Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and Top Enders meal plan

Did you know that Little Dish has a cook book? Its called the Little Dish Favourites Cookbook and I knew because they sent me one. Top Ender has spent her time pouring through it looking at the various dishes, pondering on what ones she would request that I cook for the family. Baby Boy didn't quite understand that a cook book was full of recipes and wasn't something you were meant to eat and took a bite out of some of the pages!

Top Ender found a section called Meal Matchers towards the back of the book that recommends what dishes you can make that go nicely with another dish and she was busy copying out the names so that she could play restaurants with Baby Boy and I. It gave me an idea though, if she was smart enough to work this out, what would happen if I asked her to work out a meal plan for the week?

I gave Top Ender some simple instructions. Don't choose anything that nobody will eat, make sure that we get at least one portion of fish in the week, see if we can use the same ingredients in more than one dish, and we like to have a Roast on Sundays. Top Ender spent half an hour looking through making notes in her little notebook and finally was ready to sit down with me to update our spreadsheet.

Her list was as follows;

Meatloaf with Ratatouille
Sausage and Lentil Casserole with boiled potatoes
Spanish Tortilla
Shepperd's Pie
Easy fish in foil with Broccoli and Cauliflower Cheese
Burgers with Wedges
Simple Roast Chicken with trimmings

I was impressed. She had chosen meals that she knew everyone would eat and more importantly that I could confidently cook! All of the dishes apart from Meatloaf were dishes that I cook and know how to cook, but I followed the recipes as stated and found that although the dishes didn't taste too different to how I cook them normally that Top Ender ate everything we gave her... traitor.

All of us (apart from Baby Boy) loved the Meatloaf recipe, so much so that everyone had seconds. I don't ever remember us all having seconds. Baby Boy was keen on the leftovers in a sandwich the next day, so it was a good job there was a lot leftover, as I had to make another sandwich for me! The Meatloaf recipe was such a success that I wrote to Little Dish and asked if I could share it with you and they agreed. So for your delight (and consumption) here it is;

Ingredients

1/2 Small Onion, peeled and diced
1 Large Carrot, peeled and diced
2 eggs, beaten
60ml (2 fl oz) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
100g (3 1/2 oz) fresh breadcrumbs (2 1/2 slices of brown bread)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional)
500g (1lb) lean minced beef
500g (1lb) lean minced pork

Method

Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas 5

Line a baking tray with foil. Lightly oil the foil.

Combine all the ingredients, apart from the meat, in a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Using your hands, add the minced beef and pork and make sure it is well mixed in and evenly distributed.

Shape your ingredients into a loaf and place on the baking tray. The loaf should not touch the sides of the tray but sit nicely in the middle. Bake for 45-50 minutes, then let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

This should serve 8 children or a family of 6 with leftovers according to the book. It served us as a family of 4 with seconds and leftovers and I was generous with the portion sizes. I found that I had to cook mine for 70 minutes as after 50 minutes the centre was still pink, and I also think that next time I would cook the carrots a little before adding them as we found them a little hard and if they were softer I think that it would have just made it a little better. Mind you I probably should of diced it smaller!

The only problem that we have now is that Baby Boy wants to make a meal plan...

The Little Dish Favourites Cookbook is available from WH Smith, Waterstones, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s, or online at Amazon.co.uk (and other places if you Google it) and its RRP is £14.99.

Little Dish Purees Review

As you may remember once a month we have a cheat night for dinner, which normally involves a walk round one of the local Supermarkets and us picking up a prepacked meal. Top Ender and Baby Boy are quite fond of the Little Dish meals and will chose a favourite meal out of the range (see The Little Dish Review if you want to know about them) and everyone will be quite happy.

The other week though I noticed a new addition to the range, a puree in a pouch and I thought that it must be aimed at the weaning market. A smart idea in my opinion because the purees are the sort of thing that I made for Top Ender and Baby Boy when they were both learning to eat solid food, and because they are fresh they are a good alternative when you realise that you have run out of ice cubes of mashed butternut squash or potato and parsnip which my two were very fond of.

I didn't think much more of it, even when my sister mentioned that she had seen them and that they do fruit flavours too.

The Little Dish asked if we would like to try some. Even though Top Ender and Baby Boy are well past weaning it was suggested that these would be good as a snack or a dessert because the pouches make them easily transportable and they can be out of the fridge for up to four hours.

When the package arrived I was just about to go on the school run, so I quickly signed for the package ran up to school and let Top Ender open it when we got back.

They sent them to me in a lovely little cooler backpack which Baby Boy has obtained from Top Ender!

Top Ender having a check of what it contains

Theres more!

She pulled out six pouches;

• Butternut Squash, Carrots and Apples,
• Sweet Potatoes, Parsnip and Leek,
• Peas, Pears and Apples
• Strawberries and Apples
• Blueberries and Apples
• Mangos and Bananas

I could of been an artistic director, look at how I arranged these!

The three savory pouches were passed over and she and Baby Boy tucked into the three fruit pouches. Baby Boy was expecting something less thick I think, but he was very pleased with the taste and kept telling me it tasted of Strawberry (he had the strawberry one!) and Top Ender really liked the Blueberries and Apple one. I was left with the Mango and Bananas one (which was fine by me as I like both fruits) and it was very strong so probably not a good one for my two to taste.

I didn't want to waste the savoury pouches and so I passed them to a friend who is a few weeks into weaning her little one. She let her little one try all three and there wasn't a drop left if the bowl that she squeezed them into! They of course passed the Mummy taste test too, with my friend commenting that if she got hungry later in the evening she might end up just sucking on one of the pouches herself!

The three fruit pouches are something that I would consider buying again for snacks when we are on our adventures, as the packets are quite robust and the price (£1.19 for one or two for £2) is reasonable for a healthy on the go snack of this sort and style.

Yummy yummy yummy, food for my tummy!

So if you want to try these head for your nearest chilled foods aisle in your nearest Tesco's!