Adventures in baby food making: Pasta with hidden veggies

You've probably been wondering, "Did Emily quit feeding Cohen?" "Why haven't I seen a post about making his baby food in a while??"

Well, I have been making his baby food, but it got pretty basic for a while, what with traveling, working a little extra, Halloween, etc. And I didn't want to bore you with those details. Basic as in, peach & mango puree, sweet potato/carrot/butternut squash puree, grilled chicken breast, scrambled eggs and our go-to, oatmeal with bananas. You didn't need to see those, right?

But, yesterday, I made him Pasta with hidden vegetables. This was pretty involved, I might as well have made us some with some salt in it. ;)

ingredients:
2 T EVOO
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 small carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium zucchini, trimmed and chopped
3/4 cup wiped and chopped button mushrooms
3 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 T unsalted butter
(1) 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 t brown sugar
1 T torn fresh basil leaves
freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces of pasta shapes
3 to 4 T mascarpone cheese (optional)


Heat oil in saucepan, add onion and garlic, saute for 3 minutes. Add carrots and saute 4-5 minutes. Add zucchini and saute 2 minutes, followed by mushrooms for another 2 minutes. 


Add the fresh tomatoes and the butter and saute for 2 minutes. Pour in the can of tomatoes and half of the juice. Finally add the stock, sugar and basil, and season with pepper to taste. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, then blend to a puree.


Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package instructions until tender. (Don't add salt.) Toss the cooked pasta with the veggie puree and mascarpone (if using).


So, there's the instructions. I doubled this entire recipe because it said this would make 4 servings. Well, they lied. I doubled it and got 40 - 1 oz portions, or 20 Cohen sized portions. So, yea, my freezer is packed.

Let's see. I substituted leeks for onions. I used star shaped pasta. I used on-the-vine tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes. I did use the mascarpone cheese.

[I do not personally eat mushrooms.]

Saute leeks and garlic.

Add carrots.

Add zucchini.

Add mushrooms.

Add everything else. 

Add the pureed veggie mixture to the pasta stars (already cooked).

Stir together and add the mascarpone cheese. 

Mmmm first bite!!

Pretty sure he likes this one!

Reaching for more! 

Well, I'm glad he likes it, since we have a months worth of it. ;)

Adventures in baby food making: Lamb casserole and Peach-pear-strawberry puree!

I know what you're thinking. . . I know. "Lamb??? Who are these people?" :) But seriously, it was on sale with my Kroger card and Hector and I also got a meal out of it. Here goes.

1 lamb rib chop, trimmed of bone and fat and diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
pinch of dried rosemary or mixed herbs
1/2 cup unsalted chicken broth




*Can I just say that I wasn't thinking about how lamb is actually baby sheep, until I was reading Cohen a story that night and it went over all the names of animals and their babies..... 'nuff said.*

That's our unsalted broth there (we have to mix it up ourselves).

Chop it all and toss it in the casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then reduce to 300 degrees and bake for another  45 minutes or until lamb is tender.

Then puree. It also said for older babies you could just do a good chop of all of it, like a chunky soup. Well, Coco has no teeth yet, so that was a no for us.  

He liked it! And wanted more. :)

Gotta get that sippy cup any way he can. Pure talent right there.

Picking up his puffs. He's so big!!

Nom nom nom!

So, it was pretty good. But, as for our lamb dinner (mine and Hector's) ((and he looked up a yummy rub recipe with brown sugar, ginger, garlic powder, etc)) we were not impressed. We probably will not buy [baby] lamb again. It had a different taste... made me think of... a baby lamb... crying. Or something like that. Regardless, lamb has B vitamins, iron and zinc. After 6 months, the store of iron that babies have from mama is gone. So they need a lot of supplemental iron. 

I also made Cohen a new fruit dish. Peach-pear-strawberry puree. 

Very pretty fruits!

I looked at my receipt and it said nectarines, instead of peaches. But they were in the peach bin... So, who really knows. 

Cook in a sauce pan for a while. They'll make their own sauce. I recommend chopping the peach and pear into smaller pieces, it took a while for them to get real soft.

Very pretty color!

Baby liked it! But he did a little shiver every now and then... it was a little sour in a few places. :) But, pretty sweet overall.

This morning I warmed up a serving and added a couple scoops of oatmeal. It turned out delicious! 

Adventures in baby food making: Chicken Puree!

We went to Granna and Pop's house last week and got to make Cohen his first meal with chicken in it! This is big. Because I feel like chicken is a staple in our house. So, we want to get the boy to likin' chicken.

I flipped through my cook book and decided on one called "My first chicken puree."

ingredients:
1/4 cup washed and sliced white part of a leek
1 T vegetable oil
3 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 cup unsalted chicken broth

Saute the leek in the vegetable oil until softened. Then add the chicken and saute until it has sealed. Add the potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Puree. 

Pop holding Coco up for his first bite of chicken! He liked it! It was very smooth and creamy. 

Cohen crawled up on Granna and Pop's fireplace, like it was no big deal. :(  He would sidle up there and scratch his little hand on the metal screen.. he loved the sound it made. He even learned how to get OFF the fireplace without busting it. My big boy...

Mama and Coco :)

My wonderful parents with their little grandson. 

Nice trip to Paris with a cool new meal under our belts! Can't wait to go back, we miss Granna and Pop a ton!

Adventures in baby food making: Apricots with pear!

I like to try to make one fruit dish for each veggie dish I do. Babies need a variety, just like we do.

I will say, this recipe called for papaya, not pears, but 1) we'd just eaten papaya and 2) Central Market didn't have any papaya (!?). So, I decided on pear. Because I knew he'd liked pears several weeks ago.

So, I'll just list my edited recipe here.
ingredients:
1 C dried apricots, chopped
enough water to cover the apricots
2 Bosc pears
4 ounces firm tofu


Boil the apricots for about 5 minutes, covered, until tender. Roughly chop the pears then steam them in water for about 20-25 minutes. Peel them. Put pear chunks, apricots and chopped tofu into food processor. Puree until smooth. Add cooking liquid as needed.

Lens kept fogging up!

Ok. I don't regularly buy tofu.. the recipe really called for soft tofu. But this was the only organic one...so, I got firm. Apparently soft tofu is more like a cream, good for smoothies and such. Oh well.

Made a pretty parfait in the processor. Pears, apricots, tofu.

A perfect consistency.

And into the tray. (Look at that sweet baby on the floor!)

Hector was working on a project outside, so I didn't get any pictures of Coco trying this one. But he really liked it!

Tofu is rich in protein, calcium, iron and potassium. It can help protect against some types of heart disease and cancer. Dried apricots are a great high-energy snack. Note to self: don't feed to Cohen too close to bedtime. 

Adventures in baby food making: Carrot puree with lentils and cheese!

All out of the beef stew, I hit the books (OK.. one book) to find a new, exciting recipe for the little. I try to pick new recipes based on two criteria: does it sound good to me? and, will it offer Cohen a new ingredient, that is also nutritional for him?

I landed on: Carrot puree with lentils and cheese.
ingredients:
1/2 C finely chopped onion
1 1/2 t vegetable oil
2 T red lentils
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 C boiling water
1 T unsalted butter
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 C grated Cheddar cheese

**I did use three carrots, but only pictured two; somehow I missed the "red" in the lentil description and bought white(?) lentils

Saute onion in oil 3-4 minutes until softened. Rinse and drain lentils, add to onion. Add carrots and boiling water. Cover and cook for 25 minutes over medium heat.

Melt butter in separate sauce pan, saute tomato until mushy, add Cheddar cheese.

Drain carrot and lentil mixture and reserve cooking liquid. Combine carrot and lentil mixture with tomato and cheese mixture. Add 1/2 C cooking liquid. Puree.

He wasn't sure about the first couple bites...

But then he finished his serving with a smile! And I even gave him another serving! 

What really happened:

-I would use a bigger tomato next time.. like on-the-vine tomatoes. After I Hector seeded the tomato, there didn't seem to be much tomato left to cook with!

-White lentils worked fine... who knew there was more than one kind??

-I had to add nearly 2 more cups of water to the carrot/lentil mixture after 25 minutes AND cook for 20-25 minutes longer! The cooking fluid was completely absorbed by twenty-five minutes. And, I would've stopped here and started blending, but Hector tasted the lentils and said they were still very hard. So, back on the heat for another 25. 

All in all, a great recipe for Coco. And bonus! Lentils are a great source of protein and fiber. Also, they are a rich source of potassium, zinc and folic acid. I find myself doing diaper laundry a little more than usual, thanks to the fiber, I'm thinking. :)

Adventures in baby food making: Beef Stew!

This was a delicious meal for Cohen! He really loved this one. And it made me and Hector really want to eat better...like home cooked meals. :) It was so easy, just took a little time.

Braised beef with carrot, parsnip, and sweet potato, the real name given in the book
1 T olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 1/2 ounces lean beef, cut into pieces
2 T all-purpose flour
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small parsnip, peeled and chopped (what is a parsnip?? am I right??)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 bay leaf
1 T chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 cups unsalted chicken broth

Heat olive oil in heavy-bottomed saucepan. Saute the onion and garlic for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened. Toss the beef in flour and saute until sealed. Add the carrots, parsnip, sweet potato, bay leaf and parsley to the pan and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 1 hour 45 minutes or until the meat is tender. Blend, adding as much of the cooking liquid as necessary.

The ingredients. That white carrot? That's a parsnip. Who knew?

Even at Central Market, no unsalted chicken stock. So we found sodium free bouillon that I turned into a broth. :)

Here, the meat is added, after sauteing the onion and garlic. We got a good sirloin steak from CM.

Hector's awesome knife skills!

YUM. Pretty sure we ended up adding an extra cup or two of the chicken broth.

After the pureeing. And into the silicone trays.

Why the color variation between these two pics? I don't know. But it looked a lot like carrots. :)

Ignore me, I don't quite know how to edit me out yet. :) First bite!

"Ehhh... I've had better..."

Beef is a totally new taste for him.

We share some of the same facial expressions... :P

Maybe it's ok... 

"Aaaanndd... how do I get this thing open?"

So, this was a great dish and it accomplished it's purpose. Introducing Cohen to new flavors. And by the 11th time he had this.. he LIKED it. :)

Also this night, we tried pureed peaches. I just scored and "x" in the skin on the bottom of the fruit with a paring knife and dropped it in a pot of boiling water for a couple minutes.. to blanch it. Then peeled it and took out the seed and threw it in the food processor. I pureed it and tasted it... SOUR! So, I added a tablespoon of sugar. Better, but still a little tart. I just KNEW these peaches would be sweet.. nope. 

Couldn't care less about the peaches I prepared for him. :(

But look at those cheeks... :)

I am enjoying making Cohen's food so much. It brings me such peace knowing exactly what is in the food he eats. I highly recommend trying to make your own baby food. You will feel so accomplished when you spoon your own homemade, heartfelt meals into your little one's mouth--and they like it! I'd rather give him something fresh any day, than give him something vacuum-sealed that expires two years from now. Yuck. Our food doesn't last that long, why (how??) should his? 

Do you have any great baby food recipes? Please share!