childrens tea recipes
Healthy organic meals, packed full of veggies, for less than £1 per head!
Moroccan apricot meatballs, with avocado slices
Mini minestrone with sausage and pita fingers
Date and blood orange couscous with chicken and butternut squash wedges
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Serves 6
- 75g dried apricot - 57p
- 10g fresh mint - 48p
- 10g fresh basil - 48p
- 200g lamb mince - £2.09
- 100g Pimhill jumbo porridge oats - 24p
- 1 tsp wild flower honey - 4p
- 1 ripe avocado - £1.99
- A pinch of ground cinnamon
- A pinch of cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
£5.89 for 6 portions of 3x22g meatballs and 1/6 of an avocado / 98p for one
Preheat the oven to 180C. Finely chop the apricots into tiny pieces. Finely chop the basil and mint. Place the apricot and herbs in a bowl with the mince, oats and honey. Add a pinch of cinnamon. Grind a few cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar and add them as well - or just add a pinch of ground cumin. Mix all the ingredients together with your hands. Divide and roll into 18 balls.
At this stage, you can freeze any meatballs you don't want to use up immediately!
Place 1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil in a baking dish. Pop the oil in the oven to warm for 2 minutes. Then, add the meatballs, roll them in the oil to coat and roast for 25 minutes, or until cooked right the way through.
Serve with slices of the avocado, and a handful of cherry tomatoes or a clementine.
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Mini minestrone with sausage and pita fingers
Serves 6
- 1 potato - 28p
- 1 carrot - 8p
- 100g curvette pasta - 28p
- 2 pork sausages - £1.32
- 1 small onion - 10p
- 1 courgette - 23p
- 200g tinned red kidney beans - 45p
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes - 89p
- 10g fresh basil - 48p
- 30g Parmesan cheese - 80p
- 6 wholemeal pita breads - £1.01
- 2 tsp unsalted butter - 8p
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500ml chicken stock
£6.00 for 6 portions / £1 for one
Peel the potato and cut into 1-2cm cubes. Peel the carrot and cut into 1cm dice. Warm the chicken stock and add the potato and carrot. Cook on medium-to-low heat for about 15 minutes. Then, add the pasta and cook at same medium-to-low heat for 15 minutes, or until pasta has cooked through and potatoes are nice and tender. You may have to top the stock up with a bit of water, so keep an eye on it!
Pop the sausage meat out of the skins and roll each one into 3 little balls. Warm 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and saute the meatballs until just golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate. Reserve the oil in the pan.
Finely chop the onion. Cut the courgette into 1cm dice. Fry the onion in the reserved oil until just tender. Add the courgette and cook with the onion for a minute or two. Pour in the tinned tomatoes and let it bubble up for a minute. Reduce heat. Drain the beans and add. Drain the potatoes, carrots and pasta, if needed and add it to the mix, along with the sausages. Simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavours mingle. Turn off theat. Finely chop the basil. Stir through. Plate up. Add a touch of finely grated Parmesan over the top and serve with toasted, buttered mini pita breads, cut into fingers.
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Date and blood orange couscous with chicken and butternut squash wedges
Serves 4
- 1/2 whole butternut squash - £1.16p
- 2 garlic cloves - 10p
- 100g wholemeal couscous - 30p
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger root - 5p
- 50g hot smoked chicken breast - £1.45
- 25g Medjool dates - 42p
- 5g fresh basil - 24p
- 1 blood orange - 23p
- 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
- A pinch of cinnamon
- A pinch of coriander seed
- A pinch of cumin seed
- A pinch of sweet paprika
- A few black peppercorns
£3.95 for 4 portions / 99p for one
Preheat oven to 180C. Scoop the seeds from the butternut squash and cut into 2cm thick wedges. Drizzle 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil in a roasting dish and pop into the oven to warm for 2 minutes. Coat butternut in the oil, dust with spices - a pinch of cinnamon, ground coriander and cumin seed and a touch of sweet paprika (the spices bring out the sweetness and earthiness in the squash). Toss the garlic cloves, left whole and in their skin, in the pan and pop into the oven to roast for 30 minutes, or until tender and just golden on the edges.
While it cooks, make up the couscous. Measure it out into a bowl or pan you can cover with a plate or lid. Add a pinch of cinnamon and the freshly grated ginger to the couscous. Pour 150ml boiled water (from the kettle) over the couscous. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, finely chop or cube the chicken breast. Remove the stones from the dates and finely chop. Finely chop the basil. Halve the orange and try to catch the juices. Use a teaspoon to remove the halved orange segments, again reserving as much juice as you can - place segments and juice in a bowl. Once the couscous has absorbed the water, fold the chicken, dates, basil and orange segments and juice through. Grate a bit of the zest from the orange, if you like.
Once the squash is ready, allow it to cool a bit. Then, serve a few squash wedges with a mound or bowl of the couscous. Or, you can chop the squash into bite-sized hunks and fold it through the couscous as well.
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