Homemade Hummus

Over the last few days I've been meaning to try this out, however I've been so knackered/haven't really had the chance. As the boy seems to have drifted off into a deep sleep I thought now is my chance! 

I found a recipe on Pinterest, however as I didn't have all the ingredients I've adapted this to make it work...

For this I used:

1 small tin of chickpeas (210g)

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

A handful of cherry tomatoes

Olive oil

A pinch of salt and a crack of fresh pepper

1 tsp tomato purée paste

First you will need to roast the tomatoes...

Set oven to 200C.In a small oven proof dish throw in the tomatoes and two crushed cloves garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt and crack black pepper over the top. 

Leave to roast for 20 mins or so, checking they haven't burnt! Once roasted leave to cool. Be sure to leave a couple of tomatoes spare for a topping!

(Slightly burnt....!)

Drain the chickpeas and empty into food processor. Then add almost all the tomatoes, garlic cloves, a little oil, tomato paste and lemon juice. 

And blitz until a smooth consistency. 

At this point I realised I had used the wrong kind of food processor! So switched over to a handheld blender. 

I then garnished this with the leftover tomatoes (chopped) and the few basil leaves left on my plant! The main recipe does say to use fresh basil in the mix, which I will probably do next time but as my plant is regrowing its leaves there was no option here!!

I served this with a few dipping utensils: toast fingers, rice cakes, bread sticks and carrot sticks (and a few bits of fruit just to mix it up!) I did also give him a bit of cream cheese to dip too just so the flavours weren't too repetitive! Overall it worked out well!

Avocado, Roast Chicken and Cheese Wrap

This lunch worked out better than I thought (albeit the boy didn't eat a great deal of this!) but anyway, I was surprised with how good this turned out.

I used a George Foreman grill for this, however I'm sure a regular griddle pan or frying pan would work as well.

For this I used:

1/2 avocado

A few pieces of leftover roast chicken

A bit of grated cheddar cheese

1 wholemeal tortilla wrap

Method

First you will need to mash up the avocado half into the centre of your wrap. Then add the chicken.

Then layer the grated cheese. 

And fold up. I will admit I'm terrible at folding tortillas and folded mine the wrong way! But as it was going in the grill to be flattened, it didn't really matter! 

Toast in grill until the cheese has melted and the visible toasted lines appear! (If that even makes sense!!)

I then cut it into fingers, which I then tore into smaller pieces as he didn't want to bite properly (probably his teeth!) but overall he did eat more than I thought he would! 

This would make a great lunchbox snack as the filling stays inside the wraps after being toasted! 

Overnight Oats for Baby

This is one of the easiest breakfasts to make - mainly as its all made in advance! In the morning it can be a bit hectic to try and make something fun and healthy when you've got a hungry baby waiting, so this is one of my go to breakfasts as its saves that little bit of time in the morning and involves no cooking at all! 

For this recipe I used:

Rolled oats

Milk

Yogurt (optional) I used strawberry natural yogurt

Chia seeds

Chia jam

Raspberries and blueberries.

Method

Measure into your feeding bowl the amount of oats your child would usually have. Cover with milk and stir in a spoonful or two of yogurt. It may look a bit too liquidy at this point, but remember the oats will need liquid to absorb! Cover with cling film and leave overnight.

In the morning stir in the chia jam and add the fruit and chia seeds.  

It is that easy! 

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

The boy is teething badly at the moment, we've spotted one of his back molars coming through - ouch! He has become increasingly fussy and refusing food. I thought I'd go back to basics and make a meal that wouldn't even require chewing!

The recipe below only made a very small batch as I initially didn't want to end up making a load and wasting it. It made up a small bowl for the boy and myself, and three freezable baby pots. 

What I used:

1/2 white onion

2 small carrots 

1/4 butternut squash

1/2 pint veg stock (low salt)

1 tbsp cumin 

1 garlic clove

1 small slice ginger 

Olive oil

Method

Dice all veg. In a saucepan heat up oil and add the onion, ginger and garlic and fry until soft. Add the cumin and stir for another minute.then add the carrot and squash before adding the stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 30-45 mins until all veg is cooked through. Once the majority of the liquid has reduced, take off heat and leave to cool before using a handheld blender to blitz into soup consistency. 

Then we are ready to serve! 

Chia Jam

This is a quick recipe which will need to be made in advance in order to set. I like to leave mine to set overnight, but you could leave it for 3-4 hours minimum.

To make this yummy jam you will need:

1 cup of fruit (I used strawberries)

1/4 cup chia seeds

2-3 tbsp maple syrup

Combine all ingredients into a blender and pulse until the consistency of you choice. I literally blitzed it for about 3 seconds so it was quite chunky. Then pour into a container and leave in the fridge over night.

There are some recipes online which suggest this can be kept for up to 2-3 weeks, however as the maple syrup is the only ingredient preserving the fruit, I store mine for a week. 

Peach & Apricot Overnight Oats

This recipe was a bit of an experiment, using only what I already had in the house. I thought it would be a good idea to use flavours/foods Oscar has previously had as he is being a bit fussy at the moment.  

For this I used:

1 apricot Petite Filous yogurt

1/2 Ella's Kitchen peaches purée 

2 tbsp rolled oats

1 1/2 tbsp almond milk

1 tbsp chia seeds

Drizzle maple syrup

Basically you just mix all of the ingredients together and leave to soak overnight in the fridge. The following morning, top with a sprinkle of chia seeds and drizzle of the remaining peaches purée.

Unfortunately, Oscar is teething quite badly at the moment and it's difficult to persuade him into eating anything (unless he knows he already likes it!) so trying something which looked new wasn't working for me today! He did manage a few mouthfuls and did enjoy it when he ate it, but that was all he was willing to eat this morning! I will try this out again when he feels a bit better!

Sweet Potato and Mozzarella Cheese Poppers

I saw the recipe for this on Instagram and knew I had to make them (for either the baby or for me!!) they were pretty simple to make and they turned out way better than I thought. I made mine slightly differently to the original recipe.

To make these you will need:

40g porridge oats

2 1/2 tbsp milk

2 small sweet potatoes

20g grated Parmesan or hard cheese

150g of mozzarella cut into cubes

50g breadcrumbs 

1 egg

Fresh chives (optional)

Peel and steam the potatoes in saucepan with lid on. Once soft, drain and leave to cool.

Add to a blender the potato, oats, hard cheese, milk, chives and blend. 

Preheat oven to 200C

Using ice cream scoop or tablespoon, add a scoop of the mixture into the palm of your hand and flatten. Add a cube of mozzarella and cover forming a ball by rolling in hand. (I found that it worked best with dry hands, so did keep having to wash and dry my hands!) leave balls to one side.

For the bread crumbs I toasted 1 piece of thickly cut wholemeal bread and once cooled put into a blender with a sprinkle of oats. Then I blended this until I had an almost fine grain.

You will then need to get yourself two bowls - place breadcrumbs into one and beat an egg in the other. 

I then covered one of the potato balls in the egg mixture, then the breadcrumbs and repeated. 

This leaves a nice even layer of breadcrumbs. 

Once all potato balls have been covered, line a baking tray with baking paper and place potato balls onto tray. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

Then you are ready to eat!!

I served mine with griddled lemon and herb chicken and petite pois. I was surprised by how much Oscar ate as his appetite as been up and down at the moment because of his teeth, but he pretty much polished off the lot! I couldn't believe it! 

These are a great snack to store in the freezer and great as a lunch box snack! I will definitely be making these again!

Nut free pesto

The main reason to making this recipe nut free was quite frankly because I didn't have any pine nuts in the house! There are so many opinions on whether it is safe to give babies nuts before they are two or not. I personally tried out peanut butter with my baby which he loved! And didn't have any reactions. If I were to make this recipe again I would most likely use pine nuts! 

The ingredients for this recipe are:

1 clove garlic

1 large handful fresh basil

A handful of grated Parmesan or hard cheese

1 tbsp olive oil 

Pine nuts (optional)

You will also need 1 pestle and mortar.

Remove skin from garlic and crush. Add the basil, cheese and oil and crush until fine consistency. 

It is that easy! I served mine with high protein wholewheat pasta and a few chopped cherry tomatoes. It was a big hit! This would also be nice in sandwiches or on salads. 

Organix Food Fun

I was lucky enough to win an Instagram competition with Organix Food. The aim of the competition was to create a fun plate of food, I thought my attempt was pretty poor! However the guys over at Organix seemed to think different! 

I received a nice little parcel of Organix treats and a pack of Andrew James sandwich cutters! These are great fun, however I haven't quite mastered the art in using these just yet! 

My first attempt in using the cutters was this masterpiece below! 

(It's a dinosaur I'll have you know!!)

They are straight forward to use, I'd really recommend these cutters, they make lunch time a lot more interesting! 

As you can see, I do need to practise a bit more with these!! But I am really grateful to have won this competition! 

3 Ingredient Pancakes

This was so quick and easy to make, I really wasn't expecting them to turn out as well as they did - or taste decent! But they did and this is definitely a recipe I will be recreating again.

I found this recipe on Buzzfeed, but as I didn't want to make that many, reduced the quantities.

For this recipe I used:

1 egg

1/2 banana

1 tsp cinnamon 

Blueberries

Butter/oil for pan

First you mash up the banana in a dish and mix in the egg. Then add the cinnamon and blueberries and mix together. 

Heat up a little butter or oil in a pan (I used coconut oil). Once melted, add a small ladle of the mixture into the pan and cook evenly on both sides until golden. 

I finished mine with a sprinkle of chia and mixed seeds, and a few blobs of Ella's Kitchen prune purée for a dip. The boy scoffed the lot! For a quick breakfast, these are ideal. 

Annabel Karmel's Chicken and Apple Burgers

These are always a big hit with my boy. They are easy to make, packed full of flavour and can be stored frozen - perfect! 

I made mine slightly differently to Annabel's. I like to use normal chicken breasts instead of mince, as I can separate the tray and use for other recipes and they don't always stock chicken mince in the supermarket. Click here for the original recipe.

Ingredients

2x mini chicken fillets

1 apple

1 small white onion

1 garlic clove

2 tsp dried sage

20g grated Parmesan or a hard cheese or mature cheddar

Stale bread for the breadcrumbs

Hand held food processor 

Method

Roughly dice the onion and garlic and fry on a medium heat until sautéed (for around 2 mins). Leave to one side to cool. Once cooled, put in food processor and blitz until fine. Leave to one side.

Next cut chicken into small pieces and blitz until forms an almost paste consistency. Add to the onion mix. 

Cut the apple into four pieces leaving the core. Holding the skin, grate the apple flesh into the chicken and onion mix. (This saves on peeling the apple and leaves only the skin as waste.) 

Add the sage and cheese and mix together. 

Break up bread into small pieces and put into food processor. Blitz until almost pieces are roughly small and add to the chicken mix. (You can also add ready made breadcrumbs if you like.) Mix together and either shape into patties or balls.

Add a small amount of vegetable oil to a frying pan and heat, brown the burgers for 1-2 mins on each side, turn down the heat and cook gently for another 5 mins until cooked through. 

Place onto kitchen paper to absorb excess oil and leave to cool. And you are all done! 

It went down a storm with my boy! He ended up having two burgers and left only a small amount of the veg which I couldn't believe! Especially because of his teeth at the moment!

Success!