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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Easy squeezy


We've been making some little muffins today, using one of our favourite ingredients, an Ellas' Organic kitchen squeezy pouch.

The muffins are so easy to make, have no added sugar, and use olive oil instead of butter or sunflower oil. Delicious - and healthy too.


I cooked these with my toddler, who loves sqeezing out the goo from inside the pouch - it's a great way of improving dexterity, and satisfying for them to see the purple mush worm out.

She loved counting out the muffin cases into the tray, weighing out the flour, and putting sunflower seeds ontop of the muffins - although she is a bit impatient like her mother and decided that pouring was more time effective than sprinkling!

The finished product is a perfect snack for a hungry little person!

Easy Squeezy Muffins (makes 12 in a cupcake tray)

You will need:

150g self raising flour
Big pinch of cinnamon
1 large egg
60ml olive oil
90ml runny honey
120g fruit pouch (my favourite is Ellas' organic Sweet Potato, pumpkin, apple and blueberry
Handful of sunflower seeds

Preheat the oven to 200C and warn your child that it is hot.

1. Help your child crack an egg, and then let them whisk it.

2. Measure out 60ml olive oil and let your child pour it into the egg and whisk it.

3. Measure out 90 ml honey and let your child pour it into the egg and oil, and whisk together.

4. Give your child the squeezy pouch and encourage them to squeeze it into the bowl with the egg, oil and honey and then whisk together.

5. Weigh out 150g flour with your child into a bowl and let your child pinch in a little cinamon.

6. Pour the oil/egg/fruit into the bowl with the flour and let your child mix briefly until the lumps disappear - you might want to give it a quick stir yourself at the end to make sure that it is all mixed in.

7. Let your child help you spoon the mixture into cases - scoop up any spilled mixture back into the cases.

8. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a few sunflower seeds

Bake for 12 minutes until golden.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Cooking alfresco

We had some friends over this afternoon and we did some cooking in the garden - always a good idea as mess seems less important when we are outside! I had some sweet potatoes so we made sweet potato squares by cutting them up, drizzling olive oil over them, sprinkling a little rosemary and roasting them.

We had fun investigating some purple carrots from our veg box today - turns out the outside of the carrots are purple, but the insides are orange. The children weren't convinced about trying them as they don't look that attractive when cooked, but when they did they decided they tasted just like normal carrots and tucked in.


For tea the children had sausages from the local farm shop, the sweet potato, purple carrots and sweetcorn - (although there wasn't much sweetcorn left after they had nibbled on the frozen sweetcorn, I think they think it is like little yellow lollipops.)

Apparently its supposed to be a gorgeous weekend, lets hope this weather lasts!






Sweet potato squares
You will need:

1 Sweet potato between 4 children
Some olive oil
A little rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200C and tell your child that it is hot.

1. Before you cook together, peel and cut the sweet potato into slices about 1/4 inch thick, and then cut the slices into small cubes.

2. Let your child drizzle some olive oil over the cubes, just enough to coat them. I use a ketchup squeezy bottle which stops too many spills.

3. Show your child how to pick the rosemary and squish it between their fingers to release the oils before sprinkling it over the top of the sweet potato - you don't need much but a little bit will give it some flavour instead of salt

4. Cook in a baking tray for 45 minutes

These are also delicious with chicken and white fish.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Fishtastic

Helping to make their own food should get most children trying fish. This recipe is so easy and children from toddlers up can get involved with crunching the Weetabix and dipping the little pieces into the flour. Hope you have fun!

Crunchy Salmon

You will need:

2 fillets of salmon
1 egg
2 Weetabix or Oatabix
A little flour
Preheat the oven to 190 and tell your child that it is hot!

1. Before you start cooking with your child cut your salmon into small pieces and put it in the fridge.


2. Now get your child to crunch 2 weetabix into a bowl.


3. Help your child to crack an egg into a bowl and then let them whisk it.


4. Put a little plain flour into a bowl.

5. Let the production line begin!

Show your child how to dip the salmon piece into the flour first, then into the egg, then into the weetabix. Put the finished pieces into the fridge until you are ready to use them.


6. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and serve with potatoes and vegetables for a really balanced meal.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Cooking party for 2 year olds

Today was my baby's birthday party, I can't believe she is 2!  She loves cooking so we had a cooking party and her little friends came along and all got a little messy.


They made pizzas by cutting out puff pastry in lots of shapes - dinosaurs, planes and hearts were popular. Then they had fun exploring the toppings - pesto, tomato, orange peppers, mushrooms, parsley, ham and cheese to grate themselves - there were some lovely creations, each one different.
For pudding I made an 'icing' out of Greek yoghurt and honey. They spooned it on top of homemade cupcakes and then decorated them with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, a few chocolate stars and pink sprinkles. Everyone seemed to have fun, and it was lovely to see them all practising their cooking skills.

 

To make the icing, mix together 125ml of Greek yoghurt with 1 tablespoon of runny honey. Put in a bowl with a teaspoon and let your child get spoontastic with it - it's very easy for them to spread, much easier than normal icing and much healthier too! Any fruits go well on top and if you want to make it even more nutritious let your child sprinkle on some chopped nuts.