Feeding Lilith

During my great bread frenzy of October 1st, the last installment was this cheese and onion soda bread.  Let me tell you, my house smells amazing. I can't wait for lunch today to indulge on all this amazing bread. Lucky I'm having people over!  Soda bread does go stale quite quickly, so definitely try to eat the same day as making!  Ingredients  120g oats 250g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate soda  150g grated cheese (I use the Morrisons savers) 2 tsp Onion granules  300ml whole milk Generous squirt of lemon juice  1/2 tsp English mustard  How to do  Combine the lemon and milk and set aside for around 5 minutes. You want it to be curdled consistency. Preheat the oven to 180⁰c  Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the lemon and milk mix and combine. Get stuck in with one hand, saving the clean one to add more flour if needed. Alternatively, the blunt side of a butter knife works well to bring it all together. Add more flour...

I was in the mood for some bread with a little more flare this morning. In my bread saga which has yielded 3 loafs this early morning, this one is divine. I have my sister coming over today and looking to serve this with some poached eggs for lunch!  This makes a nice small loaf which should last a day. Meaning it's nicely fresh!  The fresh parsley is optional, I have a plant sat on my windowsill I always reach for. Ingredients  250g plain flour (extra for kneading)  7g sachet of dried yeast 2 tsp Garlic granules  Nice handful of fresh parsley (optional) 2 tsp Italian herbs  2 tbsp of bottled lemon juice  1 tbsp of oil  180ml warm water How to do  I mixed all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl and combined the wet ingredients in a jug. If using the parsley, grab a handful and tear up into the mix.  I then popped it all together and got stuck in with my hands. Using a butter knife to bring together also works. Tip o...

Excuse the half bread photo, didn't manage to get a photo of the final product before it was attacked!  This recipe is super easy and a fab recipe for bread newcomers! There's no proofing needed and very light kneading. Making it perfect!  Traditional soda bread calls for buttermilk. I make a knock off version using lemon juice and whole milk. This causes the milk to curdle and is a fantastic buttermilk substitute!  This recipe works well with self raising, but I often find I forget to buy it. I always have plain in my cupboard and with the baking powder - it works well!  If you wanted to use self raising, skip the baking powder.  Ingredients  300ml whole milk Generous squirt of lemon juice (bottled works perfectly) 400g plain flour (extra for kneading) 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 1 tsp baking powder  How to do  Preheat the oven to 180⁰c and squirt the lemon juice in the milk. You want it to go nice and lumpy. Set aside for 5 or so minute...

Tonight I was massively craving risotto. Atlas, I have no risotto rice, white wine or any of the fancy ingredients required.  It got me thinking, could I make something with what I have in the cupboard and fridge that resembles risotto, yet isn't?  The answer is yes! And with this I present -  "Not Actually Risotto"  Or as my better half suggested  "Not-sotto" Had I left this to cook longer like I intended, the rice would have bloomed nicely giving it bit more of a risotto texture. But I was hungry! So once it came together with a nice creamy consistency I popped it off the heat and ate it all up!  This can be made safe for little ones, I'd suggest around 9m+ with the spinach and different textures. Just skip the chili flakes!  Ingredients  1kg chicken drumsticks  1 ltr low salt veg stock 1 tsp Onion granules 1 tsp Garlic granules  1 onion 2-3 cloves of garlic  190g long rain rice 1 tsp Chili flakes 1 tsp Italian seasoni...

To go alongside some meatballs I made this evening, I whipped up this tomato sauce. This sauce is super universal and can be enjoyed as is or for a base for a spag bowl, lasagne or whatever your heart desires. The possibilities are endless!  Ingredients  1 onion 2 tsp garlic granules (or 3-4 minced cloves) 1 tin chopped tomatoes  1 tin/ carton of passata  2 tsp dried basil (or a handful of the fresh stuff!) 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree  1 low/ no stock vegetable cube  Small drizzle of maple syrup (optional)  How to do Dice the onion. Or, hear me out, grate it. Makes the sauce lovely and smooth!  Heat some oil in a deep saucepan on a low heat and add the onion, you want to soften and sweat the onion. Don't let it brown!  When it's started to soften I add the garlic and cook for another few minutes!  I then add the tomatoes, basil, puree, grinding of black pepper and veg stock. Turn it up to a medium to heat through and stir regularly. ...

This post will cover how I lay the foundations to do a cost effective meal plan. But also, how I cut the costs on the food shop itself and prolong my foods life by storing it properly!  The first thing I do is take a stock check.  I focus on what fresh ingredients I have in my fridge the most. This helps me minimise waste. For example, I currently have a pepper and some mushrooms in the fridge, I'm thinking of doing some stuffed mushrooms and pepper for lunch tomorrow!  Then, after jotting down what I have excess in the fridge, I search the cupboards for what tins or general dry store ingredients I have.  I make a note of these and get my thinking cap on. Some examples I've previously done are - Stock cubes, sausages, split peas, lentils and pearl barley - I'll make a scotch broth Lentils, onions, chopped tomatoes and mushrooms - Bolognese  Flour, cheese, mustard, pasta - something resembling Mac cheese It's okay for these ideas to be missing a couple of ingredi...

  Here are my recipes for my Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes!  This Yorkshire pudding recipe can be used for toad in the hole also! Just partially roast the sausages first then pour in the Yorkshire mix!  Yorkshire puddings  Ingredients  Sunflower/ veg oil 140g plain flour 4 eggs 200ml milk How to do I just used a small deep baking tray, a rectangle brownie tray to be precise! However, feel free to use a muffin tin/ Yorkshire tray.  Preheat the oven to around 220⁰c and pour some oil in the tray. Enough to cover the bottom. Pop in the oven to let it warm up! Combine the flour and eggs, whisk thoroughly until fully combined and little to no lumps left. If there is a few, never fear! They'll come out in the next step! Gradually add the milk, whisk thoroughly until combined. You want a nice smooth mix which has had lots of air incorporated!  Grab out the tray of oil nice and gently! Pour in the Yorkshire mix and pop in the oven for around ...

This fed 3 adults, 1 little and a portion leftover. I would say comfortably, It would feed 3 adults and 2 older babies/ toddlers. This is £12 for the whole shop. I would break it down to the cost of each portion and food used. But it's 8pm and I'm tired. Also, I find these a little misleading. As yes, the meals are cheap per head but you still need to buy the whole items. Unfortunately I can't buy 240g of flour, they come in 500g or 1kg.  This plan is on the basis of you having veg/ sunflower oil, black pepper and your wonderful self. The rest is included in the shopping below  I also opted for chicken drumsticks in this recipe as myself and my partner prefer the darker meat of chicken than a breast. Thus it made more sense for us to go for the most affordable option than buy a whole chicken we simply wouldn't have enjoyed 50% of!  Morrisons as of 09/2024 (promotions not included, price match to Aldi/ Lidl items are as this is a long spanning promotion by ma...

On this post, I will be covering what I always ensure I have in my kitchen cupboards and fridge. For example, I often bulk buy dried lentils, chickpeas and split peas from Grape Tree. You can use other stores local to you or even supermarkets do great selections now! Always check the world food isles for these items too.  These are ingredients I use all the time and really help me whip something out of nothing! Or bulk out meals.  A family member recently made a joke of "Shannon cooked it, of course it has lentils in it!" This made me giggle more than it should have!  Now, I'm not saying go out and buy all of this immediately. That would be absurd. It took me a little while to build this up. Make notes of what you use often and then build from that!  This is what I find myself regularly grabbing for: General dry store ~ Chopped tomatoes - I always ensure I have 2 tins in my cupboard. Especially for when poop hits the fan and I have £5 to my name so I can focus on oth...

I'm begining a new money saving series. Here are my top tips and tricks when it comes to saving money on the pesky food shop. From what to have stocked up in your food cupboard and what to look for when buying food.  I'll be covering Meat and Fish in this post!  Chicken I opt for chicken drumsticks, my local supermarket sells them for 1kg for £1.99 I cook them in the oven or air fryer, then simply shred the chicken and keep it in the fridge. Adding it to meals where I want to incorporate meat Chicken is a versatile meat and pretty much works in 90% of meals.  Alternatively, if I'm doing a roast chicken, I will shred the remaining chicken from the carcass and use that for another meal. Also perfect for making stock!  Mince (beef) Opt for roughly 10-15% fat mince. 9 time out of 10, these are price matched to Aldi at major retailers making it affordable.  5% mince can dry out easily and be harder for little ones to eat, whilst the highest fat content mince (around ...

These baby safe scones are a total hit in my house!  With no added sugar, I let the dried fruit do the talking.  This is technically a soda bread recipe, just with some added fruit and oats! Feel free to pop this in a loaf tin, just ammend the cooking time to 40+ minutes!  Since this is a soda bread, do not knead or knock it back too much. This will create a very dense bread. We want to keep as much air in as possible so gentle hands are a must for this!  Ingredients 300ml of whole milk A good squirt of lemon juice (around 10-15ml) 400g self raising flour 2 handfuls of oats 2-3 handfuls of dried fruit mix How to do Edit to add - rehydrate the dried fruit in some warm water. Drain and dice up before adding to the mix!  Combine the milk and lemon juice. We want this to curdle, leave on the size for 5 or so minutes until it's a nice lumpy mess!  Preheat your oven to 180⁰c Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix until combined. Don't b...

Who doesn't love pizza?! This baby friendly recipe has no added salt and leaves the creativity to you! Below is my base and sauce recipe, I will leave the toppings to you! Now the base isn't technically a pizza dough, more of a flat bread. But, that doesn't stop it from working perfectly!  This makes enough to comfortably feed 2 adults and 1 little with leftovers! (roughly 2 medium pizzas)  Ingredients  Pizza base 200g plain flour 200g greek yoghurt  1 tsp baking powder  Pizza sauce 2 tbsp of tomato puree Decent amount of water, about 12-15 tbsp until it's nice and loose 2 tsp Italian or mixed herbs  Pinch of smoked paprika (optional)  Black pepper (optional) How to do -  Sauce Using either a jar or bowl, pop everything in and shake/ mix until fully combined. Make sure it has a nice slightly thick liquid consistency. If you taste test, it will be slightly bitter. This taste does go once combined with the toppings!  Base  Preh...

These vegan banana raspberry muffins are amazing if I do say so myself.  Now now I promise I make more than cake! We've taken a break with weaning the little lady due to illness. Letting her have the odd thing but sit-down meals are currently on pause.  With this time, I'm focusing on developing recipes. What works and what doesn't.  With no refined sugar, I relied on the sweetness of the fruit and maple syrup to do the job for me.  Now I won't lie, I very much bashed these together at 2am, I wasn't expecting much but was blown away! They're light, fluffy and just overall a damn good muffin!  The berries in this are interchangeable, use raspberries, blueberries or blackberries. What ever you've got in the fridge or what takes your fancy! Alternatively to muffins, pop in a loaf tin and bake for around 40 mins.  Ingredients  3 bananas Handful of raspberries (100g would do nicely) 100ml oil (veg or sunflower)  3 tbsp maple syrup  230...

These muffins are irresistible - tasting just like pancakes! The maple syrup just adds to the pancake taste.  I plan to serve these with some raspberries this evening. Yes yes, I haven't yet fed them to the little lady. But, I have tried them and I couldn't wait to share it!  Ingredients  2 large eggs 240ml whole milk  3 tbsp maple syrup 2 tsp vanilla extract  60g melted butter 150g (or one punnet) fresh blueberries 230g self raising flour Sprinkle of oats  Drizzle of maple syrup to serve  How to do  Preheat your oven to around 180⁰c and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases. I just used cupcake cases and it worked grand!  Combine all the wet ingredients. I used a whisk for this step to ensure the eggs especially were fully combined.  I then added the blueberries and gave them a quick stir to ensure they were nicely covered before adding the flour.  Give it a good old stir until fully combined. This is quite a loose mix s...

After my better half requested a lemon cake, who was I to refuse?  I opted to do a classic pound cake but with lemon flavouring. And it was delish! However, instead of drizzle I opted for a light and fluffy lemon buttercream with candied lemon slices. I could have eaten this by the bowl-ful!  I used a 31 x 20 x 4cm tin for this, one of those brownie ones on Amazon with the dividers, it worked perfectly for this amount of cake!  Ingredients  Cake-  250g unsalted butter 250g caster sugar 250g self raising flour 5 medium eggs Nice drizzle of lemon extract, roughly 2 tsp Icing sugar- 250g unsalted butter (room temperature) 500g icing sugar Tsp lemon extract  Milk to loosen if required Colouring (totally optional! But I highly recommend sugarflair colourings)  Candied lemons- 400g sugar 400ml water  2 lemons, thinly sliced  How to do  Cake-  Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, I greased my tin with a little butter and lined t...

I've had this in the slowcooker for most of the day, let me tell you it was worth the wait!  This dish as a base is completely vegan. However, I opted to add some shredded chicken I had in the fridge!  This comfortably fed 3 adults with a side of wild rice. As always, my recipes are more guidelines. I kinda go with the flow, you'll know when it's done as it thickens and all the flavours have had chance to mingle!  Ingredients  250g chickpeas - this can be a tin of chickpeas. Alternatively boil 125g of dried chickpeas for around 20 mins and then simmer until cooked (roughly 45 mins) 1 onion  3-4 garlic cloves Pinch of chilli flakes 1 tsp tumeric 1 tsp ground ginger Handful of chopped dried apricots  1 can of chopped tomatoes  Handful of fresh coriander  250ml veg stock - I opted for kallo low salt  How to do I started by thinly slicing the onion. I popped some oil in my slow cooker and minced the garlic. I then added the onion, gar...

For brunch today, I was starving. Realising I was breastfeed 3 into the day and hadn't eaten myself! I wanted to use what we had left in the fridge and whipped up this salad. I was completely blown away by this, it was delicious!  From my fridge I added  Red gem lettuce  Spring onions Hummus Ham I chopped the spring onions, ham and lettuce, coated in the thin layer of tahini and ground black pepper.  I hard boiled some eggs to add sliced on top!  I'm making a tangine tonight, I may have over portioned the chickpeas, so I opted to fry some in some tumeric. Bloody yummy!  Full list of ingredients used:  Red gem lettuce  Spring onions Hummus Ham Egg Chickpeas (fried in oil and tumeric) Tahini Chilli flakes Ground black pepper  The ham can be removed to make a veggie salad. To be honest, get creative! I find lettuce, thin layer of tahini and the salad bowl options are limitless! 

For this recipe, I used a stand mixer. However, a electric whisk for the buttercream and a good ol' wooden spoon and bowl would suffice!  This is my recipie for a 3 tier celebration cake. The cake itself is a simple Pound/ Madeira cake with a splash of vanilla. Paired beautifully with a light butter cream and jam.  It's simple and something I have gone too many times over the years as a quick and easy cake to whip up! Taste awesome too!  Cake Mix 375g unsalted butter (room temp) 375g caster sugar 7 medium eggs + 1 egg yolk 1 TSP vanilla extract (if more slips in I won't judge)  375g self raising flour Preheat your oven to 180⁰c/ 160⁰c fan assisted. You'll want to line and grease three 8"/20cm cake tins.  Cream together your butter and sugar. You'll want to to this until it's lovely and smooth/ fully combined. I tend to reach a point where I think it's done then continue for a few minutes.  Add your eggs, if you find it easier you can add one...