Friday 28 October 2011

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.

Thursday 20 October 2011

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.

Friday 14 October 2011

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!

Thursday 6 October 2011

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”.