She's been on a quest, ladies and gentlemen, and now she's back. Presenting Rowan's cereal bars...

"After my appeal many moons ago for cereal bars I found this recipe, very
sticky, very gooey, and it has fruit, carbs, protein and calcium in it,
so sometimes this is all Munch has for lunch!
Makes about 9 or 10

75g oats
65g sugar (white is fine, brown adds a nice caramelly flavour) 40g raisins or mixed raisins/sultanas/dried cranberries 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 large mashed banana
30ml skim milk
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix first 6 ingredients together. Separately beat together wet
ingredients, pour over dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour into lined tin and bake for 25-30 mins at GM4, 175C.
Leave to cool and then cut into bars.

Keep in airtight tin for 2 or 3 days max."

She's on a mission to healthify the world, this woman...

"Fab and Healthy Banana cake

4 oz self raising wholemeal flour
half tsp mixed spice
2 oz butter
3 oz raisins
8 oz banana
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 180 / gm 4.

Mix flour and spice, rub in butter and stir in raisins. In a separate bowl, mash the banana and egg. Stir into the flour mixture and put into a well-greased tin (fills a small loaf tin I think or I usually double up the quantities and put it in an 8" circular cake tin). Turn oven down to GM 3 / 160 C and cook on the middle shelf for 1 hour or until cooked.

I usually cover it with a mixture of philadelphia cream cheese and fruit spread (about 2 parts cream cheese to one part fruit spread / jam). I blend them together in the liquidiser. However it is good just by itself as well."

It's muffins at dawn between Franny and Kami...

"I do healthy muffins too, both my two (3yo and 8mo) love 'em...

Basic recipe

- 2 cups plain flour with 8 tsp baking powder [1 cup plain flour, 1 cup
wholemeal flour] - or self raising flour, perhaps with a little baking
powder
- 1 cup oats (whole or oatmeal)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter [mild olive oil]
- 1/4-1/2 cup sugar [honey]
- 2 eggs

With a spoon or blender, mix the wet stuff, then add the dry stuff (I sift
the flour in with a sieve) and mix again. Bake for 20-25 min (test at 20).
Makes 12 big muffins.

The recipe can be halved to make 12 small 'cupcakes'. On it's own, the
recipe isn't very sweet, so I always add loads (4+) of big overripe bananas,
roughly mashed or blended - also makes a yummy banana bread in a loaf tin
(around 45 min). I also replace a little milk with creme fraiche for banana
bread. The bananas make the texture nice and moist, like a pudding.  Then do
what you want with fruit, e.g. blueberries, apples, chopped dates, grated
carrot, ground nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla - anything you can think of! 
The other day I replaced some of the olive oil with peanut butter, but not
for babies obviously.  I think the honey is OK for babies because it is
baked at a high enough temperature to kill any bacteria (but just use sugar
if you'd rather.  Sugar in the form of fructose, so lower GI, is available
at Sainsburys)."

Franny is a bit of a lentil-weaver and I happen to know she consumes an inordinate amount of quinoa but these muffins nevertheless sound like they might actually taste nice...

Muffins

8oz wholemeal s-r flour
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
2oz chopped pecans (These are nice in the adult version, leave them out for a baby, or put in ground almonds for an older child who you know is not nut allergic)
2 oz desiccated coconut
6 oz grated carrots
6 oz grated apple
3 oz chopped dates (You'll have to use your own skill and judgement here re choking. Maybe leave them out if the pincer grip hasn't developed, maybe chop them up really small. You'll know what's best)
2 beaten eggs
4 fl oz sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in another, then combine and mix thoroughly. Spoon into muffin cases and put on a baking tray. Bake for 20 mins at 180 / GM 4.

Come on, these sound great. And oatylicious, so the GI crew will approve.



"Oaty pancakes are a piece of pish, all you do is substitute half the flour
with oatmeal:

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg

Wizz it up and pan fry 'em.  They're a bit like wholemeal pancakes but
yummier, great to take out as a cool snack too (e.g. spread with Philly).

The Staff oatcakes we've made are based on this recipe, basically it has the
addition of yeast to make them nice and pillowy:

You can experiment with textures based on how ground up the oats are."

Oh god I've meant to post a spag blog recipe for aaaaages but I am a bad woman who never gets her backside in gear to do anything. Thank goodness for Carrie, I say.

You'll see that she has her own tips for making the food less slippy, but here are mine. If you buy lean mince then you'll find that you can cook it without breaking it up too much so that you can leave a couple of 'meatballs' in the sauce by the end and they'll be easy to fish out and hand to the baby. I also add some celery, a carrot, a slice of smoked bacon or a couple of anchovies and a bay leaf to mine and I like to leave it on a simmer for hours if possible. But everyone's got their own vibe with spaghetti, so do what you will.




"225g mince beef
Olive Oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 fat clove of garlic
1 tin of tomatoes - plum not chopped
2 table spoons of tomato puree
4 table spoons of red wine
1 tea spoon of dried basil OR 1 table spoon of fresh basil
salt and black pepper (if you would like - we normally don't add salt)

• Heat oil on thick based saucepan
• Gently soften the onion and garlic for 5 mins - do on a low to medium heat to stop garlic from burning
• Turn heat up and add minced beef and brown keeping the ingredients on the move with a wooden spoon
• When meat is browned add tomatoes, tomato puree, wine and basil, (salt) and black pepper to taste
• Put on lid and simmer gently for 20 mins
• Then take off the lid and simmer gently for a further 20-25 mins until you get a thick concentrated sauce

I put small portions of the ragu in ice cube holders (for purees), freeze and defrost them as and when and stir in with penne pasta and some fresh parmesan (makes it less slippy for Xavier's little fingers."

Wasn't someone looking for an oat slice recipe? Ask and ye shall recieve, my BLWing chums. I'm guessing that the oven temperature will be 180 degrees, that's the usual for a biscuit.


"This is a good breakfast as it's made of porridge and I also give it to my daughter as a snack.  It's also really handy if you ever made any Annabel Karmel purees and froze them and now have a freezer full of odd ice cubes that will make your Pimms taste weird this summer!

soaked apricots or prunes or figs
a litttle of the soaking juice (a tablespoon or so)
a teaspoon of melted butter
porridge oats/baby muesli

Puree the dried fruit with a little juice till it's kind of mushy (or defrost icecube dried fruit purees from freezer!) mix in the oats and melted butter and cook it over a low heat for about three minutes to belend the ingredients together. Shape into biccy shapes, bake in oven on tray till just turning brown.

The fig ones are delicious, her dad thinks they're better than chocolate McVities!"

Again, I know this blog is coming across a bit pulsetastic but as it happens we do eat a lot of them. And you have to admit, these cheesy wedges do sound delicious.

"Another lentil recipe for you - v popular with LittleE (and her daddy too - surprisingly!!)

 

8 oz red lentils

3/4 pint water

1 large onion

1 oz butter

4 oz grated cheese

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 egg

1 oz breadcrumbs

salt & pepper - for adults!!

 

Cook the lentils in the water until soft, and all the liquid is absorbed

Chop the onion finely and fry in the butter until soft. 

Combine all the ingredients and press into an oiled 9" tin. 

Bake at Gas 5 for around 30 minutes. 

Allow to cool slightly then cut into wedges

 

These might be even tastier with a bit of garlic in?"

Of course this just makes me feel dreadful that I so prefer the weirdly fluffy supermarket stuff... what is it that they put in it? I'm particularly interested in this recipe, though, as it suggests using whichever bean takes you fancy.

Oooooh, we love a pulse recipe on this blog, we do...


"I thought I'd send this recipe as minimoo has been devouring these beanburgers for a while.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 small chilli (I didn't add this)
100g frozen chopped spinach, thawed (Didn't have any frozen so I used half a bag of spinach)
400g can cannellini beans
50g breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander

Heat the oil and cook onion and garlic (and chilli if you're brave) for 5 mins until softened. Meanwhile cook spinach in a pan with a little water if it's not frozen. Squeeze excess moisture out of the spinach.

Mash beans well and mix with spinach, breadcrumbs, cumin and coriander. Add the onion mixture and stir well.

Think I got about 8-10 burgers from this. Minimoo loves them."

I need to update my pasta post (such is the social whirlygig of my life that these are the sorts of things I now worry about) as we've recently discovered that conchiglie are great for things like pasta, bacon and peas because if you give it a stir the veggies get stuck in the shell which makes a dinky little parcel of carbs, veggies and protein. Same for spag bol, which we rarely have with spag as  both Babybear and her father find it irritating.


Lin's daughter Small, as she tells us, actually sings to this recipe so that was all the recommendation I needed to hear...

"This is the first thing I gave Small that really excited her. She makes motorbike hands & croons to it.

1 onion
garlic
1 courgette
Fromage Frais
Pesto
Pasta

Finely chop the onion & soften it in some oil with the garlic. Meanwhile grate the courgette & squeeze all of the water out of it. Add the courgettes to the pan and let the whole thing mush down. Stir in some fromage frais (how much depends on how loose you want the mush to be) and some pesto (to baby's taste - I started with a teaspoon and am gradually increasing quantities as Small seems to like it a bit stronger.) Serve with pasta."

These sound rather tasty and the idea of the oatmeal is really appealing from a crazy insulin rushy point of view...

Oat, Cheese and Apple Scones

200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter
50g fine oatmeal
1 tsp sugar
125g Cheddar, cut into v little cubes
1 dessert apple, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
5 tbsp  milk, formula or EBM

Preheat the oven to 200C. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingertips until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then stir through the oatmeal and sugar. Stir in the cheese and apple pieces followed by the milk. Bring the dough together with your hands and pat into a round disc on a floured surface.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2cm/ 3/4 inch.  Cut out scones with cutter or knife. Brush the tops with the extra buttermilk and bake for 15 minutes until risen and nicely browned.

Yummy! It might be easier to bake it as one big scone and cut wedge slices out of it.

PS I needed to add a bit more milk than recipe, and they might be able to use a bit more apple.