It’s Halloween tomorrow night and like many households over the world we have bought some pumpkins and have made a very scary guy (according to The Boy). I used to live in the USA and I ate a lot of pumpkin then as it’s not just saved for Halloween over there and they actually eat it rather than only just hollow it out to make a “jack-o-lantern”. I rarely buy pumpkins but when I have done so I have made some really yummy things. So here are some easy and delicious recipes and ideas for all that pumpkin that you probably waste every year when you carve one for Halloween. I hope they make you decide to use it more often in your cooking. Continue reading
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Recipes
Just like Mummy’s mug cake
I have recently been introduced to the incredible concept of a mug cake. This is exactly what it says on the tin – a cake in a mug. They take only a few minutes to make and cook in a microwave and hey presto you have a really yummy and usually very naughty cake. The other day I was eating a particularly naughty one full of chocolate and loaded with sugar and The Boy wanted to try it. Unsurprisingly as it was full of chocolate he loved it. Continue reading
No sugar banana bread
Happy Monday everyone! Today I am showing you a lovely recipe for sugar free banana bread from my friend Katy. I frequently make my Banana and Raisin Muffins but am always on the lookout for new ideas using bananas. This recipe is delicious and sugar free which is always a bonus! It’s so simple to make and perfect for breakfast, dessert or a snack and I have to say it tastes delicious with a cup of tea (for me not the kids!). Continue reading
Leftover ideas
I hate wasting food and recently I have become really careful to try to use up any leftovers and food near it’s use by date. I have actually managed to save lots of money doing this and hardly throw out any food now. Here are a few recipes and ideas to help you stop wasting food and use u pall that yummy stuff lingering in your fridge! Continue reading
Sugar Free Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
It’s Monday so that means its My Mini Meals Mates Monday! Here is a great recipe for Sugar Free Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from my lovely friend Rachel. I love using bananas in things as they are great sugar replacement and these muffins combine bananas with the deliciousness of peanut butter. For totally sugar free muffins use sugar free peanut butter of which there are a few brands out there. You can make these in standard muffin size cases or in mini ones for bite size loveliness. Perfect for breakfast, snack or a bedtime treat as they won’t send your kids hyper as they have no sugar in them. Thanks Rachel!
Easy Peasy Pasties
I love Pasties as they are an easy “food on the go” idea and you really can put anything you want into them. The best ones originate from Cornwall but apparently you aren’t meant to call them “Cornish” pasties unless you have followed the authentic recipe which is quite detailed. I have often thought about making them but they always seemed so hard. However I saw a simple recipe online recently and, as usual, gave it my MMM twist and these ones don’t actually take much skill or time to make. This recipe uses beef mince but you can use any mince you like or even omit the meat and just make a veggie option by upping the quantities of vegetables or replacing the meat with some Quorn or meat substitute mince. Continue reading
Colourful Fried Rice
We like to take the kids out for dinner at the weekend and our favourite is a well known restaurant where they serve lots of noodle and rice based dishes. I always order a fried rice dish for Little Lady. She used to eat most of it but recently (as she is going through a very fussy annoying phase) just picks out the sweetcorn and meat from it but I keep persevering! I thought I would try to recreate something similar at home as fried rice is a great way to incorporate carbs, protein and veg into a meal.
My favourite fish dishes
My last post on Fish and Potato Soup was really popular and I received lots of comments from people about how they struggle to get their children to eat fish. I try to give my kids fish a couple times a week (admittedly I do count processed fish fingers as part of their fish intake but I do make my own fish fingers too) as it’s such a nutritious thing for them to eat. Here are my favourite fish dishes and even my picky boy will eat most of them.
Simple Fish and Potato Soup
It’s getting colder which for me means I need a nice hot bowl of soup. I like to try to make the kids hot meals as often as I can and I love to make soup in the winter but as you can guess by now The Boy won’t eat anything that looks like it has a vegetable or anything remotely healthy in it so my soup options are limited. I have to also admit that at the moment Little Lady is not eating anything except sweetcorn and potatoes (I’m in denial that she is becoming a picky eater) so I am trying to think of ways to incorporate these two ingredients into everything I make! This fish and potato soup is really simple and as both of my kids do (usually) eat fish mixed in with mashed potato this isn’t too much of a deviation from that. You can use any fish you like and even the fish pie mix that you can buy in supermarkets works well here for a slightly stronger taste. It can be pureed too for little babies and when Little Lady was younger I used to add in some baby pasta or rice to it when she was starting to eat more lumps.
Me and Mr MMM loved it and I am not even going to talk about my kids’ reactions to it as quite frankly I’m over it and am burying my head in the sand!
Gingerbread Biscuits
Little Lady and The Boy both love gingerbread biscuits made by a certain baby / child food company and I buy lots of bags and boxes of them. I’m currently attempting to try to save money wherever I can and realised that these biscuits (and similar snacks) are actually quite pricey so I wanted to try to make my own equivalent biscuits. These little smiley guys and gals are sugar free and took only 15 minutes from start to finish to make and both kids wolfed them down! I did plan to make them in more fun shapes than I did but my fabulous shaped cookie cutters haven’t arrived yet from Japan so I just used a little round cookie cutter today. You can make them in any shape or size you want but as my kids like the little round bagged biscuits I tried to emulate them as closely as I could. I hope you enjoy them as much as we all have!