Being a parent is a culinary adventure down memory lane. Rediscover the joy of sprinkles, fish fingers and custard as you introduce your kids to your favourite treats from your own childhood.
Here are my favourites, add yours below:
1. Sprinkles
Discover the satisfying crunch of a vanilla ice-cream cone, studded with delicious sugar strand sprinkles. Pour a load of sprinkles into a bowl and jazz up your boring cone by dipping the ice-cream in, and voila! A technicolour sugar-high awaits your delectation. And lap it up; you’ll need all the strength you can get to deal with the almighty sugar crash your kid is about to have.
2. Birdseye Potato Waffles
Oh Birdseye Potato Waffles, how could I have forgotten you? These crisp, geometric spuds were an ever-present feature of my teenage years. The jaunty song from the ‘waffly versatile’ advert rings in my ears mocking me for the lost years when I didn’t eat them. Sure, they’re not healthy for kids to eat every day but they make a lovely weekend treat. Serve with beans and cheese for added class.
Buy your waffley versatile potato waffles here:
3. Ambrosia Devon Custard
Gone are the days when I was too busy eating M&S chocolate ganache. Ambrosia Devon Custard comes in a tin and tastes like a dream. For a restaurant-standard dessert (circa 1980s), serve with wafer-thin slices of banana. And everyone’s happy.
4. Fish fingers
Two slices of bread, four fish fingers, a cup of peas. Glue the peas to the bread with tartare sauce, slap on your fish fingers and top with another slice of bread (I’d recommend seeded batch) and BOOM! Fibre, greens and fish, in your hand. You don’t even need a knife and fork. This makes an epic Saturday lunch and can be served deconstructed, with a side order of cherry tomatoes for the small folk.
5. Battenburg
Battenburg. You know, the cake that is in pink and yellow squares when you cut it, those light, pretty little squares enveloped in deliciously retro marzipan. Battenburg was so far off my radar I had forgotten it even existed until I discovered the beautiful book The Baby’s Catalogue by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, and there is is, in the cakes section of the page on ‘Teas’. Now, I cannot resist its dainty charms. Delish.
Buy your delicious Battenburg here:
Which foods have you rediscovered since becoming a parent? Let us know in the comments below…
About Alison McGarragh-Murphy
Alison writes and edits stuff for The Motherload®, and is also a radio producer and broadcast journalist, a mum of two and a wife of one. Since becoming a mother she has (mostly) gladly swapped a busy social life of gigs, pubs, art galleries and museums for dancing in the kitchen, drinking on the sofa, finger painting and hanging out at the park. She talks incessantly about not having slept for three-and-half years.
Photo credit: Alison McGarragh-Murphy
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