Easy Chickpea & Coriander Patties

These chickpea patties are really easy and quick to make and they hold together well, even though they don't contain any egg. Good news for all you vegans out there. We love them and they have become a real family favourite. I do hope you give them a try.

If you are making these for adults, you can add more spices.

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Easy Chickpea & Coriander Patties

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

September 23, 2011

Easy and flavoursome chickpea burgers made without eggs. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 onion, quartered
• juice of ½ lemon
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 handful of fresh coriander

Instructions

1. Blend the chickpeas, garlic, cumin, turmeric, onion and lemon juice in a food processor.
2. Tip into a bowl and mix in the flour and coriander.
3. Use your hands (floured), to shape into balls and then flatten with the ball of your hand.
4. Fry in a little oil, turning until nicely browned and crisp. Make sure your oil is really hot or the patties may crumble.

note: These can be chilled in the fridge for a few days or frozen.

Serving suggestion: For a real nursery style meal, serve with mashed potatoes and beans. Mmmmmmmmm :P

Babies: These patties are suitable for babies (10 month +), adults and everyone in between.

You may want to chop the patties into small pieces for babies and remember if you are serving it with mash, leave out the salt and the beans should be low sugar and low salt.

Details
Total time: 15 mins

Yield: 8-10 patties

Innocent’s ‘Design a Lunchbox Challenge’

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Innocent got in touch and asked if I would like to be on their lunchbox panel. They wanted a healthy lunch idea for children. Cooper and I were up for the challenge.

Those lovely people at Innocent sent us a red lunchbox, filled with innocent treats and a set of stickers, so Cooper could decorate his lunchbox. As you will see in the following photos, Cooper had a great time decorating his lunchbox. In fact, I think he now has a sticker addiction. He got geared up by enjoying a Fruit Smoothie to help get geared up.

I can't help cringing when I look at these photos. He fell over the day before and scuffed his head quite badly, poor wee lamb. I suppose it is amazing he has got to this age without hurting himself before.






Cooper's lunchbox is filled with two baby egg pies (mini quiches),a little tub of homemade carrot hummus, some carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes to dip in the hummus, oatcakes for a bit of crunch, a Mango & Pineapple Innocent Fruit Tube and some ripe blueberries. I don't know about you, but I would enjoy this for lunch too. The lovely wee tubs you can see are from TumTum

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Baby Egg Pies

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

September 18, 2011

These baby quiches can be filled with whatever vegetables you would like to use up. They are quick and easy to make. If you don't have any cream in the fridge, just use milk instead

Ingredients

• 250g shortcrust pastry
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 1 large flat mushroom, finely chopped
• 3 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• ½ cup frozen peas
• 1 large egg
• 4 tbsp double cream
• small handful fresh herbs
• enough grated cheddar to sprinkle on top

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/375f/Gas 5.2. Rub a little olive oil into 8 holes of a muffin tin.3. Roll the pastry fairly thin and cut out circles of pastry to fit or a little larger than the muffin holes. I used a small bowl. 4. Gently ease the pastry into each hole and prick the base once with a fork. I have tried blind baking these and to be honest, it worked out better when I pricked them with a fork. Much easier.
5. Bake the pastry for 5 minutes. The bases will have risen a little. Gently push them down with the back of a teaspoon. Set aside.
6. Saute the onion in the olive oil until soft and translucent, then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add the peas and tomatoes and warm through in the pan with the other ingredients for a couple of minutes. Season with black pepper.7. Spoon a little of the vegetable mixture into each pastry case.8. Whisk the eggs with the cream or milk and season with black pepper.9. Pour the egg mixture into the cases. Be generous, if the egg spills over the top of the case a little, it really doesn't matter as the egg will set anyway. Sprinkle each pie with some grated cheddar.10. Bake for a further 7-8 minutes until the egg is set.
note: These will happily keep in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container, alternatively, you can freeze them.

Details

Total time: 25 mins Yield: Makes 8 baby egg pies

Cooper's Packed Lunch

Cooper takes a packed lunch when he goes to his childminder. I like to provide his lunch and snacks, even though I know his childminder would happily give him a lovely meal. I suppose I started when he was little and I just got into the habit.

Cooper usually has porridge in the morning before we head out and I pack him a meal that can be heated for lunch. He takes water, milk and snacks with him too.

His lunch bag is looking rather snazzy. TumTum very kindly sent Cooper this lunch bag and tubs along with a few other goodies. You can have a wee peek at what he got here. I just love the TumTum range. Simply gorgeous! Cooper is actually eating some fruity toast (toasted raisin & cinnamon bread toasted) from his Hedgehog plate right now. Hold on a minute and I will go take a photo.


A bit out of focus, but you can see his lovely plate. However, I am wittering on, back to Cooper's lunch. In his lunch bag he has pasta shells in a tomato, aubergine & mushroom sauce (I will post it soon), small slices of Spinach & Onion Puff Tart, blueberries, carrot sticks and fromage frais.

I am pleased to say that Cooper is starting to try fruit again. It is a slow process, but we are getting there. I am hoping he has now passed through his suspicious phase. So blueberries and bananas are back in action. The carrot sticks in his lunch bag have been put there with much hope. He will guzzle everything else in his lunch bag quite happily.

What do you put in your children's lunch bags? Do you also optimistically add things?

There is still time to enter into my TumTum Lunch Bag Giveaway. It is running until the 30th of September 2011. Just pop over to the giveaway and leave a comment. You don't get the little boxes, but the lunch bag is still gorgeous and very roomy.

Win a TUMTUM Trainee Lunch Bag

I send my wee boy Cooper off to his childminder's house with a packed lunch on the three days that he spends with her. It is a homemade packed lunch apart from the occasional fromage frais or yoghurt.

I am ashamed to say that his packed lunch is bundled into his pram bag in a plastic bag if it is lucky, if not, it is just thrown in as part of the morning rush. That is until I received this utterly gorgeous lunch bag from TumTum.

I hadn't heard of TumTum until they got in touch with me to see if I would like to review their range. I now feel like I was really missing out. Their products are the cutest and such good quality too. You should have seen Cooper's wee eyes light up as we opened up the boxes. He loved everything and was super excited to unpack the russian doll like snackboxes and eat his dinner from his new bowl.

TumTum has kindly offered me a few lunch bags to give away. They are good quality, insulated, colourful lunch bags with a really fab design on the front and an ice cream van on the back with room for a photo of your child, so the bag can be quickly identified as theirs at playgroup, nursery or school. It is the lunch bag to be seen with this season.

If you would like to win one of these colourful lunch bags (the bags come empty, ready for you to fill), then just leave me a comment.

For extra entries:

1. Follow my blog Little Tums and leave a separate comment to say you have done so.
2. Follow me (@littletums) on twitter and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.
3. Follow @TUMTUMTOTS on twitter and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.
4. Tweet the competition using @littletums & @TUMTUMTOTS in the tweet and leave a separate comment to say you have done so.
5. Like the TumTum Facebook Page and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.

Yes, that is 6 opportunities to win!

Remember to leave separate comments as each comment is a separate entry.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only and runs until Friday 30 September 2011.

Good luck everyone.