Hidden veg tomato sauce

A brilliant versatile sauce that will help you get lots of scrum my veg into even the pickiest of vegetable Dodgers!! You can add any veg you want and any quantity but I used – 

Carrots

Mushrooms

Sweetcorn 

Leek 

Turnip

Cabbage 

Onion 

Tinned tomatoes
Directions-

Chop all your veg and add to a pan

Cover with boiling water with a stock cube dissolved in it, your own stock or premise veg stock. Bring to the boil and simmer until all beg is cooked. Drain (you can keep this and freeze it in portions for stock another time.

Return the veg back to the pan and add a tin of tomatoes and some tomato purée. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes again.

Chuck the lot in a food processor with some garlic purée and some mixed herbs. Whizz until smooth 🙌🏻🙌🏻 

    
   

Peanut butter honey pancakes

Basic pancake (drop scone) recipe. These are thicker than traditional ‘pancakes’ and you can get about 3 a time in the frying pan. Fry in butter or coconut oil for best results 
130g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder 

1 egg

150-160ml milk
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and you have your mix. You can add literally anything to this mix – your imagination is your only limitation!! Today I added a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter and a table spoon of runny honey – Delish!!! 

Add a table spoon sized portion for each pancake (drop it off the rounded end and your pancakes are more circular) 3 at a time to a med-high preheated non stick pan with either coconut oil or butter in.
Fry on one size until you see bubbles  forming at the side, flip and fry again for a minute or so.

You can flip again if they’re not golden brown.
These freeze really well if you manage not to eat them All!! reheat in the toaster

I served these with some Sweet Freedom Choc Shot sauce (refined sugar free) and they went down a treat!  

 

Refined sugar free jam

I swear I’ve not bought jam in MONTHS since I found out about this jam. It is so quick and easy to make and you can also add chia if you like for extra nutritional value. I used blueberries for this particular one but I like raspberry too and strawberry. I usually just chuck the ingredients in but I’ve measured today for the recipe. You can mess about with the amounts it’s not an exact science by any means! 

Ingredients-

150g soft fruit

80-100g liquid sweetener (sweet freedom, agave nectar, maple syrup, honey) 

That’s it!!

Rinse the blueberries and put them in a pan

  
Add the sweetener I used sweet freedom because it’s made from 100% fruit

   
 
Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10-12 minutes until it’s thickening up

   
   
That’s it! Pop it in a jar to cool then store  in the fridge for about 3-4 days. You can also stir in a tablespoon of chia seeds before you put in the jar. This is honestly lovely and you’ll never want shop bought again!! X

Mushroom strudel

My #instaweanteam challenge this week was MUSHROOMS and I wanted to try something different so I had a look at http://www.justaddmushrooms.com and they (obv!!!) had some great ideas. I decided to give mushroom strudels a bash and I’m so glad I did – they are Delish!!! Don’t get me wrong- it is pretty time consuming all the chopping that’s involved but it was well worth it!! Directions copied from the justaddmushrooms website:

Ingredients- 

1 stick celery, very finely chopped

½ red pepper, de-seeded and very finely chopped

10ml (2 teasp) oil

2 cox’s apples, peeled, cored and diced            

30ml (2 tablesp) lemon juice

350g (12oz) closed cup mushrooms, sliced

125g (4oz) vegetarian blue vein cheese, crumbled

15ml (1 tablesp) chopped fresh basil

4 sheets filo pastry

75g (3oz) butter, melted  

75g (3oz) fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

  
Method

Heat oil in a pan and cook celery and red pepper for two minutes.  

Drain and cool.  

Put diced apple into a bowl with the lemon juice to stop the apple from going brown.

Mix mushrooms, cheese and basil together in another bowl. 

Lift apple out of lemon juice and drain. Stir apple into mushroom mixture with the cooled celery and red pepper. 

  
Brush a sheet of filo pastry with a little of the melted butter then fold in half to give a rectangle 23x28cm (9×11”). Brush the top of the pastry with more butter, and then sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top.  

Place a quarter of the mushroom mixture down two-thirds of the pastry. Starting at the shorter edge, and at the end where the mushroom mixture is, carefully roll up pastry to form a sausage shape. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  

   
   
Repeat with the remaining pastry and mushroom mixture to make four strudels. Brush strudels with melted butter and sprinkle remaining breadcrumbs over the top. Bake in the oven, (180º C, 350º F, Gas no 4) for 30 minutes

  

   
 

Strawberry and vanilla muffins

Toddler is earning her keep (start them young 😂😂) today by making her own breakfast for tomorrow!! Strawberry and vanilla #refinedsugarfree muffins. 
🍓Ingredients – 
🍓150g plain flour

🍓1tsp baking powder 

🍓2 tablespoons honey (NO HONEY BEFORE 12 MONTHS)

🍓150g strawberries 

🍓100g butter (or 150g butter and no applesauce)

🍓50g applesauce

🍓2 eggs

🍓1tsp vanilla extract
🍓Directions-

🍓Preheat oven to 200c

🍓Cream the butter 

🍓Whisk the eggs separately then combine the two with the honey and apple sauce.

🍓Add the vanilla 

🍓Combine the flour and baking powder and mix with the wet mixture 

🍓Stir in the strawberries 

🍓Divide the mix between 9 muffin cases and bake for 20-22mins.
Scrummy breakfast or pudding 😍😍

  

Chocolate avacado pudding

I forgot about this little beauty!! An easy way to sneak veg into your little monkey 🙌🏻🙌🏻
✨ingredients-

✨1/2 ripe avacado 

✨1 ripe banana

✨1 tablespoon peanut butter 

✨1 tablespoon honey

✨3 tablespoons cocoa powder 

✨1 teaspoon vanilla 

✨splash milk 
✨directions – 

✨chuck it all into a food processor and whizz until smooth – it’s that easy 🙌🏻 

    
You can also freeze it and serve in a cone as chocolate icecream 😍😍😍

 

Ham and lentil soup

Winters here guys!! And I’m made up! I love winter and it’s so easy to get more healthy veg into your little ones when you can whip up casseroles and SOUPS! This is a recipe from my Aunty Marian – she used to cook it for us for tea when we were younger and it’s AMAZING!! 

You can pretty much add any veg you like but this is my recipe – 
Ingredients –

Gammon/ham joint – unsmoked

Turnip

Carrots

Potatoes 

Red split lentils

Onions

Leeks

Cabbage

Directions- 

Boil the gammon until cooked with the lentils. (I can’t be more specific as it depends on the size of your joint. I like to bring to the boil and simmer for a few hours, topping up the water to make the meat soft and easy for the girls)

When cooked remove from the water – scraping off the lentil and chop into pieces. Return to the pot.

Add to the pot of water all the chopped veg. You won’t need any seasoning at all as you will have the salt from the joint.

Bring to the boil and then simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

Either  serve with crusty bread or freeze into portions for a quick and healthy tea later on. 
  

Trail mix banana

A dead easy idea for breakfast, snack or pudding!
Slice a banana

Cover with peanut butter and trial mix – et voila!  

 

Raspberry peanut smoothie

Really quick and easy smoothie – can be served in a nomnom kids pouch or as a smoothie bowl. 
Honestly these pouches are amazing!!! I’m really impressed so far 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Ingredients-

8 raspberries

3 tablespoons Greek yogurt

1tsp smooth peanut butter

1tsp agave nectar 
Directions-

Smoosh up with a veg masher or in a food processor and serve 😍😍

  

Healthy chocolate pizza

🍕🍕🍫🍫Healthy chocolate pizza!!🍪🍫🍕🍕
🍕🍫Ingredients –
🍫1 mini tortilla 

🍫Homemade #refinedsugarfree Nutella

🍫Trail mix (nuts seeds dried fruit)

🍫Choc chips 

🍫Mini marshmallows – chopped

🍫Sprinkles 
🍕🍫Directions-

🍕Warm the Nutella slightly (either microwave or hob)

🍕grill the plain tortilla on each side for a couple of minutes just to make it slightly crispy (don’t over do this)

🍕Cover the base with the Nutella

🍕Sprinkle on the rest of the ingredients

🍕Cut into pizza slices and serve

🙌🏻🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍫🍕🍕🍫🍕🍕🍫🍫🍕