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!!!

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!

Chicken Enchiladas with Spinach

This is another recipe from Double Delicious, my second favorite cookbook!  This is such an easy, super healthy recipe, and I love that it gets Little Frances (and her Daddy) to eat such a large amount of spinach.  Plus, its delicious too.  This is one of my favorite things to cook (and eat)!
Ingredients:

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (about ¾ lb)
• ½ t garlic powder
• ¼ t pepper
• ½ c sweet potato puree or carrot puree
• ¼ c sour cream
• 1 c shredded cheddar cheese
• 6 (9 inch) whole wheat tortillas
• ½ c spinach puree
• ½ c mild tomato salsa

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Coat a 9 x 12 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
3. Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Sprinkle the chicken with garlic powder and pepper.
5. Cook the chicken 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
6. Off the heat, mix the sweet potato or carrot puree, sour cream, and half the cheese into the skillet.
7. Fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll up. Place seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.
8. Dot the tops of the enchiladas with spinach puree. Spoon the salsa over the enchiladas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
9. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake until the cheese melts and filling is hot, 35 to 40 minutes.

Tips:

• When I am in a hurry, I just buy rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and use the meat to skip steps 3-5.  Then I warm a skillet to melt the cheese mixture.
• To make a 1/2 cup spinach puree I steam 1 large back of baby spinach for 2 minutes and then puree.  This purees easier with an immersion blender (which I don’t have).

Yield: 6 enchiladas
Timing: Because this is a difficult food to chew, I recommend no earlier than 15 months or until your baby has at least 8 teeth. I would NOT think that this would puree well for smaller children.  This is definitely a toddler food.
Difficulty: 2 of 5… super easy, super delicious!
Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy! --See right side of page for descriptions
Little Frances LOVES these!  It is her favorite food next to hamburgers.
Little Joy gave this a YUMMY IN THE TUMMY as well!  She gobbled it up and asked for more!  We served this along side some Mexican rice.


But before she will eat it, we must first feed baby!

Ok, now Little Frances will eat them. Yum yum.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a great first food; they are high in fiber and vitamin A and are great if your Little One is having elimination issues, which is a constant struggle with Little Joy. This is also a great food for the whole family to enjoy so when you make some for your Little One make some for the entire family! When you heat the potatoes, set aside some cooked ones to enjoy with a little cinnamon and sugar as a side dish for Mom, Dad or other family members!

Making Sweet Potatoes is easy as 1-2-3....4, 5 :)

Ingredients:
Sweet Potatoes (yes, yams are the same thing as Sweet Potatoes in the U.S.)
Liquid for thinning

Steps:

1. Wash potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork
   
2. Microwave until tender (I did 6 potatoes and it took about 18 minutes in a 950 watt microwave); allow to cool, they will be HOT
   
3. Cut potatoes in half to scoop the "meat" out with a spoon (to remove from skins) and place in your preferred puree device
4. ***Puree until smooth adding liquid until desired consistency is reached (when I made these the second time, I used water vs. breast milk since I didnt have any sitting around)
5. Freeze until frozen solid (about 12-24 hours) and after frozen, place in freezer zip lock bags until ready to use (I like to save about 2 servings in the refrigerator)

***I did not thin the potatoes much, only enough so that they would puree well. The potatoes seem to get hot FAST when I reheat to serve, so I add breast milk to cool them--that's when the thinning takes place for me.***

NOTE: one ice cube is about an ounce of food


Yield: 6 small/medium sweet potatoes yielded 41 cubes of food

Timing: A great first food! 4 months, although the AAP recommends waiting to introduce solids until closer to 6 months vs. four

Storage: According to "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron, this can be stored in the freezer for two months.

Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy--see right side of page for rating descriptions.
Epicutie Little Joy loves these every time she eats them!

Difficulty: 1 out of 5

After washing (there are 8 here, but 2 were for Mommy and Daddy)

After cooking

After scooping out the meat.
Be careful, sometimes when you scoop out the meat towards the bottom of the potato (see picture above), it will be VERY fibrous so try to avoid those areas when scooping it out because it will not thin well. It is safe to eat, just tough to puree.

After covering with plastic wrap---these are headed to the freezer!