Munchies and Munchkins

Food and travel

You are here: Home / Archives for meals

Slow Cooker Chicken- Part 2 Noodle Soup

· by · Leave a Comment

You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted a recipe – well less of a recipe and more of a how to on how to cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker. You can find that post here.

As I’ve said before it’s not as golden and gorgeous to look at as a typical roast but the flavour and succulent meat is worth it.

IMG_8084.JPG

We enjoyed it so much that we have since made it several times and we manage to make about 3 meals out of it.

First of all, you will need:

1 medium chicken and veg cooked via the method in the post above ( with addition of celery and sweet potato)
1 cup of frozen peas
An additional 150ml of hot water
Black pepper
Dried spaghetti – about 100g broken into smallish pieces
*You could add salt if needed but we didn’t due to young baby

Last night I slow cooked a medium whole chicken following pretty much the same guide as in my last blog post but adding sweet potatoes and long strips of celery and I didn’t add any olive oil – purely because I didn’t want an oily stock. I also forgot to add any herbs which hasn’t affected the recipe I’m about to share. So I cooked the chicken for 5 hours on high then removed it and left the veg/juices/stock of which there were a lot to cool. Once cooled I placed in the fridge and this morning I skimmed off the fat.

I then returned the stock/veg to the slow cooker ( minus the celery which I love but my kids find a little stringy) along with 150ml ( approx) water, about 1/3 of the roast chicken which I had stripped and shredded the night before and the frozen peas/black pepper. I turned on low and cooked for about 4 hours. For the last 20 mins or so I turned up to high and added my dried spaghetti pieces. You could use fresh egg noodles which won’t require as much time. Check that the pasta is cooked and serve immediately.

slow cooker chicken noodle soup

IMG_8113.JPG

It’s comfort in a bowl. It’s hard to find a broth which tastes that good. It served two hungry adults for lunch, toddler and a weaning baby as well as a big tub for lunch tomorrow.

Enjoy 🙂

The Weaning Diet

· by · Leave a Comment

Chloe has been eating solid food for just over two months and wow she loves it. So far we are yet to offer her anything that she has turned down.
We started off with the typical sweet potato purees but it really wasn’t long at all before it was clear she wanted more. A lot more in fact.

20140808-132742-48462968.jpg
So what does she eat?

Finger Foods/Snacks:

Sticks of Cucumber/Carrot and Peppers
Wedges of cheese
Oven baked sweet potato chips
Melon
Breadsticks
Rice cakes
White toast
Brioche

Favourite Meals:

Spaghetti bolognese
Roast chicken dinner
Beef stew
Macaroni cheese
Gnocchi tomato bake
Homemade fish fingers
Lasagne
Mild chicken curry with rice
Scrambled eggs

She seems to have taken after her sister with her try anything attitude which makes life a bit easier. I know that if we go out for the day and I forget to pack a pouch ( yes we do use pouches as well as homemade meals) then I can nearly always find her something to eat or she will steal my ice cream..

20140808-132820-48500596.jpg

A typical day of food for Chloe looks a bit like this:

Breakfast:

Yoghurt and fruit or toast and fruit

Mid morning:

Rice cake or a breadstick

Lunch:

Scrambled eggs and some veggies or fruit.

Afternoon snack:

Cheese or a baby biscotti

Dinner:

Whatver we eat, perhaps a roast dinner or pasta dish – if we eat something she can’t then she will happily devour a food pouch.

Supper:

A small bowl of porridge

She is also still exclusively breastfed and has small amounts of water throughout the day. Her breastfeeds are not regular or scheduled although I’m trying to set up more of a routine for us.

Spaghetti or pasta is definitely her favourite and I love the way she manages to suck the strands into her mouth – it’s so cute!

20140808-132441-48281754.jpg

She would probably eat more if I offered it! She’s a starver and often sneaks bits of my meals.
Most foods she will try to feed herself using her fingers although I spoon feed her the messy things like yoghurt or stew and let her play with the spoon afterwards.

20140808-132551-48351861.jpg

20140808-132551-48351420.jpg

What does your baby eat? Any meal suggestions?

One last pic .. Chloe biting off more than she can chew:

20140808-132621-48381266.jpg

Meal planning week #1

· by · 2 Comments

Last month I bought a week planner blackboards and I have started making good use out of it.

20121207-214320.jpg

This is the second week I have meal planned and it makes life a little easier and definitely means less waste! I am not regimented about it and if I feel like a change then of course I will change it but I like the structure and knowing what I’m cooking later that day.

In case you can’t read my chalk scrawl this is what this week looked like:

Sunday : Spaghetti and meatballs
Monday : Beef stew (slowcooker style)
Tuesday : Griddled spiced chicken on a bed of cabbage and mashed sweet potato/potato with a mushroom cream sauce
Wednesday: Gnocchi and meatball tomato bake
Thursday: Beef stroganoff Pheasant au vin with cabbage,peas and boiled potatoes
Friday: Sausage and Bean stew
Saturday: Thai takeaway treat 😉

As you can see this week has already had one adjustment, Andrews Dad gave us half a pheasant and well I was eager to experiment with it – I’d never tried pheasant before and it was a pleasant (see what I did there) surprise. The sauce that I made to accompany it which is loosely based on the River Cottage Cock pheasant au vin recipe was delicious and rich.

I think I’m pretty good at using up leftovers and not overspending (most of the time) but I was still finding myself wasting a lot of vegetables and on occasions meat. It makes me angry at myself so this is a new way to try to stop that.

I am also finding that now most days Izzy will eat what we eat. This makes life so much easier.
I adapted a few of our dishes to suit her, in particular the meatballs in tomato sauce which we had with gnocchi on Wednesday I instead covered with mash from Tuesday and baked for her ..wow she loved it even pointing and wanting more.

As much as I love cooking sometimes it’s nice to take a break and order in, we are lucky to have the most wonderful Thai takeaway just minutes from our house so I’m excited to eat that tomorrow. Massamam curry is a big favourite in our house.

Chicken & Chorizo Paella

· by · Leave a Comment

I love anything which has chorizo in it, it’s a beautiful ingredient which has the most incredible flavour and a little goes a long way.

Chicken and chorizo paella

You will need:

A paella pan or cazuela
Olive oil
400g Chicken cut into 1 inch pieces- thigh is best for flavour but breast is fine too.
Chorizo – you can use as much as you like here. I use about a third of Asda extra special chorizo sausage diced into small cubes
1 large onion diced
2 red peppers chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
Some chopped red chilli or a squirt of fresh chilli paste
1.5 litres of chicken stock
2 teaspoons of smoked sweet paprika
400g paella rice – you can use other rice but it just won’t be the same.

*optional ingredients –
A pinch of saffron
2 handfuls of frozen peas.

Heat your pan slowly with about a tablespoon of olive oil.
Brown the chicken.
Add your chorizo, garlic and onion
When your onion is soft add your peppers, chilli, paprika (and saffron & peas if using) and after a few minutes add 1 litre of your stock.
Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.
Leave the ingredients bubble away on a medium heat for 15 mins.
Now add your rice and stir thoroughly.
Put lid on pan or a tinfoil roof if you don’t have one and place in oven for 15 minutes ( if your pan is not ovenproof simply continue to cook on hob but cover your pan)
After 15 minutes take the paella out of the oven and add remaining stock ensuring you give it a good stir.
Place back in oven for 15-20 mins and Tada you should have a beautifully cooked Paella.

I serve mine with a rocket based salad.

This makes a lot! It serves a family of 4 or 2 very hungry adults with lots of leftovers!

Also I am still getting used to writing recipes out so please let me know if they do not make sense or if you have any questions.

%d bloggers like this: