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!
Potato & Veggie Bake
Today is MyMiniMeals Mates Monday so here is a great recipe from my friend Lauren. It’s a really easy and extremely tasty potato and vegetable bake that can be eaten on its own or as a side dish. Lauren makes it in a big dish and then slices it up in portions to freeze. I tried it in muffin cases and it worked really well too so give both options a try. You can use the vegetables listed here or change it up a bit. I think parsnips or some other kind of root vegetable could also be used and you can try adding in some other vegetables to pack in the nutrients. You could even add some grated cheese into it and onto the top if you want to add in some protein and make it a really nutritious dish. Thanks Lauren!!
Six Simple Salmon Ideas
I buy a lot of salmon as Little Lady loves it and occasionally I can get The Boy to eat it (usually by hiding it in something else and dousing it in ketchup!). It’s so good for kids as it contains Omega 3 and it has a mild creamy taste so usually is very popular with children. Here are 6 simple salmon ides for you. I hope you enjoy!
No bake “Chocolate” naughty(ish) treats
I am proud that none of my recipes contain any added refined sugar (by this I mean the white or brown stuff you get in bags and spoon into things) but sometimes you just have to let your children have something naughty as a treat so I do try to find as healthy treats as I can for them. These recipes are great as none of them require baking and they are quite healthy as there is no added refined sugar (although some of their individual ingredients do contain sugar). They also all contain cocoa powder so are really popular as children think they are eating a proper chocolate treat. I hope you enjoy them!
What’s in the MMM freezer?
Today I went to a music group with Little Lady and I was asked by 4 people how I have the time to make all the food I do. My response was simple – I make vast quantities of food and freeze it all so at any point I usually have something that I can take out the freezer and give the kids. One lovely lady named Sarah said – “Oh I would love to see what is in your freezer”. So Sarah – wish granted! Here is what I currently have in my freezer for my kids and links to the recipes for each item. As you will see many of the freezer bags are close to empty as I like to run a lot of the food down and then take a couple days a month and do a big batch cook. I hope you enjoy me baring it all!
Pancakes galore
I love pancakes and I have found so many great ways to make them – sweet and savoury. So I thought I would show you some of my favourite pancake recipes that as usual are so easy and quick to make and only need a few ingredients. They can all be frozen so I tend to make a big batch of them, eat some – I mean my kids eat some!! – then freeze the rest. That way you only need to take a couple out at a time, let them defrost then just either heat them up in the microwave or frying pan or pop them in the toaster! Such a great idea for snacks or breakfast and the savoury ones make a lovely, easy dinner. Continue reading