Pancakes, Pappa Pomodoro and Pumpkin | Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

My #mealplanningmonday meal plan this week is a mixture of the old and the new.

Monday: Almond & bulgar pilav with spinach & houmous
Tuesday: Pancakes!
Wednesday: Pappa Pomodoro
Thursday: Stew and dumplings
Friday: Simple fish chowder
Saturday: Pumpkin tagliatelle
Sunday: Salmon, potatoes and spinach

As we were away there were no leftovers for Monday, so the regular fixture almond and bulgar pilav from Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food was just jazzed up with some spinach from the freezer and houmous. Simple but still yummy.

Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday need no explanation, but I am a bit worried having explained the pancake race tradition to littl'un that I will be expected to run down the street tossing ours before we are allowed to eat them!

The pappa pomodoro from River Cafe Easy is such good value and so lovely and warming in this horrible weather that it has re-appeared again this week. And the stew and dumplings adapted from
Leith's Vegetable Bible are back on because we have stewing meat in the freezer and unfortunately there are none of last week's gorgeous golden goujons left!

They were meant to last us a month but we wolfed them all down in a fortnight!

So the simple fish chowder for Friday's supper will be the first really new thing as part of my mission to expand littl'un's readiness to try new things - other than meat and cake! - without a fuss.

I am planning to adapt a recipe from River Cottage Toddler Cookbook - and when I say adapt, I largely mean faff with it to accommodate littl'uns dislike for whole vegetables. I am going to

Sweat a couple of leeks in butter - I am putting extra in because they are going to be pulverised
Add a couple of peeled and cubed potatoes and about half a litre of milk
Simmer until potatoes are tender
Strain the potatoes and blend the milk and leeks so leeks broken down (!!!!)
Add about 300g of white fish and 120g of smoked fish cut into small pieces plus 150g of shelled prawns
Simmer for 5 minutes or so until fish cooked

The fish will basically be what looks best at best price in our great local fishmonger and I may whimp out of adding the prawns as I think this might be a step too far in the attempt to introduce new tastes and textures.

I am sure some of you will be tutting - very understandably - at the faffing, but give littl'un her due she did with the prospect of a chocolate button reward try very hard to eat a small piece of soft carrot. She really, really tried to chew it - she wanted that chocolate button! - but just gagged completely and couldn't get it down.

At the moment I would rather she got the nutrition from a large dose of hidden vegetables than half choke herself on a small bit of carrot. I have though, put myself together a list of tips for fussy eaters and although I can't promise I will be offering tough love, I am going to keep persevering at getting her to eat more veg ...