Baby Led Weaning

Always nice to hear from someone who appreciates our efforts (although by the sounds of things it’s really Moomin’s efforts). Even nicer when she pays it forward with another recipe. Thanks Fiona.

• crack the egg into the four and mix well
• add milk a little at a time to form smooth batter
• add some filling – I’ve used: mashed banana and cinammon, green beans and cheese, peas, sweetcorn, leftover sweet potato – you get the idea
• heat a frying pan with butter then when it is smoking slightly pour in fritter sized circles of batter (about a dssp each I reckon).  Cook over medium heat and when wee bubbles of air appear at the top, flip over and cook another couple of mins.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

See, Moomin makes a good point here… are we intent on full vegetable transparency or will we succumb to the Jamie Oliver-patented method of hiding bits of greenery where’er we can? It’s hard to say at the moment, while we have babies who are by and large obedient.

I’d say that as a point of principle we should try to encourage children to appreciate veggies for what they are, but what harm can there possibly be in frittering a courgette? Especially if courgettes would otherwise be off the menu…

Grate 350g of courgette and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Add a grated onion, 60g of gram flour, 1/4tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp of coriander.
(You might think all my recipes involve gram flour. You’d be wrong. I use rice flour as well.)
Fry a good dollop for 2-3 mins each side.

Now, I don’t know whether this is allowed in the world of BLW, but Minky doesn’t really eat courgettes. She prefers to dump them over the side of the highchair without a backwards glance. However, she ate three of these for tea. Are we allowed to hide vegetables from them?

I wasn’t particularly keen on these myself. Perhaps a liberal coasting of salt is required? Wait a sec…yes, salt helps!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

As you may recall Babybear has enjoyed tuna mayonnaise sandwiches in the past, the only downside of which was that she honked rather badly of fish until it came to bath time.

She also likes hummous sandwiches, cheese sandwiches and controversially, hummous and cheese sandwiches. I’d also highly recommend mixing grated carrot with hummous as it holds together nicely. If I’m making these for myself I’d drop some sultanas into it but I haven’t done that for Babybear yet as I’m wondering if disguising secret choking hazards in hummous is the way to go. It will probably be fine, really, as Babybear has yet to eat a sandwich without fully dismantling it first, smushing the filling into her face and then addressing the slices of bread. Ham is a trickier option, given her technique as it has a tendency to stick to the bread.

She also enjoys avocado but it’s not convenient to take out with us as it goes brown which I personally find aesthetically unappealing. Philadelphia is good, but a little boring I think.

So…anyone else? There must be loads that I’m just not thinking of.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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!

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

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.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts