Well it has been forever once again. I have to be honest, I have not been cooking that much lately. I am about 13 weeks along with my second baby and still coping with nausea and heartburn almost all day long. That being said, poor sam has really been eating a lot of cheese toast, almond butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, and so on! However, this week I have pulled it together and made a couple items for him (and us) that he enjoyed. First recipe, chicken and dumplings. Really not that hard for any of you that haven't made it homemade. There are so many different ways to make this recipe, some call for herbs and spices and other vegetables, which is the route we normally take in this house, but NOT with chicken and dumplings! These dumplings are a bit different they are more bready and less chewy than what you may get at Cracker Barrel. Some people like it that way though, but this is my favorite.

Chicken and Dumplings
3 organic chicken breasts
1/2 t chicken boullion paste
1 can cream of chicken soup
black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
2 T crisco
3/4 c milk

In a pot, put just enough water to cover the chicken breasts and add the chicken bouillion. Just cook these on medium low heat until cooked through.

Remove the chicken breasts and boil the leftover cooking water until reduced a little (pour out some of you have to)

Turn down the heat, add the soup, black pepper, and milk, and shredded cooked chicken. Let the mixture get bubbly (be careful though, it may stick if it gets too hot!)

While that is warming up, grab another bowl to make your dumplings. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the crisco until mixed through. Stir in the milk just until all ingredients have been moistened.

Drop by spoonfuls into your pot until all have been dropped in and top pot with a tight fitting lid. Set the timer on your oven for 12 minutes and dont open until the timer goes off! Then it's ready to eat! Enjoy!


Next recipe I got this idea from a local restaurant called "The Redneck Gourmet". Pimiento Cheeseburgers! Sounds gross, but you just have to try it, pretty tasty.

First things first, I like homemade pimiento cheese, but storebought would be fine too.

Pimiento Cheese

6 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese
6 oz extra sharp white cheddar cheese
4 oz jar pimientos-drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise (may use less)
1 t sugar
diced jalapenos (optional)

Shred your cheese (it is much better this way, don't buy the preshredded stuff), add the sugar and pimientos and mix. Now, add the mayonnaise, I would start with half of that and stir it up and add more until you have the consistency that you like. Next add in the jalapenos if you like. Then it's done! So easy!

Make your normal hamburgers on the grill or however you prefer and when almost finished top with a generous amount of the cheese and turn off the heat to the grill and just shut the lid. Wait about 5 minutes then they are ready to go. I like to gently melt the cheese like this because it can sort of just melt off the burger if you get it too hot! These burgers are so good and worth a try. Sam also likes the cheese toasted on some bread as well!

Enjoy!

Sometimes you want to give your children something a little more elegant to eat for dinner than just diced carrots and chicken and fruit. Plain, simple, and nutritious, yes.....but also boring. It is hard for me to get a more elegant menu prepared for my little guy on most nights because we don't get home from work/daycare until around 6:15 and he eats around 6:30 every night. This does not leave a lot of time for creativity. Recently though I have prepared a couple little items that were simple but a little more exciting for the little guy.

Simple sweet potato "casserole"
1/2 cup diced sweet potato steamed (leftover from the previous night)
organic whipped butter
brown sugar
pinch of unrefined sea salt

I just warmed it all up in a bowl and melted the butter a little and pureed with my immersion blender. Pretty good substitute and a little jazzed up from the previous night which was just plain diced sweet potato. Yes I know it has butter and brown sugar in it, but it was good and just had a little of the bad items.

Southern squash "casserole"
1 small summer squash (organic if you can find) peeled and diced into bite site pieces (i don't remove the seeds, sam has always just eaten them, but if you would feel better about yourself if you seeded it, then please do)
shredded cheese
2 t minced onion
unrefined sea salt
organic whipped butter
organic cold pressed olive oil

In a skillet add 1/2 t butter, 1/2 t olive oil, squash and onion. Cook until tender enough for your child to eat. Add just a pinch of salt and put into a small bowl. Add the cheese (probably about an 1/8 cup) and just slighty puree with your immersion blender. I left it sort of chunky for sam so that it wasn't too close to baby food.

These items are just a quick easy way to add a little flavor and variety to your child's plate.

Also, I am going to share the meal I made for me and Austin tonight because it was THAT good.

Flank steak quesadillas
1# marinated flank steak grilled and cut on the bias into small pieces (recipe for marinade below)
whole wheat tortillas
mexican cheese shredded
organic black beans drained and rinsed
onions and peppers sauteed
organic butter
jalapeno lime hot sauce (google this...Bruce foods louisiana brand jalapeno lime wing sauce.........this is the BEST stuff ever for flank steak or carne asada..YUM)

In a skillet melt about 1/2 t butter and spread out, lay torilla on top of butter and let cook slightly. Add your cheese and toppings and let melt. Fold tortilla in half before it gets too crispy and brown. Easy breezy dinner.

Flank Steak Marinade
2 T smart balance oil
2 T Tamari
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t dehydrated garlic
2 T salsa verde
2 T brown sugar
1 t cilantro paste (i buy it from publix or kroger in the produce section, great in a pinch when you don't have fresh cilantro)

I let it marinate in a gallon size ziploc overnight. SOOOO GOOD!

Hope you enjoy :)

Toddler Tapas

This is so simple that it is ridiculous and maybe you are doing this already. Many nights I don't have a so called "meal" put together for Sam. I just go through my fridge and clean out any of his leftovers and combine everything to make a meal. A little of this, a little of that, and tons of variety which Sam loves.

Toddler Tapas (this is just tonight's version):
Diced and peeled English cucumber (the long skinny kind wrapped in plastic)
1/2 slice Havarti cheese
leftover organic baked sweet potato mixed with some homemade applesauce
Zucchini pancake (I will explain this later)
Ice water

So, there is protein, carbs, fruit, non-starchy veg, fat, dairy, it hits a little bit of every group and was put together in literally about 5 minutes.

So, the zucchini pancake is not a homemade item, I know I know, this is about homemade baby food! I bought one box of this to try it out and they are so delicious, I plan on making my own as soon as these are gone. When I come up with a good recipe I will be sure to post. So, the pancakes are savory and contain shredded zucchini, carrot, onion, basil, potato starch, wheat flour, egg white, garlic. These are so tasty and the first thing Sam cleans off of his plate!

I have made so many different versions, including foods like chopped up chicken, salmon, black beans, lima beans, banana, steamed apple, carrots, sliced tomato, wheat toast, cheese and spinach quesadilla triangles, etc. You see that the list goes on and on.

So, take a few minutes to see that you have in your fridge/freezer and just use your head and pick something from each of the food groups. Your child will probably love it because there is so much variety.

It has been forever! I apologize! Honestly though, I really haven't been making anything special for Sam. He has been eating a lot of the food I cook for me and Austin or just some staples, like Salmon, with steamed carrots and applesauce, etc. I did make a HUGE (well for me) Christmas dinner for us and Austin's parents. I had not made any of the recipes before, but honestly they all turned out really great. To save myself a ton of typing, I am just going to tell you the names of the recipes and where to get them: (not figure friendly, but my taste buds are STILL thanking me)
1. Good Eats Roast Turkey-Alton Brown (food network)-this included brining the turkey before roasting....awesome recipe!
2. Carrot Souffle by Emeril (food network)-so good, you wouldn't even know it wasn't sweet potatoes.
3. Southern Cornbread Stuffing-Paula Deen (food network)-really good and moist, I do not like dried out stuffing.
4. Cherries Jubilee Black pepper crusted ham-southern living-pretty great as well.
5. Spice Cake with citrus filling-southern living (on the cover of the december issue)-funny story though, this is a 4 layer cake and I had nothing that was tall enough for this cake to fit into! I had to rig up the cake stand lid which ended up leaving a gap and the icing dried out after a couple days. So I ended up having to throw away the leftovers.

I also had a cranberry salad, green salad with homemade vinaigrette, and potato rolls. These were family recipes and would be happy to let you know how I made them if you are interested, just message me!

Sam ate all of the foods (except for the green salad) and loved it! We had tons of leftovers and I froze the extra ham which I used part of that for our new years dinner. I put some of the ham in the fresh turnip greens and also in the black eyed peas! SOO GOOD! I literally ate greens and peas for 3 days and was not tired of it at all.

Last night I made a homemade pizza using a recipe that my mom recently gave me. Sam ate a whole piece of pizza for lunch today, he was definitely digging it.

Spinach Alfredo Pizza
10 oz package of frozen spinach cooked and drained well
1 jar of alfredo sauce
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Pizza Crust
Crushed red pepper

Put the sauce, spinach, and crushed red pepper (I only used a few shakes because Sam was eating) into a saucepan and just warm
Prepare the crust, use whatever you like. I used the "pizza crust yeast" with the recipe on the back of the package, pretty good. It got really crispy which is what I like.
Put the sauce mixture on the crust and top with parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Optional toppings: roasted garlic, chicken, bacon, grilled chicken, roma tomatoes, onions, pineapple.

Hope you enjoy!

Thanksgiving break is almost over!!! Sad. But back from the holiday food and back to our normal healthy lifestyle. Sam did pretty good at the Thanksgiving meal except for when the family gave him 1/2 of a fried apple pie!!!!! (it was made with the new "simple" canned biscuit dough and mom's cooked apples...so I guess it could have been worse!). Sam loves green beans and he is also Mr. Independent so green beans are a great food for him to feed himself. However, lately in his diapers I am seeing whole pieces of green beans which leads me to believe he isn't chewing his food adequaetely. And we all know (hopefully) that if we aren't chewing our food which is an important part of digestion then we aren't reaping the benefits of the foods to their fullest extent. Back to the drawing board for me to try and provide some handheld foods that he chews up well enough. I have decided to do ground veggies and feed with a spoon until some of those back teeth come in. Tonight his veg/starch combo was very tasty, I would have eaten it myself! Actually, Austin and I are eating it almost the same combination, just not ground up obviously because we do have back teeth, lol.

2-3 organic broccoli florets
1/2 baked potato
7-8 organic baby spinach leaves (or Kale, or greens-whatever you have handy)
1/2 garlic clove
2 t chopped onion
pinch (or less) unrefined sea salt
1 t smart balance light butter (or organic olive oil)

1. combine the broccoli, spinach, onion, garlic and steam for about 10 minutes in the baby food cooker (or whatever method you choose). Also, remember when chopping up your onion and garlic to let it sit for about 10 minutes before cooking so that it can fully develop those anticancer properties.

2. Add in potato to steamed veggies and roughly chop/puree with about 1 t butter and just a shake of the sea salt.

I added back a little of the cooking water to the mixture to get the right texture. This should make more than enough for one meal. I had enough leftover to provide a small side for lunch tomorrow. Sam ate these vegetables with steamed salmon and a few bites of the homemade whole wheat bread. He seemed to really enjoy all of it!

Another food tried over break was turnip greens, Sam seemed to enjoy these as well. Due to the fact that he only has 4 teeth it will need to be well cooked. Sometimes Austin and I eat our greens not well done like you are used to eating, I like a little bite to mine. But for Sam's sake, it needs to be WELL done. If you are accustomed to southern style greens you may not like my recipe but it is healthier.

Turnip Greens

Chopped greens
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes
salt/pepper
brown rice syrup
white vinegar
organic olive oil


1. combine all ingredients. I know the amounts are not specific but it really depends on how many greens you are cooking. Usually I do a decent sized pot full. As far as the vinegar goes I probably use around 1/4 cup (depends on your taste), brown rice syrup 1 tablespoon (estimate?), red pepper to taste, salt pepper to taste, olive oil probably about 1 tablespoon. It really just depends how you like your greens. We always put hot pepper sauce on it just before serving (leave this off for the little ones).

2. Cook at a simmer until the greens are cooked down until very soft, like cooked spinach.

Hope this isn't too different from the regular that has smoked meat, or fat back, or turkey necks, bacon, etc. I just can't stand all of the greasiness in my greens. Maybe it is because I didn't grow up eating greens, but learned to eat them once I moved to the deep south. But they are GREAT! You should really give them a try. If you like spinach it isn't much different. Actually, I think spinach has a stronger flavor than greens.

Hope you and your little ones enjoy!

Well the first birthday party was a success and is over. Ended up doing 2 different cakes, not that there were that many people that I needed 2 cakes, I guess I just wanted to overdo it and try two different decoration styles. I am by no means a cake decorator as I have said in the past but would love to be able to decorate a little, so it was fun to practice with sam's first cake. The monkey cake was SO easy! Anybody could definitely create this cake without problems. The hardest part was decorating the face, which mine didn't look that great but I was happy to say I made sam's cake!

Also I attempted a cupcake pull apart cake. Wanted to do a football shape and use Auburn colors in honor of the Auburn/Georgia game yesterday. A football shape seems relatively easy but actually it is a little bit hard to ensure that you have a nice rounded edge. But anyways, I was happy with the outcome and the cake tasted great!

Used the leftover cupcakes and just decorated them with the same icing.

I hope when it comes times for your kid's birthday and you want to make a cake you aren't intimidated by the decorating. I have zero experience, and it went pretty well for the first time I thought.

Are you tired of my pumpkin recipes yet? Well I have another, but this one is savory, not a dessert. This is a good way to get the veggies into your little ones (and maybe your husband) without them knowing. It also cuts down on the calories and fat. Turns a pretty unhealthy recipe into one that you don't feel bad about giving your kids or eating yourself.

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

2 cups dried whole wheat macaroni
2 T butter (I use the smart balance sticks)
3 T whole wheat flour (can use white)
2 cups organic skim milk
1 t dry mustard
2 t (sugar, agave nectar, raw sugar-whatever you prefer or have on hand)
1 dash grated nutmeg
2 cups cheddar shredded
1 cup pumpkin
kosher salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil your macaroni as usual, drain and set aside
2. Melt your butter in the pan, add in flour and stir until all of the flour is mixed in with the butter
3. Pour in milk and whisk until all lumps are gone. This will need to heat until almost boiling for the mixture to thicken
4. Once thick, turn down heat and continue to stir as you add in the dry mustard, nutmeg, cheese, salt/pepper, and sweetener
5. Now add in your pureed pumpkin and the macaroni
6. Heat until warm and serve.

This recipe is pretty good. It does have a slight pumpkin flavor to it. I served it to Sam for supper last night and he ate it up, just like that is how he had always had it. This is important to remember when you taste it because it is not exactly like the fattening regular mac and cheese we are all used to. If you are not a fan of pumpkin a slightly milder flavor to use could be butternut squash or maybe even carrot puree (I haven't tried to carrot). This makes a lot of mac & cheese so there will be enough for the whole fam as well as some to freeze for baby. I don't think freezing a large portion for the whole family would turn out very good....macaroni tends to get pretty mushy after it is thawed. Should be fine for your little ones though because they need it a little mushy anyways.

I am in the middle of baking cupcakes and a cake. Little Sam turns 1 tomorrow, but the party isn't until Saturday. I am going to freeze the cakes and cupcakes until Friday, then do the icing etc. I really deliberated over what kind of cake to make. Should it be a healthy cake with no sugar and using pureed fruits and no icing......or should I just get one from the store and go all out with the icing piled high? If no one was coming over for the party, more than likely I would have made a healthy version without icing, and maybe just some powdered sugar on top. BUT family is coming over and would probably pitch a fit if I didn't have a "regular" cake so that we could see Sam smush icing all over his hair and up his nose. So, I decided on a homemade "regular" cake rather than a storebought/bakery cake. First of all, if I am making it at home I know all of the ingredients involved and secondly, I really wanted to be the one to make his first cake.

I like to make all of my desserts from scratch, but the recipe I am using for the cake(s) is one that I got from a friend (thanks Jane Doe) who made these cupcakes for a baby shower. It involves buying cake mix from the store and then adding other ingredients. Plus it makes a ton which is better for me since essentially I am preparing 2 cakes and needed a ton of batter. The recipe is here-----> http://www.food.com/recipe/white-almond-sour-cream-wedding-cake-69630. It also says you can half this recipe if needed.

With the batter I made 24 cupcakes....I am attempting to make a pull apart cake, where you put all the cupcakes together and ice it like a cake, but instead of having to cut slices you just pull apart your "piece". With the other half of the batter I am going to attempt the martha stewart monkey cake......I am by no means a cake decorator but this one looked somewhat achievable so I am going to try. But this half of the batter I added 1/2 cup cocoa powder to make it chocolate. The recipe that goes with the martha stewart version is a banana cake which sounds great, but after reading the reviews everyone stated that the cake was like a banana bread.....that just sounded so dense and not appropriate for a birthday cake. I will post some pics if things are successful!

Hope you enjoy the healthy mac & cheese!

Fall is officially here and the pumpkins are in! I love everything pumpkin, right down to my coffee. But I only really enjoy it during the fall/winter. After that, I'm over it until the next time it rolls around. There is just something so inviting and intoxicating about pumpkin and the spices that generally accompany this great food. Pumpkin is also a very nutritious food. Pumpkin is a low calorie food and also a source of carotenoids. Consuming a diet rich in carotenoids has been associated with a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease as well as some cancers. Sounds like an even better reason to eat pumpkins! Carotenoids are best absorbed with fat in a meal. Chopping, pureeing, and cooking also help to increase the bioavailability of the carotenoids. You can even substitute some of the fat when you are baking with pumpkin puree.

If you are interested in roasting your own pumpkins I suggest buying the "pie" pumpkins. They are much better for cooking than the big jack o lantern type pumpkins. Much easier to handle and clean, plus the actual pumpkin is less stringy and purees up smoother. This morning I roasted 2 small pie pumpkins and it yielded around 3-4 cups of pureed pumpkin. It is easy to roast a pumpkin. Just cut it in half and scoop out all of the stringy mess. Reserve the seeds, they are also great roasted! Then place the pumpkin halves in a 9 x 13 pan rounded side up (put the cut edges down on the pan). It takes around 40-45 mins @ 350 degrees. Once done, just pull out of the oven and let cool on your stove top. Then scoop out the "meat" and puree with a food processor or what I actually used today for the first time that I found even easier to use was my immersion blender (Thanks Miranda! Baby gift last year).

This pumpkin puree is so versatile. Just experiment with a spoonful here and there and you will be amazed at all the spices that complement pumpkin. For Sam I mix it into a lot of foods, or just give it to him plain, he loves it.

Sam's Pumpkin Quinoa

Cook some quinoa as directed on the package
Mix about 1 cup of cooked quinoa with 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (adjust this to suit your taste)
A few shakes of indian seasoning

It is SO good. I mixed this up for him the other night and was taking a few bites to taste test and I was thinking this would be really good to have as a side dish for mine and Austin's dinner. Except I will add more spice, saute some onions and maybe squash. Just add in whatever you have in your produce drawer, I'm sure it will be tasty!

Pumpkin Pancakes
mix up pancake mix or from scratch, however you normally make pancakes
stir in 1/4 cup pureed pumpkin
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

These are also amazing! Add more or less spice, however you may like it. Top with fresh whipped cream, or powdered sugar, walnuts, maple syrup, pumpkin butter, applesauce, whatever you prefer!

Now, I also roasted the pumpkin seeds as well. If you have older children this would be appropriate.

Cajun Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (rinsed. don't kill yourself trying to get all of the pumpkin bits off of the seeds, just cook it and it will be fine)
1/2-1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
1 T olive oil

just toss all together and bake at 300 degrees for 45-60 mins. Stir a few times during the cooking process. Enjoy!

If you have some great pumpkin recipes just let me know!

So here is a quick post of my dinner for Sam tonight. I thought it was pretty good and easy for those of you that may be out there spending big $ on Gerber Graduates, or similar products.
I am making chicken parmesan for Austin and I, so I decided to get a meal out of this for Sam as well and make it a little more child friendly. I always use whole wheat spaghetti noodles and mix in spinach spaghetti noodles as well, really just for color, it adds no significant taste. I was in a hurry so I was using a jar of spaghetti sauce, and added in fresh garlic, basil, oregano, and a can of low salt diced tomatoes. Actually, I will just go ahead and post both recipes so that you can see what we ate.

Sam's Chicken Parmesan

1 oz hormone free, antibiotic free chicken breast (i steamed in the baby food cooker)
Spaghetti sauce
Butternut squash puree (frozen cube from the freezer)
Whole wheat spaghetti
Spinach spaghetti

Take 1 cube of your frozen butternut squash puree and thaw. Take the cooked spaghetti mixture and chop up roughly. Add the spaghetti to the squash and some of the spaghetti sauce.
Cube the chicken up (pea size). Ready to eat! He loved it!

Our chicken parmesan
2 chicken breasts
croutons
whole wheat panko bread crumbs
whole wheat flour
1 egg
3 T milk
Parmesan cheese
spaghetti sauce (storebought)
1 can reduced sodium diced tomatoes
oregano
basil
2 cloves fresh garlic
whole wheat spaghetti noodles
spinach spaghetti noodles
muenster cheese

1. coat the chicken with whole wheat flour
2. combine egg and milk
3. dip chicken into the egg and milk mixture
4. crush croutons with rolling pin, add panko breadcrumbs, and some parmesan cheese
5. coat the chicken with this mixture
6. place into oven and bake @ 350 degrees for around 25-35 mins
7. prepare pasta as you normally would
8. empty sauce, tomatoes, basil, oregano, minced garlic into pot and just warm
Assemble noodles and sauce, top with chicken and muenster cheese!
Not the healthiest meal on the planet, but if you have time you can make the sauce from scratch. I like to do this from time to time and I will make enough to freeze for 3-4 meals.

Homemade spaghetti sauce

around 10 tomatoes tomatoes peeled and crushed
2 cans diced reduced sodium tomatoes
1 16 oz can reduced sodium tomato paste
1 c butternut squash puree
1 chopped onion
1 c chopped carrots
5-6 minced garlic cloves
basil
chili pepper flakes
oregano
1 T sugar
salt/pepper to taste

Cook the onion and carrot first until soft, then add in the garlic and fresh tomatoes. Once all of this has cooked down a little bit, add the rest of your ingredients and simmer until it is as thick as you like. Add fewer or more ingredients to your taste.

Ok, had a couple requests for the whole wheat bread recipe. So, here it is....

1 1/2 c. milk scalded
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
1 T salt
2 pks yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2-3 c bread flour

1. Scald the milk and pour over sugar, butter, salt, and cool till lukewarm
2. Dissolve yeast in warm water (around 110 degrees)
3. Add ww flour and yeast to milk mixture
4. Beat with mixer until smooth
5. Gradually add bread flour until the dough forms a ball
6. Knead until smooth (took me around 8-10 mins)-at this point you may add more bread flour as needed
7. Put in a greased bowl, turn once, cover, and let rise until doubled in size
8. Punch down
9. Divide in half and shape into loaf
10. Place in greased pans and let rise until double.
11. Bake at 375 around 35-45 mins until brown.

Enjoy!

Ok, I apologize for the delay in posting. Our computer had to be mailed off due to a problem with the memory. Last weekend I got the computer back and typed up a huge post and then lost the darn thing. So, needless to say, I was annoyed and just now decided to type it all over again. So here goes....

Many new foods have been tried and several new combinations!

I will just start it out with the new foods I have tried with each meal. So here is Breakfast:

homemade blueberry pancakes-topped with a tiny amount of smart balance butter. I am not teaching my child to eat syrup. I don't even like it myself. When he is old enough and he requests it on his own then sure, he may have some, but until then, no syrup! The pancakes were a big hit with Sam. However, one of our major problems now is that he has realized that he can feed the dogs (who sit around his highchair at every meal). He just grabs those bites of food and throws them on the floor as fast as he can and laughs while the dogs eat it up! My dogs are the clean up crew after a meal as well......

Homemade toasted whole wheat bread with different toppings such as: homemade apple butter (thanks mom), homemade pumpkin butter, smart balance butter, almond butter, muenster cheese, baby swiss cheese. He likes them all! The homemade bread is a little bit stickier when he chews it up so I have to be careful to give very small bites at a time. If he has ever gotten too much in his mouth though he usually just spits out the big mushy wad of bread! If you are interested in making your own bread or need an easy recipe. Just send me a message and I will be happy to share the recipe.

Scrambled egg, which I scramble into a sort of patty that I am able to cut up into small bites for him. I do not add any butter, salt, or pepper, just plain, and he likes it just as it is.

I have bought some waffles from the store. I got them in the organic freezer section at Kroger. Van's natural foods, 8 whole grains. They have a lot of nutrition packed into them. I also eat them sometimes (with apple or pumpkin butter) and they are delicious. Due to the high fiber content of these Sam usually eats only about a half of a waffle. I normally give him his waffle plain, with banana pieces or steam apple slices, and some Yobaby yogurt.

Going back to the steamed apple slices. These are great. I just peel the apples (organic) and slices them up and place them in the baby food cooker to steam. You could also use the steamfresh bags that you can buy.





Ok, on to lunch and dinner foods.

Beets-these are a great food for baby to try because they cook up very soft and easy to chew but yet hold their shape very well when cut into chunks for baby to feed himself. Only one word of caution, make sure your child has on old clothes or no clothes at all because after eating beets he/she will be pink! Beets have a strong flavor but Sam picked them right up and started eating, so maybe your baby will as well.

Avocado-this is a HUGE hit! I just cut it up into chunks and he eats normally about a half of an avocado among other items for lunch or dinner. This is also an ideal food for baby because there is no cooking involved, it is soft enough for them to chew, and is full of healthy fats!

Black, Great northern, pinto beans- all of these are well accepted. They are so easy to either open up a can or cook from dried. If I use canned beans I choose the kroger brand organic because they actually have less sodium than the regular low sodium beans and are also cheaper. If you are looking to have complete control over the sodium content and have an even cheaper option, try buying the dried varieties. I realize they seem like more trouble because you have to soak them overnight, but if you are like me and forget to soak them all of the time it is possible to soak and eat them in the same evening. If you take your pressure cooker (which I highly recommend if you don't have one) and put the dried and rinsed beans in, then let them come to a boil, put the lid on and turn off the heat. Let them stand there for an hour and then just turn on your pressure cooker and it takes maybe 15 minutes after that! Voila! Inexpensive, sodium controlled, without and preservatives. It really is a great option. And don't be afraid of the pressure cooker, it is essential, especially in the winter time. That is when I use mine the most.

Quinoa, brown rice, lentils-i no longer have to puree these up for him. Sometimes I mix them with other steamed veggies and put them in the baby food blender to just chop them roughly, but he is able to eat them on his own. I have tried some indian spices, just a small amount, to introduce some new flavors to Sam. These starches really are a blank palette and will take on any flavor you want to introduce. So, if you have some spices or herbs you want to try but don't know how to introduce them, put them on one of these.


Well, that is all I can remember off the top of my head. It has been so long I'm afraid I may have forgotten one of the new foods! I will do another post soon and add any new foods I may have forgotten. Please email me with questions or for recipe ideas. Happy cooking :)

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!

Ok, sorry for the delay in posting. Sam has had his first double ear infection and possibly roseola. So, he actually as not been eating very well and I haven't tried many new foods. But, he is on the last day of antibiotics and is eating great once again.

One of the latest foods I have frozen is cooked lentils. I didn't use the baby food cooker to cook these because they need more than steaming obviously. I boiled water, added the lentils and a bay leaf, boiled until tender. Really not hard and I didn't measure anything. Just filled a pot with water and put about 1/2 # of dried lentils. These require no pre-soaking like black or pinto beans. Once the lentils have grown in size and you think they are pretty tender then I cut the heat down and just simmered while I prepared other food. (Make sure you remove the bay leaf before pureeing).
I froze ice cubes of the lentil puree (left it sort of chunky, so not actually pureed smooth). Sam has had them several times mixed with different foods or just plain. I mixed with cauliflower puree and also pumpkin. He was a big fan of both items.

I was driving home from work on Friday and on the side of the road some ladies were selling muscadine grapes. Since imported grapes are pretty much a no-no anymore due to the high levels of pesticides, I thought locally grown grapes might be a better choice. For those of you who aren't accustomed to eating muscadines, they are a little different than traditional grapes. They are large globe grapes and are very very sweet, with a taste sort of like concord grapes. The outside skin is pretty tough but definitely edible for people with a full set of teeth. For Sam, I quartered the grapes, removed the seeds and peeled off the skin. He ate them with his breakfast this morning and loved them!

Another thing I have started doing is pureeing up some of the foods we have been eating for dinner. One of the first things I pureed was chicken and dumplings. He really loved that, I mean who doesn't love homemade chicken and dumplings! Yes I know you are thinking, but there is milk in that!?! But I weighed the options and just decided to try and see what would happen and nothing happened. He ate it and the portion of milk that he actually received was probably negligible. It is not something he gets on a regular basis so I let him live a little ;)

Email me with any good recipes you have tried! juletay@aim.com

Sam is moving into regular foods. As I had talked aobut in the previous posts, Sam is really acting bored with the pureed food. This morning I toasted 1 slice of whole wheat bread (we use Nature's Own) and removed the crust. Hard boiled 2 eggs and removed the yolks (I fed the white's to the dogs). You need to start out using only egg yolk and leave out the white because it is more allergenic than the yolk. I mashed the yolk and spread it over the toast. It was very crumbly so i just mashed the toast with my fingers and smushed the egg yolk into the toast. Then I tore it into little bites and just laid it on his tray table. He LOVED it! He was shoveling it in with both fists. We also had diced banana and some water in a sippy cup. I am not using any baby juice yet. I want him to learn to love the taste of plain water. I am not a big juice drinker myself because I really don't see the need. If you eat the actual fruit it is much more nutritious. The only juices we buy are pomegranate or acai. Occasionally we buy some martenelli's apple juice as a treat or maybe the V8 fusion juices, but it is not something regularly purchased.

This week we have begun to wean the milk and make sure he is getting more nutrition from the foods he eats. He had been getting 4-5 6 oz bottles each day (usually around 28 oz total). Over the past few days I have been giving around 18-20 oz and sending extra snacks to school with him.

One hurdle we have had lately is the food he gets at daycare. They provide the food for all the kids there but I always send Sam his own lunch and breakfast and snacks. I guess I know I am picky about certain things and other people are not, so I want to make sure he is getting the best possible nutrition. This is the time when you are building their palettes and teaching variety. Here is the problem, in the afternoon they are giving them graham crackers. Not a bad snack, but, I just don't like him having sweet snacks all of the time. It is hard to bring it up at daycare because I don't want to be one of THOSE parents. I try sending extra snacks from home and on his report card I saw, cookies, yesterday. Ugh, I guess I am going to have to say something because I really don't want him having cookies and things like that until he has learned that real, whole, unsweetened foods are good first. I do not want to be the food police by any means, but I am trying to get him to love certain things before he realizes there is junk out there that tastes awesome. Any thoughts on this?

Over the past few days I have noticed that sam is not getting as excited during mealtime as he used to. In the past, as soon as you put him in his high chair he starts kicking his legs and twisting his hands in excitement for the meal to come. Not anymore....unless.....he sees me eating something other that what he has. I guess this is his way of telling me.....MOM, i want a bite of what you've got! Today during lunch I was feeding him sweet potato/white potato (mashed of course) and I was eating a black bean patty on whole wheat bread. He wasn't acting excited at all, just sort of going through the motions. Then I decided to take a bite of my sandwich and he started acting excited again. So I decided I would give him some of my black bean patty.....he did ok. But this leads me to my next thought, if you took a pizza cutter and cut up a black bean patty that would be a great source of protein for the baby. I am not a big fan of pureed meat. I bought one thing of pureed baby meat just to try. It smelled weird and tasted weird. I vow not to buy those anymore and just make my own. I also do not believe that there has to be meat at every meal, just a source of protein. There are kids out there that will not eat meat (my niece Ava) and this would be a great substitute for her (if she would eat it...who knows). My husband and I do not eat meat at every meal, there are many meals where we just have veggies and starch. Before I got pregnant I had been without meat 5 months until the morning sickness started. I could NOT stand any of the sources of protein like tofu, tvp, soy, ugh, just could not do it. So I started eating meat again and have not returned to that lifestyle....yet.
So, baby sam is telling me that he is over the baby food 24/7 and ready for some finger foods. I guess tomorrow I will be coming up with some new a la carte items for sam's menu. I will let you know how it works out ;) Let me know if you have tried any cool and healthy finger food ideas that may not be very common!

So, for those of you just starting out I am going to list the order (roughly) that I introduced all of the foods. It is really hard to decide what to try, what you think they can tolerate, etc. So through some trial and error I figured out what worked for him and what didn't. Here you go...

5 months:
rice cereal-he hated it, we switched to oatmeal (i used the whole grain, earth's best brand) and he really prefers that.

6-7 months: (in no particular order)
sweet potato
green peas-not his favorite, but we kept offering it and now he likes them
green beans
butternut squash
asparagus
bing cherry
apple
pear
parsnips-not his favorite alone, they are a little strong I guess, but the kid ate asparagus!!!
banana
blueberry
zucchini
carrots
white potato
brown rice
mango
broccoli
pumpkin (i have been buying the canned pumpkin, and you can freeze it in the ice cube trays for convenience.)
spinach
prune (lifesaver for constipated days)

8 months:
lentils
chicken (only tried it once so far)
garbanzo beans
quinoa
apricot

And many more things to try!!! Haven't even started with herbs or spices yet!

Well a definite advantage of living in Georgia is easy access to THE BEST peaches ever. My husband went and picked peaches for me the other day, only $13 for 1/2 a bushel, can't beat that! So far this summer I have made peach preserves (Sam will enjoy these when he is a little older), 3 peach cobblers, frozen peaches for baby food, frozen peaches for me and the hubs. I still have roughly 30-40 more peaches to cut up and freeze. Even though I think the peaches are the sweetest I have ever had Sam thinks they are a little sour (i think?). Usually I have to mix them with another fruit.
I am definitely guilty of buying some premade fruit babyfood. I make a lot like blueberries, cherries, bananas, peaches and organic apples (when I can find them). The blueberries, cherries, and peaches really need to be mixed with another fruit because they are sort of potent. Lets face it, it is impossible to try and do raspberries or blackberries, I am not going to remove all of those seeds. There is too much waste! I normally buy anything that I know I cannot make without a lot of waste. It is nice to have some jars of food on hand for the mixing. Since babyfood is only good for up to 3 months after it is frozen, that makes it difficult to harvest certain items (like peaches) and freeze them, they will have to be eaten by November. So, basically November-June we won't have access to any really good peaches. But we will have access to some really fabulous apples and citrus throughout those months to make up for it!

So, do the best you can with what you can make for your baby. Just remember, if you make it at home you know how fresh it is and you know exactly what is in it. Once you start making your food you will see how much water is in many of the prepared items and that is discouraging to me. I want him to have food, not a watered down version that came from who knows where. Also, I follow the http://static.foodnews.org/pdf/EWG-shoppers-guide.pdf you will find this helpful too when it comes time to decide what you should buy organic, and what may not matter as much.

Having a baby is hard work, especially if you are also a working mother. I wanted to make every single thing that he ate from scratch, but that is not feasible. I learned early on that you just can't beat yourself up over some things. You can't be perfect (no matter how hard you try). I breastfed, used cloth diapers (the old school tri-fold diapers), only organic body lotions and soaps, I restricted all of my products to be paraben free, etc etc etc. The list never ends, but I think if you are doing anything to go above the norm you are doing something good for your child. So, I make as much of the food as I have time for and keep a good supply of baby food at the house for those just in case, OMG, I turned my alarm off and woke up 45 mins late mornings.

Since Sam is 8 months old now he is starting to eat a little bit thicker textures and even a little chunky. There is a recipe in the baby food cookbook for "baby's stock" to be used in recipes like risotto and other heartier recipes. That being said, I got to thinking. When you steam veggies in the baby food cooker you have cooking liquid left over. Now, the food is not soaking in this liquid, it is just left over after the steam warms the food. However, this liquid is generally colored orange or green or blue, whatever you have been cooking so I am thinking that some of those precious water soluble vitamins are being lost. I started freezing this leftover liquid in the ice cube trays to put into my baby stock when I made it. Any of those water soluble vitamins that we lost during the original cooking will hopefully make it into the stock! Sometimes you won't have any leftover liquid to freeze because you will need it to thin down the food as you puree, like potatoes, or broccoli. Certain foods though like the zucchini, green beans, carrots, blueberries, are very watery and you will not need any liquid to help you puree. You can always use breast milk to thin down as well. I just didn't have a lot of milk to spare, so I didn't take any chances wasting it. Usually I would just stir in some of my milk after I warmed something up to thin it a little and cool it as well.
I wouldn't suggest using your milk if you plan on freezing the foods afterwards. Based on the latest research, freezing your breastmilk can lose some of the immunoprotective properties (please correct me if this has changed!). It would be just fine though if you were making only a 2 day supply and it would just be refrigerated. (Breastmilk is good for about 5 days once it is expressed/pumped). Happy cooking :)

Ok I am probably doing this out of order, but just now realized I didn't include this info! I had my first child, Samuel, last November. He was a breastfed baby from the start. I breastfed exclusively for 4.5 months then went back to work and could not pump enough so he started getting some formula. Probably around 6 months I got less and less milk and finally at 8 months I threw in the towel. He wouldn't nurse from me anymore anyways, I guess he got used to the fast flow of the bottle nipple and got fed up with mine. It was heartbreaking, I pumped every 2 hours religiously, even woke up in the middle of the night to pump and/or nurse him. I tried mother's milk tea, fenugreek, blessed thistle, eating oatmeal, drank lots of water......still no real improvement. I had a lot of difficulty in the beginning with a cracked nipple and then got mastitis twice, wondering if all of this affected how I was building up my milk supply. Oh well, you live, you learn and I hope to make it to 12 months next time around. So, now he gets the best formula on the market (in my opinion) and I am trying to make the best decisions with his solid foods that I can. Probably my favorite hobby other than eating, is cooking food from scratch. Do I cook every meal from scratch? No, but I really do enjoy cooking.

When he was 5 months old I tried some rice cereal, he did not really eat it. We sort of played with a few solid foods like the cereal, peas, and sweet potatoes but he did not want it at all. Then about 6 months he totally switched one day and started eating anything and everything you put in front of him. I wanted to wait until 6 months to start solids but you know you get a lot of pressure from family and friends, so I caved at 5 months and tried the food. But Sam made the decision for himself that he wasn't ready. But now he eats everything! So, that is pretty much the background :)

Well the parents were here to visit this past week so I had a lot of time to cook and stock up on some baby food since I had free babysitters! My parents grow several vegetables in their garden each year including green beans. We cooked those and pureed, one of sam's favorites. I don't worry about straining, there are a few strings in there but he has always eaten them with no problems. Also, bought some organic fresh spinach, frozen organic peas, frozen organic brocooli, fresh ranier cherries, blueberries, zucchini, and peaches from the farmers market. I pureed the broccoli up by itself and froze in reusable baby jars, and when it is thawed I can mix with whatever. For example, I mixed broccoli and white potato together for dinner on Monday night. I mixed the fresh steamed spinach and pureed peas together and froze. I consider this a veggie and a starch. Fresh blueberries (steamed) and applesauce has also been a big hit. Peaches pureed and thawed, mixed with fresh pureed banana is also a favorite.
So you can see I have several things cooked. Right now the inventory in the freezer is pretty diverse, and you can mix and match for several different combinations:
sweet potato cubes
zucchini cubes
quinoa cubes
white potato cubes
bing cherry cubes
ranier cherry cubes
green bean cubes
carrot jars
broccoli jars
spinach & pea jars
peach jars


I think next on the agenda I am going to harvest some of the basil I am growing and freeze some to add to the foods when I am thawing. He hasn't had any basil yet so crossing my fingers that there is not an allergy! Also, he hasn't had cauliflower, so I'm thinking some cauliflower mash might be yummy! Would love to get a hold of some silver queen corn at the farmer's market this weekend! Open to suggestions for anything new! Happy cooking :)