Recipe: Soft Cinnamon Apples

These apples are a great way to introduce apple pieces to little ones who don't have any teeth, they are soft and naturally sweet and a great treat for adults too!

A month or so ago I gave MiniMe some raw apple to gum...I had figured it would be like her gnawing on raw carrot or celery and if nothing else a nice feeling on her gums...it wasn't received very well.  Since then I've just avoided apples.  She happily eats all soft fruit and tinned pears but I haven't even thought about giving her apples...until I was scrolling through some Pinterest Pins and rembered some friends singing the praises of the sauteed cinnamon apples from the babyledweaningblog.com

Peeled apples sliced and sauteed in unsalted butter and cinnamon until soft and starting to get golden brown...how easy does that sound? 

I've read that cinnamon is a common allergin so be careful if your little one hasn't had cinnamon yet.  You could miss it out and just soften the apples in some butter, they are lovely and sweet as they are.  MiniMe has cinnamon on her porridge sometimes, so I knew she wasn't likely to have a reaction to it.  

Today I used a medium sized Braeburn Apple, about 1 Tbsp of unsalted butter and a good sprikle of cinnamon.  In a small frying pan I just melted the butter, tossed in the peeled apple slices, sprinkled them with cinnamon and then kept turning them until they were soft and beginning to brown...about 7ish minutes.  

MiniMe had some with her lunch...2 slices to be exact, I ate the rest. 

Recipe: Spinach Ricotta Pasta Bake

A while ago my pal posted the cutest picture of her little dude completely covered in spinach.  She had given him pasta with spinach and he had pretty much devoured the pasta while spreading the spinach all over his face. It was so sweet.  I was reminded of her gorgeous picture when MiniMe had some Tuna Pasta Bake over the weekend and quickly planned to make her a ricotta spinach casserole during the week.

Until now MiniMe hasn't manged gumming pasta very well. She does well with ravioli and other fresh pastas, since it is so much thinner, but the dried stuff has always been too tough for her...until now.  Cooked in a casserole the pasta is very soft, and we can easily cut it into manageable sized pieces for her. 

To feed 2 greedy adults and 1 little munchkin with some leftover for an adult snack or little one's meal the next day...

Wash and wilt 200g of baby spinach (don't need oil, the spinach will wilt with the water on the leaves from being washed).  Once cooled chop finely, this way you don't need to spend time breaking off the stems from the spinach leaves.  Put the spinach in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta and sauce.  Cook 500g pasta or your choice, we used shells because they are easier for MiniMe to gum.  While the pasta is cooking mix a 250g tub of ricotta into the spinach and add a good pinch of black pepper and a handful of grated parmsean cheese.  When the pasta is almost done cooking scoop out about a cup of the cooking water. Add this a couple of Tbsp at a time to the spinach mixture to loosen the sauce, to your liking. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to spinach mix. Combine and pour pasta into an appropriately sized oven proof dish. At this point top with grated cheddar and put under a hot grill until cheese is bubbly and melted, or let pasta cool in your dish and refridgerate until dinner time (you know, if you have time to make it in the morning while your little one naps). When you are ready to heat it up, top with grated cheese and cover with foil, pop into the oven at about 180c until the casserole is warmed through, about 30 mins. Take foil off and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and golden.  

It seems like a lot of steps, but I was able to throw this together AND clean up in the time MiniMe napped yesterday, so it is really is a quick dish.  

Recipe: Broccoli Cheese Bites

We think MiniMe is a pretty good eater, she happily chows down on most of what we offer her and when we look back over the past 10ish weeks it is amazing to think how well she has progressed.  Those first few weeks feel like ages ago, and at that point it felt like she was never going to actually swallow anything...but now she is picking up bite sized pieces, confidently gumming them down and swallowing.  Sure there is still a good amount if gagging, but we put that down to her being the product of two very greedy parents...it was inevitable that she would want to shove whole pieces if fruit, bread, chicken in her mouth.  Since we've been cutting her food into bite sized pieces she's been gagging less.

Broccoli still gets the stink eye...even after all this time...it is not received well.  I don't get it, broccoli seems to a firm favourite of so many babes just starting weaning...so why is MiniMe avoiding it like the plague? Who knows.  I am not that concerned, really, but I can't help thinking about all those good vitamens and nutrients she's missing out on by avoiding broccoli.  Silly, I know, since she eats loads of other great veg but I just can't help myself.  

So I searched Pinterest for some broccoli inspiration and came across a huge selection of recipes for cheesy broccoli patties...problem solved. 

250g Broccoli cooked and finely chopped, 100g cheddar cheese grated, 1/2cup breadcrumbs,1 or 2 eggs ( depending on size, start with 1 and see how moist it makes the mixture) and a pinch of paprika....mix it all together, form into patties and bake on a lined baking sheet at 180C for about 25 mins or until golden.  MiniMe happily munched away on bite sized pieces of these patties at room temperature and also straight from the fridge...she didn't have ketchup...I did though!