Winner of a Soldier Egg Cup & Toast Cutter

We had a bumper 151 entries for this super cool Soldier Egg Cutter & Toast Cutter Set from Prezzybox.

Prezzybox is a great online gift company who have every kind of gift imaginable from toys to kitchen goods. Their prices are very reasonable and you could actually do your Christmas shopping in one fell swoop, without leaving the house, never mind getting stressy in those awful crowds. But enough of all that, now back to the winner.



And the winner is....................................

Maggy from Red Ted Art.

Congratulations Maggy, send me your address and I will post out your prize.

Roast Vegetable Sauce

This is a great sauce for pasta or to pour over a pie, veggie burger or veggie sausages. I am sure it would be a great sauce for a lot of dishes that I just can't think of at the moment.

It's a great way to get lots of vegetables into your children and it is so, so tasty, you will start making it for yourself too.

I quite like to make mini lasagnes for my toddler with this sauce too. I layer it between ½ sheets of lasagne in a little ovenproof dish (I like to boil my lasagne for a few mintues to soften it slightly before layering it up, as these baby lasagnes don't take long to cook) and top with a cheesy sauce and some grated mozzarella. Cooper loves this dish and I usually serve it with some lightly smashed and buttered vegetables.

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Roast Vegetable Sauce for Pasta

October 27, 2011

This is a lovely rich sauce to stir into pasta or serve alongside a dish. A great way of getting lots of veg into your little and big ones. This sauce also freezes really well, so it is a great standby to have in the freezer.

Ingredients

• 1 punnet baby plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
• 1 aubergine (eggplant), cut lengthwise, sliced and diced
• 1 red peppers, quartered, de-seeded and cut into quarters
• 1 red onions, peeled and cut into quarters
• ½ butternut squash, de-seeded and diced
• 1 clove of garlic, leave in skin
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• a few large basil leaves, finely chopped
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• a good pinch of sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan/425f/gas 7.2. Throw the baby tomatoes, aubergine, red pepper, onion, garlic and butternut squash into a roasting pan along with the olive oil. Toss to coat. Roast for 30 minutes until starting to brown at the edges. Stir well, half way through the cooking time.3. Pop the garlic out of the skin. Discard the skin then blend up the garlic with the other vegetables until smooth.4. Pour your blended vegetables into a large pan, along with the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, lemon juice and a good pinch of sugar.5. Warm through for 10 to 15 minutes. Add the basil leaves and black pepper to season.
Notes: If you are making this sauce for a weaning baby do not add salt, however if this is for older children and adults, you may add salt.

This sauce can be introduced into a baby's diet from around 7-8 months old. Serve it with some baby pasta to start introducing a bit of texture into baby's diet.

Details

Total time: 1 hour Yield: 1 batch

Win a Soldier Egg Cup & Soldier Toast Cutter Set

Prezzybox kindly sent Cooper a soldier egg cup and toast cutter set to try out and I am pleased to say it was a great success.

You might wonder why I use the word success. Eggs! They are a bit of a problem.

Cooper isn't sensitive to them or anything. He just doesn't like them. I didn't have a problem getting him to eat them when he was really little, but now he just plain refuses to eat them. I have tried to tempt him with:

Omelettes
Quiche
Egg Sandwiches
Frittata
French Toast
Hard Boiled Eggs

No luck! Not a bit of it. He just refuses anything with egg involved. The only thing I have had success with is Baby Egg Pies, which have only a little egg mixed with cream or milk in among vegetables in a shortcrust pastry case and even then it depends on his mood.




Enter the Soldier Egg Cup and Toast Cutter.

I made Cooper a soft boiled egg and popped it into his wee soldier egg cup. Made some toast and cut out soldiers. Spread them with a little butter and presented it all to Cooper, who sat in his highchair looking at it in a rather bemused fashion. He soon got the hang of it when I showed him how to dunk the soldiers in the egg. He loved it and dunked two slices of wholewheat toast soldiers. Yay! Granted he didn't want to eat any of the egg on a spoon, but hey it is definitely progress. So a big thank you to Prezzybox.




Don't you just love the way he holds his little pinky out as he dunks his soldiers? Such a posh boy.

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If you would like to buy a Soldier Egg Cup & Toast Cutter Set for your little one or as a gift, they are very reasonably priced at Prezzybox at only £6.95. They actually have loads of Cookery Gifts and Gifts for Children. I think I will be buying a few Christmas presents from them myself.

And now on to the good news. Prezzybox have very kindly given me a Soldier Egg Cup & Toaster Cutter Set to giveaway to one lucky reader.

If you would like to win one of these fabulous Soldier Egg Cup & Toast Cutter Set then just leave me a comment. (You don't have to have a child to enter, you can just be a big kid yourself. It is great for a gift too.)

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 @Prezzybox on twitter and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.
4. Tweet the competition using (Win a Soldier Egg Cup & Toast Cutter set from @Prezzybox over at @littletums http://tinyurl.com/67mch3c) and leave a separate comment to say you have done so.
5. Like the Prezzybox 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 worldwide. I am happy to post it out to the winner, wherever they live. The giveaway runs until Friday 28 October 2011.

Good luck everyone!

Spinach & Onion Puff Tart

This is a recipe from The River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Nikki Duffy. I was really pleased to receive a promotional copy of this book and have used it quite a few times when I am looking for inspiration.


Cooper loves this tart, so I make it for him fairly regularly. He likes to eat it cold as a snack, but his favourite way of eating it is hot with vegetables and baked beans.

This tart could be made with a variety of vegetables, so it is very versatile and a great way of using up left over veg. I do like it with spinach though. It is an easy way of getting some spinach in Cooper's diet.

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Spinach & Onion Puff Tart

by Nikki Duffy
Written with permission by Jacqueline Meldrum

October 14, 2011

An easy and tasty seasonal tart that will delight both children and adults.

Ingredients

• 350g-400g spinach
• 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
• 1 onion, quartered and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, cut into slivers
• 1 tsp chopped thyme leaves
• 375g good-quality ready-made all-butter puff pastry
• 50g Cheddar or other hard cheese, grated
• freshly ground black pepper
• sea salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190c / gas 5. Grease a baking tray or line with a non-stick liner.

If the spinach is mature, tear out any tough stalks. Wash the spinach thoroughly, then pack it, with just the water that clings to it, into a saucepan. Cover, put over a medium heat and wilt the spinach in it's own liquid - this takes only a few minutes. Drain and leave in a colander to cool. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as you can with your hands, then chop the spinach roughly.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook gently, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes, until really soft and golden. Add the garlic for the last few minutes. Add the thyme leaves, then the chopped spinach, season if you like.

Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface to a square about 5mm thick, and lift onto the baking tray. Spread the spinach mix over the pastry, leaving a margin along the edges. Scatter over the grated cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has puffed and golden, and the cheese is turning golden too. Serve warm or cold.

Notes:

I wash my spinach in a colander and then pour a kettle worth of boiling water over the spinach to wilt it. I feel there is no need for a pot. I also used dried thyme as I didn't have any fresh thyme.

Details

Total time: 35 mins Yield: 1 tart

This recipe was originally published on my other blog Tinned Tomatoes.

Babapasta with Seeds

Yes, the name is made up! I was putting together a new dish for Cooper and it is basically a layer of pasta with fresh tomato sauce, a layer of mashed up broccoli & cauliflower and a layer of macaroni cheese with a sprinkling of seeds on top.

What the heck do you call something like that? I'm not going to bake it, so a bake is out and it isn't really a tower either. Time to make up a name I thought. So babapasta it is or pasta for baby.





























Babapasta with Seeds for Baby

First you need a batch of fresh tomato sauce. Here is a nice simple recipe.

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Easy Tomato Sauce for Pasta

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

January 23, 2011

A simple tomato sauce that is a great starting point for many recipes. I haven't added any salt, so that the sauce is suitable for babies and toddlers, but do add some if you would like to.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 500g carton of passata
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp sugar
• a handful of fresh basil, torn or chopped
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is translucent.2. Add the passata and cook gently for a few minutes before adding the tomato puree and sugar.3. Cook gently for 20 minutes.4. Stir well, then add the basil and season.

Details

Total time: 25 hour Yield: 1 batch

Cook 1 cup of baby shell pasta according to the packet instructions, drain and mix with some of the tomato sauce.

Cheese Sauce

Regretfully I didn't weigh up the ingredients for the cheese sauce. I have made this sauce since I was about 16, so I no longer weigh the ingredients, I just throw as much butter and flour in as I think I need and add the milk gradually as I stir.

I do have a recipe for macaroni cheese, so I will give you that, it is pretty much the recipe I always use. Just cook one cup of baby pasta and mix with some of this delicious sauce.

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Cheese Sauce

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum

January 23, 2011

My standy cheese sauce recipe for macaroni cheese. Quick, easy and so, so tasty. Such a great comfort food.

Ingredients

• 500ml milk
• 25g butter
• 25g plain flour
• 100g mature cheddar, grated
• 50g parmesan, freshly grated
• 10 black peppercorns
• ½ onion
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan with the onion, peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to the boil and then strain off the peppercorns and the bay leaf.
2. In another saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour. Add a little milk at a time and whisk until mixture thickens, then add a little more milk and do the same until all the milk is used.Bring the sauce to the boil and then simmer gently for a couple of minutes, still whisking. Add the grated cheddar and Parmesan and stir until melted. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Details

Total time: 15 mins Yield: 1 batch

Vegetables

Steam half a head of broccoli and half a head of cauliflower until tender. Mash with unsalted butter and freshly ground black pepper.

Topping

sunflower seeds
pumpkins seeds
pine nuts
flax seeds

When all your elements are ready just layer them up. First the tomato pasta, then the vegetables, followed by the macaroni cheese and a sprinkling of seeds and nuts.

If you have a family allergy to nuts, then think carefully before adding them, also there is a chance of choking with a younger baby. The flax seeds are ok, but you may like to consider grinding the other seeds.

Makes 8-10 portions for 10 months old +

Winners of the TumTum Trainee Lunch Bags

Now in the past Cooper has been a great one for pulling the winner's name out of a hat, but today he was in a cheeky mood and just kept throwing all the names in the air as you will see. We eventually got there, but we had to come back to it later. Congratulations to my three winners and a big thanks to TumTum for providing us with three of the cutest lunch bags to give away.









UPDATE:

I couldn't get in touch with one of the winners. I have waited and waited, but have had to redraw the prize. Here is the third winner of a lunch bag.



Congratulations to Louise over at Comida y Vida.