Seafood for Little Foodie Snuffles

The boys both have snuffles which might explain the painful behaviour exhibited these last few days. (As a mother it's your duty to look for excuses to explain away any tricky behaviour). A cheering tastebud assault was needed and when hubby agreed to drive to a nearby town and visit Morrisons on a Sunday (the nearest place we could get seafood today) it was greeted with a big smile. While he was out I watched The Wizard of Oz with the boys... My choice. The suggestion was met with disdain when I first suggested it. Little even asked if it was in colour because he knew I'd loved it as a little girl... Honestly - the cheek of it. Anyway we watched it and they thoroughly enjoyed it...

We were thinking... calamari and prawns in garlic oil with lovely fresh crusty bread to mop up the fragrant oily juices (Mmmmm, dreaming) but Morrisons didn't have good squid or prawns (Their reason #? a trained fishmonger in every store! Just not today. .) H chose some cartons of mixed seafood and a carton of prawns with shells on, he also got an octopus for good measure.

As we didn't have any paella rice I made Fideos (Also called Paella de fideos. Like paella but made with pasta instead of rice). It's good any day, but on a rainy day like today, it's super good.

Fideos (more than fed 2 adults & 2 children - the picture shows what was left after one serving each - we had 2 servings each.)
400g of fideos (like 1cm pieces of spaghetti, today we used tiny stars - estrellas)
400g mixed seafood (prawns, squid, mussels, etc)
50ml olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 red pepper (we used tinned red pepper as we always do-we prefer fresh peppers raw)
2 cloves garlic crushed
100g peas (fresh or frozen - Oops, I forgot these!)
2 very large tomatoes chopped into 1cm pieces or half a tin of chopped tomatoes
1 litres of chicken or fish stock
Small pinch of ground cumin
Small pinch of saffrom
Small pinch of paprika
Tiny handful of fresh thyme finely chopped
Pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper

Heat the oil and gently fry the onions and garlic for 5 minutes. (If using red pepper add this now too, if using cooked pepper then add at end of 5 mins).
To the litre of stock add the cumin, saffron, paprika and thyme.
Add the pasta to the pan, then the tomatoes and stock and stir well.
Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the seafood and cook for further 5 minutes.
Add salt and pepper if using and it's ready to serve.

Coconut for dessert from The Ivory Coast (oh the food miles - shudder!). That's what happened yesterday when father and sons went shopping... Dada, can we have this, oh and that?

The octopus and prawns are in the fridge!! Maybe later?