Frenchy Goodness

Now that we are getting fresh eggs courtesy of our lovely ladies, I am trying to find recipes that are Jack friendly. He won't eat eggs by themselves (not in any form...I have tried) so I found a great french toast recipe for him. Yum.French Toast Sticks
Adapted from The Super Baby Food Book
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients onto a platter. Place two pieces of whole wheat bread in the mixture and let soak. Turn bread over once and let the other side soak. Once all the egg mixture is soak up (usually about 20 minutes or so) cut the bread into small slices. KEEP TOGETHER!
Using a spatula, put the whole piece of bread(but really cut up already) into a pre-heated frying pan (I like mine on medium). After you get the bread into the pan, use the spatula to separate the sticks. Any other way and they will fall apart. Trust me.
Cook until the wet side is dry looking then flip over and brown the other side. Jack likes his a little custardy on the inside. Delicious.


Uh yeah, that would be the WHOLE stick shoved into his mouth. I am hoping this is a phase he is going through...or it could be because he is 1/2 Joseph.

Fun In A Bun

(Sooo this recipe doesn't really involve a bun. Nor is it much of a recipe...more like a cool trick.) Take a piece of bread and roll it flat with a rolling pin. Then spread peanut butter and jelly on the flattened bread and roll it back up. For some reason it is easier to feed this to the little monster without having to cram it into his mouth.



Yes he will eat this after thoroughly inspecting it with his poking finger.

Favorite Blog: Wholesome Baby Food

If you want to start making homemade baby food, here is a great source. This blog gave me the courage to break away from the pressure of feeding your baby commercially prepared baby food. It is so interesting how people believe that because a company lists "for infants/toddlers" on the label, consumers automatically buy it even if the product is available (and often times, the same) for adults. So please, check out this site and believe that feeding your baby some of the veggies and turkey off your plate is just as good (if not better) as feeding them from a store-bought jar.

Yum Baby Food: Sweet Potato Fries!

Jack loves, loves, LOVES him some sweet potato fries! No kidding. Baking them in the oven makes them nice and soft...the perfect finger food.

Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients
One garnet or jewel yam (these are both a sweet, moist, orange-fleshed variety of sweet potato), peeled
1/2 T. olive oil (you can use less depending on the size of the yam)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the potatoes lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick matchsticks, and toss with the oil. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake until the "fries" are tender and slightly crisp, about 20-25 minutes. (You want them a little on the soggy side so they can be eaten easily.)

Serve when the fries have cooled enough to handle. Store any leftovers in the fridge for a snack.

"Old Fashioned" Baby Oatmeal

Hmm such an exciting topic. The trick to this is grinding a whole bunch of oats up so you do not have to drag out the food processor every time.
















Start with good ol' fashioned quaker oats.
















Grind them up in the food processor. If your baby is older, you can leave it a little chunkier.
















You are supposed to sprinkle and stir at the same time. Hard to do when taking a picture and sprinkling at the same time. And that burner behind the pan is stained not dirty.
















I mixed in a cube of banana/blueberry puree. Pretty purplely goodness!
















Extra points if you can spot what is wrong with this picture! Hint: It was something he was snacking on while I was making his oatmeal.

Oatmeal Baby Cereal
Courtesy of wholesomebabyfood.com

1/4 cup of ground oats (do NOT use instant or Quick Cook), ground in blender or food processor
3/4 cup - 1 cup water

1. Bring liquid to boil in saucepan. Add the oatmeal powder while stirring constantly.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes (I did mine for 7 minutes), whisking constantly, mix in formula or breast milk and fruits if desired
3. Serve warm.

So Much Zucchini...So Little Time

I am going to make this post short and sweet since a) I do not feel very inspired to blog and b) I am blogging about zucchini. What I lack in enthusiasm I make up in pictures! On to making baby food...

Recipe #1: Pureed Zucchini
Since Jack has started eating meat, I still like to keep pureed veggies on hand to get his meals the right consistency. You can take any veggie, steam it, puree it, and then pour it into ice cube trays to make up a quick healthy meal.





Steamed Veggies

In a large pot, bring an inch or two of water to a boil over high heat. If you're using a steaming rack or a bamboo steamer (works great!) make sure it's clean and have it ready.

If you don't have a steamer, use aluminum foil to make balls about the size of a baseball. Make enough to cover the bottom of the pot you're using and make sure the water level is well below the tops of the balls. You can use this as a bed for for the veggies.(This tip was off of e-how...I have never tried it but it sounds interesting)

When the water is boiling, trim and cut your vegetables It's best to do this as close to cooking as possible so they won't dehydrate or oxidize. Try to cut all the vegetables the same size so they'll cook evenly.

Place them in the steamer, on the steamer rack or on the bed of foil balls and cover.

Steam them only until they're done; most cut vegetables only need to steam for a minute or two. Thicker pieces might steam for two to three minutes. Potatoes take 15 to 30 minutes.

Scoop out vegetables with slotted a spoon and put into a blender or food processor.

Puree baby! No really, you need to puree them. If they are too thick then add some water. If too watery, I like to add a little rice cereal to help thicken it up.

Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze for a few hours. Then crack them out and label them in a Ziploc bag.

This is definitely my favorite step... re-heating the food. But not only do you re-heat it, but you can make up all kinds of fun combinations ...like "Summer Medley" (green beans, squash, and zucchini with a side of sweet potatoes and peaches) Just pop it into the microwave and you have a gourmet meal for your little one!

Now for the fun part...recipe #2...chocolate zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. But first, a little history on chocolate zucchini cake. The first time my mom made a chocolate zucchini cake, we (my two brothers and I), were absolutely mortified! What was mom thinking when she ruined this perfectly good chocolate cake with zucchini? You can't mix chocolate and zucchini?!

We were so very wrong. It was awesome.

This recipe makes a very moist chocolate cake with just a hint of cinnamon. It is not overly sweet so the cream cheese frosting is a nice touch. You could also serve it with a light dusting of powdered sugar. The zucchini inside the cake can be tampered with as well. If you are trying to disguise it (like my mom did) then rip it through the food processor. I wanted small zucchini strips in this cake so I used a large grater.









Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Yields 12 Texas size cupcakes + 3 regular size or a 9 x 13 in cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (I used 1 c. oil plus 1/2 c. applesauce)
3 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray 12 Texas size baking cups and 3 regular size baking cups.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in the nuts and zucchini until they are evenly distributed. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting with your favorite frosting.

Warning: This cream cheese frosting is no joke. I changed up the original recipe quite a bit to get it really "cheesy" tasting. Hmm I don't know how many people would describe their frosting as cheesy tasting but I am going out on a limb and doing just that. It makes enough to cover all the cupcakes but if you are a frosting fiend, I would double the recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/4cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Banana Bread Teething Sticks

It is getting to be that time! While feeding Jack, he has started grabbing for his spoon and (prepare for gross out) taking food back out of his mouth to examine it. After battling him at lunch time yesterday, I decided to make him his first batch of teething biscuits to give him something to work on between bites.


Rule #1 my mother taught me: The browner the banana the better the bread. These are not very brown because I was impatient. To get little chunks of banana throughout the stick, do not mash them up too much.


Batter ready for the oven.




You are supposed to wait until the bread cools completely before you cut it up into sticks. You could also freeze the loaf before slicing it to help combat any crumbling. I did neither of these things hence the uneven sticks.

Banana Bread Teething Sticks
From: wholesomebabyfood.com
Yield: Depending on how you cut them, a lot of little sticks
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil (I did 1/4c. oil and 1/4c. unsweetened applesauce)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1 3/4 cups flour (white, whole wheat, or a combination)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Combine ingredients and stir only until smooth. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour or until firmly set. (Mine only took 35 minutes so you need to watch it)

Cool, remove from pan, and cut into sticks. Spread sticks out on a cookie sheet and bake at 150 degrees F for 1 hour or longer until the sticks are hard and crunchy. (Once again, the time on this was a little off...mine took nearly two and a half hours to get crunchy) Store in a tightly covered container.

Now for the moment of truth... will he like them?



Hmm..failed test #1. They don't bounce.



Success! He likes them and just as important, so does our dog in charge of floor clean-up. Yum.