Forget-Me-Not

 

In a blink of an eye, summer is over.  In the time it takes my toddler to tire of one activity and move on to another, he’s started school.  Like a bat out of hell, my first born is starting high school?

How can my son be old enough to venture off in to high school?  A place I remember so vividly myself as if it was yesterday.  A place I feel I would still fit in, until I drop my son off and see all the kids and think, damn I feel old.

I think the fear of time going so fast is the force behind the volume of activity we try to jam pack into each day.  I wonder if we slowed down, would time do the same?  I’ll let you know once I finish prepping my week’s meals for a 2 week detox I’m currently on, cleaning the house top to bottom, making sure the dog is walked and kids are entertained, making lunches for Monday, getting kids and dogs dropped off to school and doggy daycare, sitting in traffic for 1.25 hrs. to get to work, work, and another 1.25 hr. drive home for pick up just in time.  After I’m done all that, I’ll dig into the mystery of time.

I’ve missed writing over the harried summer.  It’s an outlet I enjoy and want to include somewhere in this spinning existence we call the day to day.  I began this blog and sharing baby food recipes with the aim of writing a baby food cook book when my baby was a baby and I was entrenched in the baby life every day.  Now my boy is 3 ½ and in kindergarten so he hardly qualifies as a taste tester, but this journey isn’t over.  Every time I catch the wonder of people who bear witness to my son’s request for veggies over pizza, it reminds me of how much of an impact feeding him homemade baby food from the start really made on his future food choices.  So I think it’s important to continue to share the recipes and press on with the book.  And so I will.

Tomatoes are ripening up beautifully in gardens far and wide right now so I thought I would share a staple Tomato & Veggie sauce recipe.  This is a great sauce to have on hand to mix with mini pasta, chicken, beef or rice.  The applications are endless and yummy.

This recipe is intended for babies 6 months +, as long as they have gone through their first solids trial period to rule out any allergic reactions to certain foods.  It makes about 4 cups so the prep is worth the fruits of your labour.

The recipe calls for peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes, so I’ll go through a simple boiling water method to get the peeling done easily.

 

•        Score an “X” on the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife and place in a large bowl.
• Cover tomatoes with boiling water and leave for 2 mins.
• Move tomatoes from boiling water directly to a cutting board and leave for 1 min.
• Skin should easily peel back. Start peeling from where you scored the “X” on the bottom.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Babe-Essential Tomato & Veggie Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. of butter
• 1 cup of chopped onions
• 1 garlic clove diced
• 1/2 cup of chopped carrots
• 1 cup of chopped mushrooms (you can leave these out if baby is under 8 months old.  They don’t pose a high allergy risk, but they may present a digestive issue in some over sensitive tummies.)
• 1/2 cup of chopped, peeled zucchini
• 1/2 cup of chopped green pepper
• 7 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 4 fresh basil leaves chopped, or 1 tsp. dried
• 1/4 cup of chicken broth (homemade or low sodium store bought)

Baby Steps

1. Prep and chop all veggies, and peel and seed tomatoes using the boiling water method noted above and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large sauté pan over med/high heat.
3. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 mins. until onions become translucent.
4. Reduce heat to medium and add all the rest of the veggies except the tomatoes and continue to cook for 7 minutes stirring often.
5. Add tomatoes, chicken broth and basil to veggie mix, stir well and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to med/low, cover and cook stirring occasionally for approx. 30 minutes.
6. Remove pan from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
7. Transfer to a blender, food processor, or large bowl to use a hand blender to puree.
8. Puree into a nice smooth sauce.

Makes- approx. 4 cups

Sauce can be kept in the fridge for 48 hrs. to use in other baby meals such as pasta or rice and chicken etc.  You can add the sauce and then freeze the new meals in freezing trays.

If you freeze the sauce alone and want to add to pasta dishes once thawed, you can do so, however, you cannot then re-freeze the new meal.  For example, if you’re making pasta or rice and chicken for the family one evening, take some of the pasta or rice and chicken and cut or puree into tiny pieces that baby can handle and add a defrosted and warmed sauce cube for an instant healthy meal.  The key rule to remember is once something has been cooked then frozen, you can’t thaw it and re-freeze it again.

It’s nice to be back in the blogging saddle, although given my “spinning day to day existence” I can’t promise you a rose garden each and every week…maybe just a sporadic smattering of forget-me-nots every now and then.