Paprika Bean Bake

So, today, it's raining quite heavily outside, so I'm having a lazy day with my little boy - we've got the fireplace on, pyjamas, cosy blankets, and we're snuggled up on the sofa watching his favourite, Peppa Pig. Bliss. All we need now, is some tasty food to keep us going!

Seeing as the fridge was quite sparse on food, I decided to rummage around the cupboards, because I'll be damned if I'm going outside in this weather! I found a tin of beans, a tin of new potatoes in water, some paprika, and some stock cubes. I decided to try something new with Rhys, a warming potato and bean paprika bake. 

I opened the tin of potatoes and placed them in a microwave jug and put them in the microwave for three minutes to soften. Meanwhile, I lightly fried a handful of diced onion in butter in a saucepan, and then added the tin of beans and potatoes. I added in two heaped tablespoons of paprika powder, and 300ml of vegetable stock. I let that simmer for five minutes, before transferring into the oven proof dish. I then topped with grated cheese, breadcrumbs, and dried herbs. I placed in the oven at a 230degree heat for five minutes until the cheese was golden and crusty. Perfect! I mashed it up for Rhys and spoon fed it to him, which he enjoyed!

Next, I moved on to making up a tasty dessert, and again, after scouring my cupboard, I found a tin of condensed milk and four bars of chocolate (I have no idea how I hadn't eaten the chocolate yet, either). However, a tin of condensed milk, alongside 400g of chocolate, with a knob of butter, makes up... Fudge!! I used my slow cooker to melt the chocolate as it's the perfect temperature and won't burn the chocolate. Once melted and all mixed together well, I turned the slow cooker off and let it cool for ten minutes. I then lined a square tray with grease proof paper and spooned the fudge mixture in. I then broke up some chocolate biscuits (using a freezer bag and rolling pin), and sprinkled the crumbs on top. It's now in the fridge, which I am leaving in there for at least two hours to set. 

There is absolutely no nutritional value to today's food whatsoever. However, it is wholesome, comfort, vegetarian food which my son and myself will enjoy, and as a cheeky treat on a rainy day, I see no harm, personally. 

Hope you guys have enjoyed today's post!

Write soon, Sam x

Easy Peasy Spinach and Cheese Omelette

After a long day today, with a cheeky hell-raising toddler, it's safe to say I'd like this Wednesday to be over! But, alas, I must feed my child, and what better way than a minimum-effort, twenty minute meal?

Today I made us my easy peasy cheese and spinach omelettes. I call this 'easy peasy' because there's honestly very little effort involved. As there is only myself and my son at home, I used a lasagne dish to make up two portions. 

I started by preheating the oven to 200degrees, and greased the lasagne dish with a little butter, and placed the dish to one side. I then cracked three eggs into a jug, along with about 150ml of milk, and whisked with a fork. I then added a handful of cheese, a handful of spinach leaves (I ripped the stalks off prior), and a pinch of salt, and mixed them all up again. I then poured the mixture into the greased lasagne dish, and placed in the oven to cook for 20 minutes. Et voila! 

I also found time to make up apple pastry slices. I cheated a little bit as I just wanted an easy night with a tasty dessert my son would enjoy. I used a Bells Puff Pastry Block (212g), and cut it in half. I rolled out one half into a length before placing it onto a a baking tray of baking parchment. I cooked this in the oven (also at 200degrees) for fifteen minutes. While this was cooking, I chopped up 5 gala apples that we had (which needed using) into diced cubes. I placed these in a saucepan on full heat, with a little bit of boiled water in the bottom of the pan. I didn't add sugar as it was sweet enough already. I placed the lid on the saucepan, and reduced the heat to a simmer, and left the apples and the pastry to cook. (The pastry had roughly fifteen minutes, and the apples took ten minutes to reduce). Once the pastry was par-cooked, and the apples were soft, I then spooned the apples on to the pastry, and added some honey before placing back in the oven for a further five minutes.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, Sam x

(Almost Healthy!) Rice Pudding

This is my favourite recipe for Rice Pudding. A lot of the time, rice pudding can be sticky, heavy, and nutmeg flavoured. Personally, I hate that in a rice pudding, mine is light, creamy, and almost healthy. I do it as a treat for myself and my son but it really isn't even that bad for you. 

I make mine by pouring in half a mug of pudding rice, with two mugs of semi skimmed milk. I let that cook by itself in the slow cooker for around two hours on low. Once it's cooked, I add in a drizzle of honey for sweetness (I don't like to add sugar to things I'm feeding my son, so opt for honey as a healthier option) and I chop up strawberries and bananas to sprinkle on. I add in about 30ml of single cream, and I will also add in chocolate drops just because they're really yummy! 

I like doing this version of rice pudding as it isn't too bad nutritionally for my son, and it encourages him to eat small amounts of fruit. Normally I would also add in raisins as my son likes them but today I didn't have any! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, Sam x

My Homemade Roasted Vegetable Spread

I am super proud of my son Rhys. He's one year old and has always been particularly fussy with his food. These past couple of weeks I've really been focusing on his feeding, as there are so many things that he doesn't like but I would still like him to eat healthily. We have an active lifestyle and I like to encourage him to be a healthy, active child. 

If he could, he would eat pizza and chips every day. But I've been encouraging him to try new things and been switching the bad food for healthier versions. Instead of pizza, I make him pitta bread pizzas, by spreading tomato purée on to wholewheat pittas, and sprinkling on some torn spinach leaves and cheese. I then grill it for around five minutes, and cut them into fingers for him to feed himself. 

This week, I've also tried him with vegetables but by cooking them in different ways to see what he likes. We've boiled them, fried them, roasted them, and mashed them, to little avail. He would not eat them any way I served them, until I blended them in to a paste and spread them on to wholewheat toast for him, which he LOVED! 

So if you're struggling to get your little ones to eat healthily/eat vegetables, I very much recommend my roasted vegetable spread. It's very healthy, and once it is all blended/mashed they wouldn't be able to tell that it's entirely vegetable based! I wish I had taken a before photo but I didn't think to!

I sliced up 10 baby potatoes into halves, and 2 carrots into the same kind of size. I sliced up half a leek into 1cm slices, and 2 tomatoes into quarters. I placed all the prepared vegetables into a casserole dish and coated them in vegetable oil. I crumbled up a vegetable oxo cube to sprinkle over, and then mixed it all with a wooden spoon, before placing in the oven at 200degrees, for an hour and a twenty minutes. I then took the dish out, and let it cool slightly before placing the cooked vegetables in a blender. I added in about 20ml of water, before blending for around a minute so it's mostly smooth but with a little bit of texture still. 

Rhys will eat this on it's own, on toast, or with wholewheat rice. I also save a small portion of the vegetables for myself before blending as I enjoy it too as a dish of roasted vegetables. 

I hope you've enjoyed this post, and I will write again soon! Sam x

Meal Ideas for Vegetarian One Year Olds

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been particularly active. I've been super busy of late trying to organise my house (total mess), and also applying for uni! Equally my son Rhys has already hit the Terrible Two's, and he's only one! What a nightmare! He can now walk, and expresses great interest in running into things. He understands the word no, but doesn't listen to me when I say it. He has tantrums when I put him to bed, or in the bath, or basically anywhere, for that matter. He's very clingy and still super fussy with his food. I've been trying to come up with lists of food that he will and won't eat, so that I can try to get him new foods that he might enjoy.

He will eat...

Toast, yoghurts, grapes, bananas, apples, raisins, chips, tortilla chips, cheese and tomato flatbreads, eggs, chocolate, and cheese.

He won't eat...

Meat, fish, he doesn't really like pasta, there also isn't many vegetarian baby food jar options, acidic fruits, he doesn't particularly like custard or rice pudding, or crisps

In some ways I feel bad inflicting a vegetarian diet on a one year old, but the fact is, is that it is his preference to what he will and won't eat, and I, as his parent will respect that. So these are my cheap and easy meal ideas for a vegetarian one year old. 

I'm going to try him with all of these next week, and hopefully he likes them, as it feels like I'm running out of healthy options to give him! I might give him a few different things at a time, so it's almost like a roulette and I can see what he enjoys and dislikes. 

I hope that you enjoyed this post, and also that your child isn't as fussy as mine! 

Write soon, Sam x

Fifteen minute Florentine pasta

So, in my house, I have a few friends that always turn up at random, completely unexpected times - and when this happens I like to whip up some impromptu food as I appreciate the effort they've made to see me! I love all my friends and I find that good food just always makes a visit even better!

My friend came to visit me and my son for Easter lunch, and dropped off some Easter Eggs for us both which was really sweet and really unexpected! I had wanted to cook up a roast for our Easter lunch, but I was unable to find a Quorn roasting joint these past few days in the run up to Easter! So, instead I had to improvise, and with the impromptu visit, I made up my florentine pasta. It's light, but also rich in taste, and decadent.

Ingredients

Penne pasta

Quorn chicken pieces 

Cherry tomatoes

Spinach

White wine

Vegetarian Oxo stock cube

Garlic granules

Salt and pepper

Parmesan (to garnish)

Dried chives (to garnish)

I started by boiling some pasta in a saucepan (enough for two portions). In a separate saucepan, I heated up some vegetable oil, and I put in the garlic granules, Quorn chicken pieces, and halved cherry tomatoes first. I kept the heat on high and lightly fried until the Quorn chicken pieces had completely cooked through. I added some salt and pepper to the pan to season.

To make the sauce, I made a light paste by using an oxo stock cube with about 50ml of boiled water. I stirred that in a small Pyrex jug before adding it to the saucepan. I then added in about 125ml (a small wine glass) of white wine, and mixed that all in. I then added the spinach leaves a few minutes before the end, and added the drained, cooked pasta on the top. When the pasta is still very hot, it wilts the spinach almost instantly. I left it for a couple of minutes just to maintain the hot temperature throughout.

My favourite thing about this dish, is that it's really cool to serve up. I poured the contents of the saucepan into a serving dish, and where the pasta was the last thing to go in the saucepan, it's the first thing to go in the dish, which is then topped with the spinach, and then the light sauce with the tomatoes and Quorn chicken. 

I then garnished with Parmesan shavings and, as always, my dried chives! I always use dried chives as they add that little splash of colour and interest, and makes it look so much more presentable. 

We had this meal with some crusty bread on the side, and a small glass of chilled white wine (it's the driving limit in the UK). It went beautifully and we both went back for seconds of the pasta! It's just such an easy, and likeable dish, I've never met anyone to not like it!

So, this was my Florentine Pasta, and I hope you enjoyed this post!

Sam x

Vegan sweet potato, chickpea and spinach Curry

Hey everyone! So, last night, my brother came round to my house to visit me and my son, and I cooked us up an impromptu curry. Of course, it had to be vegetarian, but my brother is also vegan. 

I decided on a sweet potato, chickpea, and spinach curry. I had mine as pictured, with chips and poppadums as I'm not a huge fan of rice, and my brother had his with cous cous because he doesn't like rice either! 

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Medium Curry powder

Sweet potato (diced)

Onion (diced)

Can of chickpeas

Fresh spinach

Peas

Vegetable oxo cube

Can of chunky tomatoes

Coconut milk

Dried chives to garnish

I started by hearing a pan of vegetable oil (about two tablespoons) and adding a tbsp of garlic powder. I then added in the diced sweet potato chunks, onion, salt, pepper, and curry powder, and lightly fried these to a golden brown (you want them to be slightly crispy). Then I added in the chickpeas, and crumbled in an oxo cube with a little bit of water, and a full can of chunky chopped tomatoes. I then added the peas, and sat the spinach on top to let it wilt for a few minutes. After mixing all these ingredients together, I added in about half a can of coconut milk. I reduced the heat to a simmer and left the ingredients to combine for around six minutes - I fried up some chips and made the cous cous in this time! Once all cooked, I served the curry in a separate dish (I like to dip my chips in to it!) and garnished with chopped dried chives.

It was so flavourful and rich, and really packed the punch! I like my food to be slightly spicier than I can really handle so for me this was perfect! 

Blog soon,

Sam x