Zombie Mothers and Babies Bite!

So when I’m not feeding the Friedlanders, I am feeding sleep deprived mothers! In my spare time (!!!) I run a playgroup for parents, babies and toddlers. We do a bit of singing, drinking coffee and the babies have a play. All good fun. Tomorrow is our Halloween party… Tricks and treats so far include ‘Pin the legs on the spider’, spooky rhymes and songs, fruity fly cake, and squashed bugs (raisins) for the kids!

Spinach and Cottage Cheese Cannelloni

At least once a week I try to include a non-meat day, in the interest of our health, our wallet, and the planet. I tried a new recipe this week, spinach and cottage cheese stuffed cannelloni in tomato and basil sauce. It was based on a Ricotta and Spinach recipe but it appears there had been a run on ricotta at my NTUC! It worked just as well in my opinion and was probably a bit healthier.

Things I learnt from making this recipe were;

1. If you burn your onions a bit you can still taste it in the sauce when it’s finished! So brown them slowly, don’t be in a mad rush like I was.

2. Use a piping bag to fill your cannelloni rather than using your hands or a spoon, so much easier! Stand all your Cannelloni tubes upright next to each other in the baking dish. Then you can fill them in one go and there is less mess as you don’t need to put your piping bag down and pick it up after each tube.

1 small red onion
25g butter
1 large pack fresh spinach
A good pinch of dried thyme, or few sprigs of fresh
Small punned of mushrooms
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
250g tub of cottage cheese
1-2 tbsp grated Parmesan
1 x 350g tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
3/4 pack dried cannelloni

Preheat oven to 200 Celsius/ 400 Fahrenheit.
Fry onion in butter until it is golden brown and softened. Add spinach, thyme and seasoning. Place lid on pan and cook for 1-2 minutes till spinach is wilted. Remove from heat. Add tbsp of oil into pan add garlic, stir for 1 minute, add mushrooms and fry for 5-10 minutes till soft. When cool, blend cooked veg together with cheeses in food processor. Using piping bag, pipe spinach mix into cannelloni tubes. Place in greased baking dish. Pour over pasta sauce and chopped tomatoes. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil and Parmesan.

Salmon Nicoise a la Elaine

Calling this a ‘recipe’ is a bit of a stretch as it tends to be more of a pile up of what’s in my fridge! All, and any raw salad vegetables go in, olives, sun dried tomatoes, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds – topped with a grilled salmon fillet and a hard boiled egg. The first time I made this dish I was pregnant with my daughter and  on a mission to eat the most nutritious meal imaginable. I also had gestational diabetes so wanted a filling meal, high in protein and nutrients, but low in carbs. It was perfect and I am sure all that fish did my brain-box daughter the world of good!

Sometimes I add boiled new potatoes, not always.

A salad within the salad I include is grated carrot, apple and raisins with Italian salad dressing stirred through.

The only consistent elements for this recipe are the fillet of salmon drizzled with oil, seasoned and grilled, and the hard boiled egg, halved and served with an anchovy fillet on top. I always try to buy wild salmon – it is darker and has more flavour than farmed salmon and I am sure the healthier and more natural alternative to farmed fish.

Enjoy creating your own Salad Nicoise Au Saumon!