Recipes: Summer Squash & Zucchini

When my garden starts to over produce zucchini and summer squash I need extra recipes to use it all.  Muffins, grilled for dinner and baby food are my favorites.

For this simple recipe the squashes are interchangeable.

One large zucchini or 3 small summer squashes
Olive Oil
Pinch of Sea Salt and White Pepper

Dice or slice your squash into 1/4 inch pieces.  I peal the skin of the zucchini but the summer squash I leave it on, it's optional. Toss in a couple table spoons of EVOO and season.
Roast in 425* oven for 20 minutes.  Puree in food processor until smooth.  Add warm water if needed to smooth out puree.

Fresh Vegetables

The best food for your family is home made.  Even better than home made.... home grown!

This is our second year having a garden.  It's amazing!  I'm so proud of it.  I should say we, it's Paul's garden (my husband).  We have a pretty big area out behind the garage, maybe 12' x 12'.  When the tomatoes turn red it's going to be a canning situation.  I over planted those. Each year is a learning experience.  This year we started from seeds.  Most of them didn't turn out and we had to purchase more plants.  The carrots are from seed and they are great.  We'll have pumpkins and watermelon in the fall.  And our corn is getting pretty tall.

It's so cool to walk out to the garden and pick beans for dinner.  Can't get any fresher than that!  I've made roasted zucchini baby food with all the zucchini.  I plan on making a ton more.  I'd love to make pickles but Luna eats the cucumbers as cool as they are picked.

 Fresh sweet strawberries

A peak from early summer, before everything became over grown.

If you ask Luna where a carrot comes from she says "Daddy's garden".  That's the best part. :)

Equipment Basics, Getting Started

Equipment 

There are only a few items you need to make baby food at home.  

1. A good quality Food Processor

http://amzn.com/B000NO6PS4 (This is the one I use and highly recommend.)

2. Ice cube trays

3. Freezer Ziploc bag

Please take my advice that all those fancy gadgets they sell in the baby stores are a waste of time and money.  I learned a valuable tip from Alton Brown; never buy a "unit tasker" for the kitchen.  As in something that only does one thing and then takes up space on the counter or cupboard.  You will always use a food processor so likely you have one already if not, get one and you'll use it for a million things.

After you've made your puree, storing it is the next step.  I portion food into ice cube trays, cover with a piece of plastic wrap then freeze.  Once frozen I pop the cubes out into a Ziploc bag then label the bags.  Frozen baby food is good for 3-6 months.  I make medium size patches so I use it within a month.

Getting Started

The number one thing with making baby food at home is cleanliness.  Food safety is serious.  Infants are high risk and can get sick very easy.  So start with a clean, sanitized kitchen and equipment.  Clean your own hands often and always clean your produce.  Even if the package says "pre-washed and ready to eat" clean it again anyway.

When selecting your produce I choose ripe, fresh and in season when available.  Some things I generally buy frozen like a bag of peas is a great example.  I also try and buy organic whenever possible.  This is our second year with our own garden out back and it's amazing to cook something you've grown yourself.  Can't get any fresher than that!

Stage 1 Feeding: Baby's first bite

When to introduce solid foods

This is a photo of my first baby Luna.  She's 5 months in this photo and this is her first feeding of solid food.  It was oatmeal mixed with breast milk.  In an effort to help her digestive system she was put on a high fiber diet at this age.  I also stopped nursing at this point and switched to formula.  Luna's tummy troubles have always been an issue.  Knowing what's in her food and keeping a food diary for her was important.  That is another perfect reason to make your own food.  

Always talk to your pediatrician first before beginning solid foods.  Here are some helpful tips to see if your baby is ready.

In general 4 to 6 months is a good age.  Until then breast milk or formula contains all the nutrition your child needs.  Also, their systems aren't ready to digest solid food.

 

1. Head control. Your baby needs to be able to keep his head in a steady, upright position.

2. Sitting well when supported. Even if he's not quite ready for a highchair, your baby needs to be able to sit upright to swallow well.

3. Losing the "extrusion reflex." To keep solid food in his mouth and then swallow it, your baby needs to stop using his tongue to push food out of his mouth.

4. Chewing motions. Your baby's mouth and tongue develop in sync with his digestive system. To start solids, he should be able to move food to the back of his mouth and swallow. As he learns to swallow efficiently.

5. Growing appetite. He seems hungry – even with eight to ten feedings of breast milk or formula a day.

6. Curiosity about what you're eating. Your baby may begin eying your bowl of rice or reaching for a forkful of fettuccine as it travels from your plate to your mouth.

First Bite

For most infants, you can start with any pureed solid food. While it's traditional to start your baby on solids with a single-grain cereal, there's no medical evidence to show that introducing solid foods in a particular order will benefit your baby. Good foods to start with are applesauce, parsnips, sweet potatoes and pears.

First, nurse or bottle-feed your baby. Then give him one or two teaspoons of pureed solid food. If you decide to start with cereal, mix it with enough formula or breast milk to make a semi-liquid. Use a soft-tipped plastic spoon when you feed your baby, to avoid injuring his gums. Start with just a small amount of food on the tip of the spoon.

If your baby doesn't seem very interested in eating off the spoon, let him smell and taste the food or wait until he warms up to the idea of eating something solid. Don't add cereal to your baby's bottle or he may not make the connection that food is to be eaten sitting up and from a spoon.

Begin with a once-a-day feeding, whenever it's convenient for you and your baby, but not at a time when your baby seems tired or cranky. Your baby may not eat much in the beginning, but give him time to get used to the experience. Some babies need practice keeping food in their mouths and swallowing.

Once he gets used to his new diet, he'll be ready for a few tablespoons of food a day. If he's eating cereal, gradually thicken the consistency by adding less liquid. As the amount your baby eats increases, add another feeding.

What's on the menu tonight?

This first important rule is to introduce other solids gradually, one at a time, waiting at least three days after each new food. This way you'll get a heads-up if your baby has an allergic reaction.  Talk to your pediatrician about signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction.  Aeris got a bad rash when I switched her formula to a rice based formula.  If you have a family history of food allergies wait up to a week in between new foods.

Solid foods are not a substitution for breast milk or formula. Your baby will still need breast milk or formula until he's a year old. Both provide important vitamins, iron, and protein in an easy-to-digest form. Solid food can't replace all the nutrients that breast milk or formula provides during that first year.

If your baby is transitioning from cereal, offer a few tablespoons of vegetables or fruit in the same meal as a cereal feeding. All food should be very mushy – at this stage your baby will press the food against the top of his mouth and then swallow. Some parents may tell you to start with vegetables instead of fruits so your infant won't develop a taste for sweets. But babies are born with a preference for sweets, so you don't have to worry about introducing food in any particular order. Also, don't leave any food off his menu simply because you don't like it.  If your baby turns away from a particular food, try again in a week or so. He may never like sweet potatoes, or he may change his mind several times and end up loving them.

At first he'll eat solid food just once a day. By around 6 to 7 months, two meals a day is the norm. By around 8 months he should be eating solid food three times a day. A typical day's diet at 8 months might include a combination of:

• Breast milk or iron-fortified formula
• Iron-fortified cereal
• Yellow, orange, and green vegetables
• Fruit
• Small amounts of protein such as poultry, lentils, tofu, and meat

That was a long introduction into when, what and how to begin solid foods.  I prefer the fun stuff like recipes! :)

Recipes: Parsnips (My Favorite!)

Parsnips are the unpopular super root of the vegetable world.  I'm on a one woman mission to tell the world about them.  Parsnips are the perfect "first food" for babies.  They are naturally sweeter than carrots, can be roasted, steamed, or boiled, they are jam packed with vitamins and nutrients and my favorite is they're inexpensive and easy to make.  Wikipedia says "The parsnip is richer in vitamins and minerals than its close relative, the carrot. It is particularly rich in potassium with 600 mg per 100 g. The parsnip is also a good source of dietary fiber. A 100-g parsnip contains 75 Calories of energy."

Parsnip Puree

2 pounds of Parsnips (washed, peeled and cut into 1/2 cubes)

3 Tablespoons of soften butter

1 1/2 cups of warm water or vegetable stock

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel parsnips, make a cut off the top of the fat end of each parsnip. This will show you extent of the inner core. Often this core is stringy and woody, especially at the larger end of the parsnip. When you are prepping the parsnips, cut around this core.

Lay out the parsnips on a roasting pan (covered with foil and spray grease) in a single layer. Sprinkle with nutmeg and salt.  Roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, at 400°F, until lightly golden, turning the parsnips once half-way through the cooking.

Put cooked parsnips into a food processor. Add half of the water, and pulse until puréed to the desired consistency add more water if necessary.

This is a photo of my cute 4 oz jars that I freeze.  For these I added Pears as well.  You should wait to add different foods until your baby has moved up to stage 2.

Recipes: Roasted White Eggplant

On a recent shopping adventure I came across white eggplant.  I like to seek out different food colors.  Orange foods are too common. Your baby's skin will literally turn orange if they eat too much beta-carotene. We'll save that topic for another day.  Moving on, I like to find new foods to keep things exciting, different flavors, nutrients and vitamins.

White eggplant is new to me.  I found out that it's mild and sweet in flavor.  Also, roasting it can bring out it's natural sugars.

Ingredients:

2 medium size white eggplants (you can substitute purple eggplant)

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

White Pepper

Fresh Lemon Thyme (you can use regular thyme and a small amount of lemon zest)

1/4 cup Water or Vegetable Stock

Begin by washing your eggplants then cut off the ends and peel the skin off.  The skin of an eggplant tends to be tough and doesn't puree well.  I then slice 1/2 slices then quarter them.  Drizzle with a small amount of Olive Oil and sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt and pepper.  Roast in a 400*F oven for about 20 minutes.  It should get a touch of color and be tender.

Then add your cooked eggplant and about 1 Tablespoon of chopped Thyme.  I use Lemon Thyme because that is what's in my garden, it has a lovely scent.  Puree until smooth and if needed add a 1/4 cup of water or vegetable stock to help the puree become velvety smooth.

At this point you can portion it into ice cube trays or 4oz containers and freeze for up to 6 months.  Make sure you label and date all of your foods.  This recipe makes about 3 cups of puree depending on the size of your eggplants.

I tried this on Aeris (my current baby guinea pig) and she approved.

First Blog Post: Why I chose to make my own baby food.

Luna & Aeris are my perfectly imperfect daughters.  I can't describe why I love them so much but I can tell you why I have chosen to work hard at teaching them good eating habits from the start.

When you are pregnant you are overwhelmed with things to prepare for and nothing ever really prepares you for having your child until he or she is here and you are right in the middle of everything.  The first choice you have to make right after delivery is nursing or formula.  I'm not here to tell you which is the "right" choice.  What I will say is there are MANY breastfeeding advocates out there and no one will say formula is better for your child than breast milk.  What you choose is what is right for you.  Personally, I did both.  For lots of reason that were right for me at the time.  

So now time goes on and you reach the point when it's time for the next step.  Which is generally between 4 to 6 months (talk to your pediatrician).  You have another choice to make: store bought convenience baby food or home made.  Everyone has their reasons for their decisions but mine was to make my own.  This is my online diary so these are strictly my opinions and thoughts (based on nutritional facts that processed foods are not as healthy as homemade).

This was a complete no brainer for me.  I love to cook so this is fun and easy.  I've also discovered I love making baby food.  It's like a challenge to me.  What can I make?  Different recipes, new foods, how to hide vegetables in fruit, same color foods, and of course the most important is how healthy and delicious can I make it?  It can be really fun.

I came up with a great idea recently to write my first cook book about.... Baby Food! :)

It was so fun.  I'd love to write more, they are a lot of work.  As you can imagine, I have 2 small children that keep me busy among other things. 

I'm going to use this as a place to write more recipes, tips and helpful ideas for baby and toddler food.