Baby Led Weaning

Growing healthy babies with healthy appetites

Posts Tagged ‘tea’

Carbonara-ish

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

The Husband and I went to a restaurant in Rome where we had a carbonara-y thing made with roast boar and peas, so I quite often make carbonara with frozen peas now to go some way to alleviating the guilt that I feel from eating a meal made up of 98% pasta with a squidge of protein and fat. And it's authentic-ish.

Pancetta or smoked bacon, about 150g. Or half a packet of the pancetta I buy.
Couple of eggs.
Some parmesan. About 100g, or as much as you like.
A slug of white wine if there's any in the fridge.
And a slug of cream if you've any knocking about.
Pasta of some description, however much you need for however many you are. These amounts of bacon etc would feed 3-4.
Frozen peas, a handful thereof.

Boil the kettle for your pasta, meanwhile grate your parmesan into a jug, crack in your eggs (and fling in your cream if you have any). Put in the pasta. You now have 8-12 mins to get everything else together. Easy.

Cook off your chopped pancetta or bacon in a deep frying pan until it picks up quite a bit of colour. Once it is nice and caramelly, chuck in your wine if you have it so that the alcohol boils off. The peas do in now as well, they only take a couple of minutes.

Your pasta should be ready, hopefully, so you can drain it quickly and put into the frying pan. I tend to keep back a bit of the pasta water in case the sauce needs a bit of loosening. Then put in the cheese and egg mixture, stirring it well. The heat of the pasta cooks the egg in the sauce, but as it happens I always use very fresh lion-marked eggs so I reckon we're alright. If it gets a bit tight just throw in a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water.

Anyway, we like this a lot and as long as we stick to penne or fusilli rather than the more traditional spaghetti then Babybear can eat it until the cows (or indeed boar) come home.

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Bunny's Studenty Toasty Pizza

Wednesday, December 27th, 2006

This recipe has reminded me of the fact that when I was at university I thought it was genuinely witty that we had a sign above the toaster in our student flat that bore the legend 'Make Toast, Not War'… <Aitch wipes tears of  thirtysomething mirth from eyes>.

Thought you might like this uber easy recipe (using the word loosely!). It
requires no doughmaking, ideal for lazy types like me. This is how we used to
make pizza at uni when we'd spent all our food money on beer
;-)

 
Toast Pizza (aka
Cheese on toast with vegetables)
 
1 slice of
bread
Tomato
puree
Cheese of
choice
 
Lightly toast your
bread so the bottom won't be soggy. Spread a thin layer of tomato puree over the
top (you can make it yourself, but we use Organic Tomato Puree from Waitrose –
no added salt, hurrah). Cover with cheese – The Weeble is partial to mozzarella
and cheddar. Bung under the grill until the cheese is melted and bubbling. ALLOW
TO COOL! Molten cheese has thermonuclear properties!
 
If you are like me
and a bit slapdash with the cheese, you'll probably have burnt crusts, so cut
those off. Cut your “pizza” into strips (for bubbas; leave whole for older
children and mummies) and serve! Weebs really likes this, especially the way the
mozzarella can be made to stretch for miles when cool and
rubbery.
 
It occurs to me that
if you substitute another veg puree for the tomato, that would use up some of
that leftover puree we all seem to have… and also sneak in some vegetables
should you need to do so!
 
We're going to try
it again tomorrow with some small bits of cooked chicken embedded in the
cheese.”

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Enid's Minced Chicken Nuggets

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

'Enid' you say? Surely not the same Enid who was recently saying on Mumsnet that life is to short to make a porridge pancake? Yup, the same one, my friends. Seems like her little seven-month-old Pixie has read that thread and been won over by my dazzling debating style and sheer force of argument, and is now refusing spoons. <insert your own smug smile here>

Anyway, Enid is nothing if not utterly gracious about Pixie's new finger food-only regime and has sent in this recipe for which we are most grateful.

 
Enid's Chicken Nuggets

750g minced chicken
175g breadcrumbs

175g grated cheddar
1 tbsp mayo to bind
1 clove garlic
salt and
pepper
beaten egg and some fine toasted breadcrumbs to coat the nuggets

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix all ingredients up to and including salt and
pepper together. Form into whatever sized nuggets (its up to you, mine are sort
of walnut sized) and roll them in beaten egg and then in toasted breadcrumbs.
You can freeze them now if you want to.

Place on greased baking sheet
and cook for about 20 minutes (45 if frozen). Voila!


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French Toast/Eggy Bread

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

Right, so at nearly eleven months we have finally dived in on the egg eventually (partly in an effort to 'bind' my poor daughter's poo back to some sort of solidity, I admit). We are big fans of French toast in this household, but only, and I mean only, made with Scottish Plain bread. If you think you've tasted white bread before, think again, for they don't some any whiter than a plain loaf, in all its doughy, burnt-crusted gorgeousness. Stupid foofy cotton wool bread tastes weird with egg, I think, so try to get the doughiest loaf you can.
Obviously you know how to make it, just crack a couple of eggs into a dish large enough for your bread, fling in the slices and then prick with a fork so that it better absorbs the egg. Once you are satisfied that the bread is suitably eggy, drop it into some warmed olice oil in a frying pan and fry it until golden-ish. Some people eat this with sugar but they are mostly American. I'm strictly savoury myself.

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Rowan's 10-minute pizza recipe

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

Appearently this really does take 10 minutes… which makes it rather a handy little recipe to have at our disposal. I bet it would be good cold as well.

This is a really quick pizza, takes literally 10 minutes from entering the kitchen
to putting in oven.


Make dough by mixing 4 parts self raising flour with
1 part butter and rubbing until you get breadcrumb type mixture. (it's faster if
you grate the butter straight from the fridge) –  4oz flour to 1 oz butter makes 3
small pizzas.


Slowly add about 50 ml milk a splash at a time and stirring
with a spoon each time until you get a dough. You might not need it
all.


Knead with hands in bowl (or get handy toddler to help…) and split into
pieces depending on how many pizzas you want.  Or leave it as one massive one,
whatever.


Put dough on oiled baking tray and smoosh with fingers until it is
the right size, it doesn't have to be even.


Spread on some red pesto sauce
straight from the jar.


Add veg of choice (the Munch likes thin strips of
courgette (use a potato peeler) or carrot, peas, beans, bits of
broccoli, that sort of thing…)


Daintily dump some grated cheddar cheese on top.

Put in oven,
Gas Mark 6, for about 10 minutes for hand sized, longer for bigger.


Cut into pieces
and eat yours while waiting for the rest to cool.




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Moomin's Onion Bhaji recipe

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

Once again, Moomin's struggle to keep her daughter allergy-free bears fruit for all babykind in the form of these easy and delicious bhajis. And parentkind too, by the sound of things.

Grate one medium potato and half an onion.
Add 75g gram flour and a splash
of water.
Add spices of your choice – I used a bit of cumin and
coriander.
Drop one tablespoon into hot oil and fry for 4 mins each
side.
This mix made six bhajis, but I don't imagine we'll be freezing that
many as Minky, Mr Moomin and I are polishing them all off!

These were a
big hit and will work as another picnic lunch. Hooray!

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Jenn's Pecan Lentil Burgers

Monday, October 23rd, 2006

I've rescued this recipe from the relative obscurity of the comments section of one of Moomin's recipes, it was posted by one of our many Jenns and it really does sound amazing. I'm not completely sure of the temperatures, they sound American to me, but I wouldn't think of doing the pecans at anything over 180degrees in an electric oven (in Scotland. If you're from abroad then you'll have to work things out for yourselves). I'm also wondering if pistachios would substitute for pecans, which are kinda hard to get hold of round my way. However, we've not given Babybear any nuts yet so this might be a strictly adults-only recipe in our house for a while. No bad thing, I should say…

I've got one to share that is a crowd pleaser. I made them for a party and everyone copied the recipe.


Pecan Lentil Burger



3/4 cup uncooked green lentils


3/4 cup pecans


4 cloves garlic


1 1/2 teasppon cumin


1 1/2 teaspoon coriander


1 teaspoon chili flakes


3 tablespoons olive oil


3/4 cup bread crumbs (may use wheatless bread such as spelt, or any kind of wheatless subsitute)


1 egg (optional-I've made it without and they were fine)



Cook lentils according to package directions until tender…approx 25 minutes. Drain.



Roast pecans at 300 – 325 for 10-15 minutes. (Use your own discretion
with temperature and timing because I find the pecans can burn fast)
Set aside.


In food processor, mince garlic;add pecans, mince;add lentils,
spices, bread crumbs and olive oil. Puree until dough-like. Put mixture
into big bowl and work in egg if you choose to. Form into patties and
fry on pan with a bit of oil.



Delicious!


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Moomin's Lamb Tagine (for allergics and non-allergics)

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

There's lots to like about this recipe, not least the taste, which I'm sure is fabulous judging by the photo of Minky enjoying her lamb. However, I'm most drawn to it for the phrase 'grease of your choice', which made me splurt my tea all over my keyboard.

Fry one chopped onion in the grease of your choice (we tolerate sunflower oil).

Coat 450g of diced lamb in flour (rice flour for us), add to the onion and
brown.

Add two chopped carrots, 400g of chopped tomatoes, 200g of dried apricots
and 50g of sultanas (or raisins – what is the difference?).

Chuck in a bit of
water (200ml?) and simmer until the lamb falls apart. I left it for an hour and
a half because I fell asleep. Ahem.


Minky had this with buckwheat pasta
but feel free to choose your own carbohydrate. Couscous might be nice.

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Franny's Home-made Baked Beans

Monday, October 9th, 2006

We gave Babybear some Heinz baked beans tonight with cheese and toast (what's not to like, you'd think)  but actually she wasn't that fussed for them. I must say it did occur to me as I was eating mine that they did taste very salty.
So I haven't actually made these before but I've had the recipe for ages. What was holding me up, you ask? Why, the molasses… I've searched high and low, from health food shop to supermarket for it to no avail. However, some Christian soul has finally put me out of my misery and told me that treacle (which I have in the damned cupboard) is the same thing. Durrrr.
Anyway, Franny's recipe and her comments are below. Apparently they are very tasty. I'm not 100% sure about the bean soaking bit as I am rarely that organised so I reserve the right to used tinned haricots.

8 oz haricot beans

1 lb toms, skinned and deseeded (I used tinned and it is ok if maybe a little runny)

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp molasses

2 tsp mustard powder

3/4 pint hot stock (that's three quarters, not 3 or 4 )



Soak
beans overnight in large bowl covered with cold water. Drain well, put
in sauce pan and cover with cold water by at least 2 ins. Bring to
boil, skim surface, cover pan and cook at rolling boil for 30 mins.
Drain well. Preheat oven to GM 2. Put beans in large casserole and stir
in all remaining ingredients. Mix well. Cover casserole and cook for
2.5 hours. Stir gently and cook for another 35 mins or until tender and
sauce thickened. (normally takes up to 4 hours to get really tender and
not too runny IME).



Freezes well and is popular with dads as well as
children. I normally cook at least double and freeze lots. It has been
pointed out to me that with having to cook them for so long, and with
baked beans being so cheap, that it is probably cheaper to buy them,
but I would far rather have this sort with no salt and no artificial
sweeteners. I think baked beans are a truly healthy food but the tinned
sort normally have a lot of rubbish added. These are easy to make and also
make the house smell lovely.

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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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