Baby flapjacks

I I finally had a) the baby napping solidly enough and b) the energy to try baking something new! As a household we've always had a pretty healthy diet, so we're not making major adjustments now our son in on solids, but it did make me realise that while a biscuit when you're peckish isn't so bad for an adult who should know better, it's not really desirable for a baby who doesn't know better! Our son eats enough fruit at each meal time to keep Dole in business for many years to come, so I scoured the offerings of Pinterest for something a little different he could have for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Lo and behold, the sugar free baby flapjack has been baking in our oven.

This is the original recipe, but please carry on reading to find out how I found it and what my end result was: http://www.myfussyeater.com/sugar-free-flapjacks-for-baby-led-weaning/

The ingredients are (and I used cup measurements just because they were available, though my scales were handy and they definitely didn't match the weights to cups conversion on the original recipe):

2 cups rolled oats, ground up a bit in the food processor

1 tbsp desiccated coconut

1/3 cup butter, melted (you can use coconut oil but mine is for my hair!) - also, be careful if melting it in the microwave, I hadn't done it before and have ended up with a butter-coated microwave interior to clean

3 dates, pitted

1 & 1/2 bananas

4 tbsp orange or apple juice (I had orange open)

1. Mix the processed oats and coconut together in a large bowl

2. Put the other ingredients into a blender / food processor and blitz till they're paste-like, or at least combined and not too lumpy

3. Pour the wet paste into the dry mix and thoroughly combine

4. Line a tray with parchment (I used Fry Light to grease my tray and help the parchment stick)

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tray, then pat it down tightly with a spoon to make it nice and dense

I had preheated the oven to 170 Celsius (actually 150 due to mine being fan). When I do this again I'm going to put it at at least 170 fan, if not 180, to encourage a bit more colour and less drying out. 

The original recipe says to bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden, but mine were in for much longer... Maybe 40 minutes. Hence the idea about upping the temperature next time. 

This recipe should make 8 to 16 bars depending on how greedy you are. I'm actually giving my son no more than half a 16th of the total at a time (a 32nd??!?) because I made them quite thin but they're pretty wide. You can just slice them into however many you want once they're a little cool.

I had licked the spoon as I out the tray in the oven and really enjoyed the taste. I then shared a bit with my son after they'd cooled a little, and I have to say, neither of us were disgusted at these healthy little bars! Normally with healthy versions or sugar-free things I usually think I'll just make the sugared version and eat less, but these are pretty good. My husband tried one and he won't be stealing them; they're not quite up to his sweet tooth requirements, but I think we'll happily make our way through the remaining 30 32nds! 

The original recipe says they can be frozen in parchment and defrosted with 30 mins notice, this excites me quite a lot but I've run out of parchment so they will be plastic-tubbed until I can get some more parchment tomorrow! 

Whoops, but... yay! We're back!

I know, I know... I leave you for a whole year and then come back with a post that doesn't even have photos on it. Sorry about that.

To fill you in, I've been a little busy for the past 12 months or so. I grew, birthed and am raising a lovely baby boy. It preoccupied my mind somewhat and baby brain destroyed my ability to sew and cook (no joke, I tried to make him a room decoration at Christmas and ended up in tears with mis-shapen fabric swatches in front of me!). Blogging was at the back of my somewhat shrivelled mind. But my post isn't about the whole baby thing. It's about something I cooked tonight!

I have reignited my love for cooking proper food and eating well, and this is echoed not only by my husband but my son has some pretty healthy eating needs too!

On Saturday we had reheated cajun chicken (home cooked a week or so ago) with rice and vegetables for dinner. Not any old rice though - cauliflower rice! Or should I say "riced cauliflower"?

I steamed it in big florets for about 20 minutes, then put it through my potato ricer. The first lesson I learned was that what looks like a lot of cauli doesn't go very far in rice form. The second lesson I learned was to rice it into a sieve, to allow the water (soooo much water) to drain away leaving fluffy "rice". The third and final lesson I learned was that everyone loved it, including me! I normally like a bit of cauli but only if it's smothered in cheese sauce and served with a Lincolnshire sausage. It's acceptable in curry too. At Sunday roasts it's one of the things that gets eaten off my plate first to get it over and done with. Saturday's attempt was a revelation.

I promise next time I make it (it'll be soon, I have half a cauli to use up), I will take photos and make them available! Yippee for riced cauli.

I wonder what else I can rice...

P.s. you know the last post was about beetroot? Turned out that was a massive craving. Madness.