One Person Thermos Porridge

Big 'Un has a real fondness for porridge, but with so little time before her early start, she finds fresh, hot porridge too hot to eat. She (understandably) doesn't want to get up even earlier to make this possible, so she usually makes Jack Monroe's Starbucks bircher every couple of days as the portion is 2 breakfasts' worth
But occasionally, especially if we are low on milk, I make this for her. She adores it. Yes, she could easily make it herself, tho our gas kettle is hotnto handle, but I'm her mum and I like doing things for her to make her smile.
I've blogged the thermos porridge before, but that was a slightly different procedure, and didn't give anything as useful as measurements!
Incidentally, the "yellow scoops" are battered old "Taylors of Harrogate" coffee measure scoops, but they are what we have always used for porridge. I haven't worked out what the exact volume is, around 10ml, I think, but the weights should help you to find a volume measure that suits you so you needn't feel you must get the scales out each time!




3 yellow scoops/33g oats
2 tbsp/ 14g milk powder
Flavouring of choice - sultanas, choc drops, butterscotch pieces, cocoa, or just a little sugar. Whatever you enjoy really!
1 x 300ml wide mouthed thermos flask.
Boil a kettle with 300ml water.
Mix up the ingredients listed above in a dry jug.
When the kettle boils, fill the thermos with the boiling water  and screw the lid on and leave to warm. Immediately put another 300ml water in the kettle and reboil.
When it boils the second time, empty the first lot out (use it to wash the preparation dishes!) and pour the dry ingredients carefully into the flask. I use a jam funnel to make this easier. Then pour the freshly boiled water on, screw the lid on well, and shake. Leave overnight to soften and "cook". I find leaving it on its side prevents it from separating too much, but if you're only doing one portion this is less of a problem than with bigger amounts as you simply either decant into a bowl to eat, or just stir and eat directly from flask.

Homestyle Chicken Curry

Now, I know I've mentioned "homestyle" chicken curry in this blog before, but as far as I can tell, I've never actually blogged how to make this.

This is a curry I grew up with, not what you get in a restaurant, or takeaway. Every weekend we would go to one of a handful of "aunty's" and "uncle's" homes (most were not related, but from our community, and so we always remained close) and every family would bring a dish, and we would all share the meal.  The regular dishes were chicken curry, meat curry, kofta (meatball) curry, potato cauliflower or potato peas, and one or 2 daals.  I swear I could always tell which "Aunty" had cooked which dish, just from the smell and taste, but sometimes we would also recognise the casserole set belonging to so-and-so, and that gave it away! 

Everyone cooked the same dishes, but with slight variations. For example, one chicken curry would use cardamom, another would not, yet another would have onions chopped finely, one would have large petals of onion still visible, and so on with the minor variations which had obviously been passed down through the generations within each family. Each child instinctively knew the aroma of their own home cooked food, and gravitated towards that by preference, but I did always have my own feelings about each cook's best dishes.

So when I grew up and developed an interest in cooking these dishes, particularly when my own grandmother had died, and my mother might be abroad for a few months of winter, I had to ask people to explain to me how to cook these things. My beloved sister-in-law is a terrific cook, and she kindly and patiently explained to my westernised brain how to write down a method for some of the foods I loved, and one of my closest Aunties, though slightly mystified, very vaguely described her process for making a few other dishes.

This chicken curry is one which that Aunty actually explained to Godpapa one time I was pregnant and craving home food, but unable to stomach the smell of cooking anything for myself. I've tweaked it to match up more with the flavour my own mother and grandmother cooked, so I will include both variations.

This is nothing like anything you would find in a "curry house".  That's not a bad thing. Once you try this, you will be hooked.

Use skinless drums and thighs ideally, but skinless thigh fillets will do in a pinch. I tend to use a 900g/1kg packet.

Finely chop an onion and fry gently in a large pressure cooker or saucepan in a little oil.

Once it is light brown (be patient, this is important for flavour) add a teaspoon each of grated ginger and garlic. (Be brave and experiment with the quantities of these. I prefer slightly more garlic and slightly less ginger. Many supermarkets now sell frozen grated/pureed ginger and garlic in very convenient cubes, and even mixed ginger and garlic frozen cubes. This makes life much easier for an occasional cook.)  

Stir them through until the sharp raw scent has mellowed and then add the chicken pieces and fry, stirring, until they are browned in places.

Now add:

1tsp cumin powder

1tsp coriander powder

(1 cardamom pod, slightly cracked - Aunty's version)

(a generous grinding of black pepper - my grandmother's version)

a small dried red chilli. Whole if you want it mild, twisted and crushed if you want a good kick.

You can also add chilli powder to taste if you like at this point.

Fry off the spices but be careful not to let them burn.

Now add either 3-4 chopped fresh tomatoes (Aunty), or a can of chopped tomatoes (my family) and a small splash of water also, and salt to taste, maybe half to one teaspoon.

Now either pressure cook for 15 minutes, or cover and simmer for 40 minutes until tender. If it is too watery, remove the lid and simmer until the gravy is thicker.

Enjoy with pulao rice or chapatis. But that's two whole other blog posts right there!

No-macaroni cheese (or chip shop dauphinoise!)

So after a meeting in school yesterday, I stopped at the chippy on the corner and on Godpapa's (hungry) advice, bought 2 portions of chips to go along with the fried eggs and gammon slices (sliced off a slow cooked half price gammon joint from earlier in the week) and peas I had planned as a quick and easy meal.

                                    

Of course Godpapa wasn't staying for dinner and we didn't actually even open the second portion of chips.  Big'Un has been unwell all week, (and is finally on her first ever course of antibiotics) and Littl'Un never really eats much anyway, and Tiny hasn't been his usual happy-munching self for a couple of days either.  I blame the weather.

So I found myself with a full large portion of chips today and decided that instead of refrying them or binning them, (or stealthily eating them straight from the fridge) perhaps I would use them to switch up today's intended meal and take it from the standard nursery fare, right from out of left field to a proper Credit Crunch frugal "use up leftovers" meal.

The menu plan was macaroni cheese, and I had intended to fry up some leeks with a portion of sweetcorn in butter as a side dish. I hadn't decided whether to add some little bits of the gammon, but I did get in a larger than usual milk for playgroup to allow for making the cheese sauce.  As my longtime or regular readers might recall, one weird foible I have is a dislike of making pasta.  Yes, I know it is easy and filling and cheap, but I find it boring to boil the water and a pain to drain it afterwards.  So, instead, I spread the cold leftover chip shop chips in the casserole dish, then I spread the finely sliced leeks on top and mixed them through, and I strew some gammon cubes over, and then I poured on a luscious cheese sauce, made the normal way but with a dash of malt vinegar added, and having been witnessed by Littl'Un for the first time ever (yes she loved the magic as the roux turned), then I topped it all off with a bit of extra cheese and then baked it in the oven for as long as we could stand it, and until the top was all golden and crispy.

I'm not going to write a recipe, because I'm not that patronising, and I don't measure my white sauce when I make it, but I will add some pics because it really was delicious and very easy, very satisfying and extremely tasty and comforting!

   

crackers-on-top lazy pasta bake

I still hadn't quite got my menu-planning mojo working the next day, and also hadn't made it to the shops yet, so i decided to see what we could find locally to make into a meal.  We are very lucky that on the way home from school there is a really nice Greek shop with a deli counter, fresh meat, and fresh bread and pastries.

I asked Littl'Un if she had any suggestions of what she'd like to eat, mainly because she's been going through a phase of not being interested in meals, and taking forever to eat a tiny portion.  I hoped that getting her to suggest something would give her more encouragement to eat better.  She remembered that we had opened a pack of crackers at the weekend, only to find they were all crushed, and she had suggested we could use them as a crunchy topping for a pasta bake.  People who know me will be aware that for some reason, I have an aversion to boiling and draining pasta, so I wondered if I could again adapt Gill Holcombe's brilliant "chuck it all in" pasta bake recipe.

We bought a small pack of happy pork mince, a jar of passata, and a little pot of lovely thick Greek yoghurt at the Greek shop, and then I set to work.

I fried the mince in the much loved oven-proof dish.  Once browned, I then flavoured it with some fennel seeds.  Once the heady aniseed sweetness was apparent, I added some garlic too.  Once that was soft and mellow, I poured in the passata with some stock, and then stirred in the weighed out amount of dry pasta for the family.  This all then came back to the boil quite quickly, and I stirred in the pot of yoghurt.  Littl'Un was in charge of scrunching the broken crackers, in this case a rather battered pack of black pepper and cheddar Ryvita thins, and spreading them on top, and I sprinkled a scant handful of grated cheese on top for extra scrummyness.

I popped this in the oven at 200 degrees and left it for 40 minutes.  After this time, the pasta was cooked, and the top was brown and crisp, and the meat and sauce had made a gooey unctuous filling.

We served this up with some nice green veggies on the side, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it! And Littl'Un was the first to finish her plateful, AND she asked for seconds too!!

emergency oven no-sotto

After the laid back approach to meals we had during half term, I got a bit caught out and forgot to go shopping or make a menu plan, and then suddenly it was Monday and the girls had Rainbows and Brownies, so no time to nip to the shops and I really didn't want sandwiches!

I had a half pack of bacon in the fridge, and a few cherry tomatoes, and plenty of cheese, so my first thought was the oven risotto which I make quite often. But oh no! No risotto rice! Now, I really don't think this would be right with basmati, (even though I always have loads, I'm not sure my head would cope) but I did have a few of the packs of quick cook mixed grains packs I have blogged about before.  Tesco and Waitrose definitely both have their own versions, which can be found in the whole foods sections.  They make a nice change from rice or couscous, and are very quick to cook, so I keep a few in the cupboard at all times.

So I got out a nice oven-proof, flame-proof pan, and fried the bacon (chopped up). I added some chopped onion and a little butter.  Once the onion was soft, I emptied the pack of the dry grains in, and stirred it well.  I then added a litre of stock and the halved cherry tomatoes.  Once this was boiling, I popped it in the oven for 18 minutes.  If I'd had a slightly narrower pan, I would have used the halogen, as it is cheaper to run than putting the full oven on. 

After the 18 minutes, the grains had absorbed the liquid and become plump and juicy, and I then stirred in some grated cheese.  

It was really delicious, and comforting and quick, and made a very interesting change from the usual oven risotto, and no one noticed the emergency even happened!

Banana Oaty Buttermilk Muffins

I had a couple of bananas going black as usual, as it has been half term and so Tiny isn't having them routinely in the morning before the dog walk.  I also had a litre of Polish buttermilk in the fridge, which I love to buy as it is only £1 and lasts well and is great for waffles, scones, American "biscuits", lassi, and muffins.  Since we were doing a half term playgroup, I decided to throw together a nice healthy and filling muffin recipe to help blood sugar levels stay, well, um, level... So I found a recipe online, and tweaked it to fit my wishes and had these ready in no time! In fact, because I made mini muffins, the thing that took the longest was the spooning of a teaspoon of mixture at a time into tiny muffin tins, the making of the batter took no more than 10 minutes, including finding and measuring all the ingredients.

1 cup plain flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1/2 cup caster sugar (I used a bit less and it was fine)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1/3 cup normal porridge oats (we use Flahavans Organic, but bog standard Basics etc would be absolutely fine.)

2 tbs oat bran (optional)

The above are the dry ingredients.

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup well mashed banana. (I had 2 medium bananas, and I also mushed up a peeled pear which was likely to be ignored as it was bruised, but was perfect for smoothie-fying or similar)

2 tbs veg oil

1 egg

These are the wet ingredients.

First, heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Prepare the muffin tin/silicon either with a cooking spray or with muffin papers.

Stir  all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.

In a separate jug or bowl, whisk the wet ingredients well together.

Pour the wet over the dry, and stir quickly just until the mix is blended.  Do not overmix, do not beat or cream or whip like you would a cake mix; be gentle, and be very lax.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full.  With mini muffins this can be slow, about a teaspoon at a time, and you will need 2 trays.

Bake 10-15 mins for mini muffins and 15-20 for normal muffins, until a cocktail stick comes out clean when stabbed into the centre.

Cool in tins for 15 mins, then remove and cool completely on a rack.

Needless to say these are best within 24 hours.

Bento

So now Tiny has been at Nursery School for a few months, he has started doing one full day a week. At first I was very worried about this, as he has been used to a hot meal at lunchtime and he has never been a fan of any sandwiches, and also because this issue has never come up for me before.  Big'Un never went to nursery, she went straight in at Reception and had school dinners and that was that.  Littl'Un did go to the Nursery but the rules and hours were different and so she only did 5 three-hour sessions a week. In other words, she did mornings in nursery and came home for lunch. She also has school dinners, and both girls love their hot school meals at lunch time. So I realised that to make this work, I was going to use my imagination and think laterally.
It dawned on me that if I don't have a hot meal to give him at lunchtime, I usually give him a what we call a "monkey plate" of bits and pieces of food from the various food groups, colourfully arranged on a plate with different sections. If I could translate this to a lunchbox, I was sure he would enjoy it. 
Then I discovered the amazing world of bento boxes. Bento is a very ancient Japanese type of snack box, with partitions to keep the various foods separate.  In modern day Japanese culture, there are thousands of websites and photosites of "kyaraben" - and although I find these cute, I honestly don't have the time or energy to prepare those, and also the ingredients and tools needed are impractical for our purpose.
So after a lot of research, and a few false starts, I found this amazing lunchbox, the Yumbox, which is perfect for Tiny. The latch is easy to open, it is leakproof, has separate sections with guidelines/reminders of the food groups to try to include and the lid stays open when you want it to.  
My lunch packing has evolved and I've learned to think outside the box (sorry, pun not intended!) and find small, packable, interesting, and most importantly, colourful foods to tempt him each week.  I post the pics on Instagram - #yumbox - every week, and on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and I shall try and blog them here too.  
Here is a selection of the few I've done so far.  I will admit that buying the silly food picks was a brilliant investment, as well as being a practical way for him to eat prepared foods.
Many of the foods are shop-bought and involve no effort at all. Each box took about 5 -10 minutes to assemble. 

Mini pork pies, mini picnic eggs, mini Goodies organix cake bars, Polish "Junior Safari" animal shaped crackers, slices of brioche, strawberries/raspberries/grapes mix, cucumber wedges and sweet radish halves. Yoghurt coated raisins and fruit hearts in the "treat pot".

"satay" chicken mini skewers (no peanut), flower shaped cheese sandwiches - half of which are threaded onto a pretzel stick skewer, animal crackers and the in-between pieces of sandwich stabbed onto the tops of more pretzel sticks. Cucumber/peppers/mushrooms. Strawberries and grapes. Iced gems and white choc buttons in the "treat pot"

Organic sausages (left over from supper, yes, I put a pig pick into the pork sausages. So sue me!) pieces of "dal vada" - a tasty lentil cake snack from South India; chapatti hearts; Minion biscuits; mini cucumber and carrot wheels; and strawberries and grapes. Yoghurt coated raisins in the treat pot.

I think this was the first Yumbox I made.  A mini snack roll with cheese, salami stick and a slice of salami, baby carrots, pre peeled mandarin with grapes, and iced gems in the treat pot.

In other boxes, I have also given leftover mini toads in the hole (home made); chicken goujons, hearts cut out of cheese, flowers cut from slices of carrot, baby sweetcorn circles, blueberries, oatcakes, dry cereal, mini crackers and even a bunny shaped boiled egg!

I think it is important to have fun, but not spend too much time, energy or effort. When your 3 year old only eats half of it, it is likely because you have provided too much in an effort to give enough variety, but I do find Tiny will happily finish anything that is left over once he gets home as his after-school snack, but it doesn't stop it feeling a bit deflating when you have spent ages making it to see it unravelled and half eaten, so quick and simple is less of a "set up" for that.

I'm really hoping the boxes and picks and other accessories become easier to get hold of. I firmly believe that having  variety of boxes or plates can make repetitive easy meals more interesting and fun details don't have to involve cutting facial features out of seaweed!