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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