Picnic on a Plate

How difficult do you find it to coerce the wee ones into eating vegetabley goodness? Whatever happened to the days of pureeing everything up & cunningly disguising the good stuff in a mush of rice or porridge?

Sometimes I find it incredibly taxing - "Eurrgghh, I don't liiiiiike iiiit!" YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TRIED IT! - but I've found an incredibly simple trick that works for us.

We call it our Picnic on a Plate & sometimes we even eat it with our legs crossed on the floor! It consists of whatever veg is to hand, some fruit too, maybe a sandwich or some breadsticks with dips, a yoghurt or jelly on the side if we are really lucky & a hard boiled egg always goes down a treat too!

The trick works better if we are sharing (she tries to eat more up before I scoff the lot) & we try different combinations, build carrot stick castles (okay so playing with your food only works if supervised!) & take our time, but inevitably it all goes down the right way!I can't wait 'til baby girl is old enough to join in with us too, the beauty being that as soon as they're on proper solids it can be a part of their diet!

Yum yum! Happy Monday all!

Late Night Crumbling

After a day of horrendous suffering that lethal agony that is the Man Flu (yes ladies, I do let the side down, a thousand apologies!) come the evening I was feeling a little perkier & a little peckish.. Okay, more like ravenous (what?! I had been suffering & can't go for more than a few hours without at least a snack!) & so, foraging thru the sparse supplies in the fridge I happened across some blueberries which were in desperate need of consumption ("EAT US, EAT US!!") however blueberries alone weren't going to cut it for a girl who hadn't eaten in oohh, what...4 hours?!

My immediate thought was "Get your muffin on!"
A quick rummage later & alas, no muffin cases.
There was only one thing for it: EMERGENCY CRUMBLE

3 x Dessert Apples - check
2 x Handfuls Blueberries - check
Little Knob (Steady!) of Butter - check
1 x tbsp Sugar - check
1 x tbsp Muscovado Sugar - check
1/2 x tsp Cinnamon - check
Dash of Nutmeg - check
Looking good! & the crumble topping?
4oz Flour - check
2oz Oats - check
3oz Butter - check
3oz Sugar - check

STOP! Crumble time...

Firstly, I heated the sugars & butter until all the sugar was dissolved & then wapped in my apples (chopped into smallish sized chunks) & the spices, cooking until evenly coated in the sticky stuff & ever so slightly tender. It's best if you do it in a frying pan but for the purposes of making as little washing up as possible (but ultimately just being a massive faff) I did mine in a tiny saucepan.

 

Then I just chucked them in a bowl with the uncooked blueberries on top & a bit more sugar for good measure.

Then the topping. You can easily make plain with 4oz (100g) flour & 2oz (50g) butter & 2oz (50g) sugar but I like the extra wholesomeness of oats in there too. Either way rub in the butter & flour until it looks like a crumble topping, then stir in the sugar & oats, if using.

Wang it on top, stick it in the oven, medium heat, for 25 mins, until nice & golden brown.

Take out when done & eat with whatever you fancy. In my case, straight from the bowl! Wait until the hubby [or wife] gets home (or if you are lucky enough not to have an other half then scoff it all yourself) & see the suspicious look on their face when they see the crumble waiting for them!

 

Easy as Pie...er...no, Easier than Pie!

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