Carrot Cake

This has to be the recipe I have been asked for the most. I have been making this since Sonny's first birthday party, he is coming up for 6 now! Perhaps all my friends will have it but for those of you who asked and i never got round to sending it to you, here it is. Its truly delicious and there's quite a few "healthy" ingredients in there so it has a feel good factor too.

275g organic plain flour - i usually use a 50:50 mix of white and wholemeal, 100% wholemeal makes it too heavy
1 level spoonful bicarbonate of soda
2 level teaspoonfuls baking powder
1 level teaspoon salt
175g soft, light, brown sugar
3 free range, organic eggs
2 ripe bananas, peeled
175g finely, grated carrots
handful of sultanas (optional)
6 fl oz organic sunflower oil

1. Forewarm your oven to 180 degrees.
2. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the eggs and brown sugar and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl mash the bananas with a fork, then add to the cake mixture along with the carrots and oil (sultanas too if your using them).
5. Mix well with a wooden spoon, then pour into a 9 inch cake tin.
6. Place in the oven for an hour, test with a metal skewer to ensure the cake is cooked all the way through. Leave for 5 mins once out of the oven, then remove from tin and allow to cool on a wire cake rest.

I use a Jamie Oliver recipe for the icing if I'm making this for adults and its just devine, the kids often prefer a plain butter icing - butter, philidelphia cheese and icing sugar or none at all! Jamie's version is as follows:
115g mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest and juice of two limes

Mix all the ingredients together and spread over the top of the cake.

Gingery Salmon

This is a really tasty way to do Salmon for kids - great if you sense a cold is on its way as the garlic and ginger will help fight this.

450g salmon filets
lemon or lime wedges

for the marinade:
5cm ginger peeled, grated
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tbsp light soy sauce
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp sesame oil
a little olive oil

1. Cut the salmon into 10cm cubes. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the salmon in a non metalic bowl. Cover and chill in the fridge for 30-60 mins (also overnight is good).
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. You can also choose to fry the salmon if you don't want to put the oven on just for the fish, however it will be slightly drier and you will loose some of the nice juices. You could serve with some oven baked rice to use up the heat from the oven.
3. Take the salmon out of the fridge and place on a roasting tin, pour over the juices and roast for about 15 mins.
Serve with the citrus wedges, rice and some steamed green vegetables.

Burgers

One for the meat lovers, the inspiration for this one came from Sonny's Fit Nut class at school, the reason I think he loves eating them so much is that he gets to make them. We make them in the food processor which makes them so easy but you could do them by hand.

Makes about 20 small burgers
500g organic minced beef
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
half red pepper & half yellow pepper
2 good handfuls of spinach
few florets of broccoli
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the onion, garlic, peppers and broccoli into the food processor and process until all the vegetables are cut very fine, but not mushed.
2. Add the minced meat, spinach, egg and a pinch of salt and pepper. Process until all the ingredients are well mixed.
3. Take golf ball sized amounts of the mixture and flatten into mini burgers.
4. Put a spot of olive oil into a heavy based frying pan and heat on a gentle heat, put the burgers in about 6 at a time, and fry without burning. I often only cook half the batch and freeze the other half, separating the burgers with greaseproof/baking paper.

We had these tonight served with carrot and courgette sticks and brown rice noodles with sweet chili sauce.

Peperonata

I like to serve this with pasta, however its also good on its own as a starter or served with fish, excellent with swordfish.

4 peppers - i use a mixture of red, yellow and orange as i find the green too bitter.
2 red onions
extra virgin olive oil
2 gloves of garlic, crushed
2 handfuls of fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1. Half the peppers and put them under a hot grill until the skins turn black. Once they are blackened put the peppers into a plastic bag straight away. Tie a knot in the bag and leave the peppers in there until they cool down. Take the peppers out, peel off the skins and de-seed.
2. Put a big glug of olive oil in a heavy based pan, add onions and fry gently until softened. Add the peppers, garlic and parsley with a pinch of salt and cook for a further 20 mins.
3. Add the vinegar, which will sizzle and give it a good stir. Serve with pasta and a big handful of parmesan cheese.

Tofu

I recently did a Tofu cooking course, which was great, its good to have a few more ideas of how to use it. The top tips that I picked up from tee course - due to the high number of phytoestrogens it should not be eaten in huge quantities every day, for children about 100g a week is good. Also it is one of the most genetically modified foods - so if this is a concern to you, try to buy Organic. You can buy silken tofu - which is great for adding to sauces or dips to bump up the nutritional value - great in guacamole, or the firmer tofu which is more widely available.

Tofu and herb omelette

150g tofu
4 eggs
1 cup chopped, mixed, fresh herbs (parsley, coriander, chervil, dill, chives, oregano etc)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
spice mixture (optional)
30g hard goats cheese

1. Mash the tofu with a fork until crumbled.
2. Mix in a bowl with the remaining ingredients except the cheese.
3. Fry in a lightly buttered pan until golden on both sides.
4. Just before serving grate some goat's cheese on top. Serve with salad.

This is also good served cold in pita bread with salad.

Easy Peasy Fish Cakes

I use breadcrumbs instead of potatoes as it makes the cakes a bit lighter and somehow easier to eat for little ones, if there's a wheat alergy then oatmeal is a good alternative.

Mackerel, haddock, salmon and tuna are all high in Omega-3 so are good choices here, but really any fish will do, fresher the better.

3 fish fillets, de-boned and skinned about 500g
handful or two slices of brownbread crumbs
1 egg
juice of a lemon
few sprigs of fresh parsley or coriander
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

1. Put all the ingredients expect the olive oil into a food processor and mix thoroughly, taking care not to over do it as you will end up with mush. Alternatively put all the ingredients in a bowl and use a hand blender to process.
2. Make into round patties a little smaller than the size of a burger.
3. Cook them in the olive oil until they are golden brown and a little crispy on the outside.

Great served with green beans, broccoli or other favourite veg. If your children like it, these are also delicious served with sweet chili sauce for dipping into.

Mini Quiches

When using flour for baking I try to use wholemeal or if it doesn't really work i try half and half - this is one that works well with half and half. These are extremely easy to make if you use a food processor.

90g plain flour, 90g wholemeal flour sifted
pinch of salt
90g of unsalted butter,chilled and diced, 15g for the filling
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cold water
1 leek washed and finely chopped
1 courgette or red pepper finely chopped
50g cheese - gruyere, emental or hard goats cheese
sprig of rosemary
2 large eggs beaten
200ml full fat milk

1. Chill a muffin tin - makes them so much easier to eat in this size and great for lunch boxes. Put flour, salt and butter into the processor and mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg yolk, and if necessary the water, until the pastry draws together into a ball.
3. Roll the pastry to about 2.5mm thick and cut into circles to line your muffin tin with. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 180/gas mark 4. Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and sweat the leak for 5 mins. Add the courgette/pepper and fry for a further 5 mins until browned. Spoon the mixture into the pastry cases and then sprinkle with cheese.
5. Chop the rosemary leaves. Whisk the milk and eggs together, then add the herbs season with black pepper. Pour over the filling in the pastry cases. Cook for about 20mins or until golden and fluffy.