The Re-Birth of my Leap of Faith

It only takes one person other than your mom, spouse or best friend to believe in you to make all the difference.  I began my journey of writing a baby food cook book about 4 years ago now with the intention of taking baby steps towards my goal.  Baby steps turned into ant baby steps when reality hit and factored in my high demand job, raising a family, keeping fit and watching Survivor and The Amazing Race.  Time was escaping me, and with that, enthusiasm.

One person came along and believed in me and got the fire and fervor burning again.  One person can help push you through the last 10% leaving self-doubt and indifference in the dust.  Never underestimate the impact you can have by being someone’s one person.

My first blog, nearly 4 years ago, included a laundry list of things I planned on accomplishing and I’m just about there.  Now that I have the website up, trade mark application in for “Spoonfed” and brainstorming sessions for product ideas underway it feels like I’m jumping off a cliff not knowing if I’ll land flat on my face or on a stepping stone leading to the top of one of the greatest mountains.  Or even somewhere in the middle like a stepping stone to the top of one of those really big dirt piles around a construction site that your kids ask if it’s a mountain while looking out the car window on the way to Walmart.  Regardless it’s scary.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the thought of having products AND A BOOK up for sale on my website that people may even want to buy.  I can’t believe a transaction of some sort could take place and as a result a shipment of that special little something out to the kind person who bought it.  I would carefully wrap the goods, put them into a lovely box and into the basket on a bike with a basket that I do not currently have to happily deliver it to that wonderful person who took the time to buy something that I love.  UPS may have a different method in mind but that’s how I would do it.

 My time crunch has not changed, if anything, it’s gotten crunchier, but now that the enthusiasm is back, it’s fuel for the rest of the journey.

Now if you’ll kindly excuse me I’m going to go watch Downton Abbey to get back to some normalcy if only for an hour.

I have my new website up and running so all blogs from this day forward can be found here www.spoonfedbabyfood.com

 
As always, thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing many more fun and delicious baby food recipes with you over the coming months.

Yogurt Snakes

My son is no longer a baby.  He is a Senior in Kindergarten and walks the halls with the confidence that only comes from paying your dues as a Junior.  If you listen closely you can hear the Juniors mumbling, “look at that guy…that will be us one day…then all the riches of not being tired and cranky midday from missing the nap we’ve grown accustomed to at pre-school will be ours!”

The biggest concern I had when he started kindergarten was lunch and snack time.  How was this little guy going to sit at his little desk and take out his little lunch and unwrap and open lids and have polite conversation all by himself??  I couldn’t wrap my head around it to be honest, but somehow he prevailed with only minor lunch box disasters discovered upon it’s return home for the unveiling.

Some grocery store items advertised as “handy lunch box snacks” are hard to open for adults never mind heavy-handed children.  If you squeeze “drinkin’ box juice” the wrong way they erupt like Mount Vesuvius.  The wonderful invention of yogurt “tubes” is a convenient way to add some yogurt into your kid’s lunch bag and release an invasion of yogurt snakes into the classroom after the innocent opening tear.  Let’s not forget about the fruit cups packed in a cup with a plastic “easy peel back lid”.  For the life of me, I can’t cleanly open one.  I have to stretch out my arms as far as they will go, turn the cup around so the opening lip faces away from me, pull and hope for the best.  Maybe we will consider adding one of these to his lunch box when he’s going to work…although I suppose we won’t be packing his lunch at that point.

Good thing you have a few years until you have to navigate all this school snack fun with your baby.  For now let’s focus on some more yummy recipes for your little one to enjoy without having to test their dexterity.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Banana Berry Ice Cream

Age – 12 months +

Ingredients

• 1 frozen banana
• ½ cup frozen raspberries
• ¼ cup milk

Baby Steps

1. Add all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy like soft serve ice cream.
2. Yes, that’s it.

Makes – Approx. 1 cup so you will have enough to share this tasty treat together

Note: You can substitute the raspberries for any fruit really to make some fun banana berry/fruit combos.  Try mango, strawberries or blueberries.  You would just need to clean and chop as necessary and then freeze them the night before in a zip lock so they’re frozen and ready for you to use the next day.