There are many great ready made baby food jars, pouches and pots out there and when you are short on time they are brilliant. But if you think that making a sauce for pasta / couscous / rice etc takes ages I promise you its really simple to make your own in less than 15 minutes – honestly! Here are 3 of my favourite speedy sauces.

They can all be frozen in portions and my two love them all. When Little Lady was much smaller she had these with tiny pasta stars or couscous but now she is bigger her and The Boy have them with fusilli, penne, rice or any other pasta shape.

Salmon and broccoli (and cheese) tomato sauce:

1 salmon fillet (skinless and boneless)

75 ml milk

6 florets of broccoli (fresh or frozen)

200g passata (half a tin or carton)

Handful of grated cheese

Poach the salmon fillet in the microwave with the milk for 4 minutes Cook the broccoli in the microwave or saucepan until nice and soft. Into the passata add the grated cheese and chopped veg. Heat up so cheese melts and add mashed / flaked salmon. This makes a lot!

(You can leave out the cheese if your child is dairy intolerant but I would then use 125ml passata and 75ml water to dilute the passata a bit).

Butternut squash cheesey sauce:

Little Lady loved this when she was initially being introduced to protein and I loved it as it was so quick to make (and I loved eating the leftovers myself!). I used frozen butternut squash which saves the time and effort of peeling and chopping a fresh one. If you use a fresh one I would guess you need about 50-75g for this recipe.

2 cubes frozen butternut squash

Handful of grated cheese (the stronger the better)

50 ml milk

Cook the butternut squash until its nice and soft and “mushy”. Mash it with the grated cheese and the milk so it all melts together. And that’s it!!!

This makes enough for 1 or 2 portions (depending on your child’s appetite) but obviously multiply the quantities if you want to make more.

Microwave tomato and vegetable pasta sauce:

I do make a similar sauce that takes (slightly) longer than this recipe (I will post it soon) but sometimes you just want a really quick, healthy basic pasta sauce. As the title suggests – this sauce is made purely in the microwave and takes about 10 minutes maximum from start to finish. This makes quite a lot so if you only want enough for one meal then alter quantities as appropriate. It doesn’t really matter how much of each ingredient you use – you can’t go wrong with something this simple!

200g passata

200g of ANY fresh or frozen veg you have (and I mean ANY)

3 tbsps water

Cook the veg in the microwave until soft. If you child is just getting used to lumps then chop the veg into little pieces once cooked. Heat the passata in the microwave until its hot. Pour the veg into the passata, add the water and then depending on age of child either puree it with a blender, or leave as is and serve over pasta, rice, quinoa or couscous.