These might be good for any wheat intolerant babies, as there are no breadcrumbs involved. They are also mega easy – always a big plus in my book ;-)
1 chicken breast, cut in finger size strips
1 egg
1 bowl crushed cornflakes
Optional tomato sauce:
1 can chopped tomatoes
Tbsp tomato puree
1/2 onion chopped
1 clove garlic (if your baby likes it!)
Heat your oven to 180 C. Dip the strips of chicken in the egg, and then coat in the crushed cornflakes, pressing firmly. Lay the strips on a rack over a baking tray or roasting tin, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
You can allow the chicken to cool and serve it as is – I like them this way! However, the cornflakes can be a bit scratchy, so you could try them with the tomato sauce – just roll them in the sauce and allow to sit for a couple of minutes and the cornflakes will go nicely soggy.
To make the sauce:
If you are using the garlic, chop finely and put in a cold pan with some oil. Bring to a medium heat and allow to soften (starting the garlic in the cold oil helps prevent burning). Add the chopped onion, and continue to saute until nice and soft. Stir in the can of tomatoes and the tomato puree, and cook to a nice “mush”.
In practice, because I’m disorganised and lazy, I often just heat up the chopped tomatoes with a little puree, and the Weeble seems perfectly happy with that!
Cornflaky Chicken
Saturday, June 12th, 2010Carbonara-ish
Saturday, June 12th, 2010The 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
Saturday, June 12th, 2010This 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’…
“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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Bunny's Studenty Toasty Pizza
Saturday, June 12th, 2010This 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’…
“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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Chloe and Nigel (Slater)’s Yorkshire Puddings
Saturday, June 12th, 2010Short and sweet, just how we like a recipe.
2 eggs, 125g plain flour, 150ml milk mixed with 150ml water, 1 level tbsp wholegrain mustard (optional, I haven’t actually tried this with notsotall, but I can’t think why she wouldn’t like it), good grinding of black pepper, all mixed up together and left to stand for 15 mins.
Nice drop of lard/dripping in the pudding tin(s), and 20-25mins at 220C. This makes them really quite crispy on the bottom.
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Chloe and Nigel (Slater)'s Yorkshire Puddings
Saturday, June 12th, 2010Short and sweet, just how we like a recipe.
2 eggs, 125g plain flour, 150ml milk mixed with 150ml water, 1 level tbsp wholegrain mustard (optional, I haven’t actually tried this with notsotall, but I can’t think why she wouldn’t like it), good grinding of black pepper, all mixed up together and left to stand for 15 mins.
Nice drop of lard/dripping in the pudding tin(s), and 20-25mins at 220C. This makes them really quite crispy on the bottom.
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Enid’s Minced Chicken Nuggets
Saturday, June 12th, 2010‘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.
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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Enid's Minced Chicken Nuggets
Saturday, June 12th, 2010‘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.
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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Spanish Omelette (with peas, because everything Babybear eats Must Contain Peas)
Saturday, June 12th, 2010The thing I hate about making A Proper Spanish Omelette is getting the damned potatoes fried without burning the onions. Yes, you should do it separately but honestly, who has the time?
So I stick the potato in the microwave and bake it. Heresy, obviously. (Should I expect the Spanish Omelette Inquisition?)
Meanwhile, cut your onion into attractive segments and fry it gently in olive oil or, as Moomin would say, ‘the grease of your choice’. Mix up a couple of eggs. Chop up your cooked potato (who can be bothered peeling it, by the way? Not I.) Throw it in with the onions and fry for a while until the potatoes take on a bit of colour. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Pour over your egg and staunchly resist the temptation to faff around with it. You might have wanted to add a bit more oil before putting the egg in, by the way. Drop some frozen peas onto the uncooked egg, as popping something green into the recipe will make you feel like A Better Parent. Cook for a few minutes and then flip it or if you are too much of a coward you could finish it under the grill.
This makes enough for Babybear and myself for lunch, she loves it and it’s pretty healthy all told, so long as you aren’t avoiding eggs for allergy-style reasons.
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Fiona’s Fillable Finger Food Patties
Saturday, June 12th, 2010Always 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.
