Take Stock

In my quest for healthier, preservative free food, I have decided to throw away my soup mix powders and make my own soup stock. After reading a couple of recipes, one of which is at Fabulous Foods.com, it seems easier than I thought. The recipe I'll be using, though, is from Annabel Karmel as it is more child friendly. It is as follows:

Chicken Stock
MAKES APPROX 2 ¼ LITRES

Stock cubes are unsuitable for babies under a year as they are high in salt, so I make my own chicken stock and use it as a base for chicken and vegetable purées. It keeps in the fridge for 3 days. For babies over one year you can add 3 chicken stock cubes for a stronger flavor. Instead of a boiler chicken, you could use the carcass from a roast chicken.

1 large boiler chicken, plus giblets
2 large onions
2 ¼ litres water
1 celery stalk
2 parsnips
2 sprigs of fresh parsley
3 large carrots
1 sachet bouquet garni
2 leeks

Cut the chicken into eight pieces, trimming excess fat. Trim, peel, wash and chop the vegetables as necessary. Put the chicken pieces into the large saucepan together with the giblets. Cover with the water, bring to the boil, and skim the froth from the top. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 3 hours. It is best to remove the chicken breasts after about 1 ½ hours if you are going to eat them; otherwise they will become too dry.
Leave the soup in the fridge overnight and remove any congealed fat from the top in the morning. Strain out all the chicken and vegetables to make the chicken stock. You can puree some of the chicken breast in a mouli, together with a selection of the vegetables and some stock to make a chicken and vegetable puree. This also makes a wonderful clear chicken soup (with added stock cubes and seasoning) for older babies and you can add some thin noodles.

Bon Appetit!

Operation Veggie Smuggle

I am becoming the Queen Smuggler, of veggies that is. I am on a new mission, to keep away (and keep Angel Starr away) from as many processed foods as possible. The problem is that she hates vegetables and refuses to eat them. She's very strong willed and it turns into a huge, HUGE fight. It's terrible to sit down to every meal with a child whining about how she doesn't eat this and that and picking it all off her plate and heaving (yes, she actually gags just looking at the vegetables!). So I've decided that it's all completely psychological and I will pump her full of goodness, no matter what. The solution, to disguise everything. She eats soup happily (because I put croutons in - OK so a little bit of processed crap in order to get her to eat loads of goodness. I think it's worth it!) so I decided to puree sauces too. I've come up with a great tomato sauce that she just loves and she has no idea how healthy it is. I make it with onions, tomatoes, courgettes, red capsicum peppers and carrots. Then I take my hand blender and blast the hell out of it, so that she can't detect any of the veggies. It just looks like red, chunky, sauce. Which I refer to as.......bolognaise sauce. You see if I called it tomato sauce she'd freak out and boom, in one second her veggie walls would go up. She loves this sauce and I put it with meatballs (which I have made myself with mince meat, onion, carrot and apple - yay more veggies!) or just by itself on pasta or with chicken and couscous (which she just adores). So far so good. She's happy and I'm happy, feeling that I'm giving my child healthy, nutritious food.

Midweek Mommy Tip # 2

Salad Nicoise. To my surprise and delight, I discovered that Angel Starr loves Salad Nicoise. The best part about this is that it’s a light, healthy and easy summer dish that can be put together in a few minutes. Did I mention that it’s healthy? Usually, Angel Starr can tell if anything’s healthy and won’t go near it with a barge pole. So it came as a surprise when she starting demanding this salad. What appeals to her is the fact that it’s filling and has many interesting ingredients (most of them are her favorite), apart from the lettuce. This is how I make it:

Ingredients:
1 can of Tuna
3 or 4 large boiled potatoes (sliced)
1 boiled egg (sliced with an egg slicer)
Some black olives
Some green beans
Lettuce
Cucumber (sliced)
Tomatoes (sliced)

Method: Put lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes in a large salad bowl (in that order). Then add the tuna, potatoes, olives and green beans. Toss. Add the sliced egg on top for added decoration.
Angel Starr gets so excited about this salad that she doesn’t even want salad dressing or mayonnaise or anything (sometimes a bit of hummus). I add a bit of olive oil and lemon juice to my portion of the salad. Try this salad with your kids. It’s healthy and filling, thanks to the potatoes. Bon Appetit.