Baby Led Weaning

Growing healthy babies with healthy appetites

Posts Tagged ‘dinner’

What would it take to convince you to try Baby-Led Weaning?

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

No. I’m keeping the spoon. You may conduct your ridiculous experiment when I am finished.

A guarantee that they’ll be Good Eaters(TM) at the age of four?

Nope, can’t do it. I mean, they probably will be good enough eaters, but they’ll still be pesky human beings, prone to changes in taste and challenging boundaries. But you’ll trust them to come good, because you’ve seen them hoover up broccoli.
You, my friends, will have Faith.

A guarantee that they will not gag or choke?

As above, I’m afraid. Gagging’s great, it’s a safety mechanism, and while it sounds barf-a-rrific, it’s such a cunning way of moving food shapes around a little that you will marvel (once again) at how clever and wonderful your child is.
Choking? Not fun. Rare, though. I had two babies, one of them choked once, and it was on a bit of apple that I just knew I shouldn’t have let someone give her but I was scared to look a prat. Lesson learned, Mother, don’t be scared to look like a prat in front of your friends. Fortunately I’d done my sensible parents’ Infant Resus course and the baby was fine with a bit of a whack on the back. She, naturally, was unbothered, and I had to wrestle the apple from her pudgy fists before it went straight back in.

So, what will convince you to do Baby-Led Weaning? *drum roll*

It’s a little experiment. Very simple. (Not altogether enjoyable.)

Simply sit in front of your beloved tomorrow night, and have them cut up your food into pieces and feed them to you. Mebbe mash ’em up a bit, even, get all those flavours nicely mixed. MAYBE even whizz them up a bit, if you’re feeling racy.
Serve on a spoon, not a fork.
Now, see if they get the portioning right – is your mouth unpleasantly full, or half-empty? Do they feed you slowly, so that you are begging them for more (with your eyes, hush now, no speaking, you’re a baby. Furious yelling will be fine). Or is it so fast that you worry you can’t swallow the first bite before the second and third hove into view? And what if you don’t like the dinner but your partner or friend can’t abide waste? Eeeer. Open wide…

Try it, and see what you think. Don’t forget to finish with a lemon-scented wipe to the lips! Think of it as dessert!

And if that doesn’t convince you to let your baby have a bash at self-feeding, nothing will.

Which is Fine. At the very least the experiment will likely have made you a better spoon-feeder, and that sort of understanding and care can only be good for our babies, no matter which weaning method we choose.

RESULT!

(many thanks to margaux for the lovely pics)

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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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Goose

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

Oh yes, goose. We've had goose for the last couple of years after a miserable experience with a turkey whose flesh was as dry as a nun's gusset. Anyway, Happy Christmas.
The goose cost about a squillion pounds and was, if I say so myself, cooked to juicy perfection. Needless to say she didn't like it as much as roast chicken.

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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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Chloe and Nigel (Slater)'s Yorkshire Puddings

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

Short 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

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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Spanish Omelette (with peas, because everything Babybear eats Must Contain Peas)

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

The 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 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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Courgette Fritters

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

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!




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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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