Rosemary Chicken, Mushroom & Kale with Cheesy Spaghetti Recipe

Serves 2 adults and 1 baby.

I like to use fresh herbs rather than jars of dried herbs in my cooking, the flavour you get is a lot better. However, buying fresh herbs every time you need them can be expensive and wasteful unless you're green fingered and can grow your own. I'm not, I've tried but I always end up with shriveled brown clumps apart from with mint which just takes over and you can't it stop growing. Instead I buy bags of fresh herbs and freeze them, you rarely need the full bag for any recipe and herbs defrost super quick if you run them under cold water, meaning that I always have a stock of herbs in to flavour a meal at a moments notice.

Ingredients

• 1 Chicken breast fillet
• 4 Mushrooms
• 75g Kale
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1 sprig of Rosemary
• 200g Soft Cheese
• 300g Spaghetti

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Slice the mushrooms and dice the chicken breast and garlic. Place in a lidded oven proof dish along with the rosemary. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
3. Put the spaghetti on to cook, this should be brought to the boil and then simmered for 20 minutes.
4. After baking for 15 minutes remove the oven proof dish from the oven and add the kale. Return to the oven with the lid on for a further 10 minutes.
5. Drain the spaghetti, then in a large bowl mix in the soft cheese, add the contents of the oven proof dish including the juice and stir into the cheesy spaghetti.

Tomato, Spinach & Mushroom Omelette Recipe

Omelette is a great base to add a selection of veggies to, so why not mix and match your favourites? As well as tomato, spinach and mushroom, why not try omelette with onion, leek, sweetcorn, pepper or cheese? Also plain omelette on toast also goes down really well with my daughter and is easy to cut into finger food.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 50ml whole milk
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• Sprinkle of paprika
• 1 tomato
• 3 mushrooms
• 25g spinach

Method

1. Chop the tomato and mushrooms, add to a frying pan with the oil and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. While the vegetables  are cooking, whisk the eggs, milk and paprika together.
4. Pour into the pan and cook until the egg is fully solid, turning once (remember that babies can only eat well cooked eggs).

Cheese and Red Onion Pie Recipe

A firm family favourite I like to serve this with sweet potato wedges or potatoes scallops and beans. It also makes a tasty addition to any buffet, particularly when decorated to match the occasion, where it can be served cold. It easy to cut a slice into baby sized grabable chunks for those doing baby led weaning.

 

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 125g unsalted butter
• 100-150g grated cheese (depending on how thick you want your pie)
• 1 red onion
• Cold water
• 1tbsp whole milk

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C and grease a pie dish with unsalted butter.
2. Place the flour and butter into a bowl and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. (This is easier to accomplish if the butter has been left at room temperature beforehand).
3. Pour in a small amount of water at a time and combine with the flour butter mixture until a workable dough is achieved.
4. Place the dough in the fridge and leave to rest while you prepare the filling.
5. Dice the onion into small pieces and grate the cheese if not already grated.
6. Split the dough into two balls, one ball should be bigger than the other, approximately a 65/35 split.
7. On a clean floured surface roll out the bigger dough ball to match the shape of your pie dish, (such as round for the pie pictured).
8. Once rolled out line the pie dish with the dough, the dough should overhang the sides of the dish.
9. Fill the dish with the fillings by layering onion then cheese, this should be done three times.
10. Roll out the smaller dough ball to match the shape of your pie dish.
11. Wet your finger with the water and run this around the rim of the pie dish then place the rolled out dough on top.
12. With your thumb and forefinger squeeze the two dough layers together.
13. With a sharp knife cut away the overhanging excess dough, (place to one side if you wish to decorate your pie with pastry shapes as pictured). This can be done by balancing the pie dish on your flat palm and turning your hand slowly while running the knife along the edge of the pie dish.
14. Score the top of the pie with at least three lines, that are deep enough to cut the top layer of dough but don't damage the base. (If you are decorating your pie then you may want to decorate first then score around the decoration as pictured.)
15. To decorate roll out the offcuts of overhanging dough and cut into shapes, (for my pie I used a flower cutter). Wet the back of the shapes then lightly press onto the pie. Alternatively you can score words into the pie to make seasonal messages, such as 'Happy Xmas'.
16. Brush with whole milk then bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Check the pie at 25 minutes to ensure it is cooking evenly and turn if not.

Bolognese Recipe

This is a great dish no matter what stage of your babies weaning and food journey you're at. Once made the bolognese can be blended smooth, mashed or served as is. The bolognese can also be frozen, perfect for making up baby food portions in the freezer, just make sure you defrost thoroughly before serving.

Feeds 3-4 adults and 1 baby.

Ingredients

• 1 onion (either red or white depending on preference)
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 500g of beef or beef and pork minced
• 12 tomatoes
• 250ml whole milk
• Black pepper

Method

1. Peel and dice the onion, garlic and carrot, dice the celery and slice the mushrooms.
2. Add the oil and diced vegetables to a large pan and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes to soften, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick.
3. Add the minced to the pan and cook until brown.
4. Pour out any excess oil then add the milk. Increase the heat to medium/high and cook until the milk evaporates.
5. Chopped the tomatoes and add to the pan with a little black pepper and reduce the heat to low.
6. Simmer for 45 minutes, then serve over your pasta of choice.

Porridge Recipe

When on maternity leave or paternity leave most parents are on a budget and baby porridge can be quite expensive so why not try making your own porridge for a fraction of the cost? I've been buying large bags of rolled oats from ASDA for 75p. This porridge is one of my favourite breakfasts: it's cheap, easy, healthy, delicious, filling and a great start to the day for both babies and adults - what's not to love?

Pre-prep

This recipe requires a bit of pre-prep to make the porridge oats suitable for babies. But don't worry you can do this bit in bulk and store the oat powder so that you can take what you need each morning.

1. Blitz the porridge oats in a food processor until a fine powder is achieved. (Depending on the amount of oats and the size of your food processor you may need to do this in batches. You only want to 2/3 fill the food processor, too much or too little, will leave your oat powder with chunks in it.)
2. Store the oat powder in an air tight tub.

Ingredients

• 150ml oat powder
• 300ml whole milk (skimmed or semi-skimmed milk can be used but babies need the fat content in whole milk, so this is recommended when making porridge for babies. Dairy alternatives or lacofree milk can be used for those with allergies.)
• Flavourings - some ideas are given below.

This will make enough for 1 adult and 1baby, for every additional adult add an extra 100ml oat powder and 200ml milk.

Measurements are given in ml because I use a measuring scoop when making this recipe.

Method

1. Add the oat powder and milk to a saucepan and mix together.
2. Cook on a medium heat until the oat powder and milk have fully combined into a smooth mixture, approximately 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Serve. (Once served I like to add a splash of cold milk to Isabella's porridge to help it cool down.)

Flavourings

Here are a few suggestions of flavouring we enjoy adding to our porridge but it's by no means an exhaustive list and you could add anything that you fancy.

• Mashed banana (and honey. Honey should only be give to children over 1 year old as it contains bacteria that can be harmful to babies.)
• Strawberry pieces.
• Grated apple and cinnamon.
• Blueberries and cinnamon.

The strawberries and banana should be added after cooking, the apple and blueberries should be added during cooking.



Isabella eating her morning banana porridge.

Savoury Scones Recipe

This recipe is for cheese, tomato and red onion scones but if you're not a fan of these flavours then why not try swapping them out for other ingredients such as spinach, sweetcorn, peppers or chives. For those with dairy or lactose allergy dairy ingredients can be substitute for dairy alternatives or lactofree products.

Makes 10

Ingredients

• 250g self-raising flour
• 50g unsalted butter
• 11/2 teaspoons paprika
• 2-3 turns of a black pepper grinders
• 1/2 cup whole milk (semi skimmed or skimmed milk can be used but babies need the fat in  dairy products so whole milk is recommended when cooking for babies.)
• 1 tomato
• 1 red onion
• 25g grated cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Wash and then dice the tomato and onion.
3. In a bowl combine the flour, paprika and black pepper.
4. Chop the butter into small pieces then rub into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. (Ensure the butter has been left out at room temperature beforehand, otherwise it will be too hard to rub into the flour.)
5. Stir in the tomato, onion and cheese.
6. Add the milk and combine into a moist dough.
7. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead briefly. (Over kneading will make the scones hard.) Press the dough flat to a thickness of 1cm and then cut into rounds using a 6.5cm cutter. (You can use fun shaped cutters such as stars and hearts instead but this could  affect the number of scones the dough will make.)
8. Place on the baking tray and brush with milk.
9. Bake until golden, approximate 15-20 minutes. (You can check that the scones are cooked by turning them upside down and tapping the bottom, a hollow sound indicates they are cooked.)

Best served warm.
You can either serve plain, spread with butter or topped with things such as meat, soft cheese or pickle.



Isabella enjoying her scone.

Hello and welcome

Cooking for a baby means learning to cook again and cooking from scratch where you used to just buy shop bought. Babies can only have less than a gram of salt a day and a lot of cooking products, recipes and basic practise we take for granted in everyday cooking have far too much salt in them, such as boiling vegetables in salted water, shop bought pasta sauces, stocks and gravies.

When I first thought about cooking for my little girl the idea that I couldn't use gravy/stock or boil potatoes in salted water boggled my mind. Cooking potatoes without salt, it just didn't seem right, going against the very principal of osmosis, how was it to be done? How would I stop food tasting bland if I didn't add salt?

This blog aims to compile my no added salt, no added sugar culinary successes to help other parents find ways to create home cook meals that the whole family, particularly baby, can enjoy. All recipes in this blog and been tried and tested by my 8 month old daughter, Isabella, to make sure they are baby friendly. Isabella currently doesn't have any teeth and has no problem eating any of these foods, so they are ideal for babies with or without teeth.

As you'll see these recipes contain no added salt, but salt does natural occur within ingredients and I can make no account of the combined nutrition values in each recipe.

I hope you find this blog useful and I love to hear from other parents about their own baby friendly recipes.

Kirsty