First Foods: A Primer

Believe it or not, but from the moment you put a spoon into your baby's mouth for the first time, you're not only introducing solids, but you're also introducing expectations that may shape the way your child views food for the rest of his life.  He watches you to learn what food is all about:  Whether you are opening a package of prepared baby food from the grocery store shelf, or are preparing it lovingly by hand from fresh produce; whether you rush him through his meals or allow him to explore each bite's flavor and texture; whether you demand he eat as much as possible or let his appetite lead the way; whether you focus primarily on sweet foods first or on a variety of flavors from strong and bitter to mellow and savory; whether you eat disconnected from one another in front of the television or together at the table as a family.  Your baby might be an adorable, pudgy little package of rolls, drools and smiles, but he's also a little sponge soaking up everything - the good, and the bad - that you put before him.

This milestone is such an exciting and important one for your child.  Up until this point, his experience with his sense of taste has been limited to breastmilk or formula, his own hands and feet, and toys of various flavorless materials.  A brand new world is opening its gate before him, so guide him right.

Timing Is Everything.

When your baby is ready for solids is subjective.  Generally, your baby should be ready between four to six months, when the iron he's been storing since he lived in your womb is depleting and his digestive system is strengthening.  Typically, he should be able to hold his head up and steady, and sit comfortably with the assistance of a chair.  He may also show interest in your food and watching you eat, and may even try to grab food off your plate if you've left it within reach.

Introducing solid foods before this time frame can cause digestive problems as well as put your child at a higher risk for allergies and obesity.  Conversely, waiting too long to introduce foods can make your child too comfortable with his liquid diet and he may be more likely to refuse this unfamiliar texture and flavor.  However, your doctor may suggest waiting a bit longer if you have a family history of food allergies.  Always consult your pediatrician with any concerns you may have before starting your child on solids.

To maximize your likelihood of success, introduce solids for the first time when your baby is neither hungry nor full.  If your baby is hungry, he may not tolerate your attempts and want his familiar meal; if he is full, he may not open his mouth for the spoon at all.  Remember no matter what that this is an unfamiliar experience, so don't stress and just have fun with it - feeding solids right now is much less about nutrition than it is about practice.

Once a food has been introduced, it should be given exclusively (or coupled with foods that have already passed this "test") for at least two days so that if your child has a reaction, you have a better chance of pinpointing which food is the culprit.  If you have a family history of food allergies, you may want to stretch the introductory period further.

Most important when it comes to timing:  Slow and steady.  If your baby is too fussy and is outright rejecting your attempts that day, it is not a big deal.  There is always tomorrow.  Don't force your child to eat by continuing to spoon food into his crying maw, and don't act disappointed that he won't eat.  Simply say something encouraging, give him a big kiss on the cheek and clean up.

What's On the Menu?

Infant rice cereal is often suggested as a perfect first food.  It's cheap, it's essentially flavorless, it's easy to prepare and it poses almost no risk of an allergic reaction.  However, it can also back up delicate digestive systems and, well, it's boring.  I think it's great to use for a few days just to transition your baby from one texture to another, but after a few days, you can move on to better things, like vegetables.

It is said that babies naturally prefer sweet things.  I can't say for sure, as I don't remember being a baby and my personal preferences to this day are for the salty and savory.  To be on the safe side, though, I personally prefer starting my kids with a variety of vegetables.  It seems to me that going from a banana to a pea would be a much more disappointing experience than going from a pea to a banana.

Try to avoid the baby food aisle, at least for now.  Commercially-prepared baby foods may seem nice as they are convenient and contain simple ingredients.  Was the produce free of bruises, pits or marks?  Was it fresh?  Are they pureeing the seeds, skins and other less-appetizing parts of the vegetables?  How did they prepare it?  How many nutrients were lost in the process of turning an apple into a product that sits in a plastic tub or glass jar and lasts literally for years?  What about meat!?  What parts of the animal are in there, exactly?

Walk through the produce aisle.  Feel your vegetables, smell them.  See if they were organically or locally produced.  Seed it yourself, peel it yourself, prepare it yourself, and feed it fresh or freeze it for the future - a future a month from now instead of a year.  Buy yourself a bundle of fresh asparagus and prepare it yourself, and then compare it to asparagus from a can - you wouldn't want to eat the latter, but that's the equivalent of what you're feeding your baby when you give them commercially-prepared foods:  Over-cooked, awkwardly-flavored and generally unappetizing produce with no nutrition left from who knows where and when.

In the blogs to follow that are labelled "First Foods," I will walk you through my son August's journey into solids so that you can get ideas on food selection, preparation, and other helpful hints as you and your child journey through solids on your own path.  I would suggest that you also keep a small journal documenting which foods your child has eaten and whether or not he has had any reaction to them.  If you wish, you can also mark down his particular reaction.  For example, my daughter's first solid beyond rice cereal was peas, and her reaction was one of horror, to say the least.  But her next food, summer squash, was greeted with delight!

What food you start with is up to you.  In Africa, babies tend to be introduced to meat before anything else.  In America, it is cereal.  In India, they don't think twice about spicing it up for little taste buds.  There are no real rules, but some guidelines I personally follow for infants are:

• No added fats, spices, sweeteners or salt when preparing baby food.  This gives your child an opportunity to taste and learn to appreciate the flavor of fresh, simple foods.
• Prepare your baby's meals at home, preferably with techniques that discourage nutrient loss.  Use any water that may have been used in cooking to thin out a puree that is too thick.  
• For the first few months, peel fruits and vegetables, and remove seeds if they are present.
• Avoid the more highly allergenic foods until a little later, between 10 and 12 months. 

Above all else... HAVE FUN.

Don't fret!  Make meal times enjoyable, stop when baby lets you know he's done, don't act like any food you offer is disgusting, and enjoy these little mealtimes before your baby turns into a toddler and demands a slice of bread and crackers for dinner instead of that wonderful chicken you've been roasting...

One Rotisserie Chicken

August was in his stroller, looking around with disinterest as we passed rows of boxes and cans.  When his wandering eyes fell on me, I began to dance to the disco music playing over the speakers.  Upon seeing my animated face and my flailing arms, his eyes softened and his lips curled into a grin.  Behind us, Jon-Michael was pushing our cart with one hand.  Evelyn's sleeping form was slung over his shoulder, and his other arm was cradling her as she napped.

Cases of beer were stacked into lofty pyramids that dotted the layout like an Egyptian horizon, a beacon of excess serving as a not-so-subtle reminder that Labor Day was a mere 24 hours away.  Shining carts pushed by scowling customers were full of the things of national secular holidays:  Immodest amounts of meat and alcohol, brightly-colored condiments.  The swarm of people hummed like an angry hive as they buzzed noisily past each other.  I wanted nothing more than to escape - but instead, I danced and I sang as I waited for my husband to pick out a taco kit.

"What are we doing for dinner tonight?" he asked.  We gave each other a look of understanding and headed toward the prepared foods department.  It was already late in the day, and the thought of cooking had hardly even passed my mind.

What can I get that I can share with Evie? I thought to myself as I passed by a salad bar, steaming soups, fried chicken pieces, sushi.  Rotisserie chicken.  Duh.  

That night, I made a simple meal in five minutes.  In the time it took me to steam a potato in the microwave, I had a cucumber peeled and seeded, cut into bite-size pieces and sprinkled with kosher salt and a generous shake of dill and mixed together with a dab of mayonnaise.  A buttery potato, cucumber salad and a rotisserie chicken thigh went over really well and took minimal work.  That's my idea of a Sunday dinner.

For dinner that Monday, I was inspired by the bok choy I had purchased the day before and I made a simple chicken fried rice.  I sauteed the bok choy with salt, pepper, turmeric, garlic powder, olive oil (admittedly not a very "fried rice" flavor) and soy sauce, then I added small pieces of the leftover chicken breast and some brown rice I had prepared earlier that day.  Making a small pit in the middle of the rice mixture, I cracked an egg and whisked it.  When it was nearly set, I stirred it all together so the egg coated some of the rice and vegetable.

Evelyn devoured it.  She didn't wait for small spoonfuls; she grabbed giant handfuls and shoved it into her mouth as quickly as she could manage.  In toddler etiquette, that is a compliment to the chef and it certainly makes me feel good.  Another (nearly) five-minute meal.

When you're in a bind and it's almost dinner time, a $5.00 rotisserie chicken can be worth its weight in gold.  And minutes.

Some other ideas:  Shred it for tacos, burritos or enchiladas; cut it up and add it to chicken broth, vegetables and rice or noodles for a quick, easy chicken soup; cut into strips to add to a green salad.

Multiple Motherhood and Quick Eats

If anyone had told me three years ago that by Easter 2012, I'd give birth to my second child in 13 months, I'd have spit my whiskey across the bathroom laughing.  "Doubtful," I'd say from my hot bath, clinking my glass against the ceramic tub.  Then I'd bury my smokey eyes back into my beat-up copy of The Satanic Bible and, with black-lacquered nails slowly turning each page, continue to ignore such a preposterous idea.

Yet here I am, spitting apple juice across the living room laughing at the person I used to be.  "I was such a moron," I'd say from the couch, kissing the hair of the sleeping toddler pressed against me while balancing the weight of a twitchy infant on my other shoulder.  Then I'd turn my sleepy eyes to "The History of the Papacy" sprawled across my lap and, with one free hand, attempt to turn the page without shaking anyone awake.

I was selfish, thoughtless, vain and egotistical, quite the far cry from the person I've become - the one who forgets to eat while she cooks delicious healthy meals for her daughter, the one who sacrifices taking showers on a regular basis so she can be readily available should her kids need her, the one who gets up by 8:00 a.m. every morning instead of finally getting to bed at 8:00 a.m.  A lot has changed, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and all for the best.

Yes, on Easter 2012 I became a mother of two.  Each of the 24 hours in a day are stretched even more thin as new responsibilities have been tossed into my already-full hands.  I don't mind; this is my life now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Okay, I wouldn't mind being able to nap during the day like I did when I only had one kid, but that's the only thing I'd change.  Oh, and I'd get to take that daily shower I so desperately miss.  But that's it.  

As you can imagine, this has left me with very little time to cook, nonetheless blog.  All my free moments are spent catching up on social networking sites where I hope to have that one adult conversation I'd get of the day - discussing politics instead of bugs, for instance, or debating religion instead of trying to talk a toddler into not chewing on the couch.

My son, August, has his crabby moments where he must be held or we all suffer the consequence of his very healthy cry.  Being the kind of person who appreciates a little silence when she can get it, preparing an extensive meal like I used to for Evelyn is not in the realm of possibility anymore as it would require putting Gus down for longer a time than he can handle.  (Also, having my children "cry it out" is absolutely not an option as far as I'm concerned.)  I've had to start getting creative, and it helps that Evelyn can handle a lot more as far as texture goes.

When I need to prepare a meal quickly, this is the sort of list that goes through my head.  It's the short list of what I can prepare quickly that my daughter will enjoy.  Because we've apparently done so well getting Evie hooked on real food, she is extremely picky when it comes to the overcooked, flavorless prepackaged junk marketed to toddlers.  This is a blessing for obvious reasons, but a curse as well since it makes those crabby days hard - I can't simply pop something in the microwave, shovel it in her mouth and move on.  Not that I want to do something so horrid anyway.  Really, who does?

So, here are some ideas for moms with extremely limited time:

Omelets.  Eggs are so great.  Not only are they nutritious and cheap, but they cook up pretty quick, too.  When it seems I don't have time to cook anything for Evelyn, I always have time to cook eggs.  While I could easily just scramble them, I prefer to make omelets because they offer more as far as texture goes.  If you time everything right, making a spinach and cheese omelet can take as little as five minutes.

Prepare More.  Don't ever prepare "just enough."  Prepare enough for a few days.  When you have time to cook brown rice, noodles, bake a chicken, boil eggs, etc., make enough so you'll have it in the fridge for the next few days for when you don't have time.  Buying a rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store is a great way to have chicken on hand without ever having to actually cook it yourself.

Soup.  When in doubt, make soup.  Keep your pantry full of various noodles and frozen homemade chicken stock or cans of chicken stock (keep an eye on the ingredients and avoid any with preservatives or additives like monosodium glutamate) and your freezer full of vegetables.  Boil the stock, throw in some prepared chicken, various veggies and noodles and let it cook.  In the seven minutes it might take to cook noodles, you can have a flavorful chicken and vegetable soup without watching over it all day.  For some extra nutrition, and to cool it off to an edible temp, stir some milk in before serving.  

Soup is so versatile.  Today, I made Evelyn a chicken, vegetable and noodle soup.  To chicken stock, I added a handful of small bow tie pasta, a mix of frozen vegetables - zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, green beans and lima beans, some kale I diced into small pieces, some cooked chicken cut from a rotisserie chicken I had in the fridge from yesterday, and a little salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Before serving it, I splashed in some whole milk.  Evie loved it so much that she was slurping the broth off the spoon once all the delicious chunks were gone.

Finger Foods.  This saves you the time of having to sit down and feed your toddler if you have other things to do.  I keep the high chair in the kitchen, so I can clean bottles and still keep an eye on and interact with my daughter while my son hangs out in the mobile bassinet.  There is never just one of us in the kitchen.  Cooked and cooled pasta shapes, steamed soft vegetables, hard-boiled egg, small chunks of cheese, pieces of banana or orange, and a grilled cheese sandwich cut into small squares are all great mix-and-match ideas.  Make a plate based on what your kid likes that features at least a whole grain, a protein source and a vegetable, and let them do it themselves while you use that time to get something else done.

Watermelon Hands

When I was having difficulty getting my daughter to sleep, I did what nearly every other modern mom does:  I took to the internet.  Everything I read suggested all different kinds of techniques, but one theme rang true, and that was the ritual.  It seemed that if you followed a set ritual, something that was designed to calm your child down and prepare her for bed, nighttime would move a lot smoother and your child would be more susceptible to sleep.

Some of the rituals that families had were long-winded productions that ran night after night like a perfectly-scripted play that closed the curtain at exactly the same time every evening.  They consisted of several acts that dragged on for hours, and most of these families included a warm bath (with some kind of highly-advertised lavender soap marketed as a miracle sleep aid), songs, stories - an entire repertoire of calming activities that were to run immediately after dinner.

There's no way I could pull something like that off.  The planning and the execution must be exact, and I'm too carefree with my time to even joke about considering something so demanding.  

We never really had a ritual so much as we had bedtime techniques instead.  Evelyn and I would rock in the glider in the corner of her nursery, window open if the weather allowed it, listening to the sounds of the night as I sang softly to her until she fell asleep.  Then our rocking chair broke. 

It seemed that every time we got into some kind of ritual, the figurative rocking chair would break and we would be forced to improvise.  I won't bore you with all the details of every single ritual that has come and gone, but needless to say, we finally found one that we all as a family can live with.

Family Fruit Time

At 7:30 p.m., Dada changes Evelyn's diaper and puts her in her pajamas as I prepare her warm milk (an essential part of our ritual, of course).  Then, as her milk is sitting in a mug of hot water to slowly take the chill of the fridge off, we stand around the kitchen or sit at the bar and eat fruit together.

We giggle.  We feed each other.  We dribble juice down our chins.  It runs contrary to almost everything I've read about infant and toddler sleep:  Not only are we giving her sugar before bed, but we're also engaging her in a stimulating activity.  And yet she still drinks her milk a half hour later and is asleep by 8:30 p.m. every night.

The past two nights, we have been indulging in watermelon.  Sitting in her Dada's lap at the bar, she would slap her little hands on the granite in anticipation of each juicy bite as I stabbed into the pink fruit with a fork and presented it to her.  Sometimes, she would lean forward with her little mouth open like a baby bird and snatch the bite directly off the fork; other times, she would carefully pull it off the fork with gentle little fingers, sucking as much juice out as she could before finally popping the whole piece in her mouth.  

Tonight as we lay in bed together, she rolled toward me and pressed her little face up against mine, forehead to forehead, nose to nose.  Just before she fell asleep, she brought a little hand up to my face and cupped my chin.  It smelled like watermelon.

This too shall pass...

This ritual started one night when I dropped an apple and decided it had to be eaten before it sat around on the counter bruising up.  Jon-Michael was holding Evie and I was busy trying to eat as much of the crunchy skin off the apple as I could so she could tear at the white flesh with her little teeth.  We all ended up eating the apple together, standing there in the kitchen and laughing and just enjoying a moment of sweet simplicity together.

I know it will end, like all other rituals, to be replaced by something new.  Our son will be born soon, and the job of tackling a toddler ritual with a newborn ritual will begin, and togetherness in the kitchen around a piece of fruit probably won't be a possibility anymore.  I'm going to soak it up as much as I can, though.  Juicy, sticky chins and all.

Enchiladas Unwrapped

Motivation, Where Did You Go?

I admit that lately, I've been losing my motivation when it comes to preparing meals for my daughter.  The closer I get to giving birth to my son, the more uncomfortable I become.  The more uncomfortable I become, the less likely I am to want to stand in front of a hot stove for any length of time.  Knowing that I don't want to stand in front of a stove, I think to myself, "What is the quickest, easiest dish I can prepare?"  It doesn't leave a lot of room for imagination.

I've fallen into a rut of simplicity.  I try to create meals that are extremely easy for me but that are still healthy for her.  These tend to be boring, as one might figure.  For example, last night Evelyn had chicken, mixed vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts) all folded into a creamy mashed potato with Parmesan cheese.  It's not that it tasted bad, but it certainly wasn't exciting in the least bit.  Meals like this have become pretty standard in the past week - protein and vegetables served with a whole grain or a potato, some fruit and milk on the side.

I was looking in the pantry today for something, anything, to inspire me again to make something a little different for my daughter than the boring stuff we've been eating.  I found an unopened container of yellow corn meal, and thought to myself, "Hey, it's not a potato or noodles."

Mexican Monday

Enchiladas are a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a soft corn tortilla wrapped around a variety of fillings and covered in a tomato-based chili sauce.  Enchiladas have always been one of my favorite menu items when I have the rare opportunity of going out to an authentic Mexican restaurant.

Seeing as how I obviously love to take layered or wrapped adult foods and make them baby friendly, why not turn some simple corn meal into a fun Mexican-inspired dish for my daughter?  Well, it turned out so good that I called my husband at work and asked him to pick up some things for us to have tacos tonight.  I wanted my Mexican Monday, too.

Enchiladas Unwrapped


Ingredients

Corn meal, prepared as "polenta" or "corn meal mush" according to package directions
Ground beef
Small bit of chopped onion (get frozen - it's already ready for you!)
Small bit of chopped green pepper (ditto!)
A little bit of spinach (I like to sneak it into everything - it's healthy)
Tomato sauce
Cheddar cheese
Homemade spice blend - Equal pinches of cumin, cayenne and chili powders

Technique

1)  Prepare your corn meal according to package directions.  I had Quaker Yellow Corn Meal - Mix one cup dry corn meal with one cup of water; meanwhile, boil three cups of water.  When the water is boiling, add the corn meal/water mix and stir really well until thick.  Cover it, put it on low and cook for another five minutes.  When it's all done, you'll have a ton.  You only need a couple of spoonfuls; the rest you can put away in the fridge and use for something else.

2)  Cook your ground beef.  Add just a couple tiny pinches of your spice blend.  Don't use a commercial taco blend, as they often contain a lot of unsavory ingredients and a ton of unnecessary salt.  These spices are hot and a little goes a long way.  You obviously don't want to make your child uncomfortable; you just want to introduce flavor with a tiny bit of spice, so keep it light.  Just a couple of little pinches.  Chop your cooked beef nice and small.

3)  Steam your onion, green peppers and spinach together (alternatively, you can boil them - it won't take as long, but you will sacrifice some nutrition).  When these are warm and the spinach is nice and wilted, chop these finely.

4)  To prepare the sauce, simply add a couple of small pinches to about four ounces of prepared tomato sauce and warm it up in a pan.  Add a few cubes or shreds of cheddar to taste (we like to use a lot!) and let it melt down.  Use as much of it as you feel you need on your baby's dish - you'll have leftover.

5)  You can either layer your ingredients for babies who can handle things with a less-than-smooth texture (corn meal on bottom, beef, vegetables, then sauce) and give it a gentle fold, or you can mix it all together (which is what we do).

6)  Serve with some whole milk and some juicy watermelon.  Enjoy!  I know we did!

The Baby Pantry: Eggs

"That's a potential allergen."

That's how I explained my fear to my very confused mother when I told her I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with my daughter, Evelyn, trying a scrambled egg.  Neither I nor my husband suffer any food allergies, nor do our parents; other risk factors that increase the likelihood of food allergies, such as asthma, aren't an issue, either.  It would seem that my daughter would be in a low-risk category of developing a food allergy.  

However, there is still a risk involved when introducing your child to a potential allergen.  There are eight major allergens responsible for 90 percent of all the food allergies suffered in the United States, and a certain level of care must be taken when introducing them to your child:

• Wheat
• Cow's Milk
• Eggs
• Fish
• Shellfish (shrimp, prawns, lobster, crab, etc.)
• Tree nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, etc.)
• Peanuts
• Soy

I was especially nervous about Evie being given egg.  She had a flu shot (I didn't want her to get it, but it's an enraging story that I refuse to recount again), and reacted terribly to it.  We ended up in the ER with our baby clearly in pain, bawling her eyes out and terrified after projectile vomiting food she had taken in nearly six hours prior.  Because doctors seem to refuse to believe that the flu shot could possibly make someone ill, they always look for that "coincidental" thing that made your child sick:  A virus, a reaction to something they ate, etc.  In this case, our pediatrician thought it might have been an allergic reaction to the egg upon which the virus in the vaccine is grown.

It was, of course, a ridiculous suggestion.  I knew that it wasn't the case, that my daughter was one of the many kids I know personally who had terrible reactions to the flu shot.  But it sunk in.  Allergic to eggs?  Could she really be?

Then my mom adamantly declared that the whole idea of her being allergic to eggs was silly, and I knew better about that damn flu shot.  So I relented, and let her feed my daughter a scrambled egg.  My breath caught in my throat as I kept asking questions, like "Is she turning red?  She's not wheezing, right?  She isn't getting a rash?"

Looking back, it's pretty hilarious how overly concerned and terrified I was.  The only reaction my daughter had was "Wow, this is awesome.  I want to eat eggs everyday.  They are the best thing you ever put before me."  Big smile, giggles.  Sheer enjoyment.

And who can blame her?  Eggs are amazing.

Cheap, nutritious, versatile.

Eggs are one of the best values you can have in your kitchen.  For a small price, in that thin shell, they pack quite a nutritious punch, featuring the highest-quality protein available and some pretty impressive health benefits:

• The lutein in eggs is great for eye health, and it is more readily available to us from eggs than from nearly any other source.  Studies show a lower risk of cataracts and macular degeneration among those who eat eggs as a normal part of their diet.
• Contrary to popular belief, regular consumption of eggs doesn't negatively impact cholesterol levels in most people, and in fact eggs can actually help prevent cardiac events such as blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.
• Eggs are one of the few foods with naturally-occurring Vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and proper calcium absorption.  
• Women who consume high amounts of choline are 24% less likely to develop breast cancer than their choline-deficient counterparts.  One large egg provides 30% of your daily choline needs.

Eggs last a long time when stored properly:  Raw and stored in the refrigerator in their original carton, not in the door where they are subject to heat and light every time the fridge is opened, they can last nearly a month (hard-boiled eggs last about a week).  You can even freeze them for up to a year by beating the whites and yolks together, and portioning them out in freezer-safe containers.

Think about everything you can do with a humble egg, from the simple to the complex and the savory to the sweet.  Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs; omelet, frittata, stratta; deviled eggs, pickled eggs, Scotch eggs; mayonnaise, Caesar dressing; custard, meringue, all sorts of baked goods.  If you can name it, you can put eggs in it.

Stick to the Basics

Evelyn and I stick to the basics:  Scrambled eggs and toast.  She gets her eggs in a simplistic Florentine style - cooked with spinach, Parmesan cheese and milk, served with whole wheat toast squares and a fresh fruit.  I always "accidentally" make too much so I'm guaranteed to get some leftovers for myself.  

Vitamin Loss in Cooking

When you want to feed your children the most nutritious food you can, it's just as important to select a proper cooking method as it is to select the foods themselves.  While most minerals hold up extremely well to all temperatures and cooking methods, vitamins are easily lost depending on how the food is prepared.  It's helpful to know how some vitamins are destroyed, and what you can do to preserve as many as you can.

Fat Solubility

Vitamins that dissolve in fat, and therefore leach out of food when cooked in fats like butter and oil, include Vitamins A, D, E and K.  Because excess amounts of these vitamins are stored in the body, and not eliminated like water-soluble vitamins, it isn't imperative that you receive high doses everyday.

However, to retain these vitamins when cooking, it is advised that you refrain from frying the food or otherwise cooking it in fat.  Broiling or baking would be the superior option for retaining these vitamins in food.

Foods rich in the fat-soluble vitamins include:

• Vitamin A:  Liver, sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy greens such as kale and collard greens, butternut squash, dried apricots and cantaloupe.  
• Vitamin D:  Fish (particularly raw or oil-packed) such as herring and salmon, fortified products (including soy, dairy and cereal products), and eggs.
• Vitamin E:  Nut and seed products such as sunflower seeds and almonds, wheat germ and olive oils, green olives and cooked spinach.
• Vitamin K:  Dark leafy greens (here they are again, and also a great plant source of calcium), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and cabbage.

Water Solubility

Water-soluble vitamins are those that dissolve in water, and are lost primarily when food is boiled or otherwise prepared in water.  These vitamins need to be in the diet daily, as they are eliminated from the body throughout the day, primarily through urine.

The water-soluble vitamins are Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins:  Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin B6, folic acid, Vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, and biotin.  All of these vitamins are easily lost in the storage and preparation of foods.

Some information on the vitamins follows:

• Vitamin C:  Vitamin C is very unstable, and is lost when exposed to water or heat, and also when a food is dried.  Therefore, one of the best sources for Vitamin C is from fresh, raw food:  Fruits like oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, tomatoes and dark green leafy vegetables.  When you are cooking, use as little water as possible and cook for as short a time as possible.
• B Complex Vitamins:  In general, you will find an abundance of the B Complex Vitamins in animal foods, especially liver, and whole grain products.  Eggs, fish, leafy vegetables, legumes and milk also provide many of the B Vitamins in good, healthy amounts.  All of them leach out of food into cooking water and many are destroyed by alkalinity and sulfites (which are added to many dried foods to retain color); some are destroyed by too much exposure to light (riboflavin) and long exposure to heat (thiamin).  Despite the loss of vitamins, it is important you always cook meat thoroughly!

Tips on Vitamin Preservation

Save cooking water.  Whatever water you use to boil vegetables, use it to prepare rice, make gravy, add to soup, or make a sauce.

Avoid peeling and cutting.  Vegetables that remain in one piece will retain more nutrients than those that are chopped or peeled prior to cooking.  Only peel when absolutely necessary, as a wealth of vitamin nutrition is in or just beneath the skin.

Prepare food fresh.  Foods that are cooked, then stored and reheated later, lose a lot of nutrition.  Vegetables prepared in advance lose roughly a quarter of their Vitamin C, for example, after 24 hours.

Steam, or use very little water when boiling.  Steaming retains a lot more of the water-soluble vitamins than does boiling, as the water doesn't come into contact with the food.  When you do boil, however, use a minimum of water.  Remember that leafy greens cook down and while four cups of cabbage doesn't seem like it can cook in one cup of water, give it a chance.

Baking and toasting.  When you're baking, the addition of baking soda raises the alkalinity of the product and destroys thiamin.  While you can't avoid the "baking" part of baking, you can avoid over-toasting any bread you might make (or purchase) to keep from further destroying thiamin:  Toast it just so it's golden around the edges, and no more.

Roast and grill.  Your best bets for meat are to prepare them with dry heat:  Roasting and grilling.  Don't overcook your meat, as this leads to unnecessary further nutrient loss (not to mention that it's incredibly disrespectful to the cow who gave his life to put that amazing steak on your table when you cook it anything past medium for an adult).  Don't be afraid to use fully-cooked drippings to prepare gravies.

Stir-fry, don't fry-fry.  Deep frying is horrible, and destroys nearly all of the fat-soluble vitamins in your food as well as adding on too many additional fat calories.  Stir-frying, however, which uses a minimum of oil and a minimum cooking time, isn't too bad.  Slice your foods very thin to limit how much time is needed to cook in this high-heat method.  

Most Importantly...

Eat at home.  See how your food is selected, stored and prepared!

Unstuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Unrolls

I'm married to one of the pickiest eaters in America, which has made it all the more important to me to present our children with a variety of tastes and textures early on in an effort to keep their culinary horizons broad.  Thankfully, he agrees with my mission and has agreed to some very important rules:

1. Dad is not allowed to sneer at, say "Ew!" to or otherwise show any signs of revulsion to any food he is presented with.
2. Dad is not allowed to suggest in any way that vegetables are disgusting.
3. If the baby looks a little less than enthused with a first bite of a new food, Dad is not allowed to say, "I know, that's gross!" or sympathize in a manner suggesting that a second bite should be completely shunned.

So long as he applies these three simple rules to mealtime, my job is easy:  Cook without stereotypes.  That means to cook without stereotyping my child or the food.  One vegetable that I notice receives more undeserved hatred than most is cabbage.  I've heard it described as "Mushy," which immediately leads me to believe that those who primarily don't like cabbage have only had it poorly prepared, and are primarily children.  Though I can assure you that picky adults even think they don't like cabbage, despite having it shredded and added to salads for his lunch sometimes...

Cabbage could easily be described as a super-food.  It's full of antioxidants, it has anti-inflammatory properties, it's full of powerful enzymes that help keep your digestive tract healthy, and has been the subject of many studies regarding it's anti-cancer benefits.  Full of Vitamins A, K and C, folate and fiber, cabbage should be a normal part of anybody's diet.

Introduction to Cabbage

Up until today, my daughter has never had cabbage.  The opportunity never seemed to arise, and I'm sure in my earlier days of motherhood full of worry, I came up with the potential for gas as a reason not to give it to her.

I decided today to introduce it with a take on one of my favorite classics, stuffed cabbage. Stuffed cabbage traditionally contains a filling of beef and rice or barley with onions, wrapped in a boiled cabbage leaf and finished in a casserole dish with tomato sauce.  As it is primarily a Central European dish, it's not unusual to have it served with potatoes of some kind.

In making it baby-friendly, I tried to keep a fairly even ratio of meat to grains and cabbage, whereas you would normally get a large portion of meat in an adult version.  I prepared brown rice for the filling, but because my pans are horrible and let out too much steam apparently, it burned ten minutes before it should have even been done cooking, so I used whole wheat noodles in place of it.  I mashed a potato with butter and whole milk and served the Unstuffed Cabbage over it.  

Like my Inside-Out Ravioli, preparing pocketed foods for babies is the best, because you don't really have to stuff anything, but you still get the spirit of the dish!  

Unstuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Unrolls

Ingredients

Half of a small yellow onion, chopped (the very small variety that fit in the palm of your hand)

Quarter of a small clove of garlic, diced

Equal portions of ground beef and prepared brown rice

A few good-sized leaves of cabbage

Tomato sauce, a low-salt commercial variety or homemade

Tiny sprinkle of pepper

Small pat of butter

Technique

1.  Melt the butter over medium heat in a pan, and then add the onions to caramelize, stirring often.  When they start to become golden, add the garlic.  Don't cook too much longer, as burnt garlic is horrifically bitter. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

2.  Wipe remaining grease from your pan, and then brown your ground beef.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of pepper, or any other spice you'd like to introduce your baby too.  Keep it extremely subtle, however, and do not add salt.  Drain your beef, and set it aside with your prepared brown rice.

3.  You can prepare the cabbage one of two ways:  Steaming or boiling.  Steaming maintains the most nutrients and enzymes and is the superior option, however.  Do not overcook, but cook it enough so that it's tender.  When this is done, set it aside as well. 

4.  Dice all your components - you don't have to use all the onions if it looks like too much. You can dice it all together, or do it separately.  I prefer to dice the beef separately to ensure that the pieces are small enough that she can chew them, and then dice everything else and mix it all together.

5.  Spoon the mixture back into the pan, add enough tomato sauce to moisten it up, and heat through.  Don't heat it too much; cooking in such small amounts and then dicing them cools your ingredients off quite quickly and you just want to warm them with the sauce.  Give it a quick taste to make sure it's not too warm, and then spoon over a small mashed potato and serve.

My daughter absolutely loved her first taste of Cabbage Unrolls, and when the bowl was empty, she kept pointing to it and looking at me with a huge grin on her face.  For her, that means "I want more!" and for me, that means "We have a winner!"

First Birthday Smash Cake!

As I write this blog, it's difficult not to watch the clock and think to myself, "At this time last year, I was in a hospital bed simultaneously watching terrible television and the contraction monitor.  My husband (okay, fiance at the time... no one's perfect) was by my side, my mom was texting friends and family, and my dad was slouched on the couch in the low light of the birthing room.  In less than an hour, I'll have started pushing."

My daughter was born at 1:55 a.m. on March 3, 2011.  The days leading up to March 3, 2012, have been a lot more hectic than they were a year ago.  All I did then was sit around all day in pajamas stuffing my face with whatever food I could find, building houses in the Sims 3, and simply waiting uncomfortably for contractions to begin.  This year, however, it was all about party planning - busier, more stressful, but a lot more fun than the Waiting Game (which I have to look forward to next month when my son is due).

Packages started arriving in the mail full of party supplies that I ordered from three different websites in my hunt for the best deals; informal invitations were spread via Facebook, phone and word of mouth; food was purchased or pre-ordered; the house, cleaned and decorated. Including Evelyn's gifts, the whole thing cost us about $500 and a lot of energy.

And then I had to make a cake.

I don't bake.

My idea of baking up until this point has been opening a pouch of some kind of dessert mix and checking the back of the box to see how much oil and how many eggs to add.  Even then, I couldn't get it right:  Who knows how many brownies were burnt to the bottom of the pan, or how many dry cakes I pulled from the oven.

This year, it had to be different.  I've been doing too well with introducing my daughter to whole, real foods to let one day spoil it.  I wanted a simple cake made with simple ingredients that I could pronounce; I wanted to watch it be made from start to finish; I wanted no artificial flavors or colors or preservatives or any unnecessary additives.  You can't really find that from a box, but you can find it with a quick search of the internet.

I came across this recipe for an eggless whole wheat cake that I adapted slightly to reflect the ingredients that I had available.  Of course, I was skeptical and had every right to be.  No eggs, whole wheat flour, yogurt with vinegar.  What was I getting myself into?

Evelyn's Smash Cake

This cake made me nervous as I made it.  As I added the applesauce to the butter and sugar, it started to separate and look curdled.  The blog said it was going to do that, and it was fine, so I persisted.  Then, when I went to pour the batter into the cake pans, it was thick and gluey. I've never made a cake from scratch, but even I know that what I was pouring into those pans resembled more of a bread dough than anything.  The blog said it would be a little thick, so I persisted.

I watched through the oven door as the top of the cake began to harden like a bread crust, and small breaks along the surface started.  Here we go, I thought to myself.  You ruined your daughter's cake.  That recipe ruined your daughter's cake.  This cake ruined your daughter's cake.

When it was done, I scooped a corner of it out of the pan.  Yes, it had a slightly hard crust on top, but it was surprisingly soft inside - not spongy like the cake we're all usually used to, but it was more like a soft, dense banana bread.  The whole wheat flour mixed with the applesauce made it taste like sweet corn, and the first thing I thought was, "I just made corn bread without corn."  Subtly sweet, a little nutty, and too thick to really be cake.  This recipe should be rebranded as some kind of breakfast bread.  My husband insisted that melting butter on it would be perfect.

I gave Evelyn a little taste, and she did the classic "Give me more!" thing she does, which basically entails her grunting hard and pointing repeatedly at what she wants.  Really, the only thing that's important is that she liked it.  I liked it, too, honestly, but I would never serve it to guests as a cake.

For the record, everyone else at the party will be eating cupcakes from the local grocery store's bakery.

Eggless Whole Wheat Cake Breakfast Bread


Ingredients
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 tsp real vanilla extract
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt

Technique

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare two 8" round cake pans by greasing them or lining with parchment paper.
2.  Whisk together the flours, the baking powder and the baking soda in a medium bowl.
3.  Cream together the butter, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy.
4.  Add to the butter mixture 1/4 of the applesauce at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next 1/4, and so on until the entire cup has been used.  *Here is where it will start to look curdled, but don't worry.
5.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture until well-incorporated to the butter/applesauce blend.
6.  To the cup of yogurt, add your vinegar and vanilla extract and stir well.
7.  Add half of the yogurt mix to the large bowl with the butter/applesauce/flour, and mix thoroughly.  Add another third of the flour, blending fully.  Then add the rest of the yogurt, mixing well (be sure the scrape the sides to be sure everything is well-incorporated into the batter).  Add the remaining flour and mix well.  *I gave up using the hand mixer around this time and used good ol' fashioned elbow grease and a strong fork to mix everything together.  It was really gummy.
8.  Spread the batter into your pans.  It's incredibly thick, so you'll have to smooth it with a spatula.  Pop them in the oven and give them about 30 minutes or so.  The time will vary depending on what kind and size pan you use (you can also use one 9x13 pan instead of two 8" round pans).  Always do the "toothpick test" to find out if it's done:  If a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, you're good to go.

Conclusion

I think my cake was a little underdone.  I was getting very impatient as the time kept creeping on longer and longer and the toothpick still came out a tiny bit doughy from the very bottom of the cake.  Since there are no eggs in it sitting around being raw and disgusting, I figured this would be okay.

I also ended up using one pan because the pair of 8" round cake pans I thought I had turned out to be just one cake pan with an odd burn mark in the middle of it.  I used what I had, and that was an 8" square pan which seemed awkward but fit all the dough.  I'm not sure how long it actually took to bake the cake in that pan.  I just kept adding minutes to the timer every time I tried the toothpick and got frustrated.  I cut a circle out of the middle of it and peeled away the rest of the cake (which is sitting in chunks in a Ziploc in the fridge for later consumption, to be warmed with butter and served with Sunday breakfast).

The cake is now wrapped in plastic in the fridge as it waits to be frosted in the morning. Keeping with the overall simplicity of the cake itself, I'm making a whipped cream with a little sugar and natural orange flavoring to fluff all over the cake, but I wanted it to be as fresh as possible, so that's a chore for tomorrow before the party.

I already know Evie likes the cake itself, so that's not a problem.  I'm just hoping she knows how to be extremely entertaining when she realizes she can dig her little mitts in and get as messy as she wants.

UPDATE:  Please do not make this cake.  If you do, don't store it in the fridge.  It pretty much reverted back to a wet, disgusting uncooked state.  I literally cooked it again and then decided "Whatever, she won't eat it anyway."  Sure enough, she was too busy swiping whipped cream off the cake to even get her little fingers into the cake itself, so in the end it turned out fine.  But that "cake" was absolutely horrendous.  This is why I don't bake!

Inside-Out Ravioli

Ravioli: (n) Small pasta envelopes containing meat, cheese or vegetables.

Inside-Out Ravioli: (n) Small pasta shapes containing a meat, cheese, or vegetable filling as a sauce.

With a hearty but smooth filling conveniently encased in a pocket of soft noodle with fun crimped edges just begging to be nibbled off, ravioli are a popular pasta favorite.  They can be simple and traditional with fillings like ricotta and spinach or Italian sausage, or they can be modern and extravagant, stuffed with creamy lobster or spicy pumpkin.  There really is no limit to what can be done with the ravioli.

I, for example, turned my ravioli inside-out.

That's Not Really Ravioli

Two things stand in my way of preparing a real ravioli for my daughter:

1. My inability to make homemade pasta.
2. Her inability to chew big things.

While technically the ravioli is the pocket, I think it's okay to think outside the box when preparing it for someone with only three teeth.  I took the liberty, then, to slightly redefine the ravioli to mean the comforting fillings I enjoy the most:  Creamy cheese, beef and spinach. Served with soft noodle shapes, it might not be an accurate representation of a ravioli as far as the textural experience goes, but the flavor was more than enough to make up for that inaccuracy.

Inside-Out Ravioli

Ingredients

Pasta Shapes

Ground Beef

Spinach

Whole Wheat Flour

Butter

Whole Milk

Provolone Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

A little bit o' spice

Technique

First, put a pot of water on to boil so you can prepare your pasta shapes.  How much pasta you prepare is up to you and your child's appetite.  Anything you have leftover can be refrigerated and used for a meal the next day.  Put your pasta in when the water is rolling, stirring often until it's done, then drain it and set it aside.

While your water is boiling, prepare your cheese sauce.  First, make a roux using equal amounts of butter and whole wheat flour (I used about half a tablespoon):  Melt the butter over medium-low heat, then add your flour slowly and vigorously whisk to incorporate.  Slowly whisk in the milk to the desired consistency; turn the heat up a little to help it thicken (I always keep it a little low when I actually add the milk to keep it from scalding).  Remember you can always add more milk to thin it out later.  Then, add your cheeses:  A few pinches of grated Parmesan and maybe an ounce or two of provolone.  Keep whisking slowly until all the cheese melts, and taste it frequently.  Add more provolone if you want it a little thicker or stronger in cheese flavor. Sprinkle with a little bit of spice - just a tiny bit of garlic powder and a pinch or two of pepper. Do NOT add salt.

As I said in a previous blog, when you're making creamy sauces with whole wheat flour, it will have brown flecks in it and it will taste a little nutty.  While this may seem unappealing to you, it's a great way to acclimate your baby to the taste and texture of whole wheat so they can acquire a preference for healthier whole grain options throughout life.

Set your cheese sauce to low heat to keep it warm, giving it a quick stir now and then to prevent burning and to keep that silly skin from forming on the top while you prepare your meat "filling."

If you're using frozen spinach, prepare it according to the package directions.  If you're using fresh, toss it into your pasta water for a few seconds until it gets soft and wilted and immediately take it out - how much you use depends on how much beef you use; try to use at least half the amount (for example, one ounce of spinach to two ounces of beef).  Brown about a meatball-sized portion of ground beef (if you need to add a little fat to keep it from sticking to your pan, I suggest a quick spray of canola oil Pam), then add the spinach and give it a quick mix.  Drain the beef, then dice the spinach and meat mixture to a texture that your baby can handle.

Spoon the pasta into a bowl, add your meat/spinach mix, and ladle on a healthy helping of sauce to moisten everything up.  Stir it all together and serve!  

Enjoy!

This was a big hit with my daughter, and surprisingly, my husband as well, who ventured to ask why I don't cook like this for us normally.  It was a good question, one that I contemplated as I poked at leftover noodles and cheese sauce.  Why don't I?

*I like to prepare creamier sauces for my daughter because she outright refuses to drink whole milk, something that is suggested at her age.  This way, I can sneak in the extra calories, calcium, protein and all the other goodness of milk without actually having to watch her choke down an ounce through exaggerated gags and squinted looks of disgust.  She's on her way to winning an Oscar with the performances she puts on when offered milk, but it's something we're working on.

Cheese Sauce Comfort

As a mother, I needed a little comfort today.  I turned on the news this morning to see that a high school not too far from my own city was bustling with police activity as reports of a school shooting came over the air.  I immediately scooped up my daughter, too young yet for even kindergarten, and held her close as I imagined the abject terror rippling through the crowd of students convened in the cafeteria as the first shot rang out.  I could only imagine how frantic parents must have felt as word got back to them, and how devastated the two families of the unfortunate students who have lost their lives must be.  Three others were injured, but the entire community will suffer for a long time to come.

Despite the unseasonable warmth hiding behind a light chilly breeze and the sun blazing boldly through my windows, it was a dark day in Ohio and across the nation as people suddenly were in fear for their own children, minds filling with worry as we're reminded yet again that the only place they spend more time during the day than home can never be completely safe.

It was a comfort food kind of day.

Carb Load


Imagine a comfortable white bed overrun with fluffy green pillows and covered in a toasty golden blanket.  That's how I see my favorite comfort food:  A baked potato covered in broccoli and cheese sauce.  The starchy goodness, the burst of fresh vegetable and creamy cheddar combine to create a little bit of heaven on earth and eating it is just as fulfilling as curling up in bed when I'm otherwise unable.

I wanted to share with my daughter one of my favorite all-time foods, so I decided to make her a baby version for lunch.  As I baked a couple of yellow fleshed potatoes and cooked up some broccoli and kale, I contemplated how I would add cheese to the mixture.  You can't simply add cheese:  It would leave a very dry potato along with chewy strings that would gradually harden as the dish cooled that a baby with only three teeth in front wouldn't be able to handle, and I certainly couldn't give her a commercial cheese sauce.  Not only because I didn't have any, but because that stuff is awful.

I never made a basic cheddar cheese sauce before, which surprised even me as I realized that. So I took to the internet for inspiration.

The Basics

When you're wandering through the grocery aisle, pick up a bottle or can of cheese sauce and read the ingredients:

• Artificial colors and flavorings
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
• Disodium phosphate
• Partially hydrogenated soybean oil
• Autolyzed yeast extract
• Added salts, sugars and thickeners

I don't know what some of this stuff really is, but I do know what it is not:  Necessary.  

As it turns out, making a cheese sauce is pretty simple.  I needed only four ingredients:  Butter, flour, milk and cheddar cheese.  No phosphates, no oils, no salt, no artificial colors.

For wee ones, choose a mild cheddar.  You can buy it pre-shredded, which I don't do simply because shredded cheeses are usually treated with natamycin, a mold inhibitor that I don't know enough about  to feel comfortable giving to my daughter.  You can also buy it by the block and either cut it into small cubes or shred it yourself, which is what I prefer.

In order to make the sauce healthier, I opted for whole wheat flour.  It's an acquired taste - let your child acquire it.  The sauce won't be what you may be used to:  It will have flecks of brown wheat throughout, and it will taste a little like a grilled cheese sandwich instead of just cheese.  Your child doesn't know to expect bright-yellow perfectly smooth sauce, and it's not a bad idea to keep it that way.

Making the Sauce

One of the easiest things in the world - make a roux, add milk to the desired consistency, add cheese to the desired flavor. 

1)  Melt one tablespoon of butter in a small sauce pan on medium heat, and add to it your whole wheat flour, stirring to combine well.

2)  Gradually whisk in whole milk (or whichever milk your pediatrician recommends for your child if he or she is on a special diet) until you reach a desired consistency.  You'll want it to be a little thick, but not too thick.  Remember, you can always add more milk later.

3)  Add your cheese, about an ounce or two.  Add it slowly, let it melt, taste it.  If it tastes more like flour than it does cheese, add more cheese.  Cooking really is that simple:  Look, and taste.  If it starts getting too thick, add some more milk.  I'd tell you the exact measurements I used, but like I said before, I don't use exact measurements.

There.  It really is that easy.

Baby Baked Potato with Greens and Cheese

To finish off the lunch, I mashed up the insides of the potatoes I had cooked, chopped the broccoli and kale and added that (use a lot of the greens; you want a healthy ratio of greens to potato in every bite!) and then put in enough cheese sauce to make the whole mess nice and smooth.  It tasted great:  Creamy potato, vibrant greens, comforting cheese with a little whole grain nuttiness.  We both loved it!

Hits & Misses - Feb. 26

Breakfast - HIT!

With the introduction of yogurt into her diet a few months ago, Evelyn has demanded it for breakfast ever since, shunning other options I have presented to her.  Because she eats essentially the same breakfast every day, breakfast is always a smashing success:

Ingredients
Two or three big spoonfuls of whole milk plain yogurt
A generous portion of baby oatmeal cereal
A tablespoon or two of fruit puree (today, it was prunes)
Half a banana mashed up

Technique
Just mush it all together.  It's pretty simple.

If you get the ratio of Oatmeal to Everything Else just right, it creates an almost fluffy mousse that my daughter can't resist, and I'll fully admit to giving her too much sometimes simply so I can eat her leftovers.

Lunch - HIT!

Today for lunch, I prepared Green Pea Pesto sans the basil as I didn't have any in my fridge. (You can find the recipe at the bottom of this blog post.)  I mixed it in with leftover plain brown rice I had in my fridge.  It left my daughter with a bit of garlic breath, but fully satisfied.  Usually at lunch, she doesn't eat a whole lot, but she left nothing in the bowl but two tiny bites that she just couldn't stuff in.

Dinner - HIT!

Whole wheat pasta, chunks of fresh tomato, bits of green pepper and onion and chewy beef all come together with a little tomato sauce to create what I call Baby Marzetti.  Don't forget the sprinkle of Parmesan at the end!

Not shown:  Ground beef, tomato sauce

Ingredients

Whole wheat spaghetti, broken in half

Small bit of diced green pepper*

Even smaller bit of diced onion*

One fresh tomato

Meatball-sized serving of ground beef

Commercial or homemade tomato sauce

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Technique

1)  First, you'll want to boil water and get your noodles going.  Whole wheat pasta takes a little longer to get tender.  Don't worry about the size, you'll dice it later.

2)  While your noodles are cooking, brown the beef in a small bit of olive oil (if you get anything with a higher fat content than 80/20 ground beef, you probably won't need oil - or if you have a really good non-stick skillet, which I completely lack).  When it's almost done, throw your peppers and onions in until they are soft. Drain the meat mixture and set aside.

3)  Wash your tomato, cut the stem end off, and then throw it in the water with your pasta for about 30 seconds to a minute to loosen the skin so you can peel it.  When you take it out and peel it, cut out the core (basically, get rid of the seeds).  

Skinned, seeded tomato and browned beef with peppers and onion.

4)  Now is the time to dice, rice or food process.  I prefer dicing with a nice sharp blade.  Start with the beef and peppers/onion mix and dice it finely into tiny pieces.  Then, start dicing the tomato.  The chunks can be a little bigger for the tomato, because it will soften up when you warm it with the sauce and will add a more stimulating texture to the finished meal.

5)  Put the tomato and beef mixture back into the skillet (wipe the oil and fat out first, though!) and add a small amount of commercial low-sodium tomato sauce or homemade tomato sauce just to moisten the mixture and tie it all together.  You shouldn't need too much, but use your judgment.  Warm it over medium heat for a few minutes to cook the tomato, and then set to low heat while you're taking care of your noodles.

6)  Drain your noodles, then dice them.  It can be hard to find whole-wheat pasta in small baby-friendly shapes and sizes, and even then, you seem to pay a little more for that fun star shape than you do for the old spaghetti standby.  Look how easy it is to turn a mess of spaghetti into tiny pieces with a quick turn of a knife:

Before:  Basic spaghetti.  After:  Adorable tiny bites.

7)  Put your noodle bites in a bowl, spoon your beefy sauce over the top and stir it around to coat every noodle.  Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese, and, after checking the temp to make sure nothing's still boiling hot, serve up!

Enjoy!

Evelyn eagerly ate this dinner, and giggled after the first few bites she was so excited.  When I wasn't shoveling it in her little mouth fast enough, she was pointing at the bowl and grunting.  With it's comforting whole-wheat noodles and fresh tomato and pepper taste, I can safely call this dinner a hit.

*These ingredients can be purchased pre-diced in the freezer section.  Since you only use such a small amount when preparing any baby food, they make a great addition to your freezer.  You can pop open the bag, take out what little amount you need, and cook with them immediately.

The Baby Pantry: Peas

Peas On Earth, Good Will Toward Man

I always took this tiny green orb for granted, thinking of it in terms of novelty more than nutrition - a cute little dash of color swimming through the gravy of a chicken pot pie, a crunchy snack with each little wrinkle full of snow-white wasabi, a bowl of bright green pebbles at the salad bar that I'd always consider but never actually spoon over my lettuce.

It wasn't until I was deciding what vegetables I'd first like to introduce to my daughter that I actually gave the pea a little more consideration, and what I learned was pretty impressive.  So much so that the first vegetable I ever pureed for my daughter, and the first solid she received after mastering rice cereal, was the not-so-simple pea.

I purchased a bag of organic frozen peas and quickly boiled them, then pureed them with a little of the cooking water.  Lovingly, I ran them through a strainer to weed out the tough skins and I marveled at the smooth, beautiful bright green paste that remained.  The smell was sweet and earthy, the taste was fresh and sunny.  It had been a long time since I tasted the pure flavor of a pea, unencumbered by butter and salt, molested not by gravy or sauce, and it was marvelous.  Peas, indeed, are underrated.

While she eats peas happily now, Evelyn did not agree with me at the time and she grimaced as the first spoonful settled on her tongue.  Choking it down, she tentatively opened her mouth for a second bite, and then proceeded to cry when she received it.  I really should have considered the flavor when making my decision for a first vegetable.  We moved on to summer squash.

The Mighty Pea

Though your infant may not like peas initially, especially if he's given commercial peas which are overcooked and taste like tin and disappointment, don't discount them yet.  Your baby will learn to either like them or at least tolerate them over time as more flavors are introduced and his palette becomes more refined, and it will be well worth it for the nutritional value.

In two tablespoons of peas alone, your infant receives more than 100% the daily recommended intake of Vitamins A & K, a quarter of the recommended intake for folate, and roughly 20% of the recommended intake for magnesium and phosphorus, as well as providing some Vitamin C, iron and potassium.  Throw in a little dietary fiber, and who knew that little unassuming pea was so healthy?  

Keep Them Around

The next best thing to fresh is frozen when it comes to vegetables.  Sometimes, frozen is even better than fresh when you consider how long it may take to transport fresh vegetables to your grocery store, a trip in which they can quickly lose many important nutrients.  I would suggest getting fresh peas when you can, but always keep a few bags of frozen peas in the freezer - they cook up quick and can be added to nearly anything.

Don't use canned peas.  In fact, pretend that you don't know what a can is when it comes to vegetables.  Not only is the flavor bland and tinny, but there is hardly any nutrition to be had in overcooked canned vegetables.

Ideas, or "Ipeas"

Peas make a great single-ingredient puree for younger infants.  Simply boil or steam fresh or frozen peas until tender, then puree in a blender.  Press through a strainer to remove the skins, which are too tough and chunky for the gummier variety of baby to eat.  Use the puree by itself, mix with a favorite infant cereal, or add to other vegetables or meat.  There is a lot that can be done with a simple puree.  If you make too much, freeze it - you can always plop a cube or two into your soup for some added vegetable nutrition.

As your infant gets older, and gets some teeth, peas can be cooked and diced/mashed with a fork and added to nearly anything.  Mix them into mashed potatoes, serve them with noodles and a little Parmesan cheese, or simply add to them to a mixed vegetable side along with a grain and a protein.

Let's face it - peas have difficulty being the star of a dish, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible.  I am loathe to give a recipe including actual measurements, as that simply isn't how I cook (I'm a "taste as you go and it'll be great" kind of cook), but I can offer up for your experimentation a twist on the traditional pesto:

Green Pea Pesto

Simply add Parmesan cheese, garlic, a little lemon juice, a little basil and a tiny bit of pepper to cooked peas in a ratio that tastes good to you but that wouldn't be too strong for your little one and blend it together with a little drizzle of oil.  These ingredients are best saved for older babies, a year of age or more.  Remember to taste it as you go with a clean spoon to make sure the flavors aren't too strong - what might be sort of bland to you won't be to your baby.  Serve this with small pasta shapes, diced whole-wheat spaghetti or brown rice for a tasty baby dinner, or smear onto some whole-wheat toast with some cheese melted on top for older children.

Yet Another Baby Food Blog

The Early Years

The early years of life are important to the establishment of healthy eating habits.  What, and how, a child eats now will set the stage for the rest of life's culinary show, determining whether or not she'll appreciate new tastes and textures, or be less adventurous in her food choices; whether or not she'll prefer preparing healthy meals from fresh ingredients or opt for over-cooked, over-salted and preservative-laden convenience foods from boxes, cans and drive-thrus.

How we, as parents, relate to food is also of extreme importance.  Our children aren't influenced only by what we feed them, but how we ourselves eat.  What kind of message is it sending when all of your drinks are neon-colored and come in plastic bottles, or all of your meals are in black trays coming from the microwave?

Infancy and toddlerhood mark the perfect time to establish healthy eating habits in our children and reassess our own ways of eating.  That is why I am writing this blog.

I'm no nutritionist, but...

I'm no nutritionist, but I am a parent with goals:

• To sit down at an Italian restaurant without having to order chicken fingers off a Kid's Menu.
• To prepare a healthy meal for my family without having to prepare something else for the kids.
• To never call a peanut butter sandwich "lunch."
• To never have to buy white bread.
• To never have to bribe my children with dessert to finish their vegetables.

I firmly believe that the expectation of children to prefer chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese and other such foods is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a stereotype that we hear so often that it's ingrained in our culture and we subconsciously let it happen.  It doesn't have to be that way.

Documenting the Culinary Journey

Now that my daughter, who will be turning one in about a week, has thoroughly rejected purees, I have found immeasurable joy in cooking meals for her and watching as she eats them with gusto.

Previously, my daughter ate a few purees that I would prepare myself, or commercial baby food.  The latter was always sadly disappointing, stuffed full of carrots or juice to make otherwise savory meals sickeningly sweet, because Gerber has decided that babies "prefer" that.  Everyone knows that pear juice has no place in lasagna, for example, but there it is in the jarred juvenile version.  When my daughter tried my mom's lasagna all mushed up with a fork for the first time earlier this week, she was in heaven.  Mozzarella cheese blanketed a melange of spiced ground beef, ricotta cheese and garlicky spinach sandwiched between tender noodles all dripping in a delicious marinara - no sweeteners added.

Despite the decidedly "adult" taste of the lasagna, my daughter devoured it.  She wouldn't even take a second bite of the jarred variety, scrunching up her nose and cringing at the first bite. Really, who would take a second bite?

As I was chopping whole-wheat spaghetti hot and fresh from the pot into tiny baby-sized pieces last night, I thought to myself, "This could be an idea for a new blog!"  And so here I am, documenting our culinary undertaking mostly to keep myself motivated but to also inform and inspire anyone who comes across this blog to start cooking healthy meals for their kids as soon and as often as possible!

I can't guarantee timely updates, since I'm a stay-at-home mom whose daughter is turning one in a week, and whose son will be born a month after that.  Time will slip away from me for a little while, but I promise I'll write as often as I can!