Hmmm, pot roast. We had a pot roast for tea tonight and the joy with pot roasts and stews is slow cookers are fantastically energy efficient:
http://www.energysavingcommunity.co.uk/five-small-energy-changes-bring-big-results.html
But unless you're one pot cooking, you need some accompaniments and I was craving a jacket potato. So, my oven was going to be on for an hour which isn't much good for my electricity usage so I either bite the bullet and have one in the microwave (sorry, might save money but they taste minging) or I use the oven heat effectively. After all, it costs the almost the same to heat an oven full as a half empty oven. So I put some extra jacket potatoes in and a dish with my easy tomato sauce recipe:
http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/01/short-nursing-strikes-and-easy-sauce.html
Normally I would only freeze the sauce in big pots for my husband and I but this time I finally remembered to freeze it in smaller pots so I could easily heat some up for my son. I have a feeling there's a tomato sauce based couscous recipe in me somewhere which I might have a go at.
I can't in all honesty though share the pot roast recipe because it's not mine but it's not that tricky and similar recipes are out there on the internet. The best meat to use is beef brisket but unfortunately whatever I do it falls apart into not very pretty but very tasty shreds when I try to carve but these meaty shards when leftover are awesome for making cottage pie. I don't mince the leftovers, I chop them finely then mix with leftover gravy. Now cunningly I take my leftover jacket potatoes, scoop them out and mash through my bargain Ikea potato ricer (I'm rubbish at mashed potato but trust me, a ricer makes it foolproof) and then put the potato on top of my meat / gravy mixture, cool then refrigerate, add grated cheese on top before baking for around half an hour. Ok, that means the oven is on again but it's not for quite as long and it does mean every bit of my joint was used, (including the gravy) and that my friends can't be bad. Also if you think you don't like cottage pie, give it a go. It is the best tasting cottage pie you will ever have!
Minggu, 30 Januari 2011
Cauliflower Cheese and Tiredness
Hmm. Perhaps he's not ready. Night 1 wasn't too bad, we got him to 5:15am before we fed him but last night was a bit of disaster. From 3:45 to 4:45 he cried on and off. It's heartrending and goes against what feels natural. I know rationally he probably doesn't need night feeds anymore but he does want them. In the end I fed him at 4:45 and then he slept till 6, fed again then slept till 6:45 which is the latest he's got up for about a month. We tried giving him water to get him to calm down but he was not fooled.
I think I've resolved to aim for 4am feeding as the earliest time (previously it was 3:15) and then take it in small steps from there. Perhaps we were trying too much of a big jump.
Anyway, weekends are often the time I get a chance to cook him some meals for the freezer. Yesterday I had a cauliflower that needed eating and plenty of full fat milk. I did um and ah about putting such a simple recipe on here but I do make my white sauce in a slightly strange (and easy) way so I thought I would include it.
Makes around 4-5 portions for my baby, would make more for smaller ones.
1 head of cauliflower broken into florets (can use broccoli as well)
Full fat milk, I didn't measure it but it was probably 1/2 - 3/4 of a pint
Cornflour (about 2-3 dsp)
Grated mature or extra mature cheddar (he's now onto vintage farmhouse!)
Unsalted butter
Method
Boil the cauliflower for 5-7 minutes until soft enough for your little one. Drain. Heat the milk in the microwave for around 2 mins until boiling or nearly boiling. Mix the cornflour with some cold milk or water to make a paste, then pour into the milk stirring constantly, it should start to thicken immediately (if it doesn't, it will need longer microwaving afterwards). Add the cheese and about half an ounce of butter and mix. Microwave again for around 30 seconds; keep an eye on it as it can boil over. If it's not thickened give it a bit longer. If it still doesn't thicken, add a bit more cornflour paste. Taste to make sure it doesn't taste floury (in which case it will need cooking a bit more).
Puree the vegetables and cheese sauce for little babies or you could use a food processor for older babies like mine so it's still a bit textured.
For babies 10 months plus, you could either leave the florets whole or cut into small (pea or bean sized) chunks before boiling and don't puree at all. Then feed to your baby either by spooning or allowing them to feed themselves (or a combination of the two which seems to be the norm in this household.)
You could use a similar recipe for any mix of vegetables but green vegetables work particularly well and a mix is good, e.g. broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach (effectively a vegetable gratin) and it can be a way to get babies to accept new and stronger vegetable tastes if they're already keen on the cheesy sauce.
I think I've resolved to aim for 4am feeding as the earliest time (previously it was 3:15) and then take it in small steps from there. Perhaps we were trying too much of a big jump.
Anyway, weekends are often the time I get a chance to cook him some meals for the freezer. Yesterday I had a cauliflower that needed eating and plenty of full fat milk. I did um and ah about putting such a simple recipe on here but I do make my white sauce in a slightly strange (and easy) way so I thought I would include it.
Makes around 4-5 portions for my baby, would make more for smaller ones.
1 head of cauliflower broken into florets (can use broccoli as well)
Full fat milk, I didn't measure it but it was probably 1/2 - 3/4 of a pint
Cornflour (about 2-3 dsp)
Grated mature or extra mature cheddar (he's now onto vintage farmhouse!)
Unsalted butter
Method
Boil the cauliflower for 5-7 minutes until soft enough for your little one. Drain. Heat the milk in the microwave for around 2 mins until boiling or nearly boiling. Mix the cornflour with some cold milk or water to make a paste, then pour into the milk stirring constantly, it should start to thicken immediately (if it doesn't, it will need longer microwaving afterwards). Add the cheese and about half an ounce of butter and mix. Microwave again for around 30 seconds; keep an eye on it as it can boil over. If it's not thickened give it a bit longer. If it still doesn't thicken, add a bit more cornflour paste. Taste to make sure it doesn't taste floury (in which case it will need cooking a bit more).
Puree the vegetables and cheese sauce for little babies or you could use a food processor for older babies like mine so it's still a bit textured.
For babies 10 months plus, you could either leave the florets whole or cut into small (pea or bean sized) chunks before boiling and don't puree at all. Then feed to your baby either by spooning or allowing them to feed themselves (or a combination of the two which seems to be the norm in this household.)
You could use a similar recipe for any mix of vegetables but green vegetables work particularly well and a mix is good, e.g. broccoli, green beans, peas, spinach (effectively a vegetable gratin) and it can be a way to get babies to accept new and stronger vegetable tastes if they're already keen on the cheesy sauce.
Sabtu, 29 Januari 2011
Baby chicken casserole
Makes about 5 portions for my nearly 9 month old.
I came up with this while looking for a recipe to use some chicken pieces. It's not hugely flavoursome, I might add some garlic next time but it was his first time with celery and bay so it was mellow and pleasant without being a knockout. It would probably be good for fussy ones as an introduction to meat.
Oil or unsalted butter
A chicken breast, cut into pieces
1 small onion, chopped small
2 carrots, chopped small
1 celery stick, chopped small
1 potato peeled and chopped into inch cubes (approx)
Butternut squash, approx 100g in half inch cubes
Thyme, a few sprigs
Bay leaf
Salt free chicken stock cube
Fry the chicken, onion, celery stick and carrots in the oil or butter. Add the thyme, stock cube and boiling water, add the bay leaf, potato and squash. Bring to the boil then simmer for approx 15-20 mins (or until the vegetables and chicken are cooked). I took out the potatoes and mashed them separately to give a coarser texture and pureed the rest (remembering to take out the bay leaf after my pork and garlic experience!)
He seemed to like it. You could add a bit of parsley in at the end for a bit more interest and flavour.
Talking about herbs, I grow a lot of herbs myself. I think it's the one thing really worth doing to save money and add bags of flavour into your cooking. My rosemary however, is looking a bit worse for wear after this winter, however, surprisingly my thyme and parsley (both mediterranean herbs) are looking lush and green. Actually I have to confess to a bit of a thyme obsession and I currently have two well established plants in my garden; a golden thyme and a silver thyme. Some thymes have obviously different flavours (lemon thyme for example) but I find even the others give slightly different notes. I love thyme it goes on my roast chicken, in stuffing, in stocks, in pasta sauces, in stews. It's such a versatile herb.
If you don't have the space for plants, do look at woody herbs in the shops and rather than buy fresh every time you need it, they freeze brilliantly. When I say woody herbs, I mean things like rosemary and thyme. It doesn't take much space though. I grow mint in a pot (because otherwise it takes over the garden) which, although it dies back every winter, soon perks up again in summer.
I came up with this while looking for a recipe to use some chicken pieces. It's not hugely flavoursome, I might add some garlic next time but it was his first time with celery and bay so it was mellow and pleasant without being a knockout. It would probably be good for fussy ones as an introduction to meat.
Oil or unsalted butter
A chicken breast, cut into pieces
1 small onion, chopped small
2 carrots, chopped small
1 celery stick, chopped small
1 potato peeled and chopped into inch cubes (approx)
Butternut squash, approx 100g in half inch cubes
Thyme, a few sprigs
Bay leaf
Salt free chicken stock cube
Fry the chicken, onion, celery stick and carrots in the oil or butter. Add the thyme, stock cube and boiling water, add the bay leaf, potato and squash. Bring to the boil then simmer for approx 15-20 mins (or until the vegetables and chicken are cooked). I took out the potatoes and mashed them separately to give a coarser texture and pureed the rest (remembering to take out the bay leaf after my pork and garlic experience!)
He seemed to like it. You could add a bit of parsley in at the end for a bit more interest and flavour.
Talking about herbs, I grow a lot of herbs myself. I think it's the one thing really worth doing to save money and add bags of flavour into your cooking. My rosemary however, is looking a bit worse for wear after this winter, however, surprisingly my thyme and parsley (both mediterranean herbs) are looking lush and green. Actually I have to confess to a bit of a thyme obsession and I currently have two well established plants in my garden; a golden thyme and a silver thyme. Some thymes have obviously different flavours (lemon thyme for example) but I find even the others give slightly different notes. I love thyme it goes on my roast chicken, in stuffing, in stocks, in pasta sauces, in stews. It's such a versatile herb.
If you don't have the space for plants, do look at woody herbs in the shops and rather than buy fresh every time you need it, they freeze brilliantly. When I say woody herbs, I mean things like rosemary and thyme. It doesn't take much space though. I grow mint in a pot (because otherwise it takes over the garden) which, although it dies back every winter, soon perks up again in summer.
Jumat, 28 Januari 2011
Breastfeeding
Some weeks it feels like I've gone all week without a break. Well this is my first real break this week (it's Friday, yawn) and I thought I'd dump out of my brain something I was thinking about last night in bed.
My son and I have had a sometime fraught relationship with breastfeeding from day 1. I always wanted to breastfeed since I found out I was pregnant; probably because I was in the (now unusual) situation of being a child born in the 70's who was breastfed. I'm sure the fact that breastfeeding rates are so low now is because the grandmothers of todays kids didn't commonly breastfeed. There are lots of reasons for that but from what I can tell, it's mainly because mothers were told not to breastfeed more often than every 4 hours and babies were taken away from their mothers for long periods in maternity wards, neither of which will help milk production in the first days.
Anyway, our relationship has always been fraught because he's never fed like the books say he should (5 mins has always been a good feed for my little man and he likes to be fed often; both of which are "wrong" according to Gina Ford, Babywhisperer and any other number of child rearing books.) So I spent several months trying to solve our "problem" before realising it was only a problem in my head as my son was unable to read the books and know what he should be doing and the frequency of his day feedings seemed to have no bearing on the night feeds even when I hit the hellishness of 4-6 months.
The next problem I had was well meaning people from those I know to those who are meant to support. Here, I found myself stuck between two camps. I found the breastfeeding supporters all "right on" cloth bummed baby wearing cosleeping types (nothing wrong with that but it's a bit much to aspire to for me) and other people who just thought I was making life hard for myself by breastfeeding and letting my son rule me (which at times felt like they were talking sense.) At 4-6 months as we were going through hell and my son was demanding feeds hourly during the day sometimes and up to 6 times at night, the well meaning types were telling me to take up formula, the breastfeeding advocates were saying "it's a growth spurt, go with it" (to which I replied "really? For 8 weeks?"). In the end I listened to myself and what I needed (as formula was looking more appealing by the day) so we did a bit of sleep training. I couldn't bring myself to do controlled crying so we did PUPD and got down to 1 feed in about 3 weeks.
So why all this reflection? Well I decided last night that he's nearly 9 months old now, has always gained weight well and normally feeds around 3/4am so we should give it a go and see if he can make it through the night. Part of me feels a bit of loss that this is what I'm aiming for now which has surprised me. I think it's brought it home to me that as I'm returning to work in May I will be cutting back to the morning and pre bedtime feed in 3 months and then stopping completely as around a year has always been what I've thought I could give. Despite all the hard work, that does feel difficult.
What will I miss? There is a sense of closeness, especially on that pre bedtime feed (which I think was why I got so upset when he started refusing it for a while). The fact I know I'm not the perfect mother but I'm giving him something which will help him and well, it is perfect for him, even if I'm not.
What won't I miss? The looks. I wish I was more confident at feeding in public and I have got more confident but now he's 8 months and although he's average sized, people think he's older than he is and so the staring and looks have got worse. I think people seem to get really uncomfortable at the sight of me breastfeeding a baby who's much longer than my lap now. I keep saying to myself that I have to keep doing it as part of the battle to normalise seeing babies over 6 months old breastfed or else it will always be a problem to people and frankly I refuse to be hidden away but it's hard.
Though I look like my hair has been combed with a hedge most days so people could be staring because I look a mess!
My son and I have had a sometime fraught relationship with breastfeeding from day 1. I always wanted to breastfeed since I found out I was pregnant; probably because I was in the (now unusual) situation of being a child born in the 70's who was breastfed. I'm sure the fact that breastfeeding rates are so low now is because the grandmothers of todays kids didn't commonly breastfeed. There are lots of reasons for that but from what I can tell, it's mainly because mothers were told not to breastfeed more often than every 4 hours and babies were taken away from their mothers for long periods in maternity wards, neither of which will help milk production in the first days.
Anyway, our relationship has always been fraught because he's never fed like the books say he should (5 mins has always been a good feed for my little man and he likes to be fed often; both of which are "wrong" according to Gina Ford, Babywhisperer and any other number of child rearing books.) So I spent several months trying to solve our "problem" before realising it was only a problem in my head as my son was unable to read the books and know what he should be doing and the frequency of his day feedings seemed to have no bearing on the night feeds even when I hit the hellishness of 4-6 months.
The next problem I had was well meaning people from those I know to those who are meant to support. Here, I found myself stuck between two camps. I found the breastfeeding supporters all "right on" cloth bummed baby wearing cosleeping types (nothing wrong with that but it's a bit much to aspire to for me) and other people who just thought I was making life hard for myself by breastfeeding and letting my son rule me (which at times felt like they were talking sense.) At 4-6 months as we were going through hell and my son was demanding feeds hourly during the day sometimes and up to 6 times at night, the well meaning types were telling me to take up formula, the breastfeeding advocates were saying "it's a growth spurt, go with it" (to which I replied "really? For 8 weeks?"). In the end I listened to myself and what I needed (as formula was looking more appealing by the day) so we did a bit of sleep training. I couldn't bring myself to do controlled crying so we did PUPD and got down to 1 feed in about 3 weeks.
So why all this reflection? Well I decided last night that he's nearly 9 months old now, has always gained weight well and normally feeds around 3/4am so we should give it a go and see if he can make it through the night. Part of me feels a bit of loss that this is what I'm aiming for now which has surprised me. I think it's brought it home to me that as I'm returning to work in May I will be cutting back to the morning and pre bedtime feed in 3 months and then stopping completely as around a year has always been what I've thought I could give. Despite all the hard work, that does feel difficult.
What will I miss? There is a sense of closeness, especially on that pre bedtime feed (which I think was why I got so upset when he started refusing it for a while). The fact I know I'm not the perfect mother but I'm giving him something which will help him and well, it is perfect for him, even if I'm not.
What won't I miss? The looks. I wish I was more confident at feeding in public and I have got more confident but now he's 8 months and although he's average sized, people think he's older than he is and so the staring and looks have got worse. I think people seem to get really uncomfortable at the sight of me breastfeeding a baby who's much longer than my lap now. I keep saying to myself that I have to keep doing it as part of the battle to normalise seeing babies over 6 months old breastfed or else it will always be a problem to people and frankly I refuse to be hidden away but it's hard.
Though I look like my hair has been combed with a hedge most days so people could be staring because I look a mess!
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