These make an excellent snack and are not messy or sticky so can be eaten anywhere!

Ingredients

• 100g plain muesli (ie no added fruit or chocolate, and as little sugar as possible)
• 100g plain flour
• 50 – 100g sugar (depending on how sweet you want the bars to be)
• 150g chopped dried fruit eg raisins, dates, bananas, apples, cranberries…
• 75ml milk
• 75ml apple juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line or grease a small, square baking tin.
2. Mix together the muesli, chopped fruit, sugar and flour.
3. Add the milk and apple juice, and mix to a thick batter.
4. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 20 mins.
5. Allow to cool before cutting into squares or bars.

Week 17

• Monday – Pizza
• Tuesday – Fish Cakes
• Wednesday – Gnocchi
• Thursday – Meatballs
• Friday – Bagels
• Saturday – Schnitzel
• Sunday – ???

This is a very easy to make cake, really tasty and moist so it keeps well for a few days, wrapped in foil.

Ingredients

• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 180g brown sugar and/or honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 350g carrots (about 4 large ones), grated
• 3 eggs
• 75ml milk
• 200ml sunflower oil
• handful of chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Mix everything together in a bowl. You can vary the amount of sugar, depending on the sweetness of the carrots, or replace some of it with either honey or maple syrup.
3. Pour into a greased and lined cake (loose-bottomed if round) or loaf tin.
4. Bake for about 45 – 55mins until dark brown on top.
5. Cool before slicing.

I have been making my own pizza for a number of years now, and it’s now got to the stage where it’s actually an easy evening meal to for me to do! I would highly recommend buying a pizza stone to bake the pizza on – I’ve found it really does make a huge difference to the crust, and the stone just gets better and better the more you use it.
The fact that I make the pizza myself means I can completely control what goes in and on to it; my ds gets his own little pizza with all his favourite toppings. It’s actually not unhealthy when you think about it!

Ingredients

Base Dough

• 600g plain white flour
• 1 sachet dried yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons olive oil
• approx. 300ml warm water

Tomato Sauce

• 1 carton passata (or finely chopped tomatoes)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely grated
• salt (optional – I leave this out for ds’s pizza)
• 1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Method

Before starting, put the grid in the lowest position in the oven with the pizza stone on it. Turn the oven onto its highest setting.

Making the pizza base:

1. Put flour, salt, sugar and yeast in mixer and mix using dough hook.
2. While it is mixing, add the oil and slowly add the water until it forms a firm but soft dough. It should NOT be sticky. You might not need all the water.
3. When the dough comes away from the side of the bowl, take it out and knead it by hand until smooth and elastic.
4. Sprinkle a little bit of flour in a bowl, put in the dough and cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place until the oven and pizza stone are hot.

Making the tomato base:

1. Pour the passata into a bowl and mix well with all the other ingredients.
2. Leave for the flavours to blend for at least 20mins before tasting and adjusting seasoning if needed.

Prepare your pizza toppings, for example:

- thinly sliced red or green peppers
- thinly sliced mushrooms
- sliced onion rings
- salami, ham, etc
- olives
- tuna
- sweetcorn
- grated cheese and/or fresh mozzarella

1. When the oven is hot, divide the dough into 2 equal-sized pieces, and then take about a quarter off each one again (this will make 2 large pizzas and 2 small ones)
2. Roll one piece out so it is slightly larger than 1 paddle (this is if using a pizza stone – if not, just roll the dough out so that it fits onto an oiled baking tray). 
3. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the paddle, and on the pizza base. It should be quite floury and dry. Place the dough on the paddle with the flour side down.
4. Fold in about an inch of the edge of the pizza. I would HIGHLY recommend that you also put a little bit of cheese in here, this gives you the most heavenly stuffed crust and stops the topping from sliding off.
5. Spread the tomato sauce thinly over the base, add the toppings you want (remember, less is more) and sprinkle cheese on top.
6. Place onto the pizza stone very carefully!
7. While this pizza is baking, prepare the second one on a paddle.
8. After about 7 or 8 minutes, see if the pizza is ready (the edges should have risen and the cheese should be golden).
9. Carefully take it out with the empty paddle and place the prepared second pizza in to bake.
10. If you can, leave it stand for a couple of minutes before cutting into it.

I tend to make my ds’s pizzas first and let them cool while I’m doing the rest.

This isn’t a recipe, it’s just an idea for dessert or snacking (and, incidentally, explains how this website got its name):

Almost every day, my ds gets a “dessert” after either lunch or dinner, and this usually consists of a selection of dried fruit. I started doing this after reading that babies often get constipated when they start on solids for the first time, and you can avoid this by giving them a dried apricot every day. I did exactly this, and can report that we’ve never had any problems at all in the nappy department!

Anyway, the daily apricot eventually expanded to include all of the following:

• raisins
• cranberries
• mangoes
• apple rings
• pineapple
• banana pieces
• pears
• figs

You can basically offer any dried fruit that the baby can pick up and eat by itself. I buy organic, unsweetened dried fruit and it has proved to be an excellent “dessert” in the winter months when fresh fruit is hard to come by (I refuse to buy expensive and, usually, flavourless imported stuff out of season).

These were surprisingly easy to make, easier to eat than the regular-sized ones, and enjoyed by everyone!

Ingredients

Pastry

• 200g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 70g butter
• very cold water

Filling

• 200g minced beef
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 2 tbsp tomato puree mixed with 4 tbsp water
• 4 thin spring onions, chopped
• 2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 celeriac, peeled and cubed (OR 1 swede OR 1 turnip)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp worcester sauce
• rapeseed oil for frying
• a little milk

Method

1. Make the pastry first: put the flour and cubed butter into a food process and blitz until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add a little cold water at a time until it forms a dough.
3. Wrap in clinfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
4. In the mean time, make the filling: heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the mince until browned.
5. Lightly steam or boil the cubed potatoes, carrots and celeriac.
6. Add the onions to the mince and fry until beginning to soften.
7. Add the tomato puree, herbs, soy and worcester sauce.
8. Add the steamed veg and take off the heat. Allow to cool before continuing.
9. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
10. Roll out the pastry to 3-5mm thick on a well floured surface.
11. Cut out 8 – 10 circles approx. 8cm diameter (I used a large tin for this)
12. Put a large spoonful of the filling on each circle, dampen the edges with a little water or milk and fold together.
13. Crimp the edges with your fingers for form a frill.
14. Place on a lined baking tray and brush with a little milk.
15. Bake for 10 mins.
16. Reduce oven heat to 180°C and bake for a further 15mins or until very lightly golden.
17. Allow to cool a bit before eaten – they are VERY hot inside!!