Baby Flava started many years ago

Hi from Grammie Flava! My first posting is appropriately on the eve of Mama Flava's Birthday. In those days, when Mama Flava was born, there was no such thing as organic or natural in the grocery store. There were "health food stores" and boy were you looked at cross eyed if you went there...and costly, wow. There weren't any choices for baby food, there were Gerber jars and Zwiebac. And who knows what was in them. La Leche League was considered a group of crazy woman who wouldn't use formula for their babies and took breast feeding way to far...past a month.

Back then, baby food was EXPENSIVE to those of us on a fixed budget...what was one to do. Make your own of course. No Cuisinarts to "mash" things up but I did have a coffee grinder. If it could pulverize coffee beans....why not. So Baby Flava was really born right along with Mama Flava. I blended up whatever we were eating for dinner...chicken, greenbeans, carrots (oh how she hates carrots now!!). When Great Grandma went shopping and bought an extra skirt steak and asparagus for us...Mama Flava had pureed skirt steak and asparagus for dinner.

So when the new baby came along...we continued on with the tradition. Only now it is much easier and it's lots more fun. We have big Cuisinarts, small Cuisinarts, super blenders, immersion blenders...we can puree anything, even an old shoe if we wanted to!

Comfort Food For Baby?

There is nothing worse than a sick baby. When she is not feeling good, I am a basket case. This weekend she had a bad cold, a really bad cold. Runny nose, chest congestion, watery eyes, the works. We were finishing up a late afternoon walk on Sunday when I started thinking about what I could make for dinner that would make her feel better. Chicken soup, the standard Jewish 'go to' comfort food sounded like a good option until I realized that at nine months she has no idea how to slurp. Could I teach her ... maybe ... but even on a healthy day that would be a real challenge. Short of putting broth into a bottle, which I considered momentarily, there seemed to be no logical food delivery vehicle for the soup.

The next step, break the soup into basic parts -- chicken, water, veggies and spices. Her nose was clogged so I didn't need to worry too much about flavor. So, here I am with what is shaping up to be a comfort food solution -- chicken and veggies. Carrots are pretty standard in chicken soup but my girl (just like her mama) is not the biggest fan of the boiled version so instead I substituted roasted yams. Some simple baked chicken broken into gumable size pieces and voila -- instant baby comfort food!

Call me crazy but halfway through the meal (which she particularly enjoyed because she could feed herself everything) the baby took a big sigh and I knew, in the way that only a mama can, that this meal really hit the spot.

The Jar Dilemma

Early this morning I opened up my kitchen pantry and stared blankly at our stash of jarred baby food. You've been there, right? It's 7:45am on an average weekday, we're already running late, and I'm desperately trying to get myself, my husband and the baby out the door will all of the proper accoutrement for our day. The baby needs lunch and I have two choices; jarred or homemade. Here is my jar dilemma.

The simplest choice on these hectic mornings would be to grab the jar, tuck a spoon in her bag and run. Alternatively, I can bite the bullet, be a bit late to work, and spend ten minutes pulling together a great combination of homemade baby food from the freezer and the fridge.

Why do I struggle with this choice? It's not that the jar is such a bad option. The food is stage appropriate, organic, simple, and free from preservatives. But something just makes my guilt hackles stand on end. My precious baby girl is being sent off to spend 9 long hours at daycare and I can't even manage to put together a homemade meal for her lunch. Am I a terrible mom if I send her with the jar? Am I wasting time rationalizing this decision; time that could be spent preparing some flavorful homemade food?

In the end, I send her with a jarred lunch, as I do at least a few days a week. Am I a bad mother? Well, I hope not and I rationalize it this way ... jarred peas are simply one of the many thousands of flavors she will experience in her lifetime. I prefer homemade when possible but processed, canned, jarred, and otherwise modified food is just a part of our everyday world. Besides, if I can save my sanity by not being late to work, I am going to be a better mom in the end.

Flava of the day: Avocado and Banana sauce!

My folks just came back from a trip to Italy, Switzerland, and France (Paris) where Grandma Flava, our resident chef, was on a whirlwind culinary tour. Sadly, there was nothing out of the ordinary to report other than a strange but scrumptious sauce (it came with a standard molten chocolate cake).

Banana Avocado Sauce. Could that be for real? Grandma Flava was sure it would be a hit so into the kitchen we went. The prep was simple; banana, avocado, lemon juice, and orange juice into a Cuisinart. The result was a gorgeous fluffy light green sauce that was de-lish and the perfect consistency for baby.

Fiber and potassium from the banana, healthy unsaturated fat from the avocado, and vitamin C from the lemon and orange makes for a healthy baby.

The verdict ... Baby Flava licked her bowl clean -- literally.

Yum!