Tag Archives: lunch

Super quick avocado pasta sauce

Posted on June 18, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Another fast pasta sauce you can whip up really quickly for your little one. The creamy texture of avocado lends itself perfectly to coat pasta, and not just for babies. Add some more seasoning and a dash of chilli sauce and it’s a yummy dish for you.

I use a mini food processor to blend the avocado, simply to get a bit more creaminess by making it super smooth. However, whizzing up such a small amount can be a bit annoying (you have to keep scraping down the sides of the bowl to get the mixture back under the blades). You can mash the avocado up by hand and either use a bit of muscle to mash it up to a paste or leave the sauce a bit chunkier. The chunks anyway will be soft enough even for babies to easily munch through.

We incorporated some sensory play into our meal. Long cooked pasta like spaghetti isn’t just yummy, but also so much fun to play with!

SUPER QUICK AVOCADO PASTA SAUCE

Prep time: 5-10 mins
Cook time: 0 mins 🙂
Makes 1 toddler serving

1/2 avocado
1 large (or 2 medium) basil leaf, roughly chopped
Squeeze of lime (or lemon)

Scoop the flesh of the avocado into a mini food processor. Add the basil and lime. Blend until smooth.

Spoon over cooked pasta and mix to evenly coat.

Variations:

to make it even faster, omit the basil and lime
use coriander instead of basil
for adults add more seasoning and a dash of chilli sauce

Other uses:

spread on toast
use as a crepe filling
spoon over cooked chicken

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

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?

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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.

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.

Asian-style salmon

Posted on May 28, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

I’ve discovered that while Nicholas isn’t a big lover of fish, he usually happily eats salmon. Well it does have a meatier flavour and texture to white fish. Maybe because of the sweetness from the honey in the marinade, this recipe is one of his favourite salmon dishes.

Nicholas happily eats a 50g chunk of salmon, but if this seems too much for your munchkin a serving half this size will still give fabulous health benefits.

I’m usually not organised enough to think ahead and marinate the salmon overnight. I tend to marinate it just for around 30 minutes while I’m doing something else in the kitchen and it still works out great. I have it marinating on the bench and when I remember I spoon the marinade over.

This is definitely a meal you can do for the whole family without making any changes. All you need to remember to make more marinade is that there are equal portions of the three ingredients. Easy!

ASIAN-STYLE SALMON

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Makes 1 serving

Small chunk of salmon fillet, skin removed (25-50g depending on your toddler’s appetite!)
1 tbsp vegetable or ground nut oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp honey

Mix oil, soy sauce and honey in a small container. Put salmon in and spoon over the marinade. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge or leave to marinate for 30 mins spooning over the marinade a few times.

Heat a small non-stick fry pan over a medium-low heat.

As your piece of salmon is very small it will cook quite quickly. A minute or two on each side is plenty. The honey will caramelise and burn if the heat is up too high and if you cook it for too long, so keep an eye on it. Take the salmon out of the pan and let it rest for a couple of minutes (it will keep cooking in this time).

Flake the salmon and check for bones. Serve with rice or noodles.

Variations:

bake the salmon in the oven rather than frying it
use dark soy sauce for a less saltier flavour

Other uses:

use the marinade with chicken or white fish

2 Comments

Posted in dinner, family, lunch, recipe, toddler and tagged asian-style, dairy-free, dinner, family, fish, honey, light soy sauce, lunch, oil, recipe, rice, salmon, soy sauce, 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?

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