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!

Pomegranates

In case you cannot tell from my lack of LTY blogging, things have been a little nuts at Little Frances’s house!  I have not been making too many new recipes.  However, we were recently introduced to a delicious new finger food that the entire household has fallen in love with, the pomegranate. I know that pomegranate sounds very exotic, at least to me it did  However, pomegranates can actually be found in most grocery stores.  The best part about pomegranates… they are a super food full of antioxidants. I encourage you to give this delicious fruit a try… you will not be disappointed!

Health Benefits of a Pomegranate (taken from HERE):

• It is rich source of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers, providing about 4 g per 100 g (about 12% of RDA), which aid in smooth digestive and bowel movements. The fruit is suggested in the diet for weight reduction and cholesterol controlling programs. Regular inclusion of fruits in the diet helps protect from colon cancers.

• Punicalagin is a polyphenolic anti-oxidant compound found abundantly in the pomegranate juice. Studies suggest that punicalagin and tannins are effective in reducing heart disease risk factors by scavenging harmful free radicals from the body.

• It is also good source of antioxidant vitamin-C, provides about 17% per 100 g of daily requirement. Consumption of fruits rich in vitamin C helps body develop resistance against infectious agents by boosting immunity.

• Regular consumption of pomegranate has also been found to be effective against prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), diabetes, and lymphoma.

• It is also good source of many vital B-complex group of vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), folates, pyridoxine and vitamin K, and minerals like calcium, copper, potassium, and manganese.

Preparation Steps:

The only thing that I do not love about pomegranates is that they take a little bit of time to prepare.  However, they are so delicious that I look forward to preparing them and it can actually be quite therapeutic!  Also, this should ideally be done on a cutting board, while wearing an apron, so that the juices don’t stain everything they touch.

1. Cut off the crown of the pomegranate.  (Fun fact – the bible says that Solomon’s crown was modeled after the pomegranate!)
2. I use serrated knife to cut skin deep in various patterns along the pomegranate; this process is called “scoring.”
3. Soak the pomegranate in cold water for 10 minutes.  This will help you break the pomegranate apart and will keep the juices from squirting and staining your clothes.
4. Break the pomegranate apart and pick out the seeds.  The white flesh should float to the top, and the seeds should sink to the bottom.
5. Skim the top of the bowl to remove the white, fleshy parts and then drain the seeds in a colander.

Timing: I cannot find any guidelines on introduction to children.  My recommendation would be to wait until after your LO has molars and can grind the seeds.  So this would probably be categorized as a toddler food.

Difficulty: 3 out of 5!  It pains me to give it this rating because it is so worth the time, but it can be pretty time consuming.  It is not difficult, it just takes some time.  I try to do 3 or 4 at a time.

Storage: The seeds can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days… if they last that long!

Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy! ----See left side of the page for descriptions

Little Frances loves, loves, loves “grapes” as she calls them!  She asks for them all. the. time.  Don’t let this picture fool you!  This is the face that I have been getting when I prompt her for a smile…goof ball.  She loves them!

WARNING:  Little Frances has also figured out that these fit very nicely into her nose… so some supervision when eating them may be required!!!!

Proactively Combatting a Picky Eater

Little Joy is now 22 months old and I get asked (quite often in fact) how we "made" her such a good eater.  I would like to share about our experiences in raising a healthy and hearty eater with our FIRST epicutie Little Joy.

Let me begin by saying I am not naive to think we are in the clear of all eating problems with our nearly two year old.  The information that follows is also not based on any scientific study but merely my experiences with the adventure in eating.  And finally, I concede that my little epicutie does posses a certain personality type which, given the right environment, helps her to obey in general which includes the realm of eating.

To start I would like to share what I define as a "good" eater so that we are all on the same page.  A good eater to me is a child/baby that:

• Is willing to try new foods
• Is willing to sample at least of a few bites of every food offered at the table
• Eats enough at meals to generally be satisfied to the next meal (i.e. not consistently asking for a snack 30 minutes later; snacks are fine but should not substitute the meal)
• Eats balanced meals (enjoys eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, dairy and sweets--YES sweets).

A good eater is not meal that a child cannot show preference or dislike some foods.  It would be unrealistic to expect a child to love every food equally.  The beauty of our little ones is the grow into their own little persons which means they will have preferences.  A good eater is also not necessarily a child who clears their plate every meal either.  And lastly, a good eater does not mean every meal is conflict free.

There are several key factors which I feel like contributed to our eating success:

1. Breastfeeding
2. Set Meal Times
3. The Table
4. Homemade Baby Foods/Purees (spice it up)
5. Realistic Expectations
6. Realizing The Inevitable Conflict
7. Variety
8. Limit Sweet Especially at First
9. No Options
10. Personality

Breastfeeding
I have read that when breastfeeding, our little ones get a little bit of flavor variation in the milk.  I breastfed Little Joy until about 13/14 months when we were finally weaned completely to cow's milk in a cup.  I believe this played a role in preparing Little Joy to have a healthy appetite.  If you opted not to breastfed, do not despair this is clearly not the only contributing factor.

Set Meal Times
We believe this begins early.  From the time Little Joy was born she had set times to eat and during those times it was a full meal.  The times fluctuated as needed to compensate for growth spurts and the ability to go longer between feedings but the key is no snacking.  When it was time to nurse, she nursed.  When baby food came into the picture around 6 months, she still ate at set times and these times stayed virtually the same until about 13 months when she used a sippy cup of milk and I did not have to worry about my supply anymore.  She still eats at virtually the same times every day:  8:30ish breakfast, 12:30ish lunch and 5:30-6:00ish dinner.  Occasionally she will have a snack at 10:30 or at 4:15 but thats very rare.  The set times helped her understand THIS is the time to eat and it build confidence up in her that she can always expect the meals at certain times of the day.  She never wonders when the next meal will be.

The Table
It is simple--Little Joy is expected to sit at the table until meal time is over for everyone.  She is not allowed to come back and forth to the table and eat, then go off and play, then eat, the play.  I believe this fosters an environment where eating is not negotiable or a game.  Meal time should be an enjoyable experience for the entire family overall, so we encouraged her to talk and giggle and sing as well enjoyed our meal, but when we are at the table its time to eat.  In fact one of the topics at dinner time is talking about our food; the color, the texture, what food is it, etc.  She is not allowed to come back and forth to the table and graze.  We sit at the table and eat. Period.

Homemade Baby Food/Purees
Clearly making baby food is important hence the existence of this blog.  Through making purees and other baby foods, I feel like Little Joy was able to experience the full pure taste of foods that were made fresh.  If you make baby food you can probably SMELL the difference in your foods and store bought foods.  Also, since homemade foods will never be as smooth as commercial made purees, Little Joy experienced textures in her pallet from the very beginning.  I hear that textures are a huge reason for food rejection for other moms.  And finally, making our foods meant we were able to add spices and make up fun combinations with our foods very early on.  So pure taste, variety of textures and spices I feel all contributed to the foundation for good eating habits.

Realistic Expectations
Expect your little one to simply try each item rather eat a large serving of what maybe your favorite food.  If Little Joy samples two bites of a food I consider it a success.  There are certainly days I do not feel like eating a particular item and so I am sure Little Joy has days like that too.  It IS realistic for our little ones to sample each item but unrealistic to expect them to always love every food every time and lick their plate clean every time.  The only time I will offer little Joy alternative foods is if the entire meal is filled with brand new items.  Even then, I only offer alternatives after everything has been sampled.

Variety
I am only recently learning that offering a variety of foods at each meal encourages good eating.  Offer your little one lots of different foods at each meal, particularly dinner.  Instead of offering one vegetable a protein and a grain--offer 3 different vegetables (mixed veggies!) cottage cheese AND a meat for protein and one grain.  The variety keeps them enticed and interested!!  Be careful of portion sizes when offering variety.  When offering variety there is the temptation to overwhelm your epicutie with large portions---keep the portions the same just offer variety within them!

Limit Sweet, Especially at First
Limit the amount of sweets and desserts you give your little one until you have established good eating habits.  They are SO cute eating sweets, but there will be plenty of time for that later; focus on building a foundation of good eating at first, then you can offer sweets knowing that it is literally icing on the cake.  Sweets and desserts should be the exception not the rule which makes indulging more enjoyable!

No Options
Little Joy does not (at this point) get any choices in her meals or its components.  I do not want to encourage the behavior where any portion of her meal is viewed as optional because as I discussed above, she is expected to sample every item.  We stretch her decision making skills in ways other than mealtime--ways where her choice is not as meaningful because who wouldn't chose grapes over broccoli?  Mealtime itself is not optional either.  It is simple.  When meal time comes, she sits at the table with us for the duration of the meal. 

Personality
A child's personality does have a lot to do with the ease and difficulty in this area.  Little Joy tends to have a "pleaser" and "ruler follower" personality so I believe we have probably had a slightly less bumps along the road.  We have not been without challenges; Little Joy has tested us with food strikes and requesting items not offered at a meal, screaming matches, etc.  Since Little Joy tends to want to please mommy, she is generally amiable to trying new foods and eating at least a couple bites of everything.  Little ones with a limit testing personality or a strong personality may face the challenges earlier or with more protesting, but it is still possible to raise a good eater--I know many strong personality babies who were still raised to eat well!

I would love to hear your stories and feedback!!