Foodie Friday: The Gastronomic Oscars

Earlier this week I posted a recipe for our favourite family meal (it was for a competition - I won't make a habit of recipe posts). Choosing a favourite family meal in our house is a moveable feast (if you'll excuse the pun). Mostly this is due to my fads and fancies in what I cook. I wracked my brain to narrow it down to one meal, so as it's foodie Friday here are the nominees in full.

Most suited to faddy family members: When our son was weaning I tried a range of treats to tempt him within the recommended suggestions of baby rice, fruit mush and purees until I realised that he spat them out because he preferred indian food with some flavour and texture. Then when he got teeth it was all crunchy foods and he devoured chappatis, breadsticks and the best of all apples just like Daddy. Of course now he's a busy boy it's whatever he can eat quickly so he can get down and resume whatever he is doing so busily in his play room. This is often spaghetti or "spsghetti" or meatballs which he can wolf down fast and not notice I've snuck a load of veg in with (although he does love vegetables).

Best dish tried on holiday and made when back at home: A while back I decided to try and make a dish that Hubbie and I love to have when we go to India - masala dosa. It is a pancake made of rice flour with a spicy potato filling accompanied by a lentil soup (sambar)  and some delicious sides of coconut and a dip thing that I'm not sure about. As you can see from the photo the pancake did break up a bit, but it tasted very good and it is one of those dishes that we love to eat, but is a bit too faffy to do that often.


Best supporting cast of five a day vegetables: I've written before about how the children are encouraged to prepare snacks at nursery and my son's first experience of cooking outside the home was pizzas. He ate most of the ingredients and didn't actually eat the finished product, but he does like homemade pizza. I made this only realising too late that it was a bit overloaded with vegetables, but the cherry tomatoes and melted mozzarella were a big hit. Hubbie is always happy to eat pizza and now there is a quorn alternative to pepperoni the world of pizza is even more exciting !

Most colourful and diverse plate of food: We seem to have a fascination with lots of colour and variety on our plates which is why the big favourite meal is veggie quesadillas made with the leftover quorn chilli from tacos earlier in the week and accompanied by guacamole, soured cream dip and salsa. I'm pretty sure that's a few of our five a day right here on this plate isn't it ? Sometimes we also have a lovely side of tilda mexican rice with it for another texture and flavour hit on the plate. It's a fab way to use up leftovers and the 'pocket' style presentation of the quesadillas is very appealing to small fingers while the range of dips and accompaniments makes Hubbie happy as he feels he's involved with his food.

Naughtiest sweet treat: Of course no meal is complete without a sweet and February is the best month for our family favourite which is pancakes. My heart shaped pan comes into it's own on this day. I make small pancakes served with bowls of fresh fruit, lemon slices and maple syrup to choose for toppings. My son loves his with banana and strawberries and Hubby sneaks in some chocolate spread while I go for traditional sugar and lemon. I know we can have pancakes any day we like, but it's nice to have a designated day set aside for them isn't it ?

And the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award goes (maybe surprisingly) to our best breakfast which we have when Hubby is on hols and we are all at home - a drum roll please for….

Waffles and fruit ! As you can see it's not a meagre portion of fruit, we go all out on this one. Me and the boy have one waffle piled high with delicious fruits and Hubbie has two (he is a growing lad and needs the vitamins - or so he tells me). This is a firm favourite and I like to think it is healthy and satisfying as well.

So those are our red carpet choices. Until the baking Oscars that is...