When the weather outside turns cold and blustery, sitting down at the dinner table with your family to a big bowl of steaming hot soup and a chunk of crusty bread is about as good as it gets.

 

Readers of the Bebe blog will know I’m a huge fan of MamaBake (read the blog here), where mamas get together and cook up big batches of family meals and share the results at the end. Why not have a solo MamaBake next time you put a pot of soup on to simmer, by doubling or tripling the recipe? Then, a nutritious, hearty, economical and comforting family meal will never be more than a few minutes away. After a long day at work, school, day care or simply an exhausting day at home with the kids, it’s nice to know that dinner is as simple as opening the freezer.

 

So, close the door on the Winter chill with our Top 5 Easy Soup recipes! Whip them up in the morning, eat them tonight and freeze the rest!

Lunch in a Bowl Soup - I’ve been making this for years and it never fails to satisfy!

 

250g packet of dried beans/lentils (soup mix)

2 onions, peeled and diced

2 sticks of celery, chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

500g pumpkin, peeled and chopped

1 can tomatoes

2 tsp mixed dried herbs

3 litres chicken stock

1 zucchini, chopped

100g green beans

100g broccoli florets

Freshly ground black pepper

Finely chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, oregano, thyme)

 

Rinse soup mix in cold water and leave to soak overnight or for a few hours before cooking. (you can just chuck them straight in, but it will extend the cooking time by about half an hour)

Combine the first nine ingredients in a large pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 90 mins, or until grains are soft.

(set aside a qty for freezing at this point – the green veggies don’t defrost well, so add them after re-heating)

Add zucchini, broccoli and beans and cook for a further 30 minutes. Add pepper to taste and serve garnished with herbs. Serves approx 8

 

Pumpkin & Lentil Soup with coconut milk.– this is INCREDIBLE!

 

Roots from one or two bunches of coriander
Two onions, chopped.
5 - 6 cloves garlic.
1 pumpkin, peeled and chopped (approx 2 kg).
1 kg carrots, peeled and chopped.
2 tablespoons dried coriander seed, crushed.
2 tbs cooking oil.
1 cup dried yellow lentils, rinsed.
Small tin good quality (ayam) cocunut milk or cream.
Water.
Fresh coriander and chilli to serve.

Dry roast the coriander seed over a medium heat for 1 min.
Add oil and onions. Fry for a further 2 mins.
Add coriander root and garlic. Fry for 1 minute longer, stirring so as not to burn garlic or seeds.
Add pumpkin and carrots & lentils.
Turn down to low heat and leave it to sweat with the lid on for a few minutes.
Add enough boiling water to cover the vegetables, + 2 extra cups for the lentils.Turn it up to high to bring it back to the boil.
Simmer with lid off until lentils are cooked You may need to add more water while it is cooking.
If you’re planning on freezing any, separate that now.

Add coconut milk and stir through.

Serve with chopped fresh coriander leaves and maybe some fresh chilli.

Serves 8 -10

 

 

Leftover Vegetable Soup – thanks MamaBake!

 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped onions or thinly sliced leeks (whites only)

1 cup thinly sliced celery

Handful of fresh herbs

Coarse salt and ground pepper

3 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, with juice

1 tablespoon tomato paste

8 cups mixed fresh, leftover vegetables, such as carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans, peas, potatoes, and zucchini (cut larger vegetables into smaller pieces)

  

Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.
Add onions or leeks, celery; season with salt and pepper.
Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes and their juice, tomato paste, and 3 cups water to pot;
Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes.

Chuck in your fresh herbs right at the last minute. Serves approx 10

 

 

Pumpkin Soup – Basic Recipe. Another MamaBake find!

 

This one is a fantastic blank canvas which you can tailor to suit everyone's tastes.  Keep it fairly simple bland for Mamas to tweak as they see fit for their families.

  

3kg pumpkin from the local farmer's market, chopped into largish chunks and skinned
2 large carrots diced
3 celery sticks sliced
6 potatoes, cut into large chunks
3 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
2 litres beef stock - or enough to just cover pumpkin and potatoes
Add whatever veg you have hanging in your fridge.

  

Sweat the onion, garlic, carrots and celery in some butter on a nice low heat until onion is translucent and pretty.

Add pumpkin and potatoes, stirring through.

Add stock, bring to boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until pumpkin and potatoes are soft

Add leftover veg

Whizz it up.

Mamas can add cumin, chilli, fresh, chopped herbs or anything else that takes her fancy.   Serves approx 15

 

 

Chicken Stew - is there anything chicken stew/soup can’t fix? I think not? Another MamaBake winner!

  

3kg chicken thigh meat, cubed
2 onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
5 carrots, chunked
5 celery sticks, sliced
2 litres chicken stock
Fresh parsley

  

Sweat the onion and garlic until translucent, on a low heat

Crank the heat a little and add chicken cooking until sealed

Add veg, stir through

Add stock, bring to the boil and simmer until veg soft and chicken cooked through.

You can add sweetcorn, potatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, noodles…oh just anything!

Add fresh, chopped parsley right at the end.

 

Hungry for more? Join the MamaBake movement here and receive a free ekick off guide including big batch recipes, a how to guide and a poster you can print out and pin up on your local community notice boards to find some MamaBakin mamas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a truth universal that at some point, your child will go from eating voraciously every morsel you place before them, to turning up their nose at even the most gourmet meal. The poor, humble vegetable seems to suffer this fate much more than the so called ‘treats’ on offer at every turn.

 

Research now shows that what your child eats in the first four years of life plays a vital role in establishing a vast and varied food repertoire in the years to come. All well and good, but when you’re standing in the kitchen trying to whip up yet another nutritious meal that you know is destined for the dining room floor, or you’ve exhausted all possible fun arrangements of cut up fruit (necklaces, funny faces, race cars), it’s enough to send your stress levels soaring!

 

Before you succumb to baked beans on toast for dinner……again, check out our top 10 ways to get your child to eat vegetables and bring out the broccoli!

 

Developmental: understanding that your little one isn’t necessarily being facetious is the first step. Food fussiness tends to occur around the ages of two and three.

 

Acceptance: Don’t drive yourself mad with all consuming thoughts of your home made, organic food going to waste! Accept that in this developmental phase, the variety of food once enjoyed by your child may decline.

 

Offer: Your child may be demanding they eat nothing but their favourite (usually white bread!) for every meal, but continue to offer a new taste along side it.

 

Encourage: OK, we all faked enthusiasm for bland old baby purees when we introduced solids right? Try it again with your toddler! Even if the new food offered doesn’t get eaten, sometimes a smell, a lick or a touch will be enough to spark their curiosity. Maybe next time it’s offered, they’ll gobble it up with glee? (Wishful thinking can’t hurt can it?)

 

Family Meals: Mums, we are not short order cooks! Prepare one meal for the family, but save the mealtime battles by making sure it includes at least one thing you know your child will eat.

 

Breathe: Think of it as mealtime meditation. Turn off the TV. Relax, keep your voice calm and practise patience. They will eat……..eventually.

 

First foods: many babies seem to only ‘taste’ food in the first few months of offering. As long as you continue to offer healthy and nutritious foods, your child has the opportunity to eat. Or not. Many a night I have repeated to myself, “He won’t starve himself, he won’t starve himself”.

 

No time for Games: Mealtime is a great time for babies and bigger kids to have the attention of both parents at the same time, and mini theatrical performances can result! As hilarious as it may be to watch your little one blow raspberries just as the spoon reaches their lips, try and resist the urge to laugh too uproarishly! Ditto scolding. The more attention an action gets, the more likely it is to be repeated. Don’t forget to heap on the praise though, when your child actually does eat!

 

Snack Attack: keeping nutritious snacks handy, will help meet your busy little bee’s dietary needs. Perhaps keep a special container in the pantry, at your toddler’s level and labelled, just for them. Fill it with healthy snacks that your child can access themselves. Kids love being involved – why not let your toddler help in the preparation of the evening meal and snack as you go?

 

Change of Scenery: when mealtime battles escalate, why not change the scene? Who doesn’t love a picnic? Whether in the backyard, or the lounge room floor, spread out the blanket and enjoy a more relaxed feel to dinner time. Your toddler could create a “Welcome Home” dinner table for the parent arriving home – have them make placemats and napkin holders; or go all out and decorate with streamers. Sure makes a nice change from trying to secure a screaming child in a high chair!

 

If you are genuinely concerned with the amount of food your child is, or isn’t consuming, it may help to keep a food diary for a week. You might find that your child is actually eating quite a range of foods.  As with all trying times in the life of a parent, remember, this too shall pass!