Chicken,Tomato and Pasta soup

This recipe was born out of a near empty fridge and pantry, but don't all great inventions come from bare necessity? Well, perhaps that is too great a comparison... this dish isn't really that great an invention, but it is a hearty meal, made from ingredients dug out of a pantry. My secret ingredient was actually a small tin of baked beans! Our son can't have bought chicken stock cubes since he's allergic to some of the ingredients they use. I had run out of tinned tomatoes, and I was wanting to somehow add a bit more nutrition and vegetable content to the soup... and there it was, a tin of baked beans! My husband actually really liked this dish, so it got ticks of approval from old and young.

Chicken, Tomato and Pasta soup
500g chicken fillet - cut into bite sized cubes. If you have chicken pieces then you can use that instead of course, but the fillet is the quickest option and easiest to find in my freezer.
1 onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced roughly
220g can SPC Baked Beans in tomato sauce (dairy free, egg free, nut free)
300g San Remo soup pasta, or any other pasta of your choice

Boil about 3L of water, add the chicken pieces first. Once they have been cooked on the outside, simply add all the other ingredients, except for pasta. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes. Add the pasta to cook about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve. Depending on what pasta you choose, you may need to add more water to ensure the pasta doesn't stick together. This is a great simple, hearty meal for those days on the run. Garnish with some parsley just to add a bit of colour.

Allergy free Spring rolls - savoury and sweet

 

Hooray, our son can eat cabbage! I can just imagine the surprise as you read that. For our son, every new food is a cause for celebration - I have to admit that on this one, I didn't follow the strict rules of half a teaspoon one day, one teaspoon the next etc. I don't think that test would have been very successful because who wants to eat spoonfuls of cabbage?!

So, my test method was actually using Coles Cocktail Spring Rolls with Vegetable filling. Two spring rolls on the first day, doubling that portion over the next few days until my son could eat no more! This is where other allergy mums will understand what my cheering was really about. The picture that I've put up is of my home-made spring rolls, but my celebration over cabbage is because it now allows us to buy pre-made spring rolls! Just in time for birthday party number 3! This means that there is one less thing I have to make from scratch and one easy option when we want to bring a plate of something to share to other parties. The reason I chose this brand is because it has the least ingredients in it, thus making it more likely that our son can actually eat it: egg free, milk free and nut free still of course, but be sure to check the packaging every time you buy it.

Up till now, I have experimented with home made spring rolls like the picture above. I used Filo Pastry which is basically just wheat and oil. I wrapped shredded chicken with thinly sliced vegetables, or else slices of apple in the pastry and shallow fried it. Apple was our son's favourite naturally. For adults, I served it with a fresh garden salad, drizzled with sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise. If you're adventurous, you could wrap them in triangle shapes instead to make samosas.

Home-made was probably more delicious, but shop bought gets my thumbs up for easier living.

Calling other allergy mums out there... do you know of a soy mayonnaise that doesn't contain egg?

Happy New Year everyone!

It's a little late... perhaps Happy Chinese New Year is more appropriate now?

We have been on holidays, but I have also been taking a lot more rests during our toddler's nap time, which hasn't left much time to sit on a computer. What's with all the resting? Well, our little family will be getting bigger by one when June comes around. We are all excited and I'm not completely sure how we're going to do it all... I'm sure every mother has these thoughts every time, and yet we still have more!

The question of allergies comes up often - we've been told there is a 1 in 3 or 4 chances that our next child will have allergies of some sort. Whether it is to food, pollens or animals is unknown. So am I doing anything different? Not too much... oh except for running around after a super energetic toddler! The interesting thing is that our obstetrician, who looks after the pregnancy has nothing to do with our allergy specialist, so neither can really comment can they?

Anyway, with a new year comes new ideas and new year's resolutions. My husband's new idea is that our son should eat at the dinner table with us at meal times, rather than being turned around to the TV. Ugh... that was my basic reaction. As I've put in another post, there are very good reasons for having him watch TV... But, of course, my dear husband is right, there are more good reasons for him to join us at the dinner table, especially now he is turning 3.

So, on return from holidays, we begin our new standard of dining. Initially, I told my husband that we can eat together on weekends when I can plan a dinner that we all share. Afterall, it's unfair to make our toddler watch us always eat food he can't eat. Well, we're nearing the end of January, and surprisingly, everything is progressing smoothly! We actually eat breakfast and dinner together nearly every day. Plus, it's made me put more effort into trying to come up with meals suitable for the whole family. This has led to less cooking and less washing up... who knew?!? Oh, and of course less TV time which is always a good thing :-)

I'll have to put together some more recipes, but so far we've had Roast Chicken and Roast Veg, Chicken soup and pasta, Beef Stir fries, Marinated Lamb cutlets, Sushi ... just to name a few.

So 2012 has gone off to a good start, and there is so much more to come... May your year be filled with love, laughter and adventure.

What are your New Year's Resolutions??