Dinner Inspiration #5

It’s been a fortnight since my last dinner inspiration post - a fortnight that involved nasty colds through the whole house (again) and my hubby M being away for a week for work, so I definitely slowed down on the work front.

I love doing these dinner inspiration posts and shooting our dinner as it’s forcing me to think a little outside the box and not serve up the same things over and over, but it is highlighting our love of a simple pasta dish - I’m not mad about it.

First up is this Lentil Shepherd’s pie, which I won’t talk too much about as the full recipe can be found in my latest recipes here (apart from saying it is -delicious- and meat eat or not, I’d recommend giving it a go).

I share a break down and some recipes from my dinners here, but when I believe the recipe was right on point, I will publish it over at my latest recipes page (where you can find recipes not shared here, too).

Alexander Rating? I didn’t think he’d eat this to be honest as he’s usually not into ‘beans’, but after helping me take the photo he absolutely loved it.
Serve to a younger toddler? Apart from maybe chopping the mushrooms and carrots a little smaller, I would'n’t change much. If texture is still an issue you could blend the filling to more of a soupy consistency.

Next up is this vegetable spaghetti sauce which is such a staple in our house - loaded with veggies, loved by all (including many of Alexander’s littlest friends) and great for freezing. We often make a batch of this and freeze it to take away on trips and reheat with some pasta and cheese. The best bit is, as it’s blended at the end, you only need to very roughly chop the vegetables so it’s easy to make in a hurry.

This was delicious so I am sharing the recipe today…

Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce
makes about 6 serves

Ingredients
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste (optional)
- 2 red capsicums, de-seeded and roughly chopped
- 1 eggplant, stem removed and roughly chopped
- 250g (or so) of button mushrooms, washed and roughly chopped
- 1 zucchini, roughly chopped
- 2 tsp of dried oregano (you could also use marjoram or basil, fresh or dry).
- 1 large (790g) or 2 small (400g) can of crushed tomatoes plus the same volume of water.

Method
1. In a large saucepan, add the onion, olive oil and capsicums on a medium heat - fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Add the eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, tomato paste and garlic. Stir over medium heat for another minute.

3. Add the canned tomatoes, oregano or other herbs and water, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 1-2 hours, or until reduced by at least half. If it reduces too fast (less than an hour), add more water and allow it to continue cooking to develop the flavour, being sure to scrape the sides of the pot down often.

4. Once cooked, season with salt and pepper to taste and allow to cook slightly before blending and serving with your favourite pasta, or freezing in batches.

Simple and delicious!

Alexander Rating? He loves this pasta and on this night he ate two bowls - perhaps as we were short on spaghetti and I made him little macaroni, which is one of his favourites.
Serve to a younger toddler? I wouldn’t change a thing!

This wasn’t so much a recipe as it was an opportunity to use up some vegetables before a new order arrived coupled with the opportunity to buy some fresh prawns, so though this was delicious, you could vary it however you like.

The prawns were cooked in olive oil, a little garlic and some smokey paprika which is always a winning combination (you might notice I use a lot of smokey paprika, maybe because Alexander likes it but I think it adds so much flavour with so little effort).

I roasted the last head of broccoli we had because roasted broccoli is a whole other level of delicious in my eyes! I toasted flat breads in a large fry pan with a spray of olive oil (these are Mr Pitta which are so delicious - they’re sold around me at delis, butchers and gourmet supermarkets), then served it all with a good squeeze of Kewpie mayo and honey (trust me, this is a seriously underrated and delicious combo). A twist of black pepper and some sesame seeds which truthfully were mainly for the photo, and we had a delicious and suprisingly filling dinner.

Alexander Rating? He loved this (I am saying that a lot lately), though I did steam his broccoli rather than roast it as he likes it ‘juicy’, and served all his elements separately.
Serve to a younger toddler? I’m not sure I’d make this for a younger toddler - or if I did, I’d use much larger prawns they could grab onto, or chop them up really finely, definitely steam the broccoli and ditch the big chunks of spinach and probably cut the bread into fingers.

This is one of those ideas I think everyone probably has a version or has made a version of, but my version involves pre-steaming chopped cauliflower, making a bechamel sauce (I use half milk half water to make it a little lighter - it works), adding some cheese then stirring through cooked pasta. I pop it in the fridge until it’s ready to bake, then put it in the oven at about 180c with some cheese on top until it’s warmed through. Very easy, always a hit!

Alexander Rating? Do I even have to tell you he loves this…
Serve to a younger toddler? I wouldn’t make it as crispy on the top, but otherwise it’s a great toddler meal.

And that’s it for another week! School holidays are about to start so while I love doing this and will continue to try and photograph our dinners, I’m not sure how it will all unfold…

Next term will be the relaunch of my newsletter so if you haven’t signed up, I’d love to have you.

Until then, stay warm (in Melbourne, if you’re in Italy or somewhere equally summery, please teleport me…).

Nat x

Dinner Inspiration #4

It’s a lazy one this week. Well, a busy one to be fair as we had a lot going on personally and professionally, as well as glorious long catch ups with friends and family. There were nights I didn’t have time to photograph dinner (one was left overs, another packet dumplings and veg), and nights where I just didn’t have the energy.

But two pastas and a beautiful big pot of soup got on the table nonetheless and no take away was consumed (actually that’s a lie but I’m not photographing lunches so you won’t see our celebratory burgers for a happy moment this week I’ll chat about another time!).

We started this week with this delicious pasta made with slim pickings in the fridge and because I was wanting to eat the delicious egg fettuccine in the fridge. I’ve already shared the recipe on my Instagram (and it’s below), and received a message from a beautiful human telling me she makes something very similar but with bacon and kale - so if you’re not a salmon fan, this would be delicious too. I can also imagine subbing in chicken as the protein (or larger salmon chunks) and adding almost any other green vegetable - peas would be lovely.

But this is how I made it this time;

Smoked Salmon Pasta with Broccoli
(serves 4)

Ingredients;
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces
- 120g of smoked salmon, roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp of marscapone (or cream or a dairy-free alternative)
- 1/4 of a cup of vegetable stock
- 375 grams of fettuccine (I used a 375g box of egg fettuccine) 

Method

1.  Pre-cook the broccoli until tender.  Drain and set aside.

2. Cook the pasta in well salted water as per the packet instructions.

3.  In a large, deep fry pan, add the oil and onions.  Cook on a medium heat
until translucent.

4.  Add the mascarpone and stock, move to a low heat and stir well
until it all mixes together.

5.  Remove half a cup of pasta water from the cooking fettuccine and reserve.
Drain the pasta.

6.  Add half the pasta water, fettuccine, broccoli and smoked salmon to the
fry pan.  Stir well on a low heat for a minute then serve
immediately.

Alexander rating? He absolutely loved this meal, but he absolutely loves smoked salmon.
Serve to a younger toddler? I would have used salmon fillets for a younger toddler to reduce the salt content, but apart from that I wouldn’t have changed anything!

Next in line was pumpkin soup which we made a giant pot of after receiving a big pumpkin from my in laws. Everyone has their own pumpkin soup recipe (and mine varies every time - try a granny smith apple added in one day if you haven’t, it’s really good!) so I won’t share an exact recipe.

The Cheds? Well the day we made this soup we visited some good friends who made a beautiful little antipasti lunch for us. Our contribution was crackers, including these Cheds, which we brought home the remainder of. Alexander thought it was a great invention (he loves inventing recipes) to dip Cheds into the soup rather than our usual toasty or buttery bread. It obviously didn’t soak up the soup but his invention was delicious!

Alexander rating? I’m not sure I even have to include this here - do all kids love pumpkin soup or just all the ones I know?
Serve to a younger toddler? I used to do toast soldiers with pumpkin soup for him when he was little.

This is not what this meal was meant to be…. but I won’t tell that story.

Once I cooked the capsicums (two, sliced) with some garlic (three crushed cloves), diced zucchini (one), olives (about one third of a cup), two 95g of tuna and a small bag of spinach wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but had some spirals in the back of the pantry tossed it through and popped some chilli on for M and I. Alexander doesn’t like chilli (he has tried it three times and does not want to again, he tells me).

It was delicious but I would probably make it as a side next time (without the tuna) as I was so hungry afterwards and felt like I needed more protein.

If it wasn’t for my little man, who does not like chickpeas, I would have omitted the tuna and added chickpeas to make it a full meal. But it was just too-hard-basket organising slightly different meals this week.

Alexander rating? He really loved it! Though I pulled his out before adding the spinach as he doens’t like big chunks of spinach in his food. He does, however, like those frozen spinach cubes in absolutely everything (the ones that are finely chopped) so if I didn’t have the fresh spinach to use I would have used these.
Serve to a younger toddler? I would have cut everything smaller (the capsicum and the olives) and included less olives for less salt as well as using the frozen finely chopped spinach cubes. Apart from that Alexander would have enjoyed it.


There is a good chance next week will be twice as busy as this week, so stay tuned to see what I manage to capture then….

If you’d like to receive a full round up of recipes direct to your inbox I’ll be launching my newsletter again this month which you can sign up to here.

Until then, happy cooking (however speedy!) and have a beautiful week.

Nat x

Dinner Inspiration #3

My husband, M, made a comment this morning that since I’ve started photographing dinner most nights that I have ‘upped my dinner game’. I, maybe a little arrogantly, always thought I made pretty good meals but I do have to admit that knowing I’ll be popping them on here for you to see I am putting a little more thought into them (or at least into how I photograph them).

The real challenge will no doubt come in a few weeks time when I’ve worked through all my usual-dinner suspects and I find myself trying not to repeat too many meals for you and continuously come up with fresh ideas. I know that will be pretty much impossible, but it will be fun trying.

We started the week feeling pretty run down with two colds in the house, so a big pot of Minestrone was in order (you can find the recipe here but I will admit it changes every time).

As delicious as it was on Monday night, and as delicious as it continued to be for lunches into the week, unfortunately the two colds turned to three and we’ve been sniffly all week!

I keep saying I’m grateful they’re just colds but just quietly, I am looking forward to seeing them leave.

Alexander rating? I scoop Alexander’s out before adding the pasta and blend it, then add the pasta in his to cook separately in a small pot and serve with lashings of grated cheese. He’s not a fan of chickpeas, ‘I’m not into them yet Mum’, but likes a bowl of soupy pasta.
Serve to a younger toddler? I’d do exactly the same thing!

What do we want when we have a cold? Comfort food!

After loading up with vegetables at the start of the week and only popping to the shops for some fresh bread, I saw an opportunity to buy some burger rolls and defrost the burgers in the fridge (meat patties for the boys - I had these ones from Woolworths which they both like. I had the Veggie Delight ones also from Woolies which are handy as I can keep them in the freezer). I made some home made potato wedges (just cut up, skin on, and roasted at 200c with salt, flipping at around the 20 minute mark) and served them with Greek yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce. On the burger? American mustard, tomato sauce, pickles (our favourite ones for burgers and sandwiches), cheese, lettuce and onions for M and I. (‘I’m not really into onions, Mum’ . ‘I’m not really into….’ has been a favourite explanation this week!).

Alexander rating? He loves burgers! Not so much chilli sauce though, but he enjoyed his tomato sauce on greek yoghurt (?? I know. Whatever makes him happy!).
Serve to a younger toddler? I’d separate the burger elements - cut up the patties into small pieces, have chunks of toasted burger bun, not include mustard and when he was very young I didn’t give him tomato sauce. He always loved pickles, though.

Continuing on the theme of comfort food next up were pies. I’m realising as I write this I’m not very good on the recipe creation this week but I hope you’re still getting some inspiraiton. These were, as written, mushroom and eggplant pies that, while tasty after I sauced the mushrooms and eggplant in plenty of butter and added tomato paste, chilli, onion, garlic and cheese before making the pie, weren’t quite tasty enough for me to shout the recipe on the roof tops. Something to work on though.

I assume you all know recipe development isn’t just throwing things together once and just praying it works and if it doesn’t, sending that into the world anyway! It takes time and photographing dinner every night is bound to show you some not-quite-right, and some fails.

Alexander doesn’t like mushrooms and M prefers meat, so I defrosted some chicken and leek pie filling I’d make and frozen for an occasion like this. I’ll share the filling recipe next time I make it.

PS. Buy a pie maker! We use ours so much. Such a great little machine.

Alexander rating? He also adores pies, so he loved it. He doesn’t like salad so he had some chopped up tomatoes and yellow capsicum as a salad, which he loved.
Serve to a younger toddler? When Alexander was younger I would have given him a chunk of flakey pastry to chew on and served the pie filling separately, chopping up any large chunks of meat.

This is such a comfort food for me and, to be honest I rarely make it as Alexander never used to like it - this has changed! His already wide taste has been expanding even more lately and it is glorious. It’s basically roasted slices of sweet potato topped with typical nacho ingredients - but I’ve actually written down this recipe so if you’re interested…

I used
- One large sweet potato, peeled, sliced into rounds and roasted until tender and very lightly golden.

For the black bean sauce
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can of cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp of oregano
- 1 tsp of smokey paprika

Fry the onion in the oil until translucent, then add the paprika and stir for 30 seconds, before adding the beans, tomatoes and oregano. Cook for 20-30 minutes on a low heat, adding water if it begins to dry out. Add salt to taste.

For the guac, mash together
- 2 small avocados
- Juice of 1/4 of a lime (or about a teaspoon will do, or whatever you think tastes good, honestly)
- A TINY bit of grated garlic (I usually do two swipes on the microplane and that’s it).
- Salt, to taste.

The rest
- 1/2-1 cup of grated tasty cheese
- Greek yoghurt, to serve
- We served this with plain jasmine rice (went well with the mix) and corn.

To make
Once the sweet potatoes are roasted, arrange on a tray with the black bean mix on top and a generous sprinkle of tasty cheese. Pop under the grill until the cheese is bubbly then serve topped with Greek yoghurt and guacamole.

Alexander rating? He’s not into the beans, honestly, but he ate a few with the sauce and overall loved this dinner.
Serve to a younger toddler? When he was younger, I’d mash up the beans and it would make an amazing dinner - I’d often mash the whole lot and mix it through the rice, too. Which he loved.


And there we have it, week three of dinner inspiration!

I’ll admit it is INCREDIBLY hectic trying to take a photo with an almost-4-year-old that wants to help quickly enough to make sure we still have a hot dinner, but I’ve been absolutely loving it and I hope you’re enjoying it too.

If you want a full round of up these recipes please sign up to my newsletter, which I’ll be relaunching soon, and will include all the the dinner ideas from the month.

Until then stay warm!

Nat x

Dinner Inspiration #2

This week was a more ‘true to us’ week. It was busy so soup, ravioli and packet fish featured. Not pictured? Mum (me) out to dinner so take away pizza night for the boys, and a night of bolognese from the freezer that was served so late while so much else was going on that taking a photo was impossible.

First up was Monday and after a busy day and barely any time, the hokkien noodles that were from a grocery deliver weeks before and whatever veggies were on their last legs went into a stir fry with garlic, honey and soy sauce.

This made 4 serves.

I used;
(For the stir fry)
- 1 bunch of brocollini, roughly chopped.
- 1 green capsicum, sliced
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 450gm pack of fresh hokkien noodles

(For the sauce)
- A splash of olive oil
- 1/8 of a cup of honey (better described as half of a quarter cup - maybe measuring by tbsp was a better idea…)
- 1/8 of a cup of soy sauce
- 1/4 of a cup of vegetable stock

(+)
- 4 frozen fish fillets (we always buy the lightly battered ones so there’s as much protein as possible).

To make it, I fried the capsicum and garlic in a large wok with a little oil until fragrant, adding the vegetables and stock and cooked, lid on, for a few minutes to soften the veggies, then added the soy and honey.

I cooked the noodles and fish as per packet instructions, added the noodles into the stir fry and popped the fish on top.

Really quite basic and I feel a bit silly writing it out, to be honest!

Alexander rating? More noodles please Mum (A few of the veg were left behind)
Serve to a younger toddler? Honestly when Alexander was younger if we did eat frozen fish fillets like this, I would peel all the batter off. I would have pre-cooked the veg so they were super soft and served them on the side of the noodles. I also would have chosen rice or soba noodles over these.

These corn cakes were a total experiment - I had no idea how they’d turn out and the first one honestly seemed like I was going to have a bunch of failed corn pancakes that didn’t hold their shape. I was wrong! They held well and the boys loved them so, although I am sharing the recipe below, I will refine it further before making it a separate recipe post. The rice with parmesan stirred through was shockingly delicious (I only chose parmesan as I didn’t realise we’d run out of tasty - what a happy accident!). I say shockingly as I thought it would be weird but it will now be in my tool kit for ‘oh I have no carbs for this meal). Packet coleslaw just had olive oil and salt on it.. nothing fancy.

For the guac
Mash an avocado with a squeeze of lime juice and a VERY small amount of micro planed garlic (like, one or two grates… maybe 1/8 of a small clove. It’s raw! Go lightly!) + salt to taste.

Corn Cakes
- 400g cannelini beans, drained and rinsed (I love beans and have been trying to get more into our diet, but the boys aren’t keen on them, so in they went).
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp of smokey paprika
- 1/3 of a cup of wholemeal self raising flour (you could use the gluten free equivalent)

Add all of the above ingredients into a blender, blend to a paste them spoon into a bowl and add;
- 1 can (400g) of corn kernels, drained and rinsed
- 1/3 of a cup of crumbled feta cheese
- a little black pepper

Mix through and then pop large spoons of the batter (I use a big salad spoon) into a non stick pan with a little olive oil. Cook until one side is golden, then flip and cook until cooked through.

This makes 8-10, depending on how large you make the pancakes.


Alexander rating? Loved it! Loved the corn cakes and spread the guacamole and yoghurt on top. Loved the novelty of squeezing the lime on everything. Even tried the coleslaw. LOVED the rice.

Serve to a younger toddler? I would do everything the same - but offer steamed carrot sticks in place of the coleslaw.

We call this ‘ravioli salad’, even though you can see it’s tortellini! It just refers to any time we get a filled pasta and mixed it with a bunch of roasted vegetables. It makes a ‘serves 2’ pack spread across the 3 of us without a problem. It’s pretty self explanatory and totally flexible, so I’ll leave it at that!

This is a version of my Carrot & Potato Soup (which can be found here), though I didn’t use ginger or coriander as I didn’t have any - it was still delicious!

I really like this photo and Alexander and I felt really proud when we saw it on the screen - yes he is still photographing every single dinner with me! But it is a very beautiful example of ‘Fancy Photography, Simple Food’, which is what I’m really all about.

Let me show you what this looked like on our table….

See?

I’m not making anything fancy, I’m just taking a fancy photo!

I hope you enjoyed this post and I’ll be back next week.

Until then, stay warm!

Nat x

Dinner Inspiration #1

Welcome to part one of a little series I’m trying (off the back of the resounding ‘yes’ I got when I asked my Instagram community if they like seeing what my family and I eat for dinner).

In these dinner inspirations posts, I’ll show you a few of the meals we ate during the week and provide a quick recipe for each meal. It works for me, because I’m cooking it anyway and since I purchased my new light (Godox UL150 for those playing at home), it’s possible even when it’s dark. Alexander also loves being my helper and pressing the space bar to take the photograph just before we sit down for dinner, so it lets him be my helper too, which he absolutely loves.

(I hope) it works for you if, like me, you like quick, no-fuss, no-special-ingredients recipes on a week night. I’ll also include Alexander’s almost-4-year-old feedback on each recipe and how, if I did at all, I modified it for him. Many of the ideas I’ve been cooking for years, so I’ll also share how I prepared it when he was much younger.

There will no doubt be repeats of recipes as I do make some things over and over again (we all do, right?), but this is also inspiring me to come up with new ideas, which I love!

So, welcome to the first Dinner Inspiration post. I hope you love it (if you do, or don’t, or want me to include certain ingredients, you can always let me know below or at natalie@nataliezee.com).

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I buy the Ingham Free Range Chicken Kiev most of the time, as I can have it in the freezer ready to bring out when I’m short of ideas and the boys say it’s delicious. Green Yoghurt on Pumpkin is just something to add some dairy and extra protein to the meal, but it tastes good too (Alexander thinks it’s a sauce and all sauces are winners in this house).

Alexander Rating? Ate it all.
Serve to a younger toddler? I’d swap out the chicken kiev for something more simple (chicken tenderloins or even strips of chicken nuggets), and mash the pumpkin with the yoghurt to make more of a pumpkin mash.

This soup is one of my favourite things to make. M has always been a little on the fence about this but, lucky for me, Alexander’s favourite colour is green and he loves it! You can honestly be totally creative with this soup and pop whatever you have in letting the stock, garlic and cumin bring it together. I will say the peas thicken it up most, so it’s worth making sure you have plenty of frozen peas added in.

And now for the recipe of this version…

GREEN SOUP
makes 4 generous serves

Ingredients
- 3 Zucchinis, washed and roughly chopped
- 2 Heads of Broccoli and their stems, washed and roughly chopped
- 3 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 Cubes of Frozen Spinach (about .95c a bag in the freezer aisle of most supermarkets)
- 2 cups of Frozen Peas
- 1 Tsp of Cumin Powder
- 1 Litre of Vegetable Stock (Chicken would work too, if it’s all you have).
- A Handful of Fresh Basil (Optional - a teaspoon of pesto is also lovely if you have some you need to use)

- Greek Yoghurt or Sour Cream, to serve.

Method
This is the best part - pop everything in a large pot (except the yoghurt), add aenough water to make sure all the vegetables are covered and bring to the boil. When the broccoli stems are tender, everything else will be ready to go, too. Remove 1-2 mugs of liquid and reserve, before blending. If the soup is too thick, add a little liquid back in. Season, and serve topped with yoghurt or cream.

CHEESY FLAT BREADS

I make these ALL the time. Simply get a wrap, or whatever flat bread you have available and rub a clove of cut garlic all over one side (option but delicious!). Pop on grated or sliced cheese and put under the grill, with a plain flat bread/wrap next to it. Once the cheese is bubbly and the plain flat bread is lightly toasted, carefully remove them and sandwich them together. Allow to cool slightly and cut up into triangles. Delicious!

Alexander Rating? As much as he loves green, he usually eats about half the soup. He lives for the cheese wraps - surprise surprise.
Serve to a younger toddler? I’d provide thicker bread fingers for them to dip i - the wraps can be tricky to chew for smaller children. We used to play a game, ‘Do the dip dip’, with Alexander when he was little and he loved it.

I’m 90% sure I got this idea from that diet book ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat’ years and years ago (I shudder that I bought it, now, as it seemed very sweet and trendy, but was definitely a diet book). Anyway, it has become one of my absolute favourite soups and although Alexander currently doesn’t like mushrooms (there’s not much he doesn’t like and we don’t insist he eats anything), I still make it semi regularly. It’s incredibly simple and deliciously filling, so I never need anything on the side. My suggestion? Don’t try to skip the butter - it adds so much flavour. If you are vegan or dairy free, a generous knob of a dairy free alternative will do the trick. I find olive oil alone isn’t enough to bring out the sweetness of the leeks.

LEEK & MUSHROOM SOUP
serves 4

Ingredients
- 1 leek, cut lengthways, washed and sliced
- 2 tbsp of butter (the butter makes it more delicious so don't skip it!)
- A splash of olive oil
- 4 cups of sliced mushrooms, these are just regular button ones
- 2/3 of a cup of dry risoni 
- 1 litre of vegetable stock

Method
1.  Fry the leeks in the butter & oil until translucent.
2.  Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until they start to soften
3.  Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes
4.  Add the risoni and a litre of water, bring to the boil and cook until the risoni is cooked through.
5.  Season with salt, if needed, and serve.

Alexander Rating? He does not like mushrooms, so for him to eat this I either blend a little, or pull out a small serve of another soup from the freezer (pumpkin is always a winner).
Serve to a younger toddler? Again I would blend it with some chunky bread or toast fingers, or little toasties. This was my default plan of action for all soups when A was little. You could also try some steamed veg to dip in.

A classic which I’m not sure I really have to share a recipe for - lucky as the meatballs, though home made, were in the freezer a while and I didn’t record exactly what I put in them. I do recall pork mince, parsley, salt and pepper, maybe an egg? I’ll have to write it down next time.

The sauce is just a basic tomato sauce with a zucchini grated in. If your kids are funny about green things (I know many are), just peel the zucchini and grate it finely. When I used to do this for A I’d also serve some zucchini on the side as I preferred not to ‘hide’ vegetables as I wanted him to be exposed to them, but if he didn’t want it there would be some in the sauce. These days he loves veggies! But if I take the credit for that, I’d also have to take the blame for his dislike of sleep, so I choose to believe kids preferences are mostly nature and not nurture!

Tomato & Zucchini Sauce
serves 2-3

Ingredients

- 3 tbsp (or so) of olive oil
- 1 Brown Onion,, diced
- 1 Clove of Garlic, finely chopped (I find garlic browns too fast when crushed with a crusher, so I avoid it).
- 1 x 400g can of crushed tomatoes (I used Mutti Polpa here)
- 1 Grated Zucchini
- 1 Tsp of dry or fresh Oregano, Basil or Marjoram (if you have it!).

Method
1. In a medium saucepan, fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until it begins to go translucent. Add the garlic and zucchini and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.

2. Add the tomato and herbs, of you have them, as well as a tomato-can worth of water. If you’re cooking meatballs, pop them in.

3. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for about an hour, making sure it doesn’t dry up (add a little more water if needed), or until your meatballs are cooked through. I allow about an hour of the meatballs are frozen.

4. Serve with your favourite pasta and plenty of parmesan cheese!

Alexander Rating? Pasta is his favourite food and this is one of his favourite pasta dishes!

Serve to a younger toddler? I would probably have had either little pieces of the meatball on a side plate and the pasta with the sauce in a little bowl and prepare for the pasta mess (I miss it!).

There is is, my first dinner round up!

I’ll be working soon to make recipes more searchable on my web site so, when I get to that, I will post these separately too so they’re easier to find. For now, you can find these under the ‘Dinner Inspiration’ tab.

Let me know if you make any!

Nat x