Tasty Roast Chicken Rice

This is a great, tasty recipe that uses left over roast chicken. It’s ideal for tinys who are weaning, although you’ll probably want to use reduced salt versions of the stock and gravy granules. I just want to confess that my older kids wouldn’t eat this meal unless blindfolded but my nearly 2 year old wolfs it down. It’s worth noting that when the oldest 2 are blindfolded they love it…

Ingredients
A splash of sunflower oil (or whatever oil you use apart from olive oil)
Left over chunks or strips of dark and white chicken
Two sticks of celery chopped
An onion chopped
Chantaney carrots halved up into stock
Half a tin of sweet corn
A crushed clove of garlic
One chicken stock cube made
A desert spoon of gravy granules three quarters of a kids cup of rice.

Fry your onions in a stewing pot or saucepan, once translucent add the chicken, celery, carrots and sweet corn. Add about half of the stock, bring to the boil and let simmer on a low heat. Keep checking to see the stock hasn’t evaporated about every 10 mins and then after 30 mins add the rest of the stock and gravy granules for thickness. Then leave to simmer for another 30 mins and put the rice on to boil 15 mins before your 30 minutes are up. Once the rice is cooked just drain and stir into the meal. If your kids don’t like the look of this you can always blend it to make a yummy soup. Delicious. The good thing about this meal is that if the children don’t like it the adults will!

Kids Eggy Peggy Chicky Fried Rice

This recipe was born out of desperation and turned out pretty well. I had some left over roast chicken and some slightly moldy red pepper (Mmmm, yummy…) and just chucked it in with some other stuff I had lurking around. With all of my recipes, the veg and meat are pretty much interchangeable. If your child doesn’t like peppers then put something else in they’ll actually eat.

Ingredients

Chicken breast and leg diced (enough for however many kids you have)
One red pepper
A handful of peas
A handful of chopped mushrooms
One onion chopped
One garlic clove crushed
1 desert spoon of Thai fish sauce or reduced salt soy sauce
A good ol glub of Toasted sesame oil if you have it, sunflower or vegetable oil if you don’t
One egg.
Wok

Firstly, put your rice on to boil, then gently fry the mushrooms, onions and crushed garlic together in the oil until soft then put aside in a little bowl. Fry the chicken in the remnants of the oil and add the peas and peppers when the chicken is heated through or browned if fresh.

If your kids are anything like mine, then they hate anything remotely slimey like cooked onions or mushrooms, so what I do is use my hand blender to mush the garlic, mushrooms and onion together with a splash of water and the Thai fish sauce, then they don’t know they’re eating it. He he he…

Once you’ve made the sauce, put it aside and beat your egg, when it’s all mixed together, move the food in the wok to one side and tilt the wok so the food is on higher ground (if you know what I mean…?) pour the egg mixture into the lower part of the wok and make sure it’s over the heat, then stir the egg until it’s no longer liquid and mix in with the other ingredients. If the rice is ready then add it now. At this point you need to turn up the heat and add the sauce, making sure you stir constantly so the food doesn’t burn. Add the punch of salt, taste and if to your liking serve.

I have to say, I was very surprised to find the fish sauce in my food cupboard, it must have been left over from a Jamie Oliver recipe, but thank goodness it was, I usually use soy sauce for these types of meals but had run out!

Hope you like it!

Marscalicious Pasta

Marscalicious Pasta

As a student, I always used to love adding marscapone cheese to pasta because it was easy and tasty, so the other day I saw it on the shelf in Sainsburys and wondered why on earth I hadn’t used it in kids meals! Marscapone cheese is pretty calorific but currently Izzy is barely eating anything, Sam’s a beanpole and Maisie wont eat it anyway, so calories are just fine as far as I’m concerned.

Ingredients
A splash of vegetable oil
4 heaped desert spoons of Marscapone cheese
A hefty splash of semi skimmed milk
A handful per child of the kids favorite pasta shapes.
Approx 15 fennel seeds crushed
A meat of your choice (we used ham tonight, but chicken works really well too)
A green veg of your choice (we used broccoli but peas work well too)
Half a crushed garlic clove (that was in a portion for 3 kids)

Method
Heat the oil on a medium heat. Put your pasta on to boil. If you’re using raw meat then brown the meat, if you’re using a cooked meat then add the broccoli first to soften it and then add the meat. When the meat is cooked and the veg is soft then add the marscapone and stir. When the marscapone has melted down then add the crushed garlic and fennel seeds (fennel not compulsory if you havent got it!) and stir. Add enough milk so that the mixture is a good saucey consistency. When the pasta has boiled just add the pasta to the mixture and serve.

The only trouble with this meal is that it’s incredibly tempting for the hungry mummys who are doing the cooking… left-over snack alert!!!

Easy and Yummy Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I got the basics of this recipe from another blogger http://chuckandtaz.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/my-current-favourite-banana-cake-recipe/ but have “translated” it from American cup measurements to grams.

Ingredients

3 large mashed bananas
200g of dark brown soft sugar
60g butter (preferably soft and at room temperature so the mixture doesn’t curdle)
190g of self raising flour
2 tbls semi skimmed milk
1 egg (preferably at room temperature)
Half teaspoon of vanilla extract (small end of a Calpol spoon!)
50g chocolate chips

Method (italics – copied and pasted from http://chuckandtaz.wordpress.com/)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well combined. Add the rest, about half at a time and slowly mix or fold until just combined.

Pour the mix into muffin cases and cook for about 25-30 minutes,it said 15 mins on the original recipe but mine took loads longer. If you put the mix into a loaf tin instead then it could take between 40-50 minutes. Just occasionally check with a skewer to make sure the mixture inside is cooked.

Admittedly they look a little burnt, but they taste really good. All the kids joined in, even Izzy, (well sort of…)

Honey Chicken

Honey chicken, doesn’t actually have any honey in it but has golden syrup in instead. I call it honey chicken because my kids like honey and will assume it’s tasty. If you find this morally objectionable then feel free to call it “golden syrup chicken” instead! This should only take about 12 minutes, depending on how long your rice takes to cook.

So here’s what you’ll need:

Toasted sesame oil (just a splash)
Sunflower oil ( an even smaller splash to stop the sesame oil from burning)
A breast of chicken (this seems fine for my 3 kids)
Sweet corn
Broccoli
Golden syrup
Rice (enough for however many kids you have!)

So, firstly, put your rice on to boil. Then warm the oil and add the chicken which should be diced into small squares. When the chicken has browned then add the sweetcorn and the broccoli until they are soft. When they’re all cooked, squeeze some golden syrup over the food and stir. I don’t add much but do it to taste. When the rice has cooked then add the chicken to the rice and stir.

“Is that it?”‘ I hear you cry! Yes it freaking well is, ha!

Easy children-friendly recipes.

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via Easy children-friendly recipes..

Bang Bang Pig (a recipe, before you ask)

Bang bang Pig/Chicken

One pork medalian per child/two chicken mini fillets per child
5 or 6 breadsticks or three handfulls of cornflakes
One egg yolk
Splash of sunflower oil

This can be done with a tomato sauce and pasta or with chips/mash and veg. It’s quite fun to do with the kids if they enjoy getting involved. I try to keep them out of it if possible as I’m a control freak and have to shudder through their participation with a fixed grin and a strong gin.

Firstly crush your breadsticks or cornflakes until they’re the consistency of breadcrumbs. Lay out your pork medalians or chicken breasts on a flat surface and bash with the end of a rolling pin until flat, (kids love that bit). Once flat brush over egg yolk on both sides and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on both sides. Then just put a little splash of oil on a per-heated griddle and fry on about 4 mins each side until cooked through and brownish on the outside. Easy von peasy.