Roasted butternut squash and things

1 butternut squash
3 biggish carrots
2 smallish red onions
3 cloves garlic
Half a teaspoon or so of dried thyme
100g feta (or low fat Greek salad cheese, to cut the calories)

Cut squash into 1 inch chunks. Halve carrots lengthways and then into 2 inch lengths. Cut onions into quarters, leaving each quarter joined together at the root. Peel garlic but leave cloves whole. Spray baking tray with oil, add veg, sprinkle on thyme, spray again, then roast for about 30 mins at about 200 degC. When the veg is soft and beginning to colour, throw the feta over and give it another 10 mins or so.

We had it with jacket potatoes and salad. I blitzed the leftovers with a bit of baby veg stock to make soup for lunch tomorrow.

Blueberry Cookies

We had some slightly elderly blueberries, and I found this in a book called "Baking with tiny tots" by Becky Johnson. It's been adapted slightly...

75g butter or margarine softened
125g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
175g self raising flour
Grated rind of an unwaxed lemon (didn't have one, left it out)
125g blueberries

1. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper, preheat oven to 180degC/gas 4
2. Beat together butter and sugar until creamy
3. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat again
4. Sift in the flour, add lemon rind and mix.
5. Stir in blueberries, breaking them up a bit in the process
6. Place dessertspoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets (spread the mounds into rounds to get flat cookies, we left ours in mounds because spreading didn't seem like a good idea with a toddler... One giant, but very thin cookie, anyone?). Leave space between them to allow for spreading.
7. Bake for 12-15 mins until pale golden, remove and allow to cool a little before transferring to a cooling rack.

#dietfail

Carrot Cake

I have baked this Mary Berry cake with both ordinary self-raising flour and gluten-free self raising (just add slightly extra baking powder), and it's gone down really well with everyone. The original recipe calls for 100g of grated carrot & 2 ripe mashed bananas, but I prefer to increase the carrot & reduce the banana otherwise the carrot flavour is overwhelmed by the banana.

We prefer to top with a vanilla buttercream icing, because you just can't beat it but the original recipes suggests a cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons of baking powder
150g light muscovado sugar
50g chopped walnuts
125g grated carrots
2 small/1 large ripe banana mashed
2 large eggs
150ml sunflower oil

For the cream cheese frosting:

175g full-fat soft cheese
50g softened butter
100g sifted icing sugar
a few drops of vanilla extract
walnut halves to decorate

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 F/Fan 160 F/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm deep round cake tin and base line with baking parchment.

2. Measure all the ingredients for the cake into a large bowl and beat well until thoroughly blended and smooth. Turn into the prepared tin and level the surface.

3. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50-60 minutes until the cake is well risen & shrinking away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out, peel off the parchment and leave to cool.

4. For the topping, measure all the ingredients except the walnuts, into a bowl or food processor and mix until smooth. Spread over the top of the cake and decorate with walnut halves.

5. If using the cream cheese frosting, chill a little before serving, and store in the fridge.

Noodles / Noodle Soup

Very basic, very quick lunch for a cba day...

Stock cube (any)
Frozen prawns (optional)
Water
Rice noodles (any noodles will probably be fine)

Put as much or as little as you want of the above into a saucepan, heat through.

Excellent for the diets (the soup). Excellent for the toddlers (the noodles).

Fruit crumble slice

This is an adaptation of a recipe for 'Tropical crumble slice' from the Tesco recipe app. Halfway through cooking it, I realised it was a variation on date slice. Last time I made date slice (home ec lessons at school), I broke my Dad's tooth. Check for stones.

Bottom:
90g butter
180g plain flour
90g caster sugar

Middle:
400g dried fruit (I used a mix of raisins, apricots and dates, Tesco suggests 300g of Island Mix and 100g of dried mango)
1 tbsp sugar
200ml water
half to 1 teaspoon of mixed spice (optional)

Top:
90g butter
90g plain flour
4 tbsp light brown sugar
45g oats or muesli

Preheat oven to 190 degC, gas mark 4. Line a 20cm / 8in tin with parchment.
Bottom: Melt the butter and mix in the flour and sugar, press into the tin to cover the bottom evenly. Bake for 15 mins until golden.
Middle: Put the ingredients into a pan and simmer for 10 mins so the fruit plumps up.
Top: Rub together the butter and flour. Stir in the sugar and muesli.
Spoon the fruit onto the base and scatter over the crumble. Bake for 25mins until golden.
Cool in the tin, then cut and eat.

Picture to follow.

Scones - Sweet or Savoury

I thought it was about time I contributed to this blog, so I've chosen something simple and versatile. Something my children enjoy making and eating!

Basic Plain Scone Recipe:
8oz Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt (optional)
2oz Butter
1oz Caster Sugar
150ml Milk

For a sweet variation, add 1oz Raisins/Dried Fruit (Glace Cherries work well)
For a savoury variation, omit the sugar and add 1oz Cheese or 1oz Walnuts.

Preheat oven to 220'C.

Mix together the sifted flour and salt and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar if you're making the sweet variety.

Add your sweet/savoury ingredients (Dried Fruit/Cheese/Walnuts).

Add the milk and mix to form a dough - it's really important not to knead the dough like you would bread. Try to handle it as little as possible.

Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to about 3cms thick. Cut out circular discs of about 6-7cms diameter.

Place on greased/floured baking tray and brush with egg or milk
Oven cook for 12 - 15 minutes.

To serve: Slice in half, add butter to the cheesy or walnut ones. Serve the sweet ones with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

Delicious!

Mince Pie Muffins

300g Plain Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder
115g Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Ginger (I would say optional)
1/4 tsp Grated Nutmeg (I would say optional also, but thats because I didnt have any!)
175ml Milk
2 tbsp Grand Marnier (Optional as I didnt have any!)
1 Beaten Egg
115g Melted Butter
Finely Grated Zest of 1 Lemon (surprise.... didnt have any!)
About 6 tbsp Luxury Mincemeat

Preheat oven to 200'c /400'F/Gas 6. Grease or line a 12 hole muffin tin.

Combine flour, baking powder, caster sugar, ginger and nutmeg and sift into a large bowl.

In a seperate bowl or jug, combine the milk, Grand Marnier, egg, butter and lemon zest. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Half fill each muffin cup with the mixture, top with a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat, nestling it down into the mixture, then top with another dollop of muffin mixture to cover.

Bake for about 20min until risen and golden. Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To serve, dust with icing sugar, decorate with a holly leaf and sprinkle with a little silver glitter.

I would add that you need to try and judge where the very middle of the mixture will be as if the mixture is seen above the top of the mixture it can be charred when being cooked. So ensuring that it is quite far down, but yet not too far down as I guess it might come out the bottom?

'Baking Magic' by Kate Shirazi

Minted Lamb Stew

After over a year of rejecting meat, we recently discovered that lamb is acceptable providing it is smothered in mint sauce. We have also discovered that chicken is acceptable if smothered in cranberry sauce...tiny steps forward: steps astride the question of "by condiment-ing, are we in fact stealth feeding him meat which goes against our BLW principles".

With that question burning in the back of our minds, we decided to try making a minty lamb stew for Lentil.

Minted Lamb & Pea Stew

• 350g lean lamb leg, cubed
• 1 tbsp plain flour , seasoned
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 4 carrots , thickly sliced
• 400g potatoes , cut into large chunks
• 700ml lamb or chicken stock
• 300g frozen peas
• Mint sauce to taste (1 tsp or more)
  
• handful mint leaves, to serve

1. Toss the lamb in the flour. Heat half the oil in a large pan, then brown the lamb over a high heat for 2 mins. Transfer to a plate, then add the rest of the oil, shallots, leeks, carrot and potatoes to the pan. Fry for a few mins until starting to soften.
2. Pour over the stock, scraping up any meaty bits, then simmer for 10 mins until the veg are almost cooked. Tip the lamb into the pan with the peas and stir in the mint sauce, then simmer for 4 mins or until the lamb is just cooked and the veg are tender.
3. Scatter with mint to serve.

It was lovely, very warming on a cold & wet night and so easy to cook. The minty stew was a complete winner and Lentil cleaned up his plate, meat included.

Source: Good Food Magazine

Apple and Cranberry Gravy

A neighbour left me a batch of apples on my doorstep the other day. I was just cooking up some sausages for tea, so quickly googled and found a recipe to go with the sausages.

Apple & Cranberry Gravy

• 6 extra lean (5% fat) sausages
• 1 large red onion, sliced
• 1 large sprig rosemary, leaves only
• 3 Pink Lady apples, cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp cranberry sauce
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1/2 pt vegetable stock
• 2tsps cooking oil

1. Grill the sausages.
2. Meanwhile fry the onions in the oil until soft and golden.
3. Add the rosemary and apples, and cook for 3-4mins till the apple starts to soften.
4. Add the cranberry sauce, mustard and stock to the pan too, and stir.
5. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 10mins. Add a little flour, if needed, to thicken.

It went down a storm with my 2 year old, who polished everything off on his plate.

Chicken and leek pie

I found this recipe on 'Feeding boys and a firefighter', here. For once, I've pretty much followed what it says... although I put in a bit less mustard because Small Person has rejected mustardy things in the past. Anyway, here's my attempt:

Also, not having two small ovenproof dishes, I've done it in one medium sized oven proof dish... Served with roasted baby new potatoes (cut the big ones into chunks the size of the small ones, put on a baking tray with some oil), broad beans and peas (from the freezer) and courgettes (from my Dad's allotment).

Beetroot and Choc Brownies

250g Good Qual Choc
250g Cooked and Grated Beetroot
250g Caster Sugar
250g Butter
150g Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs

Pre-heat oven to 180'c. Grease a 20 x 30 x 3cm (ish) tin and add parchment to the bottom of the tin. Whisk together the sugar and eggs. Melt choc and butter and blend in with the egg mixture.
Gently fold the flour and then the beetroot to the mix (add chopped nuts or chunks of white choc if you wish). Poor into tin. Stick in the oven for 20 mins ish. Dont over cook or it'll be tough. Its ok to have a slightly sticky skewer when poked in the brownie, nice and stodgy :-).

Courtesy of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

Brownie-and-Tiffin Tipper Truck Birthday Cake

The cake:

The Brownies: 

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's "Little Book of Big Treats"

250g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids, Green & Blacks type stuff)

80g cocoa powder

65g plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

360g caster sugar

4 eggs

Optional: Jamie suggests 75g dried sour cherries and 50g chopped nuts. I used 50g of white chocolate (chopped into chunks) and 50g of walnut pieces, but I think it could have taken twice that amount of additions!

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degC. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper. Jamie suggests a 25cm square tin. I didn't have one of those, and neither did Tesco, so I used what Tesco called a 31cm tin. It's rectangular and about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and did the job perfectly.

In a large bowl over simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder, then stir in the sugar. Add this to the chocolate/butter mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency. I added the optional chocolate chunks and walnuts at this point (although Jamie says to add them to the melted chocolate), because I wanted half-and-half. I split the mixture in two and added chocolate chunks to one half and walnuts to the other, then...

Pour the brownie mix into the baking tray (half at one end and half at the other - they'll meet in the middle and some folk will get both), and place in the oven for around 25 minutes (I cooked mine for 30). Unlike cakes, a skewer shouldn't come out clean, because they need to be gooey in the middle. Once cooked, allow them to cool in the tray then transfer to a chopping board and cut into squares.

I baked these on Friday afternoon, cut them up and assembled the cake on Saturday, and they were still gooey and delicious on Monday evening, when we finished them up.

The Tiffin (Sookies):
Made following this recipe for sookies (last recipe in the post). I made double quantities with a few extra biscuits thrown in and this filled an A4 size baking tray. I then melted a bar and a half of dairy milk (large bar, and only because the posh chocolate went grainy rather than melting) and spread it over the top. The texture is more biscuity and crunchy than tiffin. These also lasted until Monday evening.

Dhal (easy lentil-based curry)

Large handful of red lentils
Chicken/veg (baby) stock cube
Onion
Curry powder (I use a Trinidadian one)
Chickpeas (from a tin)

Optional: other veg
Optional: meat

Basic quick method:
Cook the lentils in the stock until soft
In a separate pan, fry the onion*.
Add the curry powder to water to make a paste, then fry with the onions until you get a delicious curry smell**.
Add chickpeas, cooked lentils and some water and heat through
Eat, with rice or naan or roti. Garnish with fresh coriander if you're feeling posh.

*if you want to add chicken or other meat, add it here, and brown it off before adding the curry paste.
**if you adding veg which is raw (potatoes, courgette, whatever) add it here, then add some water and simmer until the veg is tender, before adding the chickpeas/lentils etc. Spinach should be stirred through at the end.

You can also do this in a slow cooker: add the onion and spice mix to the meat, veg and raw lentils in the slow cooker and leave it until it's done.

Gingerbread men (Bimmerman)

Adapted from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. These gingerbread men are nice and gingery and still a little bit soft. They are good dunked in Daddy's coffee... Makes 12ish.

350g plain flour
1 tsp bicab of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
100g butter
175g light soft brown sugar (or whatever, I think I used a mixture of caster and demerera last time)
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg, beaten

1. Grease some baking trays (2 or 3)
2. Sift/put the flour, bicarb and ginger into the bowl. Stir in the sugar
3. Melt the butter, then add to the mixture (the original recipe says to rub the butter into the flour, then add the sugar, but this works just as well)
4. Beat the egg and golden syrup together and stir in.
5. Mix to form a dough and knead until smooth
6. Divide in two, then roll out on a floured surface to about 5mm thick. Cut out shapes using a cutter (we did dinosaurs)
7. Decorate with currants for eyes etc if you want to
8. Oven (190 degC) for 12-15 mins until golden. Cool slightly then place on a wire rack.

Oat and raisin cookies

This is adapted slightly from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage Everyday". I've found that this is a good one for baking with the littlies, because, while it does involve melting butter in a pan, it doesn't involve any rubbing the butter in to flour and making breadcrumbs, which little S doesn't approve of at all.

125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of honey
100g caster sugar
75g light soft brown sugar (no, we don't always have several types of sugar, so go with what you have)
1 medium egg
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
50g jumbo oats
150g raisins
(or 100g of raisins and 75g chopped roasted hazelnuts)

Melt the butter with the honey in a small pan. Put the sugars in a mixing bowl, add the melted butter and beat well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the egg. Throw in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder (Hugh says 'sift') and stir in. Then stir in the oats and raisins. You should have a 'pretty sloppy sort of mixture'.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and drop dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on to it, leaving about 4cm between each blob. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degC for 8-10 minitesm until they are turning pale golden brown. Remove and leave on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes to allow them to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Lemon & Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

150g / 5oz Dark brown sugar
150g / 5oz Margarine (dairy free if required)
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
150g / 5oz Self raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
75g / 3oz Porridge oats
75g / 3oz raisins (or other dried fruit)

Method:

- Pre heat oven to 180c /Gas 4
- Cream sugar and margarine. Mix in lemon rind.
- Mix in baking powder, oats and flour. Add raisins and mix.
- Grease baking tray, place heaped dessertspoons of mixture onto tray and flatten slightly (space well apart as mixture spreads).
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden.
- Leave to cool slightly before moving to wire rack.
- Cookies will feel soft to touch when warm, but will crisp up as they cool.


Add lemon juice for extra tang!
Substitute half of raisins for choc chips.
Try orange rind instead of lemon.

Ideas please!

We have a group of friends who we get together with regularly, and usually we just get a Chinese or Indian takeaway. I'm thinking about attempting to cook instead so am looking for ideas. There would be 8 adults, 2 of whom are vegetarians and could be a few teenagers in tow (there's a budding romance between the son of one family & the daughter of another) as well.

I'm thinking chilli plus bits. My little steamer couldn't make enough rice for everyone but maybe a big bowl of rice which I could then bulk out as a rice salad (so cucumber, peppers, sweetcorn, etc.), tacos and bread. Am looking for ideas for my Veggie friends and/or 'another main dish'.

Banana & Apple Cookies

Had my first crack at baking my own cookies today. I've wanted to replicate the Little Plum Spelt Biscuits with Apple, but haven't found a recipe close enough (nor a source of Spelt Syrup). So I've adapted an Amercian recipe, which also meant my conversion from 'cups' to ozs was a rough estimate, at best. The cookies are quite soft & sweet, I think you could cut down the sugar without affecting the taste.

Banana & Apple Cookies

Ingredients:
2 pouches of pureed of Apple & Banana (you could (and possibly should!) use fresh, I just wanted to use these pouches up).
6ozs of brown sugar
2ozs of butter
6ozs of spelt wholemeal
4ozs of white flour
8ozs of oats
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp of cinnamon


Method:
Preheat your oven to 170C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Mash the banana in a bowl, add the butter & sugar and mix together.

In a large mixing bowl, bring together all the dry ingredients and mix together. Then stir in the banana mixture and combine. Spoon onto the prepared baking trays and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Adapted from: Parenting Our Kids

Slow Cook Leg of Lamb

It doesn't necessarily matter which joint of Lamb (or any other kind of meat) you use for this recipe as it is that easy and slow cooking will ensure any cut of meat will be succulent.

Put leg of lamb in medium slow cooker. Add an onion thats been cut in half, veg / or other stock (500ml ish), couple of garlic cloves if you choose - whatever you choose to put in the stock is up to you, they will only enhance the flavours: you can just use hot water, will still work.

Put the slow cooker on high for 4hrs
or
High for 1hr and then medium for another 7hrs
(Length of time depends on size of meat - this is based on 1 /2 legs in a medium sized slow cooker)

Both work wonders. However I always like food in a slow cooker to actually cook slowly so I would always choose for the 8+hr.

Take the meat out and dish up. Throw away the stock, unless you want to make gravy out of it.
*cue someone who can make gravy from this kind of stock*

Focaccia

Focaccia is a lovely tear and share bread to be an accompliment to a main dish or as a dipping / starter bread.

Make the dough using the Basic White Loaf recipe up to stage 2.

After kneading the dough for the second time stretch the dough out onto a greased baking tray so that it touches the sides, then cover and leave it to rise for 30min.
Then poke the dough with your fingertips to make indents. Drizzle olive oil and scatter your chosen herbs / garlic / cheese on top. The indents collect the lovely flavours.
Bake in a preheated oven for 20-30min, 190'c (ish), until golden and cooked through.

Tear, share and enjoy :-)