A little ray of Sunshine

Hi all

It's a cold windy rainy day in Melbourne brrrrr (but it was sunny 20 minutes ago) so I'm putting something bright and happy and summery for Flynn.
Stay warm!

Banana and Peach Sunshine
(suitable for babies 6 months +)

1 banana
1 peach (canned is fine)
Rice cereal (optional)
1 Qubie (ice cube freezer trays for baby food)

Simply mash / puree banana and peach together. If you find the consistency is too runny simply add some rice cereal to thicken it. Serve straight away!

Make sure you freeze the leftovers in your Qubies for tomorrow.

Idea: Add 1 or 2 cubes to natural yoghurt and serve!

Chicken for all

Hi all

I finally found my camera cable so I can transfer photos again - hooray. Problem is all baby food puree tends to look the same so I do apologise if you look at my fantastic photos and think "hmmmm, that looks just like pureed.......". When my life becomes calm again and I have as much free time as I had as a single person I think I'll definitely do a photography course - it's on my list of "to do" things! Sound familiar :)

In the meantime this is a great homemade chicken dish because it's super duper easy and it can have a dual purpose. Make a double batch and puree and freeze half for baby in your Qubies baby food container. Use the other half to make into Chicken pie. I make this recipe all the time as I can feed Flynn and because it's so simple I know that Tyler who is now 3 will also eat it! Once you've made it a few times, add your own vegies like peas or mushrooms to give it a bit more color and baby a bit more variety.

Chicken for all
(suitable for babies 7 months onwards)

4 Chicken thighs
1 tbs oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, grated
1tbs flour
50gm butter
1.5 cup milk
100gm tasty cheese, grated
400ml can creamed corn
2 Qubies baby food container

Step one
Place chicken into a saucepan with water and simmer/poach until cooked through. Once cooked, remove from water and wait until chicken has cooled. Once cooled shred chicken by hand. Place shredded chicken into the blender.

Step two
Place oil in a fry pan with onion. Cook on a low heat for approx 10 mins until onion becomes translucent. Add carrots and continue to cook until carrots have softened. Place ingredients into the blender and wait.

Step three
To make Bechemel Sauce place butter in a saucepan and melt on a low heat. Add flour and stir for a couple of minutes. Add milk and continue to stir until mixture thickens. If it becomes too thick add some more milk. Once thick add cheese and creamed corn.

Step four
Add as much or as little sauce into the blender and you like. Blend all the ingredients to the desired consistency.

This is really really yummy. For Flynn I often will add cooked pasta or rice and freeze it with the chicken. It's perfect for freezing and I always make too much!

Happy cooking!

Dad's Family Beef Casserole to share with baby

Hi all

Making baby food that baby and Mummy and Daddy can share is a great time saver. My husband made this fantastic casserole recently and we pureed some for Flynn who also loved it! It's also an ideal recipe to freeze and serve later now that we are in winter.

See how you go and make sure you let me know what you think

Dad's Family Casserole
Suitable for 7 months onwards

1kg beef topside, cut into 2cm cubes
2 tbsp vegetable oil
6 whole baby onions peeled
2 whole cloves of garlic
2 medium carrots, thickly sliced
2 tbsp plain flour
2 cups beef stock
A good shake of each of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce
440g can of Guinness
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 - 5 springs fresh tyme
2 bay leaves
2 Qubies baby food freezing containers

1. Prepare the beef
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Cut beef into 2.5 - 3cm cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the oil to the beef and mix well.
Heat a large frypan over a medium heat. Brown the beef in 2 or 3 batches. Remove each batch and place in a casserole dish.

2. Add the vegetables.
Reduce the heat and add a little extra oil to the frypan. Add the vegetables and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the flavour base.
Sprinkle the flour or other seasoning over the vegetables and stir until coated. Gradually pour in the stock and Guinness and stir well. Add the remaining flavour base ingredients and heat stirring until the mixture boils. Pour over the beef in the casserole dish and stir to combine.

Cover the casserole dish.
Place in the oven and cook until the beef is very tender (approx 1.5 - 2 hours). Stir every 40 mins or so, add water if needed to keep the ingredients just covered.

Serve with mash potato or pasta.

For baby: we made pasta and pureed the pasta with the casserole - it was DELICIOUS! Make sure you have lots of left overs to freeze into your Qubies as I can guarantee you baby will be wanting this again - yum.

Moving with baby while making Chilli

Hi all!

I've had the best intentions of writing a recipe every couple of weeks however life again went into complete chaos!!
How would you feel to hear your husband say "um, we're moving states in 2 weeks" - ARGH! I knew it was coming but I didn't realise it was going to be so soon. All you defence wives out there will sympathise with me I'm sure.

I guess this might be a great time to talk about being organised. Thankfully I always have a freezer full of frozen baby food which I prepared in my Qubies so on the day of our big move which involved a plane trip all I had to go was place a few different cubes into containers and they were defrosted by the time Flynn was hungry. As always I had my lamb shanks (Flynn's absolute favorite) and a few different containers of fruits). Flynn is now also eating lots of hand held foods such as bananas, strawberries, bread and cheese. He is nearly 9 months now and loves his food. If your baby isn't at this stage yet don't worry. Tyler who is now 3 gaged on literally everything that went into his mouth that wasn't completely mashed until he was 1 year old!

So this is my excuse for being so behind. At the moment we have things everywhere. I'm still trying to find my camera cords so I can't give you a photo of this weeks fabulous recipe so I've opted for an update of my gorgeous Flynn, bread in mouth. Isn't he adorable - can you tell I'm the mum :).

Moving on..... Here is another yummy recipe from one of our Qubies mums Martha. If you've got a recipe you'd like to share with other mums please feel free to email me at the Qubies website.

Vegie Chilli by Martha
(Suitable from 9 months)

1 onion, chopped finely
Paprika - dash
Cumin - dash
Red capsicum, sliced
Pumpkin, peeled and cubed
Potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup red kidney beans
cooked rice
2 Qubies baby food ice cube trays

Place a little oil in a heavy saucepan
Add onion and cook on a low heat until softened. Add dash paprika and cumin.
(Note: neither of these spices are hot)
Add the vegies listed or add some more of your own.
Add the kidney beans and continue to cook on a low heat until the vegies are soft.
Once cooked, blend to the desired consistency. Add rice and serve.

This recipe is suitable for freezing, so grab those Qubies containers and pop the rest in the freezer for a later date.

Chicken Yum in the baby Tum

Hi all

What a crazy week.
If any of you have ever moved you know how hectic preparing and packing can be! Add in the fact that we've had 3 weeks notice and you'll understand my life at the moment is just MAD! Of course this is just another little thing life throws at you to keep you on your toes. I've also just about run out of baby food cubes in the freezer and so on Mother's Day afternoon had to do a big cook up for Flynn who is an eating machine which is wonderful!!!

This is a fabulous recipe from one of our Qubies Mums. It's packed with lots of healthy vegetables and as always if there is something you don't like just substitue it or take it out.

Let me know what you think or if you have a recipe that you'd like to share please feel free to email me at: alexandra@miinkimoop.com.au

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day filled with cuddles and kisses xxx

Chicken with Pasta
Suitable from 7 months

1 chicken thigh, diced
1/2 cup spiral pasta (or try cous cous or rice)
1 small can creamed corn
1/2 cup pumpkin, peeled and diced
1/2 cup zucchini, peeled and diced
handful spinach
1 squash, diced
2 Qubies baby food containers

Steam or boil chicken and place in the food processor
Prepare pasta according to packet. Once cooked place into food processor
Steam/boil vegetables until soft, add spinach leaves and cook for a further 2 minutes
Place vegetables into food processor with chicken and pasta and process to desired consistency.
Add the tin of creamed corn and mix with a fook.

Serve one happy baby and freeze the leftovers into your Qubies for a later date.