months),  me and DH all enjoyed.  And there's nearly half left still, so
quantities could be reduced.

 

Dough

225 ml warm water

1 and a half tbsp oil

325g bread flour (I used white, but could
do a 50/50 white/wholemeal mix) 2 tbsp sugar 1 tsp dried yeast

 

Topping (pizza 1)

Half a tube of tomato puree

Lots of grated cheese (I used cheddar)

Selection of your choice vegetables (I used
2 shallots – chopped and fried, 2 cherry tomatoes – skinned and sliced,
broccoli – finely chopped, sweetcorn)

 

Topping (pizza 2)

A tub of cream cheese

6 cubes of frozen spinach (defrosted)

1 tsp fried shallot (taken from that
prepared for pizza 1)

A pinch of mixed spice

Small amount of grated cheese

 

Put water and oil in breadmaker.  Cover with the flour.  Put sugar in one corner. 
Make indentation in flour for yeast and make on dough setting. (Adapt this stage to do by hand, if you
haven't got a breadmaker). Grease two 11inch circular pizza tins and preheat
oven (220 deg for fan oven). Once dough is ready, divide in half between
the 2 tins. Press to a flat round shape to fill tin
(best to cover your hands in flour to avoid dough sticking to your fingers). Cover with oiled clingfilm for 15 mins.


Then do the toppings.

Pizza 1 – cover base with tomato puree
nearly to edge.  Then distribute the veggies over.  Finally, top with loads of grated cheese.

Pizza 2 – cover base with cream cheese
nearly to edge. Mix the spinach, shallot and spice together.  Spread the mixture over the cream
cheese. Sprinkle a little grated cheese over the
top.

Put the pizzas in the oven for about 15
minutes until golden and sizzling (probably a little longer if not a fan
oven). Serve immediately for adults, but let it
cool a bit for babies.  And cut babies' portions into pieces about 1-2
inches.  (I didn't give Daniel any of the crust, but it would be nice and chewy
for teething).”

 

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JennT's Long-awaited Polenta Recipe

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

Personally, the only way I enjoy polenta is with as much parmesan cheese as it can support without falling apart. It will take years of trial and error on my part to find out exactly how much that is. Be careful as it starts to boil, to give you an idea of how dangerous polenta is just imagine you are cooking with lava straight off the slopes of Mt Etna and you won't go far wrong.


Polenta with Herbs

75g (3oz)
polenta
Either 1 tsp of dried herbs, say, oregano or thyme, or a fistful of chopped fresh herbs, perhaps parsley or coriander? If using fresh rosemary or thyme, probably best to stick to the teaspoonful.
1 tbsp olive oil or
butter.
A whacking amount of parmesan cheese, freshly
grated, say about a fistful again. Or however much you like.
Cook the polenta according to packet
instructions, and stir in the butter or olive oil and then the parmesan and herbs as it starts to thicken. Pour into an oiled baking tray and leave to cool, befor cutting into wedges and grilling or frying until golden on both sides. 


Post Script
We made some polenta the other night but I didn't have any parmesan in and the kind that I bought claimed to have vegetables in it already and therefore didn't need anything extra. Wrong. It really needed cheese.

Anyway, I made it, and in it's plain boiled form it was distinctly unimpressive. Likewise when I spread it out onto an oiled tray and grilled it. However, I left it overnight and cut it up and grilled the pieces and we had some more success. It had started, by this time, to look and taste oddly and not unpleasantly like French Toast. Babybear ate a really big piece of it, as did I, but mine was smothered under a layer of salt. Next time, cheese.

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Cheesy beefburgers with harissa

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

The reason I love these is that they are easy to make with very little faff, and the flavour of the harissa is warming without being too hot, so the baby can eat them too. I don't really know where the recipe came from, we just magicked it up out of our own heads one day, so those of you who have your own tried-and-tested burger recipes just keep doing what you're doing. I don't add breadcrumbs because I can't be bothered making them, likewise egg (actually the combination of raw egg and raw meat makes me feel a bit gruey) so I leave it out and just stick with the beef.

Here goes.

A pack of good-quality lean minced beef, you know, the normal size, whatever that is. Say 500g or so? That should give you four or five good-sized burgers.

One medium onion, finely, finely, finely chopped.

One clove of garlic, but not essential.

A good hunk of cheese, roughly grated. The amount depends how cheesy you want your burgers, how strong the cheese and how much you happen to have in the fridge. I have used half a normal-sized pack in my time.

A teaspoon or so of harissa. I prefer rose harissa, as it isn't so much of a paste, so that's what I use. You can get it in delis and in the Sainsbury's fancy-pants section. It's about £3 but it lasts for ages and a spoonful of it in a bowl of yoghurt or creme fraiche is lovely as a dip for tortilla chips or whatever if people swing by unexpectedly. With regards to the burger, the kind of harissa you buy in the tube would be fine too.

A spritz of olive oil for frying.

Gently, always gently, fry the onion and garlic in oil or butter in a frying pan. When it is transparent, remove from heat and leave to cool briefly while you mix the minced meat and the cheese and harissa, before adding the onions to the mixture. Really get your hands in about it and give it a good squidge.

Then roll into balls and flatten, to whatever size of burger you fancy, and then fry them to as cooked as you wish, roughly five minutes each side (but I like 'em a bit rarer, to be honest.) The cheese keeps them together and it goes crispy and oozes out of the burger as it cooks. We tend to have them in toasted pitta breads, so we make them roughly to fit, with sweet potato chips.

Smaller ones are lovely in mini pittas, and little children love making them and eating them in my experience. I often make double the amounts so I can freeze these between layers of greaseproof paper and then just defrost what I need.

Babybear feasted on a good lump of burger this evening, hence the recipe. I gave her a couple of well-cooked fist-sized bits and she was gorgeous with them. Bit some off and then sucked and slurped at it in a most ignoble manner. When it started to break up she jammed as much as she could into her mouth, so really very little was wasted. Especially when her father scooped up any leftovers and ate them himself, the good boy.

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JennT's Home-made Bread Croutons

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

JennT says:

Cut a thick slice of bread into
fingers and brush the bread with honey or marmite diluted 50:50 with water
before baking at gas 4/180C/350F for about 20 minutes.  I'm not sure I would use the
marmite ones myself, but I'm assuming that the honey is okay cos it's
cooked.

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Mawbroon's Home-made Oatcakes.

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Now, I don't actually know Mawbroon in person as I met her on Mumsnet, but my spider senses suggest to me that she might be Scottish…

Here is her recipe, but I intend to quiz her further on the nature of the oatmeal. Pinhead? Porridge Oats? Not sure at this stage, will report back.
Anyway, here goes.


8oz oatmeal

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 dessertspoonful of melted fat, (the recipe suggests butter or lard but Mawbroon's natural inclination is to rebelliousness so she uses olive oil)


hot water

a good pinch of salt would be nice but unfortunately it is frowned upon because of the babies' kidneys and all that blah blah blah.



Mix all the dry ingredients together with a well in the middle and pour
in the fat. Blend in enough hot water to make a stiff paste then knead
and roll out as thinly as possible. Cut into triangles and bake on a
floured tin at 200 degrees until the ends curl up and the cakes are
crisp. Alternatively, bake them on a hot girdle or frying pan.



Now, that's what the recipe says, but what Mawbroon does is take little blobs of the
mix and flattens them into fat little oatcakes. So, they are rustic
looking and not thin enough to curl up when cooked. Apparently little
helpers can help because the mix cools very quickly even though you use
hot water.

Update. Mawbroon says:

“I just use “normal” oatmeal but pinhead would do as well. Porridge oats
could probably be used at a push after a blitz in the food processor,
but I've never tried it, so don't blame me if you try it and the
oatcakes are vile.



I don't know about the availability of oatmeal in England for anyone
reading who lives there. My sister lives in London and stocks up every
time she comes home (to Scotland) for a visit because she claims not to
be able to buy it down south. I would have thought that with the fad
for whole foods at the moment that it would be readily available, but
I'll take her word for it. I do know that Lakeland sell the Alfords
stuff.




Also I forgot to say that the cooking time is somewhere between 20 – 30 mins.”

Hurrah, I was right, she is a Jock. And good to have a cooking time on a recipe, I always find…

Post Script.

I
made them. They are flipping deeee-licious and really easy. I used
medium oatmeal, as my pinhead oatmeal actually seemed to be less finely
ground than the medium when I pulled it from the cupboard. Mistakenly,
I had thought it would be small, not unlike the head of a pin, but no.
Go figure. Also, for the record it's a straight no on the porridge
oats, apparently if you try this recipe with them you will be sadly
disappointed.

Anyway,
they work great with olive oil I reckon, you can really taste it which
is very pleasant, but thinking about it I probably put in a bit more
than the recipe called for as my hand has a tendency to wobble when
holding any bottle… The no-salt thing isn't a problem if you are an
adult as you are invariably jamming a big wodge of salty cheese on them
anyway.

Like
Mawbroon, I rolled the mixture into little balls about three-quarters
of an inch in diameter, then squashed the little blighters in the palms
of my hands to make discs of about one-and-a-half to two inches across.
I kept them in for about half-an-hour because I like oatcakes a little
golden.

Babybear
has had them with hummus and butter, and her strategy has so far been
to take a nibble off the edge, which she chews a bit but finds a little
dry to be honest. Her next move is to lick the topping off the oatcake
at which point it becomes a bit soggier, before returning to it every
so often as it becomes more wet. She mustn't leave it too long, though,
as it turns into porridge if it sits on her soggy highchair tray (we're
still getting to grips with drinking from a glass). Obviously it
depends how well your baby is doing with gagging and everything, but I
definitely don't think that Babybear would have been able to manage
these until quite recently (she's eight-and-a-half-months). Anyway,
thanks again Mawbroon, I think these will be a real favourite in our
house for many years to come. Well, they will if my husband has
anything to do with it, as he's eaten nothing else all day.

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Vnmum's Chicken and Apple Sausages

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

VNmum's campaign to get us all eating our apple a day continues… they sound great. I've made kind of sausagey things before but they weren't damp enough for my liking, so maybe the apple will help…

Chicken and Apple Sausages

1 chicken breast, diced

1/2 eating apple grated

1 small onion, finely chopped

1-2 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Seasoning of your choice eg Italian herbs, paprika, chinese 5 spice

plain flour

Whizz the chicken for a few seconds in a food processor then add the
rest of ingredients, except flour, and whizz together for few seconds. If the mixture seems quite sloppy just add more breadcrumb until it
sticks together better.

Take a handful and shape into whatever size sausage shape you want,
this again will make however many sausages you want depending on size.

Roll all the sausages in the flour to seal and fry in vegetable oil.

Can be frozen.

I found that if the mix was slightly wet, they held together for
cooking and then fell apart nicely as DS was chewing. as he gets more
teeth I will probably make them drier as it will be easier for him to
chew.

Both this and the pork buger recipe can be tweaked to your liking with consistency and seasoning, they went down a treat with ds, served with homemade oven chips and salad.

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Vnmum's Pork and Apple Burgers

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

These sound rather delicious, I must say, and I am very interested in the substitution of olive oil for egg. Does that mean that you use an 'egg-sized' amount of oil or is it just a slug, vnmum?

My poor friend's wee boy who is, I think, about 7 months or so was just rushed to hospital after discovering he had an egg allergy, so I'm sure she'd be interested in any egg allergic substitutions. I am too, by the way, as I have decided to hold off on giving Babybear some French toast (ooooh, I've been dreaming of French toast…) for a good while now after hearing my chum's horror story.

Pork and Apple burgers



250g pork mince


1/2 eating apple, finely chopped or grated


1 small onion, finely chopped


5 – 6 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs


1 – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed


italian herbs to season


One egg ( I use olive oil instead as DS is egg allergic)



Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, until mixture is sticking together nicely.



Make however many burgers you want depending on the size you want them.


Grill or fry



I dont see any reason why these cant be frozen either raw (as long as mince was fresh not frozen) or cooked.


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Breaded Chicken

Monday, August 21st, 2006

We were in Edinburgh the other day enjoying some culcha (actually The Jim Henson Muppet Show which I may have enjoyed more than Babybear) and when we went to buy lunch I noticed that the Italian deli place had some breaded chicken pieces ready to put into sandwiches.

I hardly need point out that despite doing this baby led weaning business with a pure heart and therefore knowing that I could just buy something to eat when we got there, I had packed enough provisions to sustain Babybear through a journey to the North Pole.

Nevertheless, I just had a sneaking feeling that besides all her porridge pancakes, bread sticks, peaches, banana and cheese, she might enjoy a spot of fried chicken in breadcrumb. I mean, what's not to like?

So I get home, tell The Husband and his beady wee eyes light up… we're going to get to eat fried chicken? He's liking baby led weaning more and more…

So here is my version, which I made and froze yesterday and ate tonight with great success.

Find some manky old bread and whizz it to make breadcrumbs. We had the ends of an old multigrain, which contains all sorts of seeds and therefore plays fast and loose with potential allergens but it was all I had and I was in the mood for experimentation. Fling in a couple of cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika (fast becoming my flavour enhancer of choice now that salt is off the menu) and whizz some more.

Slice up some chicken breast pieces to a goujon-ish size (or finger/chip-sized if you will) and dip them in the breadcrumbs. I thought that I might need some egg to make it stick but it was fine.

I layered them in a tupperware between greaseproof paper and stuck them in the freezer because I didn't want to eat them immediately and I knew that my chicken pieces were fresh and tonight I heated the oven up to 180 degrees, oiled a baking tray with my trusty oil squisher then put them in for about 25-30 minutes (after another wee squish on top with the oil.)

Serve with loads of lemon juice on top and some peas and sweet potato chips and you are laughing (particularly at the baby, who still doesn't have much of a pincer grip and spent much of the time chasing petits pois round her highchair tray.)

If anything, they were probably a bit overcooked by the time they came out but I was feeling a bit paranoid about that woman sallymonella at the time, so if you are doing this recipe I'd check to see if they are piping hot in the middle by eating one at about 20 minutes in.

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Baby Led Weaning Chicken Soup

Monday, August 14th, 2006

So, what did you do with the bones and carcass of your lemony roast chicken from the Finger Foods section? Boiled them up for half an hour with an onion, a stick of celery, a carrot, a couple of bay leaves, some peppercorns and a clove of garlic, did you? Mah-velous, then we are ready to make baby led weaning chicken soup.

Okay then, it's basically just normal chicken soup, so do whatever you usually do (in my case sweat an onion and some leeks if I have them, sling in a couple of sliced carrots and some sliced sticks of celery, add the stock and possibly some low-salt Marigold bouillon to taste and if I feel like it throw in some rice or pasta near the end).

But the smarty-pants thing to remember is to cut some of your veggies in the chip-sized manner (or finger-sized, if we wish to be understood by our New World cousins) and to drop them into the soup while it is cooking.

After a while you are left with the most delicious soft carrot and celery (and whatever else you fancy) which has been poached in chicken soup and can be taken directly from the parental bowl and handed (after a bit of blowing and cooling down) to the baby. Which they love, let's face it. I also find that Babybear likes to eat crusty bread dipped in soup and wrung out like a wee sponge so it isn't too soggy.

Post Script.
We've been putting a good handful of barley into our chicken soup recently and Babybear loves it. She can feed herself a few grains of barley at a time on a spoon (I load it up) and also if you put some crusty bread into the bowl to soak up the soup then press down hard you will simultaneously squeeze the liquid out and pick up lots of barley and veggies. She eats these like an open sandwich, her face wreathed in smiles and carrots.

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Quick Tea

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

We’ve all just returned from holiday and needed a quick dinner plus we had some pears looking a pit peaky.

 

Boomer took the pieces of toast and obviously the pear slices fell off but she just picked them up once she had finished with the toast.

 

Ingredients

Slices of wholemeal bread

Pesto (I used red pesto as that’s what we had in the fridge)

Slices of pear

Slices of cheese (whatever type you like we had a selection of whatsleftinthefridgeous variety)

Some fresh basil leaves (admittedly we didn’t have this tonight but I’ve used it before and it’s delicious)

 

Directions

Lightly toast the bread (either on one side under the grill or quickly in the toaster). Slice the toast half to create smaller pieces to create a couple of

Spread the toast with a slather of pesto, place a slice of pear and a leaf of basil on top and finish with a thin slice of cheese. Place under the grill until the cheese is nicely melted.

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