Baby Food – The Simple Elements

Something happened to my mini foodie when she turned 11 months old. All of a sudden, she hated solid foods. You would think I was forcing her to eat dirt. Actually, I’m pretty sure she preferred to eat things off the floor than the homemade goodies I was making her. I mean…you should have seen some of the faces she would make. I could not figure it out. She used to devour ground chicken mixed with sweet potatoes, butternut squash with a touch of butter and couldn’t get enough of Babybel cheese for a midday snack. For weeks the dog was getting most of my home cooked baby food that Marielle would simply toss on the floor or push off her plate. This pregnant mama’s patience was wearing out quickly. I was starting to worry about her quickly approaching 1st birthday when formula was no longer going to be her main source of nutrition, and feared that she wasn’t going to get what she needed if she kept this up.

It wasn’t until today, when my mom came over to help with Marielle that I came to the realization that my little foodie was in fact, a foodie, and I was boring her with my cooking! My mom brought over some homemade chicken noodle soup. Not just any chicken noodle soup…this soup had a kick. Full of herbs, spices and lots of pepper. Marielle crawled up to the table begging for a little bite. We gave her one thinking she would hate it…but in fact, she couldn’t get enough of it. For the first time in weeks, she ate an entire bowl of solid food. I was always cautious with herbs and spices, thinking she wouldn’t like them. As it turns out, she loves them, and was protesting the fact that I was depriving her from such wonderful flavors! I guess the lesson here is don’t be afraid to spice up your baby’s mealtime options. While we assume they have pretty basic taste buds, your little one may surprise you and be quite adventurous in the culinary world.

Here is a chicken recipe that I’ve been using, and she’s been rejecting, until I made it a little more interesting for her by adding in some herbs and spices.

Creamy Chicken & Cheesy Potatoes

1 tsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk
2 ounces mashed yukon gold potatoes (make a bunch and freeze them in small containers)
2 ounces baked chicken breast, ground or coarsely chopped depending on baby’s age. (I keep little 2 ounce containers of cooked, chopped chicken in the freezer for convenience)
2 tbsp shredded cheddar
Dash of pepper
A couple dashes of chopped thyme, ground rosemary or basil for a savory dish, or add a little cinnamon or nutmeg for a sweeter treat.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the milk and whisk together. Add in the mashed potatoes until a thick puree is created.
Mix in the chicken, pepper and herbs. Stir until heated through.
Remove from heat, and stir in the cheddar cheese until melted. Let the mixture cool to a comfortable temperature for baby.

And enjoy your baby’s expression go from this…(not so merry and bright…)

To…This!

Elements of Baby, Elements of Food

Chicken, Leeks and Apples…Delicious for Mom, Dad and Baby!

November 30, 2014 Ashley

Have I mentioned how much I love Real Simple? I do. I love the magazine, the cookbooks and the website. It’s my go to for simple, healthy meals. I honestly haven’t tried a recipe from it that I haven’t loved. The best part about their recipes is that they use very few ingredients and it’s always whole, healthy ingredients, so I can feel good about feeding them to my family. Marielle’s tastes (and appetite!) are growing, and evolving into loving the foods that my husband and I eat. Dark meat may not be the healthiest part of the chicken, but it’s incredibly tasty and reheats beautifully without getting dry. This recipe gives baby lots of new flavors (Rosemary and Leeks) along with familiar tastes (Chicken and Apples) Removing the chicken from the bone, adding the apples, leeks and some of the cooking liquid and either pureeing for younger babies, or mashing for older babies makes a delightful meal for your little one. And you!

Recipe courtesy of Real Simple (slightly adapted)

Ingredients

4 small apples (I used Honeycrisp and Haralson for both sweet and tart flavors)

2 leeks (white and light green parts), washed and chopped into 1/2 inch circles

6 small sprigs fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

4-6 chicken thighs

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. In a large roasting pan, toss the apples, leeks, rosemary, oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Season the chicken with ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and nestle, skin-side up, among the vegetables.
Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the apples and leeks are tender, 40 to 45 minutes.

Elements of Baby, Fix & Freeze

Beaba Babycook: Fall Butternut Squash, Yukon Gold Potato and Apple Stew

September 23, 2014 Ashley

Fall has arrived! I was so thrilled to find that winter squashes have started appearing at our grocery store.. Marielle has started “chewing” her food a little more, and seems more interested in things with a bit more texture. This recipe is great because you can puree one or more of the ingredients leaving the others a bit chunkier, and cater to your little ones preferences.

Ingredients

1 small organic butternut squash, washed, peeled and cubed ( I always wash things before peeling because then you’re not transferring any dirt or bacteria from the store when you cut into them)
6 small organic yukon gold potatoes, washed, peeled and cubed
2 large organic Honeycrisp apples, washed, peeled and cubed (I used Honeycrisp because I wanted to eat the leftovers :

Directions

Using your Beaba, steam the butternut squash and the potatoes until tender. You can steam these two veggies together because they both use level 3 water. However, I find that separating them allows me to better measure how much of each ingredient I put into the final dish. Reserve the cooking liquid from either the squash or the potatoes.
Instead of pureeing the squash and potatoes in the Beaba, I mashed them by hand using a fork so that I could give them a chunkier texture. I added the reserved cooking liquid to make a consistency that was easy to blend.
Steam the apples using water level 2 and blend into a smooth puree.
In a large bowl, mix the squash, potato and apple together. You can use any ratio you like, mine was heavier on the squash, then potato, and lighter on the apple as to not make it too sweet. The butternut squash is sweet enough on its own.

This medley can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Elements of Baby, Fix & Freeze

Béaba Babycook: Purée Parfait

August 21, 2014August 21, 2014 Ashley

Making Marielle’s baby food has become a lot more interesting in the past week. Now that she basically eats anything that’s put in front of her, we’re going from single ingredient purées to multiple ingredient purées. It’s always best to use foods your baby has already tried when mixing purées together. Marielle loves sweet potatoes and apples, and I wanted to make sure she learned to like proteins as well. I call this recipe, Baby’s Thanksgiving. Why? It’s a turkey, sweet potato and apple purée parfait. Why parfait? I don’t know, aesthetically it’s more appetizing to layer the ingredients and then freeze them than mix them together 🙂 This way, she can have varying amounts of each food with each bite. I mean, as appetizing as baby foods can possibly look, right?

Ingredients

1/2 pound of organic ground turkey, cooked on the stove with 1/4 cup of water and blended in a food processor until smooth. You may need to add additional water to get to the right consistency.
Organic Apple Purée
Organic Sweet Potato Purée

Bring all finished purées to room temperature and layer them in 4 ounce baby food containers. Freeze for up to 1 month*

*Fruit and veggie purées may be frozen up to 3 months, but meats should be eaten within 1 month.

Elements of Baby, Elements of Food, Fix & Freeze

Béaba Babycook: Baby’s First Chicken & Apples

August 4, 2014 Ashley

The time has come to introduce Marielle to her first protein. At 7 months old, she hasn’t rejected a single type of food that we’ve offered her, but I was definitely skeptical about steaming chicken and pureeing it…First of all, have you ever seen anything look so unappetizing? But, I have to say, it tasted great, just like chicken should. My concern was that the texture would freak her out a little, and it definitely did. She didn’t spit it out, because the flavor is good. But the texture is definitely strange for a baby. This is definitely one to have the camera ready for! The look was priceless. Unfortunately for babies, they don’t get to slather BBQ sauce on their chicken…so it’s a little dry and pasty when pureed.

To help her with the texture, I added her pureed apples into the chicken and mixed them together, and she LOVED it! You can try adding pureed sweet potato, apple, pear or whatever food is familiar to your baby to make the introduction to proteins a little more tolerable.

To make pureed chicken breast, fill your Babycook with Level 3 water. Cut one or two organic, boneless chicken breasts into 1/2 inch cubes and place in the steaming basket. Turn on the Babycook and let it cook away. Once it’s finished, puree the chicken with a little of the water until it forms the consistency your baby will tolerate. I think I added about 4 tablespoons of water total to create the puree, and then added her apples to the mixture just before serving.

As your babies tastes develop, try adding in some fresh herbs such as basil or parsley for a savory treat!

Elements of Baby, Fix & Freeze

Béaba Babycook: D’Anjou Pears & Zucchini

July 30, 2014 Ashley

At 6.5 months, Marielle has started enjoying all sorts of foods, which makes cooking for her a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure she’s a little mini foodie, and loves all types of cuisine, just like her daddy! Our pediatrician said at this point, Marielle can try anything she wants (pureed or chopped fine of course) with the exception of honey, due to botulism. I’ve introduced her to several flavors of yogurt, green veggie puffs, spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg, bananas, sweet potatoes, green peas, and now we’ve added pears and zucchini to the list! I was a little worried she wouldn’t like the zucchini because unlike sweet potatoes and green peas, there isn’t even a hint of sweetness. I steamed and pureed a couple of organic zucchini for her to try and much to my surprise, she LOVED them! A huge smile came across her face as she tasted the bright green squash for the first time. I have no doubts that she wouldn’t love pears…I used organic D’Anjou pears for her puree. As always, I try all her foods before I give them to her and the pears were definitely a winner. I love how easy it is for me to create nutritious, homemade food using the Beaba Babycook! In another week or so, we can introduce her to a couple of meats, such as chicken and turkey. This will be a whole new flavor profile and texture for her, so we will see how it goes! If for some reason baby doesn’t enjoy green veggies, try mixing in a little pear or apple puree to begin with, and gradually eliminate the sweetness until they are eating the veggie on its own.

When buying produce to create purees, keep this in mind. To make a 2 ounce container of babyfood, it takes 1 small apple or 1 small pear, for example. My containers are all 2 ounces so it’s easy to determine how much produce I need to buy to make a full batch. Fruits are generally cooked with Level 2 water in the Beaba and veggies are usually Level 3.

Elements of Baby, Elements of Food, Fix & Freeze

Béaba Babycook: Baby’s First Applesauce

July 17, 2014July 18, 2014 Ashley

The time has come to introduce Marielle to her first fruits. Besides yogurt, she has only had veggies and cereals. I wanted her to get used to the not so sweet foods before introducing the fruits, which I am sure she will absolutely love. There were a few options for her first fruit. I wanted to do pears, but I couldn’t find good organic pears, so I decided to try apples first. It’s important to choose an apple that has low acidity and is naturally sweet. This will make it easy to digest and yummy in their little tummy! This is truly a treat…I think I ate about 1/3 of the recipe myself…What? It’s important to try it before feeding it to baby! 🙂 I used 6 organic Gala apples, peeled, cored and chopped into cubes. Using water level 2 in my Beaba, I steamed the apples until the Beaba was finished (about 15 minutes) I poured the cooking water into a measuring cup and placed the steamed apples back into the Beaba. I pureed just the apples first to see what the consistency would be. While it was very smooth, I wanted to thin it out just a bit. I added about 1/4 cup of cooking water to the puree and processed until velvety smooth. I have a feeling she’s going to love this one. Clearly, I did!