Roasted Red Peppers: A Baby Flava Staple

Do you ever feel like your baby only eats foods that are white, orange or green? Get out of your color rut! It is so easy to expand your baby's color palate and reap the benefits of a rainbow colored diet. My favorite "red" is roasted red peppers -- it is amazingly simple, full of flavor, and my baby girl can't get enough!

Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients: 4-5 Organic Red Peppers

Directions: Wash the peppers thoroughly and remove any price stickers. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the peppers on the sheet spaced evenly apart. Place the baking sheet in the oven for 25 minutes. Turn the peppers to be sure they are roasting evenly and put them back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Once the peppers are out of the oven let them cool before peeling off the skin and removing the stem and seeds. Place the remaining pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth. Place pureed peppers into ice cube trays and freeze.

When I pull my roasted red peppers out of the freezer to give to the baby for dinner I love to mix them with some organic brown rice, however they would also be delicious spread on a piece of whole wheat bread and diced up, drizzled over some whole wheat pasta, or mixed with some roasted turkey.

Yum!

Ricotta Gnocchi...Perfect!

We made Ricotta Gnocchi for Baby Flava's lunch. We used half regular and half whole wheat flour and otherwise followed the recipe. She LOVED them! The asparagus and carrot sauce was an easy way to get vegetables in and it was very tasty too!

The Gnocchi were the perfect texture, cut in three they were the perfect size and they were easy to pick up for little fingers. Of course you could buy pre-made gnocchi, but it was not hard to make them fresh.

Anytime you make dinner...and you want to serve it to your little one...just think, texture, size and flavor. The only change you might want to make; decrease butter, or use extra virgin olive oil if you can; decrease the salt and; use whole wheat flour in place of the white flour (up to 50% whole wheat flour can be used in a recipe without drastic changes in the results.)

Can Baby Have Too Much Food?

I am blessed to have a baby girl who loves to eat. Sweet or savory, soft or crunchy, green or white, you name it, she will eat it. She ends most meals with a big giant belly and occasionally a good belch. Most parents of picky eaters would be insanely jealous -- a big full belly -- no fighting at mealtime -- no spinach covering the walls, floor, and the inside of baby's nose. However, Baby Flava's passion for food presents a unique challenge. If she eats everything I put in front of her, how will I know when she has had enough? Can babies have too much food?

Last week I decided to experiment with a few techniques to see if we could determine how much food was too much food. First, I began to offer the baby very small portions. Once she finished what was in front of her I would look for signs of hunger and then offer some more. Next, I put all (and I mean all) of the food I made directly in front of her to see what she ate and if she left anything behind. Lastly, I tried offering lots of small meals throughout the day to see if that kept her belly feeling full but not stuffed.

After my (hardly scientific) experimentation I reached a conclusion, she does have a natural full sensor. When she is hungry she will let me know and when she is full she will stop eating. My pediatrician was right, follow her lead and she will let me know when she has had enough. When you are feeding your baby a well rounded diet of healthy whole foods there is no need to hold back, feed her until she is happy and satiated. She'll let you know when she's had enough!

To Stuff or not to Stuff!

A thought about stuffing. I do stuff my turkey on Thanksgiving. However, I also bone my turkey and it cooks in half the time. I test for doneness with a thermometer (that has been calibrated that morning--)and the stuffing must read 165 degrees or higher before I consider the bird done. I always cook the extra stuffing in a pan in the oven.

For Baby Flava...I will give her the stuffing I cook outside the bird instead of the stuffing inside. We've never had any problems with our stuffing...but for all the little Babies out their...better to be safe.

Do you know Gnocchi?

Pop-pop Flava loves potato Gnocchi. I don't usually make it at home, it's a pain in the neck, the hot potatoes and all. In September I did some cooking in Tuscany, and lo and behold we
made Gnocchi Di Ricotta; Ricotta Gnocchi-- and was it easy!!!!

Not that Baby Flava consumes my every waking moment...yes she does...but I had an epiphany...perfect size, texture and flava for BF! You can make it full fat, low fat...and the sauce is asparagus and carrots.-but you can use whatever veggies you prefer. The perfect food! We'll test this on BF during Thanksgiving and let you know how she likes it.

In the meantime here is the recipe--make it with the asparagus for the grown up Flavas..they'll love it!

Gnocchi Di Ricotta con Asparagi
Ricotta Gnocchi in Asparagus Sauce
10oz. ricotta cheese
3 oz grated parmesan cheese
3 oz. all purpose flour
grated nutmeg, salt

10 oz asparagus
1 oz unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic sliced (optional)
3 small grated carrots
1 cup vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste

fresh grated parmesan cheese for topping


In large bowl place ricotta, parmesan, flour, nutmeg and salt. Mix
ingredients by hand and knead the dough into a ball. Let rest for one
hour.

Peel and wash asparagus. Blanch in boiling salted water until
aldente. Remove from water, cut of tips, set aside. Rough chop
stalks of asparagus. Melt butter in saute pan and add 2 cloves of
sliced garlic. Cook garlic until it just starts to brown and remove
from pan. Add chopped asparagus, and carrots and continue cooking for
5 minutes. Add vegetable stock and cook for another 3 minutes.
Puree mixture in blender or with immersion blender. Set aside and
keep warm.

Take dough and cut a walnut sized piece. Roll into sticks about 3/4
in diameter. Cut into small 1/2 inch pieces. Place on flour covered
sheet pan. When ready, drop into boiling water. As they float to the
surface, take out of the water with slotted spoon. Place in warm bowl
and add asparagus sauce. Decorate with asparagus tips and sprinkle
with fresh parmesan cheese.

You may use other cheeses as you like, and make the sauce with other vegetables.

Bananapeas!

Shopping for Thanksgiving I came across some beautiful organic English Peas. This is an impulse buy for Grammie Flava since peas were not on my grocery list. Did we mention Grammie Flava is a Chef? No? Well I am. I always tell my students recipes are guidelines...so are grocery lists!

When I go to Whole Foods with a grocery list, it is a guideline to what I need. Usually it will say onions, carrots, my staples; but it will also say, fruits and veggies. This is of course to take advantage of the fresh, organic lovelies Whole Foods, the farmers market or a road side stand might have. Hence the impulse buy of peas.

Baby Flava (BF) loves peas. Peas for Thanksgiving it is. Hmmm, but I also had two bananas getting very ripe....peas and bananas, why not. I rinsed the peas and steamed them in just enough water to cover. Once steam comes out of lid turn off, wait a minute then pour everything into the blender--don't overcook. Put the lid on the blender and if you have a center piece on the lid, open it a bit to let the steam out. Blend and add bananas.

When I am visiting Mama Flava and BF we put anything pureed in ice cube trays, freeze and pop out into a ziplock bag. Then you are ready to pop a few cubes into the microwave, zap and you are good to go. At home I don't have any ice cube trays. What to do?

Have you seen those ice cube tray/swizzle sticks? Make cute ice cube sticks for people to put in drinks. Why not make BananaPea Swizzle Sticks. BF is teething; hand her a frozen Bananapea and voila--BF is feeding herself, getting some soothing cold on her gums and we've introduced a new texture and temperature.

The Flava of the Holidays

Thanksgiving. Need I say more? Filled with flavors and aromas and family. What better way to start your babies sensory memories by allowing them to share the tastes of the holidays. Some of the items are a no brainer; mashed sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes. The rest can be easily pureed. You have all the fixin's for perfect baby flava; turkey, gravy, stuffing, veggies. Your turkey will blend beautifully with your gravy to form a smooth mixture, and for the older babies, small pieces of turkey, stuffing...wonderful finger food!