Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are one of those foods people think are difficult to make.  "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom" a phrase apparently coined by Shirley Conran.  Stuffing a mushroom does sound difficult, or fiddly but I promise it's not. This super simple stuffing also makes it easy (and delicious).  I just had this as an adult meal for one but my son, a fan of both mushrooms and cheese would love these.  Do...

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Cauliflower Pakoras; great finger food for kids

Cauliflower pakoras are something I'd never made before until recently, but as part of my 7 a day challenge I made some vegetable pakoras using peas and loved them.  When I moved house a few days back and restocked my cupboards (including buying some gram flour), the helpful assistant in the shop suggested cauliflower was pretty good and, in fact her favourite.  She also said that fresh spinach was, in her opinion much better...

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Spinach and Carrot Cannelloni

Cannelloni is a surprisingly easy dish to cook for one.  I had made some tomato and pesto soup the other day and the leftovers were in the fridge.  It occurred to me that it would also make a really good pasta sauce.  But I had no cream cheese, no goats cheese, no mince, nothing traditional for a cannelloni filling in the house.  So why not vegetables.  Why not?  You know what, it didn't just work, it was...

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Chocolate Custard (low sugar)

Custard.  I never make it from scratch but I do make it from custard powder.  It occurred to me when making some custard from custard powder the other day that custard powder is simply cornflour (cornstarch) natural flavouring (vanilla) and colour (normally a natural colour like annatto).  I don't have much annatto floating around the house and there feels like something wrong about making white custard even though that's...

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7 a Day Challenge; Day 3 - Vegetable Pakoras

7 fruits and vegetables a day is a bit harder than I thought.A few days ago, I set myself a challenge to eat 7 fruits and vegetables minimum in 7 days to see how it affected me, my wellbeing and how hard or easy it might be.I'm on day 3 now and I need to find ways to liven things up!BreakfastI was at work early today so took breakfast of rice crispies and a banana.  This is actually far more than I'd normally eat for breakfast so...

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Spicy Chicken Goujons

After making my crunchy mackerel strips, it occurred to me the same treatment might work pretty well with chicken and, lo and behold, it does!  The sweet chilli sauce lends flavour and a lovely sticky base for the coating.I've suggested serving with some gingery noodles but this would be just as much at home with salad or as a beer time snack.I've not tried my son with this yet but I think he'll be a fan.Spicy Chicken Goujons - Serves...

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Sugar Free Apple Scones

I'm sorry, these must be the ugliest scones ever made but they do taste nice. My son used to have this huge thing about dried apple, then, overnight, with a huge bag left in the cupboard, he decided he didn't like it anymore.So I tried these for size and I think they're lovely (if extremely ugly!)Apple scones - makes approx 8 small sconesIngredients225g, 8 oz SR flour or plain (all purpose) flour with 2 tsp baking powder50g, 1.75oz Butter...

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Sugar Free Raspberry Mousse, great for babies and toddlers

It can be easy with toddlers to ease up too much on the 'naughty' snacks and treats.  I'm certainly more relaxed than I used to be but occasionally I try to challenge myself to cut back a bit on the sugar again so I made this mousse with all natural ingredients and no added sugar or sweeteners.  The result was creamy and gently sweetened.  My son said it was "fantastic".This would be great for all ages including babies.Apple...

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Crispy Mackerel Salad

So this was a meal for one and a delicious one at that.  It can be difficult to motivate children to eat well but I find my own diet can sometimes be lacking, especially when I'm eating alone.  This is a source of omega 3, tasty and delicious, even if you're a touch reluctant when it comes to oily fish.  Most importantly though, after a long day, it's quick.Crispy Mackerel - Serves 1Ingredients2 tbsp Sweet chilli sauce1...

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Egg Free Pancakes - great for all ages

It never occurred to me that you could make American style pancakes without eggs and you wouldn't be able to notice the difference.  The only way I knew was, one time when making my normal sugar free pancake recipe, I made it as normal then got confused thinking I had more eggs in the fridge than I thought.  I was convinced for years I'd miscounted, but, this morning I gave it a go again and I was right, you don't need the...

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Smoked Mackerel Fish Cakes

I may worry (probably unduly) about my child's nutrition but it can be difficult to encourage kids to eat oily fish. Oily fish is an excellent source of Omega 3 oils.  Omega 3 are a group of oils which, although the jury is out on the specific health effects; it's generally believed they're pretty good things to have in your diet.  Sources include things like salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel, fresh tuna, pollock (at lower...

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Simple Baked Southern Fried Chicken

Ok, sorry to remind you but we're approaching New Year and the time for those resolutions.  What will yours be this year?  Lose weight?  Stop smoking?Have you ever noticed how resolutions are always about what we don't want rather than what we do want?  That's a bad thing because we're not wired that way.  Don't think about a pink elephant.  Go on, think about ANYTHING else apart from pink elephants.  Don't...

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No added sugar, nut free Granola

I find commercial granolas a bit too sweet if I'm honest and although my son loves things like this for breakfast, they're also pretty expensive and, as a three year old, there is still a choking risk on larger nuts.  Not of course if you make it yourself and control what goes in!  This is refined sugar free!I have to be totally honest and say the chunks weren't all as quite as big as I would have liked but I suspect I might...

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Turkey Sliders for all ages

A slider, so I'm told is a small burger.  I've mixed these up by making them with turkey (seasonal) but also sneaking in some hidden vegetables (why not) and a bit of spice!  These are super easy and healthy because they're made with white meat and baked not fried.I do have a bit of love for sweet chilli sauce.  Although when my son was under 1 I diligently avoided giving him sugar as much as possible, I eased up as he got...

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Child friendly Prawn Laksa

Laksa isn't an obvious choice for a preschooler but why not?  Most kids I know are fans of prawns and noodles. I've toned this all down a bit to make it friendly for kids who aren't big fans of spice.  Although my son does have more spice in his food than he sometimes realises, last time his Dad cooked him a curry, he was less then keen and apparently ended up eating fish fingers so I went gentle (but noticeable) on the spicing...

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Onion Bhajis for Toddlers and Grown ups

Onion bhajis or pakoras; is there a more convenient finger food?  They are so ridiculously easy and cheap to make yourself too and you can mix up the type of vegetables in them.  Here I've included a bit of carrot.My son liked them but only the bits with smaller onion pieces, he found the long bits a bit stringy.  Next time I might make them with more finely chopped or grated vegetables.  He was a big fan of the spicy...

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Spinach and Potato Bites, great for babies and toddlers

I was out running this morning, as you do, and thought about something my Mum used to cook for us sometimes.  In retrospect I suspect it was a way to use up excess mashed potato but it was something I loved.  If I'm honest I was never a big fan of mashed potato on it's own and this mixed it up a bit.So I made them smaller, added spinach and made these.  They were a big hit with my son.  I gave him 6 and he ate them...

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