meatballs for "omnivores"

We're moving in a new direction soon with food therapy. It will be up to us to keep the boy on track as we are moving into the parent phase of training. As in, we have to be trained to introduce new foods and maintain newly added foods to the boy's eating. Deep breath.

Our boy has been more adventurous lately - the willingness to try new things is continually amazing to me. After years of "no, I don't like it" without even a taste, a lick or a sniff, even. Apple cereal bars " can I try them Mum?" They got an ok, good even. Lavender honey at the market. A taste and a "can we get some?" I'll take it all.

We've moved on to meat during food sessions. Easy, portable, reheatable meat options. For me this has meant our version of meatballs or mini meatloaf muffins. Recently the boy decided that lamb was going to be his next meat option (instead of turkey or chicken). So initially I went with a lamb mixture I used to fill eggplants with for us (loosely based on a recipe from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem) but the boy balked at the nuts. So I made lamb meatballs and it worked a treat. Now I've got bags of beef, lamb, pork and turkey meatballs or mini muffins in my freezer. I guess parent training starts with those.

Mini meatleaf muffins
1 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, pork, lamb)
1/2 small onion, finely diced
smidge of garlic
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c breadcrumbs
2 tbsp ketchup, chili sauce, pesto sauce or other flavoured sauce (for pork meatballs, I use BBQ sauce)

Add the ingredients to a bowl and loosely mix with your hands until all ingredients are incorporated. With a teaspoon or a teaspoon scoop, fill mini muffin tins with the mixture. I usually get 24 mini muffins with about 1 pound of meat. Bake at 400 deg F for 18-20 minutes. These freeze and reheat well.

pork and lamb meatballs from the freezer

Creating a fiend

A bacon fiend that is. The boy has gone from being a non meat eater, looking at me with all seriousness, "mum, I'm an omnivore ", to eating bacon, even pinching it off our plates. As in " is there anymore?"  At least twice in a row at breakfast. Although, true to his recent history he likes the right degree of fat and juiciness to his rashers and this week's batch from the butcher was not quite to his standards.

So I used bacon as a lure to try something new. A version of an old family recipe. The recipe my dad made and then we kids made on Saturday evenings when my mum gave up cooking for the week. Mum said she couldn't make this, and the one time I watched her try it, the dough didn't really hold together the way it should have. For everyone else, it works well. Especially with bacon on top.

No yeast pizza dough
2c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/3 c vegetable oil
3/4 c milk

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Roll out to the desired size. Can make 2- 12" pizza crusts or 2-9x13 rectangle pizza crusts. These will be fairly thin. I made 1-9x13" crust and 1 -8x8" crust, slightly thicker. For this version, I topped the dough with a layer of marinara sauce, some cut up bacon and then some grated mozzarella. You can use any of your favourite toppings.Bake at 325 deg F for 10 -12 minutes.