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!