I love online shopping and get a delivery of groceries once a week. This week I used a new company and made quite a large mistake when ordering courgettes (zucchini for all my non UK friends!). Instead of ordering 4 courgettes I ordered 4 bags of them and now have 16 courgettes to cook with! So I’m desperately trying to think of ways to use them all up. The Boy loves cucumber but he wasn’t fooled when I tried to pass off a courgette as a cucumber sadly. I then had a thought I could make some kind of savoury muffin using them. Continue reading
Milk
Easy Egg Free Recipes
I realised recently that most of my recipes – particularly my “baking” ones (I can’t really call what I do baking!) – contain eggs. I have a few friends with children who are allergic to egg so whenever I am making them meals I have to come up with egg free recipes. Here are my 3 favourite easy egg free recipes.
Easy Sugar-Free Rice Pudding (Cakes)
I am a member of a large parenting group on Facebook and two common questions are “what calcium rich snack can I give my child instead of their afternoon bottle” and “what healthy desserts can I give that aren’t full of sugar”. I love rice pudding and I wanted to give my kids some but all the ones in supermarkets are loaded with sugar and any recipe I have seen also contains sugar. That called for me making lots of mess and doing lots of tasting in my kitchen (Mr MyMiniMeals is now calling our kitchen “the experimental kitchen” – a la Heston) and – Voila! – I came up with something really rather tasty. Continue reading
Very veggie pancakes
I frequently am trying to get The Boy to eat vegetables but he pretty much only eats cucumber, broccoli and the odd carrot here and there. I have tried with most other veggies but more often than not he feigns a stomach ache or makes such a face that I just give up and give him the usual suspects. I do sneak vegetables into most stuff I make him and he is aware of this and still eats it up but when faced with anything looking like a vegetable its generally a complete disaster. So this recipe is purely for Little Lady (and Mr Mini Meals just wolfed down half a batch too) as I know she loves her veggies and will eat anything as long as it has some green stuff somewhere. Continue reading
Super quick breakfast ideas
In my household breakfast (especially on weekdays) is a really rushed experience and I have been giving my kids the same thing every day as I know a) they will eat it and b) I haven’t got time to think of different things to make them. The Boy tends to have the same cereal every day and Little Lady (who eats once we are home from school run) has toast or a different brand of cereal. But I have recently started (especially for Little Lady as she is my guinea pig and eats most things) giving them different things. At the weekend we all eat as a family and have more time to make different things (I frequently make 4 different breakfasts!) but I am slowly starting to give everyone the same thing that I have made from scratch (much to The Boy’s horror!).
Here are a few things I have been making recently that have gone down well with my kids and Mr Mini Meals and they really are ridiculously quick to make!
Fruit puree and raisin muffins
Neither of my kids eat fruit puree anymore but I still use it on a regular basis to make my “Baby Flapjacks” . I have recently discovered that it makes a great addition to other recipes. I am experimenting with various ideas using puree so watch this space but one thing I have made that goes down well with Little Lady and The Boy (and Mr Mini Meals too!) are fruit puree muffins. I have added raisins as I like to get as much fruit into my kids as possible but they aren’t necessary – and you could susbtiute for other dried fruit too, like dried cranberries or chopped apricots. I use ready made fruit puree pots (honestly I have neither the time or energy to puree my own fruit but if you want to please go ahead!) which are readily available in all supermarkets in the baby food aisle. They are a really yummy breakfast idea or a snack.
Yummy Chewy “Biscuits”
This is another recipe I found online but, when I tried it, it just didn’t work so I adapted it and the result are “biscuits” that are like chewy in the middle “fudgy” cookies. I have to admit they look unattractive but are really yummy. Perfect for a snack, dessert or breakfast.