Pumpkin (sweet as) Pie

I had to post this photo of my sweet little pumpkin eating her first pumpkin, from our garden. I roasted and then mashed it and it made her giddy with glee.

Home-made brekkie bars

Lots of store-bought breakfast or muesli bars are so packed with sugar and other nasties, yet they're a really good way to get wholesome foods into stubborn kids...especially when they're choc-coated as a special treat! Normally, I would make without the choc but my little guy has been off-colour and I wanted to inspire him to rediscover his appetite. Even with the chocolate, they're still a pretty good snack option.

I combined spelt rolled oats, sesame paste, peanut butter, melted butter, honey and a little rice flour in a bowl and baked as a flat slab at low temp for about 15 minutes. Once it had cooled off, I spread a thin layer of good-quality chocolate (the equivalent to 1.5 cubes per bar) and set in the fridge. Once fully set, I sliced into bars and have kept them stored in the fridge.

Baby bites

We had family taco dinner tonight and even 8 month old Emme got in on the action, with some mashed avocado, grated cheddar and home-made garlic sauce. She loved it.

At 8 months, Emme has been eating voraciously, with gusto and enthusiasm, for over four months, and after devouring this smash up, she had some corn taco and a piece of tomato, both of which she almost choked on. When I introduced my son to solids, it was a markedly different experience. He was our first. And we were such newbies. We adhered to almost all of the advice (except with regards to eggs, I think). But sometimes he would choke too, and it scared the bejesus out of me. One day, when lamenting the precarious and risky state of toddler-feeding to a girlfriend with a baby five months older than mine, I learned a valuable lesson.. She leaned in to me and confided, "Babies choke! You just fish it back out!" It was a lightbulb moment and probably a very crucial parenting concept to grasp. Shit happens, and your job isn't to prevent it altogether but rather to help them through it.


The pleasure Emme got from sucking the flesh from a perfectly ripe side of tomato, juice running down her chin and pooling on her chest, well, it was immeasurable. The skin proved too much for her and I had to remove the fruit before it blocked her windpipe(!), but I would never avoid experiences like this just to err really far on the side of extreme caution.

Food should be fun. Healthy, fresh, delicious and fun.

Baby cakes

Perfect for little fingers at a busy and important playdate, these muffins are a treat for adults and kids alike.

Ingredients

1 cup spelt flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup almondmeal
2 tablespoons butter melted
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup brown sugar loosely packed
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, whisked
1/3 cup desiccated coconu

Preheat oven to 180'c.

Sift spelt flour and baking powder into a bowl and add sugar and almond meal. Stir until combine, making sure any lumps of sugar are squished into the mix.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir until JUST COMBINED. You don't want to stir any muffin mix too thoroughly as they become chewy.

Spoon the mix into muffin cases and bake in a 180'c oven for around 20 minutes. Check they're done with a skewer (should come out clean when inserted.).

These are awesome with white choc, though for little people I chose to keep them pretty clean and healthy.

On the brekkie bar today

Poached egg with a kumara scone and banana slices

Fruit loaf

This is a much loved favourite in our snug. Fruit loaf, or Tarni toast, is an oft-requested item from cafes, and a great snack when we are rushing somewhere. Which we are, often- more often than I would like to be a-rushing, anyhow. I'm a control freak 95% of the time. Which means I would always prefer my kids to eat something I had prepared at home, so that I have total knowledge of the ingredients etc. But I'm realistic (and lazy) enough to have made my peace with convenience food. So, if we are at coffee and Jonathan wants fruit loaf for brekkie, I'm usually happy to oblige, but I far, far prefer to be able to toast it from my freezer and take it out with us, thus knowing what flour, what sugar, what yeast and which sultanas are used. I told you. Control freak. 95% of the time, anyway.

Kumara, apple and cheddar scones

2 cups wholemeal atta flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
60g butter
1 cup vintage cheddar
1/2 cup low-fat organic milk
1 tsp caster sugar
1 cup stewed apple & sweet potato (you could vary your veggie mash- include some fruit and some veg for a flavour balance)
A little extra flour for dusting
Egg for egg wash

Preheat oven to 180'c

In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and sugar and stir to combine. Add butter and use your fingertips to rub together until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add mashed veggies, cheddar and milk and use a wooden spoon to incorporate. Do not over mix it as your scones will be tough. Once incorporated, turn dough into a lightly floured bench top and roll until you have a slab around 3cm high. Cut into rounds. (I just love the sound it makes as you push the cup through the dough!)

Place each circular piece of dough onto a flat baking tray, lined with baking paper. Once finished, egg wash and bake for around 20 minutes. Cooking time varies depending on your oven but you'll know they're done when they're golden and springy. Test one by slicing in half and serving with a lovely farm-fresh butter.

I had to tell my son they were "muffins" but he quickly devoured two so, slight mummy tricking aside, these are a "ten out of ten, must make again" for me.