Too Hot!

My son has been off his food a bit recently.  I was wondering if it was the heat.  For some reason despite it being around 30 degrees outside and full on humid, I decided to do cooking today.  WTF?!  For all that, we seem to have had a better eating day today than recently.  I made him quesadillas adding some baby chilli and cheese as filling.  It worked a treat:

Anyway, my son and I are now sweating buckets after having his tea (see the salmon fishcake recipe.  He had them with some sweet potato wedges and ate loads).   So my theory about him not eating because of the heat has gone out of the window as I made it hotter and he still ate way more.  Maybe the ice cubes in his sippy cups were helping!

Now I just have to work out how to stop him waking somewhere between 4am and 5am.  I'm a living zombie...

Salmon and Spinach Fishcakes - for babies and toddlers

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, it's been a busy one; been working funny hours at work and our little angel is fond of somewhere between 4am and 5am being 'morning'!  Ah, I'm told it will change and I'll need a crowbar when he's a teenager.  Is it wrong to be looking forward to that?

Well I'm making him some fishcakes for lunch which is a variation on the potato cakes recipe but I've changed that much it's almost a recipe in its own right.  Also I think they're much more delicious and less effort than my other fishcake recipe.



This was inspired because I was driving back from Aldi this morning having bought some potatoes thinking "I'll make fish pie" then realised that as my little man is now having some mealtimes where he just doesn't want to be fed, fishcakes would probably work better.


All the ingredients for this are things you could have in your freezer or fridge even if you haven't ventured out to the shops recently and if you serve them with frozen peas or sweetcorn, you have a balanced meal with loads of vitamins, minerals and omega 3 without having to get out of the house!  I like those recipes.

Salmon and Spinach Fishcakes - Makes approx 18 would be ok for babies on finger foods as well as toddlers and adults

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1 frozen salmon fillet (approx 100 - 125g)
2 blocks, approx 50g of frozen chopped spinach
50g grated extra mature cheddar

Method

Boil the potatoes in water for approx 20-25 minutes or until soft when you poke them with a knife.  Mash them using a potato ricer.

Microwave the salmon until cooked following the pack instructions (or alternatively if you have a fresh salmon fillet you could poach it until cooked.)   Leave until cool enough to handle and flake the fish, removing the skin.  Be careful for bones.  If your baby is little and not yet able to cope with lumps, mash the fish with a fork.

Microwave the spinach for approx 1 minute with a little water, in a bowl covered in cling film (saran wrap, use the type suitable for microwaves.)  Drain off any water.

Grate approx 50g cheddar.

Mix all of the ingredients together.  Form into balls the size of a walnut and squish a little.  I made them around 3cm across (just over an inch) and probably 1-1.5cm thick (around half an inch).  Line a baking tray with non stick baking paper.  Oil it with some vegetable oil and brush the top of each fishcake with oil.

Bake for 20 minutes at 200oC or until hot through and browned.

Freeze well.  Either defrost out at room temperature for no more than 2 hours or preferably defrost in a fridge for a few hours.  Reheat in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes.  They do go a bit more brown (the photo above is a reheated batch with some sweet potatoes) but they still go down very well.

Looking for a grown up Salmon recipe?  Try my Salmon with Hollandaise sauce.

Chicken Curry for Babies or Toddlers

My little man is a bit off colour.  He had his MMR a couple of weeks ago and he's come out in a rash.  It's apparently quite common as they can get a mild case of measles.  Anyway, he often does better with new foods than foods he's had loads of times so sometimes I find when he's off colour feeding him something new is the way to go, so as with all good ideas, this came to me in bed.

I can't vouch for whether babies would accept the flavours in this but my gut feel is mine would after about 9 months.  Puree the curry before adding the rice if you need to for your little one.  You could change the vegetables, miss out the chicken or use fish if you prefer.

Chicken Curry - serves 4 reasonable sized portions for babies or toddlers if you add rice.

Ingredients

1 Chicken Breast cut into pieces
1 Medium Sweet Potato, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
1 Large Tomato chopped into 1cm cubes
Half Tin of Coconut Milk
2 tsp Mild Curry Paste (I used Pataks)
A little cornflour
Frozen Chopped Spinach (optional)
Fresh Coriander (optional)

Method

Put the curry paste in a pan and warm through.  Add the coconut milk, mix and bring to the boil.  Add the sweet potato and simmer for about 8 minutes.  Fry the chicken in a bit of spray oil for a few seconds then add the chicken and tomatoes to the coconut mixture and simmer until everything is cooked.  Add spinach and bring back to the boil if desired.  Mix a little (about 1tsp) of cornflour with some water and add to the boiling curry to thicken the gravy.  Mix with boiled basmati rice to serve and sprinkle with fresh coriander if using.   Leave to cool for a few minutes until the right temperature for your baby or child.

Puree the curry if your baby isn't on chopped foods; they may be able to cope with the pureed curry mixed in with the cooked rice as 'soft lumps'.  Otherwise if your baby has a good pincer grip, they may be able to feed themselves.

Reheats well (without the rice, cook the rice fresh each time to prevent food poisoning; it only takes 10 minutes).  I've not tried freezing yet but I will.

Update:  If you like this recipe, give the prawn and mushroom curry a go.

This has got me thinking about the MMR vaccine.  We all become a bit irrational when it comes to our children; even me with a science degree and PhD felt a bit nervous when I was holding him for that jab in a way I didn't for the others.  The thing is; there is no reason to think the MMR jab is any more harmful than any other vaccination.  The research which was published suggesting a link to autism was completely unfounded.  The way I look at it is that there is an unknown and (if present) very small risk from giving vaccinations to your child but there is a known and larger risk of not vaccinating them.  For example, did you know 1% of kids who contract measles go blind?  Measles kills 450 kids a day and it's 100% preventable.  Scary.

Crumble - Do Something Nice For Your Man

I don't know any men who don't like crumble.  It's such boy food.  Seeing as it's Father's Day approaching and seeing as us Mums are busy people, if you've not got a present planned, you could do worse than this.  Also in the spirit of frugal week, the upside is you probably have many of the ingredients in the house or might be able to beg, borrow or scrounge from relatives.

Fruit Crumble

Ingredients

Fruit

Fruit of your choice.  I have used gooseberries in my crumble today because they're in season and my Mother in Law gave me some but you could use apples, rhubarb, raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries or a combination are good.  I've kept it vague here on quantities because different fruit cooks down to different amounts.  If you think you've not got enough fruit, pad it out with peeled chopped cooking or eating apples.
Sugar to taste (see method).

Crumble

4oz Plain Flour
2oz Salted Butter
2oz Granulated Sugar
Nutmeg, freshly ground (optional)
Ground Cinnamon (optional)

Method

Peel the fruit if necessary or top and tail etc.  Chop into sensible sized pieces and stew with a bit of water if necessary and stew (simmer on the stove) until it's soft to your liking.  I like the filling soft but my mum doesn't and leaves the fruit more whole.  Add a small amount of sugar and taste, add more if needed but remember to leave the fruit tart.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.

For the crumble topping, rub the butter into the flour with half of the sugar and spices if using.  It's better to do this by hand because the irregularity in pieces helps the texture but if you're short of time or don't like getting hands dirty, use a food processor.  Sprinkle the crumble on top followed by the remaining sugar.  Bake for 25 mins approx or until browned to your liking.

Leave to cool a little then serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.  I'm wary about recommendations.  My Father in Law has rules on these things, men are very particular...