Yobaby Yogurt

One of Drew's favorite new food items is Yobaby yogurt from Stoneyfield. Their websites states:

YoBaby...

Helps promote healthy brain development YoBaby is made with the whole milk pediatricians recommend for healthy brain development for children up to age two.

Helps little bodies grow naturally YoBaby is naturally high in calcium and protein, essential tools for baby's growth.

Contains no yucky stuff! YoBaby is all natural and certified organic. It's made with milk from cows that were fed organic feed and have not been treated with antibiotics or artificial growth hormones. And, all of the fruits and grains in our products were grown without the use of toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Helps aid digestion YoBaby contains six live active cultures. In addition to the two cultures needed to make yogurt L. bulgaricusand S. thermophilus we add four types of beneficial bacteria, known as probiotic cultures: L. acidophilus, Bifidus, L. casei, and L. rhamnosus. Our exclusive blend of probiotic cultures aid in nutrient absorption and enhance digestion.

I like how some of the yogurts contain cereal; I usually add mashed bananas, pureed pears, or blueberries for added texture, flavor and nutrition. For the flavors that do not have cereal added I’ll often mix oatmeal to them for added nutrition and to help thicken them up.

Baby’s Cheesy Cheese Logs

I just saw this recipe yesterday on the wholesomebabyfood blog. It seemed easy enough, I had all the ingredients on hand, so what the heck. Here is the recipe copied directly from their website:

Cheese Logs - a great finger food for babies 10 months and older. Babies 8 months + might be able to handle the texture, you decide Mom.

1/2 cup all purpose flour (using wheat flour makes this more nutritious but may yield a more gummy texture)

1/4 cup of butter1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar - preferably the small thin shreds

1 egg (or 2 egg yolks)

dash of pepper

dash of garlic powder

...
Mix the butter and flour together and then add the cheese & egg (spices are optional). You will then have a “dough”. Roll this dough into thin logs and & bake for about 10 mins @ 375 F. You may wish to bake these for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your logs. If you notice browning on the bottoms, turn the logs over 1/2 way through the cooking time!
You can change this recipe as you see fit - instead of butter, use applesauce for example!

Note: I used 2 egg yolks and butter. I baked them for 10 minutes and they still were a little brown on the bottom. Do not grease your pan, there is enough grease from the butter and cheese. I wasn't sure what to expect from these. I thought maybe they'd be like cheese straws, but it has more of a biscuit consistancy than anything. Drew wasn't quit ready for the entire stick yet, so I broke them down for him. I am not sure if you can freeze these or not, but I am going to try.

Bagel with Cream Cheese

Finger food breakfast idea: Bagel with Cream Cheese.
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This is an easy one, I take about 1/4 of a bagel and cover it with plain cream cheese. I cut it up into small, baby bite size squares. Drew really liked this; after the initial shock of course! I am thinking of mashing up some bananas and mixing it up with the cream cheese next time.

Scrambled Egg Yolk with Cheese

Finger food Breakfast idea: Scrambled Egg Yolk with Cheese.

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So, maybe scrambled egg yolks was not the best idea I've had; but it worked out for the most part. I took three egg yolks, about a tablespoon of water, a dash of pepper, and a dash of garlic powder. Egg yolks are very thick, so the water helps to thin them out a bit. Beat the mixture with a whisk or fork and cook over medium heat "scrambling" the eggs while they cook. Add some shredded mild cheddar right before you take them out of the pan. Now, egg yolks cook quit differently than whole eggs or egg whites. They are very thick and pasty; almost with a dough like consistency. I was a little worried about them, but Drew seemed to really like them. This makes a good weekend breakfast alternative.

Soups .........

Soup is an easy and delicious way to combine healthful ingredients such as whole grains, vegetables, and protein choices. Its super easy to make and very less time taking . It makes the whole process of cooking food for your baby enjoyable and easy and not to forget full of wholesome ingredients.

You can me a broth and freeze so that you can use it later. The broth by itself is a clear soup and can be given by themselfs.

Vegetable broth:

3 cloves of garlic; pealed and smashed
2 celery ribs chopped
fresh sliced mushrooms
1 cup carrot chopped
2 cups leeks
2 large potato cubed
10 springs of parsley
2tbsp of rosemary, dill or thyme
1 bay leaf
10 black pepper corn
1 large onion cut in big slice
water
1/4 tsp ground clove

Method:
Rinse and put all the above in a pressure cooker with water and cook them for 20 mins. After it cools remove and strain them ... use into any soup.

you can use the carrot and potato in other dishes

Palak soup

Ingredients:

1 cup of palak,
1/2 potato
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
salt to taste
half tsp butter
pepper little
1 tsp cream for garnish

Method:

wash and cut the palak, potato and onion into small pieces and pressure cook them with some salt and water and garlic for 2-3 whistles. After it cools blend them and let it boil with some butter and pepper for 5 mins. The spinach soup is ready.. serve it with some cream on top of it.

the potato in the recipe helps the soup to get thick. You can serve this with a toast of brown bread or rice.

Mixed Vegetable soup

Ingredients:

Half carrot
1 potato
1 Onion
3-4 pods of garlic
1 tomato
1 small size floret of clauliflower
small piece cabbage
small piece of lauki(bottle gourd)
few leaves of palak
salt to taste
half tsp butter
pinch of black pepper


Method:
Cut all vegetables in small pieces. Put them in pressure cooker along with salt and water (water level -so much that all vegetables are soaked) Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. Allow to cool put the content in the blender along with water and make a puree.Let the puree boil in an open vessel(u may add water if u feel the soup is thick) once boiled, check for salt, if needed add more along with butter and black pepper.

the soup above is a very good option for the bigger children as they fail to eat vegetables normally even half a cup of this soup would be great for the child's nutrition. It is not always neccessary that all the above vegetables should be there you can add or substract any veggiee ...
you can add any number of vegetables to this soup.

PEA'S SOUP

Ingredients:

500 gm shelled peas or you can use frozen ones
1 onion finely chopped
2.5 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh creamsalt
and pepper to taste

Method: Heat some ghee in a pan then add the onion and saute till pink. Then add the peas and saute or a further 5 minutes. Add seasoning and vegetable stock. Boil and simmer till the peas are cooked. Puree in a grinderor if your kid is a little older you can just mash it with a laddle and serve. Serve hot topped with fresh cream.

Sweet potato & pineapple

Drew is not fond of pineapple by itself so far, so I decided to chop some up and mix it with sweet potato and cinnamon. I am convinced he will eat anything if it is mixed with sweet potato.

Alternative uses for baby food...

So before I knew about the nitrates or whatever in carrots, I had made a big batch and used the reserved cooking water in them. Once I read that was a no-no, I decided to figure out a way to use them in our food (not Olivia's) so as not to waste it.

My husband is not a huge veggie eater, so I thought I would try to sneak it in some of his food! Here was tonight's spaghetti sauce right after I threw 6 cubes of carrots in it! He never even knew, and I'm not telling!

Pasta with Cauliflower & Cheese

Drew had an interesting week. I got a little food happy and introduced him to Cheerios, cheese, pineapple, and the frozen baby dinners; which have several new and different ingredients. What happens? Of course he breaks out in a rash. This was similar the one he had with avocado. So, we stopped with all the new foods and I thought it would be gone the next day; but no it got worse of the next two days. It is finally gone and I am re-introducing the new foods one a time. First Cheerios, which of course I don't believe was the culprit, but just in case. Second, cheese.

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Today for lunch Drew had Ditalini pasta mixed with our dressed up cauliflower and shredded cheddar cheese. No real recipe to follow, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I did add a pinch of garlic too, his first time for this. I got the idea from wholesomebabyfood.com that did the same thing, but with carrots. Seeing how we are out of carrots I thought I'd try it with the cauliflower. This smelled so good that I had to try it for myself. Both Drew and I give it two thumbs up!

More finger food!

Carrots

Tofu

Biscuits on Easter

Pancakes!

So Olivia is not always loving her purees lately. She likes anything that is super smooth, and then she likes finger food. Nothing in between! So my homemade peas and green beans are out for right now.

So I have tried pancakes, biscuits, carrots and tofu and she LOVED them all! I am nervous about many finger foods, as she has no teeth yet, but these were all perfect for her.

She especially loved the tofu, so I am going to try some recipes with it, and see what happens! I love that there is an option with a lot of protein for her.

Another Freezer Find: Happy Baby Food

I was in the freezer section of my local Target and found frozen organic baby foods. The brand is Happy Baby Food and they had several different flavors to choose from. Most where fruit purees, which I couldn't see spending the money on when I make them already. But, I did buy two different varieties of meat entrees for 9 month olds and up; Chick Chick and Gobble Gobble w/ Paradise Puree.

CHICK CHICK INGREDIENTS :

organic peas, organic spinach, organic butternut squash,
organic chicken, water, organic sweet potato, organic zucchini, organic brown rice

and

GOBBLE GOBBLE INGREDIENTS:


water for cooking, organic potato, organic sweet potato, organic turkey, organic butternut squash, organic apple, organic millet, organic prune, organic oregano, organic garlic powder

PARADISE PUREE INGREDIENTS:
organic bananas, organic mango, organic peaches, water for cooking, organic amaranth

They have salmon too, but I didn't see it at this location. These are great for those afraid to try making meats on their own, or for those short on time. They are expensive though. They were 3.99 a box. The box of Chick Chick has four servings (3 cubes equal a serving) and the Gobble Gobble had two servings of turkey and two servings of fruit puree. We've only tried the turkey and puree so far. When I thawed them out in the microwave I was surprised how watery the turkey was. It smelled good though. I mixed the fruit with the turkey and it was still too thin, so I added some cereal to thicken it up. Despite the looks, Drew really enjoyed it and ate it very quickly. I will buy this again in the future.

Egg Yolk Mashed with Bananas

Yes, you read that correctly. Drew had egg yolks mixed with bananas, and he likes it! I wanted to try egg yolks but wasn't sure what to mix it with. My book has a recipe mixing it with avocado and yogurt, but Drew can't have avocados right now and all I have is vanilla yogurt. Wholesomebabyfood.com has a list of items to mix eggs with, which is where I got the idea for bananas. Both my book and wholesomebaby food say it is OK to introduce egg yolks at 8 months, but to hold off with egg whites until one year of age. I used 2 1/2 hard boiled egg yolks and 1/2 a banana and mashed them together. I don't believe you should freeze this; it has a shelf life of 1 to 2 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

To hard boil the eggs, put them in a pot of water (leaving one inch of water over the eggs) over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, remove them from the heat, cover the pot and let sit for about 14 minutes. If the egg yolks are grey, they are over cooked.

Baked Chicken & Cauliflower Dressed Up

Last week Drew tried something old & something new. Drew loves cauliflower, so for added flavor I boiled the cauliflower in chicken broth (low sodium) and than pureed it with a little bit of the left over broth & a bit of butter. I believe Drew likes it just as much, if not more than the plain cauliflower.

According to my Cooking for Baby book, they recommend starting Chicken between 9 and 11 months. Drew was about 8 1/2 decided to try it. We did so because he had been eating solids since 4 months and doing well on them. He also did well with the ground turkey. We took boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used four, but I think I'll just do two next time), put them on an oiled cooking rack over a foil lined pan. We cooked them for about 24 minutes, flipping them half way through. We have a digital cooking thermometer that helps us cook chicken thoroughly. I highly recommend one. I pureed half of this and chopped the rest for finger foods. Drew is not fond of this in either form. I tried mixing it with sweet potatoes too, which helped a little. I might try white meat next time to see if he likes it better and I plan on making a pasta too.