Baked

Baked Rice Pudding was one of my favourites growing up. This recipe comes from a very old book of my Mum’s, ‘The Dairy Book of Home Cookery’. The book may be old but the recipe has stood the test of time. Once the pudding is baked you get a lovely brown skin on the top. In our house, the skin was very sought after and was always divided equally between us! When you take the pudding out of the oven you may think that it is not thick enough. However, once you give it a stir it will thicken up, and you will be left with a homely, comforting pudding.

Serves: 2 adults Prep Time: 5 mins Cooking Time: and 2 children + 30 mins soaking 2 hours

85 grams pudding rice 1 1/2 pints milk either full fat or semi skimmed 45 grams caster sugar nutmeg either whole or pre grated

Directions

1. Butter a casserole dish that will hold 1.5 pints of milk. 2. Add the milk and pudding rice to the dish. Stir, and leave for 30 minutes to allow the rice to soften. 3. Preheat the oven to 150’C/140’C no fan/Gas mark 2. 4. Once the soaking time is up, add the sugar and stir again. Grate a good dusting of nutmeg over the top. 5. Put the dish into the oven and cook for 2 hours. When ready, the rice will have softened and you will have a lovely thick pudding. 6. Serve as it is, or with some stewed of your choice.

Simple Banana Lolly Pops

These simple banana lolly pops are little gems and are so simple to make, and super healthy. When they were younger my boys thought they were great, and they thought they were eating ice cream.

Freezing Time: 1 1/2 Serves: 2 Prep Time: moments hours

Ingredients

1 banana 1 wooden

Directions

1. Peel the banana and chop into 2. If it is a large banana chop it into 3. 2. Snap the wooden skewer into lengths that will be long enough to go half way into the banana, and have enough sticking out to hold onto. 3. Push the skewer into one end of the banana. 4. Put into the freezer for 2 hours. 5. Take the lolly pops out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before they are to be eaten. This will allow them to soften very slighly and make them easier to eat.

Easy Banana Ice Cream

This easy banana ice cream goes down a storm with kids as well as adults. The simplicity of it belies the fabulous taste you are rewarded with.

Regular ice cream contains lots of sugar and fat, which we all know is not good for us. However if you are an ice cream loving family, this banana ice cream means that you can have ice cream more often. Amazingly there are only 2 ingredients, bananas and milk. Regular cows milk can be replaced with any sort of milk you fancy such as soya, coconut or almond.

There is also endless scope for variations of the basic recipe. You can add frozen fruit, cocoa powder, natural yoghurt, nuts, the list is endless.

I do advise that you use a processor. I have tried making it using a small electric food chopper, the banana won and the chopper broke. The frozen banana is hard and needs a heavy duty blade to turn it into lovely creamy ice cream. I add the frozen banana a bit at a time. Putting it all in together is not only extremely noisy, but my food processor is a little elderly and I don’t want to over do it.

Prep Time: 5 Makes: 4 scoops Freezing Time: 1 hour mins 2 bananas 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Peel the bananas then chop it into slices. 2. Put the banana slices into a freezer bag or plastic box, and put into the freezer. 3. After about an hour the banana will have frozen. 4. When you are ready to eat the ice cream, take the banana out of the freezer and break it up so it is not in one big clump. Put the frozen slices in to a food processer along with 1 tablespoon of milk and blend. 5. Scrape the banana down from the sides of the food processor. 6. Add another tablespoon of the milk and whizz again for 10 seconds. 7. Use a spoon to bring the banana mixture together. 8. Add more milk if you need to. 9. Either use immediately or it can be formed into scoops and put back into the freezer until you want to eat it. 10. Top with your choice of chopped nuts or whatever takes your fancy.

All in One Sponge

Making a sponge cake could not be easier, especially if you use the ‘all in one method’. Traditionally sponge cakes were made with butter, and this involved creaming the butter and sugar together, then adding the beaten egg a little at a time then finally folding in the flour. While you can still make a sponge this way, the invention of margarine has given way to a super quick method. The margarine does not need to be creamed with the sugar, all you need to do is put the ingredients in a bowl and mix.

You will see that I have used ounzes rather than grams in this recipe. This is because there is a really simple way of working out the quantity of ingredients you need. For every egg, use 2 oz of margarine, flour and sugar. You then can easily make a larger or smaller sponge. If you ever hire a cake tin the assistant may very well tell you how many eggs you need for the sponge.

I have sandwiched the cake with jam in this recipe, however there are many ways to finish the cake. Sprinkling desiccated coconut on top of the jam is another favourite. If I am making it at the weekend I sometimes use Nutella to spread between the two layers.

You can easily vary the basic sponge mix. For a chocolate cake, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder. You can also add a handful of dessicated coconut, or chocolate chips.

Serves: 3 adults and Prep Time: Cooking Time: 3 children 10 mins 35-40 minutes

2 eggs 2 oz margarine 2 oz sugar 2 oz self raising flour 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon baking powder jam for spreading in the middle Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 2. Grease and base line a loaf tin 11 x 21.5 x 6 cm (4.5 x 8.5 x 2.5 inches), or use a round cake tin 18 cm diameter (7 inches). 3. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined. You can do this by hand or with an electric mixer. 4. Stop mixing as soon as the ingredients are combined. Over mixing can cause the cake to sink. 5. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth out the top. 6. Bake for 35-40 minutes. You can tell when the cake is ready by either inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean your cake is cooked. Another way is to gently press the top of the cake. If it springs back when you take your finger off, it is ready. 7. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out on to a wire tray to cool. 8. When cool, slice the cake horizontaly. Spread the base with jam or your choice and sandwich back together.

However You Like it

The beauty of fruit salad is that you can put in your mix of fruit, just use whichever go down well in your house. That way your children will be more tempted to tuck in. However that does not stop you from adding in a new fruit now and then for everyone to try. Any leftovers will keep until breakfast in the fridge. It may keep until lunch, but that depends on your mix of fruit. Bananas are the first to not look their best.

Serves: 2 adults and 2 children Prep Time: 10 mins

1 tin peaches or whatever takes your fancy 1 apple 1 banana 1 pear grapes natural yoghurt

Directions

1. Drain the tin of fruit, reserving the juice. 2. Chop all of the fruit. There is no set way, just chop 3. Add enough of the reserved juice coat the fruit but not so much that it is swimming in it. 4. Serve with natural yoghurt, or crème fraiche if you some left over