Tag Archives: freeze

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.

Banana pikelets

Posted on May 30, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

I find it extra hard to get inspiration for breakfast. My biggest hurdle is not being a morning person. Even if I’ve been up for quite a while before Nicholas wakes up, I don’t have the same enthusiasm for making him something different for breakfast. He’s also more fussy at breakfast.

Pikelets are little thick pancakes. They’re also called drop (or dropped) scones because of how the batter is dropped from a spoon into the pan to make them. They’re a perfect size for little hands to eat on their own.

I loved making them as a child and have vivid memories of impatiently waiting for the bubbles to appear so I could flip them over. They’re easy and very satisfying for kids to make.

I replaced the sugar in my favourite pikelet recipe with some honey, and added mashed banana and cinnamon. Even with the fruit, they’re not very sweet (if you want them sweeter add some more honey or use 1/4 cup of sugar). I also added some bicarbonate of soda to give some extra fluffiness, but they’re still good without it. After they’re cooked, they’ll still be a bit soft and gooey inside from the banana.

Freeze the ones you don’t eat immediately and have them as a snack another day.

BANANA PIKELETS

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Makes about 20
Freezable

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bananas, mashed
1 tbsp honey
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
small piece of butter, melted, to grease the pan

Sift flour, bicarbonate and cinnamon into a medium-sized bowl. Add banana, honey and egg, and mix to combine. Add milk gradually until you have a fairly thick batter (you might not need to add all the milk).

Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and brush with melted butter. Use a tablespoon to drop the mixture into the pan. Cook in batches, turning when bubbles appear on the surface (1-2 mins). Cook the other side until golden brown (about 1 min). Lift out and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm.

Variations:

add some vanilla essence for extra sweetness
leave out the banana and serve with fruit
try adding other fruit (grated apple, mashed strawberries, whole blueberries, sultanas or raisins)

Other uses:

top with jam and cream (or Nutella!) for afternoon tea

Tip: Wipe your pan clean with a piece of paper towel after each batch and then brush with some more melted butter.

4 Comments

Posted in breakfast, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged banana, bicarbonate of soda, breakfast, cinnamon, drop scones, dropped scones, family, finger food, freezable, freeze, honey, pancakes, pikelets, recipe, self-raising flour, snack, toddler. Bookmark the permalink.

Kofte

Posted on May 25, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

There’s no doubt my offspring loves meat. How could he not when he’s half Australian?! The other night I made him a fish pie. He’s had something similar before and eaten it but not with any great enthusiasm. This time I put a nice topping of mashed potato and carrot on the top with some fresh bread crumbs and grated cheese. Lots of grated cheese. I was hoping the cheese (one of his favourite foods) would encourage him to eat the fish. To skip to the end of the story, he had slow cooked lamb for dinner, part of the leftovers we were eating, and was very happy about it!

This recipe has a little bit of spice in it (ground cumin). If you’re not sure about your little one having spices, you can leave it out without any problem.

KOFTE

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Makes about 16
Freezable

400g lamb mince
1/4 onion, diced as finely as possible or coarsely grated
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
A little oil for greasing the grill pan
Yogurt to serve

Heat a grill pan over high heat.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until combined. Shape into short sausages about 5cm in length.

Turn the grill pan down to medium heat and brush the bars lightly with oil.

Cook the kofte for about 10 minutes until just cooked through (they’ll be quite chewy if you cook them too long), turning every few minutes onto each of their four ‘sides’ so they cook evenly.

Serve with yogurt as a dipping sauce.

Variations:

use 1 shallot instead of the onion for a lighter sweeter flavour
used dried herbs rather than fresh
add some herbs to the yogurt dip
hide some vegetables in the mixture

Other uses:

dip them into houmous
serve in a pita bread or wrapped in a flatbread with salad

Leek and potato pasta sauce

Posted on May 23, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

I love French food. I really love French food. I love eating French food and I love cooking French food.

I have a well-worn French cookbook I bought in Australia and one of my favourite recipes from it (hubby’s too) is leek and potato soup. I adapted the recipe to make a soup for Nicholas (my adaptation was mainly omitting the large quantity of cream!) but he wasn’t very keen on it. I spooned it over pasta and he loved it. Leek and potato soup became leek and potato sauce.

You could cook the onion, celery and leek in the microwave to be quicker and/or to avoid the butter. 2-3 minutes on medium with a couple tablespoons of water should be fine. Try to dice the potato into the smallest cubes you can as it will cook quicker. If your finished soup is a bit too thick, add a dash of milk or cream.

LEEK AND POTATO PASTA SAUCE

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Makes about 400ml
Freezable

1 leek, sliced and rinsed
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1/2 stick celery, cut lengthwise then sliced finely
1 tsp butter
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1 cup water

Put the butter, onion, celery and leek in a medium-sized saucepan. Cook them gently over a med-low heat until the onion is opaque, and the celery and leek are softened (about 5 mins).

Add potato and the water and turn the heat up slightly to bring it to a light boil. Keep lightly boiling until the potatoes are cooked (about 10 mins depending on the size of your potatos).

Take off the heat and, if you have time, cool for a few minutes. Puree, and season if you wish.

Serve over cooked pasta.

Variations:

use stock (chicken or vegetable) instead of the water
cook some finely chopped garlic with the onion, celery and leek
garnish with fresh chives
add a dash of cream at the end for a richer sauce

Other uses:

add milk or cream to make a soup
add milk or formula and serve without the pasta for younger babies
serve over fish

Tip: leeks can have dirt stuck between their many layers which can sometimes be difficult to wash away. It’s more effective (and easier) to rinse them after you slice them. Put the slices in a colander or sieve and rinse under running water. Leave the leek to drain while you prepare the other vegetables.

Have you successfully adapted any of your favourite recipes for your baby?

2 Comments

Posted in baby, dinner, lunch, recipe, toddler and tagged baby, celery, dinner, freezable, freeze, French, French cuisine, leek, lunch, onion, pasta, pasta sauce, potato, recipe, sauce, soup, toddler, vegetarian. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolate fork biscuits

Posted on May 20, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Happy World Baking Day! Although I should have baked a cake, I decided to bake something much quicker and that would last a bit longer than a cake – biscuits.

This is one of my oldest favourites, written down in the first notebook, when I left home to go to uni at 18, that became my first recipe book. I don’t remember whether it was a recipe I copied from my mum or from a magazine. It was long before being able to easily scour the internet for recipes. Can you imagine not being able to do that?!

The recipe says to stir in the flour, cocoa and salt, but I just add them to the food processor, after the sugar and butter have been nicely whipped,and whizz them up to combine. Most of your preparation time is rolling the dough into balls. I’ll definitely try to get Nicholas doing this job as soon as possible!

A lovely crumbly buttery biscuit, from the simplest of ingredients, they’re perfect to whip up for afternoon tea, for parents to snack on during playdates, to give as a homemade present, or simply as a well-earned treat. Put your angel down for a nap, and you should be able to make these and have happily eaten some before they wake up.

CHOCOLATE FORK BISCUITS

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 8 mins
Makes about 25
Can freeze uncooked dough

125g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
A pinch of salt

Heat oven to 190C and grease two baking trays.

In a food processor or with electric beaters, cream the butter until soft then add sugar, gradually beating until white and fluffy. Stir in sifted flour, cocoa and salt until a creamed mixture.

Roll mixture into small walnut-sized balls and place on greased baking trays. Flatten each ball with a fork dipped in cold water.

Bake for 8 mins. Leave to cool on trays for a few minutes and then be careful when lifting them off as they’ll still be quite soft. Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy with a large glass of milk!

Variations:

sandwich two biscuits together with some icing (an orange flavoured icing would work well)
break up some fruit and nut chocolate or some white chocolate and stir into the finished mixture

What are your ‘go to’ recipes that never fail and always impress?

1 Comment

Posted in family, recipe, snack and tagged baking, biscuit, caster sugar, chocolate biscuit, cocoa, cocoa powder, freezable, freeze, salt, self-raising flour, sugar, vegetarian, world baking day. Bookmark the permalink.

Mini beef burgers

Posted on May 18, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

I also think of these as mini burgers with hidden veg. You could add lots of different vegetables. Parsnip and sweet potato immediately come to mind, and of course onion. Cooking the vegetables first means you can cook the burgers fairly quickly. Of course, add which ever herbs you like, fresh or dried. If you don’t want to fry them you could bake them in the oven.

They’re a great finger food either on their own or dipped into homemade tomato sauce. Or keep them round rather than flattening them, and add them to pasta and homemade tomato sauce for a version of spaghetti and meatballs.

Another great meal to have in your freezer.

MINI BEEF BURGERS

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Makes about 25
Freezable

250g beef mince
1 medium carrot, finely grated
1/2 courgette/zucchini, finely grated
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 egg yolk
some breadcrumbs (optional)

Put the grated carrot and zucchini in a microwave-safe bowl together with 1 tbsp water. Cook for 2-3mins on medium until tender. Drain off as much liquid as possible.

Mix all the ingredients together except for the breadcrumbs. Season if you wish. If the mixture is too wet to hold its shape when formed into small balls, add some breadcrumbs a spoonful at a time. Shape into small balls about 3cm in diameter.

Heat a small frying pan over a low heat (otherwise the outside of the burgers will burn before the inside cooks). Place the balls in the pan, flattening them out into burgers. Fry them in batches about 5 minutes on each side until cooked through.

Variations:

add other vegetables like grated parsnip or grated sweet potato
use fresh herbs (chopped parsley or oregano)
use lamb mince to make mini lamb burgers

Other uses:

dip them into homemade tomato sauce
top with melted cheese and diced tomato; serve with roasted potato wedges
break them up and mix with homemade tomato sauce; serve with pasta or rice

What other meals do you cook for your little ones with minced beef?

Cheesy Falafels

Posted on May 16, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

This is my (slight) adaptation of this recipe from the Sainsbury’s Little Ones recipe site.

The first time I made them (following the recipe exactly), I wasn’t very impressed. To me they tasted rather bland and dry. However, Nicholas loved them, wolfing down five in quick succession! This reminded me firstly not to make assumptions about my child’s taste buds and secondly that I’ve always found falafels too crumbly in texture.

I’ve since tried them out on other babies and toddlers, and they’ve gone down a treat every single time. There you go, never make assumptions!

Unlike authentic falafel recipes, these are baked in the oven rather than fried. This makes them much healthier for our munchkins but also makes them drier in texture.

I’ve increased the cheese (can you ever have too much cheese?!) and added a little bit of spice to give more of the Middle Eastern flavour. I want to start introducing some spices to Nicholas and what I’ve read is you should introduce just one spice at a time to your little one. But if you’re not sure about adding it for your munchkin, just leave it out.

I can imagine slightly older toddlers would have fun shaping the falafel mixture into balls (or other shapes), maybe even using the food processor (supervised of course). I can’t wait for Nicholas to be old enough to start helping me in the kitchen. If you haven’t watched Junior MasterChef Australia, you must! You’ll see eight to thirteen-year-olds making soufflés, tempering chocolate, inventing dishes, all more calmly and with more imagination than most adults. My child making me dinner in a few years? Yes please!

These cheesy falafels are quick and easy, a fabulous finger food, high in protein, freeze really well and are a different snack to have in your bag. Why not give them a try?

CHEESY FALAFELS

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

2 x 420g tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar, grated
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 egg
Pinch of salt (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180ºC, fan 160ºC. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and whizz together until combined.

Shape the mixture into small balls (about 3cm in diameter) and place on the prepared baking tray.