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.

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.

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.