Recipe: Crustless Pea and Feta Quiche

These are essentially scrambled eggs baked in muffin tins, but I've made it all fancy calling it a crustless quiche for the adults.  You can put any cooked fillings you want in them really.  For the adults I sautéed some courgette in garlic and chilli flakes until super soft, and for MiniMe I just used some frozen peas. 

Pea and Feta Crustless Quiche (makes 3) 

Preheat your oven to 180C.  Place 3 silicone muffin cups on a baking tray. Sprinkle in about 5 or 6 peas and a bit of feta cheese (remember feta is salty so you don't want to use too much)into each muffin cup.  In a small measuring jug whisk 1 large egg with about 1 Tbsp of milk until the egg yolk is completely broken up. Pour the egg mixture into each muffin cup (about 1/2 way up the side).  Bake for 15-20 mins until the edges are slightly golden and the top no longer wobbles.  Let them cool completely before serving.  

Store in an air tight container in the fridge no longer than 2 days.  

** If you want to make a large crustless quiche, like I did for the adults...grease an 8 inch regular pie plate (not deep) and then lay your cooked veg, chicken, ham whatever inside.  Whisk 5 large eggs and 1/4 cup of milk in a measuring jug, season with salt and pepper if you want.  Pour over filling and top with grated cheese or crumbled feta.  bake for 25-30 mins until puffed up, golden and no longer wobbly.  

Recipe: Sweet Potato Cake

I am feeling super lazy today. We have had a couple of rough nights of sleep.  I think MiniMe is going to take her first steps very soon...part of me can't wait so that she starts sleeping better...the other part of me isn't ready to be running around after a Toddler.  Anyway, I posted this recipe on my other blog and am just being super lazy and posting the link to my write up here. 

This is a great way to get some extra vitamins and nutrients into your little one's diet.  If you are ok with a bit of sugar than this recipe will be fine.  I ended up halving the amount of sugar, 1/4 cup white and 1/4 cup brown but you could probably do all brown if you wanted to avoided more refined sugars.  The brown sugar helps to give this cake a toffee flavour so I wouldn't go with all white sugar.  It is also flavoured and sweetened with Maple Syrup so, again, it is probably sweet enough without the extra sugar...it is your call.  The cake is pretty dense so it does take a while to bake, but it is also super moist so keeps well in an air tight container.  I portioned out 5 slices and then cut them in half to make 10 servings for MiniMe, which I froze.  The rest we have been enjoying over the last couple of days.  

Here is the Original Recipe. 

Introducing a plate...and a fork!

Around 9.5 months we started offering MiniMe's food to her on a plate.  Before then I would prepare her food and put it on a plate and then the plate on the table in front of her high chair and place pieces of food on her tray a bit at a time.  Around 9 months she started reaching for the plate (and almost getting it on some occasions) so we decided that she was ready to have it herself.  

We were given some suction bowls and a mat that also acts as a suction but...wouldn't you know it...she managed to figure that all out and bowls were quickly lifted high up off the tray.  There really was no sense in trying to keep putting them back on, so we just prepared ourselves for a few flying plates and went with the flow.  For the first week or so either Dad or I ate sneakily holding the plate while she ate off of it, but she soon wised up to that and STARTED REMOVING OUR HANDS!!! 

She's been successfully using a plate and bowl now for the last few months.  When she is finished eating she starts picking it up to put it on the table.  There have been a couple of plates that went flying onto the floor but that's only because Dad and I were too wrapped up in our own conversation to catch the plate before it was lifted too high.  

Now that she is 1 and happily eating off a plate we decided that we would give eating with a fork a try.  Just like the pre-loaded spoon way back at 6 months we have been pre-loading her fork for her at some meals.  We spear something onto her fork and put the fork down on her plate for her to pick up and self feed.  She then hands us the fork back.  Sometimes while she is chewing she will use the fork to try to spear food herself, and has actually managed to get quite a bit herself (her little face is so cute when she does....so proud of herself).  

spearing macaroni 

Trying to get some egg (she actually did at one point) 

Pre-loaded Fork 

Going for the red peppers with such concentration 

Recipe: Porridge Bars (snack time!)

These porridge bars are sort of like a soft cereal or granola bar. They mix up really quickly and freeze well.   These bars are adapted from the porridge bites I posted here and also inspired by my pal Fiona, who has her own version of them. I think they are better for slightly older babies (we first gave them to MiniMe at 9 months) who are confident chewing because the bar is much denser than the bites.  

Ingredients:

Makes 8-10 bars

1 cup oats
1 mashed banana mixed with enough milk to make 1 cup of liquid
handful of blueberries

PRE HEAT Oven to 180F
Line a 2 lb loaf tin with parchment paper or foil

In a bowl mix all ingredients together and let rest for about 10 mins, until it starts to look like porridge.
Spread evenly into the loaf tin.

Bake for about 25-30 mins until the top is golden and the mixture feels firm.

Allow to cool completely before removing from tin and slicing.

I would suggest freezing most of these in a ziploc bag once they are cooled and storing the remainder in an airtight container in the fridge.  They don't keep fresh long so it is best to freeze them.  The up side is that they defrost really quickly (like within an hour).

Up-cycled Breast Milk Container Yogurt Pots

For a while we were giving MiniMe a fromage frais every night for her "dessert".  She would use a little spoon and dip it into the little yogurt pot and attempt to feed herself.  She really surprised us with how quickly she figured out how to dip the spoon (after watching us) and bring it to her mouth.  Sure, she was already used to self feeding from a pre-loaded spoon but the process of dipping and feeding presented a real challenge. 

We started when she was about 8 months, and now at 12 months I can say that on most nights the mess (if there is any) is confined to her cheeks and is no longer all down her front, on the floor and all over the high chair tray.  

After a few weeks though we realised that the amount of sugar in those little pots is just ridiculous! Sure, most of it probably occurs naturally through the fruit but it was still really high.  So we started giving MiniMe plain full fat greek yogurt, but the problem was that there had to be a pretty large portion of yogurt in her bowl for her to be able to successfully dip and feed herself.  UGH. 

We tried using an egg cup...not enough yogurt, we tried a ramekin...not great (plus being ceramic someone had to hold onto it so it didn't meet its death crashing to the floor).  THEN I came up with the ingenious idea to Up-Cycle a Tommee Tippee breast milk storage pot as a yogurt container.  

Breast Milk Container being used as a yogurt pot 

So now we just plop in some plain greek yogurt and MiniMe can hold the pot and spoon feed herself! Sometimes I'll add in some fruit smoothy if we have some leftover, but it really isn't necessary. 

Recipe: Courgette Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins are an adaptation of my go-to muffin recipe.  I have adapted it for MiniMe by cutting down the sugar and adding some oats for extra goodness.  They freeze really well, and defrost very quickly.  I usually take one out of the freezer in the morning and she will have it for her snack after her morning nap with some cheese and raisins.

oatmeal courgette mini muffins

Dad isn't a fan of these muffins because they aren't sweet, but MiniMe and I are loving them.  It is another way to get some vegetables into her diet, and the oats have the additional benefit of adding some fibre and iron in too.

Recipe:

Makes 24 mini muffins, or a combination of Regular and mini muffins.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup shredded courgette (or substitute 1 cup of berries, shredded apple, shredded carrot to change them up)
2 eggs
1 cup milk (whatever you use)
1/4 unflavoured oil (veg, sunflower, canola, rapeseed)

PRE HEAT oven to 200C

Grease or line you muffin tins.

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl.
In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients BUT NOT the courgette/fruit.
Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix together gently, it is ok to have some lumps.
Mix through courgette/fruit.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full.  I find that it is about 1 TBSP of batter for a mini muffin and 2 TBSP for a regular sized muffin.

Bake 15-20 mins for mini muffins, 20-25 mins for regular muffins or until tester comes out clean.

Cool and enjoy!

Can be frozen in a ziploc freezer bag.

AND WE'RE BACK! A Catch up and some meal ideas

I've been struggling with a Babe who all of a sudden decided that the fantastic nap routine she FINALLY got on was NO GOOD and that she much rather nap on the go, which has meant that between that and 2 trips to Canada in the last couple of months I haven't had much time to sit down and post anything here. 

Over the past couple of months (from 10-12 months) I can't say that I have noticed any big changes in  MiniMe's approach to eating, her likes and dislikes, or her appetite.  She is still excited by food more often than not and even on the days when she isn't feeling well she will still eat most of what we are offering her.  

At 10.5 months her bottom 2 teeth FINALLY came through and we have noticed that she is trying to rip stuff like bread into smaller bites using them, but without the top guys it is still pretty difficult.  She definitely prefers her food in smaller bite-sized pieces. Every day I will offer her something in a bigger piece but she leaves it until I cut it up smaller (strips of chicken, toast, banana...anything).  The bite sized pieces I offer her are still large enough that she needs to gum them though. 

While we were away visiting family in Canada we ate out a lot and most places were very accommodating making us veggies without salt, sweet potato fries without salt, bringing a side of toast and peanut butter, or an extra scrambled egg.  She helped things, of course, with her big smiles and goo goo eyes.  I often ordered something that we could share and then a side of something else to share because the KIDS menus just weren't appealing. 

We are back home now, trying to get over the 2nd lot of jet lag and resume normal service.  Here are a few things we have had over the past couple of weeks to offer some inspiration. 

Breakfast: Corn Flakes softened in milk, banana and peanut butter and jam bread roll ups

Breakfast: Scrambled Egg with cheese, blueberry porridge bar and yogurt

Brunch: French Toast, scrambled egg, beans and yogurt

Snack: Peanut Butter with mashed banana (slices of banana and a coffee for mum) 

Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese and broccoli 

I cut the spaghetti strands in thirds so they were easier to schlurp up 

Dinner: Beans, avocado and cheese

Dinner:  Pizza with cheese,ham and mushrooms (I make my own dough so there is no salt) 

Lunch: Minestrone Soup with Alphabet pasta and hummus bread roll ups