D is for . . . Damper

Happy Australia Day everyone.

I have decided today, that I would go back to the roots of Australia and bake some damper. Although I added a bit of an Aussie twist to make it a little more delicious!

Savoury Damper

Serves- depends on the size, I made 12 small rolls
Time- 15 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes to cook

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/2 Cups of self raising flour

-1/2 cup of water

Then whatever you want in your damper

-Vegemite

-Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 200 Degree.

Sift the self raising flour into a bowl, then add water slowly until it is a dough like constancy. Make sure its a little sticky as it will be put on a floured surface.

2. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough into an oval shape, then add what ever ingredients you want in the centre, I did one with just Vegemite and one with Vegemite and cheese!

 3. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 3cm thick slices, place at least 2 cm apart as they will rise and grow.

4. Put in the oven for 15minutes. Until lightly brown on top.

5. Then Serve! We put some butter on the plain Vegemite ones and that made them extra delicious. The Vegemite and Cheese ones were perfect by them selves, with a cup of tea or a coffee. Perfection.

We will be using this recipe again as we thought of some other ideas to put in the middle

- Jam served with whipped cream
- Cheese and Bacon
- Pesto with sun dried tomatoes
- Dried fruit
- Spinach and cheese (i'm going to try this one tonight)

Seriously its such an easy recipe and you could put anything you liked in the middle.
Its also a great way to celebrate Australia day, especially if you have people coming over.

T is for . . . Teething cookies

So we are using the Baby Led Weaning method when it comes to feeding little man. This means we give him food to feed himself rather than using puree. He absolutely loves is and isn't all that keen on puree. Although he will still eat it. Somedays we will give him some puree as well as something to feed himself.

Anyway I have been looking for things to feed him, to mix things up a little. So I read up on some teething cookies recipes and decided to put my own together and this is what I came up with.

Fruit Puree Teething Cookies.

Serves- Around 20 small cookies
Time- 10 minutes to prepare, 10-15minutes to bake

1/2 Cup of Plain flour

1/2 Cup of baby cereal

1/4 Cup of fruit puree

1/4 Cup of water

1 teaspoons of cooking oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, Sift the flour into a bowl and choose a baby cereal to add. I chose Farax 9+ months because it has oats and dried fruit in it already

2. Puree 1/4 cup of fruit (1/4 of a cup is the final puree, will need to use around 1/2 a cup of fruit) I used my favourite appliance ever, My Baby Bullet, but you can use anything and depending on how old your baby is, it doesn't have to be a paste. You could easily use whole fruits.

3. Mix your puree and oil through your dry ingredients.

4. Next mix through the water. I say use 1/4 of a cup but it will depend on what cereal you use. SO just add water until you get a dough like consistency. Of course this is where you get your hands dirty and roll the dough up until its a tube. Then cut into small pieces, around 1cm thick and into what ever shape you please.
Ethan likes stick shaped things the best.

5. Put baking paper in a tray, (I learned a trick from my SIL where you wet the baking paper first so it easily goes into the pan, its brilliant) and place your cookies in, remember because you used plain flour these biscuits wont rise and will not spread, so you can place them close together.

6. Bake! mine took 15 minutes to bake, but I watched them closely. As they are for babies, they only need to be slightly brown, if the cook and get dark brown, the ends become sharp and can be dangerous.

7. Enjoy, your very own baby tea party

Things to take note of~

- ALWAYS watch your baby when eating solid food as choking can happen! never takes your eyes off them.

-I know that adding oil may deter some people, I even tried a batch without it, but because there is no real binding ingredients, the oil make the cookies stick together and not crumble, which can be dangerous for babies.

These cookies are great. I cant wait to give one to Ethan when he wakes up. I had a little taste myself and they are quite nice!

B is for . . . Back!!

As in me, being back! I have missed the land of blog and im back and better than ever.

E's first christmas was amazing he was the perfect little man and got spoilt rotten! And we had an amazing time with both our families!

We saw in the new year, asleep! Which was amazing considering the lack of sleep that had preceeded the day.

And we spent a night away in Ballarat as a family which was one of the most beautiful and amazing mini vacations I have ever had. Time spent with the family is always incredible.

Little E is SIX months old now and we introduced solids with the baby lead weaning approach and he is loving it and is already an amazing eater. We are still working on getting him to love sleep as much as he loves food though haha.

And then there is me, im new and improved, im happier than I have ever been, im getting rid of those baby pounds and im super excited to update everyone on some hints and tips I have found.

So stay tuned, I promise its worth it!