Cottage Pie for Babies and Toddlers - VERY easy!

I proudly proclaimed the BEST COTTAGE PIE EVER the other day.  Well this comes close and is a bit of a cheat because it's more assembly than cooking.  Apologies for the photo; potato topped pies seem incredibly difficult to look pretty and I refuse to top them with a face made out of peas and carrots.  Ah what the hey!  It tastes nice!

The reason why recipes have been a little thin on the ground this weekend is my son's not well and he's off his food.  He had a temperature of 39.2 yesterday which was frightening.  Fortunately things seem to be getting better.  Unfortunately as he's now a toddler and he's been feeling rotten he seems to have discovered the "No" word when it comes to food.

So, as ever and as with the nursing strike, my theory is you tempt rather than force.  I know eating would make him feel better but he doesn't and I don't want to upset him more than he is upset.  Likewise, having a very upset boy who wants to be cuddled (whether you're walking around cooking or not) does not make for complicated recipe preparation, so I grabbed a small pot of bolognaise from the freezer and an extra jacket potato I cooked at lunchtime and this is what I came up with.  Yes, simple but blimey it was tasty!  He loved it!  It was his best meal he'd had for two days and that my friends is a very valuable recipe indeed!

Why on earth did I not think of this before?

If you would like my bolognaise recipe, just click on the link in the ingredients.

Cottage Pie for Older Babies and Toddlers - Serves 1 toddler


Ingredients

1 Toddler sized portion of Bolognaise, defrosted if frozen
1 small jacket potato (cooked) or the equivalent amount of mashed potato
A small splash of full cream milk
Approx 1 tbsp grated cheddar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200oC, 400F.

Scoop out the flesh from the jacket potato and mash using a ricer or a potato masher (but I've said it before, ricers are fab and cheap.  Buy one!)  Mix the mash with a little milk.

Get a smallish ramekin and put the bolognaise sauce in the bottom of the dish.

Top with the mashed potato and then the cheese, bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 mins.

Done!  Serve with finger vegetables of your choice.

I keep thinking this is such a good idea!  I mean, my son goes to bed at 7 so I often eat after he's in bed.  This can mean teatimes are a little 'same-y', (he eats a lot of pasta.)  This was moments in preparation, the result seemed like more effort than it was and he really appreciated it.

If you have a potato left over and don't fancy this recipe, why not try bubble and squeak, salmon and spinach fish cakes or potato pancakes?