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!

Review: HiPP Organic Succulent Tomato & Chicken Ragout Wholesome Pots

I had been reading several supermarket and baby magazines that were mailed to me over the last few weeks and noticed these Wholesome Pots by HiPP Organic advertised in a couple of them. So I figured "let's give these a try!" as I noticed them in my local Asda store at £1.50 for a pack of 2. So here's my review:

I picked the Succulent Tomato & Chicken Ragout as my boy is still not able to take on the large bits that are often in the stage 2 ready meals and I knew I'd most likely not mind giving it a taste test. Whilst Baby Al was napping I was able to warm the food up, mix it and leave it to stand for a while. The instructions can be found when you remove the plastic lid on the other side of the lid. Very simple, you can warm it up or just feed it at room temperature. I normally with ready made food don't bother warming them up mainly due to lack of time and baby tends to cry when he knows I'm making his dinner and it's not there infront of him right this very second.

After his short nap he was calm and ready to take part in taste testing, as was I! When I do warm food up I always do the usual and easy check on whether it's too hot. Dip your little finger in! It was warm enough and as for the taste? Pretty good! Tomato was something my boy has not really had in his diet before and tends to be rarely given, mainly due to the fact I just blend simple vegetables and fruit, so this was an experience for him. To me I thought maybe a little bit more of a chicken taste may have made this a little more exciting, but for Baby Al he was squealing with joy after each mouthful was swallowed! He ate every last drop in the pot and his reaction to each spoonful was positive. If anything he got upset because there was no more, the cheeky little sausage!

Now for the Pros and Cons followed by our judges' scoring on this product.

Pros
- Easy to use
-Can be heated in the pan or microwave
- Soft with a nice taste for a baby whose started to move onto solids
- Nutritious as the food has been gently steam cooked

Cons
- £1.50 for 2 pots (75p each) is more then just buying jarred food (approx 67p for the same amount).

Baby Al's Rating: 10/10
Petit Mom's Rating: 9/10