My husband is reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver right now, and I find this funny for several reasons. First, the reason that the book is even here in our house is because I borrowed it from a friend to read myself, but I was finishing up something else and decided to share when E asked if he could read it. Second, he is plowing through the book (despite falling asleep after a few minutes every time he starts to read in bed) and he is a self-proclaimed slow-reader. Third (and I recognize how lame this is), it strikes me a book for women. I know it’s not, but I’m a huge Kingsolver fan and her books (at least her fiction) tend to focus on female characters, issues that women deal with, to showcase the insights of women, etc.
All that aside, he loves the book and it has definitely gotten him thinking about food. He said to me the other night that he is a little bit grossed out by how little we think about food. We do research about what kind of TV to buy, about our next car, about what to do on the weekend, but we (the collective “we,” not just my husband and me) often put food in our bodies without scrutinizing it. This is true, although in the last four years or so, I would say that I (and my husband) have gotten to be much more thoughtful about food. We’ve been able to start our own food-producing garden, we live close to a grocery store that tells us where our produce, meat, and dairy products come from (like which farm in which city, etc), and because I have more time to do the grocery shopping, I can read labels, compare prices, and seek out healthier, more local options.
All of this means very little to my 3 1/2-year-old who is as picky as picky can be. The boy won’t even eat grilled cheese! Grilled cheese! But at least I know that the food that he will eat has been chosen carefully and is not contaminating his body with excess sugar or chemicals. We keep the pantry stocked with healthy snack options (whole grain pretzels, dried fruit, nuts) so when he decides he’s hungry, he has only good things to choose from.
The little girl, on the other hand, is young enough that she will eat just about anything that is put in front of her. What this means to me is that I can load her with healthy, nutritious super-foods every chance I get. I know she’ll get more picky. I know that she will become skeptical about green food, but for now, I can put kale in just about anything and down it goes!!
Here are some of the foods I make (or made) most frequently for Lou over the course of the last 6 months (since she started eating solids). One quick note, her first food was not rice cereal.
My little girl, enjoying her first taste of solid foods (sweet potatoes)
I do use that powdery cereal (the Happy Babies brand) to thicken her food if it is too soupy, but this time around I opted to feed her fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as her first foods. So, let’s start there!
A couple quick tips: 1. Cover your ice cube trays with foil before freezing. 2. A food mill is great for certain types of foods (prunes, apples), but you can make most foods with a food processor. 3. Wash and re-use your freezer bags if possible!
Sweet potatoes: I roast these, in their skins, in foil. When they are nice and soft, I take them out, peel them (the skins slide right off) and either
a) throw them in the Cuisinart, adding water to get them nice and smooth, pour them into ice cube trays and freeze, then pop the cubes into a freezer bag, or
b) slice them, lay them out on a cookie sheet, and freeze them. Then I throw them in a freezer bag and pull out slices as needed (this method works great for babies who like to pick up their own food).
Carrots: I peel and slice these, then steam them until they are VERY soft. You could also boil or roast them.
Carrot baby food! Some stays in jars for immediate use; the rest gets frozen.
After the carrots are cooked, I treat them the same as the sweet potatoes (see above) either pureeing and freezing in ice cube trays or slicing and freezing.
Grains: In the past, I have tried to grind my own raw grains into cereal–I bought a second coffee grinder for this purpose. But the powdery grain (rice, oats, etc.) is temperamental when you try to cook it. I recommend cooking your grains and then using a food mill, blender, or food processor to get them to the desired consistency. Then you can add other purees for flavor. Another great flavor-adding tip for grains is to dip a toothpick in vanilla and then swirl the toothpick in the cereal–adds a little extra flavor to help develop baby’s palate. I add cinnamon to just about anything, too. It’s baby-friendly! I have not really tried freezing cooked cereals, but I think Ruth Yaron (of Super Baby Foods) would say that it is possible.
One thing that we discovered recently in our house that has worked well for baby is slow-cooker porridge! We tried this last weekend for the first time and enjoyed it very much ourselves (my husband and I, that is), but realized that the slow-cooking gets all of the ingredients so nice and soft that baby can easily eat it too. You can use just about any grain, combine it with nice thick oats (if you like), water, cinnamon, and raisins (if you like), close it up and turn the slow-cooker on low, leave it overnight and wake up to hearty, warm porridge. If you plan on serving it to baby, you want to be thoughtful about what nuts you include (esp. if you have allergy risks), but the nuts end up so soft that they don’t need to be chewed. We thinned the porridge with milk (whole, organic milk for baby) and agave syrup (for sweetener). The leftovers when into tupperware in the fridge and only needed a quick warming-up in the microwave and some milk and syrup to taste good as new. I milled a portion of it for Elouise after she spit out a few of the thicker chunks and she was happy to eat the whole thing up. I put the recipe for the porridge at the bottom of the post–you can fiddle with the grain choice, the cook-time, and the timing of when you add the dried fruit and nuts.
Squash: I cut my squash in half and then lay them, flesh-side down, on a rimmed baking sheet with just a bit of water in the bottom. Then I roast them until soft. I scoop out the flesh, puree, and put into ice cube trays.
Apples and pears: I core and slice my apples/pears, but I don’t skin them. I throw the fruit into a big pot, cover with water, and cook, simmering until the fruit is very soft. I then use a food mill to turn them into applesauce/pear sauce. No need to remove the skins because the food mill does it for you! Use the water from the pot to thin the sauce to the desired consistency.
Mangoes: I buy frozen mango chunks from Trader Joe’s when I want to make mango baby food. I find them too difficult to peel/de-seed, with too much fruit sacrificed! I thaw out a bag of mango and then pour the whole thing into a big pot, cover with water, and cook, simmering until very soft. Then I puree and freeze! Mango has LOT of flavor so it might be a 4th or 5th food.
Prunes or dried apricots: I highly recommend using a food mill for prunes/apricots.
Prune and mango baby food.
Cook them just like the mangoes, apples or pears, simmering a little longer to ensure that they are very soft. If you choose to puree the soft fruit, you will want to run them through a strainer to remove the skins (still there and still stiffer than the fruit). Using a food mill is much quicker because the fruit is quite thick and hard to push through a strainer. Also, prunes do this funny thing in the ice cube trays: they don’t like to come out! Not sure how to solve this problem. *Update: I made prunes again and this time spooned glops of prune puree onto a Silpat and put it in the freezer for several hours. Then I scraped them off and into a freezer bag. MUCH easier than digging them out of an ice cube tray.
Greens: Here’s how I prepare greens to add them to other foods–I put them in “cakes” (see below) or mix them with other veggies. Chop the greens VERY finely–minced, I guess you would say. (Alternately, you could cook them first and them chop them finely). Put a very small amount of oil or butter in a pan and let it heat. Add the greens and saute for a minute or two. Add a small amount of water (amount depends on toughness of greens–spinach needs very little, kale or collards need more), stir, and cover for 5-10 minutes. You want your greens to be nice and GREEN still, but very, very soft. If they start to turn grey, you’ve cooked them too long. Avoid adding salt or another other flavoring (though a little tamari wouldn’t hurt). Keep in fridge in tupperware if you don’t want to use them right away–they’ll keep fine for a few days.
Pancakes: When baby gets ready for more finger food, you can try these. I cheat and buy a nice Multi-Grain pancake mix from Trader Joe’s. I prepare a 1/2 batch of the batter as directed on the box and then I go a little crazy adding things. I don’t have a formula for the proportions, but I do pay attention to the consistency of the batter. If I add something wet (applesauce), I try to balance it with something dry (ground seeds). Here are things I add or would add: finely ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds (I use a coffee grinder and the seeds end up a powder), applesauce, smushed banana, sweet potato, cooked greens (see above), maple syrup (just a little to balance out the flavor of the seeds, which can be strong), cinnamon.
I cook the pancakes in the traditional way, but I make them small, about 3 inches across. I put them in a freezer bag and freeze them, then pull out one at a time, microwave for 20 seconds to thaw, and cut into tiny pieces for finger food.
Whatever you are eating: Take a portion of whatever the rest of the family is eating and use the Kid Co food mill to mill a portion of it. This is a great way to introduce baby to a range of flavors and spices, to meats, and to otherwise tough or unwieldy foods (like greens). We do this frequently (to mixed reviews from baby). It works best with soups–we milled a bean, kale, vegetable soup the other night that she loved. But I’ll try it with anything! Last night, I milled sweet potatoes, tofu (we had stir-fry), brown rice, and cooked golden beets. She did not like it after a few bites, but those were healthy bites!!
Other resources:
OXO Food Mill–Very handy for a lot of things, but GREAT for baby food. A little pricey, but WAY cheaper than many of the mills that are out there.
KidCo Food Mill–we have the travel one, which we (so far) have NOT traveled with, but we use this to mill small portions for baby of soups, stews that we are eating.
Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair–a great cookbook that gives baby-friendly adaptations/options for each recipe
Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron–I don’t love this book as a cookbook (the recipes are just for kids, not the whole family and I do NOT make separate meals) or really as a guide for how to feed baby (feels too much like a rule-book), but I use it to give me ideas when I need one and/or to think adding healthy foods that I may have forgotten or not thought of.
Slow-Cooker Porridge recipe (c/o The Oregonian, Feb. 22, 2011)
Hulled barley and wheat grains — available in the grain/baking aisle or bulk bins at stores — give a bit of chewy texture to this steel-cut oat porridge. If desired you can substitute oatmeal for all or part of the wheat/barley mixture, or any comparable whole grain, from spelt to farro to kamut. Use less water if you like thicker porridge.
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel-cut oatmeal, uncooked
- 1/2 cup whole hulled barley
- 1/2 cup wheat berries
- 1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans or other nuts
- 1/2 cup golden raisins (can use regular raisins–they will give your whole batch of porridge a very “raisin-y” color and taste, however)
- 7 to 7 1/2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
In a slow-cooker combine oatmeal, barley, wheat, nuts, raisins, water, salt and cinnamon. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours, or overnight. Remove cinnamon stick, if using. Stir the cereal well and scoop into bowls. Serve with half-and-half or milk and brown sugar.
Lopsided mama’s note: It really helps to KNOW your slow-cooker for this. For instance, ours runs hot so after trying this once, we started putting the slow-cooker on a timer (the same one we use for holiday lights) so that it only cooks for 6 hours instead of 9. We wanted our porridge to be a little more chewy, which it definitely is.
Musings of a Lopsided Mama 