It's Always Tea Time : Little Person Food

My little person is 10 months now and the bigger little person is nearly 2 and a half, so I thought I'd share some little person foods.

Currently my 2 year old is munching through a bowl of blueberries and the baby is making lots of mess with spaghetti!

As I have previously shared I am a huge advocate of baby led weaning, although my husband is majorly not a fan - due to the mess and wastage!

Although I do think the problem lies with the fact that little person sits on this Mamas & Papas Snug seat and will not keep the tray on, and big little person sits in the high chair, therefore little person drops food all over the floor. The reason for this, is the toddler will not sit still for 2 minutes unless firmly strapped into a highchair, and I don't want to go down the route of buying another high chair, when she really should be sitting at her little person table and chairs that my dad very kindly got made and shipped to us!

Here is just a small selection of easy little person foods thats good to keep handy

Hard boiled egg cut into quarters
Potato (cooked whole potato sliced or small ones left whole)
Roast potatoes
Toast soldiers
Steamed broccoli - long stem is great
Pasta tubes/spirals
Spaghetti
Steamed rice especially sushi rice as sticky and easy to pick up
Sliced fruit
Mashed banana on toast
Little wholemeal pancakes
Frozen/ tinned sweetcorn and peas are great if your little person has the dexterity, I add them to rice and pasta

What we often do is cook extra for us, and leave a variety for the girls for a pick and mix for their lunch, sunday lunch or friday night dinner is great for this.

Homemade Pizza - Perfect Little Person Food

I've made pizza many times for hubby and friends - it's great for a cheap and easy dinner party. For adults I normally make the dough (in my trusty bread machine), then roll out 4 pizza bases and put loads of toppings in to bowls, and when the guests arrive they can make their own. It normally turns into a competition between couples - very amusing.

This time I made small pizza bases, topped with pizza topping (i also use pasta sauce sometimes), and grated cheese. Oven cook until crispy - about 10 mins.

To make large pizzas (dough can be frozen):

500g bread flour (i used 50:50 wholemeal and white)
60ml Oilve oil
360ml Warm water
Pinch of salt
7g yeast

Throw into a bread machine, put on dough setting, split into 4 and roll flat, then add toppings.

Stir Fry Vegetable Rice

My favourite food is rice, I should have been born in a different continent - I could eat it all day and all night.

This is a very quick and easy dinner for little people - and full of healthy veggies.

I made a large batch of rice in the rice cooker (I actually have a slow cooker/ rice cooker in one - fab for making family meals).

In a pan cook some stir fry veg - I usually have a pack in the freezer, or any veg will do (carrot sticks, peas, sweetcorn, courgette sticks, mange tout). Add rice, and some soy sauce if you what, bear in mind soy sauce is high in salt, but you can get low sodium versions. If it's for a very young child, I'd leave out the soy sauce.

I'm lucky enough to still see all the mums and babies from my antenatal classes that we attended prior to my oldest little person, and today I'm having them all round, as one if the mums is due another little person in a few weeks.

When having a gathering of little people and adults in can be difficult to decide what to serve. Obviously my favourite limoncello mini cupcakes are out, and so is anything with chocolate - toddlers and my cream couch don't mix - I learned that one the hard way!

Mini chocolate and banana muffins.

Very easy to do, and healthy - as far as cakes go!Also freezable!

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas mashed
100g chocolate chips
75g caster sugar
100ml milk
1tsp baking powder
200g Self raising flour
2 large eggs
100g butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Line 2 x 12 hole mini-muffin tins with small paper cases, or use silicone tins. Melt the butter in a small pan and leave to cool slightly. Peel and mash the bananas.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the milk, sugar, eggs and melted butter.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and add the banana and chocolate. Using a large metal spoon, fold everything together until combined but don’t over-mix.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes until risen and golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Wholemeal Blueberry Pancakes

Well it's a gorgeous summers day today, so thought I'd make a lovely breakfast for the little ones.

Here's how to make wholemeal blueberry pancakes. Although I didn't actually measure anything, as I didn't want a large amount - I normally make a mountain and end up eating them for a week.