Food/ Recipes – Page 3 – Create You Coaching

Versatile Meatballs

It has been a few days since I last posted, to be honest it has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The reason I am making mention of this is because we are all being put into situations out of our comfort zone and it helps to know that you are not alone at this time; even if you technically are. You will have ups and downs but don’t let the downs consume you. I committed to do yoga today and make time for my writing, as I know those things will lift my spirits.

We all need to plan at the minute, this will also reduce some anxiety or stress that you may be experiencing. I have drawn on some of the food prep we did before having the twins. In the weeks before going into labour I made a huge batch of meatballs and froze them, 50 meatballs in total. You can use them with tomato sauce and pasta, with noodles for an Asian twist or in a wrap with houmous. I mean there are probably more you can do but the above ideas demonstrate their versatility.

Ingredients:

Pack of Mince (we use Turkey or Pork, but you can use Beef in you prefer)	Honey
1 Small – Medium Onion finely chopped	Soy Sauce (Reduced salt or regular)
1 slice of bread soaked in milk	Sesame oil
Fresh or dried parsley finely chopped	Coriander leaves
Paprika	Sesame seeds black and white
I didn’t add more spices, but you can add some cumin, graham masala	Dried Chilli flakes
Broccoli florets and carrot ribbons	Pepper

Cupboard condaments in the right column

This is a very straight forward recipe; feel free to add other flavors with spices or garlic powder if you prefer. You can also add some hidden vegetables such as red pepper, carrots or spinach. These are for the entire family and we will be using them in different meals so I kept it simple for us.

Method:

Add all the ingredients together in a bowl; the mince, bread, paprika, teaspoon of sesame oil and soy sauce and grind of pepper. We didn’t add salt as there is plenty of flavour without it and the glaze we used for the adult meal was salty enough. Mix it all with your hand until combined. I set it in the fridge until I had time to make the balls while Aria and Austin ate later in the day.

When forming the balls, I did a mixture of coating my hands with olive oil but then also wet them with water during to keep the meat from sticking to my hands. Take a spoon and scoop an amount that you are happy with and try keep it the same throughout. Ours were about the same as a 50p coin in diameter.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, this reduces the amount of washing up and the balls will not stick to the tray. I also did a light spray of non-stick but that is not strictly necessary. Place your balls on the tray as you shape them, we chose to cook them all before freezing but you can also cover the tray with cling film and freeze them before bagging them up. With the babies we often need the food quickly so heating them through in a pan once defrosted works better for us.

*Meatballs once I had turned and drained the liquid halfway through cooking*

Heat the oven to 190 degrees and cook for 15minutes, I turned mine and drained/ dried the juices halfway through, so they weren’t too wet. When it was the babies time to eat, I warmed them in the microwave and served with broccoli and Potato wedges. Confession a little bit of tomato sauce is a tasty treat now they are a bit bigger.

We made our dinner later and flash fried them in a pan to warm through. Put a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce and honey and chili flacks in a small pot and reduce till it becomes a sticky glaze, I rolled the balls in that and set them aside and mixed pre-prepared wholewheat noodles through the remaining glaze. Serve this with stir-fried carrots and broccoli or just plain. Top the noodle with our glazed meatballs and garnish with coriander and sesame seeds. It was super delicious and quick to prepare one the babies had gone to bed.

Red Pepper Pasta

Last week I read that red peppers are a great source of Vitamin C. I decided to buy a large bag for £1.45 so we had plenty in to use to prepare healty meals. You can expect to see this sweet, fresh vegetable appear in quit a few of my recipes.

Ingredients:

500g Pasta Adults	Mixed Herbs
50g Pasta Babies	1 Garlic Clove
½ Punnet of mushrooms	Pepper and salt to taste
1 Red Pepper	Hand full of spinach ca
1 Medium Onion	Chorizo & Rocket to garnish
4 Spoons of Cottage cheese, great Protein
1 Aubergine cubed and roasted

I fried my peppers first as I like a nice char on them, you can use any oil you like but I use olive (not virgin). When they are the colour you like and a little soft place them in a bowl and set aside. Now fry your onion( add salt here if you want), I like using oil and then adding a little butter, when they are ready add you mushrooms and little nob of butter, herbs and a grind of black pepper. Optionally you can add the spinach now to wilt

Above is all the steps including the blended veg and cottage cheese.

At this point I stopped and just before the children’s dinner time I made a small portion for them, but you can do it all at the same time. Combine all the veg and cottage cheese in a blending jar, I added a splash of whole milk, so it blends easily. Reserve the pan you used to fry everything.

Boil your pasta, we used spaghetti, and drain once it is cooked. Set aside some of the cooking water. Place your drained pasta in the pan you fried everything in add 2-3 spoons of the sauce you prepared and cooking water till it combines well.

I cooked some Chorizo and it went too far and was crispy but turned out to be a great topping. We also grated some Parmesan, but it really didn’t need it as the flavours are intense enough without. Let me know if enjoy the recipe, put your own spin on it, this was only one combination.

Packed Baked Beans

Named such because they are much more interesting than the version from a can but also packed with nutrients. This one is straight forward; it’s one of my ‘throw it all in a pot’ and simmer ones. Ill break it down a bit, but at its care that is all it is. Double the recipe if you want to freeze some, as I guarantee you will want some for your lunch and I found that one tin wasn’t enough.

Ingredients:

Tin of haricot beans	2 tsp Tomato paste
Baby spinach finely cut (½ hand fulls)	1 Tbsp BBQ sauce
Small onion finely diced	Pepper, salt to taste
¼ punnet of mushroom	1 teaspoon paprika
300ml water, this is not exact, judge how much you need	Pinch of thyme
Grated cheese and yogurt

Method:

Fry off the onion in a bit of oil, once brown and soft add a small nob of unsalted butter and add the mushrooms. Once they are cooked add the beans, spices, herbs, water and spinach. The beans are sometimes a bit hard straight from the can, I checked mine and decided how much water I’d need.

This is wahat it looks like once you have added the herbs, spices, spinach and water.

Now add the tomato paste and BBQ sauce and simmer, I had to add a little more water and reduce for 10 minutes on a simmer. You are looking for the consistency in the image below if it is still a bit watery reduce more. I mashed the beans slightly and then added cheese and yogurt for the children.

For my lunch I topped a bag of rice & quinoa with cheese and the beans with a dollop of yogurt. Very delicious!!! Just waiting for the energy boost. If you have coriander you can top it with some or some avocado on the side. Put your own spin on it.

Thai Pork Mince

This is a delicious recipe that is so easy you can prep it while babies eat a snack and the key is that it can stand this your guest arrive or your husband gets home. One pack of mince makes 2 portions for the babies and one dinner for my husband and I. you can do half and half and have a smaller dinner and freeze more for more children meals.

The final dish, garnished with cariander and sesame seeds

I can’t actually remember where this one came from but it is definitely inspired by soy and Thai basil pork mince dish we ate and loved in Thailand when we went there in 2017 and improvised a little to make it work for the entire family. The image shows the condiments we use but it just what we have in and can be substituted.

Ingredients:

Pork mince (you can substitute with turkey or chicken if you prefer)	Fish sauce
½ a Red and green pepper	Reduced salt soy sauce
4 Spring onions chopped (you can use any onion here)	Thai green curry paste, to taste
Washed spinach shredded/ finely chopped	Peanut butter optional
Optional ½ grated carrots	Sesame seeds
Chopped coriander	Coconut oil
½ can of Coconut milk	Lemon grass if you have any
	Thailbasil if you have this it will be delicious

Method:

Fry the spring onion in the small pan and the peppers in a larger pan using coconut oil, you can use any oil you have here. Once the onion and peppers have chard slightly and soften separate a little into the child’s pan and a larger amount into the larger adult’s pan. I blended the onion and peppers as the babies don’t much like eating pieces of pepper and it integrates nicely into dish then too.

Once you have fried the onion and pepper blend it with a handblender before adding your currypaste, this step is optional

Now add the curry paste to each I used my tiny teaspoons as seen on the chopping board. One un-heaped for the child’s portion and two heaped for the adults, you can add more but it is more for flavour than heat. Stir till they become fragrant and add the mince ¼ for the child’s portion or 50/50 if you want to freeze some portions. Brown off the mince and add the spinach at this point to wilt.

Use a seperate small pan for the children so you can add less curry paste

Once the mince is cooked add the coconut milk and flavour the adult portion with fish sauce and soy and the children’s just with a little soy sauce. Add coriander to taste but save some for the top of your dish, I only added a tiny amount for the children so they can get used to it, but it is a strong flavour for them. If you are only serving this later, I stopped cooking it now and just brought it back up to heat and reduce before serving. If you are eating it straight away added a teaspoon of peanut butter and reduce, taste and serve when you are happy. We serve ours with rice, Thai rice or basmati but what ever you enjoy or have in is fine. Garnish with coriander leaves and sesame seeds. Enjoy!!!

Veg bake for the whole family

The thing that has been the trickiest for us is making food for the babies that we can also eat. We need flavor and so do they to get used to eating food that is not just bland. As we have twins it needs to be easy for me to prepare whilst on the move or they are eating their lunch.

So, I did this yesterday and it worked a treat and was something I have never tried before. I hope you like it let me know.

Easy vegatable bake

Ingredients:

Vegatable base Sauce

1 medium onion	1 medium carrot -grated
Red pepper and green chopped	250 ml Passata
½ punnet of mushroom cubed	2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 sweet potato chopped	Mixed herbs
Cubed Butternut 1 cup (more if you like)	1 Garlic clove – minced
Smoked, paprika, pepper	Teaspoon Worchester sauce

Method:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cut all your vegetables into 1.5cm pieces, cover in a couple glugs of olive oil. Sprinkle in spices of choice, I used a roast vegetable mix and pepper. I also added smoked paprika and a little graham masala just to lift it. Roast for 25minutes and stir and leave a further 20minutes or until the veg have some colour and are cooked.

While the veg is roasting fry off the 2 tbsp of onion with some olive oil for 2 minutes then add the carrot and some mixed herbs and fry for another 2 minutes. Once the carrot has changed colour add the passata, Worcestershire sauce and something sweet I used carob maple syrup just to balance the tomato sauce. Add salt if you want.

Once the veg is ready remove from the oven and add the sauce mix through. Sprinkle with cheese and back for a further 20mins till brown, grill if needed. If you are only eating it later only sprinkle cheese once cool and keep in the fridge.

Tip I split the children’s and ours and sprinkled some chili on ours. Serve with couscous or mix through pasta or on a toasted ciabatta or sour dough bread. This is rather rich so for the children I also mixed some yougurt through with the couscous. Enjoy! Let us know how it works for you!!

Shrove Tuesday/ Flipping pancakes

The idea behind the entire concept is use everything in your cupboard so that it is bare for the Lent fasting. It is fine if you just like pancakes, you are not actually forced to fast if you partake.

In South Africa we like making pancakes a lot! When it’s cold, rainy weather, at church fetes or if your children just demand pancakes. We also don’t have sugar and lemon, don’t hate on me now please. We mix cinnamon and sugar and layer the pancakes covering them as you make them to melt the sugar and make a syrup. It’s amazing but I am still working on my husband who is British, don’t mess with a Brits tradition.

We also do savory as the pancakes make up the entire meal. Normally there is a cheese variety, you sprinkle the cheese in the pancake and roll them up as you make them, stack them so the cheese is melted and gooey. I couldn’t just give my babies cheese and sugar, right? So I made a few for them with a few more food groups.

Follow the mince pancake:

Ingredients: For quantities go on your own palate or that of your children

Pork mince (use any you like here Beef, chicken, turkey, it matters not we just adding protein)
Onion finely chopped ( small cubs not minced)
Coriander seeds and/ or ground cumin
Graham masala
Dijon mustard
Frozen peas, defrost or microwave for 2 minutes

Method:

In a pan toast the coriander seeds and bash in a pestle and mortar
Add some cooking oil of your preference, we use olive oil for this and fry off your onions
You can add finely chopped carrots, peppers or mushrooms here if you desire, we are keeping it simple
Now add your spices and fry for 1 minute or less till fragrant, add your mince and brown
Put a teaspoon of mustard and stir
Lastly add your peas, I like to squash mine, so they digest easier
Season with pepper, I do not add salt to their meals

I made our pancake batter earlier while the children were napping and just added the vinegar and baking powder 25minutes before cooking and left the mixture out the fridge.

Once you have flipped the pancake and it looks well cooked flip it back as the first side should be on the outside (this step is not needed just how I was taught). Sprinkle your cheese and then mince mixture and a few peas if you didn’t add them before. Now slide the pancake onto kitchen roll and roll up by hand.

A tasty alternative is to mash roasted butternut or sweet potato and layer that with cheese and roll up. I am sure everyone will love it not just the babies.