Mangos

T loves fruit, the sweeter the better.  She's a girl after my own heart (or stomach in this instance).  I've been trying to introduce more veggies than fruits, since those aren't as popular and I want her to have balanced tastes.  But she hasn't had any new fruits lately, and sometimes it's handy to mix veggies with the fruits.  Plus, mangos were on sale last week so that's what we're trying! 

Mangos are somewhat tricky to cut and peel.  The trick that works for me is to use this fantastic Pampered Chef tool called the hold 'n slice that my mother-in-law gave me several years ago.  I cut the mango in half (around the seed pod) then jam the tool into that side so it doesn't slide around while I cut the other side.  Then I'll cut the flesh away from the skin, and dice the fruit.  It was pretty slick!  For this batch, I used 5 mangos and my small sauce pan, plus about 1/2C water.  The fruit simmered on med-low heat for around 10 minutes, until soft.  My cook book said you can either lightly steam or puree raw for 6-8 month olds, but I went ahead and fully cooked the fruit for the first time. The mangos selected were more on the raw side, so they needed softening before she could eat them.  Since their so soft now, I shouldn't need to add any liquid when pureeing. 

T l.o.v.e.d mangos!  She wasn't sure of the texture for the first few bites, but quickly decided the taste was delicious.  We've been working with her, trying to teach her the sign for "more".  Once she finished her mangos today and realized the cup was empty, she immediately started signing "more" for the first time!  We were so proud, then had to quickly unfreeze more mangos to reward her for signing correctly. 

Stock Up + Chicken Introduction

We've had a hectic few weeks, and my stock pile of freezer food has dwindled to low levels.  Today after getting back from Grandpa's funeral, I started peeling, dicing, steaming, cooking, and baking to build up the food store for the next few weeks.  Since T has been really struggling with ear infections, teething, and now a really nasty case of diaper rash, I limited the new items to one: Mangos.  One the docket for today: crock pot carrots, mangos, baked sweet potatoes (a new method for me!), and peas.  I managed to get everything cooked, then stuck it away in the fridge to puree tomorrow.  My plan was to do it all today, or at least a portion, but T started having a really tough time and needed some cuddles so that too priority. 

Also, we started meat tonight!  (I know, I just mentioned how I wasn't going to start anything new due to all the misery from the past few weeks).  I pulled out my handy-dandy recipe book and realized that they had less-pureed food listed to begin between months 6-8, including meat.  Well, T is nearly 8 months old so of course I had a mini-panic attack thinking she was behind.  Then I remembered the pediatrician suggested meat around month 9.  Anyways, I was planning to grill some chicken tonight for dinner, and cut off a piece for her before marinating ours.  The hubby grilled it up and I stuck it in the baby bullet, then mixed it in with some of her previously-frozen green beans.  Notes for meat: use the smaller container for the baby bullet, use some liquid otherwise it practically vaporizes, and be prepared for an interesting reaction from the baby.  She liked the flavor, I believe, but wasn't sure how to eat it because the texture was different and had larger chunks.  Overall it seemed to go well though!  Anyways, I had major guilt after giving her something new and thinking that I was going to add to her issues, so we're going to hold off on meat again until at least the diaper rash clears up.

One of my concerns with her ear infection is dairy.  I'd slowly started working tiny bits into my diet to see if she could handle me eating ice cream at the cabin.  They were minute bits (we're talking potato chips with some seasoning that had dairy), but it's still dairy.  Well, looking back, her first ear infection started about the same time I started eating some dairy again.  Then this weekend, half way into her 2nd round of antibiotics, I had cheese bread after grandpa's visitation.  We also had zero non-dairy options after the funeral, so I had dairy there too.  These were huge leaps straight into dairy.  Well, suddenly last night she was fussing again and grabbing her ears, despite being partially through her meds.  Research showed that dairy can cause ear infections in kids with dairy allergies or sensitivities.  So now I have major guilt (again).  It's basically the story of my life.  Being a mom is so challenging!!!  I'm not ready to give up nursing yet, but it's episodes like this that make me question my sanity. 

Crock Pot Carrots

So, as I mentioned in my post about peachy pears, I'm continuously looking for ways to gain efficiencies (can you tell I work with logistics?) when making baby food.  It hit me that during the winter I let our crock pot run all day long, making soups for dinner.  Why not cook baby food overnight, let it cool during the day, and blend it in the evening?  Genius! 

While watching one of my DVR'd episodes of the Voice (I am SOOO behind since I never have a moment to sit anymore), I washed, peeled, and chopped organic carrots.  It actually was a very enjoyable evening task.  The nice thing about this was that I didn't have to dime the carrots.  I chopped each carrot into about 5 or 6 sections, then tossed it in the crock pot.  I added about 1C of water, then set it on low and let them cook overnight.  The next morning I turned it off to cool slightly while I got ready for work, then stuck it in the fridge.  Later that evening I pureed the carrots and froze in ice cube trays for the upcoming weeks.  Very simple and time effective!

Cauliflower Clouds

Cauliflower is another of those things I've never eaten or prepared, and had to kind of stumble through.  My dad was actually here when I was making it, and he made the comment, "oh, gross" when he saw what I was making.  Funny how that attitude gets passed on to your kids!  That is the #1 reason I'm trying so hard to get unique and variety of foods into her. 

Luckily a friend who made her child's food gave me some pointers.  Or rather, she said to just steam it!  I cut the organice cauliflower like I would broccoli, then tossed it in a big sauce pan with some water and my veggie steamer insert, and covered with a lid.  I cooked on medium for about 15 minutes, until the cauliflower was soft and kind of translucent.  After it was steamed, I set it aside in a bowl to cool while making the next batch (and since T was napping and I didn't want the BB to wake her).  When it was cool (and miss T was awake) I pureed half of each batch with about 1/2-3/4C water and froze in ice cube trays.  The single large head of cauliflower filled 3 ice cube trays!

Tips: When buying veggies, check to see who sells by the pound vs. per unit.  I've found in some cases (this being one of them, and sweet potatoes as another example) that it's actually cheaper to purchase by the unit.  You can find HUGE items and pay less per pound.  This cauliflower head was gigantic compared to the others.  It cost me $0.30/serving since T is eating about 3oz at each meal.  Much more economical than paying $1.50 per organic food pouch!

Crock Pot Peachy Pears

Since pears went over so well, and T seemed to like the Motts natural Peach medly apple sauce that she got at Grandma's last week, I decided to attempt to cook peaches and pears in the crock pot.  Since we are super busy, yet it's important to us to make her food, I'm trying to find ways to be more efficient.  I've got a great tip that I learned while making carrots and will share soon (bet you can't wait to read about that one!).

Now, one of the challenges with making T's food is that I haven't actually ever eaten or prepared a lot of the things we're having her try.  Peaches fall under that category.  I knew they had a pit in them, and that stone fruits are in season.  But I don't have a clue on how to pick out the ripe ones, how to cut them, or how to efficiently skin them.  These are the things I stumbled through while preparing, but if you know of better ways, I encourage you to follow your own instincts! 

I started with 6 pears and 6 peaches.  Pears are ripe when the place where the neck connects with the bulb is soft.  Peaches....well....I just squished a bunch until I found soft ones.  The peaches I selected were pretty soft, but that's fine for baby food.  When cutting up pears, I create 4 sections, then cut out the core, then use my knife to peel back the skin.  Peaches were pretty easy, especially the soft ones.  I cut it in 4 (around the pit) then used the knife to start peeling back the skin.  In about half the cases I was able to just use my fingers to peel the skin off.  Otherwise I kind of hacked away with the knife to get the rest of the skin off. 

I tossed everything into my crock pot on high for about 3 hours, then set it in the fridge to cool overnight.  The next day after work I pureed it all in my handy-dandy Baby Bullet and froze it into cubes.  I didn't need to add any additional liquid other than what was in the crock-pot.  The consistency was pretty thin. 

Notes:  The mixture is pretty runny, so I add about 1T of baby oatmeal before heating.  You may need to add more to thicken it up. 

Pinterest

Hi Everyone!!  So, to be honest, I'm not very tech savvy.  I try really hard to learn, but tend to give up quickly.  Today though I'm really proud to say I figured out how to add a Pinterest "pin" button to my blog posts!  So if you see something you like, and are on Pinterest, feel free to pin it!  Now I'm still working to figure out how to  make it prettier, but I'm getting started!

Veggified Tacos

One of our favorite summer meals are chicken tacos on the grill.  I have blogged about this in the past.  It is so easy to marinade the chicken during the day and toss it on the grill pan at night.  I am on a renewed focus to eat healthy, after several weeks of stress eating puppy chow and other junky food.  [I may have mentioned to a co-worker today that whoever invented puppy chow deserved a Nobel Peach prize].  This time when I prepped the tacos, I decided to add some veggies to make them healthier and try to distract myself from the missing cheese.  This week when I was at the grocery store I bought a bag of the mini-sweet peppers.  I chopped those up, added some white onion, and tossed them in a little bit of olive oil with a grilling seasoning.  Mark tossed those on the grill pan with the chicken (separated to prevent salmonella, of course).  I topped my taco meat with the veggies, then sliced some avocado on top.  We also used the Market Pantry whole wheat taco shells too, instead of our normal white flour ones.  Delicious and crunchy!