Vegetable Pasta Bake

Makes about 3 adult portions with enough for baby too

Ingredients: 500g Passata or a tin of tomatoes, 200g Pasta (I used penne but any will do), 100g Broccoli, 3 carrots (125g), 125g Cabbage, 1 small onion diced (100g), Olive Oil, Oregano and Basil for seasoning, 50g Mature Cheddar (would also work with mozarella, feta etc).

Chop vegetables up according to your baby's development. If they have mastered the pincer grip you can chop into smaller pieces otherwise just chop it into sticks and broccoli trees.  Ethan loves broccoli trees the best out of all veg, I think I do too!

Method: Preheat oven to 200'C/400'F/Gas Mark 6. Put some olive oil in a wok and stir fry until clear, add carrots followed by broccoli and shredded cabbage.  Meanwhile make up pasta according to instructions on packet.  When vegetables are done (Ethan likes his with a bit of crunch in them as do we!) pour into a casserole dish and add passata.  Then add pasta and herbs and stir until well combined.  Sprinkle cheese on top and place in oven til cheese melts.  This comes out of oven fairly cool still as passata is added cold so I was able to serve Ethan straight away but do check is cool enough before giving to baby.

Ethan loved this meal.  It's very simple but he wolfed a huge portion down.  I think he liked the al dente pasta and vegetables as he has 2 more teeth coming through at the moment so it's comforting to bite on.

Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup

Broccoli and cauliflower are both super healthy containing calcium, iron, vitamin A, C, K, B6, B9 (folate ie the naturally occuring version of folic acid which is important for mums when pregnant and nursing) and E.  When chopping up the vegetables for this soup I saved a few trees and steamed them quick in the microwave leaving them to cool whilst the soup cooks as Ethan loves eating both broccoli and cauliflower in this form.

Serves 2 adults and as many babies as are hungry!

Ingredients:
Olive oil,
150 grams broccoli,
150 grams cauliflower,
1 small onion,
400 ml stock made with low salt stock cube, black pepper to season.

Method: Dice onion and fry in a saucepan til starts to go clear. Chop broccoli and cauliflower into florets and add to saucepan.  Add just enough stock to cover.  Simmer for around 20 minutes until vegetables are tender.  Use a handblender to blend into soup or cool and set aside before blending in food processor.  I like my soup chunky and thick so it doesn't take much blending but you can make it as thick or thin as you like.  Ethan isn't really getting spoons at the moment (anything given on a loaded spoon ends up being poured straight off) so as with the other soup I dunk torn up crusty bread into it and he wolfs those down.