Paprika Chicken Recipe

Not the prettiest looking of my recipes but definitely one of the tastiest. Can be served with jacket potatoes (I always do jacket sweet potatoes for Isabella because of the higher nutritional content) or pasta. If you've got enough left over sauce you can, get two meals out of this by serving with jacket potatoes for tea and then using the leftover sauce with pasta for dinner the next day.

This is a great dish for different weaning stages as its easily puréed or can be cut into small chunks for baby to (somewhat messily) feed themselves.

Serves 2-3 adults and 1 baby.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breast fillets
• 1 clove of garlic
• 500ml single cream
• 500ml chicken stock (made using a Boots baby organic stock cube as this has virtually no salt in as oppose to regular stock cubes that have a high salt content)
• 4tsp paprika
• 4tsp dried mixed herbs
• 50g grated cheese
• 500ml boiling water

Method

1. Dice or crush the garlic and place in a measuring jug.
2. Add the stock cube, paparika, herbs and water to the jug and stir till dissolved.
3. Dice the chicken and place in an oven proof dish.
4. Pour the stock mixture over the chicken then add the cream. Gently stir (so that the sauce doesn't slop over the sides) until the cream and stock mixture are combined.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 40 minutes.
6. Removed from the oven and sprinkle over the cheese (most of the cheese will sink into the sauce so don't worry about this). 
7. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes then serve.
8. If you are keeping the leftover​ sauce, pour it into an airtight container and keep in the fridge.

Isabella feeding herself paprika chicken and sweet potato chunks.

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.