Enchiladas, Ole!

Sometimes even the most passionate cooking mama needs a break. Today was one of those days. So instead of busting out something that I made from scratch for my hungry munchkin I reached for the freezer. Now, I rarely have frozen meals on hand but my sister let me in on two little secrets:

Secret 1: Amy's Organics and Kashi have GREAT frozen entrees that are healthy and kiddo friendly.

Secret 2: You can get frequently get these great name brand products for cheap prices at the Grocery Outlet.

So this week I totally stocked up at the local grocery outlet (Redwood City) and my hungry munchkin got to experience something totally new... vegan enchiladas!

I served up the Black Bean Vegetable Enchilada because it is made entirely of ingredients that my hungry munchkin has already tried without allergic reaction: Two tortillas made from freshly ground organic corn, filled with a blend of organic black beans, tofu and vegetables and covered with a traditional Mexican sauce.

It had a little chili kick to it and guess what?

"MMMMMMMMMMMM" - Danny, Hungry Munchkin

Baby's First: Watermelon!

Can't... Get... Enough!

My hungry munchkin had his first bite of watermelon this week at a picnic. He could have eaten a whole slice by himself. We're definitely keeping this stuff around this summer!

Turkey Sticks

Our hungry munchkin has quickly been moving from mush to real food, which means I've been able to experiment with creating food that is very similar to items that I might cook for my husband and myself. My goal has been to "get my baby to the family table" by the time he is one year. We're swiftly moving in that direction! Here is a great recipe that is a fun snack, if a little mild, for adults and, when served with some veggies, a great meal for your hungry munchkin.

Apple Turkey Loaf/Sticks - from Wholesomebabyfoods.com

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 whole egg or 2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup pureed carrots or squash (I used canned squash puree from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup unprocessed natural wheat or oat bran
1/4 cup bread crumbs
pinch of basil
pinch of garlic powder

Directions:

• Place ground turkey in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the egg/yolk, carrots, applesauce, spices, bread crumbs and bran.
• Mix well - If this mixture appears too dry, add more carrots or applesauce. If this mixture appears too wet, add more bran and/or bread crumbs
• Place mix into a lightly oiled (olive oil) loaf pan and bake at 350F for approx. 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. **You may wish to cover with foil to prevent the top from burning
• When finished baking and cooled, remove loaf from pan and slice as you would for bread.
• Break into small bits for finger feeding or Mash or chop gently
• This recipe may also be made into "Turkey Sticks" for Toddlers and older babies who are able to handle more textured/chunky finger foods. Mold into sticks and place on lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping half way through.
  
  Variations:
  Cook the ground turkey separately, add the other ingredients and puree

Dining Out: Indian Food

Last night we took our hungry munchkin to an indian restaurant, with fairly good results. He loved the naan, rice and raita. We gave him Dal, a lentil soup, but it was too spicy for his sensitive little taste buds. That meant we didn't offer him any of the saag paneer, creamed spinach with cheese chunks.

Saag Paneer

In the past we have given our hungry munchkin bites of a non spicy saag paneer wrap from the indian wraps cart at the California Avenue Farmers Market in Palo Alto, which he loved! But this time the food was a little too spicy. Fortunately there were enough options (and people!) to keep our little one busy.

Chicken, Veggies and Couscous

Couscous Pilaf with Pureed Chicken and Leeks

Daniel and I tried out a new recipe today, with great success. If doubled, this recipe is family worthy! Danny enjoyed the chicken, veggie and couscous pilaf, making a ginormous mess. Perhaps I shouldn't have let him feed himself?

Chicken, Veggies and Couscous

1 T butter

1/4 cup chopped leeks

1/4 cup chopped chicken

1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup couscous

• Heat butter over medium heat. Saute leeks until tender, about 8 minutes.
• Add chopped chicken. Saute until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.
• For younger babies, puree leeks and chicken, thinning to desired consistency with water.
• Meanwhile, cook carrots and peas according to package.
• At the same time, boil water. Once boiling, stir in couscous, cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for five minutes to cook.
• Mix all ingredients in a bowl and allow to cool. Serve to hungry munchkin!
  

I really like this couscous, Ma!

What mess?

Dining Out: Japanese Food

These days eating out is a bit of a mission... finding a family friendly restaurant that actually has high chairs that aren't broken seems to be the least of our problems. These days you see wise parents who bring their own portable high chairs with them to restaurants.

Don't get caught without a high chair!

While we haven't gone so far as bringing a high chair to dinner, we have perfected the art of bringing toys, baby food, bibs, and towels for these meals on the go. Now that we're moving on to table food we can take the routine down a notch and just enjoy sharing food from our plates with our little hungry munchkin.

That brings us to Japanese restaurants. This week my family had an impromptu lunch on the go at Mikado Japanese in Los Altos. No bibs, no baby spoons, no sippy cups, no extra toys, oh my! At first I was a little nervous, but that quickly faded. What did we give our hungry munchkin? There was plenty of baby friendly options!

• tofu chunks
• teriyaki chicken (free of the sauce, mama bird style)
• sticky rice
• steamed vegetable (which was super soft and baby friendly)

I even gave him water by trapping it in a straw and releasing the water into his mouth. My hungry munchkin was deeply amused by this tactic.

Mikado in Los Altos, CA

Things we had to be wary of? Sesame seeds (highly allergenic), raw meats (no sashimi... yet!) and of course anything else that my hungry munchkin had never been introduced to before.

We received comments from diners in the restaurant about how fun it was to see a baby trying Japanese cuisine. Hopefully early exposure to these fun dining experiences will teach our hungry munchkin to be excited about all different kinds of food.

Sauteed Chicken and Sweet Potatoes Mash

Moving beyond pureed food has been a challenge. My hungry munchkin doesn't really want puree any more, but doesn't get much food when he feeds himself. Keeping this in mind, I feel like the food I offer him these days needs to pack a wallop!

Today I had a raging hit with the hungry munchkin: Sauteed Chicken and Sweet Potatoes Mash. This was great finger food because, although it was slimy and really messy, the pieces were easy for my hungry munchkin to grab. It was great practice for picking up slippery food. I served this as the main course and then followed it with apple sauce as dessert, a sure fire winner with my hungry munchkin!

Sauteed Chicken and Sweet Potatoes Mash - Makes 2 servings

1/4 cup ground chicken
spritz of olive oil
1/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes (or yams)

Heat up olive oil in frying pan. Saute chicken until well done, breaking it up into little hungry munchkin sized pieces. Add mashed sweet potatoes and heat through. I cooked until the sweet potatoes dried out a little, but the mix was still moist.

Let cool a bit and then feed as finger food to your hungry munchkin, making sure that the pieces aren't too large and that the food isn't too hot! Watch your kiddo enjoy!

More finger foods

Here are our latest favorite finger foods:

• scrambled egg yolk chunks
• canned carrot pieces - super soft!
• smooshed black beans
• soft fruit, like papaya, peach, kiwi, and mango
• green bean pieces

Green Beans as Finger Foods

My hungry munchkin loves fresh green bean puree. He wasn't a huge fan of green beans as packaged baby food, but I don't blame him. That stuff is gross.

Today I (over) steamed green beans and chopped it up into little bite sized chunks (think cheerio sized) and served it to my hungry munchkin as finger food. Danny loved it! He started by pulling a chip monk impersonation and trying to store up the chunks in his cheeks. We had to clear out his mouth and start over again. During the next try he started breaking the green beans apart and nibbling on the little chunks. Much better! We'll continue working on it... I have to remember that eating finger food is an acquired skill for these youngsters.

Weekly Organic Foods

This spring we've decided to join a local organic produce delivery service, J&P Organics. Every week they deliver a box of produce to a nearby location where I can walk with my hungry munchkin to pick up the goods. This week our box consists of many baby friendly options: Peas, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, onion, kale, spinach, yams, potatoes, carrots, and eggs.

A small sampling of the produce I got this week.

I've never cooked with kale before, so let me know if you have any great recipe ideas!

I am planning on serving hard boiled organic, free range eggs today to my hungry munchkin. Babies are not supposed to eat egg whites until they are older than one year. The easiest way to prepare an egg sans white is to hard boil it and then pop out the yoke. You can mash up the yoke and mix it with other things such as cooked and soft or pureed veggies. Apparently egg yokes freeze well, but I haven't tried doing it yet. Another way to prepare eggs is to do a yoke scramble with various baby appropriate fixins. I'll let you know how it goes!

Tofu Success

With great success I've been blending tofu in with a number of purees, the latest being sweet potatoes. Danny has been eagerly downing the mixes. Yes!

Quinoa for Baby?

Quinoa, a grain from South America, is a superfood indeed. This grain is a complete protein and is packed with lots of fiber, calcium, and iron. At our table, I'll sometimes use this grain for recipes that would otherwise require rice. It's fluffy like couscous and not too flavorful.

Considering how much my hungry munchkin loves rice, I wonder if he'd enjoy quinoa . According to wholesomebabyfood.com, quinoa can be offered to babies after 8 months (of course with pediatrician approval).

Today I made a Black Bean, Tomato, and quinoa salad for us, reserving a handful of Black Beans (finger food!) and cooked quinoa for Danny. Tomorrow is an "introduce new food day" in our house, so quinoa it is! I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is what I'm planning on offering:

Quinoa, Chicken & Peas

1/8 cup cooked quinoa
1 cube frozen chicken, defrosted
1 oz pureed peas

Mix them up and serve to hungry munchkin! I might even puree the mix in the mini chopper if the texture is more fitting.

Frozen Chicken Cubes

My hungry munchkin likes chicken from time to time. I'll make up a batch and then freeze it in cubes. This allows me to defrost a cube and mix it with fresh veggies or grains for a quick meal. There are many ways you can fix chicken for baby, including mixing with rice, peaches, potatoes, etc. Be creative.

Frozen Chicken Cubes - recipe from wholesomebabyfood.com

1/3 cup chopped & cooked boneless chicken
1/4 cup of Natural applesauce

Puree chicken/turkey with applesauce in a food processor or blender until desired consistency for baby is achieved.

Fresh Food Feeder

Have you ever seen a fresh food feeder? They are genius! Made by Munchkin, these puppies are great for giving your babe a snack to munch on without the chocking hazard.

My favorite use? Placing a frozen food cube in the feeder for instant teething relief. When a feeding strike hits due to teething the feeder just might come to the rescue. Last time my hungry munchkin was on a strike, frozen food in the feeder was the only sure way I could get him to eat!

Here are some ideas for your hungry munchkin. Make sure to use a bib... this is guaranteed to get messy!!

Frozen Banana-Avocado Puree

Frozen Pear-Plum Puree

Frozen Sweet Potatoes Puree

Frozen Mango-Tofu Puree

Banana Chunk

Cold Apple Chunk

Cold Carrot Chunk

Teething Biscuit

Mango Tofu Oatmeal

Sometimes introducing new foods is a challenge. I've been giving my hungry munchkin tofu in recent days and he doesn't really like it. Rather than giving him plain chunks to nibble on I have to sneak the tofu into foods. Here is a recipe that was a raging success!

Mango Tofu Oatmeal

1/2 cup mango chunks
1/8 cup tofu chunks
Baby Oatmeal for thickening

Preparation:

Blend mango and tofu together, thinning with water to desired consistency. Can be refrigerated until meal time. If using fresh ingredients, this mix can be frozen in cubes for future use.

Meal Time:

Take a portion of the Mango-Tofu mix and thicken with oatmeal. Serve and enjoy the "mmmmmms" that come from baby!

My First Sippy Cup

When my hungry munchkin got his first sippy cup we had a lot of problems with him accidentally biting his tongue. Ouch!

We experimented with a number of different sippy cups and found that Munchkin's Mighty Grip 8 oz Trainer Cup was a great first sippy cup.

First, it isn't too big for little babies to manipulate. Even now, at 9 months old, a cup with a capacity more than 8 oz is a little cumbersome for our hungry munchkin. We totally love the handles, which are perfect for little baby hands.

Second, the spout is made of a silicone, which is quite forgiving when it comes to accidental tongue chomping.

Cons? While the product claims that it is "leak proof" I can attest that it is not. The silicone spout, when pinched a certain way, can get squeezed open. Like when I toss it into my diaper bag and something is placed on top of the spout... It is never fun to realized all the diapers in the diaper bag have already been saturated. Doh! So be careful!

Overall I would highly recommend this cup, at least until your hungry munchkin learns that it is no fun to bite his tongue!

Munchkin on my Mind!

My little Hungry Munchkin!

These days I'm obsessed about feeding my little munchkin, Danny. He is currently 9 months old and we've built a solid base for eating solids, strictly adhering to the four day wait rule. Follow along with us as we experiment with new foods, trying to figure out how to encourage a diet that is healthy and full of variety.