Instant FroYo

This is my favourite sort of recipe. It'll probably take me longer to write the rest of this post, than it did to make me amazing instant frozen yoghurt last night.

(Image courtesy of messmakesfood.com - I ate mine too quickly to photograph it!)

- Take a load of frozen berries. You could use raspberries, strawberries or blueberries.
- Put them into a food processor.
- Cover with natural greek yoghurt
- Blend
- Scoff!

It was pretty delicious and great snack for a teething toddler1

Foodspiration: Peanut Butter Cous Cous

You know those days when you have a lovely day out, you get home, then you realise that your child's dinner time is in 10 minutes. You can't make anything in 10 minutes that isn't a pot noodle, right? Wrong?

You can make Peanut Butter Cous Cous with vegetables and pizza sticks.

For the Cous Cous-

• Grab a handful of frozen veggies from the freezer (we used peas, carrots and swede).
• Chuck them in the microwave for 2 minutes then rinse to cool. 
• Meanwhile,pour some boiling water over a handful of Cous Cous, until covered, then leave for 2- 3 minutes until soft.
• Add the vegetables to the Cous Cous then stir in as much peanut butter as preferred.

For the Pizza sticks-

• Take a plain cheese and tomato pizza and pop in the oven for 7(ish) minutes
• Cut about a quarter of into thin slices, then eat the rest yourself (that's what I did!)

I had a mouthful of the Cous Cous and it was pretty delish. I'd make it for myself but with some prawns, chives and red pepper. Yum yum yum!

Ella's Kitchen Cookbook

Have I told you that I have a new kitchen? If I haven't, I'm sure not why I've told everyone else; including people in shops and weirdos on the bus. (Wait, maybe that makes me the weirdo on the bus!) 

Anywho, in my new kitchen I've been doing a lot of cooking- and as I've been home a lot more recently (more on that to follow)- the three of us have been eating dinner together. 

As a result, I've purchased the Ella's Kitchen cookbook and may I just say, it's bloody brilliant. 

For a start it's covered in the excellent branding that you see on the Ella's pouches (that make you wonder why you can't eat them yourself!) and it's so inviting that you actually want to cook dinner. 

The recipes themselves are designed so that older kids can get involved with the cooking, so they're easy-peasy to make and, as if to reflect the attention span of knackered mothers and children alike, they mostly take under 30 minutes. 

That's actual 30 minutes, not Jamie Oliver's 30 minutes which starts after you've chopped 50 different ingredients up. 

So far I've made the curry, the four bean feast, the lamb cous cous, the courgette frittata and a few more. 

All of been well received by B and J (who is fussier than B) and I've lost half a stone from all the cooking-from-scratch. 

For the sake of good measure there are a couple of negatives about the recipes: Sometimes it's not clear what equipment you'll need from the start, so if you get halfway through and then realised you need something you don't have, you're stuffed. 

Also, J did comment that the curry was a bit bland, so I'd recommend keeping some chilli flakes in a pepper shaker so grown-ups can add their own spice. 

Breaking the Rules (or Starting Solids at Four Months)

Sorry, I know I've been away for a while but I've been keeping a few plates in the air. Since we last spoke I've been dealing with illness (serious and otherwise, mine and the illness of others), signing up for a marathon (more on that later) teaching B to swim (with the help of Little Dippers), got back on the weight loss wagon. The most important development is that B has started solids.

Once again I'm ignoring the advice of the good people at the NHS, I know they mean well but most of them have never met B or I so I think my judgment about what my child needs is better.  They say not to wean until six months but as the Ella's Kitchen pouches advise 'every baby is different.'

The NHS lists a number of signs to look out for which indicate that a baby is ready for food. These include being able to stay in a sitting position (the literature does not say 'being able to sit unaided), showing an interest in food and being able to get food into their own mouth with their fingers. While B can't feed himself (it would be terrible messy and most of it would end up in his eye) he can certainly do these things. I feel the most important indicators are the facts that he is interested in food and he can physically eat. He makes chewing motions with he mouth and can swallow fairly thick purees, baby rice and baby porridge.

Since starting solids his weight gain has improved slightly (he seems better 'covered' as my mum puts it) , he is sleeping better ( or he would be if it weren't for the teething!) and he loves meal times. He is obviously digesting the food- his nappies are evidence of that and he is still taking four milk feeds a day.

I've been reading around the subject- mainly trying to justify my decision to myself- and I came across an article on the US version of Baby Centre. In America they accept that all the signs may not happen before your baby is actually ready for solids and or much more forgiving of individuality- somethings the NHS probably doesn't have the resources to consider.

As for the theory that exposing babies to food too soon could lead to food allergies, I feel that research makes as much sense as not eating peanuts when you're pregnant- proven to be entirely backwards, in fact eating peanuts may help to prevent but allergies. In the US this study has already been discredited so it may only a be matter of time before that happens here.

B is loving his solid food, he loves ellas kitchen pouches, particularly the green ones and he loves a bit of mashed banana and sweet potato. He's not keen on carrots or sweetcorn.

I'm sure he'll be eating roast dinners soon.

Hairy Dieters' Bacon & Asparagus Flan

I normally avoid using pastry at all costs as I find it complicated and unnecessary. When I saw this recipe in my Hairy Dieters cookbook it scared me- but J really wanted me to make it, so I did. 

It came out really well, but the diet-y nature of the recipe made it slightly more complex that it needed to be. If I were to make it again I would make a full fat version with some of my own modifications, like this: 

I don't really do weights and measures but you should able to judge how much of everything you need according to your flan tin. 

Ingredients-

*Jus Rol

* asparagus

*pancetta bacon

*butter/ spread

*flour

*milk

*onions

*seasoning of your choice

*olive oil

*cheese of your choice

1. Pre-heat the oven and the asparagus for about a minute, drain and leave to one side to cool. 

2. Fry off the bacon and onions and toss in bowl with the aparagus

3. Line your flan tin with three layers of Jus Rol and trim to size, oiling each sheet as you go

4. Scatter your filling over the base. 

5. Make a simple white sauce: First melt butter and stir in the same amount of flour. When the mixture 'honey combs' (bubbles and forms 'holes') add in small amounts of milk and keep stirring until the mixture becomes a thick, creamy sauce. 

6. Season and pur over your filling, leaving gap at the top of your tin. 

7. Sprinkle over your cheese and bake until the pastry is crispy and the cheese is golden brown. (About 20-30 minutes) 

B is for...Belated Xmas cake

As a sort of reprise to my post 'Forgetting to Take Pictures of Food' I did actually remember to take a picture of my slghtly-too-boozy-for-a-pregnant-lady Christmas cake, I just forgot to share it.

Here it is:

I would absolutely love to share the recipe with you, but I sort of made it up and didn't write it down. 

The recipe that I very loosely based it on is this one: 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4925/ginger-and-orange-christmas-cake 

I do know that it contained no raisins, whatsoever- J hates fruit cake, so I was trying to make a traditional-ish Christmas cake that he would eat. 

I decorated it with orange crisps, inspired by another girl-crush of mine, Rachel Khoo.  You can find that recipe here.  It says to bake them for and hour and a half, but I only did mine for 45 mins. They probably weren't as crispy as Rachel's but were still sticky enough to decorate my cake without any sort of adhesive and lasted for 3 weeks. 

A word to the wise though, don't feed your cake with booze the day before you plan to eat it- hic!

B is for... Bourbon Biscuits

However you pronounce it the Bourbon ( BOR-bon, Bor-BON, Bur-bon) is a biscuit tin staple an a national treasure. Not only that, it seems to my sproglet's favourite biscuit.

I say this because on the days where I can keep nothing down, when so much as looking as an apple is a enough to make me toss my cookies, ( see what I did there?) the bourbon never lets me down.

It's peculiar sweet/salty/chocolate/not chocolate flavour comforts my troublesome tummy and takes away the constant headache. It's the only thing I can eat after the morning vomit sesh- which means that  my breakfast usually consists of three bourbons and half a mug of milky tea. It's what I need when I get in from work and whenever I have spewed late at night I have never seen a crumb of bourbon in my loo.

It seems that there's inexplicable magical ingredient , which has been effective at easing the nagging nausea than peppermint tea, (now makes me sick) ginger in any form, (vom) celery, (a suggestion by my mother--bleugh)

I think that this is a briliant testament to the fact that every pregnancy is different; that what works for one woman, makes another feel utterly vile; that sometimes the most important thing for you and your baby is how you feel.

If you're feeling rotten, it can really get you down and that can be damaging for both of you. Take it from me, don't follow the diet advice to the letter. By all means try and eat a well balanced diet but if, for a couple of weeks, all you can eat is dairylea on toast- go for it. Don't let magazines an 'the latest study' make you feel bad. Only you know how you feel and you're doing your best. I know I am.