Another warm and tasty dish I make for Thomas during the cold winters nights is a good old favorite dish corn-beef hash! I make my homemade baby food corn-beef hash in a similar way to a casserole although I do add a tin of oxtail soup to my hash as Thomas is older now I feel he is ok to have the occassional tinned food – When he was younger I was worried about the salt content of tinned and processed foods, although he will be 2 in a couple of weeks so he is ok for some tinned foods. If you are worried about using oxtail soup, you can use some tinned tomatoes to make the meaty sauce as some tinned tomatoes mixed together with the corn beef will work well. Tinned tomatoes don’t usually contain anything but tomato juice, but double check the back of your tin to make sure.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Carrots
• Peas
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Sprouts
• Potatoes
• Tin of oxtail soup
• Tin of extra lean corn beef

Method:
Pour the oxtail soup into a pan and heat on a low flame, adding the diced onion. Peel and cut the potatoes and place into the pan, peel the sprouts, carrots and slice placing into the pan, along with the cauliflower, broccali and peas. Place the lid over the pan and allow to simmer to soften the potatoes and vegetables. While the pan is simmering open your tin of extra lean corn beef and cut the corn beef into small chunks, add the corn beef chunks to the pan near the end of cooking, when the vegetables and potatoes are almost ready. Blend the corn beef has to your desired consistency, allow to cool before plaing into freezable containers.

With the cold weather setting in you cant go wrong with good tasty homemade baby food meals such as casseroles, bolognaise, cottage pie, corn beef hash, soups etc. Get stocked up on vegetables, potatoes and meat and get batch cooking for your little one this winter! It is so easy to pull an already pre-prepared tasty homemade baby food container out of the freezer this winter, giving you more time to play with your baby, more smiles and giggles with mummy xx

Warm and tasy homemade lamb casserole is just what baby needs during these cold winter days! There is nothing more satisfying then a tasty casserole to warm your baby from the inside leaving them feeling satisfied and full of wholesome goodness. Thomas loves my lamb casserole, I make his with more lumps in now but you can blend your casserole into a fine consistency for younger babies. I find that with a casserole you can throw a lot of different vegetables and potatoes together with lentils or pearl barley to make a really healthy and nutritious meal. I give Thomas a slice of wholemeal bread to dip into his lamb casserole, or make it into a “Butty” as Thomas likes to say

I have been giving Thomas my homemade baby food lamb casserole for around a year now, he has never got bored of the flavours! When making Thomas lamb casserole I make a large pan full and fill several small freezable containers with the casserole and freeze a batch of the lamb casserole, which is really handy!

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Peas
• White potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Pearl barley
• Lamb chunks

Method:
Put a jug of cold water in a large pan, place the lamp pieces into the pan and heat on full, placing the onion and garlic into the water. While the water is heating peal the sprouts, peel and cut the carrots and place into the pan, along with the cauliflower broccoli and peas. At this point I place a small vegetable stock cube into the pan, to add more flavour. You dont have to add a stock cube, when Thomas was younger I did not add any stock but you can get baby stock cubes from the supermarket which contain less salt. Peel and chop the white and sweet potatoes and place into the pan along with a cup full of pearl barley. Once the casserole is bubbling, bring the heat down, sitir and place the lid over the pan. Make sure you keep your eye on the water level in the pan, if it looks like it is getting a little low just put some more water in.

When the potatoes and vegetables are soft, check the meat is cooked, I usually do this by cutting a few of the lamb chunks in half and testing them. Now you are ready to blend to your desired consistency, I use a hand blender just to blend the meat and veg a little. You can now place the casserole into containers and allow to cool before placing in the freezer.

As you can see my lamb casserole homemade baby food recipe is just as excuse to get lots and lots of vegetables and goodness into Thomas’s tummy in a lovely warm tasty way. I hope your little ones enjoy this heart-warming dish xx