Raw Green Applesauce

I know that I have yet to post on Green Smoothies as I promised and as my penpal reminded me , but I sat down to do it and realized that it was going to be much more involved than I had originally thought… and I just have not had the time. I wanted to try a few new recipes before I do that big post, but while I was searching I found this recipe at RawFamily.com. I love raw recipes! Its not a movement that I see myself joining, but raw usually translates to “easy” and “healthy” and I need to start frequenting more raw recipe websites and cookbooks!
Anyway, I found this recipe and I had to try it! It was just what a raw recipe should be – easy, fun. I enlisted the help of Little Frances to help me make it! Its so fun to have extra hands in the kitchen as our epicuties get bigger!
Ingredients:

• 4 apples
• 1 banana
• 2 to 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• up to 2 cups water

Steps:

1. Chop apples into pieces, removing the core.
2. Place half the water and the rest of the ingredients together in a blender or a food processor.
3. Blend/process!
4. Add more water if needed until you reach desired thickness.

Yield: 3 cups
Storage: This can be kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. In the fridge, I would recommend no longer than 2 or 3 days since it is a raw recipe.
Difficulty: 1 out of 5. Easy, like most of the recipes I post on here.
Timing: 8 months. This is about the average age for introducing greens to small babies from what I can find.  Some recommend earlier, some recommend later. If you have concerns, speak with your pediatrician.
Miscellaneous: Our applesauce turned out a little brown since I had bought a pre chopped and rinsed salad kit that contained both red and green romaine lettuce. I also made the mistake of adding all of the water at once so it came out a little more soupy than saucy!  I recommend starting with a more conservative amount of water and adding as desired.
Epicutie Ratings (see left side of the page for ratings):
Little Frances: Somewhat Yummy! Little Frances’ enthusiasm may be due to the fact that she helped make it but she seemed to like it. It lost her interest after a while.

Little Elizabeth: Yummy in the Tummy! I failed to take a picture of Little Elizabeth, but she has loved it all three times she has eaten it!

Turkey Sloppy Joes

I got this recipe from "Once a Month Mom"'s dairy free gluten free menu---I LIVED on this site when I was on the elimination diet with Little Asher and a lot since then because he dairy intolerant....still.  The original recipe makes 8 servings and its just too much so I halved it to see if it still worked well and it does--I had to alter the cooking times a bit too, so here is my version!

I also LOVE slow cooker meals because I can get it in there before the kids are up or when they are busy :)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 3 carrots, finely minced
• 1 pounds ground turkey
• 1/2 cup gluten free ketchup, fruit juice sweetened preferred
• 1 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons gluten free yellow mustard
• pinch of salt, optional
• pinch of ground pepper

Steps:

1. Heat oil in skillet over medium to medium-high heat.  Sauté onion and carrots until onion is translucent, then add ground turkey.
2. Using a heat safe spatula, break up meat in skillet until turkey is completely cooked about 5 more minutes.
3. Transfer to crock and add rest of the ingredients.
4. Mix well, cover then cook on high for an hour and lower to low for about 4-6 hours until flavors are combined and  vegetables are softened.  
5. Check about 1/2 hour before eating and see if the sloppy joes look too “juicy”.  If they are, I remove the lid of the crock and cook on high, stirring periodically until the right consistency is reached.  When the recipe is halved it is usually the right consistency when ready to eat.

Difficulty 3 out of 5; I only give it a 3 vs 2 because it is not a dump into the crock pot and go---you have to brown the meat and cook the veggies first.

Tip:  This is a GREAT freezer meal.  Do steps one and two, allow to cool, place in a freezer bag along with all other ingredients--FREEZE!  When you are ready to use it, thaw over night, place in crock pot and cook on low for about 7 hours and ENJOY!  I am thinking of all you working moms out there!

Timing:  Unless this is pureed, I would recommend waiting until around 14 months or so.  It can be strange to eat and difficult unless you have a palete used to these things or VERY good chewing skills.

Serve:  We serve this over a piece of homemade bread (also easy to do before you leave for work) along with another veggie!  Double veggies is always good in my book!

Epicutie Ratings:  (see left side of page for rating descriptions)

Little Joy:  Somewhat Yummy; when we first had this about a year ago she went crazy over it but now she eats it just without huge zesto--which is fine.  Cant love EVERY food, but tolerate every food is the goal!

Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy; it took him a little while to grow into liking this, but he is ON BOARD!

Meat and veggies sauteed 

Everything mixed and ready to cook in the crock pot

4-6 hours later!

Served with potaoes and lima beans (we were in desperate need of a grocery store run!)

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Bananas.  Oh bananas.  These are always plentiful in my house but sometimes, they get too ripe too fast for us, so I use them in other ways and this recipe is one way!  This recipe is from 100 days of real food, with some alterations for dairy free!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour (I use King Arthur’s organic white whole-wheat flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 ¾ cups almond milk (or any other milk alternative, for those not avoiding dairy use regular milk!)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (we use Earth's Best Soy Free lactose free butter), melted
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 100% pure maple syrup for serving

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together honey, eggs, milk, and 2 tablespoons of melted butter.
3. Make a well (hole) in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid mixture into the center; mix to combine but do not over mix!
4. Gently fold the mashed bananas into the batter with a spatula.
5. Heat a griddle or sauté pan over medium-high heat (if you are using a pan swirl some butter in there, if using a griddle this isn't needed).  Add pancake batter using a 1/4 or 1/3 measuring cup.
6. When the pancakes have begun brown on the bottom and start to bubble on the top, flip them over to cook the other side.
7. Serve with maple syrup!

Difficulty:  2 out of 5; for pancakes, this is pretty easy!

Tip:  Freeze leftover for a quick breakfast another day!

Timing:  I serve pancakes as early as about 10 months since my babes show good chewing ability, but by 12 months I think these would be great for any toddler as long as they are cut up small!

Epicutie Rating:  (see left side for rating descriptions)

• Little Joy:  Yummy in the Tummy!  My kids LOVE pancakes so I knew this would be a hit!
• Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy!  He ate SIX PANCAKES!!!!!!!  I had to cut him off!

The batter

THE GOODS!!!!

"Helping"

He couldn't wait for me to get the camera out!

YUM!

Going back for more!

Little Elizabeth’s First Food

So I know that I am way behind on my Green “Milkshake” post, but in the meantime, let me share with you Epicutie Elizabeth’s first food…

WATERMELON!!!

This was not pureed and she was two weeks shy of 6 months! I would have never been so unscientific with little Frances or given her solids before 6 months or something that she had to chew herself, but something about surviving parenthood the first time makes you more confident the second time around and sometimes you throw caution to the wind!

Also, here is how we celebrated her 6 month birthday…

FROZEN YOGURT!!!

That one was her daddy’s idea.

And yes, both foods got a “Yummy in the Tummy” rating .

Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup

*Updated reviews 9/10/13, 
Original post on 3/5/12*
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: 
Little Joy:  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!!!
Little Frances:  Yummy in the Tummy
Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy  Little Asher had FOUR BOWLS of this along with some pork loin, hungry boy!!!

Banana Porridge

If you want easy---this is IT....Banana Porridge!   This is my go to breakfast for my kids and has been since they were both about 15 months old.

Ingredients:

• Ripe Banana
• 1/2 Cup Quick Oats 100% Oats Oatmeal
• 1 Cup Water (or Milk)
• Dash of Salt

Steps:

1. Cut the banana into small pieces (I usually cut it lengthwise in an X and then slice horizontally making small triangle pieces.  Place in a large cereal bowl.
2. Add oats, water and dash of salt into bowl.  Stir to combine.
3. Microwave for two minutes.
4. Remove from microwave and allow to stand for at least 5 minutes (so it can thicken).
5. Serve...watch out its hot!

Yield:  I split this between my 21 month old and 3 year old and its JUST enough for them both so---two hearty toddler servings.

Note:  I have also used applesauce and cinnamon vs bananas and even strawberries too!

Timing:  As early as 9 months if they are good at chewing

Difficulty:  1 out of 5; easy as it gets!

Epicutie Rating:

Little Joy and Little Asher:  YUMMY IN THE TUMMY!  Sometimes Little Joy gets tired of having it day in and day out but she always gobbles it up and then sometimes says "so tomorrow we will have something new" :)

A Dinner with an Epicutie

A glimpse of a Little Tummy Yummies meal around our house!

Easy Peasy Baked Cod, Kale Chips, Wild Rice and Zucchini, Mushroom, Onion Sauté with Parmesan

Kale Chips

To the right of the toothpicks are garlic kale chips

An epicuite's plate

Zucchini and Kale Chips

(She ate her mushrooms already)

Easy Peasy Baked Cod

She loved the Kale Chips

"I want a big pile of those Mommy"

She's our adventurous eater, always willing to try new things---and she usually likes them the first time!