Category Archives: recipe

Creamy lentils

Posted on June 15, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Lentils are a great food. Full of protein and fibre, cheap and easy to cook. Puree them for your baby, keep them whole for your toddler, feed them to your whole family. They’re also low in calories so a great meal to fill a mummy up if she’s trying to lose her baby weight.

Red lentils break down more than other types when they cook, so they’re perfect for our little ones. They’re great too if you want to make a thick soup. The following recipe would also work really well as a soup. If after pureeing it’s too thick, add a little stock. And it’s easy to add some chopped vegetables like carrots, leeks, celery, etc.

A little while ago I came across a mummy blogger who freezes cooked lentils. Her favourite thing to do is add the frozen lentils to cooking rice. I haven’t tried this, but it’s a good way to add some extra protein to a meal.

My creamy lentils uses the tomato pasta sauce I often make for Nicholas and always have in the freezer. You could use some chopped tomatoes or some tomato puree instead. Add chopped tomato (chopped as small as you can) after you’ve drained the cooked lentils and cook them over a low heat for a couple of minutes to break the tomatoes down.

CREAMY LENTILS

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Makes about 4 toddler servings
Freezable

1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
1 shallot, finely diced
7 tbsp homemade tomato sauce
1/4 tsp dried oregano
Drizzle of olive oil (optional)

Put the lentils in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then drop the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are soft. Drain off the excess liquid.

While the lentils are cooking, put the shallot in a small microwave-safe bowl, add 1 tablespoon of water and cook on medium in the microwave for 2 minutes. Drain.

When the lentils are cooked and drained, add the shallot, tomato sauce and oregano and mix well.

If serving to a baby or as soup, puree the mixture until smooth.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil over the top if desired.

Variations:

use onion intead of shallot
add a little garlic
add chopped vegetables to cook with the lentils (such as carrots, leeks, celery)
use tomato puree or chopped tomatoes instead of the homemade tomato sauce

Other uses:

add to other soups or stews
add to cooked rice
serve as a side dish to meat or fish

Double-baked banana teething biscuits

Posted on June 13, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Biscuits are my favourite thing to bake. They’re probably my favourite thing to eat as well. For a quick sugar fix with less guilt than a piece of cake, they can’t be beaten. I like them chewy, crumbly, crisp or gooey – I’m not picky! Usually the perfect accompaniment is a glass of milk, but for the famous Italian cantuccini that are rock hard you have to, just have to, dip them in a sweet dessert wine.

Cantuccini are extra hard from being baked twice. This technique is perfect to make teething rusks or biscuits for your dribbling munchkin to gnaw on.

I came across a recipe for twice-baked banana teething biscuits by Jennifer Cheung. This is my first try and it needs some adjusting. The second baking was too long in my oven and it coincided with Nicholas needing more attention so I didn’t check them. Although in the photo of the original recipe the biscuits look very dark, mine came out looking more burnt :(. Oh well, not everything works all the time. Next time I would bake them the second time for 20-30 minutes. However, Nicholas hasn’t minded them being overcooked.

I made half the mixture. First because the recipe looked as if it would make a large amount of biscuits (although you can freeze the biscuits) and second because I had one and a half very ripe bananas that needed using and they mashed up into exactly half of what the original recipe needed. I used a loaf pan rather than the slice tin suggested because of the smaller amount of mixture, but it rose a lot so next time I’d use a wider tin.

BANANA TEETHING BISCUITS

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1hr 30 mins
Makes about 20
Freezable

1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 1/2 bananas)
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat oven to 180C and line a slice tin with baking paper.

Mix all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl until well combined.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for one hour.

Leave the oven door open to cool and drop the temperature to 150C.

Remove what now looks like a banana cake from the pan and cool a little. Slice into sticks (I found it easier to use a bread knife as my loaf was quite high) and lay the slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Using a bread knife makes it easier to slice

After I took this photo I sliced some of the fatter biscuits in half

Bake for another 20-30 minutes.

What do you do when your little one is teething to help soothe their sore gums?

Update: my next attempt at these biscuits was much more successful… and also sugar-free!

4 Comments

Posted in baby, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged baby, banana, biscuit, cantuccini, finger food, freezable, freeze, Jennifer Cheung, recipe, snack, teething, teething biscuit, teething biscuits, toddler, wholemeal flour. Bookmark the permalink.

Tuna and corn frittata

Posted on June 11, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Frittatas are great because you can usually whip them up with what you already have in the kitchen. Cut them up into strips and your toddler will love feeding himself/herself. And served with a salad, they’re a great meal for you too. Why not eat the rest that your munchkin doesn’t eat yourself?

There are so many flavour combinations that work well in a frittata. Use leftover cooked chicken and add mushrooms, leftover roasted vegetables like pumpkin and add feta, or pieces of asparagus with feta and thyme works wonderfully too.

Writing down this recipe, I realised I have NO idea what you call the individual stems of chives. For those of you who know what my job was before I had Nicholas, I’m sure you can imagine my frustration! You have sprigs of rosemary, parsley, mint and thyme, but do you have a sprig of chives? I have no idea. If someone knows, please tell me!

I cooked my frittata completely on the stove, flipping it to cook the other side. The more conventional way is not to flip but to put the frying pan under the grill to cook the top. If you prefer to finish cooking it under the grill, make sure you use a frying pan that is safe to go in the oven (in other words, one that doesn’t have a handle that will melt). I’ve had many disasters in the kitchen but have so far never melted a handle. I have, however, managed to melt a thermometer…

TUNA AND CORN FRITTATA

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Makes 3-4 toddler servings or 2 adult servings
Freezable

1/2 185g can tuna, drained and flaked
3 tbsp corn (frozen or tinned and drained)
5g butter
3 chive stems
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Pinch of salt (optional)

Melt butter in a small non-stick frying pan (mine is about 20cm in diameter) over a med-low heat. Add tuna and corn and use scissors to snip chives over the pan. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes.

Season the beaten egg if you wish and pour into the pan. Swirl the pan around to make sure the egg is evenly spread. Turn heat up to medium and cook for 2-3 minutes until edges are cooked and starting to turn up, and underneath is lightly golden brown.

Use a spatula to slightly life around the edges. Being careful not to burn yourself, place a dinner plate upside down over the pan and flip everything over. Carefully slide the frittata off the plate and back into the pan. Cook the other side for 2-3 minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool a little.

Variations:

use finely sliced spring onions instead of the chives
add crumbled feta
before you turn it, grate over some cheddar cheese

What other flavour combinations do you think would be yummy in a frittata?

2 Comments

Posted in dinner, family, lunch, recipe, toddler and tagged chives, corn, dinner, egg, family, finger food, freezable, freeze, frittata, lunch, recipe, toddler, tuna. Bookmark the permalink.

Super easy and fast creamy spinach pasta sauce

Posted on June 9, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

This is one of the easiest meals to cook. Not counting the pasta you serve it over, there are two ingredients. Two. What could be more basic than that?!

I can’t remember where I came across this fabulous way of wilting spinach. It probably is just as quick to wilt it in a pan if I really think about it, but doing it this way feels like it’s much quicker. And you don’t have a pan to wash. Try it and if it seems quicker then that’s my time-saving tip for you for the day!

To keep it super easy and fast I haven’t weighed the spinach, just grabbed a handful. You could use any type of cream (double is what I had in the fridge) and the amount you use really depends on how creamy you want the sauce. Exact measurements aren’t important here. Just relax and go with your cooking instincts.

SUPER EASY AND FAST CREAMY PASTA SAUCE

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 0 mins 🙂
Makes 1 toddler serving

1 large handful of fresh spinach
1-2 tbsp double cream

Fill up your kettle and turn it on. Put the spinach in a colander. Pour over half of the boiling water holding the colander over the sink. Push the spinach down with a spoon to drain it. Pour the rest of the boiling water over and drain as much as you can.

Chop the spinach and put it in a small bowl. Add 1 tbsp cream and mix to combine. Add more cream if you wish.

Serve over cooked pasta.

Variations: none this time because any variation I can think of makes this a bit more time-consuming and we don’t want that!

Other uses:

serve over rice
use as a crepe filling

Do you have any time-saving tips to share?

Cod in prosciutto with courgettes (adult recipe)

Posted on June 8, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

As promised in my previous post, the recipe for a great zucchini/courgette side dish. It goes fantastically with any fish and can turn a rather boring piece of poached or fried fish into something more special.

I came across this way of cooking zucchini through a Jill Dupleix recipe I’m fairly sure was in The Times when she was a food writer for them. Her idea of wrapping cod (or any white fish) in prosciutto is very yummy and a great way to avoid overcooking the fish. She has a cod in prosciutto recipe on her website but she serves it with cabbage (I’m not convinced I’d like it as much as the zucchini!).

Jill Dupleix suggests the variation of substituting the prosciutto for streaky bacon which I’m sure would work very well. When I made this a few days ago I was sure we had prosciutto in the fridge (I live with an Italian after all!), but when I came to make it I discovered it was pancetta. I used the pancetta without saying anything to hubby but after his first mouthful his critique was ‘Pancetta’s too sweet for this recipe’. And he’s probably right!

If I’m making this for other people I cut the fish into smaller pieces, as the recipe suggests, to look prettier, otherwise I just wrap the whole fillet. To wrap the fish, lay your slices of prosciutto horizontally on a cutting board overlapping a little. Place the fish vertically in the middle making sure very little if any of the fillet extends beyond the prosciutto at the top and bottom. Bring the prosciutto over on one side and then the other, folding in any excess.

The only thing I’ve changed from the original recipe is to omit seasoning the fish well before wrapping in the prosciutto. Sometimes I use some black pepper, but never any salt as the prosciutto is salty enough. The weight of the fish is also very generous in the original recipe; I usually use 150g more or less for each person.

I tend to always use caraway seeds in the zucchini rather than fennel. Caraway has a subtler flavour and hubby isn’t a great fan of fennel seeds. Why not try both and see which you prefer?

COD IN PROSCIUTTO WITH COURGETTES

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Serves 2 adults

2 cod fillets, 150-180g each
4-6 slices prosciutto
1 tbsp olive oil
2 courgettes, washed
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp fennel or caraway seeds
salt and pepper
a few sprigs of parsley to serve

Trim cod into neat squares or rectangles. Wrap them neatly in prosciutto. Warm two dinner plates in the oven.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan and cook fish presentation-side down first, until prosciutto is crisp (about 3-4 mins). Turn and cook until other side is crisp and fish just cooked through (another 3-4 mins).

While the fish is cooking, coursely grate the unpeeled courgettes. Heat butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a second non-stick frying pan over a med-high heat and toss courgette very quickly in the hot pan, adding lemon juice, fennel or caraway seeds, salt and pepper.

Arrange courgettes on the two warmed plates, top with the cod and some sprigs of parsley.

Variations:

Use any other white fish (haddock, plaice, etc.)
Use streaky bacon instead of prosciutto (you’ll need about 6-8 slices)

Other uses:

The courgette works well as a side with any fish

1 Comment

Posted in family, recipe and tagged bacon, caraway seeds, cod, courgette, family, fennel seeds, fish, Jill Dupleix, prosciutto, recipe, streaky bacon, The Times, white fish, zucchini. Bookmark the permalink.

Zucchini bites

Posted on June 6, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

We had a fabulous four-day weekend in Bruges, and Nicholas had a great time toddling around practising his walking and his balance on the cobbled streets. There’s nothing like a mini family break to recharge the batteries. We ate lots of scrumptious things (and tried lots of Belgian beer!). Nicholas had his first taste of mussels and frog legs, and loved them both (oh and his first lollypop, given to him by a waiter). How proud am I that he seems to be turning into a mini-foodie?!?

So back home and back into the kitchen, but with some more enthusiasm for cooking. And today, one of our very tried and tested, and very much loved recipes made from a fabulous vegetable – zucchini or courgette (depending on where you’re from). You can do so much with this vegetable. You can grate them raw into a salad, slice and grill them, chopped into sticks and steamed they’re great with dips, stuff and bake them, or roast them in chunks. One of my favourite ways to have them is grated and very quickly fried with a little bit of lemon juice and caraway seeds; it’s the perfect accompaniment to fish (I’ll write up the recipe soon!).

I often add zucchini to recipes I make for Nicholas. It has a very mild flavour and so goes with a lot of things – diced finely into a minestrone, grated and ‘hidden’ in burgers, chopped and added to casseroles, or simply steamed and dipped into yogurt. I came across this recipe for zucchini tots and immediately thought they would be perfect finger food. And I absolutely love a recipe I can easily make a few servings of and put in the freezer for another day. I made some slight changes, rolling the mixture into smaller bites and baking them on a tray rather than using a mini muffin tin (which I don’t have!) and using cheddar cheese instead of parmesan to cut down the salt content.

You can easily make bigger ones for adults for a low calorie lunch (because of the high water content zucchini is super low in calories), and they’d be perfect to take on picnics.

It’s important to squeeze the zucchini after you grate it to get rid of the excess liquid (and it has a lot of liquid). The simplest way is to squeeze a handful of it over the sink. You can also put it into a clean tea towel and squeeze it. You really don’t need to measure the grated zucchini (the quantities don’t have to be exact); one good-sized zucchini should be fine.

ZUCCHINI BITES

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15-18 mins
Makes about 15 bites
Freezable

1 cup finely grated and squeezed zucchini (about 1 large zucchini)
1 egg
1/4 medium onion, finely diced
1/4 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
Pinch of salt (optional)

Heat oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Put all the ingredients into a medium-sized bowl and mix until combined. Shape into small balls and place on the lined baking tray.

Cook for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

Variations:

add chopped herbs (chives, mint or parsley would all work well)
add crumbled feta

Tips:

Don’t use aluminium foil on the baking tray as the bites will stick to it and will be difficult to take off.
To make your own dry breadcrumbs, keep leftover bread uncovered for a couple of days until it’s hard. Break into chunks and chop in a food processer or blender until it’s fine crumbs. The breadcrumbs can be stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag for several months.

1 Comment

Posted in dinner, family, lunch, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged cheddar, cheese, courgette, dinner, finger food, lunch, recipe, snack, toddler, vegetarian, zucchini. Bookmark the permalink.

Frozen yogurt strawberries

Posted on June 1, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

A very quick post before we load up the car and spend the Jubilee long weekend abroad. Our spell of hot sunny weather has finished here in the UK, but hopefully it will soon return and this is another recipe that’s perfect for hot days, and not just for your munchkins.

I came across this simple idea on Pinterest (how I love Pinterest!) but unfortunately there was no link. It is, however, very easy to figure out. Use whole strawberries for adults and quartered strawberries for little ones. I’ve also seen (yes, still on Pinterest) blueberries pierced on bamboo skewers, so you have blueberry ‘kebabs’, dipped in yogurt and frozen. Yum! You could try sliced bananas, raspberries, let your imagination go wild!

FROZEN YOGURT STRAWBERRIES

Dip quartered strawberries into plain yogurt (the thicker set yogurt is best simply because you get a good coating).

Place on a tray lined with baking paper that you can fit in the freezer.