Strawberry & Gooseberry Jam Recipe

Lately I've been making jam as the soft fruit bushes on our allotment are doing very well, infact a tad too well! It seems the fruit are all we are growing at the moment as the tomato plants are doing very well due to lack of sunshine, the runner beans aren't enjoying the large amount of rainfall and we've lost a few celery plants too. About the only vegetable that has been growing well are our spring onions which we stuffed in last minute and have grown very well without much care from us. But one of the fruit we are getting tons of are gooseberries and guess what... none of us like them!

On the plus side gooseberries are high in pectin whilst strawberries are low in pectin which make these two perfect together for making jam. So here's a simple recipe for you. I've not put in the amount as you can make as much as you like as long as you follow the basic rules.

We only made half a jar as we were testing out the recipe

- Strawberries (same weight of Gooseberries)

- Gooseberries (same weight of Strawberries)
- Sugar (the weight of the total amount of fruit, you can put slightly less in if you prefer)
- Sterilised Jam Jars

1. Wash your fruit under a cool running tap to remove any dirt. Remove all stems and cut the strawberries into halves, quarters if you have any big ones.
2. Put all the fruit into a pan (make sure it's a good size for when you add the sugar!) and boil.
3. Once boiling turn the heat down and check the fruit. The strawberries will probably take a bit longer as gooseberries tend to pop easily during cooking.
4. Once the fruit have pretty much disintegrated you can now add the sugar and bring to the boil again, mixing the sugar into the fruit.
5. When at boiling point turn the heat down. You can check if your jam is ready by placing a spoonful of it onto a plate. After a while on the plate you should find a skin on the top of it (just touch it with your finger or spoon to see the skin) and that means it's ready!
6. Once you are sure it is ready then you can begin placing your jam into your jars. I recommend using a jam funnel which you can buy from Wilkinsons (they sell loads of jam making stuff including all sorts of jars) to help you get the jam into the jars.

And there you have it, tasty jam! I bought the cheapest strawberries from Tesco as our strawberries all got eaten on our allotment so I kind of cheated. You can also add a drop of lemon if you wish but you don't have to. Kids love jam on toast and knowing what's inside the jam and how much sugar is inside is an added bonus. Enjoy!

Scrummy Yummy Oats [VIDEO]

Been meaning to add this to my blog for AGES! You will be happy to hear this will be the last of the crappy videos I make as I have a new camcorder. All I need now is a better microphone!

Recipe: Strawberry Crunch Lunch

This can be served at breakfast time too, but I have been making this as a easy lunch time meal for my 12 month son who is learning to master the spoon. This has an interesting texture, healthy and great for mastering the spoon skill as it sticks to it so you won't find blobs of food all over your floor!

Suitable from 9 months old.

Ingredients

1/2 Wheat Biscuit
2 Small Pots of Strawberry Yogurt (or 1 Large)
Full Fat Milk

1. Crunch the biscuit up into a bowl.
2. Add the strawberry yogurt into the bowl.
3. Add a small amount of milk and stir. Add more milk if you desire or if you are feeding this to a baby whose still trying new food.

If you prefer to use your baby's usual milk instead of full fat milk that will work also.

What does Baby Al think of this?

Yummy, Mummy!

Recipe: Banana & Raspberry Pureé

A nice smooth and healthy meal,great for the early stages of weaning and is also easy and quick to make. This will make about 2 servings and you can store it for up to 1 day in the fridge.

Ingredients
1 Banana, peeled
Small handful of raspberries (approx 10)

1. Cut the banana into slices and put in a food processor or a bowl if using a hand blender.
2. Add the raspberries and blend until nice and smooth
3. This step is optional, if you like you can add a little bit of water.

You can also lightly cook the raspberries in a bit of water for a minute beforehand and use the water to add to the raspberry and banana pureé. I'd recommend cooking them if your baby is fairly new to the world of weaning. Just make sure it has cooled down before feeding it to your little one.

Recipe: Grandma's Sunday Lunch

Been working on this recipe for a while, mainly because I wanted to make sure I get the details right and felt a photograph of Baby Al enjoying the meal his Gran made for him on the weekend. I have named this...

Grandma's Sunday Lunch

Ingredients
1 Parsnip (peeled, chopped)
1 Medium Carrot (peeled,chopped)
1 Potato (peeled, chopped)
1 Tablespoon of Onion (diced)
Handful of Cooked Chicken (small slices, no skin)
2 Tablespoons of water from the pot (optional)

1. Place the parsnip, carrot and potato into a pot together and fill with water enough that it covers everything and cover. Put on a medium heat until the water begins to boil.
2. Turn the heat down to low and add the pre-cooked chicken pieces and onion. Cover again and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Turn the heat off and remove the lid. Remove everything from the pot, leaving just the water and put into a bowl, jug or food blender.
4. Blend everything together, checking to make sure everything has blended through. If you are using a hand blender you may want to check the edges of the bowl or jug with a spoon for any bits of vegetables that may have gotten away from the blender.
5. If the food seems to dry for your baby to enjoy then simply add 2 tablespoons of water from the pan. You can add more if you desire but find when defrosting frozen pots they tend to come out very watery when I do add too much water.
6. Done!

As we only had 2 pots left we only used half a Parsnip, a small potato and half a carrot, but you should find this will fill about 4 pots nicely for freezing.

Another suggestion would be to add a tiny bit of Thyme in the pot whilst cooking all the ingredients, however if you do wish to do this get it fresh. The dry stuff you'd normally have in your spice and herb rack will not blend and found I had to use a sieve to remove all the bits. It did add a bit of flavour and if you put too much in it can overpower the whole meal, specially when you reheat this recipe after freezing it, at least that is what I noticed.

People may ask why would I put cooked chicken into the pot of water along with all the vegetables. The reason is that it helps add flavour, specially if you find yourself adding some of the water.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Sweet Potato & Carrot

Alex just loves his food. He's a huge fan of sweet potato and carrot blended nicely together. Some of you may be budget parents like us and may find sometimes you pay a fair bit for such a small amount of veg and fruit. Best bet is to go and check out your local farmer's market or any market stalls that you may nice near that sells fresh produce. I was raised in a farmer's town where markets were always open with fresh fruit and veg as well as locally made sweets. Since then I have moved around the country to Leicester with its huge market area and my first meeting of the "Any Bowl for a Pound" style of selling which I loved when I was a university student to moving further south to West Midlands where I got to know the urban farmer's markets and other wonderful stalls. I'm lucky to live so close to the town centre where the stalls are open every day except Sunday. I couldn't get the sweet potatoes from the market but I got myself a huge plate of bananas and a nice big bag of carrots for a total of £2. Morrisons has some sweet potatoes for £1 too so in total spent £3 and the amount of food I got for my boy would last him a good long time!

Sweet Potato & Carrot Meal

Ingredients:
1 Carrot
1 Sweet Potato
Water (suggest using the cooking water)

1.  Peel the carrot and the sweet potato so there's no skin. Cut the carrot up as normal. Cut the sweet potato into nice small pieces. I cut it in the same way as the carrot and then cut the slices in half to help them cook quickly as well as make it easy to blend.
2. Places them into the pot or sauce pan and then fill it up with hot water. Make sure it's enough to cover over all the veg.
3. Put the top over the pot or sauce pan and leave on a medium heat for 15 minutes. Check back on it to make sure it doesn't boil over.
4. Turn it off or put it onto a very low heat setting and leave it to simmer for another 15 minutes.
5. Add the carrot and sweet potato either into a bowl if you have a hand blender or put into your blender. Put a small amount of the water used in the pot/saucer in also.
6. Blend until nice and smooth! Done!

This made me enough for 2 feeds. I worked out from the bag of carrots and the bag of sweet potatoes that I bought for £1 each I could make at least 12 servings! Normally pots of ready made baby food for the same amount are 57p each (most supermarkets have a 10 for £5 offer) so this has saved me money!

You can freeze pots of this away and defrost them during the daytime.

Happy Cooking!