I kinda put off writing this post. The food didn’t seen that appetising when the sun was shining outside. To be honest, the garden was more tempting than the keyboard there for a few days. I harbour a dream of waking up with green fingers one day, with a line of raised beds sprouting all we can eat, not a slug in sight. But in the meantime I have lots of herbs in pots, carrots & courgettes beginning to peek up and a rather ambitious red pepper growing on the living room windowsill. There are shoots, but the cats may scupper that. So while I plant, Dominic pushes one of 3 balls around the garden and the closest he gets to baby led weaning is trying to eat the plastic plant name markers out of the pots.
This morning we have April showers, baby is asleep, and talking about comfort food seems to fit the bill a little better than last weekend. I don’t cook things like lasagne that often. I’ve been served much veggie lasagne, some awful (probably in restaurants 10 years ago, and some lovely (my friend Paula’s). This time I decided to do it like a big dirty meat eater, except substitute quorn mince in lieu of normal mince.
I followed the basic packet instructions from the box of Tesco lasagne sheets, adding my own flourishes. I guess when I say flourishes, I mean red onion, peas & carrots & lots of dried herbs. I used 1.5 bags of quorn mince for the “meat”. Where I did differ is the white sauce. Trust Delia. Delia Smith & Darina Allen – if you want a basic recipe for anything at all, google it with either one of their names attached and you’re probably onto a winner. So I made Delia’s classic bechamel sauce (parsley & bay leaves from the garden – yay me!) and then added some grated cheese for extra fatty richness. Until Dominic is 2 I will use him as an excuse to add as much milky fatness and calcium loaded products to my cooking as possible.
This was a pretty messy one for The Eating. We’re still working on getting Dominic to use a fork with any dexterity whatsoever, so the pre loading is still the most popular way. He gets pretty stabby with his cutlery, most notably during spoon/porridge interaction, but with very little food ingestion as an outcome. Oh well, it’ll happen!
He *really* enjoyed this though, and could pull out strips of pasta, clumps of quorn mince, and pick up the ever popular peas. Served with garlic bread…winner!
Proper Fud 
Yum! Impressive with all that herb growing too. Mine die all too often. Good tip to google basic recipes with Darina or Delia’s name attached. I love everything buttery/milky too, that’s what comfort food is all about! By the way, I’m a meat eater but I prefer veg lasagne. Ever tried Tana Ramsey’s veg lasagne with spaghetti instead of lasagne sheets? If not, I’ll send you on the recipe. Loving the blog, keep up the good work : )
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I’d love to see that recipe , sounds mad!
I have planted so many supermarket herb pots. Except for mint, nothing has ever survived. Mint is so hardy that i had to dig it out of the bed I put it in & start again in a pot because it takes over. When we moved into our house there was a bay tree, lavender & rosemary bushes all have which have survived 2 years in my care (or lack thereof!) My mother in law did me a big planter last summer with parsley, sage, tarragon & marjoram (I have no clue what to use the latter 2 in!) which is only currently moderately healthy. But by far the biggest success has been the tiny 2 tier mini greenhouse my friend gave me a few weeks ago. I have coriander thriving in a pot in there – thriving I tell you!
Delighted to hear you like the blog, its nice to see comments – it reminds me to keep posting
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