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.

Read More...

Hide Full Post...

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: 

Read More...

Hide Full Post...

What's For Dinner? - African Chicken Stew

SPICY, HEAVY GOODNESS!! A really pleasant combination of peanuts, chicken, vegetables, and spice. Initially you taste the sweetness of the peanut butter, then the red pepper kicks in after a few seconds and really adds some zip! I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and the key to this one is keeping everything in one pan from start to finish (my dad and mom taught me that little trick). Deglazing the pan after browning the chicken and keeping all the yummys in the dish makes it that much better.

~Ingredients~

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1.75 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 large potato, diced
1 turnip, diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of water (keep adding if it thickens too much)
1 cup peanut butter
1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

~Instructions~

1. In a large metal (not Teflon or non-stick) skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and brown quickly. Letting your infant think that she is orchestrating the whole ordeal is wise. No hurt feelings.

(That's some perfectly browned chicken!)

 2.  Chop up any other vegetables you wish to add.  I picked a turnip! Yum!  And it makes such a pretty picture!

3.  Remove chicken from the skillet. The bottom of the metal skillet should have brown crusty stuff that looks like it is stuck to the bottom of it.  These are the yummys.  Do not remove them.  Just go ahead and add a little more olive oil and add your garlic, onion, potato, and in my case, the turnip.  Saute for 2-3 minutes.

4.  Add the cumin, coriander, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt.

5.  Cut the browned chicken into bite-sized pieces.

6.  Mix in the water, but make sure you have a good scraping tool. Either a metal spatula or a pointed wooden spoon of some sort so that scraping the browned chicken off of the bottom of the pan is easier.

(It should be a warm brown color like this when the scrapings are in the mix)

7.  Add the browned chicken pieces.  Place the lid on the skillet and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

8.  Add the peanut butter and garbanzo beans and mix thoroughly.

9.  Let your infant experiment with radishes that you have prepared for a garnish. I was really prepared for her to spit them out and throw them across the room expressing that her mouth was on fire, but...

Radishes were a spicy success!!!

10.  Garnish your African Chicken Stew, serve with either rice or bread, and beverage of choice! After eating it with red wine, I would advise an ice cold beer instead.  But that's just my opinion.

</span>

Read More...

Hide Full Post...