two ingredient rusks.

Teething is a pain... literally. So something to chew on is great.

Keep an eye out for my post on how we are getting through teething... naturally.

One tip is to eat rusks. They're hard and so they're good to bite down on but they're also a gentle introduction to food.

Looking at the ingredient lists of the store-bought rusks, I wouldn't feel comfortable giving any of them to my baby. Don't be fooled by the 'organic' label – always read the ingredient list to ensure you are happy with what things are made from.
Thankfully I have a excellent researching friend (thanks Jacquie!) who found this easy and nutritious rusk recipe.

It can be made with any flour and any fruit or vegetable. Yes, just two ingredients! Easy, diverse and delicious (we have tried them!).

In the recipe, the author made them with sweet potato and spelt flour but I am choosing not to introduce gluten into my daughter's diet, so I used brown rice flour. Next time I will probably choose a different flour for variety (maybe buckwheat, besan or coconut).

TWO INGREDIENT RUSKS

What you need:

• 1 cup of cooked vegetable or fruit puree.
• approximately 2 cups of flour.

I halved the recipe, and I'm sure you could easily double it.

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 140C
2. Place the puree into a mixing bowl and gradually mix in the flour, 1/2C at a time, until you get a stiff dough you can knead.
3. Turn onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
4. Roll out until 1cm high.
5. Cut into fingers (don't cut your fingers).
6. Arrange on baking tray and bake in the oven until quite hard on the outside but have some give on the inside (about 45-60 minutes).

Readers on the other blog have had success with sweet potato, apple, and strawberry and ginger.

Original recipe can be found here: thanks to The Natural Mum.

recipe of the week: chicken pie.

Now you'll either think I'm a genius after reading this or completely weird. I'm going to say genius because I've made it twice and it's so yum. Best part, its super cheap and nourishing! Thanks Mum!

B O N E  B R O T H  C H I C K E N  P I E

I'll hopefully get around to writing a post on how I make bone broth... but there are many recipes online you can find if you don't already make it.

After I've made the bone broth and put it in jars, I sort through the bones and veggies and chuck the bones and veggies in the bin and separate the meat. There is a surprising amount of meat from just a couple of carcasses.

Here is the meat from our last batch:

I defrosted some extra chicken because I thought we might need it, but once I'd put it all together, I didn't need it so made a quick curry the next night. Win!

I cooked onion (or you could use leek or shallots), garlic, carrot and celery in some olive oil (you can add whatever veggies you like), then added the chicken, made a white sauce from a couple of tablespoons of rice flour (you could use any flour), almond milk (again, any milk), mustard and broth (or a bit of water or wine), then added in some mushrooms (and other veggies) and salt and pepper and let it cook for a bit.

Meanwhile I made some mash. I have lots of potatoes at the moment so I made potato mash, but you could use sweet potato or pumpkin or carrot or cauliflower or a mixture of any of the above (or anything else you please). I added to it a bit of turmeric, ghee, rosemary salt and broth. It was really yum!

Then I got the delicious pie mixture and put it into ramekins, popped the mash on top and put it in the oven until golden.

If you wanted, you could make this early in the day and then put it in the oven to heat through when you're ready for dinner. And do the same for the rest of the week as you eat the leftovers – that's what I've been doing! I'm sure the mixture would freeze well too.

There you go, chicken and mushroom pie – super cheap and super nutritious!