Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry

I'd recommend a slow cooker to any busy parent, I know the idea of cooking something for 4-8 hours may seem like a waste of time. But personally I find it a life saver! I put the dinner on when the little people are having their afternoon nap. Then when I've finally put them to bed, tidied up their mess, the last thing I want to do is start cooking, which is why the slow cooker works so well! It's great for meat eaters, you could put on beef casserole in the morning and it would be lovely and succulent by the evening. 

However my husband doesn't eat red meat - and I'm not keen on chicken, therefore I mostly do veggie meals, and finding veggie recipes for slow cookers isn't that easy. Check out my stuffed peppers in the slow cooker. Stuffed peppers

Here is my vegetable curry recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds (use powder if not available)
• 1 onion. sliced
• 2 curry leaves (not always so easy to find in a supermarket - I have some growing in the garden which i had found in a garden centre.
• 1 in piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped
• 2 tbsp curry paste (any according to your preference, I used tikka
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 cauliflour, cut into florets
• 3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• pinch tumeric
• 250mls hot vegetable or chicken stock
• 85g frozen peas
• 115g mangetout

My slow cooker fry's, if yours doesn't you may want to use a frying pan first. 

• Heat the oil in the slow cooker on fry setting.
• Add cumin to the pan, if using seeds, when it start popping add the curry leaves and then the onion slices. 
• Stir for a few minutes until the onion has softened.
• Add the ginger and chillies and cook stirring occasionally for a minute
• Stir in the curry paste, cook and stir for a few minutes
• Add the cauliflower and carrots, cook for 5 mins 
• Add the tomatoes, turmeric and season with salt and pepper if required
• Cook for a few minutes, then add stock and bring to the boil
• turn to slow cooker setting, low, medium or high, depending on how quick you need it. I found 2 hours on high was works, but probably best 5 hours on low for the best flavour
• I added the mange tout and peas near the end of cooking, as I found that the mange touts wilt and they both lose their colour.

Here are how I served it for my 11 month old and my 2.5 year old, went down very well.

Check out my stir fry veg rice: stir-fry-vegetable-rice-

Healthy Home Cooked Baby foods (no jars in sight)

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 served plain or with a try small sprinkle of cheese or tomato sauce
• Steamed rice especially sushi rice as sticky and easy to pick up
• Sliced fruit
• Mashed banana on toast
• Little wholemeal pancakes 
• Vegetable batons and hummus
• 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. 

I agree with the BLW theory that there is no such thing as baby food - that all food can be suitable for little people and eating what we eat (as long as it's healthy and suitable) is best for little people.

Note: I'm not preaching, but I never add salt when cooking, as babies kidneys can't process salt well, also no honey to under 1's.

Sea bass & Portebello Mushrooms

 Seabass is my favourite fish and I love cooking it this way. Place fillet on a piece of foil, lay slices of lemon on top. Fold foil and crunch sides together so there is a small opening in the top. Drizzle a little white wine on top of the fish and crunch top of foil so the fish is completely sealed. Place on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes.

I cooked the mushrooms in a small pan with butter and spicy italian seasoning. Serve with a green salad. I like to serve this fish in the foil to add interest.

Spicy Coconut Salmon Anniversary Dinner

It might not look exactly appetising, but I promise, it is very yummy, I will try to do again, and take better pictures, I'm still new to this blogging malarky!

I do find salmon a little boring, and then I came up with the idea (I know its going to sound strange) to sprinkle chilli flakes and desiccated coconut on the salmon and then grill! It's magic!

I served it with salad leaves sprinkled with balsamic and olive oil, boiled new potatoes and griddled baby courgette and asparagus. Oh and a large mushroom, topped with boursin cheese and chilli flakes (yes my staple seasoning), which I cooked in the oven for 30 mins.

I think its reasonably healthy and very tasty.

Hope you like it

Salmon, salad and griddled courgettes

I've been to the gym today in my pursuit of a beach body, and when I get home I want something healthy, filling and quick.

On the way back from the gym I bought 2 salmon steaks which come with watercress sauce, avocados, courgettes, and a bag of salad leaves.

First trim and cut courgettes in half, thinly slice, throw in a bowl with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of Italian seasoning or some pepper and chilli flakes would work just as well. 

Griddle until chargrilled.

You can cook the salmon a number of ways, grill oven or I cooked  in a small frying pan as I like a crispy skin.

I served with a green salad and some steamed rice

Easiest tastiest chicken leftover recipe

So what to do with left over roast chicken?

This.....

A bag of salad leaves, some cucumber and carrot batons if available and some cooked chicken.

I tore off some chicken from the carcass and threw it in a bowl with some things I found in the cupboard - light soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, clear honey, sesame oil and some chilli flakes. You can marinate in the fridge for a half an hour or so or serve straight away. Throw chicken on top of salad and veggies and then sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

I'm not a fan of chicken, but loving this at the moment, makes me want to do a roast more often! 

Healthy toddler food

Well I'm a little shocked, my slightly picky 2 year old is on her 3rd bowl of brown rice, chickpeas, feta cheese and currant mixture, that I had left over from yesterday's stuffed peppers. My 8 month old loves it too, but she will eat anything!

Summer evenings vegetarian dinner

It worked! Can't believe it wasn't as difficult as I thought, and actually quite yummy! 

I know it's been a little while since I posted, children are very time consuming!

But I just had to share these fab homemade vegetable samosas.

Made with peas, sweetcorn, red onion and feta cheese, with a sprinkling of tikki seasoning and wrapped in filo pastry.

Reasonably healthy as baked in the oven and so yummy ! 

Both my 2 year old and hubby love them, and they're perfect for a picnic, or a summers evening dinner. My daughter has hers with steamed veg and new potatoes and hubby and I are going to have ours with some tabbouleh, which by the way I've never made before ! 

Bulghar wheat, red onion, tomato, lemon juice and zest, olive oil and parsley and mint from the garden! 

So there we have it, a perfect summers evening dinner!

Samosas, tabbouleh, tzatiki and halloumi