Following on from the pork chop success, when I roasted some chicken pieces the other day, I thought I would try my luck on giving Austin a drumstick to try rather than cut up the flesh into little pieces. Bingo. He loved stripping the meat off, although I’m not convinced there was much chewing going on.
Greasy goodness
I never know what to do with leftover chicken after a roast. And then I remembered my Mum’s fail-safe ‘Chicken Risotto’. It’s not risotto, but it has rice in it and I always remember liking it. Gently fry some chopped onion, a few slices of chopped up bacon, mushrooms and then when cooked down a bit add the chicken, a bit of stock and cooked rice and cooked peas (I used basmati). Heat through well. Delicious!
Can I get this into my mouth?
While Austin was down for a long nap the other day, I thought I’d go mad and make a lasagne. I’ve never made a proper lasagne before, the only thing I didn’t make was the pasta. It was really tasty despite only using one low salt beef stock cube in a lasagne big enough for 3 family meals. And of course making it myself meant I could smuggle loads of veg in there- carrots, mushrooms, onions, and a pepper that needed using up. All you need is about 3 hours at home to do it!
Thought I’d do a traditional ‘meat and two veg’ the other day, and bought some juicy pork chops from the butcher. Austin hasn’t been getting on very well with meat recently, and as a result, I’ve been chopping his portion up into smaller and smaller pieces. Yet again, he was largely ambivalent to the fare I presented to him. In the end I thought ‘sod it’ and gave him the bone of my pork chop to see if he was interested. It still had quite a bit of meat on it, and he managed to completely strip it! I ended up cutting the bone off my husband’s chop to for him to chew on. He didn’t seem to notice.
Roaahhhh!
I recently stayed with my Mum, who’s got into the habit of having homemade soup for lunch. Austin LOVED it! So, inspired by that success, this week I made two different soups of my own. The first was a bit of a disaster since I managed to burn it. Yes, you heard right, burnt soup. I’d sauteed the onions, had added diced sweet potato, butternut squash and chicken stock and then thought “I know, I’ll lob in that half a bag of red lentils I’ve had for a while.” Went off to play with Austin and then came back about 20 mins later to find about a centimetre of black sludge stuck to the bottom of the pan. I managed to salvage the rest, scooping it out and adding a bit more stock. Thankfully it didn’t taste at all tainted, and it did go down ok with Austin too.
Sloppy goodness
Yes it’s messy, but it’s all part of the fun!
The second pic is of a subsequent, much more successful attempt. This is where soup really comes into its own. I did a carrot soup base, then chucked in the scooped out middle of a jacket potato and sweet potato that I had left over from dinner the night before, plus the remants of a bag of salad that needed using up (rocket, spinach and watercress leaves) before I whizzed it up with my stick blender. I also added a tin of kidney beans for protein. Souper healthy.
Feeds 2 adults & 1 toddler
Ingredients
Heat oil in a saucepan, sautee onions until going translucent, add garlic and gently fry for another minute. Add dried herbs (I also added a little ground black pepper and some paprika) then the mushrooms and courgettes and cook until starting to go soft. Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, stir cover and cook on a low heat for at least 30 minutes- 1hr. Meanwhile cook 175g of pasta of your choice. Add tuna to the tomato sauce just before you’re about to serve, stir through well, breaking up any big bits. Drain the cooked pasta and stir through into the tomato sauce. Finito!
Scratching my head today to think of something different to have for dinner tonight then, eureka! I’ve had some nice tinned tuna sitting the cupboard for ages- Austin having gone off them in sandwiches, then I remembered a simple meal I used to have a lot at University- Tuna Pasta Slop. Cook a tomato sauce, add tuna at the last minute and warm through, then mix with any cooked pasta that you fancy.
Austin loved it, I liked it, verdict not yet delivered from hubby, but I’d settle for 2 out 3!
