Smoothies

Now that the weather has warmed up -- and because Jarrett and I have started drinking protein shakes most mornings -- it seemed a good time to introduce smoothies into Elsa's breakfast repertoire. Below is a recipe I threw together, but the beautiful thing about smoothies is that you can really play around with them and make them new every time.

Elsa's Breakfast Smoothie

Servings: Approximately 2 child-sized portions

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen berries

1/2 to 1 teaspoon honey

Combine all ingredients together and blend until smooth (I use a handheld immersion blender, but obviously any blender or food processor would do the trick). Pour into cup appropriate for child, throw in a straw, and voila!

Great additions to this would be flax seeds, hemp protein powder, chia seed powder, a few greens, carrots, etc. I plan on playing around with ingredients as the months go on.

Starting on Solids

My neighbor Kendra is looking for tips as she prepares to start her chubby wubby on solids in the next couple of months. Could you all respond with your experiences of those very first meals? Maybe include when you started feeding solids, what your first foods were, did you make/buy/combination, etc.

Our experience:
We started Lucas out around 5.5 months. He didn't really show an interest in solids, but I really wanted to reduce nursings while we were on vacation in Vancouver and in general. We started him off on gerber applesauce and pears mixed with organic rice cereal. Strangely he did not like bananas and even had a reaction to them once in the form of a brief rash.

Lucas was not a huge fan of solids for a while. He was so off and on, I decided not to make most of my food. I ground steamed apples in my baby food grinder (this I would recommend to have on hand - you can quickly mash whatever is on the dinner table - veggies, chili, etc .) Other than that I mostly bought organic jarred food and forgot about it.

Soon he was eating non-pureed foods and this was a better stage for me. I cooked with reasonable amounts of butter, broth and even salt making healthy stuff taste good. He LOVED soups and this is what I would order for him at restaurants before he could even walk. We tended to introduce foods early, like eggs, yogurt, etc. He was a berry monster and would devour mass quantities of blueberries on almost a daily basis.

I uploaded this video of my little angel eating yogurt in the tub at around the age of 10-11 months.

Beets

Christi,

In response to your last post, here is a way to keep beets from going bad. Easy recipe and you don't even have to wash them before baking them. Weird, I know! They'd be good just sliced up with thinly sliced red onion and chunks of feta on a salad. Or just on their own.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Baked-Beets-72861

As far as the kiddies go, I used to puree these for Lucas on occasion. Read up on feeding kids lots of root veggies when they are infants because they say that the high nitrate content depletes their iron levels, but I think it's good for them to develop a taste for them. Lucas is still attracted to them on salad bars and will eat a few bites. I have a picture of him at 5 months looking like a clown with a beet mustache/beard. When I find it I will post it.

Natali

Pumpkin Yogurt

My friend, Shelly, sent out a link to an article in the New York Times that lists the 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating. We won't talk about the bunch of beets I bought from the farmer's market and then proceeded to let go bad in the fridge before I could get around to doing anything with them, but I am trying to eat more of these foods. As a result, I am also attempting to get Elsa to eat some of these, and decided to make pumpkin yogurt using canned pumpkin. She loves it. And, really, how could she not? It tastes pretty much like pumpkin pie filling! Note that this recipe also contains cinnamon, another food off of the list.

Pumpkin Yogurt

1 large (32-ounce) container yogurt (I used vanilla, but will probably opt for plain next time to cut down on the sugar)
1 can 100% pure pumpkin
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
honey to taste (I probably used just around a teaspoon since the yogurt I used already contained some sugar)

Mix all of the above ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside the amount you intend to eat immediately (because you won't be able to resist) and store the remaining yogurt in the now empty yogurt container.

Bon appetit!

Lovely Lentils

A friend of a friend posted this recipe (from Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel) as a comment to one of my posts awhile back, and I thought it deserved a post of its own. I made this last week for Elsa, and even though she wasn't feeling well, she still ate a good portion of it. I went ahead and froze the rest in an ice cube tray for meals down the road.

One thing I have come to realize lately is that if the food I am trying to feed Elsa requires the use of a spoon or a fork, it helps tremendously if I give her a utensil to hold onto and attempt to use to feed herself. This skill is proving to take her some time (perhaps due to the fact that I am a neat freak and have had some trouble relinquishing total control over the food during mealtime in an attempt to avoid serious messes and, therefore, she has not had a ton of practice), but she does manage to get food into her mouth here and there. Regardless, I think it makes her feel a bit more involved in the process and more interested in her food. I am looking forward to when she is able to stand stably on a stepstool and actually help to prepare the food she eats.

Lovely Lentils

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped celery
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup split red lentils
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 3/4 cup reduced sodium chicken broth (you can also use water or half water/half broth)

Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in the vegetable oil for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the lentils and sweet potatoes and pour in the broth and/or water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Puree in a blender. (You can also just mashed it with a potato masher and get a great consistency since the veggies and lentils are so soft after cooking.)

Grandma's Oatmeal Pancakes

I made these pancakes over the weekend with the intention of giving Elsa a nice, warm breakfast since she has been sick over the past week or so. Unfortunately, with her sickness has come even more of a decreased appetite, so she did not each much of what I offered her, but ate at least some. Jarrett and I, on the other hand, enjoyed them very much.

This is a recipe handed down from Jarrett's mom, and the pancakes were a favorite of Jarrett's during his high school/college years. They really are quite delicious. I think next time around I might try using brown sugar rather than the regular ole white, granulated variety. We served ours with a variety of toppings -- butter, pure maple syrup, pumpkin butter, and blackberry preserves.

Oatmeal Pancakes

2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups quick oats (uncooked)
1 cup all purpose flour (I used white whole wheat, but have also used regular whole wheat and half whole wheat/half all purpose)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (be sure it doesn't have aluminum in it)
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use canola oil)

1. Pour milk over oats and let stand.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. (Be sure to add the flakes that get sifted out back into the flour mixture if you use whole wheat flour.)

3. Gently stir eggs into oats/milk mixture.

4. Add sifted dry ingredients.

5. Stir in oil.

6. Bake on nonstick or lightly greased griddle until golden brown, turning only once.

7. Serve hot with syrup, preserves, jam, etc.

Variations:
Sprinkle one of the following on the pancakes before turning:
Chopped apples
Blueberries
Dried sweetened cranberries
Sausage or ham

A Very Adaptable Mexican Casserole

Unlike many of my fellow posters, I do not love to cook. While I don't hate to cook either, I often find the process of planning, shopping, preparing, eating (well, that part I love), and cleaning kind of cumbersome, especially with an eight month strapped to me and a two year old lingering. However, I have found a few things make my life much easier. First, easy to remember recipes are helpful so that I don't have to constantly refer to the recipe. Second, I need adaptable recipes so that I am likely to have the ingredients in the house and it isn't the same every time. Next, it is preferable for me to able to prepare something earlier in the day while my children are napping. An ideal recipe should also have steps that my children can help with or snack on during the process. Leftovers are also a must as I try to cook only every other day. This Mexican Casserole fits all of the requirements and Finnan will eat it!

Adaptable Mexican Casserole

Tortilla chips

1lb ground meat

2 cups salsa

1 can of beans (drained and rinsed)

Veggie mix-ins (see below)

2 cups of sour cream

Veggie toppings (see below)

Shredded cheese

1. Crush a layer of tortilla chips on the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish. (Good job for the kiddos- and easy snaking for them as well.)

2. Cook ground meat. After meat is cooked add salsa and beans. At this point, I throw in whatever veggies I have around that sound good- onions (I add when cooking meat), bell peppers (I add when cooking meat), corn, spinach, shredded carrots, etc. When cooked through, layer meat mixture on top of crushed tortilla chips. (My two year old, Finnan, has also started to help me chop. He can't get very far with the dinner knife I give him, but he enjoys being part of the process and will pop a few veggies in his mouth in the process.)

3. Layer sour cream on top of meat mixture.

4. Layer fresh veggies- I use tomatoes and green onions (if I have them).

5. Top with cheese.

6. Cook in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

You can make this dish as basic or complex as you want and as healthy or unhealthy as you want. And Natali's guacamole would make the perfect dip for the pre-meal tortilla snackers!