Mexican Pizza

So I have been a little busy recently, sorry about that.. My kid's food has still however been as time consuming as ever, and the battles with Finn still arise on occasions. We are by no means perfect let me tell you.

The next stage of our lives as a normal family has begun, Roxy is eating and seems to devour anything in front of her - I just wish that would continue forever, lets just hope she is a real foodie like me.

A new favourite I have found for them both is 'Mexican Pizza'. Now if trading standards, or Mexico or indeed Neapolitans had anything to say, they would find me in contempt, but it is what it is and the kids love it!

Ingredients

1-2 large flour tortilla wraps (depending on appetite
Tablespoon of Cornerstone Sauce (or a squeeze of tomato puree with a smidge of honey to slacken it)
Tablespoon of sweetcorn
Tablespoon of tinned crushed pineapple
Slice of ham
Handful of grated cheddar
Knob of butter

Recipe

Now this is the easiest thing ever.. Simply build it up as you would a homemade pizza. If you are using just one tortilla - only fill one half and then fold it over.

Spread the Cornerstone Sauce on the wrap

 

Add your toppings

 

Cover with cheese

 

Apply the second wrap or fold in half (if you are using just one)

Melt the butter in a frying pan on a medium heat and cook the pizza until the tortilla is golden, then flip and repeat on the other side.

Voila! Perfect melty-cheese tastiness and good for them too.

 

I like to serve Finn and Roxy's with some cucumber as they both like it.

Nutritious food for your fussy brood

So here it is... my very first blog.  I guess the first thing I should do is tell you a little bit about me and what it is I am planning on writing about.

My name is James, I am a father of two - a four year old boy called Finn - who is very much the focus of the beginning of this journey and a seven month old girl called Roxy.  I had some training in the kitchen which has helped me develop this idea, but am most certainly not a chef.  I'm a dad, I love food, but more importantly I love my kids and just want to get them full of stuff that's good for them.  I am passionate about this, and think that a lot of other parents feel the same.

The concept is simple, its about packing my pre-school son's meals with more fruit and veg than he realises.  After years of cooking for a fussy son, I've developed over 60 recipes that he loves yet which contain lots of hidden nutrients and so thought they might be worth sharing. 

This blog isn't about nutrition, nor is it a study on the psychology of meal times with pre-schoolers, although I will offer up some opinions as I go...  I have developed all my recipes independently, and have had friends and family cook them for their children to see if they work - so far so good... There is nothing challenging, expensive or unusual in what I do, this blog is by a dad for other parents.

Crispy stuffed chicken

I really like this recipe, it gives you a great opportunity to sneak in all sorts of good stuff... For me, this one is all about mushrooms (which Finn claims to "HATE"), however after wolfing down this dish when I concocted it earlier in the week he exclaimed that it was his "favourite dinner ever"!

You can of course add anything to the filling but mushrooms are a great source of iron, vitamins C, B6 & D, as well as lots of anti-oxidants and protein.

Ingredients per portion

Chicken thigh fillet
Knob of butter
20g mushrooms
1 spring onion
I clove of garlic
Dessert spoon of cream cheese
2 slices of cheddar cheese
I egg beaten
2 spoons of flour
Handful of breadcrumbs
Slice of pineapple fresh or from a tin, it doesn't matter

How to do it

1. Melt the butter in a pan. Chop the mushrooms, garlic and spring onion and add to the pan, cook on a medium heat until the mushrooms lose their white colour and go soft.

2. Put the mushrooms, garlic and spring onion in a blender with the cream cheese, and blend until smooth.

3. Lay the chicken fillet out on a board and lay a slice of cheddar on it, then spoon on the blended mushroom mix and top with another slice of cheese.

4. Roll the fillet up and skewer, roll first in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

5. Heat an oven proof frying pan on the hob with a little oil, cook the chicken lollipops on a medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until golden.

6. Transfer to the oven on gas 4/180/350 for 15/20 mins - as you put them in the oven, you can add a couple of bits of pineapple for a Hawaiian twist if you fancy!

7. I served them with a little roasted sweet potato, some broccoli and a smiley plate!

A tasty little burger

This tasty treat is a favourite with the kids and is a great way to sneak in some extra goodness - so everyone's a winner!

Burgers are a great way of making food fun and that’s key with kid's dinners. Food that’s fun is far more interesting to youngsters and adults alike, so simply by putting the burger on a little wooden board or playing with presentation can make a world of difference.

This little burger is packed with goodies - apple for vitamin C, beetroot for bone-building folates, celery for a little fibre and onion which is good for boosting those all important anti-oxidants. The mince is also a great source of iron and protein. 

I've used minced beef in this recipe, however you could use lamb, pork, turkey or a combination of any of these. I also served Finn's burgers with some sweet potato chips (simply cooked in a little oil) and some steamed green beans (as they're one of his favourite vegetables at the moment!).

Serves 3 pre-schoolers

Ingredients

100g lean minced beef

1 tbsp cooking oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 stick of celery finely chopped

75g grated apple

75g beetroot finely chopped
50g breadcrumbs (you can use stale bread - just grate it)

How to do it

1.  Heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped onion and celery then cook for 3 to 4 minutes on a medium heat until they've softened.

2.  Chop the beetroot into small pieces and put into a mixing bowl with the mince, grated apple and breadcrumbs.

3. When the onion and celery are cool enough to handle, add to the bowl with the other ingredients and mix together.

4.  Shape into patties, making sure that you get them all about the same size.

5.  Cook the patties in the same pan you used before (no need to wash it as you can use the residual oil).  The first side should be cooked uncovered for 3-4 minutes on a low to medium heat. Once you have a nice colour on the underside of the pattie, flip and cover the burgers (any lid or metal bowl will do).  Keep the burgers nice and moist by adding a couple of tablespoons of water under the lid to steam the meat, if you see the pan is drying out, just add a little more water. 

Cook the burgers, lid-on for 10 minutes and then add a slice or a bit of grated cheese if desired onto the burger, replace the lid and cook until melted.

6.  Put the burgers into buns and serve with your choice of accompaniments!

       Here's Finn enjoying one of the burgers made in the above pictures! 

Banana porridge

This is a popular breakfast choice in our house come rain or shine... Quick, cheap, full of good stuff and one of Finn's favourites!

Studies have shown that in addition to providing iron and fibre, porridge helps regulate blood sugar. By adding a sneaky addition or two, such as banana and dried fruits, porridge can give kids an amazing breakfast time boost.

Serves 2 pre-schoolers.

Ingredients

• 1 medium banana chopped
• 1 knob of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of any supermarket oats (I use Scotch porridge oats because my folks are from up there and they are the ones we always had, but Quaker or own brand alternatives are fine).
• 2/3 cup whole milk plus a little for a moat on top
• Handful of raisins or other fruit
• A squeeze of honey

How to do it

1.  Add the banana, butter and cinnamon to a smallish heavy bottomed saucepan and cook on a low heat until the banana goes golden in colour and starts to really soften. Make sure you turn the banana to cook both sides

2.  Turn up the heat a little to medium and add the oats, milk, raisins and honey. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until most of the milk has been absorbed, stirring occasionally. It's really important that you don't cook it for too long or it becomes really stodgy. If the porridge does become too thick, just add a dash of milk or water to bring it back to your preferred consistency.

3. Pour it into a serving bowl and add a little more milk over the top. I always loved that as a child and it has the additional benefit of cooling the porridge down around the edges!

Blueberry pancakes

These pancakes are a great option for breakfast at the weekend or can be enjoyed anytime as a delicious snack! This is a good recipe to get the kids involved in, plus they're really quick to make.

Blueberries are a 'superfood', so full of goodness. They one of the best fruits available when you want to deliver a load of vitamins and nutrients. The rule with fruit and veg is generally the more brightly coloured, the better they are for you. 

When you're mixing the ingredients in this recipe together, try not to overwork the mixture as it can make your pancakes rubbery. Also, don't worry if you have little lumps once the milk is added as they'll come out in the cooking process.

The volume of batter you'll end up with will make about 15 jam pot lid sized pancakes, so unless you have plenty of mouths to feed you may have some left over, in which case you can freeze them. When you decide to use them, don't worry about defrosting them - just pop them in the oven from frozen on a medium heat for about 20 minutes or until warmed through.

Ingredients

300g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
300ml whole milk
200g blueberries
Knob of butter

How to do it

   1.  Weigh out your flour into a decent sized bowl (don't worry about
        sieving it first) and then add the bicarbonate of soda

    2.  Break in the eggs and mix into the flour

    3.  Once the eggs are mixed in, add the milk and blueberries (don't be 
         concerned if the batter seems thick - this is normal)

    4.  Put a pan on a medium heat and melt the butter



    5.  Add a serving spoonful of mixture to the pan and cook until the  
         pancake is starting to look a little puffy (about 3-4 minutes)

    6.  Flip the pancakes and squash down to pop the blueberries, then cook 
         until golden

    7.  Serve with honey and yoghurt









Broccoli pesto

So I sit here eating Ryvitas for lunch because I don't want to eat yet more bread (I had toast for breakfast). On top of that its a pasta dinner of spaghetti Bolognese, so all in all its going to be a carb-tastic Friday!

As with many kids, Finn is a BIG fan of pasta, and given that pasta is such an easy option its something he eats frequently.  Up until recently I always felt guilty about giving him quite so many pasta-based meals, that was however until I started doing some research...  I was very pleased to discover that children aged between 3 and 5 need around four portions of carb-goodness every day, so each meal and maybe a snack or two should consist of either pasta, bread, rice, spuds, sweet potato or sweet corn, or a combo of them all.

Now the trick is to combine something more nutritious with those foundation ingredients and build from there. Say some cauliflower mixed into mash potato, or some cucumber in their favourite sandwich.

So how to go about it? One of the most important things to take into consideration is how you cook the veg, regardless of how you're going to serve them. Over 70% of the vitamins and nutrients in vegetables are lost if you boil them, this is because most vitamins are water soluble, so unless you are using the water they are cooked in for something like soup, you'll lose most of the good stuff down the plug hole! Now if you're going to go to all that trouble to get goodness into your child, it seems a shame that what they end up eating has lost most of its benefits...  

So my advice is - get steaming! You don't need anything more complicated than a pot, a little water in the bottom, a sieve which needs to sit just above said water, a lid and whatever you had planned to boil... One thing that is important to consider is to not let all the water evaporate as its easy to ruin your pot if it does. 

Make sure that the water in the bottom of the pot isn't discarded, you can use some of it later to help mash the veg down. Whilst you do lose some nutrients through steaming (around 15%), you lose a lot less than boiling!

This brings me onto recipe number 2 - broccoli pesto! Its a great option for lunch or dinner and with the addition of a bit of seasoning is great for adults too!

Broccoli pesto

Broccoli seems to be tolerated on occasion by Finn, often the last thing eaten on his plate if served in its tree-like formation - it’s a hit and miss veg at best. It is however one of those so called 'super foods' that does deliver. Broccoli is a great source of vitamin C, A & K as well as calcium, beta-carotene (good for the eyes and immune system) as well as other anti-oxidants - all great things for your little sweetheart.

Within this recipe, I've also added some dairy for calcium, fruit for vitamins, and some beans for extra protein. It does sound odd I know, but go with me on it...

A tip is not to over-do any one single flavour - remember that those intense tastes that you and I love are exactly the flavours your kiddies can find overpowering and a turn-off. When it comes to young palates, simple flavours are often a good thing.  

This pesto freezes for up to a month and can be added to hot pasta from frozen, so a great time saver... 

Ingredients

• 100g broccoli
• 50g apple peeled and cored
• 50g cream cheese
• 25g grated Cheddar or Emmental cheese
• 50g cannellini beans
• Sprig of fresh basil
• 100ml rapeseed/olive oil

How to do it

1. Start by steaming the broccoli for about 3-4 minutes, or until the stalk is 
    starting to feel a little soft and then add the apple and steam them both         until really soft.

2. In a bowl, add the beans, cream cheese, grated cheese, broccoli and apple (whilst still hot) and mash into a pulp

3. Chop the basil, add with the oil and a little water from the steaming pot and blend with a hand blender until nice and smooth.

4. Mix into some of your kid's favourite cooked pasta and serve!

Cornerstone sauce

This is a brilliantly versatile sauce and is used in a range of dishes that I'll post. You can use it for pasta, pizzas, or in meaty dishes such as pies, so I suggest you get a bucket of it cooked up and freeze it in small portions to be used when needed. You can take them straight out the freezer and add to the cook pot if that’s the way you’re using it or defrost in the microwave to be spread over a pizza base. The addition of the fruit in this recipe makes it nice and sweet and a hit with the kids!

As Finn's default response to anything that looks as though it has tomato in it is "Urrgg, its yucky", I tend to name the sauce according to the dish I'm using it in, i.e. pizza sauce, pasta sauce etc.  So long as its not called 'Tomato sauce', he wolfs it down! 

Ingredients

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 empty can of water
100 grams of chopped onion
1 tbsp cooking oil
100 grams of courgette
60 grams of mushrooms
1 green pepper

1 punnet of red berries (depending on which type of berry you use, you may need to pass through a sieve (i.e. if using raspberries)

150 grams of beetroot
150 grams of cauliflower
50 grams of celery
2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp of tomato ketchup or puree   

How to do it

1. Chop the onion but don’t worry about it being too small 
2. Put in a big saucepan with the oil and cook for a minute or two 
3. Chop all the veg into fairly small pieces 
4. Add the tinned tomatoes, water, courgette, mushrooms, green pepper, 
    berries, beetroot, cauliflower, celery, Worcestershire sauce and tomato 
    ketchup to the saucepan 
5. Cook over a low to medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes until everything is 
    soft
6. Blend with a hand blender and that's it!