Rutabaga & Pumpkin

Spent the evening making baby food. Specifically rutabaga and pumpkin. I wanted to mention this for those of you that read my previous post on beets. Just thought you should know I do know my rutabagas now. I peeled, chopped, steamed and pureed that baby up. I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought those beets. Sooooo different. As for the pumpkin, well, I kind of cheated there, what with buying a can of puree and all. But I did spoon it into the ice cube tray myself.

I think I’ll reward myself by watching a little Psych on hulu and ordering pizza.

Veggie pizza

We like our pizza in this household, be it delivered sneakily after the kids go to bed or our own homemade version. Once a week Steve and I take it easy by feeding the kids and putting them to bed a little early. Then we order some type of delivery and hunker down to watch a movie. It’s like a mini date night and I love it. Other nights we make our own for the whole family. Here’s the recipe for a no sauce veggie pizza we like to indulge in. It’s based off a pizza our friend Rebecca used to make.

Ingredients:

• Purchased or homemade crust - here we’re using Pillsbury’s pizza crust in a tube, but we’ve made our own and used a number of purchased premade varieties.
• 1 small tomato, chopped (de-seed 1st if your so inclined)
• 1/2 a small zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 a sweet bell pepper, chopped - here I used an orange one, but any color will do
• goat cheese
• mozzarella
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tbsp pine nuts

1. Prepare/make crust
2. Scatter veggies across crust
3. Dollop goat cheese here and there
4. Sprinkle mozzarella across - not too much, just enough to hold the veggies on
5. Sprinkle with oregano and pine nuts
6. Bake according to crust directions - usually about 10 to 15 minutes
7. Enjoy!

While I’m not an advocate of making children a different meal than the adults on a normal basis. This is one case were it’s not too big of a deal. It’s next to impossible to convince Seth to eat large chunks of vegetables interspersed with dollops of goat cheese so we cut a little crust off and made him a more traditional pepperoni pizza.

What did Eleanor eat? Pureed fresh avocado. Yum! If there had been any tortilla chips on hand I’m not sure it would have gotten to her highchair.

Beets!

A friend and coworker recently asked me “why do parent’s always have to take pictures of their baby with food all over their face?” Although I’m usually like minded with this individual I knew exactly why. Once you’ve experienced feeding a baby you can’t help but think it’s cute. You try and try to keep it a tidy affair but eventually give in and enjoy the mess that is first foods. Here I give you proof that Eleanor really does like beets. It was purely by accident I discovered beets as a baby food. I was trying for rutabaga but the signs at the grocery store were messed up. Since I really didn’t know what a rutabaga looked like and have never cooked with beets I figured the rutabaga must be like a beet. Boy was I wrong! Chalk it up to another happy accident.

Cubes of Love

Beets, broccoli & pumpkin

The variety of commercial baby food is extremely limited not to mention costly. The grey tinted mush looks incredibly unappetizing and the packaging is wasteful. The most variety I have seen comes in the form of fruits and desserts. Can you believe some of those little jars have added sugar? And what baby really needs to be started on peach cobbler or vanilla custard at 8 months old?

Don’t get me wrong, commercial baby food has its place. I’ve bought plenty. I don’t always have the time to cook and the little sealed containers travel well. All I ask is that you consider two things:

1. Look at the label. A fruit mix may sound yummy, and your baby may gobble it up, but is it full of sugar?
2. Consider making your own. It’s not hard. Make a little extra of whatever vegetable you’re having with dinner or steam a large pot of a fruit or veggie of your choice. Puree with a stick blender, food processor or standard blender and freeze in ice cube trays. Bag up once frozen and keep for up to a month or so.

You’re setting your child up for a lifetime relationship with food. Do you want them resentfully choking down salads and ordering hamburgers at a Middle Eastern deli or craving broccoli and lapping up Vietnamese noodle soup? Lastly, remember, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Babies sometimes need as many as a dozen or more taste tests before they’re willing to accept a new flavor. Your little one may never like parsnips no matter how many times you try, or they may surprise you and take to them on the 5th try like it’s the best thing since sliced bread! Although Seth ate just about anything put in front of him, we’ve found that Eleanor needs a more gentle introduction. We often mix a little in some rice or barley infant cereal, increasing each time until she gets use to the flavor. It’s done the trick every time.

Want more detailed how-to information, suggested fruits and veggies to try or baby food cookbooks to aid your efforts? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.