Almost-Completely-Organic-Chicken-Pot-Pie!

I’m back! I have to say, this new, puree-free era of food and eating that Owen is dragging Mommy into kicking and screaming boldly entering has proved to be a bit of a challenge, both in general and certainly from a “Chowdownbaby” perspective. However, the following recipe will hopefully revive Chowdownbaby from it’s nearly defunct state. May I present to you……Almost-Completely-Organic-Chicken Pot Pie!

You need:
Pre-made pie crust (Sure, sure, you can make your own, using organic wheat flour and the like. Knock yourself out. Bu this mom has to draw the line somewhere.)
Organic, cooked chicken tenders–roughly 3/4 a pound
Organic, low sodium chicken broth–1 cup
1 bag organic mixed veggies (peas, carrots, corn and green beans)
1-2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 egg
Various herbs and spices

Place bottom pie crust into 9 inch (standard size) glass or aluminum pie pan. In a separate bowl, toss cooked, diced chicken (I baked mine in the oven for about 25 minutes prior, with some herbs and chicken broth) with the frozen veggies (no need to cook or thaw them.) Mix chicken broth and corn starch, then add that to the chicken veggie mix. Add all of that to the pan with the bottom pie crust. Now add the top pie crust, making sure to pinch the sides all around so that the pie is closed. (Poke a few holes into the top crust with a fork to vent.) Beat the egg and then brush that over the top of the pie crust; I’m not sure what the point of this is, exactly, but my mother always did it, and it will make it shiny and beautiful. Throw a few more herbs on top of the pie for extra color. Parsley and thyme are nice choices.

Bake for 35 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Also, make sure you actually share some with your child. Seriously, don’t eat the whole thing yourself, k?

PS: Here is a lovely picture of the one that I made!
Enjoy!

The Spaghetti Incident

The other night, Owen was enjoying a veritable feast of baked chicken, peas, carrots, and shredded cheese (all served as finger foods) as well as some leftover strawberry puree from a few days ago that I was trying to get rid of. I generally try to eat dinner at the same time–occasionally eating the same thing that Owen has, although usually not. This has never been an issue before. However, as I sat down last night with Owen and began to eat my lovely bowl of whole wheat spaghetti with roasted garlic tomato sauce, all hell broke loose. My normally happy, obedient little 10 1/2 month old suddenly began to pitch a fit–grunting, whining, and gesturing wildly towards my bowl. This kid wanted spaghetti, and he wanted it NOW.

I’m afraid our baby food days are over, friends.

So what does this mean for the fate of chowdownbaby? Well, a lot more finger food recipes, as well as recipes more appropriate for baby-led weaning. My baby is growing into a toddler, and with him, this blog will be growing into a toddler-food blog. (That is, if I can ever get it together enough to write the actual blog!)

Anyway, cue the music and fasten your high-chair trays, because I think we’re in for an adventure.

Bananakin

So Owen (ie, the baby of “chowdownbaby”/my personal baby food guinea pig) will really only eat banana if it’s mixed with another fruit, and more often than not, I mix it with pumpkin. In my pre-mom life, it never would have occurred to me to mix those two foods together, but it’s pretty delicious. (One of these days I’m going to get my you know what together and make pumpkin banana bread–now, doesn’t that sound fantastic?)

Pumpkin and bananas are both very good choices for first foods for both baby and Mommy–mild-tasting and easy to prepare. You should know that bananas are known to be kind of binding (which, given your needs, can either be a positive or a negative attribute) and pumpkin is high in fiber, so the two sort of even each other out in that department. Bananas, of course, are extremely easy to find; however, pumpkins have a fairly short season (September to November) and actually making pumpkin from scratch can be rather time consuming. That being said, I see nothing wrong with using canned pumpkin. Farmer’s Market Foods offers a great organic canned pumpkin that I’ve been able to find in my “regular” grocery store (ie, not Whole Foods.)

To make Bananakin, you need:
1 can (organic) canned pumpkin
1 large (not necessarily organic) ripe banana

Combine pumpkin and sliced banana in your food processor and puree……(Go ahead. I’ll wait)……
Boom. Done. Baby food in under 2 minutes! See how easy that was?

Makes about 3 four oz servings.

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Stage 1 Food: Butternut Squash

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a number of “recipes” for some Stage 1 fruit and vegetable purees that are both easy to make and extremely nutritious. As you will see in forthcoming posts, I’m a big fan of mixing fruits and veggies together. Any two of these basic purees can be mixed to make a delightful new combination.

Butternut squash, like many other root vegetables, is a great source of vitamins A and C, as well as magnesium. It has a lovely, nutty aroma and a mildly sweet taste, making it a fantastic “first food” choice for baby. It also mixes well with other vegetables, including peas, carrots and corn.

You need:
1 container of (or one self-contained) butternut squash
1 Tbs butter OR 1/2 cup organic chicken or vegetable broth

So you can easily find pre-packaged, cut up butternut squash (particularly in the fall/winter months) and I see nothing wrong with using it. I will freely admit that I have never personally cooked a whole butternut squash before. I would imagine it would be time consuming….although, maybe not. However, I personally like to buy the pre-packaged butternut squash halves and slice them at home myself. It doesn’t take long and it does save a few pennies–plus you can control the size of your slices. And scientifically speaking, thinner slices cook faster, so you save on energy as well. *pats self on back*

So, with that being said….

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees
-Arrange sliced squash in a lightly buttered baking dish (or if you’re choosing to use the broth, add it after you put the slices down in the dish.)
-Bake, uncovered, for 35-45 minutes (depending on how much/how thick your slices.)
-Puree with a little water or broth until smooth

This is definitely one of Owen’s favorites!!!!

Cheesetina!

Mmmmm…..Cheesetina. Even better than X-Tina and definitely not as dirty. (Sorry, that was terrible. Well, it’s not like I didn’t warn you about my sense of humor.)

(Editor’s note: The above nonsense was a thinly veiled excuse for me to practice my cool new html skillz. Whut whut?)

Um…anyhoo…It’s basically baby food mac and cheese.

Cheesetina
4oz Pastina….(if you have organic or whole wheat pastina, that’s fantastic, but I have yet to find it anywhere.)
2oz shredded (organic) shredded cheddar cheese
1oz breast milk OR 1 scoop powdered formula (optional)

Cook pastina in boiling water (no salt) until very tender; about 6-7 minutes. Drain well and return to the pot.
Add breast milk or powdered formula; stir. (Again, optional. It does make it creamier, though.)
Add shredded cheese and stir until well blended.

Despite the fact that Owen doesn’t really care for it (eh, he’s just a baby, what does he know?) I happen to think this is a great little recipe. The best thing about it is that it makes a nice base for other foods, particularly strong tasting green vegetables like broccoli and spinach.

I would consider this to be a Stage 3 food, although if you puree it, it could easily work as a Stage 2 food.

Ridiculously Good Applesauce

Ok, I’m just going to put it out there: I make the best applesauce in the entire world. No lie. It can make a screaming baby start giggling with joy. It can make your significant other want to take out the garbage. It can even make some people seem less annoying. It’s THAT good. And you, lucky readers are about to get the coveted recipe. Yes, I love you too.

Ridiculously Good Applesauce

You need:
-6 or more (preferably organic) Gala apples (Sometimes I’ll mix it up and use Cortland, but I find that Galas are the best for applesauce. They’re the sweetest, and their flesh is nice and firm–rarely mealy. They peel quite nicely, too.)
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel and core apples, then wrap them in tin foil and put them in a baking dish (you don’t HAVE to put them in a baking dish, but even with the tin foil, these tend to get drippy and may leave stains on the bottom of your oven, so better safe than sorry. No one likes cleaning an oven.)
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the counter for about an hour. When cool, peel tin foil carefully from the top (because you want to try to save any juice, if you can.) Slice/pull apart apple flesh and place in blender or food processor. Add any juice that you’ve collected from the tin foil or the baking dish.
Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and nutmeg, and puree. No need to add water.

This is a GREAT puree to make in bulk, if you can set aside the time do it once every couple of weeks. Owen has applesauce for breakfast pretty much every morning. I usually mix it with organic baby oatmeal, although sometimes I mix it with another fruit puree and some Greek yogurt, or even with some ricotta cheese. The possibilities are endless. Seriously, you’re going to want to take a bath in this stuff. It’s THAT good.

Enjoy! (….Did I mention that it’s really good?)

Stage 1 food: Sweet Potato

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a number of “recipes” for some Stage 1 fruit and vegetable purees that are both easy to make and extremely nutritious. As you will see in forthcoming posts, I’m a big fan of mixing fruits and veggies together. Any two of these basic purees can be mixed to make a delightful new combination.

Sweet potatoes (also sometimes known as yams) are a wonderful root vegetable, rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and fiber. Their sweet taste and fluffy texture make them very appetizing for even new eater, so they’re a great choice for a “first food” for your little one.

Sweet Potato Puree:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Wash sweet potatoes well; pierce jackets several times with a fork
-Wrap in tin foil
-Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending upon the size of your potatoes
-Allow to cool on counter or in fridge for at least an hour, unless you really like to burn your fingers
-When cool, remove jackets. If your baby is new to solids, I suggest pureeing the sweet potato with some water, formula or breast milk. If your baby is a more experienced eater, you may not even need to puree–mashing with a fork might be enough.

A couple of notes about sweet potatoes: The smaller the sweet potato, the sweeter it’s flesh. So try to pick out the smallest/skinniest yams in the bin. This will also cut back on your cooking time, too. And because your baby won’t be eating the skin, you don’t necessarily HAVE to buy them organic.

Chicken Balls….or, How Not To Write A Recipe….

This is the first “recipe” I ever wrote. Verbatim. I had posted on my Facebook page that I had made “Chicken Balls.” (Cue my “Beavis and Butthead” 12 year old boy laugh.) A friend asked me for the recipe…..And because I’m not someone who can resist sharing my expertise (even when I’m far from being an expert on a subject) this was my reply:

You need:
–Ground chicken. I don’t know how much. The package cost $3.11. I don’t know how much the price was per pound. I suck at math and I can’t visualize, but I’m gonna guess it was 2/3 of a pound. And that’s probably accurate within a third in either direction.

–Some leeks. Maybe half of the white part of one leek. Minced.

–Organic whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs. The Whole Foods brand. Of course, you don’t have to use organic, but I’m weirdly paranoid that if I don’t feed Owen organic food, he’ll grow up to be a big fat loser. On the other hand, the chicken I bought wasn’t organic chicken, because I couldn’t fine organic ground chicken. And also, I was feeling rebellious. Against who, I don’t know….myself, probably. I’m in a Mompetition with myself.

–One egg yolk.

–Some Parmesan cheese, grated.

Sautee the leeks in some olive oil until transparent. While you’re doing that, combine all the other ingredients in a bowl. When the leeks are done, mush with your fingers until it’s all mixed together. Roll into individual “balls” of questionable shape and varying size. Return to the pan that you cooked the leeks in and sautee until they’re not pink in the middle and therefore, probably won’t give anyone salmonella or e-coli.

If you’re anything like me, the “meatballs” will A) fall apart and B) probably have to be put through the baby food grinder because you didn’t chop the leeks enough. But they will taste fantastic! Enjoy!!!

PS: They really were quite yummy. It was Owen’s first experience with leeks and only his second or third one with meat (he was about 7 1/2 months old or so at the time) but he did, in fact, chow down on these.

Just what the world needed….

…Another “Mom” blog. I can’t promise you this one will be different from the others, except that it may become glaringly obvious at some point that I don’t know what I’m doing at least half of the time (when it comes to cooking, blogging AND Mom-ing.) But, like a lot of people out there, I feel like I have something to say, so why not say it?
So, why home made baby food? Let me just say that I’m not here to criticize anyone who chooses to use the jarred stuff rather than make baby food from scratch. There are many reasons why a mom might not be down for the home made chow, and none of them are any of my business. I, too, will use the jarred stuff from time to time. But if “I can’t cook” and “I don’t have time” are your biggest reasons for not even trying to make your baby’s food from scratch, let me just say that it is NOT that hard and it is NOT that time consuming. I work full time, and it’s not as a chef. But from the first time I mashed and fed my (then 5 1/2 month old) son, Owen (see that’s his cute little face right up there!)  a ripe avocado, I became a addicted to how lovely and satisfying it felt to know EXACTLY what was nourishing his body…..Ok, hippie moment over. Sorry.

Suffice it to say, I am passionate about home made baby food and who knows, maybe in time, you will be too. So….here we go.