Toddler Archives - Happy eats

A quick, family friendly one this time that your little ones can help with. Everything on a pizza but using a tortilla wrap then warmed in the oven.

I also added some surreptitious veg on this occasion which was a bit risky – I had a bit of rocket leaves and chopped it up very fine before adding it to the tomato sauce. Fortunately the little one ate it as it was masked by all the other flavours! So definitely a good way of getting some veggies in.

On this occasion we added ham and pineapple to the ‘pizza’. You can add whatever topping you like or just keep it simple with tomato and cheese.

Then simply, roll it up. Spray a little oil on top of the wrap and put it in an oven at 180C for around 10 mins. These can also be cut into bitesize lengths perfect for parties as we tried recently.

Ingredients

Tortilla wraps
Homemade tomato sauce
- A batch of this will keep for a week in the fridge. Sautee some finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Add 2 tins of tomatoes and a spoonful of brown sugar. Simmer for around 20-25 mins on a low heat stirring occasionally. It will reduce down to spreadable consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste as needed (or if you’re cooking for a toddler, it should be tasty enough without).
Grated cheese (we used mozzarella)
Other toppings of choice eg ham, pineapple

Happy eating! 🤤

Oxtail stew fit for your baby! And you can have some too!

Oxtail stew with added veg for the little one

Oxtail is probably not the most obvious thing to feed your little one. It is meltingly tender when stewed and full of collagen. Typical oxtail stew recipes use wine and stock in the cooking liquid which is the way I have always been cooking it. But I had some oxtail the other day and really wanted to share it with the little 👶 so I modified how I usually cooked oxtail but still making sure that it remains rich and tasty for us! Because oxtail is mainly bones, it creates its own stock when cooked so there really isn’t any need to add a stock cube which is, of course, high in salt.

Whilst adding a good red wine to your stewing liquid gives the stew another dimension, to be honest, I’d be more than happy to go without it in the recipe in the future. Except for the glass or two to go with the stew of course!

This recipe does take a long time to cook and the longer you cook it, the more tender the meat gets. So if you are able to plan ahead and cook it the day before as suggested, I would highly recommend it. Otherwise, if you are cooking on the day, give oxtail more time to stew if you can before eating. The cooking time in the oven can be extended as you prefer, just keep an eye on the stewing liquid although it shouldn’t dry out too much if you are using a heavy bottomed pot with a lid.

Using the approach of the trio of ‘humble beginnings‘ (aka mirepoix, holy trinity, soffrito, battuto, etc – a really good article explaining what these are at seriouseats.com) of garlic, onions and celery, the ‘beginnings’ of the stew flavours were set without the need for any salt at all.

Browning the oxtails first caramelises the meat, again adding an extra layer of flavour to the stewing liquid.

Not to be too blasé about it, but the rest of the recipe is just about chucking all the rest of the ingredients into the cooking pot and let it stew. So it is actually quite an easy recipe. The vegetables you add to your stew can be any combination you like. A very versatile recipe.

Add all ingredients into the pot ready to bring to the boil

I served it with cous cous this time but you can serve it with rice, bread etc. anything that can soak/mop up the rich sauce. With no wine, no salt and lots of vegetables, it’s a perfect recipe to diversify your little ones’ taste adventure. There were certainly no leftovers from either the boss 👶 or the other minion 👨!

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤

See full recipe

Tag: Toddler

Tortilla pizza wrap

Oxtail stew fit for a baby (and you!) – no wine, no salt