I Care, I Cook

I tend to stock my car with 2 weeks worth of cd’s for my drives home from work.  I’m still drawn to cd’s rather than ipod’s, but to be honest, my Toyota Echo doesn’t have a plug in for an ipod…or power windows for that matter.  Anyway, tonight on my way home I was listening to Matthew Barber and got lost in some lyrics.  “If you want to know what love really means, it’s when the one you’re with goes and sews a patch in your jeans.”  “All the hugs and kisses in the world can’t compete when the one you’re with goes and sews a patch in your jeans.”

Doesn’t that just ooze warm feelings of being cared for??  If I ever sewed a patch on my husband’s or kid’s jeans they would wonder what happened to their wife and mother because I don’t sew.  So instead I cook.

There’s something warm-hearted about lingering in the kitchen preparing my family’s favourite meals to sit and share with them upon culmination.  Even throwing together something simple and easy is joy inducing because I know they will still appreciate it and ultimately feel cared for.  Maybe it’s just me, but I get immense happiness out of it.

Let’s get back on track to baby food specifics.  It’s always great to have some staple items in your pantry so you can make a quick meal for baby without having to run to the market.  Below is a list of some must haves to make your life and that little one you care for’s life a little easier.

·         Cow’s Milk – For babies 7 months + you can use cow’s milk to add to recipes to thin them out, or to make a nice versatile cheese sauce to add to veggie and pasta purees.

·         Yogurt – Great to have on hand for 7 months +.

·         Eggs – Cooked and scrambled egg yolk can be given to infants 7 months + but avoid the egg white until 12 months + due to potential allergic reactions.

·         Cheddar Cheese – Cheese is a great protein to add to the 7 months + veggie purees and scrambled egg yolks.

·         Mini Pasta – Mini pasta such as the tiny ABC’s or Orzo is a great staple grain to have on hand for baby.  You can cook the pasta following the package directions but don’t add salt to the water, then add the cooked pasta to various veggie purees with an easy tomato cheese sauce.  Stay tuned for detailed sauce recipes.

·         Rice – Just as pasta, rice is a fantastic grain to have on hand and can be used in a similar fashion.

·         Frozen Veggies – Frozen veggies such as peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots are great to have on hand in a pinch to create cooked veggie purees or stews.  Most store bought frozen veggies are flash frozen at their peak of freshness which retains most of their nutrients.  Since they are originally frozen in their raw state, it is fine to take them out of the freezer, steam or cook them, puree them and re-freeze your batch of puree.  If they were cooked before freezing originally, which is rarely the case with store bought frozen vegetables, you cannot re-cook and then re-freeze them.

·         Frozen Berries – Blueberries for 6 months + and Strawberries for 8 months +.  Berries are perfect to cook over medium low heat in a sauce pan for about 10 minutes or until they are nice and juicy.  You can then let them cool and mash them and add to baby cereal or to some fresh mashed banana.  For 6 month old babies you may want to press the cooked, mashed blueberries through a strainer just to get rid of the tough skins.

·         Potatoes – Always great to have on hand for stews or cooked and pureed adding in some fresh spinach.

·         Canned Tuna in Oil – Cans of tuna are perfect to have on hand to mix with some tiny pasta and cheese sauce.  Tuna packed in oil is better for baby as it retains a lot of the healthy fats babies need for brain development.

·         Frozen Chicken – Cooked and crumbled chicken added into stews and veggie purees adds a protein punch that all babies require.

·         Veggie Broth – Homemade is great, but a store bought organic, low sodium variety works too.  Always good to have on hand for soups and stews.

·         Chicken Broth – Again homemade is great, but a store bought organic, low sodium variety is also o.k.

·         Iron Fortified Baby Cereals – Starting with rice cereal at 4 months + and then introducing barley, wheat and mixed baby cereal as baby grows is an essential part of baby’s feeding routine.

·         Flour – Always good to have on hand to thicken a nice cheese sauce or stew.

·         Unsalted Butter – Butter is a staple fat used to sauté chicken, add to sauces, to cook scrambled eggs, to add to veggie purees, etc. etc. etc.

With these basics on hand and a little imagination you can whip up some great meals for baby in no time.

Let’s all keep propagating those warm feelings of being cared for by sewing a patch on a loved one’s jeans, or for the darning impaired…cooking!

One Day at a Time

Let’s think for a moment about the thought of preparing your own baby food from scratch.  What things come to mind?  “I don’t have time”… “it’s way too complicated”… “how do I know if my baby will be getting all the proper nutrients?”  And so on.

Intimidation is the reality of taking the leap into preparing baby’s meals at home, but with a little research and taking a “one day at a time” approach, intimidation will cower to empowerment.

As all new moms and dads know, research is a huge component to the parenting gig.  Parenthood brings with it excessive amounts of the unknown so we try to read up on the subject, take advice from friends and family and analyze each tid bit in hopes of becoming the ultimate care giver. 

The research piece of the evolution from jarred baby food to home prepared almost takes care of itself if you switch your study from which jarred foods are the best, to that of the basics of making baby food at home.

Then if you take a “one day at a time” approach, you can resolve to make a puree or two to see how it goes without immediately committing to a personal title change of “Master Baby Chef” for the next 12 months or so.  If you take this kind of approach, there are no lofty aspirations to fail to achieve.

You may even be more comfortable doing a mix of both home prep and buying jarred foods at the beginning until you start to get into a happy culinary rhythm at home…which before long, I predict will happen.

You’re probably wondering why I would suggest buying jarred food if I’m a homemade food prep advocate.  I don’t want to convey that jarred food is the worst thing you can give to your baby and be a fear monger like those 6 o’clock news clip headlines, “How Christmas Tree Lights Can Turn into Mini Bombs.”  If doing a mix of jarred and homemade food to start with relieves some of the intimidation then at least the first step into a world of home prep has been made rather than avoided altogether.

There are endless amounts of information available on homemade baby food prep and some include painful, intricate steps that would make anyone think 5 times before attempting it themselves. 

As an example, I read an article on how to store frozen food cubes.  Once the cubes were transferred to a freezer bag the detailed instructions told me to insert a straw into the corner of the baggie and suck as much of the air out as possible and then seal it to keep the freshness in and excess air out.  When I translated that into my own routine, I just rolled the cubes over once in the bag to press the air out and then seal.  I’m sure the “suck out the air with a straw” method would allow for the ultimate in freshness, but I also think it would be the demise of many parent’s homemade baby food prep aspirations.

Never fear…here is a good basic veggie puree recipe.  Give it a try and see how it goes.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Broccoli and Cauliflower Meets Carrots

Age – 6 months +

Ingredients

·         1 cup chopped carrots

·         2 cups chopped broccoli

·         2 cups chopped cauliflower

·         1 tbsp. unsalted butter

Baby Steps

·         Add carrots to a steamer over boiling water.  Cover and cook for 8 minutes.

·         Add broccoli and cauliflower to carrots, cover and continue to steam for another 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.

·         Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes

·         Transfer veggies to a blender, food processor or bowl if using a hand blender to puree.

·         Add 3 tbsps. or more of the liquid used to steam the veggies depending on how thin or thick you want the consistency to be.  Younger babies around 6-7 months old should have a nice thin smooth consistency, whereas older babies can handle a bit more texture.

·         Add the butter and puree until desired consistency is achieved.

·         Let cool and then transfer a few servings to a tightly sealed food storage container in the fridge to be used within 48 hrs. and the rest to freezing trays which will safely last in the freezer for up to 3 months.

As baby gets a bit older, this veggie combo is great to add to left over rice from a family meal for an instant lunch or dinner for baby.

Makes approx. 12 servings.  (1 serving = 2 tbsp.)

$ and cents – 1 head of broccoli + 1 head of cauliflower + 1 bunch of carrots costs about $6.00.  This would translate into more than 24 servings of this recipe.  Literally, pennies a serving and priceless in freshness and nutrients.

So what do you say?  Do you want to join me in my Baby Food Evolution by redirecting some of your parenthood research to the basics of baby food prep, and taking it one day at a time withholding any lofty aspirations?  Let’s do it!

Do What You Love to Do

Forgive me for my tardiness in blogging this week.  I was engaged in a 3 day “Win Back the Customer Sales Summit” at my real job.  It involved the coming together of our sales field reps and internal corporate teams to share thoughts and ideas to come up with a strategy to do what the summit title suggests.

Our coordinator had to take an emergency leave a week prior to this summit which left the coordination of the event details added to my proverbial plate.

It’s all the little details that seem meaningless to outsiders in their preparation that have the most disastrous effect if they aren’t taken care of.  I fret more over the coordination details than the sum of all the other parts which include, but by no means are limited to, my own presentation on consumer insights, supporting each colleague with sales and marketing data for their own presentations and supporting my boss, VP of Sales and Marketing, with anything and everything.

I was an event coordinator in the past so I know what happens when the gluten free bread doesn’t arrive with lunch, or breakfast isn’t included with the hotel bookings, or evening meal destinations aren’t preferred by all…hell breaks loose.

So given all of this, needless to say as I’m sitting in the boardroom waiting for my turn to present, the next person’s turn to make sure I’ve queued up their slides properly, and the arrival of the special order non-dairy sandwich with lunch, my stress level rises to the ultimate degree and remains there for the balance of the summit.

Our Thursday evening event was to take part in a cooking class at the Calphalon Centre in Toronto and then enjoy the personally prepared feast with our team.  When I walked into the professionally stocked kitchen and took in the view I could literally feel the stress drain from my body.  How cool is this?!?  In the midst of all the chaos of the summit, I was able to do something I love…cook!  Even though I cook a lot and think I’ve got my own methods down, to have a professional chef demonstrate their techniques was an incredible learning experience and not to mention a whole lot of fun.  I would recommend it to anyone…from those who love to cook, to those who love new experiences but don’t cook more than once in a blue moon.

That evening made the next and last day of the summit a breeze…it’s amazing how incorporating something you love into your day can make the not so great things a lot more bearable.

The dramatic drop in my stress level after stepping into that kitchen was the reassurance I needed that I’m on the right path for me…to cook and share recipes.  I want to do what I love to do.   

I try not to let a blog go by without sharing a baby food recipe so let’s talk plums and pears…a perfect combination.

Try to choose plums that are nice and ripe.  Avoid those that are hard with little colour, or very soft and bruised and spotted.  Ripe plums are fragrant and well coloured and relax to light finger pressure.

When choosing pears make sure they are smooth and firm but not too hard, and have no bruises.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Plum Perfect Pear Puree

Age – 6 months +

Ingredients

-          5 plums

-          5 pears

Baby Steps

-          Peel, core and slice pears into 1cm. thick pieces.

-          Peel plums using the boiling water method if they are really ripe, or use a regular peeler if they are not so ripe.

-          To peel plums using the boiling water method, make an “x” shape cut with a knife on the bottom of the plum.  Place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them and leave for 1 minute or so.  Take out of water with tongs and let stand for a few minutes.  If the plums were ripe you should be able to peel the skins off easily beginning with the flap that is exposed from the “x” you cut in the skin earlier.  If you’re still having trouble, don’t fret…just grab a regular peeler to finish the job.

-          Slice the plums into 1cm. thick pieces and discard the pit.

-          Add Pears alone to a large sauce pan with 1 tbsp. water.  Cover and cook over medium/low heat, stirring often for 10 mins.

-          Add the plums to the pears, cover and continue to cook for another 7 minutes.

-          Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

-          Transfer to a blender, food processor or bowl to use a hand blender to puree the fruit to a smooth consistency.

You can keep some in the fridge and transfer the rest to freezing trays.  The frozen puree will safely last up to 3 months and the refrigerated puree approx. 48 hrs.

Makes approx. 14 servings (1 serving is 2 tbsp.)

Maybe next year I’ll be coordinating a “Win Back the Homemade Baby Food Preparation Summit” rather than the customer sales one that I just did.

All For Smoothies and Smoothies for All!

Having 2 boys 10 yrs. apart in age can be a bit tricky at times.  It’s tough to stay current and hip to each one’s unique interests without getting them mixed up.  Sometimes I forget that my older son Eric is a pre-teen and not a toddler.  Having another boy after 10 yrs. brought back distinct flashbacks of Eric as a baby that I had long forgotten during my 10 yr. baby hiatus.  Maybe it would have been different if the decade later baby was a girl, but Carter is a boy through and through just like my baby…I mean pre-teen…Eric.

My mom starts asking for Christmas gift ideas from everyone around this time each year and when she asked Eric that question last week, the first thing he said was, “Nana, just so you know, I’m not into action figures anymore.”  Geez, he’s right…sometimes I think he’d still get a kick out of creating a world where Spiderman and the Green Goblin could co-exist.  I guess not.

There is also quite the disconnect in brand allegiance between the two.  Eric is in to DC, West 49, and Billabong, whereas Carter turns his nose up at anything that doesn’t have Cookie Monster, Ernie, or Barney on it.  Again, it’s not far-fetched for me to still think of Eric in Spidey jammies….where have the years gone?

Do any of you have boys with that much of an age difference?  Can you relate to these experiences or have some other fun stories to share?

Even though we have a wide range of interests and tastes in our household there is one thing we all see eye to eye on…how delicious Banana Berry Smoothies are!!!!!

This smoothie recipe is quick and easy and everyone from your 8 months + baby to your great grandmother will enjoy every last drop.

Since there are strawberries and dairy in this recipe you should wait until baby is 8 months old for this one just in case of allergic reactions.  You can spoon feed it to them as a dessert until they are able to take sips from a cup with your help.  Your pre-teen would gladly drink it from the blender if you would let them.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Banana Berry Smoothie

Ingredients

-          1 cup frozen strawberries

-          ½ cup frozen blueberries

-          1 frozen banana, peeled and broken into pieces

-          ½ cup full fat vanilla yogurt

-          1 cup milk

-          ½ cup of baby’s favourite juice

Baby Steps

-          Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

-          Pour, serve and enjoy!

Makes 4 servings…enough for baby, pre-teen, and pre-teen’s 2 friends brought home without asking you.

Mother Nature, the Packaging Genius!

The other day my toddler came home from daycare with our share of a bounty of pumpkin tarts proudly made by himself and his fellow toddler classmates.  I had a sneaking suspicion that the teachers helped my 22 month old son with these.  I was expecting something reminiscent of the concoctions that the child contestants on one of my favourite 80’s game shows made for their moms.  Do you remember that show “Just Like Mom"?  I couldn’t wait for the moms to try their kid’s cookies made with sugar, ketchup, mustard and tartar sauce!  I remember telling my mom if we were ever on the show mine would be the one with lots and lots of ketchup in the cookie so she would be able to guess which one was mine for sure!  Lucky for me, my boy had some help with his tarts.

The one food that is so easy to prepare for baby that it’s almost as if they can make it themselves, is the almighty banana!

Bananas are the perfect fruit to introduce as a first food.  Little does Mother Nature know, she is a packaging genius!  Vibrant colour and presence on shelf, easy to open with no instructions required, and even follows a green initiative as the used package gets a second life when added to soil to nourish roses that are the envy of the neighbourhood.

Bananas provide baby with vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.

Go Bananas for Bananas!

·         No cooking required…just simply peel and mash them and serve alone or add to baby cereal

·         Mash really well for solid food apprentices (6 months)…and less so for intermediate foodies (8 months+)

·         Add them to other pureed fruits to add some flavour dimension

·         Virtually no waste.  Throw overripe bananas in the freezer leaving the peel on.  You can use them for smoothies later…just take them out of the freezer about 5 mins. before you want to use them so they are easy to peel.

·         They’re the easiest thing to bring along if you’re taking baby on an outing.  If you pack a bowl, a fork and a baby spoon you’re all set and you don’t have anything that needs heating up.

Here is a link from “Homemade Baby Food Recipes” to some more great info. and recipe ideas for monkey’s favourite food.

I shall leave you with a video taken of my son Carter this week.  22 months old and reading out the letters on his alphabet flashcards.  Now I would never claim that he gets his smarts from growing up on fresh homemade baby food, but if you want to make that correlation I won’t object.

O.K. maybe he did make the tarts himself.

Enjoy the Pursuit and the Victory!

If I didn’t already realize the exorbitant number of hours I spend at work each week, I understand now.  Imagine having 8 luxurious hours a day, or 40 indulgent hours a week to work on my baby food cook book??  Prior to embarking on my new adventure I didn’t think twice about my time spent at work.  9-5 seemed standard and comfortable…until Friday afternoon at around 3pm. of course.  Now I see how useful each and every minute of the day is as I try to cram in my new venture in fleeting weeknight minutes and the “already chalked full of other stuff” hours of the weekend.

Still, it’s exciting to imagine a day when my new 9-5 could be my Baby Food Evolution.  I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the theory that people get more enjoyment out of the pursuit of something they are passionate about, rather than the achievement of it…I have a feeling I’ll be just as happy in victory as I am in pursuit!

Carrying on with my pursuit, I would get lots of enjoyment out of highlighting some tips on how to prep baby food ingredients with a little help from your family.

Cleaning, peeling and chopping veggies and fruit seems like a daunting task at the best of times but is especially so for time crunched parents.  I have a secret…you can ask for help without diminishing your “Supermom” or “Superdad” status.  Even though we all know that peeling and chopping is the most labour intensive part of the work, the one who creates, cooks, purees and stores seems to get all the glory!

It reminds me of those cooking shows when you see the stress free chef adding ingredients to their recipes that are perfectly chopped, measured and resting in immaculate vessels leading us to believe how simple it is to create a culinary masterpiece from scratch.  In reality, if you start cooking before you have done all your chopping and peeling you could endure unnecessary physical and mental pressure as you strive to get the rest of your ingredients ready to add in before something starts to burn.

If you simply ask your spouse to help prep some food when they have a few spare minutes, you can have peeled and chopped veggies waiting for you in the fridge to steam when you’re ready.  I find they even get enjoyment out of playing a part in creating baby’s menu.

So start asking for help, and enjoy the pursuit of joint ingredient prep, and the victory of providing delicious meals for your baby!

An Ounce of Prevention

You know that saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of”...something?  Well if you take a few miniscule organizational measures in your kitchen, it will prevent a baby food preparation meltdown.

In my kitchen, perfect intentions often turned into perfect frustrations.  I would be all set to try out a new recipe, had all the food ready to employ and the vision of the finished dish in my mind.  I would then just have to grab the step stool from the garage to climb up on my counter to get the food processor down that was tidily put away in the big high cupboard where I could easily grab it whenever I needed it.  Then I would go into the abyss of the utensil drawer to get my measuring spoons and spatula only to find it wouldn’t open because after further investigation I found that the head of the potato masher was stuck.  Add baby inspired sleep deprivation into the mix, and opening that exploding cupboard of food storage containers was the final nail in the “I’m making baby food today” coffin.

If you make sure all the tools you need are easily accessible and reasonably within arm’s reach, the likelihood of sticking with your culinary intentions and even enjoying them are very good.

I now hang my measuring spoons on a little hook on the wall right by the stove rather than in the bottomless pit utensil drawer.  You can even get them in all sorts of décor inspired colours so that their placement on the wall seems deliberate.  All stirring spoons and ladles etc. are in a jar on the counter and mixing bowls and the hand blender are front and center in a nearby cupboard.  I prefer using a hand blender to puree food, but if you would rather use a food processor or blender try to find a space on the counter for it to live rather than in that big high cupboard.

 These little organizational feats in the kitchen really are key to the enjoyment of cooking for baby.  The analyst in me always insists that I back up my “gut feelings” with data and facts so here is a great article from Real Simple on some smart kitchen organizing ideas.

I remember that saying now.  It’s a moral from Aesop’s Fables.  “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Or translated into Baby Food Evolution language,  “put your kitchen tools in handy places to avoid baby food preparation meltdowns”.