Apparently you can buy millet everywhere nowadays... no really. I'm not feeling quite so smug about my fifteen types of oatmeal now, am I?

"Thought I'd share these, because millet is a proper 'superfood' by all accounts (rich in iron, potassium and calcium and all eight essential amino acids) but goodness is it boring to eat plain. Luckily however, cooked millet grain has a moist breadcrumby consistency that makes it a really good base ingredient for burgers. And as a bonus, if you shallow-fry millet burgers they come out with a gorgeously crisp crust.

How to cook the millet first:
Wash the millet grain (about 100g will be enough for burgers for two people plus a baby, or for one of you and the baby plus a few burgers to freeze) and gently fry it in a little olive oil in a saucepan for a minute. This makes the grains crack so they absorb water better. Add chopped onion and garlic at this stage if you like. Then carefully pour on water to just over the level of the grain, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes until the water is absorbed (add more water if it's going dry before the grain is cooked and soft).

What to do with your cooked millet:
I would guess you could add pretty much anything in the way of meat, veg, seasonings... but here are two that have become favourites for us:

Millet and lamb burgers. Take about the same volume of minced lamb as you have cooked millet, and mix together with whatever herbs/spices you fancy.
You're looking for a nice squidgy texture. Shape into burgers and if possible leave them in the fridge or a cool place for half an hour - this helps the consistency. Shallow fry in olive oil (for that lovely crispy
crust) for 3-5 mins a side, or bake at 180 degrees/Gas 4 for 15-20 minutes.

Millet and mushroom burgers: as a rough guide, 4 big flat field mushrooms is about right for 100g millet. Chop mushrooms very small and fry gently until they start to go nicely mushy. (A little garlic is a good addition here.) Then mix into the cooked millet, season to taste, make into burgers and cook as above."

Now obviously you've all been doing this since the clock struck six months but I've only just realised today that if you cut a pitta in half to make a pocket, slide some thin slices of cheese and a bit of chopped tomato into it and then stick it in the toaster then it makes a pitta melty thing that can then be left to cool down a bit (a bit? they're thermo-bloody-nuclear) and cut into fingers. It was great as it wasn't too messy so could be eaten standing up, which is how Babybear likes to lunch these days. A stick of carrot in one hand and a pitta finger in the other, very virtuous. And so very quick.

Okay, tell me. Am I the last person on earth to realise that this is a quick and easy lunch? what other things could we jam into the cheesy mixture that wouldn't then fall out? Spring onions? Do they actually have any nutritional benefit?

Post Script

Oooohoooh, these are really coming into their own now that the sun is out. Which as you may be bitterly aware, means over the last two days in the UK.

Now as you may know I'm not a huge one for the whole disguising of vegetables thing, but one of my favourite sandwich fillings ever is grated carrot, hummous and raisins. I think it would be revolting in these, needless to say.

However, grate one carrot and some cheese into a bowl (I used the Microplane grater but a fine setting would do the trick) along with some spring onions and a half teaspoon of either cumin or sweet paprika and they are lovely, all cheesy and melty and sweet from the carrot. You could add tomato too but Babybear seems to have an allergy so they're off the menu for us for the moment.

You're not tricking anyone, I promise, but if you do have any reluctant veg-eating siblings in the family I'd have to say that you can't tell there's carrot in there once the cheese has melted around it. And for BLWers like myself who sometimes wish to cut down on the amount of cheese and 'up' the veg, they are great. My husband has eaten them for lunch for the past two days, if that's any indication. Made them himself and everything...

At least this time he admits to copying it... I have to say that I can't imagine making a mousakka with mince now so I do know what he means. And we do love a lentil on this site. Personally I'd want to have a look at the salt content of the cans but of course you could just use dried ones. Puy lentils take bout 30 mins to cook from raw so I'm guessing brown lentils are about the same.

Yes, he's a dad. We let them sneak on occasionally just to make the place look purty. .

Now if memory serves, we already have a similar recipe on here but you can't have too much of a good thing...






"Another muffin recipe for you! The original recipe is in cups but I have done my best to give weight conversions but they might be a little iffy. I freeze these and they are a staple picnic food.
Lin

Fibernie, it would seem, it rather in love with her silicone muffin mould...

See, there's nothing wrong with an easy recipe, is there? I have a similar one that I rather pompously call Chicken Harissa... can you guess how it is made?

"I made this up the other night out of desperation to make something tempting.....not sure it's really classed as a recipe though, due to lack of ingredients and processes - just how I like it!

Chicken Pesto

Smear pesto over chicken - if you have time to marinate for a couple of hours, bonus! - and cook in a griddle pan, although grill would probably work just as well.

Bubs gobbled this up, and DH declared it a new favourite!"

"These are a bit of a BLW work-in-progress – they don’t hold together like potato type fishcakes, but they are lovely – the Nome liked them at lot, but I reckon they’d be better for older babies who are a bit less interested in the Jackson Pollock approach to eating. Anyway, adapted from Nigel Slater’s “Appetite”.  I use 2 biggish fillets of rainbow trout to make enough for me, my husband and the Nome.  The seasonings vary every time I make them, depending on what I’ve got in the house.  I’d say coriander and lime were my favourite basics.

Put your choice of flavourings into a blender (if you have one!  Pestle and mortar may work…).  I wouldn’t use ALL of these, necessarily:
2 spring onions OR 1 shallot OR ½ an onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 chillies (I put these in after I’d mixed the rest and taken some out for Nome.  You may be braver)
A couple of lime leaves or I stalk of lemongrass, outer leaves removed, and roughly chopped OR the zest of 1 lime
Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Handful of coriander leaves

Blend to a coarse sludge – I added a bit of lime juice first when making this for Nome, as I didn’t want her to get a sudden bite of ginger, say, so I wanted a smoother blend.  Mix in a tablespoon of Thai fish sauce (I know it’s salty, but it’s really really good in this). 

Empty this into a bowl.  Roughly chop the fish, and then put it in the blender and blend to a coarse paste.  Mix with the seasoning paste, and shape into small cakes, using floured hands.  I think they’re probably best chilled for a while here, to help them hold together.  Fry on both sides in vegetable oil or similar until golden brown.

I tried to make sticky coconut rice with this – wasn’t sticky enough, so our kitchen floor was covered, but what she did get it she seemed to enjoy.

Would be grateful to hear of any modifications people make to make these more blw-friendly."

"I call these turkey twizzlers and madam likes them with pumpkin wedges..... eggfree too so good for allergies.
 
I mix a handful of minced turkey with some apple and pear  (uncooked so I mash the pear till it's quite smooth but the apple chopped really finely till it's kinda shredded), half a teaspoon of cinnamon and rolled the mixture into some sausage shapes (she has them about the size of a chipolata). 
Stick 'em on the George Forman (could grill or ovenbake) for about 20 minutes until very well browned.  I leave them to cool for aaages and she eats them cold.  They freeze really well too so I normally cook extras."

Because Elizabeth took a look at the recipe section of this blog and thought 'you know what it needs? More recipes involving pulses, that's what...'
We are forever in her debt, of course. All the more so because this is a recipe that she actually made Before Having A Baby, which is promising in the extreme.

Make this, honestly, just make it. It's sooooo nice. And this recipe generally makes too much sauce so there's always some to freeze and serve to the baby with pasta shells on those days when the take-away menus are winking at you and you'd rather open your wrists than cook another family meal...

Okay, first things first I am a bit rubbish with measurements. What we're aiming for with the sauce is a bolognese-y type consistency and apart from that I make this recipe when I find myself with a big tub of plain yoghurt to use up. It's all storecupboard stuff. It looks like a lot of work but it isn't, it's just that I'm useless at writing recipes. 5 mins prep of the sauce and 30 mins cooking. Then walk away and leave it in the oven for 40-ish.

1/2 a pack of Puy lentils, (which I reckon is about 250g)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 or two carrots
1 or two sticks of celery
Some spices. Cinnamon or mixed spice is the type of thing. A good couple of heaped teaspoons
One can of plum tomatoes
Slosh of red wine, Marsala or Port, whatever's in the cupboard.
Tablespoon of tomato puree
1 red pepper
1 aubergine
About half a big tub of plain yoghurt, (which again I think should be about 200-300g's worth so a couple of wee tubs will also do the trick)
1 egg
Some mature cheddary cheese, if it's mild it'll taste a bit bleh in my humble opinion.

First make your bolognese-ish sauce, so chop and sweat your onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, add the chopped carrot and celery and cook down a bit. Then add the spices and gently, gently, gently fry. Add more olive oil, be generous if you want to, it's not like the rest of the recipe is high in fat. Rinse the lentils and fling them in, along with the tomatoes and good covering of water and simmer. I sometimes add a bay leaf as well if I remember.
 
While the sauce is cooking, stick a fork into the stalk of the red pepper and whack it onto the gas burner, turning it every so often as it blackens a bit. Put it in a plastic bag so the skin will steam off a bit and then rinse off the skin under a cold tap. If you can be bothered roasting it properly you could do that, but remember it doesn't really need to cook, just sweeten a bit, as it's going in the oven later.

It generally says on the pack that the lentils take 20 or so minutes to cook so at that point I taste the sauce and add the tomato puree and the booze to taste. I reckon another ten minutes or so makes the sauce nice and sludgy.  

Meanwhile, finely, finely slice your aubergine and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. You can thickly slice it if you prefer but the bugger will take all day to cook.

I use a square dish about 30cm x 30cm and I lay out, not particularly neatly, a layer of aubergine and one of the sauce, with a few bits of pepper on it, then aubergine then sauce with pepper etc, finishing with a layer of aubergine. I reckon I normally get about three layers and have sauce left over.

Mix your yoghurt, egg and a good few handfuls of grated cheese and pour it onto the top of the dish and whack it into the oven for 40-45 mins or until the topping looks delish and a knife goes easily through the aubergine. The topping will slightly souffle up a bit and taste Amazing, I promise. It freezes well and is one of those things that tastes even better the next day as leftovers.

"Great Nanna Peg's/Nanny Annie's potato cakes

This recipe is actually the Nome's great granny's, but her Nanna makes a mean version.  They are a lighter, fluffier and altogether more comforting version of tattie scones.  I grew up eating them with bacon as a lovely Friday night tea - thought that they might make usable fist food, and a good vehicle for other flavourings, and the Nome shoved them into her mouth as fast as her little paws could go.

Potatoes - fluffy mashable kind
butter - unsalted, ideally
flour - I use plain, but can't see SR doing any harm

Peel, chop and boil potatoes until cooked enough to mash. Drain, and mash with a knob of butter until most of the lumps are out - don't overmash. (Add extra ingredients at this point - see below for suggestions). Add flour little by little until the dough just stops feeling sticky, but is still light and fluffy.  Place on a floured board, and pat into a circle about 1 1/2 cm thick.  My mum usually cuts this into wedges, but I went all posh and used a scone cutter.  A complete waste of time, as the Nome rearranged them into the abstract shape of her choosing, and then shovelled them in.  Anyway, put a very small amount of butter in a hot frying pan, let it lightly cover the pan, and then fry on both sides until golden brown - it's very quick.

Suggestions for additions - a good Lancashire cheese met with N's approval, and I've also made them with spinach and herbs.  They'd make a good fishcake as well, I reckon, and bits of other veg would also work.

The great thing is that you can collect up the bits that litter the high chair tray, squish them together, and if your child is as laid back as mine, they'll just treat it as a brand new potato cake.  I think it's good "early BLW" food, as it's very handleable, but soft enough to bite and manipulate easily for the novice baby."

...continuing the pulse or bust theme of the recipes section, we now have the hummus burger. I think they sound great, actually.

"I know the list of ingredients is a bit long
but it's honestly dead easy to make. It's fine to add
the fresh chilli as long as you take the seeds out, I
promise - the result is tasty rather than spicy. But
you might not want to squeeze extra lemon on the baby's
burgers.
On a personal note, may I add that I live in South
China where the lychee season is in full swing.
Apparently Annabel Karmel's books haven't been
translated into Cantonese yet. It's a tragedy waiting
to happen.

200g hummus
1 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp tahini
half tsp ground cumin
3 spring onions, chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded, very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (plus wedges to squeeze
over cooked burger)
2 x 400g cans chickpeas
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
1 cup greek yogurt
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Put hummus, fresh breadcrumbs, tahini, cumin, chilli,
garlic, coriander, juice, 1 can of chickpeas in a food processor and whizz till it forms a thick paste. Scrape into a bowl, and stir in the chickpeas. Shape into 8 burgers (you may need more breadcrumbs to get the right texture). Mix dry crumbs with sesame seeds, roll burgers in the mixture, and fry in olive oil on both sides till nice and toasty looking. Stir the yogurt, virgin olive oil and coriander together and serve the burgers with the yogurt sauce, lemon wedges and toasted pitta bread."


      ____________________________________________

In fairness, the person who sent me this email does seem to recognise how bizarre this is but she does a lot of entertaining so therefore has a need for a canape maker, unlike most inhabitants of the known world. But wait, BLW fans! What could be yet another £20 wasted at Lakeland Limited is suddenly a must-have...

Whomovedmychocolate says:

"I just bought a Lakeland canape maker - it's like a sandwich toaster but it makes little walnut shaped pastry shells (yeah I know, posh or what!?)

But I discovered you can put small lumps of bread dough in it and make little round bread shells which you can fill with cream cheese and salmon etc for babies) and they are just the perfect size for grabbing.

They are also pretty cool for transporting because you can make up the shells using two of them, put them in a pot and take them with you (although you get the same amount of mess out as home - but hey, hopefully it's on someone else's floor so you don't have to clear up).

It's one of these."

And it can make 120 in one hour... lolol...

Good to see that the aunties of BLW babies are on the case...




"This is all the way from my sister in New Zealand - with a few UK/BLW tweaks.

Red Lentil & Carrot Cakes

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp mild curry powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 tbs red lentils
3/4 cup chicken stock (but I generally use water or that reduced-salt stuff)
1 medium carrot, grated
150g kumura (NZ veggie) or sweet potato or squash
1/4 -1/2 cup grated cheese.

Fry onion & spice in the fat of your choice. (I do bung in some garlic as well.)
Add lentils & stock. Add carrot and the starchy veg.
Cover and simmer for 15-20 mins
Stir in the cheese.

This is the original recipe which makes a loose-ish mash for spoon-feeders or older toddlers who like to show off cutlery skills.

To tweak to BLW stylee:
I usually add more lentils, a touch more of the starchy veg and a bit more water. I cook covered for about 10 mins and then uncovered for the rest of the time until the mixture is dry before stirring in the cheese. When cool, this will make a mash of a stiff enough consistency to be picked up by hand. It can also be combined with breadcrumbs to stiffen the mixture further and then made into cakes in the usual fashion.

Either way it freezes well.

As suggested elsewhere on this site, this can be combined with spinach & cream cheese for a sandwich spread.

Small is liking this a lot at the moment.

Regards

Lin"

Poor Lin has discovered that the next-door flat will be undergoing extensive renovations this summer and therefore anticipates eating in the park A Lot so she has suggested that we all stick our sandwich ideas into one post... She's a bit giddy, I think, at the idea of having her Very Own Poll so I'll cut and paste her email below as there are supplementary questions involved.

We do enjoy a bit of tuna mayo in this house, and I find that if you butter both sides in a debauched manner then things such as ham or cheese stay together. She also likes pate, but I've only started giving it to her recently, and if we're having an impromptu picnic I'm not above asking the man in the deli for a selection of bits of ham, salami, and getting him to slice some cheese for us to have on rolls. Oh, the bliss of having a weaned child over one whose salt intake you don't have to bother about quite so much. Also I personally enjoy a mixture of hummus, grated carrot and sultanas in a sandwich but Babybear has been off hummus for some time now so I don't get it very often.

And I know this is a bit fiddly and faffy and therefore against the grain but I very often find myself running a rolling pin over Babybear's sandwiches and sometimes even cutting off the crusts because she can be a bit of a pain in her determination to disassemble them. I've not yet cut shapes out with cookie cutters, for me that's a Bridge Too Far but go for it if you reckon it'll work for you.

Anyway, here's Lin's starter for ten. Thanks for any and all contributions.

Aaaaah, Quorn. That's on my list of 'things we should eat more of.' Or is that tofu? I get so confused...

"Hi there Aitch,

I thought it was about time we had a Quorn recipe on the blog so here is a recipe for veggie meatballs.  It isn’t really mine, I have amended it from Jenny Maizels book but the Pumpkin loves these served with a tomato sauce and pasta so I thought I would share it.  Be warned though, it can be quite messy.

 

Veggie Meatballs (but you could use mince and have normal meatballs). Makes about 16

 

1 small red onion chopped

1clove garlic, chopped

200g veggie mince (I use Quorn)

1tsp dried mixed herbs

1tsp of smoked paprika

2-3 tbsp of passata/tinned toms (I usally use passata but I don’t think it matters much)

11/2 slices of bread made into breadcrumbs

1 beaten egg

 

Heat some olive oil and fry onion and garlic until soft

Add mince with herbs and tomatoes, cook for about 5 mins (until it is cooked through if you are using meat rather than veggie stuff)

Stir in breadcrumbs, leave to cool and then stir in the egg.

Shape into walnut size balls (you can freeze any you don’t want immediately at this point)

Place on a greased baking sheet for about 20 mins (200/400/gas mark 6)"

Rice Cake
Ingredients
150g/5¼oz cooked Thai fragrant rice
1 free-range egg, beaten
2 spring onions, finely chopped
½ red pepper, finely chopped
drizzle soy sauce
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
2. Place the cooked rice into a large bowl. Stir in the beaten egg along with the spring onions, pepper and soy sauce.
3. Heat the oil in a small to medium non-stick frying pan. Spoon the rice mixture into the pan and press down. Fry for about two minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for a further 10-12 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Turn the cake out and cut into wedges to serve.

Although lovely the next time I would add more ingredients (maybe garlic, some herbs or veggies or ginger) to give it some more taste, but definitely a good base recipe, oh and for those of us who don't have every chefs implement known to man, I cooked it in a frying pan and transfered it to an oven proof dish.

Freezable, chaps, and quick. Two major pluses in my book.

"Cheesy Vegetable Nuggets

To be honest, I don't really do much more than whack some chicken livers into the fying pan with some garlic or shallot or onion (whatever) and then blend it with some microwave melted butter and nice fresh thyme and a splash of Madeira - if it's not for the baby. There are heaps of ways of making it, just make sure you give the chicken livers a nice rinse first and then pat dry before frying. And fry them in butter... what the hell, you only live once.

Here is A Proper Recipe, however. Not sure about rolling it into a log, but this is the way my Jewish chums make it, with boiled eggs.

1lb chicken livers

½ cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon pepper

½ cup grated onions

1-2 cloves garlic, mashed

4 eggs, hard boiled

2 tablespoons cognac, optional

1 cup chopped fresh parsley, optional

 

Cook chicken livers in boiling water for about 7-10 minutes; drain well.

Blend chicken livers with all other ingredients, retaining some of the parsley, with hand mixer.

Chill until firm; shape into a log and roll in parsley if desired.

Keep refrigerated until served.

 

PS. Now do a search on the site for Liver, just to check if you think they are a suitable food. Some say a firm yes, some no, but I personally don't feel Babybear eats enough of this for it to be a problem.

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.

Now as far as I'm aware Melsy hasn't yet tried this on her wee one, but she will soon. In the meantime I think it sounds amazing and am going to make it just as soon as I can get my mitts on some preserved lemons. I saw them in the supermarket the other day and rather wondered what to do with them, Couscous, of course, can be quite messy though so I tend to overcook Babybear's to an inathentic clump.

Someone on Mumsnet posted this recipe with feta cheese but hot feta makes me heave... Anyway, it reminded me of an ancient WeightWatchers recipe my mum used to make and honest injun, it's really nice. Plus it takes 5 minutes to prepare - hooooo-zah!


Lasagne strips
1 big tub of full-fat cottage cheese
One or two tins of chopped tomatoes, dependent on how big your dish
Bag of spinach
Nutmeg to grate
Some more cheese, whatever you've got. Mozzarella would be swish, grated cheddar fine.
 

The first thing you have to do is work out approximately how many bits of lasagne you'll need. Rather than using bits of cannelloni which are a pain to find and tend to make it home from the supermarket in shards, you'll be rolling up your lasagne pieces lengthways. So work it out, folks. I do mine in a dish that's about 25cm square, so that's 10 bits of lasagne.

Pour some boiling water into a bowl and put in the lasagne. It's better if you drop in a bit of olive oil and fan them out a bit as sometimes they can stick together. Leave for 5 minutes. (Post Script: Bear in mind, as has been demonstrated below in the comments section that the pasta would like to stick together and coagulate into a big old lasagne brick. You must fight against this, hence the oil and the fanning. Or use a shallow dish so that you can give the lasagne a bit of space. Or just keep an eye on it, so that you can give it a swoosh if it looks like it's going to stick. I'm making this sound a lot more complicated than it is, amn't I? [sighs])

Mix the cottage cheese and finely chopped spinach (you'll probably need less than a bag, but it's up to you) and grate some nutmeg in as well. Don't be too horrified if there seems to be tons of spinach and not much cheese, the spinach disappears. I should say that you are also at libery to make this recipe with ricotta cheese, which would be more correct. But I tend to keep cottage cheese in the house and it behaves much the same as ricotta, to be honest.

Here's where it's up to you what to do next... on the Mumsnet recipe they just spread out the mixture onto the pasta and rolled it up like a swiss roll, which is beyond easy. I put a blob at the end then rolled it up to make a tube and then jammed some more in each end.

Whichever method you use, put them in the dish and then cover with a tin of chopped tomatoes. Or two, if you think that you need the extra.

Lob some mozzarella or grated cheese on top and then stick it in the oven for about half-an-hour. I sliced up the cannelloni and put them out for Babybear and she loved stuffing them into her mouth. As did her father into his.

Carrie and Xavier's lentil cakes...

• 1 tbps olive oil
• 1 onion
• 125g red lentils
• 400ml veg stock or bouillon
• 85g bread crumbs (stale or oven dried is possible)
• Flat leaf parsley to taste (or other herbs - optional)

1. Gently fry onion in olive oil until soft.
   
2. Add the lentils and stock to the onions and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.
4. Mix with breadcrumbs and flat leaf parsley (optional).
5. Shape mixture into small patties for little hands to hold. If your mixture feels a little sticky add more bread crumbs.
6. Brush with oil and place on lightly oiled baking tray - cook for approx 7 to 10 mins on gas mark 6 (I did for about 12 I think)

I freeze them to keep them fresh and use them as and when I need them - although not as popular as the fish cakes, Xavier likes them a lot - I think to make them more interesting you could add different herbs/spices.
 

"Things to do with leftover roasted veg.... this lunchtime (at soft play hell) my daughter is having chopped up leftover  roast veg mixed (carrots, butternut squash, turnip and parsnip) with cream cheese and spread on fingers of wholemeal pitta bread.  It looked yum when I made it!

 

The rest of the roasted veg can be made into:

soup - fry with an onion until soft, add a no-salt stock cube and boiling water and whizz up - serve with large hunks of bread.

roasted veg pasta - make a simple tomato sauce and heat the veg in that then add pasta of choice.

fishcakes - add to mashed potato (might have that leftover too!) stir in tin of tuna or crab then dip in flour egg and crumbs and fry until golden each side.

 

Any more ideas?"

Here it is, posted permanently and searchably for posterity.




"I have recently taken up BLW with my 8 month old and thought I would pass on my fishcakes recipe for those who would like it - as it has gone down a storm...

Cook in ovenproof dish white fish (haddock/cod etc) in milk until turns opaque (check there are no bones) Gas mark 5 approx 10-15 mins
Boil some potatos and mash, no butter /milk needed. Finely chop some herbs, flat leaf parsley is good - but it is up to you.
Add fish and mash together, beat an egg and add small amount to mash to bind
Flour your hands and take small amounts of the mixture to make small patties.
Dip each patty in the beaten egg and dip in bread crumbs (stale or oven dried if possible).
Place on lightly oiled baking tray and bake in oven gas mark 5 for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden

They have been fantastic, I put them straight in the freezer to keep fresh and take what I need as and when....Enjoy!"

Rowan does appear to be taking the credit but I think if you read through the lines it's perfectly clear who she has ripped off this rather tasty-sounding recipe from.


"My mum was a caterer when I was growing up and always had quiche
in the house so I was fed that whenever I was hungry,and as a result
hadn't eaten it in 10 years. Unfortunately for me DH loves it and asked
his mum to make him some as I refuse to, so I had to rise to the
challenge! Munch nicked a load off him when he was eating it and loves
it. (Oh, and he says mine is nicer than his mums...ha ha).



Quiche

Butter
Flour (wholemeal and plain)
Cheese
Eggs
Milk
Random veg for filling

Grate 2 oz butter into 4 oz plain flour (I use half and half wholemeal
and plain) and rub until breadcrumbs, mix with a little bit of water
until you have a dough.
Roll out dough and either make one big one or use a fairy cake tin to make lots of little baby-hand sized bases. prick all over with a fork to stop bubbles and bake GM 6 or 200 degrees until golden (about 15 mins for big, 5-10 for small).

Fill bases with grated cheese mixed with chosen filling. Bacon, or I use
chopped ham or chicken for less saltiness, courgette, tomato slices
(Iuse cherry toms for little ones, very cute), peas, sweetcorn....whatever really. Beat together 3 eggs and 100 milk and pour over filling until reaches the top.

Put back in oven until golden brown and a knife comes out clean, about
20 mins for a big one and 5-10 again for small.

Little ones are quick to make and freeze well, I tend to make a tray
full at the weekend, freeze half and the rest feed Munch for a couple of
days (well, what's left after her dad nicks them all)."

She's not kidding about the flicking, by the way. Take a look at the photo...




"Munch absolutely adores this but it makes a hell of a mess as it is
quite good for flicking...


Eggy Fried Noodles

1 pack cheapo noodles
1 egg
Some frozen veg (peas, sweetcorn, beans etc)

Cook noodles according to packet without the season sachet.
I boil
kettle and put noodles in a bowl with some hot water and then microwave
for 2 mins.
Heat a pan and break in 1 egg and stir around for a bit until half
cooked. Add drained noodles and stir a bit more. Once egg is cooked take
off heat, stir in frozen veg and leave to sit for a minute or so while
the veg cools the egg and noodles...
Tip onto highchair (see pic!)"

Obviously Jacky puts stock, albeit half measures, into this but you could substitute wine of water and herbs if you wanted. It depends how careful you are feeling about salt, obviously. You could use cornflour to thicken the sauce, and I'm assuming that you would casserole it for say 40 mins at 180 in the oven. If you used raw chicken then I'd do it for at least an hour and a bit.

Now I hope Bat won't be offended if I express some hesitation about the salsa... Babybear is fairly adventurous but I just can't see a baby eating it. I will be happy to stand corrected, though, as it sounds absolutely lovely to this grown-up.

The patties sound cracking, though, don't they?

If Bunny was the person who sent me an hilarious photo of an exploded bowl of porridge then we can take her at her word that she's suffered quite a bit on that front. These alternative flapjacks do sound rather nice, though.

"Since I've had nothing but disasters with the porridge pancakes (entirely my fault!) we've been experimenting. Here's one for you dairy intolerants!

Stir together one cup of Ready Brek and one cup of pineapple juice until they form a thick paste. Microwave for 90 seconds.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and pour on the pineapple mixture. Spread it out into a rectangle, about 5mm thick, and score the surface into smaller blocks with the back of a knife. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 20 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave the mix to dry out and cool. Cut along the score lines and voila! Slightly chewy fruity flapjacky things!

These went down quite well with the Weeble, but I ate most of them ;-) "



Update. She was the person. Get a load of this, folks! Spot the deliberate errors? (Answers below)

 


A. Too much porridge
B. Clingfilm... oh lordy.

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.

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 ;-)

Probably noooot really called Andrew, in fact, but this email wasn't signed so Andrew is the only nominative detail I can glean from our correspondence. For the record, I think that if you want to make your own buttermilk you just mix equal amounts of natural yoghurt and semi-skimmed milk. I think...





Says 'Andrew':

"I reckon you could swop carrot for courgette, pepper, onion, etc, though probably fry them a bit first.

Also use any different cheese and herbs, and I'm sure normal milk would work, if you can't get buttermilk.



1 carrot, grated
15 stalks parsley, chopped
60g cheddar, grated
220g self-raising flour
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk (about 150ml, I think?)
1/2 cup vegetable oil


1. Preheat oven to 180c.
2. Mix carrot, parsley, cheese and flour.
3. In another bowl, whisk egg, buttermilk and oil.
4. Add this to dry ingredients and mix.
5. Spoon into muffin cases (makes 12) and bake for 20-25 mins."

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.

'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.