family friendly – Create You Coaching

Apple Pie for the family

We have been ordering the Oddbox vegetables lately and it is such a joy to receive a box of treats to use in your cooking. We do not plan our menu around it, but we always make full use of it, this recipe came about because we got some lovely large apples in a box that we needed to use. I need to give some thanks to Diethood as I searched Pinterest for a recipe and theirs seemed healthy and tasty, perfect for the entire family! Now heat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius and start your prep.

Ingredients:

Filling	Oat topping
2 – 3 Apples, Granny Smith but any will do	1 cup plain flour
Half Lemon juiced	1 cup rolled oats
1 Tbs plain flour	1 cup light brown sugar
¼ granulated sugar	1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon	½ teaspoon baking powder
1 can of peaches	1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ – 1 cup of raisins	1/8 tsp salt
	½ cup of butter, melted
	1 tsp vanilla essence

Roughly peel and chop 2-3 large apples disposing of the core, cover with the lemon juice this prevents browning. Put a knob of butter in a pot and melt once bubbling add the apples and sugar, stir well. Add the water and a tsp of cinnamon to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime, open the canned peaches rinse them under the tap and chop into pieces. With 10minutes simmering left add the chopped peaches and raisins and stir let it simmer for the remainder of the time.

Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt and mix until they are well mixed. Whisk the vanilla into the melted butter and combine into the oat mixture, set aside until you need it.

You can see the consistancy of the filling in the above picture

Once the filling is ready, add 1 tbs of plain flour and ½ tsp of cinnamon into it and tip it into a baking tray and top with the oat topping. Place it in your preheated oven 40- 45 minutes and once it is done let is stand for 15 – 20 minutes and enjoy with a scoop of icecream or whipped cream!

Packed Baked Beans: Version 2

We are adapting the original because we don’t have spinach or mushrooms today. I am surprised I didn’t put carrot in the original actually! This one can work for breakfast, lunch or dinner just add an egg or a baked potato to switch it up.

Ingredients:

1 Tin of haricot beans	2 tsp Tomato paste
1 Carrot grated	1 Tbsp BBQ sauce
1 Small onion finely diced	Pepper, salt to taste
¾ Can chopped tomatoes	½ – 1 teaspoon paprika
Splash of water if needed	Mixed herbs
Grated cheese and yogurt	½ teaspoon Garam Masala

Method:

Fry off the onion in a bit of oil, once brown and soft add a small nob of unsalted butter and add the carrots and garlic. Once they are cooked add the beans, spices, herbs, and canned tomatoes. The beans are sometimes a bit hard straight from the can, I checked mine and decided how much water I’d need. Simmer all for 10 minutes.

Add your garlic with your carrots to avoid it burning

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.

You can add a bit of chilli at the end if you are having it on a baked potato for dinner yourself.

Golden curry our way

During these times it is more prevalent but should always be applied. Use what you have, adapt the recipes, and do not fear, just consider what can be interchanged with what. I saw the video for this one and loved the idea and convinced myself that Nigella used green peppers, they were green chilli. That is fine we ended up using yellow and orange peppers and added a hint of chilli at the end after a ladle was removed for children meals.

Ingredients:

1 Green Pepper (or whatever colour)	1 tsp Ground turmeric
150g of shallots cubed or 1 small/medium onion	2 tsp Tamarind paste
25g Fresh ginger	Pinch of salt
1 Lemongrass stalk	Coconut oil or alternative
400 ml Coconut milk	Chilli
1 egg per person	Rice to serve or flatbread to dip
2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped	Spring onion, onion seeds & crispy onion to serve

Method:

Blend the peppers, garlic, onion, and ginger with a stick blender. I added the turmeric and stir through. Heat the oil in the pan and add the paste and lemon grass and fry for 5 minutes until cooked. Add the coconut milk and bring to boil and then simmer for 7 minutes until reduced, thick, and golden. At this point I removed a large ladle of the curry and set aside for the children.

*I chopped some of the lemongrass heart to belnd with the paste to really get that flavour through.*

By mixing through steamed frozen peas and a grated carrot and mixing with rice, a teaspoon of yogurt and half the sauce set aside it made 2 meals for our twins, so 4 if you have one baby. Once the babies’ portion is removed add chilli to taste, when you are ready to eat bring the curry back up to boiling break 2 eggs in and cover to steam. About 2 minutes for a soft egg but just keep an eye on it and cook as desired.

We have a rice cooker, so we put the rice on 20 minutes before we need it. I scooped it out with a bowl for a dome. Chop the green of spring onion finely and plate; first the rice then ladle the egg and curry sauce over that and top with the garnishes as per the image. A drizzle of siracha was a lovely touch and for not a lot of work you have a flavour explosion.

Tuscan mince and ricotta filled pasta

We bought large pasta shells because I insisted that they look luxurious and would be great for a dinner party. They have been in the cupboard since the start of lockdown, their time had come. It is much easier than the images and recipe list would suggest, give it a try it is a nice treat and feels a bit like you went to an restaurant in Siena.

Mince of choice	Rosemary 2 sprigs chopped
1/2 tub of ricotta	Mixed herbs
¼ – ½ Chorizo chopped into small cubes	1 tbs fennel seeds toasted and ground
1 onion chopped	1 tsp ground cumin
500g Pasta (If you don’t have the large use any)	Black olives roughly pulled apart
Sundried tomatoes- not a necessity	Black pepper and salt
3 cubes frozen spinach defrosted or fresh	Chilli flacks
Preparade Tomato sauce	Lemon zest of 1 lemon

The chili flakes here were added to the tomato sauce for the adult portion

Fry your onion in a bit of oil, I added a pinch of salt at this point once translucent add the garlic but drop the heat. I forgot to toast my fennel so move the onion and garlic to the side and did it in the same pan; see in the image below. This happens to me a lot and I am not one to dirty and pan unnecessarily. Add the mince to brown, after about 2 minutes add the herbs; Mixed herbs, fennel, cumin and 1 sprig of rosemary. Add the defrosted spinach and half of the chopped chorizo, fry until the meat is cooked and has a nice colour. You could add more salt at this point, we jsut added a pince once I had removed the childrens portion.

Toast your fennel in the same pan if you forget

Remove from the heat and add the Ricotta and lemon zest stir until it is well incorporated. I added a piece of sundried tomato while assembling but you can just add a handful of chopped pieces now and mix through. Cook the pasta as directed on the packaging, drain and cover with some olive oil. This can be done during the cooking process or after depending on when you want the dish to be ready. I cooked the filling in the afternoon and set it aside to cool and kept it in the fridge until I needed it for the children’s dinner.

Once the pasta has cooled down a little you can start assembling, but first put a layer of your tomato sauce on the bottom of the oven dish. Now start filling and I even think this could be fun for the littles ones if they were a bit older. I put the rest of the chorizo in the bowl with the cooled down mince and just spooned a little with each scoop. Then place them on the sauce in a woven like pattern so you can fit the largest quantity of shells in the dish.

Top the dish with the olives and cheese and top with the chopped Rosemary to finish. What you will get is warm, comforting Tuscan flavours that brings the Mediterranean sun right into your home. We made two dinners and two lunches for us and the sae for the Austin and Aria. This would be great served with a salad if you have anything in the house, but we were a bit low on fresh foods.

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!!