Quick Pork Lasagne

I made this quite some time ago and it was a pretty good success. Playful Tot adores pasta and mince so I was taking a fair guess that lasagne would be a hit. The only problem is the amount of time a truly great lasagne takes. Bechamel, sweated onions, ragu.... there's no avoiding it, Italians love indulgent food and this mama simply doesn't.have.time.

So I pondered things and thought through a few cheats. You can of course, do it old school and make the Bechamel from scratch and save time by making up the mince mix in batches to freeze so that you simply need to defrost and layer when the time comes. I'm all about time saving in the interest of a good hearty family meal so play with this as you will.



Here's my quick version of Pork Lasagne. As always, I've made this baby friendly so al the family can enjoy it. Feel free to season heartily.

Ingredients
For the mince:
500g Pork Mince
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil or cold pressed Rapeseed Oil
2 onions, chopped
2 tsps dried Rosemary
1 pepper, chopped
100g Baby Spinach
2 tbsp Tomato purée
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
400ml Low salt veg stock

For the white sauce:
400ml whole milk
2 tbsp Cornflour

Lasagne Pasta Sheets (I used half a pack of pre cooked pasta sheets, 375g per pack)
Handfuls of grated cheese

Method

1. Brown the pork mince in 1-2 tbsps of oil, then with a slotted spoon, remove from the pan onto a dish and place to one side for later.
2. Sweat the chopped onions until nicely translucent.
3. Add the rosemary, pepper and baby spinach and keep moving over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes.
4. Stir in the tomato purée before adding chopped tomatoes and stock.
5. Leave to simmer and in the meantime make up the white sauce: heating milk in a pan, keeping 2-3 tbsp in reserve. Mix the cornflour into the reserve milk first before whisking into the warmed milk until smooth and thick.
6. Brush a large oven proof dish with oil and layer up: pasta, mince mixture, white sauce twice over.
7. Cover the top in as much grated cheese as you can stand and bake for 30 minutes.




Enjoy!

Baby Friendly Flapjacks

Ok I will admit that this one started purely selfishly. I ADORE flapjacks and ate them by the bucket ton when I needed to boost my milk supply while nursing little one through illness. (Oats boost milk supply, isn't that amazing and so very, very fortunate?) I found a few recipes online for ones to share with the Playful One but somehow they just didn't hit the spot.

So I present some really yummy, squidgy but still crumbly flapjacks. They are sweet from all the dried fruit and you get a whole heap of calcium and fat due to the Almond Butter. Check for allergies before you introduce these though- citrus and nuts should be treated with caution and I'd probably wait a couple of months into weaning as these stick somewhat to the mouth when forced in by the fistful (the baby, not me, honest).

Baby Friendly Flapjacks
2-3 Medium Ripe bananas
1 1/2 Cup of dried fruit (chopped)
1 tsp Almond Essence
2 Cups of Oats
3 tbsp Butter (we use goat's as it seems gentler on her tummy)
2 tbsp Oil (rapeseed is preferable)
2 tbsp Almond Butter (no salt etc added)

1. Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the chopped fruit and mix (we used dates, figs and sultanas).
3. Brown the butter in a saucepan, combine with the oil and add to the mixture.
4. Mix in the oats and almond essence and leave to absorb for about 5 minutes
5. Spoon the mixture into a baking tin (we use a cake tin and cut it up like pizza slices after) and bake on 175 degrees C for about 25 minutes or until it's browning nicely.
6. Leave to cool before devouring.