Guacamole

Avocado is absolutely chock-ful of goodness, and this is a great way to get it into your Picky Pickers who’ll have a great time mashing up the ‘green slimy stuff’!
Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
a small clove of garlic
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon natural yogurt
Method:
1: Peel the avocado, remove the stone, and cut the flesh into small pieces.
2: Mash the avocado flesh with a fork until smooth.
3: Crush the garlic and add it, along with all the other ingredients. Mix well.
4: Serve with tortilla chips or strips of brightly coloured vegetables such as carrots, mange tout and yellow pepper.

Melanzane

I think this photo shows my youngest’s feelings towards aubergine perfectly! He didn’t approve the first couple of times he had this dish, but he’s gradually getting used to it! The rest of us love it.

When serving this it’s perhaps worth reminding Picky Pickers that the sauce is the same as for pizza and so is the cheese, the only real difference is the aubergine.

Ingredients:

1 quantity of tomato sauce

1 aubergine

1 mozzarella ball – full NOT reduced fat, reduced fat really spoils the flavour.

fresh basil

parmesan cheese

olive oil for drizzling

Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 200 degress celsius.

2: Cut the aubergine into thin slices. Arrange in a single layer on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 10 mins.

3: In a pie dish, spoon in some of the tomato sauce to make a thin layer at the bottom.

4: On top of this put a single layer of the aubergines, then another layer of tomato sauce, and then about a quarter of the mozzarella torn into small pieces.

5: Do another set of layers of aubergine, then sauce, then cheese.

6: If you have aubergine and sauce left do another layer of each before using up the rest of the cheese as the top layer.

7: Add a good grating of parmesan and some torn up fresh basil leaves.

8: Turn the oven down to 180 degrees celsius, cover the melazane with foil and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.

9: Remove the foil, turn the oven back up to 200 degrees celsius, and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown.

10: Serve with rice and salad.

Roasted Butternut Squash

This makes a nice side dish to go with roast chicken or fish and should appeal to children who like carrots, parsnips and sweet potato. Just make sure you roast it for long enough, otherwise the pieces can be a little tough!
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
2 crushed cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
A pinch of salt
Method:
1: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius
2: Peel the squash, remove the seeds, and cut into roughly equal sizes. This does take a while and is definitely a labour of love!
3: Put the oil in a large roasting tray and add the other ingredients.
4: Mix everything together well so that the squash pieces are nicely coated with oil, salt and garlic.
5: Pop in the oven and roast for 25-30 minutes until the pieces are soft and lightly browned.
Tip: Leave out the salt, and mash up the squash when cooked for easy baby puree

Henry’s Ice Cream Cake

I decided to do something a little different when our youngest had his last birthday. He much prefers ice cream to cake so this is what I came up with…
Ingredients:
250g of digestives
100g melted butter
1 litre vanilla ice cream
Extras such as Malteasers, Smarties, chocolate chips, raspberries, strawberries, chocolate buttons and chocolate fingers
Method:
1: Put the digestives in a large bowl and mash them with the end of a rolling pin until they’re just crumbs (a great job for toddlers!).
2: Add the butter and mix well.
3: Put the mixture in a loose bottomed cake tin, pressing it down really well.
4: Place the tin in the fridge for a couple of hours.
5: Put the ice cream into another large bowl and add any extra ingredients you fancy. We kept the ice cream plain for our ‘cake’ and just put the extras on the outside, but I think some smashed up Malteasers would work very well inside. Mix in.
6: Take the tin out of the fridge and put the ice cream mixture on top of the biscuit mixture.
7: Put the tin in the freezer for at least an hour so the ice cream refreezes completely again.
8: Remove the tin from the freezer and take the ‘cake’ out of the tin.
9: Let your Picky Pickers help decorate with whatever ‘extras’ you fancy, let your imagination run wild! But remember to work quickly as the ice cream will start to melt.
10: Serve immediately.

Handmade Tagliatelle

You don’t need a machine to make your own pasta; it’s actually incredibly easy and fun to make by hand with your Picky Pickers! It takes a while, and is quite a workout, so I tend to save it for weekends.
Make sure you use 00 flour for this recipe, it’s extra fine and produces perfect pasta!
Serves 4 Picky Pickers or 2 grown-ups
Ingredients:
200g type 00 flour
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

Method:
1: Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and make a hole in the middle.
2: Add the eggs into the hole and beat the eggs with a fork.
3: Use your fingers to mix the eggs with the flour little by little until combined.
4: Knead the dough on a board until it’s formed a really smooth lump. This will take a while, and your arms will definitely ache!
5: Wrap the dough in the fridge and pop in the fridge for at least half an hour.
6: To roll out, dust a rolling pin and a board with more 00 flour. Roll the dough out, one small lump at a time, until it’s really thin. Fresh pasta dries out really quickly so it’s a good idea to cover the dough you’re not working on with a damp teatowel.
7: Cut the rolled out dough into narrow strips and dust with flour. I cut widthways so the strips are not too long, and make them about 2-3 mm wide.
8: To cook, put the strips in boiling water with a little salt and cook for just a few minutes until al dente.
9: Serve with tomato sauce and maybe some meatballs.

French Toast

Despite not being overly fond of eggs, all my boys love this as a treat on a Sunday morning.

Serves 4 Picky Pickers

Ingredients:

4 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 tablespoons of caster sugar

few drops of vanilla extract

4 slices of thick white bread

pinch of cinnamon

butter

Method:

1: Crack the eggs into a large shallow bowl or baking tray.

2: Mix in the milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.

3: Melt some butter in a frying pan.

4: Dip the bread in the eggy mixture (I only do this very quickly, but if you like your French toast eggier, leave the bread to soak in the mixture for a minute or 2).

5: Cook each slice in the frying pan until golden brown on both sides.

6:  Dust with icing sugar and drizzle with maple syrup if you’re feeling decadent. Serve with lots of fresh fruit

American Pancakes

I have to be in a REALLY good mood to attempt making pancakes for our family of 6!  An hour and a half can easily whizz by in a blur of pans, batter and eager little faces.

These are fatter and smaller than traditional UK pancakes and are usually served with maple syrup and crispy bacon. Yum!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

110g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon caster sugar

a pinch of salt

130ml milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter, plus some extra for cooking

a handful of raisins or blueberries (optional)

a few drops of vanilla extract or a pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Method:

1: Sift together the flour, the baking powder, the sugar and the salt into a large bowl.

2: Gently whisk together the egg and milk and then whisk in the butter.

3: Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and combine. Leave to stand for a few minutes.

4: Heat some butter in a large frying pan.

5: Drop tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, leaving some room for the pancakes to grow. Cook until the pancake’s bottom is brown and bubbles appear on the surface. This should take only 1-2 minutes. Turn the pancake and cook the other side until golden brown.

6: Repeat this until all the batter is used up. Cooked pancakes can be kept warm in the oven, but taste better straight out of the pan.

7: Serve with berries, maple syrup and some warm, crispy bacon.

1:

Banana Milkshake

I have a son who hates bananas, but loves this. Don’t understand why, but there you go!

This is really quick to make. The fresh banana means it doesn’t keep well, so drink it as soon as it’s ready!

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small ripe bananas (the ones that are inbetween ‘eating’ and ‘muffin-ing’ in ripeness!)

1 teaspoon runny honey

225ml cold milk

a sprinkle of cinnamon or ground ginger (optional)

Method:

1: Blitz ingredients together using a blender. Serve immediately.