Perfect Pizza

Perfect Pizza

 

 

 

It is not as hard as it sounds to make your own pizza, in fact the hardest part is leaving the dough to rise and then the frustration gets to me. I hate waiting (even if it is only 30 minutes) but it is healthier than shop bought or takeaway pizza, and costs a fraction of the price. This recipe cost a mere £3 to put into the oven, I also saved a huge amount of money that would have been spent on therapy, but instead I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes and got a lot of frustration and niggles out!

 

10 - 25 minutes Cooking time, up to 1 hour Prep time.

 

 

Meat Feast Version

 

Ingredients for Dough

 

• 300g Strong White Bread Flour
• 1 Sachet (7g) Fast Action Dried Yeast
• 1 tsp Table Salt
• 200ml Warm Water
• Oil for brushing the pizza tray

 

 

Ingredients For Toppings

 

 

Meat Feast:

• 50g Cooked Chicken in Strips
• 50g Cooked Bacon Chopped
• 2 Sausages Cut into 6 and then Halved
• 200g Mature Cheese
• 2 tbsp. Tomato Puree

 

 

Tuna & Sweetcorn:

 

• 60g of Drained Tuna Flakes
• 30g of Boiled Sweetcorn
• 200g Mature Cheese
• 2 tbsp. Tomato Puree

 

 

Four Cheese:

 

• 2 tbsp. Tomato Puree
• 50g Mature Cheese
• 50g Mild Cheese
• 50g Red Leicester Cheese
• 50g Edam Cheese (minus the rind of course)

 

 

Veggie Friendly:

 

• 2 tbsp., Tomato Puree
• 200g Mature Cheese
• 30g Sweetcorn
• 25g Red Pepper
• 25g Green Pepper
• 25g Chopped Mushrooms

 

The Not-So Nitty Gritty

 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 240 degrees. Sieve and mix the flour, salt and yeast into a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm water. Stir well until you have a slightly wet dough.
3. Lightly flour a work surface, turn out the dough onto the surface and knead well for 10 - 15 minutes. Once kneaded, replace in the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
4. After your 30 minutes has ticked by, knead the dough on a floured surface again for 5 minutes. Leave in the mixing bowl covered with cling film again, for a further 5 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough (with a rolling pin) until it fits your pizza tray, no matter how big or small it is, it will stretch. Before placing the dough in the tray, lightly brush with a small amount of oil.
6. Once you have fitted the dough to the tray, smooth on your tomato puree with the back of a metal spoon until evenly coating the dough.
7. Then apply your grated cheese, or cheeses! Then apply the rest of your toppings.
8. Place in the oven at 240 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. The dough may rise further. To check the dough in cooked properly, prod a knife into the crust nearest to you and see if it comes out clear, if it does, you are good to eat, if not, leave it in for another few minutes and test again.

 

 

 

Meat Feast Pre-Oven

 

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Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkins

 

So, it's getting close to Halloween and there are loads of pumpkins on offer but what can you do apart from carve them? Make a soup for seasonal meal times!

Pumpkins provide 170% of your daily vitamin A needs and 15% of your vitamin C needs. Impressive per 100g really, especially as it only contains 26 calories.

Pumpkins are great for adding fibre, colour, texture, taste and variety to yours and your family's diet.

The recipe I am about to show you makes 4 servings or so and cost me around £3 as I bought a very small pumpkin.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Soup

 

 

Ingredients

 

• 250g Pumpkin Flesh
• 200g Peeled and chopped carrots
• 300ml Chicken/Vegetable Stock (chicken stock turns out better)
• 300ml Blue Top Milk
• 4 Twists of Freshly Ground Black Pepper

 

 

The Not-so Nitty Gritty

 

1. Carve the pumpkin and chopped/peel the carrots first as this bit takes the longest. Remove the top and bottom of the pumpkin first and remove the excess 'stringy' flesh and seeds. Seeds can be dried as used later on as snacks. Remove the outer skin of the pumpkin and cut the flesh into thumb-size chunks.
2. Add the carrots, thumb size pumpkin chunks, stock, milk and pepper to a large pot. Bring to the boil and remain on the boil for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Reduce heat slightly and wait until the pumpkin and carrots are tender. This should take an extra 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Put in the food processor or blender until a smooth consistency is achieved.
4. Pour the soup out of the food processor and back in the pot to heat up, stirring well and serve!

 

 

It should go from this...

...to this....

...to this!

 

What Little Monster Made of it....

 

 

Well, first time with soup, didn't go as planned. The soup ended up the walls, over the toys, over me and the carpet ended up a new shade! But, He thoroughly enjoyed the bread dipped in the soup and was gobbled up quickly. We need soup practice!Very tasty and mummy and daddy really liked it too.

 

 

 

 

 



TTFN from Mummy's sleeping pumpkin!!!



Catering with those little mouths with GOR & GORD

GOR & GORD

 

   GOR and GORD are the two types of acid reflux that people can suffer with, and it is a lot more common in babies and children than I initially thought. So, here's where I find myself, I'm putting together a couple of recipes that rule out all the 'forbidden' food that could trigger reflux. Everyone's reflux has different triggers so to do something ruling out each one would have took forever! And as a busy mummy, I do not have forever, as I'm sure none of you lot do either! GOR is more common than GORD and can go on it's own. However, GORD is more serious and often needs monitoring and medication, even in babies. GORD is when the stomach acid leaks out of the stomach and into the oesophagus (the long tube that starts at the mouth and ends at the stomach).

   What I have picked up on my personal research into GORD is that most sufferers should avoid a high fat diet, avoid fizzy drinks, citrus fruits and choose white lean meat such as chicken, fish and turkey over red meat such as pork, beef and lamb.

 



Picture taken from a post on the living with reflux facebook page.

 

Farmhouse Pasta

 

Tyler is chowing down.

Ingredients:

• 30g turkey breast (£1 per pack, Iceland)
• 50g frozen baby carrots (carrot batons may be better) (£1 per pack, Iceland)
• 4 baby spinach leaves (£1 large pack, Asda)
• 20g dried penne pasta (69p, Asda)





The Not So Nitty Gritty Bit

 

1. Add the carrots and pasta to a pan of boiling water and leave for approximately 8 minutes.
2. I used pre-cooked turkey breast (lazy mummy day) so I sliced the chunks and cut the spinach and added to Tyler's favourite bowl (the pink one of course).
3. Drain pasta and carrots and add to the bowl.
4. Mix the bowl round a bit so your little one can't just see one block colour, they need stimulation to keep them interested.
5. Serve, too easy? Yeah I agree but Tyler liked it.

 

 

And what little monster thought.....

 



Yes mummy very nice but I personally would much prefer eating it off my legs right now.

 

Loved it, ate a bit of everything but had a lot left over, but this unfortunately is due to his health at the moment not the poor cooking standard, however, let me know how you get on with your little ones. No pasatta was included in this recipe as it's for GORD sufferers and tomato can aggravate reflux sometimes, so feel free to add it if your child is happy with the tomatoes.

 

Against the Grain Chicken and Roast Veg

 

 

It looks like a hot salad!

 

What You Will Need

 

• Quarter of a red pepper (on offer at 29p each, Lidl)
• Quarter of an aubergine (89p, Lidl)
• Quarter of a courgette (49p, Lidl)
• 5 green beans (99p for a large net bag, Lidl)
• 20g (can use less or non if vegetarian) of sliced chicken breast (£1 per pack, Iceland)

 

 

The Not-So Nitty Gritty Bit

 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, add a 1 calorie oil spray (as little fat as possible used for GORD sufferers) to a roasting tin or add oil if your baby is okay with it. Place the roasting tin in the oven to heat through. This allows the veg to cook quicker.
2. Wash all your vegetables thoroughly. Slice the pepper into thin strips, leave the green beans as they are and slice the courgette and aubergine into rounds.
3. Add to the roasting tin and leave in the oven for five to ten minutes, do not leave any longer as they can go very dry and if you wouldn't eat dry and hard veg, why give it to the little ones?
4. Make sure the chicken is not in pieces that are over-sized, adjust to your baby's stage of eating.
5. Add all to a plate and serve!

 

 

And What Did The Little Monster Think?

 

 

Well, as you can see from the pictures, orange squash was added to the recipe by Master Blakemore himself! I would not recommend.

 

Well, he liked what he actually ate but he is even more off his food today then he was yesterday. Although, he was not keen on green beans but he eats them in a stir fry? I don't understand my sons logic very much.





 

Other Recipe Ideas:

 

No pictures available for these, but when they are they will be on the feeding for the future facebook page.

www.facebook.com/feedingforthefuture

 

• Little Hands Stir Fry: 20g chicken breast, 1 nest of plain dried noodles, 5 green beans, 2 tbsp. of peas, 2 tbsp. chopped carrots and 10g of chopped red pepper. All in one big wok. Takes 5 minutes to cook. Shouldn't cost more than £1 per portion!
• Moroccan Style Chicken: 40g chicken breast, 15g roasted courgette, 5g Red Pepper and 3 tbsp. sweetcorn. Chicken should be cooked at 180 degrees for 40-50 minutes and always cover in foil to stop it going dry. This should cost no more than £1.50 per portion.
• Bread & Fish Dippers: white bread soldiers, white fish (cod, haddock, Pollock) steak cut into chunky strips (cooked according to instructions on packet or from fish monger) and a blended avocado dip (blend half an avocado with 1 tbsp. of butter).

 

Let me know how you get on with your little ones and send in the pictures, I like to know how you do yours differently too :)