Foodie Baby: Nu-Ways

I grew up on a Sloppy Joe-type of sandwich that my family calls a "Nu-Way."  I remember my mom and dad tweaking the recipe much like they did with chili, in order to find that perfect blend of ingredients, desperately searching for what they believed was "The Perfect Nu-Way."  To me, just the combination of the main ingredients was perfection enough, in any capacity.

When Piper was 10 months old or so, I figured she was probably ready to handle some foods that were a bit more coarse, and little more bold.  She still preferred creamier textures, as your infant might, so be sure to continue to add water and puree until it's thin enough for their liking.

~Ingredients~

1/2 pound of 90% lean ground beef
3/4 cup cooked Basmati rice
3 slices American Cheese
1 Tbsp. yellow mustard
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. celery seed
1 cup of water

~Directions~

1.  Brown the beef in skillet.

2.  Add cooked Basmati rice.

3.  Add American cheese, mustard, onion, pepper, and celery seed.

4.  Add a little bit of water and cook on low until onions are tender.
5.  Transfer to a food processor or blender.
6.  Add the 1 cup of water and blend until desired consistency.
7.  Yields approximately 5 jars of baby food.

LET YOUR LITTLE ONE ENJOY THE BOLD AND EXCITING FLAVORS!

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Foodie Baby: Egg Salad

It hit me not long ago that eggs are supposed to be one of the healthiest and easiest finger foods for babies and toddlers.  I incorporate eggs in many of Piper's dinners simply because they're part of the recipe, but hadn't tried hard-boiling a plain old egg and letting Piper feed it to herself.  Due to teething or dislike for the texture, she was not interested in the rubbery little pieces of egg placed on her tray. I tried a few days in a row to no avail and figured if I wanted her to get used to the taste of plain hard-boiled eggs, I could start with a nice, slightly chunky but mostly creamy, simple egg salad.  Here is the recipe I used and the reaction that was given!

~Ingredients~

1 hard-boiled egg

1 Tbsp. mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

1/2 tsp. yellow mustard

1/2 stalk of celery, chopped (equals about 2 Tbsp.)

1 Tbsp white onion, chopped (adjust this according to your baby/toddler's taste for onion)

1 Tbsp. whole milk

~Instructions~

1.  Blend all ingredients together in a food processor, adding any extra milk for desired thinness, based on your baby's preferences.

2.  Makes approximately 1 jar of baby food.

 Testing....testing....

 AND IT GETS THE PIPER STAMP OF APPROVAL!!!

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Foodie Baby: Bittersweet

Yesterday marked the end of Piper's true culinary babyhood.  Her doctor informed me that she no longer needs formula and should begin drinking whole milk and water. She also does not need it in the form of a "feeding," she simply needs a drink with her meals as adults do. She no longer needs "baby food" and is ready to eat healthy meals in bite-sized or chunk form. Sigh. So much of my new motherhood has been spent boiling, mashing, pureeing, blending, sauteing, creating, and jarring that I'm not really ready to let go of my favorite hobby!  There is always a silver lining though. Now we can eat dinner TOGETHER as a tiny family and eat the same things! She'll keep me healthy!

For her first "big girl" meal I decided that a cheesy scrambled egg with lots of pepper and a slice of turkey bacon would be perfect.  She ate all of it, give or take the little pile on the floor as a result of her getting a little too excited.  Bye bye baby food, welcome toddler food!

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Foodie Baby: Dijon Dill Baked Salmon

~Ingredients~

0.60 lb skinned salmon fillet (the butcher will skin it for you)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1/8 cup of whole milk or more

~Instructions~

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking pan with aluminum foil.
2.  Mix dill with the Dijon mustard. It should thicken up a bit.

3.  Baste the salmon with 1/2 the mustard & dill mixture.
4.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

5.  Bake for 10 minutes.
6.  Baste with the rest of the mustard & dill mixture and bake another 10-15 minutes.
7.  Flake the salmon into chunks and place in a food processor.
8.  Add milk, starting with an 1/8 cup, until the desired consistency is reached.  Makes approximately 3 jars of baby food as a trial run...

Voila!  Your child should take couple bites of salmon, and apparently turn into a cross-eyed salmon-craving lunatic!  SUCCESS!!!

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Foodie Baby: Chinese Food!

It's old news that Piper fell in love with zesty Italian, smokey BBQ, spicy Mexican, pungent liver and onion, and creamy Parmesan flavors, but there were still a couple of taste sensations we had yet to explore.  Tonight I tried baby food with an Asian flare!  As I was preparing the food it smelled INCREDIBLE, but in the back of my mind a little voice was telling me that these flavors were too foreign (no pun intended) for a baby's new taste buds to actually enjoy.  Wrong, again. I think the Chinese Five Spice created a sweetness that combined with the tang of soy sauce created an irresistible dynamic! This time, I managed to get a video of her reaction to the first bite!

~Ingredients~

1 large chicken breast, cut in small pieces
1 medium potato (not skinned), diced
1/2 cup diced white onion
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. of lite soy sauce
1/4 tsp. Chinese Five Spice
1 Tbsp. sweet and sour sauce
1 cup of water

~Instructions~
1.  Melt butter in a large, non-stick skillet.  Add soy sauce and stir over medium heat.
2.  When the mixture just begins to boil and form small bubbles, add chicken, potatoes, and onion.

3.  Stir until thoroughly coated.
4.  When it comes to a high boil, stir and flip once, then reduce heat to med-low.

 5.  Pour into a bowl.  Add the 1 Tbsp. sweet and sour sauce and stir until well coated.

6.  Spoon into a blender.
7.  Pour in the 1 cup of water and stir.
8.  Puree to desired consistency.
Should make approximately 5 jars of baby food.

AND THE VERDICT!!!!

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Foodie Baby: When Raising a Foodie Baby Backfires

Even the most motivated and doting new mothers around know that there are some mornings that one cup of coffee isn't doing the trick and the thought of hearing the food processor whirring at its eardrum-splitting decibel level sends a shiver down the back of your neck. Most days you do it anyway because, well, you love your baby and the look on their face when they hear the screeching devil machine is just too much to take:

Today was one of the rare occasions I fed Piper breakfast from *gasp* a jar. It was called "Country Breakfast," but as I opened the container it smelled more like dog food. I am from the country and I advise you to take that description with a grain of salt. I tasted a bit of it myself and almost gagged. "Oh well," I thought, "maybe she'll like it anyway."  Wrong.  I was given this face:

until I took the slop out of the jar, mixed it and reheated it with whole milk, sprinkled a large amount of pepper into it and about the same amount of celery seed, minced and lightly sauteed some onion and mixed it in, as well as a fair amount of garlic powder. I'm surprised the child didn't want her choice of sausage links or patties to accompany her gourmet meal. Yep, this is what we asked for when we wanted a foodie baby.  No one to blame but ourselves.

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Foodie Baby: Chicken, Bacon, Avocado, Tomato, Cali-Style Yumminess

The combination of chicken, bacon, avocado, and tomato has to be one of the most refreshing and satisfying out there.  Smokey and fresh.  So different, yet couldn't be better suited for one another. They form an  ideal relationship, one being understated and subdued, the other bold and zesty. They'd be delicious and would stand well on their own, but together they compensate for what the other lacks forming the perfect marriage.  Someday, I will find the bacon to my avocado. The tomato to my chicken. But for now, I will live vicariously through my baby food...

~Ingredients~

2 medium chicken breasts, cooked through and browned in olive oil
4 slices of hickory smoked bacon, reserving 1 Tbsp. of grease
1 Tbsp. bacon grease (see above)
1 avocado
3 slices ripe tomato
pepper
1 cup of water

 ~Instructions~

1. Brown the two chicken breasts, sprinkling with pepper, in olive oil until cooked thoroughly and remove from skillet.
2.  Pan fry the four slices of bacon until cooked to medium. Too crispy and it will not blend well, as well as detract from flavor.  Reserve the 1 Tbsp. of bacon grease and keep separate in a ramekin.
3.  Cut the avocado in half, de-seed, and scoop into a separate bowl.
4.  Cut the three slices of ripe tomato and keep on a separate plate.
5.  Place all ingredients into a blender with the 1 cup of water and puree to desired consistency.

 6.  This should make approximately 6 jars of baby food.

 7.  Your baby should look like this as he/she is devouring its smokey-fresh goodness:

8.  Should your child not appreciate all of your hard work and does not care for your homemade baby food, this would be DELICIOUS if spread onto pita bread or crackers.  Go ahead and pour that glass of wine I know you're contemplating, too. You have to be frustrated.

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SUMMER FOOD FESTIVAL 2011!!

My apologies for being AWOL the past few days. It has been more than a little hectic around here and  a lot of it had to do with prepping for the Summer Food Festival that took place last Sunday at my house!  The whole day was filled with good friends who brought even BETTER food.

Spicy hot chicken legs, smoked brisket, spicy Southwest ranch beef which can be served on buns or with tortilla chips, pea salad, pasta salad, chilled cucumber yogurt soup, strawberry poke cake, Oreo dirt cake, raspberry peach cobbler, crab dip with crackers, risotto with Swiss Chard, fruit salad, frozen chocolate bananas, rum-spiked watermelon, and Portobello mushroom pizzas were all devoured equally.  Judging took place by a raise of hands and the winners are as follows: Michelle Borst won the main dish category with her Southwest Ranch Beef crock pot dish, Cindy Cassel won for the side dishes with her fresh and veggie-filled pasta salad, and Amber Douglass won the dessert category by a LANDSLIDE with Oreo dirt cake (Get it? Landslide?? Dirt?....sigh....)  Good job guys!

Not only was there good food, but there were nifty party favors for the guest to take home. They were given Chinese take-out boxes filled with Applewood Hickory Rub, Zaatar, Jamaican Jerk seasoning, Chinese Five Spice, and a fortune cookie.

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Foodie Baby: Hummus on Whole Wheat

Yesterday for lunch I decided to make Piper a very basic hummus to see if chickpeas were her thing.  The recipe is below, but I had to capture the priceless sequence of faces as she discovered this new and healthy food.

At first she was inquisitive: 

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Foodie Baby: It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

I posted on my Facebook page yesterday that it would be the day Piper tried peanut butter for the first time.  It caused a wave of comments ranging from both ends of the spectrum and I imagine that had there been a provocateur in the midst (which thankfully there wasn't), the debate would have continued for quite some time. As far as I could tell, there seemed to be two camps: The first camp believes that giving a child potentially allergenic foods increases their chances of being allergic to it as they get older and that it's best to leave them alone, and the other camp believes that if neither parent have an allergy to the food then it's basic common sense as to whether their child should be able to enjoy it or not.  I'm not one to argue with pediatricians or those performing the research, but my gut was telling me to go ahead and let Piper try it at 10 and a 1/2 months old as neither parent or our extended families have any food allergies. I bought Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter as the only ingredients listed are peanuts and salt. None of that hydrogenated this-and-that. As for the jelly, I bought Polaner All Fruit since it seems to have less sugar and more natural ingredients.  As Piper ate her very first peanut butter and jelly sandwich I waited patiently to see if there were any reactions whatsoever and the only very obvious adverse effect was that quite a bit of it ended up in her hair.  PEANUT ALLERGY CONQUERED!!!  And in honor of this, I posted OUR FAVORITE BUCKWHEAT BOYZ SONG AFTER THE PICTURE!!

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Foodie Baby: Whole Wheat, Cheese, and Pickle Shapes

Food + shapes =  DELICIOUS LEARNING FUN.  Don't be disappointed when your shapes end up looking more like wet mush spread all over the high chair tray. It's the amount of mush left that really matters, and these are so yummy that I predict minimal mush.  It's a blast to see which shape your baby is drawn more toward and it gives you the opportunity to teach them the basics in a fun and healthy way!  Here ya go:

~Ingredients~

Whole wheat tortillas

Cream cheese

Pepper

1 slice of American cheese

Hamburger-sliced dill pickles

 ~Instructions~

1.  Spread desired amount of cream cheese on one whole wheat tortilla.

 2.  Sprinkle fresh ground pepper on top of the cream cheese.

 3.  Break apart the one slice of American cheese and scatter on top.

 4.  Place desired amount of dill pickles on top of the cheese.

 5.  Spread a smaller amount of cream cheese on a 2nd whole wheat tortilla to act as "glue."

6.  Cut shapes out with metal cookie cutters (Press hard! those pickles are tough!).

 7.  Voila!

 8.  Your baby should be so delighted that they stick cheese on their face, like so:

 9.  And let's not forget how fun PICKLE FACES are:

10.  CHEESY PICKLY JOY VIDEO!!!:

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Foodie Baby: Grilled BBQ Chicken with Rice

Today for lunch, the adults ate the most mouthwatering charcoal-grilled BBQ chicken with baked beans and grilled zucchini on the side. I know Piper loves smoky flavored things because of a baby food version of an adult dish that I appetizingly call "Cowboy Slop" (which I will be posting soon), so I figured this would be a hit as well. I used some Basmati rice that was leftover from a previous dinner to add a little manganese and iron. Piper ended up loving the taste, but had a little issue with the texture of the rice which doesn't puree quite as smoothly as the meat.  It would be the only thing left on her tongue, and after a few inquisitive looks up at me as if I can swallow it for her, she figured it out. Enjoy, little foodie babies!

~Ingredients~

8 oz. chicken breast (one large one)
pepper
BBQ sauce of your choice
charcoal grill
1/2 cup of cooked rice
water

~Instructions~
1.  Sprinkle the  8 oz chicken breast with fresh ground cracked pepper

 2.  Grill on first side for 5 minutes.  Baste with BBQ sauce and flip so that breast is sauce-side down. Grill another 5 minutes.

 3.  Baste the other side again and grill for another 5 minutes.

 4.  Repeat and grill another 5 minutes.

5.  The chicken is grilled for a total of 20 minutes at this point and should have a nice crispy-red BBQ sauce layer.
6.   Remove from grill and cut into pieces.  Place in a food processor.
7.  Add 1/2 cup of cooked rice.
8.  Add a little extra BBQ sauce (your discretion, depending on your baby's taste)

 9.  Add water until you have reached the desired consistency for your baby.  The younger, the more smooth it should be. The older ones can handle their chunks pretty well. Maybe teeth has something to do with it?

10.  It should make 4 jars of smoky delicious baby food.

 11.  Your child should look something like this after the first taste.  ENJOY!

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Foodie Baby: Peppery Cottage Cheese With Black Olives

Today I thought I had made a boo-boo while preparing Piper's lunch by accidentally dumping far too much pepper in her cottage cheese, but was relieved when after the first bite came a satisfied "Mmmmm!"  After doing some quick research on World's Heathiest Foods I found that all of the colored peppercorns come from the same pepper plant (Piper nigrum).  Go figure.

On the same website, I found that olives are a good source of iron, vitamin E, fiber, and copper.  Be aware of how many your baby eats as most olives are preserved in brine, which of course is very high in sodium. A little salt is healthy in everyone's diet so just find that happy medium! Not only are they healthy and easy for baby to gum, chew, and swallow, they are also fun to stick on your fingers as puppets (no one said you had to be mature simply because you're a parent). You may want to tear the olives in half so they are no longer perfectly esophagus-shaped....just sayin'.

~Ingredients~

2 Tblsp. 4% milkfat cottage cheese

Splash of whole milk (more or less depending on how thick or thin your baby prefers his/her food)

1/8 tsp. pepper (for freshly ground with a pepper mill, use slightly less as it is more potent)

4-5 black olives

--Puree the cottage cheese with the splash of whole milk.

--Add pepper.

--Serve with the black olives, cut in half

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Foodie Baby: Swiss Steak

The full recipe for Crock Pot Swiss Steak can be found by clicking right here!

This serves for a great baby food in that the London broil has been simmering for hours with the diced tomatoes making it extremely tender and flavorful.  The tomatoes and their sauce also add a robust and tangy flavor to the meat that will knock their tiny little socks off.

While the Swiss Steak is still in the crock pot, cut off a small portion of the meat and place in a food processor.  With a ladle, spoon a proportionate amount of diced tomatoes with onions onto it. The most important part is spooning a generous portion of the delicious red broth onto it.

Puree it to the consistency to which your baby is comfortable. I know it took Piper a little while to get used to any kind of chunks. I'm unsure if this is because until this month she had no teeth, but now she is fine with thicker and chunkier textures. In a case like this where thickness is an issue, add more of the broth from the crock pot until it is smooth enough.

This is what your infant should look like after eating her Crock Pot Swiss Steak.

I don't know if I can handle how GOOD this is, Mama.

You have any more?

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