Pancakes

My pancake recipe actually comes from a Winnie the Pooh cookery book I was given many, many moons ago. What I love about it is that the kiddies can mix the batter by themselves as the measurements are just so simple!
Makes about 8 pancakes.
Ingredients:
4 rounded tablespoons of plain flour
A pinch of salt
1 egg
½ pint of milk
Butter for frying
Extras for serving: favourites in our house are jam, maple syrup and Nutella, as well as good old-fashioned sugar and lemon!
Method:
1: Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a hollow in the centre and crack the egg into it.
2: Add about a third of the milk and mix gently together.
3: Gradually add the rest of the milk and beat in.
4: Heat up a frying pan and add some butter. Once hot, add 2 tablespoons of batter. Tip the pan so the batter runs all over the base of the pan to make a pancake.
5: Fry until the underside is brown and then turn over with a knife or flip if you’re feeling fancy (your children will think you’re the coolest thing ever if you can successfully flip!).
6: When the second side is cooked, slide the pancake out of the pan onto a plate (Warning: the first pancake of a batch is inevitably a bit rubbish!), add whatever yummies you like and eat up!
7: If you want to serve a pile of pancakes, pop each pancake as it’s ready onto a tray in the oven on a low heat to keep warm until needed.

Tomato Soup

I think Heinz Tomato Soup is just about every child’s favourite soup. Every child except me! I still don’t like the stuff, but I do love this homemade version with plenty of garlic and basil. It must be very well blitzed though… I don’t do lumpy tomato soup!

Feeds 4 Picky Pickers or 2 adults

1 very finely chopped small onion

1 crushed garlic clove

a drizzle of olive oil

1 400g tin of tomatoes

600ml vegetable stock – I usually use Marigold bouillon.

1 tablespoon tomato puree

fresh basil

a pinch of salt

 

Ingredients:

1: Gently fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft.

2: Add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.

3: Turn down the heat and allow to simmer gently for 20 minutes.

4: Blend the soup until smooth and then reheat to serve with lots of bread and butter.

Home-made Granola

Why pay a fortune at the supermarket when you can make granola so easily yourself and customise it for your Picky Picker?

Ingredients:

500g porridge oats

4 heaped tablespoons of runny honey

4 heaped tablespoons of golden syrup

2 tablespoons of sunflower or vegetable oil

Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2: Gently melt the honey, golden syrup and oil in a pan.

3: Pour the oats into a large bowl and add the honey and oil mixture. Stir well.

4: Spread your mixture evenly onto a large baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes. Keep checking to ensure none of the mixture burns.

5: When the oats are golden brown, remove from the oven and leave to dry on the tray.

6: Add any extras you like. Some of our favourites are banana chips, raisins, cranberries, dried apricots, desiccated coconut and pumpkin or sesame seeds.

7: The granola should keep for about a month in a airtight jar. Serve with milk or yogurt or sprinkle some over ice cream for some extra crunch!

Fruit loaf

This is lovely toasted for breakfast, or great just sliced and buttered for an afternoon snack. It’s so simple, remembering to put the fruit to soak is probably the hardest bit!

For Picky Pickers who are a bit funny about dried fruit, make it plain first, then perhaps with just raisins and gradually introduce the mixed fruit.

Ingredients:

225g dried mixed fruit

225g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

120g caster sugar

250ml cold black tea

2 tablespoons orange marmalade

1 egg

Method:

1: Measure the dried fruit into a bowl, pour in the tea and leave to soak for at least a couple of hours. I tend to leave it in the fridge overnight.

2: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a loaf tin.

3: Measure all the other ingredients into a large bowl, add the soaked fruit and remaining liquid and stir gently until combined.

4: Pop in the oven for about an hour until the top has browned and a skewer comes out clean when you stick it in the cake.

5: Leave to stand for 15 mins and then turn out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.

Houmous

Oh boy, do we get through A LOT of houmous in our house! Generally with pitta bread and veggies, but also in wraps, the kids adore it.

Ingredients:

1 400g tin of chickpeas

1 or 2 crushed cloves of garlic

Juice from 1 lemon

1 tablespoon tahini

a pinch of salt

2-3 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Paprika to sprinkle on top (optional)

 

Method:

1; Drain the chickpeas into a bowl.

2: Add the garlic, lemon juice, tahini and salt.

3: Add the water and either blitz in a blender or mash with the back of a fork.

4: Put in a serving bowl, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika is using.

Honey Roasted Parsnips

Sticky and sweet, these make a lovely accompaniment to roast lamb.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

6 medium sized parsnips

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of runny honey

a sprinkling of sea salt

sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 230 degrees celsius.

2: Peel and cut the parsnips into quarters. Remove any tough stuff from the middle. Slice the parsnips into roughtly even sized pieces of about 6cm by 1cm.

3: Place the parsnip pieces in a bowl with the sea salt, honey and olive oil until all the parsnip is well coated in the mixture.

4: Put in a roasting tin and roast for about 20 minutes until soft and golden brown.

5: If using sesame seeds,  fry them in a dry pan for 1 minute until light brown and sprinkle on the parsnips before serving.

 

 

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.