Baked squash

Isn't Fall just the best?  I love the crisp weather and yummy comfort foods.  Last week our CSA provided winter squash.  Now add this to the list of things I don't enjoy eating (I recall many a dinner ending with me sitting there, 2 bites of squash on my play, and me refusing to even choke that tiny bit down much to my mom's chagrine). But I was thrilled to see this in our box because squash is good for little ones, and Miss T loves sweet potatoes so I figured she would like this too.  The farmer provided tips for preparing the squash thank goodness!  It was so smooth!  

Directions:

Wash squash thoroughly

Using a sharp knife, cut squash in half length wise

Place cut side down in a glass baking dish in about 1/2"-1" of water.  Cover.

Bake at 400F for 45-60 minutes.  You can tell its done when the shell of the squash is soft.  

Remove the cover and continue baking for 10-15 minutes to caramelize 

Let cool, then either slice or scoop the meat out of the shell.

T ended up not liking the butternut squash we had last week.  It smelled delicious and I was half tempted to eat it myself!  My 7 year old inner child held me back though. A co worker told me to stir it into soups to thicken the broth and add nutrients.  I've got it in my crock pot chicken tortilla soup right now (don't tell my hubby), which also used some of my freezer peppers.  I will let you know how it turns out!  

Freezer Peppers

I love having fresh veggies in the freezer for those long, Minnesota winter months.  There's nothing like a hot bowl of homemade chicken tortilla soup made with fresh veggies that I froze over the winter.  Our CSA gave us a ton of peppers the past couple of weeks, plus some delicious onions.  My original plan was to make salsa using a freezer salsa recipe (wouldn't you love it?  Maybe I'll do a future post....or you can buy my mom's new book with all kinds of freezer recipes!) but somewhere in between ear infections 8 & 9 for my sweet little Miss T and working, plus building a house, I just didn't have the energy. 

 

Instead I cut the tops off the peppers, de-seeded, washed, and cut into 1" squares.  The best method for cutting peppers with minimal seed-spillage is to hold your knife vertically with the point down, and cut around the broad part of the top of the pepper like you were cutting the top of a pumpkin off.  Then I just do a little trimming to ensure all seeds are removed.  The final rinse will get any pesky strays.  I tossed these into my chopper from Tupperware, along with some onion wedges.  Once everything was diced, I spooned 1/2C portions into snack sized ziplock bags and tossed the whole collection into one gallon sized freezer bag.  Can't wait to pull those out this winter!

Pinterest

We're on Pinterest!  Bear with me as I figure out all the techie stuff, but feel free to use the fancy pins on my posts or to check out Habits to Get Healthy (or possibly habits2gthlthy) on Pinterest.  If you've got great recipes or health tips you'd like me to follow or add to my boards, send them my way!

And if you have any advice on how to enhance my blog, I welcome your expertise!

Turkey + Spinach Meatballs

Turkey meatballs are Miss T's favorite food.  It's one of my favorites for her as well, because it has a great balance of protein, whole grains, and veggies.  On top of the nutritional benefit, they're pretty simple to make and SUPER easy to pull out of the freezer for a quick dinner or to send to daycare.  I had to make a new batch because the stock was running low, and I decided to see what purees I had leftover that she wouldn't eat anymore.  Right before she decided she didn't want purees, I'd made a big batch of cauliflower and another of spinach.  So to make this quick, I thawed both batches in the microwave, then tossed each one in a separate bowl.  Similar to the last time I made meatballs, I split the pound of ground turkey between the bowls and added a packet of steamed brown rice.  This time I tossed the rice in whole, without creaming it.  It seemed to work well, and I don't think she needed it creamed anyways.  Plus that was one less step (plus one less thing to clean!). 

She really likes the cauliflower + turkey meatballs, but took a little longer to warm up to the spinach ones.  I'm not sure if it was the color or what, because she liked creamed spinach.  But eventually she decided they were fine once I actually got a bite past her compressed lips.  :)

Notes:  This time I baked the batches for about 22 minutes, at 350F.  One thing I'd do differently next time is either using the freezer bag or freezing them flat on a cookie sheet.  Instead I stuck all 60 or so meatballs in a large Ziplock container before putting them in the freezer.  This resulted in one giant mass of frozen meatball.  Each time she wants some, I have to hack them apart.  Not super fun.

 

 

Zucchini Tots

My CSA partner gave me a recipe for Zucchini Tots to help us use up the abundance of zucchini in our weekly box.  I tweaked it based on my dairy restrictions and the tools I had on hand.  It kind of was a disaster, to be honest.  We're in temporary housing while our new house is constructed, and of course I realized that nearly everything needed for the recipe was packed away, somewhere in our POD or in the bowels of our closets.  And this was discovered mid-recipe construction.  Just my luck!  After a quick run to the nearby grocery store to grab muffin foils, I managed to make it work.  The taste was fine, but I'll definitely do some things differently next time.

Link to the original recipe

Ingredients:
1 egg (I used the Simply Basic organic brown eggs from Target)
1/2 C Panko
1 large zucchini
1/4 C diced onion
salt, pepper, or other seasoning to taste

The original idea is to grate the zucchini with a cheese grater, then strain the water out using a paper towel.  I'm sure this is the preferred method.  Well, I couldn't find my cheese grater, even after making my hubby pull apart one of our storage closets to get to the "kitchen" box at the very bottom.  Talk about frustrating!  I ended up dual-purposing the Baby Bullet and pureeing the zucchini.  Doing this meant I couldn't strain the extra water out.  Hence the double-dose of Panko!  I mixed all the ingredients together, then stuck them in the fridge for an hour since I was prepping them for dinner ahead of schedule.  This also helped solidify the mix too. 

The initial directions were to bake these in mini muffin tins, so the muffins came out more like tater tots.  I knew my mini muffin tins were in the POD, but thought I had left one of the big tins out.  Nope.  Failure #3 was when I discovered even my liners were packed away, probably never to be seen again.  This is what made me break down and go to the store.  Byerlys only had large liners, and since they were the sturdier foil ones, I ended up winging it and baking them without the tins.  It worked pretty well! 

Bake these for about 20 minutes at 375F, until the outsides are brown.  They tasted fine, but weren't really crispy like you'd expect for something that's supposed to be tater-tot'ish.  But they were nice and savory, and would be a good side dish.  Plus they're fairly healthy, a pretty green color, and a great way to use up that zucchini!

 

Purple Potatoes

Did anyone know there is such a thing as a purple potato?  Not this non-potato eater!  We received the little red potatoes in our CSA last week.  Well, while peeling the spuds, I was shocked to see the skin give way to vibrant purple veggies!  It was actually kind of exciting because vibrant colored fruits and veggies have more nutrients, and I'd been hesitant to give T potatoes because there isn't a ton of nutritional value to them.  Plus the purple color was really pretty (the photos don't do this veggie justice).  Since this was my first time making "real" potatoes (aka not sweet potatoes) I decided to try three different methods at the same time.  Normally as I make baby food I attempt a new method each time, determining which is best.  But this time I wanted to try multiple methods since I had plenty of potatoes. 

Ingredients/Tools:
Potatoes - I had about a dozen small potatoes
peeler
knife
tin foil
parchment paper

Note: all methods used the oven, at 400F, for about 25-30 min.

Method One: Foil wrapped potato sticks (with parchment paper)
This was the most time consuming method up-front.  I peeled the individual potatoes, then sliced and diced into thin sticks.  These potatoes are hard to peel because they're so small.  At one point I did end up slicing my finger.  I'd love to hear if people have better ways to peel small potatoes!

My mom read recently that the metal in foil can infuse harmful toxins in your food, so she recommended using parchment paper to line the foil.  I cut a sheet of aluminum foil, then made a matching sheet of parchment paper.  One these were prepared I laid the sticks in even lines on the paper.  Of course as soon as I started rolling the foil the lines disappeared in to a clump of potato sticks, but oh well.  I always add a little water (maybe 1 T worth) before sealing the foil. 

Once the potatoes were cooked I removed them from the oven and diced the sticks.  I didn't have to bake these as long, they were done probably within 20 minutes.  The downside to parchment paper is that the paper ended up sticking to the potato, pretty badly.  I had to cut a lot of potato away to get all the paper off.  Don't think I'll use it again when steaming something like that, especially something as starch-filled as potatoes.

Method Two: Foil wrapped skinned potatoes (whole)
One again, I peeled the potatoes then punctured them all over with a fork.  One they were prepared, I wrapped them in a foil pack with about 1 T of water.  No parchment paper this go-round.  After baking, approximately 25 minutes, I removed and sliced/diced.  Pretty simple!

aren't these just gorgeous? Reminds me of agates!

Method Three: Foil wrapped skin-on potatoes
This was the easiest method by far.  After washing the potatoes (it's always important to wash your veggies before cooking) I punctured them thoroughly then tossed them in the foil pack with 1 T of water.  These took longer to bake, at least 30 min.  After cooking them though, I sliced them in quarters and spent longer than I'd like scraping the skin off.  One of the downsides of this type of potato is the paper-thin, delicate skin.  I can understand why most red mashed potatoes have skin in them still! 

 

yes, we actually did have some red potatoes in our box too.

 

 



Miss T loved the potatoes, and they're really easy to heat up.  They're very easy for her to pick up and feed herself, which is the new thing.  She refuses to eat purees anymore, so I've got quite a bit in the freezer that I'm not sure how we're going to use.  She loves to give us a good challenge!  Don't tell my hubby that I may start working them into our pasta sauces etc. :) 

Allergies, sickness, and the sad effects

About two weeks ago I came down with a really bad cold, and then my allergies attacked.  Between the two my asthma was worse than ever, to the point my hubby nearly rushed me to the hospital twice last week in the middle of the night.  Neither of us got much sleep that week from all my gasping and coughing.  There aren't many medical options when nursing, because the meds dry up ALL your glands, not just your sinuses.  Anyways, I finally broke down Thursday and went to the doctor.  I was promised that the medication prescribed would help, and while I would have to "pump and dump" for a week it wouldn't impact my production.  My goal has always to make it a year and that's a battle that I've fought hard for.  Well, I'm on day 3 of the meds and my production and dropped.  Significantly.  As in I feel like I may not be able to nurse after this.  It nearly brings me to tears but health wise I cannot stop the meds and logistically I have enough milk stocked in freezers across the Twin Cities and Iowa to meet my year goal.  We will see how it goes, but this is devastating.  Oh, how I have wished and prayed for a better immune system and bronchial system for years.  At least I made it nearly 10 months.  

It's also been interesting over the past days getting into our new groove.  We are washing a.lot.of.bottles every day.  How do people stand using formula???  Plus we have to plan ahead to have milk thawed, then rush down to heat water and milk when she starts stirring with hunger.  Today we were visiting friends and she got hungry, and there was nothing we could do but load up and go home.  It hadn't occurred to me to pack a bottle, and I couldn't nurse.  We failed as parents.  From all aspects, nursing is the best way to go if you're able, in my opinion.  Plus it's free!!! (If you don't count the $300 pump, or the bags, or the pump parts;)).  On a positive note Mark is able to help with feedings now too.