Bean Nachos with Enchilada Variation

This yummy little recipe was taken from Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman and modified to my tastes and kitchen ingredients. It also happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free if you are interested in that! This recipe seems like it would be great for working moms as it makes up in such a short amount of time.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium bell peppers, any color
• 1 small white onion
• 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans black, kidney or pinto beans
• 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed or fresh corn off the cobb
• 1 tablespoon dried or fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
• 8 corn tortillas OR a bag of corn chips

Steps:

1. In a food processor or chopper, dice bell peppers and onion
2. Combine all ingredients on low heat until warmed through (approximately 10 minutes)
3. For nacho variation: Sprinkle bean mixture over nacho chips and serve.
4. For enchilada variation: Spoon bean mixture into corn tortillas, wrap and put in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove and serve.

Yield: Approximately 4 servings.

Miscellaneous:

• The original recipe called for the veggies to be more thoroughly cooked, but these particular veggies are so delicious and fresh tasting raw, especially with the cilantro, that I recommend just letting the recipe heat up enough to be warm.
• The original recipe also called for more corn, I do not like corn so I reduced the amount of corn.  I also used canned corn instead of frozen or fresh.
• I pureed one can of beans before adding it as Little Frances has been so picky about eating beans lately!
• Although Little Frances and I had this completely dairy free with some avocado on the side (I also added some jalapenos to mine), her dad added shredded cheese to the top.  I find that the flavors are delicious enough without the cheese.

Storage: Store bean mixture or enchiladas in the fridge for up to one week, reheat before use.

Timing: If you wanted to puree the bean mixture after cooking, this can be introduced as early as one year, however in its normal form, I recommend waiting until your child is a toddler as some of the chopped veggies and chips require molars to grind.  As with many foods, it is not ingredients, so much as how finely you chop them that determines how easily your little one can eat them.

Difficulty: I am giving this a 1 out of 5, although since it does involve using your stove I probably should give it a low 2.  It’s so easy – just chop, mix, warm, serve!

Epicutie Rating: Somewhat yummy! (See left side of the page for descriptions)

This gets a solid Yummy in the Tummy in enchilada form from Little Frances, however in nacho form she realized that she could hold the chip a certain way and all of the bean mixture would just slide right off so that she could get to what she really wanted – the chips!

Daddy, with his mountain of cheese!

Little Frances, so excited because she managed to get her hands on some of it!

Here is Little Frances eating this at a previous time in enchilada form (with white tortillas).

Sweet Carrots

I love the idea of eating steamed vegetables, but sometimes they are just too bland for me--I want a little extra flavor.  Carrots is one of those veggies I seldom eat as a side dish by themselves, but I always want to because I expect Little Joy to!!  So I stumbled upon a few ways to "season" carrots and the recipe below is where we ended up; they sorta taste like sweet potatoes served this way!

Ingredients:

• 5 carrots, washed, peeled and cut in to large bite size chunks
• 2 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 shakes cinnamon

Steps:

1. Place carrots in steamer and stem for approximately 23 minutes (until soft but not mushy) (This would also be a good time to steam some extra carrots and puree to use for other recipes or as baby food)
2. Place carrots in a large bowl, drizzle with honey and lemon juice and sprinkle with cinnamon.
3. Toss until carrots are coated; serve immediately.

WARNING:  Honey is not recommended by many pediatricians until 2 years old.  Please talk to your doctor before introducing this to your little one.

Yield:  About 5-6 servings as a side item depending on the size of your carrots.

Serve:  Serve immediately and the leftovers are not NEARLY as good as they are fresh from the steamer.

Timing:  2 years.

Difficulty:  1 out of 5; super easy side dish.

Epicutie Rating:  Yummy In the Tummy; see left side of page for rating descriptions.

Little Joy gobbled these up and in fact hardly wanted anything else BUT these for dinner!!!  This will be a regular in our house!

Sweet Potato Puree

I am pleased to share Little Asher's very first Epicutie review on his first food other than cereal---Sweet Potatoes!!  And BONUS, I have shared how to make this puree for your infant AND toddler!!!  I forgot how fun making purees is and how much fun it is to try new foods on a very young Epicutie!!

Ingredients:

• Sweet Potatoes (however many you want)

Steps (Steamer):  

1. Wash and Peel sweet potatoes.
2. Dice into 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes.
3. Place in steamer.
4. Steam for approximately 30 minutes or until soft.
5. Puree in food processor until desired consistency is reached.
6. Spoon into ice cube tray (or whatever your freezing method is) and freeze for 48 hours.
7. After frozen, remove cubes from tray and place in freezer ziplock bag.
8. *When serving, thin using breast milk, formula or water to desired consistency.

Steps (Oven):

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash sweet potatoes.
3. Using a fork, poke holes in sweet potato.
4. Wrap in foil and place on baking sheet.
5. Bake for 30-60 minutes or until soft (time depends on size of potato).
6. After cooling, cut the potato lengthwise and scoop out the meat.
7. Spoon into ice cube tray (or whatever your freezing method is) and freeze for 48 hours.
8. After frozen, remove cubes from tray and place in freezer ziplock bag.
9. *When serving, thin using breast milk, formula or water to desired consistency.

*The reason I did not thin BEFORE freezing is two fold; 1) the puree can be used in other recipes particularly those used in Jessica Seinfeld's recipes and 2) the puree can be used for your toddler as well!

Next Steps for Toddler Food:

• After thawing or pureeing the sweet potatoes, heat to warm.
• Add a little cinnamon and butter, stir and serve with big sibling as a great side item!  YUM!

Timing:  As early as 4 months; great choice for a first food after cereal!  Little Joy still loves sweet potatoes baked or as fries; so I am looking forward to making this food something the whole family can enjoy whether its a puree or a fry :)  We started Little Asher on sweet potatoes at 5 months and 5 days, it was his first food.

Serve:  As with every puree, when you reheat be sure to cook it through and then allow to cool to the proper temperature.

Difficulty:  1 out of 5; easy and fast especially since at this point there is only one ingredient!!

Epicutie Rating:  Yummy in The Tummy <---See left side of page for rating descriptions

Little Asher LOVED sweet potatoes; this was only his second food to taste (second to RICE cereal) and after one tiny bite he was opening his mouth for more!

Little Joy loved the sweet potatoes mashed up with a lil cinnamon and a tad bit of butter.  Its great for toddlers fine tuning their utensil abilities because it sticks to the fork well!

Allergy Reminder:  Please remember that as you begin to introduce foods to your infants to be sure to 1) talk to your doctor first about when to start and 2) wait 3-4 days before introducing any other new foods.

Diced

Ready to Steam

Puree

This is right after the first bite...he wants MORE!

Can you tell he loves it?  I think he is gonna be an EATER!

Spinach and Brussels Sprouts Marinara

This is a MIRACLE RECIPE! As I mentioned, I have been reading “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, and I am trying to make major changes in our diet, one of which is to make sure that we greatly increase our green vegetable intake.

I originally made this recipe with no intention of putting it on LTY because I didn’t think that Little Frances would touch it!  If any of you have read the book, you know that I took a few liberties with his recommendations (namely I added salt and a little bit of parmesan cheese), but between that and the recipe, we managed to get Little Frances to GOBBLE, and I mean GOBBLE down Brussels sprouts! Amazing.

Not only that, this recipe is so easy, I cannot say enough good things about it. Try it, try it, try it!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts
• 14 ounces baby spinach
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onions, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can no or low salt chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon Dr Fuhrman’s VegiZest or other no-salt seasoning

Steps:

1. Steam the Brussels sprouts and spinach for 8 minutes, or until the Brussels sprouts are almost tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat the water in a large pot and water sauté the garlic and onion until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the Brussels sprouts and spinach, chopped tomatoes, and VegiZest.
4. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings

Miscellaneous:

• Since I do not have VegiZest or another no-salt seasoning (I have ordered some for future use), I just used a little bit of salt, some pepper, onion powder, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
• I only had frozen spinach and Brussels sprouts, and it turned out fine.  I used much less than 14 ounces since frozen spinach is more concentrated than baby spinach.
• Although the recipe doesn’t call for it, and is also not recommended, I did sprinkle a little bit of parmesan on this for added flavor.

Timing: If you used a no salt seasoning, this can be introduced as early as 9 months, as long as it is will mashed or pureed before serving.

Difficulty Rating: 2 out of 5!!! It dirties two pots, that’s the only reason it gets a 2.  Its really so simple and fast.  It’s the perfect side dish.

Epicute Rating: Yummy in the Tummy! <----- See left side of the page for descriptions.

I believe the word I am looking for is shovel!  Look at Little Frances go!

Vegetarian Chili

Recently I have been reading a book called, “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, and it has been making me seriously rethink how I view nutrition… well long story short, it made me pull out a cookbook called “My Father’s Daughter” that I bought last year and then subsequently forgot about because it just didn’t suit my cooking style and the recipes called for all kinds of weird ingredients that I can’t find in Russia.  Anyway, I reread and sifted through the recipes and I came up with a few that I have been testing at home that I plan to share on this blog. 

Side note: I am so excited to finally be adding a recipe that calls for lentils!  Its about time I helped out Kelly with this particular category of foods.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 1/2 large, red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3/4 teaspoon mild chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon, freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chipotle in adobo
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with their juices
• 1/2 dark lentils
• 1 14-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• Big pinch coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste

Steps:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, chili power, cumin and black pepper.  Cook, stirring for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened.
3. Add the chipotle, stir and combine.
4. Turn the heat up to high, add the tomatoes and their juice, crushing them a bit with your wooden spoon, and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes.
6. Add the lentils and the beans.
7. Fill one 14-ounce can with water and add it to the pot, along with the salt.
8. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes.
9. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 20 mire minutes, or until the lentils are soft and the flavors melted.

**My mom called right before Isla started eating so I didn’t get any pictures of her eating or the final product. Mea culpa.

Yield: The book says 4, but I would say that in my family we could stretch it to at least 6.  I’d call this a generous 4.

Miscellaneous:

1. I just rinsed the beans and lentils together since I didn’t want to get more than one colander dirty.  It worked fine.
2. I used kidney and white beans since I cannot buy black beans.
3. Also, I left out the chipotle in adobo! I don’t have it and I am not a fan of the flavor.  I still enjoyed the taste.
4. I also left my apartment for over two hours and left it simmering, instead of the 40 minutes the recipes requires, before adding the tomato paste.  Again, it was fine.

Difficulty Rating:  3 or 4. This one is a tough one for me.  I am giving it a 3 because it only dirtied one pot and one colander.  Normally it would have been a 4 because you had to come back 3 times to add things in, and it takes about 2 hours.

Epicutie Rating: Somewhat Yummy! <----See left side of the page for descriptions.

Sources say that Little Frances really enjoyed this, but she had had a long, tough day, so she didn’t gobble it down.  Considering her usual touchy evening taste buds, I think she must have liked it!

Cinnamon-Maple Quinoa

In an effort to try to incorporate more easy, healthy grains and side dishes into my normally “one pot dinner” mix, I have had been making a few quinoa dishes.  I have to say, we are not loving quinoa, even though it has a fairly mild taste.  I thought that I would try a breakfast recipe with quinoa and change things up a bit.  We love breakfast and love making things sweeter... however, it was still not a big hit!  However, we try to share our failures here on LTY as well as our successes, and you might have better luck with your epicutie!  This recipe comes from Double Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup sweet potato puree (We do not have sweet potatoes where I live so I used pureed butternut squash and I think a carrot puree would also work.  If you do not have any of the above, try a 1/2 cup of applesauce.)
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• 1/3 cup light vanilla soy milk or milk
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 teaspoons pure maple syrup divided, for garnish
• 6 teaspoons chopped or ground walnuts or almonds, divided for garnish

Steps:

1. In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, rinse the quinoa in cold water and strain in a fine colander or cheesecloth.
3. Add the quinoa to the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer.
4. Cook for 12 minutes, uncovered and remove from heat.  Let sit covered for 5 minutes.
5. In a separate pan, melt the butter.
6. Stir in sweet potato puree, 1 tablespoon of the maple syrup, milk, cinnamon and salt. 
7. When the quinoa has finished cooking, stir in the sweet potato mixture.
8. Divide into bowls and top with a teaspoon each of maple syrup and nuts.

Yield: 6

Timing: If you leave out the nut topping, this recipe can be given as early as 9 months, with the nut topping, 12 months as long as the nuts are finely ground and your epicutie has no nut allergies.

Miscellaneous:

• Rinsing the quinoa is very important!  I left this step out when I first made this recipe because I was not sure how I would strain it, but I had to throw away my entire first batch because it did not turn out.  The second time, I used a sturdy paper towel in my wire colander and that worked well.
• I ground the nuts since I still do not feel comfortable giving Little Frances nuts that require a lot of chewing.

Difficulty: 2 out of 5.  Its pretty easy, but you have to dirty two pots.  I hate dirtying two pots and it takes a while.  Also, this is not a quick breakfast recipe and is more work than I like to do early in the morning.

Epicutie Rating: Somewhat Yummy! ----See left side of the page for descriptions.

Epicutie Frances was willing to try many, many bites of this at first, so by our LTY standards this one is Somewhat Yummy.  I think she ate so much because I told her it was like oatmeal, and she loves oatmeal! However, she seemed to really hate it the more she ate it.  She even gave it to her dad and said “Here Daddy, throw away” when she saw that her dad was emptying his bowl.  It would also like to add that this recipe got a big ole’ sourpuss from her mom and dad!

Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup

I LOVE my Parent's Magazine supplemental recipe book; I got one last year and just got another one in the March issue! Since I received it I have been anxious to post and review recipes. So far I have already cooked two things from it.

There is something nostalgic and soothing about nice big bowl of soup. I vividly remember cooking Campbell's chicken noodle soup with my mom even before I was in kindergarten; it was the first thing she let me cook "on my own". So when I saw this recipe for cheesy broccoli potato soup I couldn't wait to test it out.

You will be surprised how smooth and easy this soup goes down and it has only a light broccoli taste!!

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 sweet onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium potato peeled and diced into 1/4 inch chunks
• 3 cups fresh broccoli chopped (I think frozen would work fine too)
• 3 cups low sodium vegetable stock
• 1 cup reduced fat mozzarella cheese (plus a little more for garnish)
• Salt and Pepper to taste (optional)

 

1) Chop onion coarsely

For those of you who have seen the movie "Help" they said if you held a match between your teeth when you cut onions you wouldnt cry---MYTH BUSTED, it does not work!

2)  Heat oil in large stock pot

3)  When oil is hot, add onion and sautee for 5-7 minutes

4)  Meanwhile coarsely chop the broccoli and potato (peel and wash first of course).

5)  Add stock, broccoli and potatoes to pot; bring to a boil.

 6)  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until broccoli and potatoes are soft.

7)  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

8)  Pour soup into food processor or blender, add cheese and puree until desired consistency.

9)  Add salt and pepper to taste, stir.

9)  Serve warm with a little shredded cheese on top for garnish.

Epicutie Little Joy digging in

(I should give background, she had a food strike at lunch and striked for an hour and half carrying on in her high chair wanting to eat everything BUT what was prepared for her.  After an hour and a half of listening to her scream and cry it was nap time so she went to bed with no lunch. She is a hearty eater so she was most definitely starving by dinner, which we had early since we knew she would be hungry.  SO she might have loved it because of that)

Remnants of her second bowl

Yield:  4 adult servings; its only 170 calories per bowl so we had a little more than one bowl.

Serve:  Warm topped with a little shredded cheese along side a salad (for adults) or chicken nuggets or sandwich.  We had grilled cheese with it.


Timing:  12 months since there is not much to this recipe ingredient wise and its also smooooth :) which means it does not require much, if any, chewing

Difficulty:  2 out of 5; super easy and quick.  This is something you could make while your kids take their afternoon nap and then reheat at dinner time.  That is what we did.

Epicutie Rating:  Yummy in the Tummy -- see left side of page for descriptions
Little Joy loved, loved this!!  We will be making this more next fall/winter!  Be warned breastfeeding mommies who eat this, broccoli can give your nursing babies gas; It sure did Little Asher!!!