Productive day batch cooking baby food

As I mentioned in my an earlier post today, I intended to do some batch cooking of baby food today in order to build up a stock of meals for the baby for evenings when I needed them.  I am trying to give my baby finger foods, as per Baby Led Weaning, but it is not always possible for me to offer the baby some of the food that we have each night so I wanted to have some standby meals in the freezer for these nights. 

From the Annabel Karmel website, I made four of the recipes listed for babies between 6 and 9 months.  We had salmon, broccoli and potatoes for dinner this evening, so I prepared some extra salmon and broccoli to use in some of the recipes for the baby food.  This saved me a bit of time and meant I could offer the baby what we were having for dinner, adding the cheese sauce from Annabel Karmel's recipe.

As I frequently offer my baby finger foods I didn't puree the recipes I made to a paste as my baby is used to chewing.  I left them with some chunks in them by blending them for a shorter length of time or mashing elements of them and mixing them into the rest of the food. 

TIP  When making the cheese sauce for the Salmon, broccoli and cheese sauce recipe, I made extra sauce for freezing.  I will use this sauce for mixing into vegetables, meat, potatoes and pasta that we have for dinner.  This cheese sauce is also good for using in lasagna.

I haven't worked out the cost of these meals, but I am confident that they are much cheaper than buying jars of baby food.  As well as this, I know for a fact that they taste nicer than the food that was in the jars I bought recently as I tasted each recipe and I tasted some of the food that was in the jars. 

Grocery shopping - meal planner 31/1/2012 to 3/2/2012

Short week for the meal plan this week as we were away for a few days.  So, the plan for this week is as follows:-

Tuesday dinner - Salmon, broccoli and potatoes
Wednesday dinner - Stir fry
Thursday dinner - Chicken stew (from freezer) and mash
Friday dinner - Fish, chips and peas (all from the freezer)

For lunches I will be making the black bean and chorizo soup I made last week (I have all of the ingredients in), salad and ham sandwiches.

As I'm off on Tuesday (today - better get a move on!) I bought ingredients to do a load of batch cooking for the baby.  I will be making a few recipes from the Annabel Karmel website:-

• Salmon, broccoli and cheese sauce
• Salmon puree
• Chicken puree with carrots and apple
• Carrot puree with lentils and cheese

I'll be freezing these in portions to give to the baby in the evenings when I get in from work.  As well as this, I will be giving him some finger foods over the next week including strips of chicken, plum and ripe pear.

 This week I spent € 60.44 in Dunnes and just under € 10 in Superquinn.  This shop was a bit more expensive as I was picking up specific ingredients for the baby food, including some free range chicken breasts.  When we were away I had to by some jars of food to give to the baby for practicality reasons so I know that spending a bit extra on cheese and free range chicken breasts is still cheaper than buying jars of food for him.

Mmmmm...Chorizo! I think I like it too much!

So, looking back at my blog to date I think it's more than a little bit obvious that I like chorizo!  In fairness, I did get a good bargain on dried chorizo it at the start of the year, so had quite a bit of it in.  It's a great ingredient as it adds so much flavour to any dish and the dried chorizo keeps for ages in the fridge, so it's a handy stand-by ingredient to have in.

Anyway, I feel I will have to make a point of planning some dishes that don't include chorizo in the next few weeks (though I love it!) just to shake things up a bit!

My baby turned 6 months in the past week, so I am now able to introduce him to meat.  Over the next week I am hoping to start preparing a few more interesting meals for him that just the vegetables from whatever dinner the rest of us happen to be having.  So I will be thinking a bit more about preparing food for the family that can be easily given to the baby with some small adjustments.  So far the weaning has been going well with him not turning down anything.  Unfortunately the banana didn't seem to agree with him as he was sick everytime after eating it, so I have abandoned banana for now.  I will try introducing it to him again sometime in the future. 

Black bean and chorizo soup

At the start of the week I made a black bean and chorizo recipe from the Olive magazine in November 2010.

I have to say I give it a ten out of ten for taste!  I was a bit dubious about it as I have never cooked with black beans before.  Before Christmas I had got some dried black beans in for a different recipe that I never got round to making.  So I used them for this recipe. 

There was no cumin in my kitchen when I went to make the soup, so I just left it out.  Also, I couldn't find hot smoked paprika anywhere so just used ordinary hot paprika instead.  I have come across a few recipes that call for smoked paprika but I have never come across it in a shop.  If anyone knows where I could get this (in Ireland), then please post and let me know!  My mum has been on the look out for it for ages as well.

I doubled up the ingredients and managed to get 5 portions of soup for lunches out of the pot.  I think that this soup would also make a lovely hearty dinner.  Just serve with some bread.

TIP - Using dried beans instead of tins of beans can make the recipe a lot cheaper.  You need to remember to prepare them in advance though.  While off on maternity leave I say a brilliant tip from Rachel Ray for dried beans.  She suggested that you should rehydrate the beans, divide them into portions and then stick them freezer, ready for when you need them.  Then when a recipe calls for them, just take them out of the freezer and add them into the pot.  I haven't done this myself, but I think it's a brilliant idea and intend to do it in the future as it would be a real time saver.

Cost wise, I used 50 cent worth of chorizo, 2 peppers that cost 45 cent each, a red onion that cost 23 cent, a lime, which I think cost around 30 cent (my receipt has gone missing this week so I can not double check) and I will allow another 80 cent for the spices, vegetable stock cube, beans and 3 garlic cloves (this is just an estimate).  The total cost of the recipe was € 2.73.  That's 55 cent per portion.

Spicy sausage pasta

This is a quick and easy dinner that I used to make a while ago and had forgotten about.  I've adapted from WW recipe I got a few years ago.  This recipe serves 4, so I make it for dinner and we have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Ingredients
fry lite cooking spray
1 red onion, sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
crush chilli (to your own taste - I use lots!)
150g chorizo, thinly sliced
punnet of mushrooms (chestnut mushrooms are lovely in this dish if you can get them)
400g can of chopped tomatoes


Method

1. Cook the pasta according to instructions, drain and keep warm.
2. While the pasta is cooking, spray a large pan with fry-lite and fry the onion over a low heat until it starts to soften.
3. Add the sausage, crushed chilli, garlic and peppers, turn up the heat and fry for a further 3 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, mix well and fry for a further 3 minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the pasta to the pan and mix.  Bring back to a simmer and serve.

The cost for this meal is quite low.  The chorizo was € 1.50, the two peppers were 90 cent for both, the red onion was 23 cent, 66 cent for the can of chopped tomatoes,  23 cent for 250g of pasta and 99 cent for the punnet of mushrooms.  I've added on an extra 30 cent for the fry lite, crushed chilli and garlic.  The total cost is € 4.81.

As this was adapted from a WW recipe it is low in fat.  In the old points system (pre-pro-points) it was 4.5 WW points per serving.

Irish coddled pork with cider

On Sunday I made the Irish coddled pork with cider recipe from the March 2008 issue of the Goodfood magazine.  This recipe is for 2, so I doubled it and served the leftovers on Monday night.  It went down a treat, especially with my daughter who has recently decided she does not like cabbage - obviously she likes the taste of cabbage that has been cooked in stock and cider.  It is a brilliant way of increasing your vegetable intake for the day and is a lovely filling dinner for cold winter nights.

To make it I used one of the packs of smoked bacon medallions that I recently got on offer in Lidl for €1.49.  I used half a white cabbage (65 cent), a whole swede (89 cent), 4 carrots (50 cent) and 6 potatoes (estimated at about 90 cent).  The four pork loins that I used came as part of a deal I got in the butchers last weekend, so I have allowed € 5 for them.  I used Bulmers cider that I had left over from Christmas which I bought for 87p for a pint bottle (it was in a case of 8 for sale for £7 before Christmas), so I have allowed 50 cent for the Bulmers I used.  In total the cost was € 9.93, making it less than € 5 per meal.

To be honest I am pleasantly surprised at how much this cost as I thought that it was a lot more than this. 

TIP to lower fat - to lower the fat in this dish the first thing I would do is to grill the pork loins instead of frying them in butter in the pot.  I wouldn't use the butter in the recipe at all and would use spray some fry lite in the pot before adding the bacon and vegetables.  To further lower the fat you could leave the cider out, or use a 'light' cider such as bulmers light.  You could also use less potatoes and more vegetables.

Cream of scallion (spring onion) soup

Spring onions were on offer in Dunnes this week for 45 cent per bunch.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Cream of Spring Onion soup in a recipe book at home, so bought 3 bunches to make it.  I then set about the somewhat mammoth task of trying to find the recipe (note to self - must write down the name of the cookbook I see recipes I'd like to make in so that I can find them easier!).  Anyway, I eventually found the recipe yesterday and set about making it to have for lunch today.

It tastes quite similar to leek and potato soup, so if you like it you should like this.  The recipe is from 'The Soup Bible' published by Hermes House.  The recipe is as below.  I've added any alterations I made in brackets.  The recipe serves 4-6 people and can be served hot or cold.

Ingredients
25 g/1 oz/2 tbsp butter
1 small onion
150 g/5 oz/1.75 cups spring onions, chopped  (I used a bunch and half of the spring onions I bought in Dunnes)
225 g/8 oz potatoes, peeled and chopped
600 ml/1 pint/2.5 cups vegetable stock
350 ml/12 fl oz/1.5 cups single cream  (I didn't use this, so my soup was really just spring onion soup, not cream of spring onion soup!)
30 ml/2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to season

Step 1

 Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add all the onions.  Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 10 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the potatoes and the stock.  Bring to the boil, then cover again and simmer over a moderately low heat for about 30 minutes.  Cool slightly.
3. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor.  (I used my hand blender so didn't need to do the first part of step 4)
4. If serving the soup hot, pour it back into the pan.  Add the cream and season with salt and pepper.  Reheat gently, stirring occasionally.  Add the lemon juice.  (I don't add seasoning.  I put salt and pepper on the table and let each person season their own instead)
5. If serving the soup cold, pour it into a bowl.  Stir in the cream and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the bowl and chill for at least 1 hour.
6. Sprinkle with the chopped spring onion greens or chives before serving.  (I didn't bother with this)

TIP  To lower the fat of this recipe I didn't add the cream.  It was still tasty.  The fat content could be lowered even further by using fry lite instead of the butter.

Cost - Again, this is another recipe that was quite cheap to make as a result of the scallions being on offer in Dunnes.  I used a bunch and half in this recipe, so that's 68 cent.  The potatoes I had left over from a bag I had from a previous week, estimated cost 50 cent.  I had a lemon in already as I had bought a tray of 4 for €1 two weeks ago.  I used half of a lemon, so that is 12 cent.  The onion was leftover from a bag I got for 49 cent, so 6.5cent for it.  I've allowed 50 cent for the remaining ingredients, making the total recipe cost €1.86!

Obviously if I had added the cream this would have added quite a bit to the overall cost of the recipe, so omitting it kept the recipe under € 2 as well as lowering the fat.

Oven baked chicken, tomatoes and baby potatoes

This is one of my favourite meals to make on a Saturday where I just do the prep work and through the dish in the oven, checking on it every now and then.  It takes a while for the potatoes to cook in the oven, so you are best to leave it until a night are able to start dinner a bit earlier.  I have often adjusted the amount of this dinner I make and served it to anything from 2 to 7 people.

Ingredients
Chicken breasts - 1 per person
Baby potatoes - allow 250g per person
Cherry tomatoes - at least 250g (I always put in as many as I have)
Red onion - 1 or 2
Dried basil - as much as you like
Garlic cloves - I like garlic so usually have at least 3 cloves
Olive oil

Method

1. Turn on the oven - I use gas mark 7 for this
2. Wash the baby potatoes and cut them in half, or quarters (the smaller they are the quicker they cook).  Put them in a large roasting tin.  Drizzle with olive oil and put in the oven for 10 minutes to start them cooking.
3. Wash the cherry tomatoes.  Lift out the roasting tin and add the tomatoes to the potatoes.  Mix well and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
4. Prepare the red onion(s) by cutting into large chunks.  Slice or crush the garlic.  (NB. Crushing the garlic can sometimes result in it burning)  Remove the roasting tin from the oven and add the onion and garlic.  Sprinkle the dried basil (as much as you want) and give a good mix.  Add a bit more olive oil if needed.  Put back in the oven until the potatoes are almost soft.
5. Place the chicken breasts on top of the mixture and put the roasting tin back in the oven.  After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and turn the chicken breasts.  Mix the potatoes, tomatoes and onions under each chicken breast as you turn them.  Put back in the oven until the chicken is cooked.  Remove and serve.

This dinner is delicious hot or cold.  I sometimes serve with green beans or a side salad.  If I make it at the weekend I often leave a few of the potatoes, tomatoes and onions in a bowl and mix them through some scrambled eggs the next day for lunch.

You can use large tomatoes, but I have found that cherry tomatoes left whole are the tastiest way to make this recipe as they explode in your mouth when you put them in whole.  Yummy!  I always use the baby potatoes as I used large potatoes one day and I found that they went really mushy in the juice from the tomatoes and the olive oil.  While still tasty, it wasn't as mice as it is when made with baby potatoes.

TIP  If you want to make this mid-week you can speed up the time it takes to make by par boiling the potatoes before cutting them for 10 or 15 minutes.  Drain and then cut them before putting them on the roasting tray.  Dry them out in the oven for a minute before adding all of the rest of the ingredients, except the chicken breasts.  Put in the oven for 10 minutes before adding the chicken breasts to the top of the dish.

TIP  To lower the fat content in this meal, you can spray fry lite on the ingredients instead of using olive oil.  I have done this in the past and it has been fine, but you need to stir it more often to make sure the ingredients don't catch on the bottom.  I'd do a few sprays each time you remove the dish from the oven.  You might find it better to cut the tomatoes in half if you are using fry lite as more juice from them will go to the bottom of the roasting tin, helping to prevent the mix from sticking.

Cost - This dinner was quite cheap for me to make.  I used 3 chicken breasts at €1 each, 1 kg potatoes at 45 cent, 250g of cherry tomatoes 89 cent and red onion 23 cent.  I'll allow a further 30 cent for the basil, olive oil and garlic cloves, making the total for this meal €4.87.  It served 3