I love this dish! One garlic clove is probably too much, as is the juice of a whole lemon, but other than that I really liked it, even without salt. Next time though I would probably make at least triple the quantity - one for kiddo, one to freeze, and one for me.

The cake is not too bad, actually. Of course, it's sugarfree, and therefore not (very) sweet, and I'd definitely be disappointed with it as my birthday cake, but what does my son know? (I don't think it'll pass with his three-year old niece. I guess we'll have to give her a piece of the adult's cake).

It didn't really rise, though, and I'm not sure why. Lack of sugar shouldn't have anything to do with it, should it? I used 2 tsp of baking powder for just two handsful of batter! Will probably make cupcakes on the big day, as the cake looks pityfully flat even in our smallest cake dish.

Edited 25 March 2016:
I forgot to comment on the baking process. This is another baking recipe, similar to this one, where I suspect that the author had little idea of what she was doing. First you are instructed to mix flour, spices and baking powder; then to add the butter and rub it between your fingers until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs - this latter step is a technique for making shortcrust pastry (hint: banana cake does not contain a shortcrust pastry. Not even this particular recipe.). Then you are instructed to mix the mashed bananas and the egg (= the wet ingredients) in a separate bowl, and at the very end, fold them into the flour mixture - classical muffin making technique, with the exception that butter is a wet ingredient and was supposed to go into the second bowl.

To make matters worse, the raisins go in one bowl, the walnuts into another - that doesn't make sense. Also, the walnuts are optional and can be added either finely chopped or ground - but if ground, they would change the ratio of dry vs. wet ingredients, the same way you can often substitute part of the flour with ground nuts of your choice.

Sometimes I think it's too bad Ms Rapley didn't ask a cook or a nutrionist (or both!) to help her write this book.

Luckily, I only added one out of the two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar - I'm glad I didn't add more, as even one tbsp seemed more than enough. The same applies to the onion - I only added half a shallot instead of a whole onion, and it probably could have used less. In fact, after adding the vinegar and the shallots, I could hardly taste the beans and the carrots at all. It didn't help of course that normally I would have added a little salt. So definitely cut back the onion/shallot and the vinegar.

I also only realized afterwards that it would have been a really good idea to add lemon juice instead of vinegar - lemon juice is of course a good source of vitamin C, which you'll need to absorb iron from non-haem iron sources like legumes.

These were really nice! As with the pancakes, I used water instead of milk, which worked really well; I will probably also start using (part) wholewheat flour next time.

The drop scones were a bit less easy to eat for kiddo; at least in part because they were thicker, but they were probably also a little harder in texture. Adding some mashed banana (about half a banana per recipe) helped (and gave a really pleasant taste!) - all in all, this is probably a dish you can better serve once your little one has teeth and/or has become quite good at eating.

This was the first 'real' dish we made from this cookbook, and it was quite nice! I made a few fish finger-shaped cakes for the kiddo, then added salt and made patties for us - be careful, you won't need a lot of salt!

I thought we were trying to make eating solids enticing?

The chicken was severely overcooked (I was actually tempted to turn off the heat after just six minutes instead of ten, but I - naively! - thought that the recipe probably wouldn't be wrong by such a large margin), the sauce was way too liquid, and a bit too sour.

Actually I was quite sceptic in the beginning if this would work at all, because you're basically cooking/boiling 2-3 chicken filets in a mere two tablespoons of lemon juice. Turns out that that is more than enough, and that the chicken filets might release quite a bit of liquid as well. Here comes the problem, though: you need to keep the pan covered, as otherwise the chicken not covered with liquid won't cook - but because you're keeping the pan covered, the liquids released by the chicken cannot evaporate. Hmm, actually I'm wondering whether the liquids were released the moment the chicken began to overcook - that at least sounds logical given that the chicken was so dry (as overcooked chicken usually is). It would also mean that there's a really simple solution - stop cooking the chicken the moment it begins to relase liquids!

I would probably also use less lemon juice. One tablespoon lemon juice, and perhaps, possibly, one tablespoon water?

Na, didn't really work. The recipe didn't indicate that you should use parchment paper or a lightly greased baking dish, do I didn't - the result was that the porridge stuck to the bottom of the dish. I scraped it out while still warm and managed to roll fingers. For such a simple recipe I think such a mistake is just too much.

Served like that, along with apple slices - he didn't enjoy himself as much as for instance yesterday when he ate his Ratatouille, or last week when he had French Toast.

It was quite bland, but not quite as bad as I had feared. I thought it was an interesting idea to use a Bechamel in a casserole, but that didn't necessarily help with the blandness. You'll need quite a number of pots and pans to prepare everything, but you can prepare it in advance quite easily so you'll just pop it in the oven at the very end. We loved the cheese and breadcrumb, though there definitely wasn't enough of it, especially not enough cheese.