Corn and Zucchini Fritters with a twist

 General  7 Responses »
Dec 292011
 
These Corn and Zucchini Fritters are suitable for freezing

Makes 30-35 fritters.

Ingredients:
120grm can of Creamed Sweetcorn
120grm can of Sweetcorn Kernals
120grm can of Chickpeas – drained and rinsed
50grms Haloumi Cheese (or paneer is good too) – grated
150grms Zucchinni – grated and squeezed liquid out
3 eggs
1 and half cups of SR Flour -sifted
1 teaspoon Paprika 
Salt and Pepper to taste (can be left out if for babies/toddlers)

Instructions:
Combine and whisk Corn, Creamed Corn, Chickpeas, Haloumi Cheese, Zucchini and eggs add Flour, Paprika and Salt and Pepper.

 Heat little oil in a non-stick pan and put 1 to 2 tablespoons of mixture in pan for each fritter, spread out mixture. Do not put more than 3 in pan or overcrowd and won’t cook properly. Cook until bubbles appear (like piklets), flip and flatten down.

 Note:
Freeze on a plate for 40 mins before transfering to a ziplock bag.
Suitable for freezing up to 3 months. Defrost in fridge – eat cold or hot.

Recipe: Philly Sweet Chilli Dip

 recipes  No Responses »
Dec 262011
 

Philadelphia cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce dip – serve with a vegetable platter or crackers and chips. Always the first dip to be gobbled up at my bbq’s!
Ingredients:
250 g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature (this is crucial otherwise the lumps are so hard to get smoooth!)
200 g sour cream
 ½ cup sweet chilli sauce
 4 spring onions, finely chopped
 ¼ red capsicum, very finely chopped (optional but always gives good colour!)

Instructions:
 Mix or beat cream cheese in a bowl until smooth.
 Mix in sour cream, sweet chilli sauce, spring onions and capsicum until combined.
 Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Notes:
Can be made up to 24 hours ahead, it will enhance the flavours.
You can use either Light or full fat version of Philly and Sour Cream – the flavour will still be there!

Recipe: Slow Cooked Silverside

 Baby Led Feeding, recipes  No Responses »
Dec 262011
 

This is my Slow Cooked Silverside Recipe that I use almost fortnightly. 
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does!


Ingredients:
1 silverside (I use Harveys Old English Silverside from Coles as its the better quality one on the home brands – too watery for my liking!)

2 small onions, halved
1-2 Carrots – peeled, halved and quartered into sticks
1-2 Celery – halved and quartered into sticks
4/5 Small Potatoes – halved (pending how big they are) 
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup malt brown vinegar
2 cloves garlic (whole)
2½ bay leaves
2 L beef stock
Water, sufficient to cover silverside


Instructions:

Place all ingredients in the slow cooker, silverside on top of vegetables. 
Ensure silverside is almost emerged in the stock and water. 
Cook on low for 6½ hours until tender and slightly falling apart.
Allow to rest for atleast 10 minutes under foil before serving (makes for easier carving).
Serve with mashed potato, vegetables from the slow cooker and green beans.


Keep the leftover meat in a plastic container wrapped in foil for up to a week.


We use the leftovers in a sandwich or roll with cheese and Branston Pickle (yummmo!)




The vegetables are soft yet intact – suitable to use for Baby Led Feeding (remove string from Celery).

Babyled Weaning

 Baby Led Feeding, Bento Lunches  17 Responses »
Dec 132011
 
*update 10/10/12* I apologise for no photos – I deleted my piscasa account on google and it took allllll my pictures!!
If you would like to talk to me more about BabyLed Weaning / Feeding please email me I am happy to answer questions/queries!!
Why I chose to feed MasterS the ‘Baby Led Feeding’ way  instead of Purees as first foods.
When MissC was 5 months old, I started feeding her purees of rice cereal, baby cereal, pureed apple, banana, avocado, pears, potatoes, fish – you name it I pureed it! I tried feeding her everything under the sun.. pureed. I had such a hard time that I was still feeding her pureed food at 10 months old because she refused to have any lumps in her food, of what little food she had. 
As a 1st time mum – I did everything the Child Health Nurse said to do and still had trouble. Finally at 11 months old she started eating finger food, but very little fruit, vegetables and meat. To this day she still will not touch any fruit except an Apple with the core cut out, and vegetables consist of frozen beans and peas (still frozen) and sweetcorn out of a can. That is it. 
At the age of 2.4 years. I am at my wits end, which is why I give her Bento Lunches - trying to make lunch and dinner fun with lots of different flavours/shapes.
2nd time round as a Mumma.. I thought, right I know what foods MissC did and didn’t like, so hopefully MasterS would be different (plus he’s a boy and they say they have bigger appetites).. I was so wrong. MasterS was worse than MissC!! He refused the spoon straight away. 
I fought for about a week with him to get him to take the spoon, before I asked my friends on facebook what to do. They suggested BabyLed weaning!
What on earth is that I asked!!!!??? This is where you just feed your baby whatever you are eating on your plate (within reason) and they eat it with their hands.. they learn to chew before they learn to swallow, rather than learning to swallow before chewing (which is why lumpy food often gets rejected by pureed feed babies). 
The Mush Stops Here! is the first website I ever read. Babyled weaning. 
And my response was WOW… I never realised this was something we could do! As I read more and more blogs, websites and facebook groups, I realised that this would be a good thing for me to do with MasterS – considering the pain and anguish I had feeding MissC (and still do) and the fact that he has already rejected spoonfeeding. 
I was a little nervous starting MasterS off on finger food, and boiled carrot and apple. Apple was rejected, but Carrot was loved!!
Avocado was next which was a little slippery but was absolutely loved!
After that it was bread (toast), pasta, strawberries, watermelon, cucumber, piklets and anything that was on our dinner plates that he could hold (as long as it wasn’t too spicey). MasterS’s favourite food at the moment Lambchops!!
I even gave him a whole hard boiled egg yesterday (cut into quarters)! With MissC they said no egg white until 1 yr old, but within 18 months they have changed that and said as long as it is fully cooked it – you can give them whites now! 
Every month nutritionists change their mind at what you can and can not give due to allergies. There are no main allergies in our family and so we can give MasterS everything (though staying away from peanuts for the sake of you just never know!)
MasterS has thrived with his food, hardly anything gets rejected (if it does, its because its too slippery to pick up) and I have noticed that he is swallowing alot of the food now too! I know this because his poos are full of little bits of carrot and broccolli!
Yes he may gag on his food, only seen it a couple of times so far – and it wasn’t as bad as people might think, but that is just because he is learning to chew bigger lumps.  They say gagging is natural and noisy, choking is silent.
I am much happier and relaxed feeding MasterS compared to when fed/feed MissC. I hope MasterS will continue with loving his food like he is at the moment!

How did you feed your babies?  Are they picky eaters as toddlers now or do they love everything??  Let me know your childrens favourite food (besides takeaway!)  Do you have any tricks of the trade?!