The Beauty of a Well Rounded Diet

Most of us know the value of a well balanced diet. Good for our bodies, good for our energy level and good for our waistline. However, I have recently discovered a new fringe benefit for BF ... no worries for me when she is feeling picky!

Every day I make a conscious effort to make each meal that BF eats a balance of a good protein/dairy, fruits and veggies, and some complex carbohydrates. For breakfast she may have peas and bananas with plain yogurt and half a mini whole wheat bagel. Lunch may be spinach and feta in whole wheat pits pockets and sliced kiwi. Dinner may be salmon and a mixture of roasted red peppers, rice, and broccoli. Because each meal is so complete I never fret on the days that she just refuses to eat dinner. And as BF approaches toddlerhood at full speed I know that there will be many more days ahead when she will refuse certain food items or will just not be hungry for a meal. I will be able to rest easy on those days because she will have gotten a great dose of nutritious food in the two meals that she did choose to eat!

The trick is, of course, finding lots of tasty ways to server your baby foods from a variety of different food groups. Beans are a wonderful cross-over food item for baby. To get a great mix of veggies and protein try our Black Bean Avocado spread, add some lentils to your baby's veggies, or try mixing some veggies into a simple chickpea hummus. Also, don't be afraid to serve veggies for breakfast, sweet English peas are one of our favorites with yogurt so is our staple; banana avocado sauce.

Zucchini for Baby

One of BF's favorite veggies is zucchini! While looking back at some old posts, I realized that I had never posted this recipe for the zucchini dish I have been making for her since she was 8 months old. So, here is it ... try it out and let us know what you think!

Zucchini for Baby
3 medium sized zucchini
1 small yellow onion
1 T olive oil
1 t freshly ground pepper
dash of salt

Wash and dry the zucchini, trim off ends and slice into thin circles. Peel the onion and dice it into small pieces. Heat a skillet on the stove and add the olive oil. When the pan is hot, add the diced onions. Saute the onions for approximately two minutes and then add the sliced zucchini and a dash of salt. Cook this mixture until the zucchini slices are soft and slightly browned and then add the ground pepper. Once the zucchini and onions have cooled slightly dump the entire mixture into a food processor. Blend until smooth or until desired consistency is reached.

Zucchini for Baby will last in the fridge for a few days and it freezes very well. As soon as your baby is ready to move beyond cereals and the basic fruits and veggies this is a great addition to his/her food repertoire!

Squash Pizza

We had a marvelous Squash Pizza at a new restaurant in Philadelphia. The menu description was interesting: squash, mozzarella cheese, raisins and pine nuts. It sounded good so we ordered it. Delicious!!
It came on a paper thin crispy crust, and the squash was cut up small and almost formed the sauce on the pizza with spots of mozzarella cheese and white raisins and toasted pine nuts.

The first bite was a wonderful explosion of savory and just a touch of sweet from the raisins. What an easy healthy dish for BF! Perfect finger food, veggie, protein and a bit of crunch from the pine nuts. If the size and shape of the pine nut concerns you...just give them a quick smash before you put them on the pizza. Also the raisins can be cut in half.

Squash Pizza
1 cup cubed steamed squash (any squash, butternut, acorn etc)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup white raisins
1/2 lb of sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Cornmeal for under the pizza
1 pizza crust (homemade recipe follows)

Peel, cut and cube your squash. Steam or roast in the oven until tender, mash with a fork and set aside. Toast pine nuts in small pan until slightly brown, set aside.

Roll your pizza crust very thin. Spread mashed squash on dough, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, toss pine nuts and raisins on top. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Bake on preheated pizza stone for 10 minutes at 450 or until cheese bubbles. If you do not have a pizza stone, you may bake on a sprayed cookie sheet.

Let cool and cut in wedges.

Homemade Pizza Dough

3/4 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 cups (or more) organic unbleached flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let sit about 5 minutes.

Place flour, sugar, and salt in mixing bowl. Add water and yeast. Add oil and knead with dough hook unitl smooth...about 4 minutes. Add more flour if needed. Dough should pull away from side of bowl and leave bowl "clean" as it kneads. (if you do not have a dough hook, you may use a food processor, or do it by hand.)

Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Gently take dough out of bowl and knead a few times. Let sit a few minutes and roll out to desired shape. If dough springs back, let it sit a few minutes and rest and roll again.

Fill as desired and bake. You may also use this recipe to make calzone, rolls and bread sticks!

Pizza Sticks

Last night Grammie Flava was in town visiting and we wanted to make something quick and fun for dinner. I looked in the fridge and we had some left over caramelized onions and zucchini, an assortment of cheeses, and (as always) some whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joes. Pizza it was! While we were waiting for the dough to reach room temperature I had a thought that it would be nice to make BF some version of the pizza that she could feed herself. Some brief experimentation resulted in these adorable pizza sticks (think calzone) that she could pick up and take bites out of.

If you keep pizza dough in your fridge regularly this couldn't be simpler. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for about half an hour. Slice the dough into pieces about the size of a lime and roll out each piece into a long rectangle. In the center of the rolled out dough place a small amount of your chosen filling (see below) leaving room on all ends. Pinch the dough closed on all slides and roll lightly to achieve the right shape; we were aiming for something like a thick pretzel rod.

We placed the sticks in our pre-heated over (425 degrees) on a pizza stone for about 10 minutes. Times will vary slightly so keep an eye on the sticks once they are in the oven. The key here is not to add too much filling otherwise the sticks will explode in the oven.

You can fill your pizza sticks with anything your baby or toddler likes but here are some suggestions:
1) Tomato sauce, spinach and parrano cheese
2) Tomato sauce, caramelized onion and zucchini, and mozzarella
3) Roasted red peppers and Cougar Gold cheese

Blintzes, Crepes, Blini, it's all delicious!

It amazes me how much in common all cultures have food wise. Think of the simple mixture for a crepe...milk, flour, eggs. In France you buy them on the street; sweet or savory they can be a breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. In Germany...my Grandmother used to make us German Pancakes for breakfast...a crepe filled with jelly. Of course there is my husbands side of the family stating: blintz is a Polish invention. Some say the word is clearly Slavic, as in “blini,” the buckwheat pancake Russians serve with melted butter and caviar. The Hungarian word for pancake, “palascinta,” has a similar root sound.

This recipe is so simple...get out your blender...

Crepes or Blintz Skins
3/4 cup milk...whole all the way down to skim...whatever your preference
1/2 cup water
2 eggs (egg beaters may be substituted)
1 cup flour (1/2 all purpose unbleached organic if you can and 1/2 buckwheat to make a sweet grainy blintz skin)
2 T melted butter (canola oil or smart balance works fine too)
1 T sugar (or agave nectar or leave it out)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (if you are making cheese or sweet blintzes-for savory blintzes leave this out)

Now puree. Scrape down the sides of bowl and make sure the batter is well blended. Place in bowl in refrigerator for 1 hour. This is important to release air bubbles, allow the flour and egg and milk to mix.

Take a small non stick saute pan...7 inch will make a small crepe, 9 inch a larger. Spray with a nonstick cooking spray. Cooking Light has great detailed instructions for making blintzes.

"The trickiest part of the process is swirling just the right amount of batter in the pan. It's not difficult, but it takes practice. Even seasoned cooks use the first crepe as practice, so don't be discouraged if it takes a couple of times to get the hang of it. The crepes don't have to be uniform or perfectly round.

Success lies in preheating the pan to the correct temperature and mastering the swirl. You want to distribute a thin layer of batter quickly over the base of the hot pan so the crepe will have uniform thickness and cook evenly. Start by adding the batter to the center of the pan. Gently tilt the pan in a circular motion so the batter runs to, but not up, the sides of the pan..."

Fill the crepe skins with cheese (see recipe below) or any other fruit filling that you like. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center of the crepe toward 6 o'clock. Fold the bottom edge up and over the filling. Fold in the sides to touch each other; then fold the top side over making sure all the filling is "inside". I flip it over fold side down and continue. Once filled, place in a hot buttered pan and saute on both sides till golden brown. Serve with sour cream or your favorite flavor of yogurt.

Blintzes freeze well and you can keep the crepe portion stacked unfilled in the refrigerator for a few days. Blintzes, the international food! If you are going to make them...double the recipe, fill them, and freeze them. One night when you don't want to cook, or have company and you want a first course...you'll be happy you did.

Cheese Filling
1 16 oz container of cottage cheese (full fat, fat free, large or small curd they all work)
1 egg
2 T flour
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Place cottage cheese in a sieve and using the back of a spoon press through the sieve. This will cream the cottage cheese and not make it as watery as if you pureed it in a blender. Add the remaining ingredients, blend well and refrigerate until ready to use.

Dried Figs with Parrano

Forever on the search for fun, healthy, and portable snacks, Baby Flava and I have come across a new favorite; dried figs with Parrano cheese. There are actually endless variations of this simple snack including using different kinds of cheeses and substituting fresh figs for the dried figs. However, this original version is our favorite to date. I am saying "our" because I enjoy this treat just as much as she does! Now that I am a stay-at-home mom, I realized that I needed to pack some food for myself too when I take BF on an outing. After chasing a one-year-old around for a few hours a woman needs a snack!

For BF I trim the hard ends off the figs and slice them in to bite size pieces. If I am home I will place a piece of Parrano (a great sharp and salty cheese, which is as creamy as a gouda) on top of the fig slice and put the little treats out for her to pick up. However, if we are going to be out about sometimes I will let her take bites out of a while fig and a larger slice of cheese. The combination of salty/savory and sweet cannot be beat!

In the summer time when the figs are fresh, I may slice them in quarters, place the cheese on top and stick them under a broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and slightly roast the fruit. Yum!

Black Bean Avocado Spread

Our family is back home from vacation and I am learning what it means to be in my new role as a stay-at-home mom. Aside from preventing BF from yanking my alarm clock out of the wall socket and trying some new classes, "working" at home is affording me some more time (albeit it not a lot more) to experiment with baby food.

A few weeks ago I purchased some canned "sodium free" beans from Whole Foods. I was so excited to find this product because I had been dying to make BF a few different things with beans. The idea of soaking dry beans always stops me dead in my tracks and there is just too much unnecessary sodium in other canned beans so I never followed through on any of my baby recipe ideas ... until now.

Today I felt like making something with Tex Mex flavor for BF. Here is my quick recipe for a baby-friendly black-bean avocado spread. BF enjoyed hers on little mini whole wheat pita pockets from Trader Joes. The best part, she could hold the little sandwiches herself and take bites. It was too cute!

Black Bean Avocado Spread
1 can of no-sodium black beans
1 ripe avocado
1 T olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 T of lime juice (you can omit this if your baby does not yet eat citrus)
1 tsp cumin
Dash of salt
Dash of pepper

Open the can of beans; drain and rinse the beans. Slice the avocado in half, remove the pit and the peel. Peal the onion and garlic and dice both into medium sized pieces. Heat a small skillet and add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot add the garlic and onions and saute until lightly browned -- remove the pan from the heat and let cool. Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth adding more oil or water to reach desired consistency. Taste and adjust spices to your preference.
***If you are in a hurry you can substitute powdered onion and garlic for their fresh counterparts.

The Challenge of Traveling, the SANDWICH and sipping from a straw!

Traveling with BF has been no easy task for food. Staying in a hotel without a kitchen and only a frig has forced us to rely on jarred baby food. Not the end of the world, but not the "fresh" food we usually try to feed BF. Going out and trying to feed BF off our plates has it's ups and downs. Some meals she didn't like: salmon with a balsamic glaze; and other meals she loved: spinach omelets with a pumpkin muffin.

What we found happening was giving her more carbs than we ordinarily would were we home making homemade. Today BF needed some protein and we got a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with avocado. Rather than take it apart, she loves to take bites out of our sandwiches, so we let her take bites from the sandwich instead of pulling it apart. What a great breakthrough. Not only was this easy, a full compliment of veggie, protein and carb, but she was able to get large bites into her mouth which she loves to do. A banana for dessert and it was a perfect meal. She was fully satisfied and so were we!!!

While having lunch in a restaurant the other day, when feeding her was less successful, we'd forgotten to bring along BF's sippy cup. BTW we are using the Born Free brand available at Whole Foods. This brand does not contain the chemical bishpheno A, BPA found in polycarbonates. You may find more information about this issue at WebMD and Washingtonpost.com .

What to do to give BF something to drink. Sip from a straw, but how. Grammie Flava remembered what the kids used to do when they were little. Place the straw in the cup of liquid, place your finger on the top of the straw trapping the liquid in the straw. Bring it out of the cup, put the straw in your mouth and remove your top finger. The liquid goes into your mouth.

So I did this with BF for a while and all of a sudden she got the idea to suck the water from the straw to get it faster and voila...sipping from a straw was started. A few more times and now BF can sip from a straw. A great benefit when out if you forget the sippy cup! But now I have to research if plastic straws have BFA. A never ending journey.