Recent concoctions, recipes to follow

Beef banger

Egg muffins

Bacon and egg pizza

Luscious lamb

Tropical chicken

Hhhmmmm prawns smothered in garlic and basil tomato sauce

Goats Cheese Pasta

I have been doing my best to keep the little mans intake of cows milk to a minimum so today's lunch was made with goats cheese and a sprinkling of Parmesan.

What do you need?

Pasta (today we used spirals)

Goats cheese

Basil pesto

Oregano

Basil

How:

Boil the pasta and a few minutes before it is ready add some oregano and basil.

Once done and strained add in the goats milk and stir so it melts to the pasta.

Add in a dollop of pesto and sprinkle some Parmesan.

Hey presto lunch is ready'

Veggie Pizza with Cauliflower Base

So we tried the Cauliflower base pizza for dinner this evening and wow it was delicious!

What you need:

Base:

1 head of cauliflower (medium size)

2 large eggs

1 ball of mozzarella 

Dried basil (half a teaspoon)

Dried Oregano (half a teaspoon)

Fennel seeds (1 teaspoon)

Topping:

Tomato based sauce *

Red and Green pepper

Onion (tonight we used a spring onion)

Baby Spinach

Mozzarella 

Parmesan

Cheddar Cheese

Tomato (I just used 1 vine tomato tonight - small)

Basil pesto

*Sauce, this can be a passata or like us tonight some double concentrate tomato purée 

2 tablespoons of the purée 

1 clove of garlic

Dash of oregano and basil

How:

Heat your oven to 180c

I used the grater on the food processor to grate the cauliflower to make it roughly rice grain sized, I used it for the mozzarella also or you could use grated mozzarella, doing this yourself is messy. 

Literally mix the base ingredients in a bowl, cauliflower, mozzarella, eggs, basil, oregano and fennel seed.

Grease your pizza tray or use grease proof paper.

Pour the contents on to the tray and as you flatten it out into a disc shape from the centre, use your other hand to keep it together, for example, left hand spreading the base, right hand cupping the edges to stop it from cracking, and ensure it stays even as you turn the tray.

Pop the base in to the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges brown, one trick I found handy was take it out after 10 minutes, let it cool for 2 minutes and gently flip it over to crisp up the other side.

Leave it to cool as you prepare your toppings.

Whilst this was in the oven I prepared the sauce.

I bunged the sauce ingredients with some water in to a pot stirring occasionally as it reduced. It should be a bit thick, if it is watery then it will just soak in to the base.

Once the base is cooled apply the sauce and toppings in what ever order you like, leaving the cheese and pesto as the last toppings, seems the most aesthetically pleasing,  then back in to the oven until the toppings are cooked/ cheddar turns golden.

Pic is just before its popped back in to the oven.

And the finished product!

Enjoy!

Sweet Treat - but healthy and tastey

Apples, sliced and swimming in a sweet sweet caramel sauce and a whipped cream iceberg in the middle! But it's dairy free!

What? But you said whipped cream!

Yes, whipped coconut milk cream!

Ingredients:

Apple

Caramel:

2 tsp water

1/4 cup of raw coconut palm sugar

1/2 cup of coconut milk (full fat)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Whipped cream:

1 tin of coconut milk (full fat)

Drop of vanilla extract

1 tsp of honey

What you need to do

Caramel

Put water and sugar in to a pot on a high heat, stirring constantly, bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat while you add the coconut milk, vanilla extract and salt and stir as it reduces for 10 minutes as the colour darkens.

Whipped cream:

Before you open the tin of coconut milk turn it upside down and back upright to loosen the contents.

Have 2 bowls ready and strain the contents so that it separates the milk from the clotted milk (cream).

Use the clotted cream adding the drop of vanilla extract and honey as you whisk.

Hint of chocolate and maple buns

So I had left over ingredients from another bake so had a look in the press to see what I could add to it.

This recipe contains almond and egg

So what did I use?

1 egg

1/3 cup of coconut milk (full fat)

1 tablespoon of coconut oil melted

1/3 cup of maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

100g ground almond

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon coconut flour

1 tablespoon of 70% cocoa powder

Mix all the wet ingredients together.

Add the dry ingredients and mix into a light batter.

Oven at 175/180

This gave me 6 regular size buns

To fill a typical tray of 12 double your ingredients!

In the middle of the oven they only take 15/20 mins.

Just check to make sure they are dry in the middle with a toothpick and put on a baking tray

Paleo experiments!

So we want to try out cleaner eating for ourselves as well as the now not so little Sam.

We have been trying out sweet things among the choices widely available on other sites, forums, blogs and one which has gone down a treat at home with little man and big man is our adaptation to a Warm Apple Pie Bread.

What do you need?

For the Bread:

2.5 cups almond flour (I used ground almond and hand sieved it to remove the nutty kernels)

1 tablespoon coconut flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2 apples (I have been using one granny smith and one gala red)

⅓ cup coconut milk, full fat (tinned coconut milk by the way, not the carton milk which isn't  suitable for cooking)

4 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

6 tablespoons raw honey (I don't always have raw honey so ordinary honey will do if you are not fully paleo)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract (I may add another drop or two)

⅓ raisins

 

For the topping:

¼ cup almond flour

1 teaspoon coconut oil, melted

dash of ground cinnamon

 

2 separate mixing bowls and a 2lb loaf tin.

 

 

What you need to do:

 

Apple Pie Bread:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 2lb loaf tin with coconut oil, and line it with grease proof  paper.

 

Sieve the almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in to a bowl and lightly mix it.

In the second bowl, whisk the coconut milk, coconut oil, honey, eggs, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract together.

Using a spatula, add the dry mixture to the wet, just until it comes together. Do not over mix.

Add the raisins to the mix.

Use a peeler to  thinly slice the apples (other recipes leave them in chunks but by doing this it melts in to the bread as it bakes), now gently fold these in to the batter.

Pour batter into the loaf tin.

 

Now you are ready to make the crumby topping.

Using your hands, imply mix the almond flour, coconut oil and the dash of cinnamon (1/8 of a teaspoon should suffice, no more as it will take over the flavour) and sprinkle it over the top of the batter.

 

 

Here's the tricky part.... (for me, timing isn't my best attribute)

 

Bake for 30 minutes, then cover bread with tin foil and bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, what I tend to do here is turn the oven down a little (perhaps to 170) for another 30 mins.

 

Total baking time should be approximately 50-60 minutes depending on your oven (fan assisted or not).

 

Set pan on a wire rack to cool.

 

 

 

Hat-tip to : http://livinghealthywithchocolate.com/desserts/warm-caramel-apple-pie-bread-paleo-gluten-free-5200/

for the original recipe with caramel, and walnuts.

Penne pasta with Smoked Salmon

So I have not tried fish with the ever growing little man who has been off his food for a week or so (not well) so thought I would change things up to give him a new taste to see if it would spark an interest in solids again ( sore throat along with ear infection and blocked nose)

What do you need?

Penne pasta

Passata

Basil

Oregano

Cheese

Smoked salmon

How to:

Boil the pasta, drain and leave back on to the heat adding passata sauce and season with basil and oregano.

Turn off the heat and let it sit while you get the cheese and salmon ready.

I used some grated red cheddar and mozzarella.

I shredded the smoked salmon lights in to small pieces.

Put the pasta in a bowl and sprinkle the cheese and salmon over the top.

Mini baked omelettes

What do you need?

Spray oil for greasing the tin

10 medium eggs or 8 large

1 measure cup of milk - optional : I added it for the little person but would leave it out for anyone with intolerances

Fillings I used?

Chicken 1 breast

3 smoked rashers

10 cherry tomatoes

2 scallions

6-8 button mushrooms

Cheddar cheese - again you can leave the cheeses out to accommodate intolerances

Mascarpone

That's it! 

How?

I fried off the diced up chicken, bacon and mushroom.

Sprayed a bun case tin and turned on the oven to 200 degrees.

Then I chopped the tomatoes and scallions (spring onions) and spread them between the pockets in the tin. 

Chopped up the bacon, chicken and with the quartered mushrooms divided them out also.

Sprinkled all of them with grated cheddar cheese.

I added a small dollop of mascarpone to 4 of them as I know only 2 of us eat the mascarpone.

I whipped the egg whites of the 10 medium eggs lightly before they turned "white", added the yolks and beat adding in the milk.

I then it to the rest of the ingredients in the tin.

Popped it n the well heated oven and left them rise and brown for roughly 20 mins as I have a fan assisted oven. I would leave them in for longer if I didn't. An easy way to test if they are done use one as a guinea pig and put a skewer or knife through it if it's really wet it's not done.

Double bubble boil and no trouble

So not to waste the contents of the carved pumpkin I decided to make soup.

I didn't have the ingredients for recipes I found online so decided to use what I had.

So what did I have?

You guessed it

The flesh from inside a medium to small sizes pumpkin which I scooped out with a spoon.

A large red onion

Clove of garlic

A carrot

A small handful of split green lentils and cannelloni beans, about a dessert spoonful. You could also use other pulses, oat barley etc or soup mix

One stalk of celery

Sea salt (pinch)

Ground rainbow pepper (pinch)

Turmeric (yes you guessed it a pinch)

Mild curry powder (pinch)

Butter (a small knob)

How did I go about it?

Roughly chopped the red onion and put it in the pot with the butter, while this is lightly frying in the pot I chopped the garlic and added it, along with the salt and pepper.

I add the shredded pumpkin (it's fibrous so when I was scooping it out it naturally shredded) and covered in water.

I chopped the carrot and celery and threw in as it boiled along with the lentils and beans.

I let this boil for 15 minutes with the lid on then turned down to simmer for about an hour until the lentils and beans were soft. 

I then added the turmeric and curry powder, stirred and let it simmer for another 5 minutes to infuse before taking it off the heat to blitz with a hand blender.

And there it is boiling and bubbling back on the cooling hob to let it cool down naturally.

Enjoy.....

Chunky Chowder

What do you need?

Salmon (fillet, darn)

Haddock fillet

Cod fillet

Bacon

Leek

Onion (I used red)

Parsley

Salt (pinch)

Pepper

Double cream

Stock (fish or vegetable)

Tomato

Carrot

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Plain flower

How to prepare

Fry off diced onion and diced bacon

Add diced fish with a pinch of salt and pepper

Chop up tomatoe and leek then add to the pot 

Add the stock and stir all the contents

Cover the pot and reduce the heat

In a seperate pot cook your carrot, broccoli and cauliflower

Once the vegetables are nearly cooked add the cream to the fish pot along with the parsley

Use a teaspoon of plain flower with a small amount of water and work into a watery paste  and add to the pot as a thickening agent

Covering with the lid and turning off the heat

Strain the vegetables and add to the fish pot.

And your done!

***please remember when serving fish to children that you have thoroughly checked for bones***

Another Pasta and Prawn dinner with Spinach

What do you need?

2 knobs of butter

Sprinkle of oregano

Spaghetti

Cold water prawns

Spinach

Milk

Cheese (I used mozzarella and cheddar, grated)

What to do

Put a knob of butter in a pot and let it melt 

Add the oregano to the melting butter

Add the prawns and let them fry off

Remember butter burns so keep stirring and reduce the heat if needs be

Add water to the pot and your spaghetti

Once the spaghetti is nearly done add the pinch as this only takes seconds

Take it off the heat, strain and add some milk and stir so it doesn't curdle

Add the cheese and stir again

Cheesey snack

So it's cheese on toast, so handy for a snack or lunch 

What do you need?

Bread - whatever you want/have I used a plain white sliced pan

Mozzarella

Cheddar

Gouda

Spring onion - or as I refer to it "scallion"

Cracked black pepper

What to do?

Simple chop up your spring onion, put your bread on the grill and toast the first side lightly and turn over adding all 3 cheeses, sprinkle the spring onion and top with a pinch of pepper

Whack it under the grill and wait for the cheese to melt, bubble and then brown slightly.

Watch it doesn't burn, especially the edges

Et voila 

This can be eaten by all the family! 

Other toasted sandwiches I could recommend are the traditional ham cheese and onion or tuna in Mayo with spring onion, tomatoe and cheese!

Turkey Sizzler - an introduction to chilli's

What do you need?

300g turkey mince

1 clove of garlic

5-6 button mushrooms

1 red onion

1/2 red, yellow and green chilli's

Chicken stock

Salt n pepper

All purpose savoury seasoning if you so wish (I use Aromat by knorr)

Country relish

Olive oil

How to make it?

Finely chop half of each chilli type

Chop up onion and garlic 

Quarter the button mushrooms and add to the pan

Add to pan with a splash of olive oil and start to fry

Add in the turkey mince and season with a pinch of salt and pepper and seasoning

As it browns I add some chicken stock, not too much, depending on the thickness, I used one boots baby stock in a 1/4 cup of water to make it more like a paste.

Then add this once the turkey is cooked and let it simmer until the turkey is sticky

As it cooled I added a few dashes of the country relish

To finish instead of serving with rice I served with carrot, cauliflower and broccoli 

Steak & Kidney Pie

My favourite dinner is my own mams s&k pie so I thought I would introduce it to Sam.

What you need?

Round steak

Lamb kidney (2)

Onion

Carrot

Gravy or stock your choice

Flour

Butter

Salt and pepper

Water

What to do

Chop up onion, steak and kidney in to small pieces and put in to a pan/pot to fry off.

Once lightly browned add water and let it bubble for for ten minutes the reduce heat to simmer for another 30 minutes to ensure meat is tender add gravy/stock.

While this is simmering simply crumble butter using cold hands in to the flour with a pinch of salt and pepper for seasoning, once crumbed add small amounts of water until mixture holds, remember if you get it too moist it gets sticky so add a little more flour.

Roll out the pastry

Butter your dish and line wih the pastry, pierce the bottom gently a few times.

Pop in the oven 180 for 10 mins

Take it out again and add the filling

Add the remaining pastry to the top

Pop back n the oven and bake until the top is a nice golden brown

And that's it!

In a Rush? Pasta Mush...Room

This one is so quick and simple and was lapped up

What do you need?
Pasta (I used fresh this evening)
Button Mushrooms
Semi dried apricots
Cherry Tomatoes
Basil
Cheese

That's it!

Throw all (except cheese) in to water and let it cook!
Simple!

Dust in cheese when in the bowl!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

So this dinner was made from whatever was in the press and was devoured!

What do you need?

Chicken

Red onion

Semi dried apricots

Tomatoes 

Sprinkle of chilli powder

Sprinkle of seasoning I used arromat

Button mushrooms

Basmati rice

 Cauliflower

Milk

What to do

Chop up onion, apricot and chicken and get into the pan

Put on the basmati with the cauliflower

Once chicken is nearly done squish some tomatoes and just chuck them in, give a light sprinkle of chilli powder and seasoning

I added the mushrooms to the rice but you could add to the pan with chicken

Turn heat off on chicken and add some milk as it cooled and stir! 

Fish wasnt a big runner at the start

Trying to introduce as much of a varied diet early on proved challenging when it came to fish at the beginning with our little man and we never discovered if it was his Reflux or just his little tummy saying NO THANK YOU.

It would be eaten, no problem. Then it would all come back to visit us in a minute or so.
Straight back up and he would just look at us as it came rushing back out all at once.
We tried cod, salmon and even hake.
No go.

I gave him 2 months of a break from it and decided to try again.

I was at the butcher counter of SuperValu and was going to try a darn of salmon when I got chatting with the young butcher behind the counter.
He simply said, if he is eating finger food now, why not try a good quality fish finger and see how it goes rather than buying expensive fish that will just go to waste if it doesn't settle in his tummy.

We haven't looked back since!


Irish Reflux Community for parents on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/RefluxIreland/?fref=ts
Closed group so you have to ask to join.

BIG Recommendation for anyone in Limerick area; Ireland.

Cupcakes to die for.
Cakes that melt in your mouth
Designs that hit exactly what you want.

Yvonne owns 'Cupcakes and Candy Carts', a start up business that is just going to go places, wait till you see!
Facebook Page

Sam's Christening Cake and Cupcakes

The flavours were unreal, we chose a Vanilla sponge for the cake.

For the cupcakes there was a selection of Carrot Cake, Lemon and Chocolate.

The mini cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla.

There was nothing left by the end of the day!

Sam's 1st Birthday Cake was designed to replicate two characters from Sam's favourite BabyTV programme: "Charlie and the Numbers"
It also was stunning, covered in the same butter icing as the top of her cupcakes. Divine!

UPDATE: Sam's 2nd Birthday was yesterday and we went with a Sully (Sulley) Monster Theme from Monsters Inc/Monsters University

Mini Cupcakes for Crèche Party

 And.... A Sully Head for his cake... There was actually NO leftovers after the party!

Go Check out her facebook page.

Treat yourself on a Sunday for a box of 6 cupcakes for only €12 from Larkin's pub, Corbally.
Just make sure and send a message to say "keep me a box" because they sell out fast!
Yvonne usually posts Saturday or Sunday morning what is on offer that day from 12:30 in the pub!

Fork 'n' Spoon

There is nothing more satisfying (ok there are)
     than a smallie successfully mastering a spoon
Ok yes they will make a mess
Ok yes they will take forever
OK yes Enjoy it!

Yoghurt LoL's

Sausages! Nyommers

Best way to introduce sausages in my opinion is by using skinless sausages.

Denny skinless sausages seem to be Sam's favourite.

Keeping this "lunch" speedy and simple is so handy for last minute meals

What do you need?
Mixed frozen veggies (carrots, peas and sweetcorn)
Skinless Sausages
Spiral Pasta.

Cook pasta and frozen veg in together in a pot

Fry or grill your sausages and then slice them up.

Country Relish or Brown sauce go lovely with this! Sam's favourite is red pesto!