Finally home from our travels to Lebanon, Blacksburg, Chattanooga.....shew, that is a job with a 10 month old. I need a vacation from my vacation! Now that we are getting back into the swing of things, back to cooking. Sam has become very "independent" when it comes to mealtime. Some nights he actually screams if I try to feed him with a spoon, but if I lay some finger foods on his tray he will smile and eat everything I have given him. Then I am usually able to sneak in a few bites of something I have cooked in between bites.

We have a small garden and grow a few items, one of which is tomatoes. Macaroni and tomatoes is one of my favorites! (Recipe to follow) I wanted Sam to try this but this was one of those unfortunate evenings where he was too sleepy to stay awake for it to get done, so he had something else from the freezer. He did get to try some macaroni though, and that was a big hit. I will be using this again as a finger food for dinner. Just make sure you buy the whole wheat or even some of the low glycemic index macaroni which we like as well. Don't buy just the regular old white macaroni, your child may get used to this kind of taste and turn down the whole wheat when that is introduced.

Last night I broke a mess of green beans and cooked them with some red potatoes (skin on), vidalia onion, a little olive oil and smart balance butter, garlic, and greek seasoning (salt free). It was really great and i just roughly chopped this today for Sam and he ate every bite! Even the potato skins. It is so nice to just puree up something already cooked and not make a separate meal. Also, I had some morningstar farms italian "chicken" patties and cut this up into little bites, he liked that as well.

For breakfast Sam has been eating the yobaby yogurts. It is a nice change from eating oatmeal and fruit every morning. Also, this morning I toasted a piece of whole wheat toast with a slice of cheese on it. That was very well accepted! At first I was just going to use a piece of whole wheat toast and put some smart balance butter with some apples and blueberries. Then I thought that wasn't very calorie dense for a growing baby boy so I stepped it up a little with some protein (cheese). So, nothing too different, but a few new ideas! As always, let me know if you have a good idea!

Macaroni and Tomatoes

Tomatoes (once peeled and chopped, around 4 cups)
Sugar
Salt/Pepper
Macaroni
Basil

1. Peel the tomatoes. If you have never done this, boil a pot of water and drop your tomatoes in for a couple minutes. Pull them out and put into a bowl of cold water. This will make it very easy to get the skins off without losing a lot of the tomato.
2. Chop the tomatoes sort of chunky and be sure not to lose any of the juice. I chopped mine over the bowl so that I could catch everything. Once they are all peeled and chopped, take off your rings and put your hands into the bowl and crush the tomatoes.
3. Put the crushed tomatoes into a large pot add some salt/pepper, sugar and chopped fresh basil. Just cook these down some and taste as you go along until the mixture meets your expectations. Make sure the mixture has a lot of liquid, it is supposed to be soupy.
4. While you are cooking the tomatoes cook and drain your macaroni
5. When the tomato mixture is ready pour in the macaroni and just cook on low for a little bit until it has started to absorb some of the tomato mixture.

This is a very mildly flavored dish and really should use fresh garden tomatoes. If you add more ingredients you are just going to end up with marinara. You are not meant to add a whole lot, but to enjoy the flavor of the fresh tomatoes. It is worth it!