Serves 3 as a main / 8 starter Ingredients Meatballs 100g chorizo 1 teaspoon paprika 1.5 tablespoons ricotta 300g chicken thigh fillets ½ 25g pack of basil Sauce 2 shallots, sliced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 red chilli, sliced (and deseeded, optional) ½ pack of basil, stalks and leaves separated, stalks chopped 1 teaspoon sweet smoked…
Low sugar rhubarb and coconut crumble squares
A lovely way to use up the seasonal rhubarb glut, and one that tastes like a treat while actually being pretty healthy. Makes 20 squares Ingredients 450g rhubarb, chopped into 2cm pieces 30g caster sugar 30g soft brown sugar 100g dates 200g butter 100g desiccated coconut 200g plain flour 2 teaspoons ground ginger 30g oats 1 egg yolk…
Olive, caper, walnut and herb sauce (for pasta/cous cous/quinoa/bruscetta)
A store-cupboard sauce based on salsa verde, for when you need something quick, flavoursome and can’t be bothered to go shopping. It’s also a handy way to use up that jar of capers lurking at the back of the fridge, and it will freeze well. Ingredients Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon 75g walnuts Small…
Walnut Pesto Two Ways
Two versions that put a quick, healthy, cheaper spin on the usual basil & pine nuts variety – this makes an ideal week-night dinner, and spare pesto will keep well in the freezer. It’s a good way to get healthy nuts into babies and young children, but don’t serve it to babies under six months…
Quinoa and celeriac fritters (better than they sound)
Surprisingly delicious for a recipe that sounds off-puttingly healthy, these are great hot and fresh, and work really well for baby-led weaning. They freeze well: make up a batch, then open-freeze the ones you don’t eat before popping them into a freezer bag. The fritters defrost quickly, then crisp back up in a dry frying pan….
Glossary
This post will be updated on-the-hoof as I find myself using terminology in recipes that could do with an explanation. Open Freezing The best way to freeze individual items, allowing you to grab one at a time without having to defrost the whole lot because they’ve stuck together. Useful for fritters, chocolates, slices of cake, sweet or…
Weaning
The NHS weaning page is an excellent introduction to weaning essentials, and Nikki Duffy’s River Cottage Baby & Toddler Cookbook includes a thorough and thoroughly useful chapter on weaning, nutrition, different approaches and the benefits of doing-it-yourself rather than relying on shop-bought. I also highly recommend First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson, a…
Easy cheesy pasta
An incredibly quick version of macaroni cheese that owes something to the Greek dip tzatziki. It might seem a bit odd to have warm cucumber, but it works somehow. For babies this can be spoon-fed or just plopped onto the highchair tray for grabbing. Freezer friendly Ingredients 3 tablespoons full fat creme fraiche Leaves from…
Why bother cooking?
“Food preferences are learnt behaviour. Frequent, positive exposure to healthy food and consistently eating less sugar changes our sense of sweetness. Ditto salt.” Bee Wilson, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, 2015 Eighty per cent of processed food has sugar added to it, including some surprising offenders: one of the high-street chain Eat’s soups, for…
Beetroot hummus
Babies love this beautifully coloured dip spread on fingers of toast, or eaten off a spoon. It’s flavoursome enough for grown ups though: if you’re making it just for adults add a pinch of salt. As ‘hummus’ is the Arabic word for ‘chickpeas’ this is not technically hummus, but we all know what we mean……
Fabulous free-from, no-refined-sugar chocolate mousse
There are a two different versions of this recipe, though both use the same method: one makes a creamy mousse like your regular chocolate/cream/eggs/sugar recipe, and one sets harder and can be cut up to make ‘truffles’. This mousse is rich – you don’t need a lot of it, and considering it contains no refined sugar…
The Easiest Way: To eat a healthy balanced diet
What is a healthy, balanced diet? Food writer and journalist Michael Pollen simplified the whole messy drama for us with his oft-quoted aphorism: ‘Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.‘ To work out whether you’re following this advice, consider your typical meals and snacks and ask these questions: Would your great-grandmother recognise what you’re eating as…
Time to Cook 