Baby Cuisine - Turkey's Cheap!

It's seems aaaaages since I posted a recipe, and now I have a back"blog"(hohoho) of gorgeous, yummilicious meals to tell you about. I've been dying to get the ol' iPad out and tell you all about it. Now The Other Half is transfixed at the telly (Euro FitBaw), I'm no longer duty bound to sit on my rather rotund arse watching lots of TV in the evening.

Why does it seem there's a huge football tournament every couple of weeks? Even The Bairn was keeping his beady eyes on it before bed, while I was enjoying a particularly enthralling episode of the thrilling "In The Night Garden" on the iPlayer. I mean that, you know. It's not sarcasm. It was enthralling. And not only Makkapakka's BoobBum. The Pontypines had left their house!

Today's recipes. What can I say? I'm a cheapskate. I bought a pack of turkey mince because

• It's cheap as chips
• It's healthy (is it? I think it is...)
• It's cheap.

So I made a batch of meals for the Urchin... I mean The Bairn.

Turkey Casserole

Ingredients

Handful (yuck! I hate touching meat - sad times) of turkey mince

The white end of a leek chopped finely

A carrot

Half a parsnip

A potato

Little pinch of herbes de Provence (hawheehaw)

1. Fry leek in butter
2. Stir in mince
3. When cooked through, add carrot, potato and parsnip, chopped pretty small
4. Stir in herbs
5. Add water til just covered
6. Bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. (Steam broccoli/cauliflower over the top for finger food)
7. Mash up
8. Feed to starving baby!

Chilli Turkey
Ingredients

Handful of (you guessed it) turkey mince

Half an onion chopped finely

Half a clove of garlic

Spices - pinch each of cumin, paprika, chilli powder

Tomato purée

Half a yellow or red pepper

Half a small courgette

A tomato

Half a tin of chopped tomatoes

1. Fry up onion and spices in olive oil
2. Add mince
3. When cooked add pepper chopped small, and tomato purée
4. After 5 mins add finely chopped courgette and tomato
5. After another 5 mins add tinned chopped toms, I also added a wee bit of water
6. Boil, cover, then simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Serve with pitta bread, tortillas (NOT the Doritos kind! Slight choking hazard :-O) or chapatti

Now I will say that both of these are delicious, as I always try it myself (hence afore-mentioned rotund arse), but you will never want to see turkey mince again in your life after making 10 batches of baby food from it. That's why my (for the grown ups) Spicy Thai Satay Turkey Burgers are not described here nor is the recipe given.

Too. Much. Turkey.

Hoobloodyray for CHOCOLATE!

Baby Cuisine - Comforting Cottage Pie

There's something about cottage pie on a crappy, rain-splattered, minging day like today. Retrieve those woolly cardies from the back of the wardrobe; hunt out those worn-twice-since-Christmas slankets and sink back into Winter Warming with a slop of hearty cottage pie. This recipe is designed so that adults AND babies can enjoy it, with minimum extra effort. I aim to use as few pans as possible!

Ingredients:

Pack of mince
Onion chopped finely
Clove of garlic pressed
2 grated carrots
Spinach
Tablespoon of plain flour
Herbs
Potatoes

Serve with broccoli and cauliflower florets

1. Fry onion in oil until soft, add garlic
2. Stir in carrots, cook for a few minutes
3. Stir in mince, fry together until browned
4. Stir in flour for a few minutes
5. Add some herbs. I use herbes de provence, some black pepper and a bay leaf. And a bit of paprika really warms it up.
6. Add some water, bring to boil and simmer low for 20 minutes
7. Meanwhile, boil chopped potatoes NO SALT, for 20 mins
8. Steam cauliflower, carrots and broccoli florets (frozen ones are so easy) above potatoes for finger food

9. When cooked, remove mince and tatties for The Bambino, mash together, put some aside for the freezer if there's enough.

10. Then, I make sure me and The Other Half have a whole shed load of butter with the potatoes, Bisto in the mince and a big steaming pool of Nandos piri piri sauce on the side.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And for pudding, natural full-fat bio yoghurt with fresh fruit. Just on the off-chance summer could be tempted back.

Enjoy the stodge! X

Baby Cuisine - Fishy Pie

I'm going to get right in there and tell you this recipe. It is brilliant, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients

4 quality cod fish fingers
2 medium sized potatoes
Dairylea triangle
Full fat milk
Cheese
Parsley
Peas

1. Cook your fish fingers, when cooled take off the batter (and scoff it, you greedy mare!), and flake fish into a bowl.
2. Boil your peeled/chopped up tattied.
Mash when soft. Add a little unsalted butter and milk if you like.
3. Steam your peas - I use frozen ones - and mash/blitz.
4. MAKE BABY CHEESE SAUCE:
Dairylea triangle, splash of full-fat milk and a generous fingerful of grated cheese in a plastic tub, microwave 20 seconds, mix it up, done!
5. Stir in chopped parsley - I use frozen stuff.
6. Mix fish/parsley/cheese sauce together.
7. In ramikins do layer of fish mix, then mushy peas, then mashed potato. Empty onto a plate.

Check it out! It's frickin gorgeous! Gordon "PottyMouth" Ramsarse couldnt do it better!

My Bairn wolfed it down. Got one in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, one in the freezer to keep.

You may see below my beloved The Other Half. Nope, I have no idea either. Check out the Tubster anxiously awaiting Scran O' Clock. Bless him!

In other news, leaving aforementioned Bairn with Granny for a whole day including bed-time tomorrow. First time I've not been there at bedtime.

:-/

Baby Cuisine - Lurgy Obliterating Chicken Soup

Uuuuuuuurgh.

Sooooo poorly today. Me and The Bairn are suffering total lurgification. It's clearly a cold and therefore we must both MAN UP and GROW A PAIR. The Bairn has, at least, achieved the latter. And one could argue that I grew HIS pair. But nevertheless, where I fail at MANNING UP, I absolutely succeed at making chicken soup - and everyone knows chicken soups cures all that ails ya. A sure sign of WOMANNING up, a superior evolutionary step in the grand scheme of things.

Lurgy Obliterating Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup

Ingredients:
Half an onion chopped finely
Chicken breasticle cut up really small
Half a tin of sweetcorn
Easy cook white rice (washed)
Homemade stock if you have any
Whatever herbs and stuff you like
Milk

1. Fry onion in olive oil until transparent.
2. Add chicken pieces - fry until cooked.
3. Add sweetcorn and handful of rice.
4. If you have homemade stock, use it, otherwise add water until just covers ingredients, throw in herbs/pepper.
5. Simmer covered for 20 mins, add liquid when needed.
6. Blitz with hand processor til pretty smooth - I know, lumps are good, but too much effort for a poorly little boy :(
7. Served with little pitta bread pieces, dipped in soup.

I used a defrosted chicken breast, so used it all today by adding The Bairn's milk and blitzing in a separate tub.

You can then add a stock cube (too salty for wee yins) and more water to make your own "adult" soup thinner. And extra seasoning too. In fact a sliced red chilli simmered in at this point might be awesome...

As I type, I'm merging into the sofa; The Bairn's custom crocheted Granny Blankie protecting me against further viral infiltration. Wish us luck in quarantine!

X