Baby Noms: UPDATE

baby food
I have a confession to make:  I'm an impulse buyer.  I have an impulsive personality and I have a tendency to make impulsive purchases.  

 My one redeeming quality is my thirst for knowledge.  So I do USUALLY research things to the bone before buying them.  As I did when I was looking for a baby food cookbook when Jane and Emma reached solid foods age.  

 Looking back, I now realize that as much as I love Annabel Karmel, in retrospect I probably could have gotten recipes by simply Googling them.  For free. 

 How did I figure this out, you ask?  

 Well, at our last check up, the doctor told me that it was time to start giving Jane and Emma "table foods".  She did not really elaborate on what that meant, but I pictured in my head handing them a chicken leg from my plate as I would the family dog.  But that couldn't be right, I figured, because the doctor followed her advice with "But no salt or sugar or honey."  Hmph.  That's what I cook ALL "table foods" with.

 I promptly went home and Googled.  

The following is my list of favorite go-to Google-found baby food recipe sites.  I use them for IDEAS, and then I do my own thang.  

 Homemade Baby Food Recipes.  A compilation of recipes from firsts to fulls. 

 Momtastic's Wholesome Homemade Baby Food.  I love this site because it gives you nutritional facts along with awesome, easy recipes.  

 Baby Food Recipes by Annabel Karmel.  No kidding.

 Weelicious.  First, I love the name.  Second, you can search by ingredient and then narrow by meal, cook time, etc.  It's so quick and easy!

 Pinterest Baby Food Recipes Board.  When all else fails, consult Pinterest. 

 Currently, Jane and Emma's favorite "table foods" are grilled cheese, pasta primavera, French toast, and chicken and rice.  They seem to have some sort of milk and egg sensitivity, so I tweak recipes as much as possible, attempting to maintain the integrity of the food that I'm cooking for them.  I also use whole wheat everything I can, and although everything I have read has said to give them brown rice, I give them limited amounts of white basmati rice and haven't had any issues. 

Today the girls had a chicken and bread sauce recipe from the Homemade Baby Foods website over white rice that I made with sodium free chicken broth instead of water.  I also steamed some peas and added them to their bowl.  As you can see, they were happy customers.

Hope this helps in your quest to feed your littluns just right!

Have a great weekend!  xoxo

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Awesome Sauce

baby food
Holy snowfall, Santa! We got dumped on here in NJ on Saturday. And not the good get-a-free-day-off-from-school-and-play-in-the-snow kind of dumped on. The ruin-your-holiday-shopping-for-the-day kind of dumped on. And here in Bergen County, we suffer from the dreaded Blue Laws, meaning retail stores are closed on Sundays. Thanks for ruining it, Mother Nature. 

At least we still got in some godparent time!  They must be SO happy to come home from their honeymoon in Hawaii to this mess. 

I've been talking a lot about making Jane and Emma's baby food from scratch over the past couple of months, so I figured it was time to put the puréed apple where my mouth is. The one good thing about being snowed in on the weekend is that I got to make ALL of the girls' breakfasts AND dinners for at least a week. Awwwwesooomee! 

I'm not going to lie to you. In order for it to be worthwhile, you must make at least a week's worth of food in advance, and that takes a lot of time. At least an hour and a half (including clean up and if your kids leave you alone). Having 7 month old twins, the being left alone is the hard part. 

But I love being in the kitchen and who can be cranky with a sous chef as cute as this?! 

To start, I bought this book all about weaning your baby onto solids, and it comes with a lot of quick and easy recipes. And so far the girls have loved everything. 


The most important tools that I use the most are my rice cooker, my food processor, my Magic Bullet (which was bought as a gift for me by my husband for Xmas 3 years ago so that I could make individual margaritas, go figure I now use it for baby food making), these OXO food storage containers, and a vegetable peeler.  I also use a wok with a bamboo steaming insert, which works GREAT for steaming multiple veggies at a time.









I try to remember to clean as I go, because a.) my husband has made fun of me for YEARS because of what a messy cook I am, and b.) it is a bear of a job to try to clean up when space is limited. We still live in an apartment, and our kitchen is FAR from ideal, so everything gets in my way. 


Below are Jane and Emma's favorite recipes so far. We are moving on to the second stage of weaning, which means socializing the girls (aka family dinners!). Yesterday morning Jane and Emma sat at the table and had their apple sauce while Mama and Daddy had their breakfast. The looks on their little faces when they first realized that they were sitting at the big girl table and eating at the same time as us was PRICELESS!!!!!
Apple and Pear with Cinnamon

 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 medium pears, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened apple juice or water
Generous pinch of ground cinnamon (optional, but DO IT!)

 Put the fruit into a saucepan together with the apple juice or water (I use filtered H2O) and cinnamon (if using, which YOU ARE), cover, cook over low heat for 6 minutes (or until the kids start screaming).  Blend the fruit to a smooth puree (I use the Magic Bullet for this).

 Start this recipe at 6 months.  Makes 4 portions.  Suitable for freezing.
Potato, Carrot, and Corn

 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 medium potatoes (8 ounces), peeled and chopped
1 cup water
1/3 cup canned or frozen corn kernels
1 to 2 tablespoons of your baby's milk/formula

 Melt the butter in a pan and saute the onion for 1 minute.  Add the carrots and saute for 5 minutes.  Add the potatoes, cover with the water, and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.  Add the corn and continue to cook for 5 minutes.  Puree through a food mill and stir in the milk to make the right consistency for your baby.

 Start this recipe at 6-7 months.  Makes 3 portions.  Suitable for freezing.

 I have to say, Jane and Emma were PRETTY patient while I busted my ass in the kitchen all morning.  They are getting quite independent! *tear*

                                    

I hope that your weekend did not get snowed out and that you were able to enjoy the holiday season which is now in full swing! We finally got our tree up AND Hershey hung our icicle lights. It's finally beginning to look a lot like Xmas around here! 

 Have a great week!  xoxo

 P.S.  Janey says, "PLEASE VOTE FOR US!"




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