Saturday, October 24, 2015

My Little Sous Chef: Aubergine Sandwiches


One day on Twitter I got talking to a lady from 'My Little Sous-Chef, a soon to be tandem cook book for kids and parents to cook together. The recipes will be super simple to follow, with basic ingredients, easy instructions, as well as illustrations for our little sous-chefs at home. They are quick to make, which is good for the more impatient of side kicks!

My Little Sous-Chef currently have a crowd funding campaign to get their project up and running, that you can check out here and find out more about the ladies behind it, they have an amazing sense of humour. I'll let them explain the format - it's brilliant!

"Our product will consist of two separate cookbooks, one for the parents and one for the kids: the first will present a selection of simple, quick and yummy recipes, appealing for the whole family and clearly explained; the kids’ book will come accompanied by beautiful illustrations and with only the simplest recipe steps, so that kids can experience cooking and meal preparation first-hand".

I offered to try out a recipe for them and we were given the instructions for 'Aubergine Sandwiches'. A is four next week and has never tried aubergines but does love his vegetables. Us grown ups have them pretty regularly - so I thought this would be a great little recipe to introduce another vegetable to the kids.

While baby S took her nap, me and A got to work in the kitchen. We started by reading the instructions through and with A taking a look at the pictures. I talked him through the illustrations so we were both very clear what we were doing before we started. It looked simple, tasty and fun!

Aubergine Sandwiches!



A got to use the blender to make bread crumbs which always makes him happy. Some bread, a few whizzes and voila we had ourselves some breadcrumbs. At this point I think he would have quite happily sat and just eaten those, he was so excited.


I sliced the aubergine so A could sandwich them with the ham and cheese, just like the pictures had shown us. He loves food and building towers too, so really enjoyed himself. They were now ready for dipping in an eggy mixture ready for his breadcrumbs. This bit was super messy and fun! Here they are before they got dressed...


We LOVED doing the breadcrumbing and it was amazing how they looked so appealing straight away! I would literally never have thought of doing anything like this, especially with kids. We found the format very easy to follow for both of us and I didn't feel flustered or confused like I usually do following a recipe!


Here we have our little tasty towers stacked, egged, crumbed and oiled ready for the oven. I was excited to see how they would turn out as I thought 20 minutes in the oven seemed so quick!


Twenty minutes and a whole host of delicious smells later, these beautifully cheesy crispy delights appeared! The picture below speaks for itself - they were amazing. I love aubergine and these are such a fun way of cooking them, so different and they are even nice cold too. Baby S tucked straight in gobbling her way though hers, but A it turns out isn't the biggest aubergine fan yet. It was great fun though, they went down a treat with the rest of us and he got to try something new and do some cooking. Now we've done this I will definitely try other home made breaded things like fish fingers, or make these swapping the aubergine for another vegetable for him.


If you'd like to support My Little Sous-Chef with their campaign to bring recipes like this into our homes, it would really be appreciated by the three ladies involved. So much love has gone into creating this book already and their passion is so clear too. They are really close to achieving this now and I have everything crossed! You can also show your support and find this recipe by seeing them over on Facebook and Twitter too. Thank you for helping us try something new!


Cooking is so important and getting it right and healthy from a young age will make a huge difference for our kids. Best of luck to Laura, Francesca and Caterina, the creators of My Little Sous-Chef. 





Thanks for reading,

Wafflemama