Hands on

Busy cooking

It seems we are too busy cooking to update our blog: recipes we have tried, tested and amended and for ever cleaning that patch under the high chair seems to have chewed up a lot of our time. We now have a backlog of photos to post and things we wanted to write about. Well, rather than stagnating, we will just keep posting as and when. If there happens to be some spare time, we will revisit the "to do" folder.

Busy eating

We've been getting a bit more adventurous with our veggie baby cooking. Not only do purees start feeling a little bit boring but it's time to get hands on. Finger foods have always been high on the "yes please" list, and with the monkey clearly wanting to get his hands dirty there is no denying it: Our baby is growing up and wants to start exploring grown up stuff. NB We do not throw food against the wall - he's not got that from us. Just sayin'.

Pancakes

Yesterday I made these lovely pancakes for the monkey. No difference to "grown up" pancake recipes, really. Just leave the refined sugar out. We added a tiny bit of maple syrup so it wasn't too dry. The recipe suggested fruit to go with it, but we didn't have anything more suitable than some pieces of pears. Doesn't look quite as exciting in our photo as it did in Annabel Karmel's cookbook but I guess we don't have a food photographer on standby, so excuse us ;) The veggie baby liked the pancakes but didn't quite eat enough so we ended up making a small portion of baby porridge to supplement.

Yummy pancakes with a drop of maple sirup

Risotto

For dinner it was time to cook again (after lunchtime was a case of feeding the monkey some leftover roasted veggies with pasta). Although the photo clearly isn't doing this recipe justice, it smelled and tasted superb. Oh and did it go down a treat? It sure did. Recipe again from Annabel Karmel's cookbook although we took some liberties with it.

Ingredients are
basmati Rice
tomatos
grated cheese
pumpkin
splash of maple syrup
mixed herbs
teeny bit of salt

I am not keen on going high on sugar, but because it tasted a tad too bland we added herbs, salt and maple syrup.

Pumpkin tomato risotto - WINNER!

That's it, baby. More updates soon.

Avocadotastic

While I am sorting the photos from last week's food here come little updates as and when...

This morning our monkey got a nice fruit packed breakkie:
one avocado
half a mango
half a cup of mixed frozen berries.

Full of vitamins, fruit sugar and good fats.

Usually I warm the frozen berries in a pot before blending. But because monkey has been teething I wanted to try them frozen. He enjoyed every cold mouthful. Luckily I made enough for tomorrow too. Yum. Lucky Veggie baby.

Veggie Baby break

Veggie Baby on holiday

The veggie baby is away on holiday with Anna. Not much good cooking going on while away – a mix of Mr Hipp and family cooking.

Meanwhile it's all in the planning at home. The books are out, recipes printed, plans made. The lentil bake was ready for the return of the monkey and went down well.

Planning, cooking, experimenting