Mealtimes have become a little bit of a battle around here recently. A certain little man has decided to start asserting his independence in the form of rejecting my food.

Dinner time especially is quite the battle but it seems it’s mostly just for my benefit and he’s pretty good with Mum. His other food ‘thing’ is wanting everything that we have.

 

 

One morning Will was having baked beans and even though Ollie was happily eating his own breakfast, as soon as he spotted Will’s he insisted on it being shared. Since then, baked beans are a failsafe meal. Of course I’m too hard on myself to think opening a can can count as a meal so wanted to make my own homemade version.

I’m not a fan of baked beans (well not the canned version) but as soon as I had a mouthful of these, I was a convert. I was going to say they’d be perfect for meatless Monday but they do have bacon in them. I guess you could leave it out.

What was the verdict from my 19 month old food critic? Well he took one look at them, held the spoon to his mouth then returned the spoon to the bowl and pushed it away shaking his head. I tell you, that should be one challenge on Masterchef – make 5 meals that don’t get rejected by a toddler.

No one can say I didn’t at least try. I guess there will be one meal Ollie eats from a can.  

I had one lot of beans for lunch the day I made them then divided the rest between holes of a muffin tin and froze them so they’re already portioned out. Perfect for an easy lunch or quick dinner, healthy and delicious. Enjoy.

 

Easy baked beans

Yield: 4 adults or 8 kids

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 x 400g cans of cannellini beans
• 1 700g bottle of tomato passata
• 160g (6oz) short cut rindless bacon (nitrate-free, free-range if possible), diced
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 heaped tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp dried basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp dried chives
• 1 cup water

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the bacon, onion and garlic until the onion is soft.
2. Drain and rinse the beans and add them to the bot with the beans, tomato passata, tomato paste, basil, chives and water then bring to the boil.
3. Reduce to a simmer and then cover and cook for one hour. Stir about every 15 minutes to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. Remove the lid and cook for another 15 minutes or until the sauce has thickened to how you’d like it.