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!