Spaghetti & Meatballs with Hidden Veg Sauce
Teach children how to make this pasta supper – it’s a tasty family meal packed with nutrients
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 300g good quality pork sausage (about 4 large or 8 chipolatas)
- 500g lean beef mince
- 1 small onion, coarsely grated
- 1 carrot, finely grated
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 50g parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tbsp olive oil
For the tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 courgette, coarsely grated
- 3 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- Pinch caster sugar
- Splash red wine vinegar
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomato
To serve
- Cooked spaghetti
Method
Children: Squeeze all the sausage meat out of the sausage skins into a large bowl and add the mince. Tip all the rest of the meatball ingredients, except the olive oil, into the bowl and season with black pepper then squish everything together through your hands until completely mixed. Keep an eye on younger children to make sure they don’t taste any of the raw mix.
Children: Roll the meatball mix into walnut-sized balls and place them on a plate – this is a job children as young as two can help with and a great job to help teach older children basic division.
Grown-ups: While the children are rolling the meatballs make the sauce. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the courgette and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until soft and mushy. Stir in the tomato puree, sugar and vinegar leave for one min then tip in the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. If your children like courgettes then you can leave the sauce chunky. But if, like mine, they hate courgettes then blitz the sauce with a hand blender – either way continue to simmer sauce gently while you cook the meatballs. If your child is confident with heat, from 7+ they can cook the sauce with supervision.
Grown-ups: Heat the oil in a large frying pan and, working in batches, brown the meatballs on all sides then pop them into the sauce – continue to simmer the sauce for 15 minutes, stirring very gently until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve with cooked spaghetti, extra grated parmesan and a few torn basil leaves your child has picked and torn.
Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com.
Frozen Banana Lollies
Make for kids and big kids, too! These banana lollies with chocolate, hundreds and thousands and strawberries are great for a party or after-school treat
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 4 large strawberries
- 100g natural yogurt
- 200g dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp hundreds and thousands
You will also need:
- 4 wooden lolly sticks
Method
Peel the bananas and trim off the very ends if you’d like them neater. Then chop them each into four equal-sized chunks. Thread a strawberry onto each lolly stick first, then push on the pieces of banana.
When all your banana pops are made lay them on a baking tray and put in the freezer, uncovered, for one hour.
Put the yogurt into a tall glass or jug then dip each banana pop into the yogurt to coat (avoiding the strawberries), then place back onto the tray to refreeze until set.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts (stirring after each blast) then pour into a mug. Dip the end piece of each banana pop in the chocolate then sprinkle over the hundreds and thousands.
The chocolate should set pretty much instantaneously, but you can keep them in the freezer until you want to serve them for up to one week.
Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com.
Simple Iced Biscuits
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract or 1 lemon, zested
- 400g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
For the icing
- Mix icing sugar with a little water and food colouring
Method
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/. Put the butter in a bowl and beat it using an electric whisk until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla or lemon, and finally the flour to make a dough. If the dough feels a bit sticky, add a little more flour and knead it in.
Cut the dough into six pieces and roll out one at a time to about 5mm thickness on a floured surface. The easiest way to do this is to roll the mixture out on a baking mat. Cut out letter and number shapes and peel away the leftover dough at the edges. Re-roll any off-cuts and repeat.
Transfer the whole mat or the individual biscuits to two baking sheets (transfer them to baking parchment if not using a mat) and bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until the edges are just brown. Leave to cool completely and repeat with the rest of the dough. You should be able to fit about 12 on each sheet. If you are using two sheets, then the one underneath will take a minute longer.
Ice the biscuits and make stripes or dots, or colour in the whole biscuit if you like. They will keep for five days in an airtight container.