Autumn Food Ideas for Busy Parents
Autumn is calling for comfort food, cinnamon, warming spices, and of course all things pumpkin! I had such a big craving for pumpkin soup one weekend that I dreamt about a friend making it for me! A busy Mom’s dream - someone else is making food for us! If you like me are craving Autumn food but have limited time to spend on cooking, this post has a few ideas.
Pumpkin soup. I say this is a must in the autumn, so comforting, warming, and full of flavor! There are a lot of recipes online and also there are a few soups available to buy in the shops. I opted for the option to buy. I thought I should prepare my daughter in advance as she is not very open to trying new food. I bought a book called “Pumpkin Soup” and she enjoyed reading it for a while. She loved the story and a Pumpkin Soup has become something special. I then found a perfect Pumpkin soup for our family. The challenge was that it needed to be without cow’s milk as my daughter is allergic to milk. My perfect pumpkin soup was “Natoora Delica Pumpkin and Farro Soup”. I warmed it up on the stove and my daughter rushed to the kitchen eager to help. She shouted, “I got a stirring job!!”. This was a very special occasion from the book and I was so glad to see the excitement. While stirring we made a story that everyone who eats pumpkin soup becomes not afraid of ghosts, monsters, and other Halloween creatures. We then enjoyed our soup as a family. I found it delicious. My little boy ate it all. And even my daughter managed several spoons wishing to not be afraid of all things Halloween.
Pumpkin raviolini. There are Pumpkin Tortellini, Ravioli, and so on. Given how much I love pasta it all sounds so yummy to me!! So I wanted to include it in my autumn menu. I had a challenge with allergies again: my boy is allergic to eggs and so I needed no eggs and no milk pasta. As it often happens the allergens-free raviolini I found was also gluten-free. I bought “Dell Ugo Pumpkin and Sage Raviolini”. I read the reviews and steamed it instead of boiling it. It was tasty. But not as tasty as I wanted it to be. Once again my boy enjoyed and my daughter only tried a little. I think next year I will just secretly buy pumpkin tortellini full of gluten, egg, and other goodies and enjoy it away from kids!
Pumpkin Stew. Did I cook pumpkin at all you might ask? I did. I opted to also make pumpkin stew. Stews are something we often make and enjoy eating in our family. So this was a great option to get my daughter to actually eat pumpkin. I chose “Savoury Veal Casserole“ by Anabel Karmel. This is from a toddler weaning book, but I increased quantity as Anabel suggested to make it a meal for the whole family. This was absolutely lovely and lasted a few days. Both kids enjoyed it and I had finally completed my quest for getting them both to eat pumpkin!
Cinnamon apple buns. Cinnamon buns, made with apple and raisings feel so Autumny. I followed my favorite recipe from justrol website. We love making these with my daughter and my boy who tried them for the first time enjoyed the treat very much! There is more about our favourite baking recipes in my post Baking made simple.
I hope you will take as inspiration the food ideas and perhaps bake some cinnamon buns or buy a pumpkin soup. Bon appetite! And have a lovely Autumn!
