Fancy roasted sausages and veg

This recipe started as a Jamie Oliver one that a relative mentioned to me. It has been tweaked and twiddled to within an inch of its life but it's definitely one of my favourite dinners!

You need:
Sausages, any kind of sausages. I like to use the fancy fat ones (in packs of 6) like garlic and herb, this one was pork and apple.
One courgette, in thick slices.
A red and yellow pepper, sliced.
Cherry tomatoes, I like on the vine but it doesn't matter really.
Mushrooms.
Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs (a couple of sprigs of rosemary is great but you can play around with it and it will still taste fab).

Bung the whole lot in a casserole dish, a drizzle of the oil and a decent splash of the vinegar. Add the herbs and some freshly ground black pepper and make sure it's nicely mixed. Oven for about an hour at 180, once the sausages are nicely brown it's done, just stir it up regularly. Serve with mash, yum!

Tip for the babies: Cut sausages along their length rather than into discs, the discs are more of a blockage hazard.

Easy chicken & chorizo tagliatelle

This is so quick and easy, and a nice gentle way to add a bit of spice to your little one's diet. Chorizo can have a high salt content like other salamis, but balance the rest of the day. D is over one so I have a little bit more leeway!

Excuse the extremely rude photo of D's mouth wide open but I thought it was funny! He savaged this.

This made a bit too much for two adults and one baby, but it's very adaptable. I cut it down from a recipe that was to serve 8 so you can fiddle with amounts and it will still be yum!

3 chicken breasts, in chunks,
1 tin chopped tomatoes,
Half to 3/4 of a small container of cream,
Chopped rosemary,
Chopped parsley,
Chorizo, chopped into discs (maybe 4 to 5 inches of the sausage, depending on how much you like),
Tagliatelle.

Melt a thick slice of butter in a large pan. Add the tin of tomatoes and a heaped tablespoon of chopped rosemary and cook on a medium heat til it starts to soften and look like a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and a half teaspoon of sugar.

Add the chicken and chorizo, along with about a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Add your cream and leave to simmer for 5 to ten mins, til the chicken is cooked. Serve with tagliatelle and top with grated parmesan.

Easy peasy!

*As I say, chorizo is high in salt, so you can use unsalted butter and leave out the salt from seasoning if you wish. I'd recommend this for babies under one, leave off the parmesan for them too.

Paprika Chicken

This is a one pot dish, so minimal cleanup, win!

Ingredient amounts are up to your own eye really, I was cooking for two adults and a baby and I WAY overdid it! It does freeze well though if you want.

You need (what I used):
3 chicken breasts,
Mushrooms,
Red and yellow peppers,
Half a sweet potato,
1 onion,
Garlic,
Peas and sweetcorn are nice in it too, but I forgot today!
Rice,
Paprika,
Thyme,
500ml (ish) chicken or veg stock,
Cheese (any you like really, coarsely grated. I used some garlic and herb and some chilli and it worked really nicely)

Use a large deep frying pan or cooker top casserole dish and fry the chicken until golden brown on the outside. This only takes a minute, you don't need to cook it through yet. Set the chicken aside.

Fry the onions and garlic til soft, then throw in the uncooked rice and stir continuously for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetables, stock, and about a teaspoon each of paprika and thyme. Mix well, then place the chicken breasts on top (maybe dig 'em down a little bit!).

Cover and turn the heat down, then let simmer for about 25 minutes or so, or until the chicken is cooked through and the liquid pretty much absorbed.

Sprinkle over another teaspoon each of paprika and thyme, then your grated cheese. Spread it around but make sure you get plenty on the chicken, it's tasty! Pop the pan under the grill til the cheese melts and you're done!

This is good for any age, just use the low salt baby stock. Might be better for little ones who have pincer grip, but even if not, little handfuls will stick together til they get to the mouth!

Enjoy!

Beams

2 Quick and easy lunchs made with Toast.

 There is nothing that gives me mammy guilt more than when I'm running late when out and about and get home and E is shouting at me for lunch. The last few weeks have been very busy for us and this has happened a few days  so  Ive had very little time to prepare healthy lunches. She is almost 14 months now and gone are the days where I can buy some time with rice crackers! Here's a few of our favorites that can be made in less than 5 minutes.
 
Apple and cheese on toast
This recipe is from the river cottage baby and toddler cookbook . E and I love this and Ive even a mammy  and daddy version too.

2 slice of bread (1 each!)
A little unsalted butter
1 apple- (We prefer granny smith but any desert apple is good also.)
70g Cheddar

~Peel and then grate apple
~Toast bread lightly
~Spread unsalted butter then apple and then cheese on top and pop under grill for a couple of minutes until cheese is golden and bubbling.

For a nice mammy (and daddy) version, spread tomato relish(We love Ballymaloe relish) on toast instead of butter, and make the same way :-)I also sometimes add a few drops of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce too.
                                          
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Simple Guacamole on toast - This amount makes enough to spread on approx 4 slices

Bread
Unsalted butter
1 avocado
Juice of 1/2 a large lemon
tablespoon of tomato purée
finely chopped red onion
black pepper to season(I also like a to use little chilli flakes sometimes)

~simply scoop out avocado, mash with all ingredients and spread on toast.  
 Obviously there are lots of lovely Guacamole recipes but this is one that really couldn't be any simpler but still really tasty. 

Enjoy~ Lolly
 

Chicken Tikka Masala

This Tikka Masala Recipe is a lovely flavorsome but mild tasting curry. Baby E devoured it last night with her yum yum sound which to me is the best praise I can get :-)


 Ingredients serve 2 adults 2 kids

·         4 chicken breasts

·         2 Shallots –finely grated

·         3 cloves garlic- finely grated

·         1 tspn tikka mix

·         ½ tspn turmeric

·         ½ tspn crushed cardamom seeds

·         4 tblsp of passata or ½ tin of chopped tomato-blitzed

·         1tblsp of tomato purée

·         ¼ pint- 120 mls of low salt chicken stock

·         120 g Crème fraiche 

 

~Cut 4 chicken breasts into chunks and place on a tray with some spray oil, place under a medium to hot grill for up to 15 minutes , turning once.
~Heat a non stick pan on a medium heat and use some spray olive oil (leaves the Tikka less greasy)
~Add Tikka mix, turmeric and cardamom seeds and stir for a minute
~Add Passata and tomato purée and cook for 3-4 minutes,then chicken stock and Creme Fraiche and cook for a further 2 minutes.
~Finally add the cooked chicken and  simmer for 3 minutes.

This is lovely served on a bed of brown rice with some salad and lime wedges or alternatively served cold as a salad dish or sandwich filler.

  

Spinach and prawn pasta

This one's a nice light dinner for a hot day, and seriously easy!

You need:
One pack of jumbo prawns, I cooked from raw but you can use cooked ones, just make sure they're hot.
About half a bag of baby spinach, roughly torn.
As many cherry tomatoes as your dear heart desires, halved.
Spaghetti or linguine.
Juice of half a lemon, one clove of garlic, finely chopped, a tablespoon of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water. Just before it's done, add the spinach. Let the spinach wilt slightly, then dump the lot in a colander. Add in the cherry tomatoes and cooked prawns and stir through.
In a cup mix the garlic, pepper, oil and lemon. You can also add some dried chilli flakes if you like.
Pour the oil mixture over the pasta and mix through.
Serve topped generously with grated parmesan. Parmesan is a little high in salt so if baby is under one or has already had some salt that day you can just leave it out.

As regards the prawns, shellfish is perfectly safe for babies as long as it's thoroughly cooked. If there is any history of allergies though introduce it very carefully. Don't introduce it with any other new foods, and wait three days after introducing it to add more new foods.

Feelin' hot hot hot!

Ireland is having some record breaking weather at the moment, and most of us are loving it! (DH is a bit reluctant to do without his socks just yet but he will!)

D is pottering around in a nappy a lot of the time, and his little belly makes a great little trap for dropped food, it clings there quite nicely 'til he's ready for it!

Meal choices are difficult in this weather. I think it is hidden somewhere deep in Irish DNA that dinner must be a substantial, heavy meal. Apart from salad I'm having trouble coming up with alternatives. It doesn't help that D's appetite is dropping as the mercury rises.

We've been having plenty of chicken, green salad, pasta and rice salads. Maybe fish might be nice tomorrow. I wouldn't worry too much about myself or DH, but I'm very conscious of the need to provide balanced nutrition for D. It's funny how your way of thinking changes when you're providing fuel for a child! I love that about BLW though, it slows me down and makes me think about what I need from food and the best way to get it. As a result, although I'm a lot more wobbly, I'm 9lbs lighter than I was when I got pregnant! And that's even with the fact that the ice cream man stops right outside my house and has been doing a very brisk trade lately!

Enjoy the sunshine everybody, it's never here for very long!

Oh, and if anyone has any good hot weather recipes, pop them in the comments section will you? Thanks!

Chicken and mushroom tagliatelle

This one is really tasty! I made it with the quantities below for two adults and one baba, and there was one and a bit portions left over for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cut into strips,
Half an onion (medium to large), diced,
Lots of mushrooms! sliced,
One smallish head of broccoli, in florets,
3 cloves of garlic, chopped,
1 can of sweetcorn, or fresh babycorn,
1 tbsp garlic and herb Philadelphia,
1 tbsp creme fraiche,
A good sprinkle of Italian herbs.

Method:
Fry the chicken in a small amount of olive oil in a non stick pan.
Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic.
Boil the broccoli until just starting to get tender.
Add the Philadelphia and creme fraiche to the chicken mixture and stir. Add the herbs now too.
Drain the broccoli and add to the rest along with the corn.
One final twist of black pepper and serve with tagliatelle, yum!

Mum and Dad particularly like this one too.

Muffins!

Today was Baby D's first birthday party. It was a wonderful day where everything just worked, and I was thrilled and proud that all my plans worked out and my sociable happy baby had a ball!

As D has never really had anything sugary, I didn't want to overload him today. Obviously I made lots of bold things, but plenty of healthy bits too so he wasn't totally left out! We had two types of drumsticks (see the lemon and tarragon ones posted previously), fruit skewers, sugar free jelly and these muffins which were all fine for him. And I was pleasantly surprised with the older kids that the fruit skewers disappeared almost immediately, long before the rice krispie squares!

These recipes are from the baby led weaning cookbook but I thought I'd share my thoughts and tweaks.

Carrot & Orange muffins:
*In the cookbook these are just carrot, with an option to add orange. Add the orange, trust me :)

150g (5½oz) self raising flour,
60g (2oz) unsalted butter,
2 large eggs, beaten,
2 medium carrots, grated finely,
3-4 tbsps milk (you may not need this when you add the orange, but I threw in a splash, probably a tbsp or two),
Zest and juice of one orange.

Preheat the oven to 190 and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat. In a separate bowl combine the eggs and grated carrot, then add the butter, orange juice and zest and mix well. Pour the carrot mixture into the flour and fold together lightly.
Add milk if needed to give it a soft consistency, then spoon the mixture into the muffin tray.
The book recommends baking for ten to fifteen minutes. Use that as a guide, mine took longer. Just bake til golden brown and springy.

Tip: Wait til they're totally cool before taking one out of the paper case, as they're quite dense and moist and when warm they don't like to leave the paper!


Banana muffins:
150g (5½oz) self raising flour,
½ tsp ground cinnamon,
60g (2oz) unsalted butter,
4 large very ripe bananas,
2 large eggs, beaten.

Preheat the oven to 190 and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
Sift the flour and cinnamon into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat.
In a separate bowl,
mash the bananas to a smooth thick puree with a fork. Add the eggs and butter and mix well.
Pour the banana mixture into the flour and fold together lightly, then spoon into the muffin tray.
Again, bake until golden and springy, and wait til cool before taking out of the paper case.

These are so tasty, and quite dense like "real" muffins!

Fully Loaded Fruity Porridge

Baby E loves breakfast but can get bored of the same thing so I like to vary it throughout the week. This "Fully loaded" is one of our favorites and a great way to get porridge into them if they haven't mastered the spoon yet. Baby E uses both spoon and hand to pick up the pieces of fruit which the porridge has stuck too.  She is now 1 so the pieces are small but this can be varied to suit younger babies with larger chunks of fruit that the porridge can be sucked off of.  Its so simple

 Ingredients:

•  Porridge  -60g serves both of us- 3 scoops

•  Milk -

• Yogurt half tub - we use Glenisk goats milk mostly

• Mixed chopped fruit - 2 strawberries, 2 grapes, half kiwi, half mandarin, 5 blueberries, quarter apple`(we vary this depending on what we have & I add what extra for my portion too)

Method

• Make porridge, this works better when sticky rather than a runny consistency.

• Add yogurt to cool.

• Add fruit and mix through.

Note-
 - For younger babies   be careful with grapes as the skin can be a choking hazard .
- Apples can be hard so although E is now 1 and able for them she doesn't like them tough so I put apples in while cooking porridge to soften them.
-If  E is having a "throw things away day" and not enjoying the fruit, or not in the mood to use the spoon, I add some cheerio's to the porridge , its always a savior here.  - Tesco ones are the lowest salt I've found.
-Alternatively you can stew chunks of apple, pear, plum(some of the harder fruit)  for a few minutes to soften but not fall apart and add them to the porridge. Its a great melt in the mouth option for smaller babies.

Hope you enjoy.
~ Lolly

Why won't baby eat??

 Today has been a tough day. Baby D has a miserable cold and has barely eaten all day. That's understandable for today, but it got me thinking about previous 'no food' phases and how tough they are.

Eating solid food is a game for babies. 'Food before one is just for fun'. We start weaning at 6 months and take such delight in our babies' development, look look, he swallowed some!! I'm sure I'm not the only one who called my dear husband to the changing table to present him with 'proof' that our baby was really eating!

But we must remember, until their first birthdays, our babies get most of their nutrition from their milk. So if they decide to spend a week throwing their meals to the dog, don't freak out. It's ok. It's normal. D is a breastfed baby and feeds on demand, so I definitely noticed him increasing his milk feeds during those times. This is where our little mantra kicked in; baby lead the way, baby lead the way. A healthy baby will be fine, and these phases are perfectly normal. They don't last forever.

You may worry that baby won't sleep unless they're full. I can't speak for all babies, but I can tell you my experience. D wasn't a great sleeper. (I'm being very diplomatic with that last sentence!). The first night he slept through was when he was 8 months old, after a big dinner of stew. He's a big fan of stew! So there began a few weeks of desperately trying to entice him to eat so I could make him sleep. It didn't get me far. I couldn't MAKE him eat, I couldn't MAKE him sleep. No matter what I wanted him to do, it didn't matter. D wanted to take his time, figure out what this eating business was all about, and still get some milky mama cuddles at night. That's his developmental curve. He's just over a week off his first birthday now and he still wakes at least once probably every other night.

Even now, we can go a week here or there where all I hear is splat splat off the side of his chair, and it is frustrating. I don't experiment much those weeks. After spending a day following recipes and carefully creating meal ideas, it's hard to watch the dog enjoy it while baba laughs! So I just cook for myself and DH, and keep a salt free portion for the little man. If some gets swallowed, bonus! If not, well, tomorrow is another day.

Today my baby ate two spoons of yogurt and one mandarin segment for breakfast, a few chunks of chicken and half a potato from his soup for lunch, and nothing at all at dinner. Tomorrow he is staying with his granny and he'll probably eat her out of house and home!

Every day is a new day, every experience is a new experience. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't, most of the time it's absolutely nothing to worry about. If your baba is not sick, they're just setting their own pace. So follow their lead, take a big deep breath, and have a cuppa!

Lemon & Tarragon Drumsticks, great for lunch!

Pack of chicken drumsticks (there were 12 in the pack I got),
One lemon, zest and juice,
Dried tarragon, about a teaspoon, maybe a teaspoon and a half, a good sprinkle!
Olive oil,
Garlic, 4 cloves skinned and crushed (just a good bash with the flat of a knife will do).

In a bowl mix the lemon zest and juice, tarragon, oil and garlic with some cracked black pepper. Dump in the chicken and give it a good toss so it's well coated. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it in the fridge, preferably overnight if you can. I cooked these in the oven at 185 for about half an hour, but you could grill or barbecue too.

I served them with a nice green salad, and a pasta salad. The pasta salad was fusilli pasta tossed in a tablespoon of pesto (Sacla wild garlic pesto has the lowest salt content I've found on the supermarket shelf. It's safe but still in the higher range though so don't go crazy! Low salt for the rest of the day will balance perfectly). Add cherry tomatoes, halved, and cubes of fresh mozzarella. Nom!

Always a favourite - butternut squash and lentils

Butternut Squash and lentils, this is a fab and simple recipe from River cottage baby and toddler cookbook that I've adapted to suit E. This was one of her first foods and she still loves it, the only change Ive made in the 5 months is made the chunks smaller recently as she prefers to pick up smaller pieces now.  This is also a fave of mine and this amount makes plenty for both of us. We found this a great recipe for when E had digestive problems and we wanted to hold off on meat but still wanted her to have protein in her diet. This one seems to be very popular with some of E's little friends too. There is nothing better than the sound of your little one eating and making yum noises, this certainly gets that :-)

250g Squash- peeled and deseeded and cut into chunks

50 g red lentils (rinse in cold water before)

1 low salt or baby stock cube ( I only use 1/2)

Add all to a saucepan with enough water to cover, bring to the boil and simmer for approx 20 minutes or when squash is soft but not going to fall apart. The lentils will nicely stick to the squash and I just load a spoon with the remaining lentils at the end. 

A great pasta lunch

I stood with my head in the fridge for ten minutes and came up with this. It has been a big success every time so hopefully it will be for you too!

Ingredients:
Four or five cherry tomatoes, halved.
About half to three quarters of a pepper, cut into strips.
One or two mushrooms, sliced.
Two or three babycorn.
Some garlic and diced onions, judge amounts yourself according to your baby.
About a third of a mozzarella ball.
1 tsp dried mixed herbs.
Fusilli pasta.

Fry the vegetables in a small amount of olive oil with the herbs. When done, take out the baby corn and half the rest of the veg and set aside. Pulp the rest with a blender, adding the mozzarella. This will melt nicely and help to coat the pasta. Add the sauce to cooked pasta with the chunky veg and serve. I like this one because even if half the large vegetables land on the floor, they still get some nutrition from the sauce.

Courgette pizza boats

These are so quick, perfect for those times when you're staring helplessly into the fridge! Adapted from Lolly's idea :)

What you need:
1 courgette,
Tomato puree,
Herbs (fresh is great but I just use dried Italian seasoning or oregano)
Mozzarella ball (feta or any cheese is good really)

Cut the courgettes into quarters (after a bit of a scrub). Wrap in tinfoil and bake at 180 for about ten minutes or so until they look like they're getting a bit soft. Take them out and spread with a paste of tomato puree and whatever herbs you're using, and a sprinkle of black pepper. Place the sliced mozzarella on top and pop it back in the oven til the cheese looks nice and bubbly. Yum :)

In the beginning....simple starter foods

In the beginning I gave plainer foods with a rule that they were good if they could melt in the mouth, that way while both me and baby E were getting used to this whole new world, I wouldn't have heart failure in the process.  Things like sweet potato , Butternut squash, turnip and parsnip chips were a big hit, They are naturally sweet and also stay together well to hold . Turnip, sweet potato and butternut can be put straight in oven but I find parsnip is better parboiled for 2-3 minutes and then oven cooked.  After the first time to taste these I started adding a little flavor with dried herbs and spices so cinnamon, thyme, turmeric , even chilli and garlic.  As I breast fed my theory was she was able for flavor as she'd had it before and she really does love flavor. Even if you're not breastfeeding, just try adding new stronger tastes slowly and gently once they seem confident with the main food.

Another firm favorite with baby E was oven  baked courgette  with goats cheese, I would cut it down the middle and then in half  so like Courgette boats!(There's a post with an adapted option and lovely photo's coming soon), I'd cook it in tinfoil for 15 minutes  180 degrees and then spread some goats cheese and back in oven for 5 more minutes. Baby E would scrape out the flesh and goats cheese with her gums as she had no teeth at the time and then discard the skin, it really showed me how genius the whole blw experience was going to be for us.

Beams' experience:
Lolly was far more adventurous than me, poor D got boiled potatoes and carrots far too often at the start! At the very beginning I cooked traditional meat and two veg dinners for myself and the other half, and gave D the potatoes and veg. As above, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes featured heavily. He thought green beans were hilarious and would gum away on them quite happily. He also liked baby corn, I'd give that raw for nibbles :)
Once he seemed to be managing vegetables well, I gained confidence to branch out a bit. That's what I find great about BLW, the baby will just potter along at his own pace, and that pace is usually perfect for me to become comfortable before stepping things up for him.
Once vegetables were consistently going well, I introduced chicken. My child would throw himself under a bus for some chicken, HUGE fan! A good tip, tear it rather than cut it. It will fall apart along its own grain and baby will be able to pull it apart more easily. Even now, he's almost one and chicken is one of those foods I can be sure will be swallowed.
Basically, just take it slowly, and be sure to follow baby, they'll let you know how you're doing!

Baba's garlic bread

So one night, DH and I were having dinner italiano style, and got some fancy garlic bread on the side. (It was quite fancy so I felt I couldn't give it to D, all sorts of lovely flavourings and salt and deliciously bold things he shouldn't have!). So off I toddled to make him some special garlic bread of his own!

I found a lovely tasty bread in Super Valu from The Soul Bakery. It was a healthy seed soda with five different seeds and nothing artificial.

I put some unsalted butter in a little dish and added half a clove of garlic chopped very finely. It would probably be even better put through a crusher.

I then toasted a slice of that yummy bread and spread the garlic butter on it, and voila, one happy italiano baby!

Seems very simple but I think sometimes we can over think and complicate things when it comes to our dear littlies, and there's really no need!

Welcome! Our first post!

Welcome to Baby Lead the Way! If you're reading this, then you've discovered baby led weaning and have either started already or want to. I'm sure you don't need me to explain it to you, maybe you've made the choice, or are leaning that way. I'll give you some background on us and our experiences, so you'll know us a little!

We are Lolly and Beams (I'm Beams!). We are both in our late twenties, both gave birth to our first child in June 2012. I had a boy, D, and Lolly had a girl, E. We met in an online mums' group while pregnant, and have shared the highs and lows since! We both breastfed, but that's not a requirement here, and we both did blw right from the start, starting at six months.

We've loved watching our babies discover food, and become so independent (and wow are they independent!), but it was a steep learning curve. Both D & E have gone through fussy phases. Whether it was teething or sickness, something they loved today could be thrown to the floor another day. This can be tough and make you doubt yourself but in the end we have always adapted our routines to work with this.

In my own experience, D got an awful lot of vegetables thrown at him, I just didn't know what I should give him for lunches and small meals. Dinners are not too bad to come up with ideas, as often I can adapt mum and dad's, but trying to get the right balance of the best nutrition for baby all the time can be tough on your own. For Lolly she had to deal with E having digestive issues and worked on ruling out possible allergens.
We are both passionate about cooking and even more passionate about motherhood.  And so a blog was born!

Just a disclaimer here, we're not medical professionals, nutritionists or dieticians. This is not the blw bible, just a helpful space where hopefully you can gain some inspiration!

So welcome to our wonderful world! We hope you can use some of what you find here, and that what you find is tasty!
Enjoy reading, and have fun letting baby lead the way!

Thanks for visiting!
Lolly & Beams