23 Incredibly Helpful Charts for New Parents

Have a look at this Buzzfeed page of incredibly useful charts. (It's from an American website, so may not all be entirely relevant!)

Dairy free grown ups: Asian Sticky salmon

If you are still breastfeeding, you know what a chore it can be to stay dairy free. Gone are all the lovely milky coffees, delicious cheeses and chocolatey desserts, but I think that this recipe more than makes up for it. It can be made as a midweek dinner if you plan ahead, or if you have a good local fishmonger, get a larger piece of salmon as a show stopping alternative Sunday roast. 

No reason baby couldn't have this too, as long as they weren't allergic to soy. 

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet per person or one whole side salmon to feed a crowd!
To marinade:
4 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 star anise
2 tsp Thai fish sauce (or pinch of fish paste)
3 garlic cloves


To serve: Sesame seeds (optional), mange tout, green beans and baby corn, soy sauce (optional) Rice. Red chillies (optional), lime wedges (optional) 

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients together, pour over the salmon and leave for as long as possible to marinate, preferably overnight. 
When ready to cook, heat the oven to 22oC and place the salmon in a roasting tin. Save the marinading sauce. 
Get a saucepan of boiling water for the rice and cook for 10-12 minutes. 
Cook in the oven for 15-20mins. 
Meanwhile, transfer the marinade to a pan and simmer until it thickens. 
Pour the marinade over the salmon for the last 5 minutes of cooking to allow it to glaze. 
Wash the vegetables and place in a frying pan or wok for 3-6minutes until stir fried. Add a splash of soy sauce to the vegetables. 
When all is cooked, sprinkle some sesame seeds over the dish and serve with roughly chopped red chilli and lime wedges on the side. 

See more of my dairy free recipes. 

Cheeky Courgette and Butternut Squash Pasta

This is another really easy recipe that you could enjoy as well.

Seasonal ingredients like courgettes are great

Ingredients

Pasta - the type you use will depend on whether you are making this dish for just baby or for you as well. I use the small pasta stars if just making this for T. 
1/2 medium butternut squash - peeled and chopped into small cubes. 
1 courgette - chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
1 knob of dairy free margarine

Methods

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. 
2. Place the chopped courgette and butternut squash with the oregano in an oven proof roasting dish for approximately 30minutes. Drizzle over some olive oil. You will want to check on them regularly to make sure that they don't catch. 
3. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in a pot of unsalted water as per the cooking instructions. 
4. When the pasta is cooked, drain, and add the vegetables. 
5. Add a knob of dairy free margarine while the pasta is still hot to allow it to melt. 
6. When cool, serve and enjoy!

Chair project!

One of the things I never thought about maternity leave was how boring it could be at times! Now that T sleeps well and naps for about 2 hours over lunchtime, I found I needed lots of little projects to keep me occupied (not being the sort of person that can sit idly and do nothing). 

"Dear husband," I said one day, "Those battered old Ikea chairs, can I try and make them a bit better?"

"Err, well you couldn't make them any worse," replied He. 

So I began!

It took about two weeks to do these chairs, and it was a learn-on-the-job type of experience. So I hereby offer you my guide to "upcycling" (Ugh, hate that expression!) some simple chairs:

Step by step guide to chair makeover

1. Make sure that chair is clean, and remove the cushion unit by turing the chair over and unscrewing it from the chair frame. 

2. I used Annie Sloane chalk paint in Old White to cover these chairs. Thinning the paint down with water and doing two coats worked best. Each chair got a little better with each practice unfortunately! 

3. While you are waiting for the chairs to dry, you can cover the seats. You will need approx 1.5m of fabric (especially if you waste as much as me), some fabric scissors, and a staple gun. 

4. Fold the corners inwards towards the centre of the seat, then overlap each of the edges over it to make a neat corners. Staple the corners in place, then staple along the edges, pulling the material tight (but not too tight) towards the centre. The fabric I used was from John Lewis, unfortunately I can't find it on their website, but it was available in store at about £15/m. You can make the edges neater in a couple of ways - by folding them over, by stapling on tacking ribbon around the edges, or by cutting out another section of fabric to staple on over the top. Admittedly, I left mine as they were as I doubt few people will turn the chairs upside down to check!


5. Once the paint on the chairs has dried, you need to wax them to make the paint last. Do this by applying the wax with a brush all over the wood of the chair then buffing off with a cloth. 

6. When this is completed, you can attach the seats back on the chairs just by turing the chairs back over and screwing them back into place. 


7. Voila! Covered and new chairs. Just looking round the house for my next project now. (Eyes up wooden trunk in the corner of the spare bedroom...)

Have a look at my other projects here. 

Easy Breakfast Ideas

Looking for ideas for quick and easy breakfasts that are dairy free for your little one, then look no further!


Cereals 
Cheerios are better for the older child, but I give these to T as a snack, often popping a few on his highchair tray when I am getting his meal ready. He's just started to use a pincer grip to pick things up, so this is a good way for him to practice it.

Lots of baby cereals seem to come with milk added, so it was a bit of a challenge going through the recipe labels in the supermarket or Boots searching for the milk-free options. The Fruity crunch cereal goes down well in our house, and I make it up with T's milk-substitute so I know he's getting plenty of calcium. 

Other dairy free products in this range include Banana and Strawberry porridge, Fruity museli, Multigrain banana porridge, Wholegrain wheat flakes, Tropical fruit cereal and Fruit museli. 


For fairness, and so I can't be accused of favouring one brand, there are also some good dairy free cereals in these ranges:

Organix - multigrain porridge, raspberry and banana museli, strawberry and banana porridge. 

Ella's Kitchen - wakey wake baby cereal, Mango banana and strawberry cereal. 

Other products are available! This list is by no means exhaustive. 



Ready brek is another in our breakfast selection. Although this label says it is not suitable for milk allergy sufferers, it is explained in this leaflet here, as it is due to the possibility of milk contamination rather than containing milk itself. It therefore has to be up to you whether you risk this or not for your child depending on the severity of their allergy. As T does not have an immediate anaphylaxis type allergy, he has been ok with Ready brek, but you have to exercise your own discretion with this one. 

Weetabix is like a sponge for milk, so if I'm ever concerned that T isn't drinking enough of his formula, he gets Weetabix for breakfast. I often defrost some puree that I have in the freezer to mix in with this, and it always gets finished off! 

Omelettes 
Omelette is easy to do and is dairy free. Melt a small knob of dairy free spread in a saucepan and add a beaten egg. I find that the secret is to leave it until virtually cooked through before trying to turn over (stops it sticking to the base of the frying pan!) I've linked to the veggie omelette recipe, but just leave the veggies out for a breakfast omelette. 


Toast
Why not try some toast? I always check that I go for soy-flour free options (which is harder than you think!). Just put some dairy free spread and perhaps a think scraping of jam if you're feeling generous! I served this up this morning with a helping of blueberries (T's current favourite). 

Fruit Salad 
Simple and easy. Just chop up some fruit into manageable pieces for your baby. 
Ideas: Banana, kiwi, pear, apple, strawberry, blueberry, nectarine, peach, melon or anything else you can think of! Remember if you offer things like grapes that they are cut in half so that they don't provide a choking risk. Add some dairy free coconut yoghurt too?

If you have any more recipes, then please let me know! I'm always open to more ideas, especially where speed and simplicity are the key! 

Chicken and Leek Casserole

This is a pretty easy dish to make that would suit a baby in the earlier stages of weaning if blended appropriately. I leave it lumpy for T at the moment. It's a great dish, because he's started to go through a phase of refusing green vegetables when presented as a finger food, but is quite happy to eat them when mixed in with something else.


Ingredients
1 chicken breast, diced
250mls salt free vegetable or chicken stock
1 large potato, chopped
1 medium leek, chopped, 
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 onion, diced, 
1 tbsp organic rapeseed oil

 Method

1. In a large saucepan, soften the onion in the oil
2. Add the chopped potato, carrot and leek and continue to soften (but not brown) in the pan.
    

   

   
   
   

3. Add the chicken and continue to cook
4. Once the chicken is cooked through, pour in the stock, place a lid on the pan, and simmer for about 20minutes (you want the potato to be cooked through and soft), stir occasionally. 
5. Blend, puree or mash as appropriate to your child

Top tip - If you are feeling lazy (and aren't we all somedays), then cook the chicken, leek and potato as above, but add some mixed frozen vegetables to the saucepan with the stock to increase the veg content. 

Coconut and Cinnamon Rice Pudding

This is lovely, and would easily get eaten by me, let alone T.

I've substituted milk or cream here for coconut milk instead, which gives the dish a lovely flavour. Give it a go and see.

Apple, cinnamon and coconut rice pudding