The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet (Giveaway ends 1/11/11)

UPDATE 1/13/11

Winner was selected by random number generator, and has been contacted. Thanks to all who entered!

Well, happy new year all! It has been a lovely start to 2011 already for our little family, and to celebrate, I have some fun for you all with a review and giveaway of The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet by Karin Knight and Tina Ruggiero.

Scroll to the bottom of this page for a sample recipe from the book.
Yes, the recipes include nutrition information. Hot.

So I will just remind you all I love making homemade baby food. It saves money, it's healthier for your child, and it is actually a good time. Obviously, I was ecstatic when I was asked to review this cookbook of homemade baby food recipes.

And I have to say, this book brings it. It's full (as in over 200) of recipes for babies of all ages. In fact, the book is broken up into "chapters" based on baby's age, complete with helpful hints to go along with each stage of food. The book answers a lot of questions parents ask in a short first chapter (Should I Go Organic or Not?), and it serves as a great compass in the ways of homemade food.

What I particularly love about this book is the great variety of recipes in it. I have been making my son's food from the start, and there were ideas in here that sound delicious that I had not thought of (and I was skeptical that nothing in this book would sound new to me). Sure, there are how-to recipes on simple purees, but there are also great ideas for using food in baby-friendly ways (like a strawberry omelette or green beans in cream cheese and yogurt).

These recipes are simple enough to make, but they are inventive so that your babies will enjoy them, and I firmly believe that getting kids to try a variety of foods at a young age will help them to have a more developed and adventurous kid palate. I know it could happen, but I am trying desperately not to have that kid who will not eat anything at the party just because he hates all food. And honestly, I know this book has opened new doors for me involving what I prepare for my son.

One other thing I just wanted to note is that this book is helpful in getting you into new foods for your little one. We are not a huge tofu-eating family so I am sort of intimidated when it comes to preparing it, and this book is totally unassuming of your experience with varied foods-- I felt good that I didn't need to be a vegetarian James Beard winner to know what to do with the tofu mentioned in this book because it points out what is what so that you can successfully prepare the right tofu (or whatever!) product for your kid.

The book is priced at $19.99 and was published in November 2010 so it's a hot new item out there in the baby market. And if you want to make your baby's food, I would buy this book as your go-to-- it really did impress me, and I was not paid to say that. It's hefty and worth the purchase.

And you can win a copy of The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet!
*Include your e-mail in every comment so I can contact you if you win!*

Option #1: Follow this blog (on the left hand side) and leave a comment.

Option #2: Follow @amomwriting on Twitter and leave a comment.

Option #3: Visit the book's website here: http://www.homemadebabyfood.net/ and tell me something you learned there.

Option #4: Tweet about this giveaway, including a link to this blog post (http://su.pr/1wFGTe), the title of the book, & @amomwriting. (as much as twice per day) Comment for each tweet.

Bon Appetit!

This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on January 11, 2011. All entries without an e-mail address included are disqualified.

I was given a copy of the book to review, but was not paid for opinions or this giveaway event. These opinions are mine and mine alone.

--

Excerpted with permission...

7 months: Orange You Cute Carrot and Sweet Potato

Baby carrots can also be cut into thin strips (julienned) and microwaved, steamed, or simmered until very soft and served as finger food. When cooked or served with a little unsalted butter, the fat helps the body absorb the carrots’ vitamin A.

Ingredients:
4 baby carrots
1⁄4 cup (60 g) peeled, cubed, and cooked sweet potato
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water

Microwave Method:
Cut the carrots lengthwise, then in half, and place in a small glass bowl with the cooked sweet potato and water. Cover and microwave on high 2 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then purée in a blender or mash with a fork. Use apple juice, breast milk, or formula if needed to achieve desired consistency.

Yield: 4 baby servings, 2 tablespoons (30 g) each

Each serving contains: 12.8 calories; 0.0 g total fat; 0.0 g saturated fat; 0.0 mg cholesterol; 7.1 mg sodium; 3.0 g carbo-hydrates; 0.5 g dietary fiber; 0.3 g protein; 5.0 mg calcium; 0.1 mg iron; 3009.2 IU vitamin A; and 2.1 mg vitamin C.

--The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet, 2010. Knight & Ruggiero.

Little Saint Nick...

Tonight is December 5th, which in my family and many family's traditions, it is St. Nicholas Night. We, like many children in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium (we're not German to my knowledge, but who cares!) put our shoes out in the hallway in the hopes that St. Nick will leave us a little something. And this year, the tradition continued from my childhood to Gabriel's!

He put out his shoes in his stylish Santa in Space pajamas (compliments of his MomMom and Grandad)...



He had a nice evening looking at books and reading with his Mommy and Daddy...




And then St. Nick stopped by with exactly what every little boy and girls wants... an organic brown rice yogurt bar and banana! I smile because my little man really does find these things to be a treat.



Nom. Nom. Nom.

Green your peanut butter.

I'm not a member of PETA, and you all know I like my free range meatballs and burgers, but I thought this was pretty cool...
PETA Butter. As in, peanut butter, from PETA.

Here's the deets straight from the source:
"To commemorate PETA's 30^th anniversary, Peanut Butter & Co. has created this special-edition "PETA Butter." It's vegan, gluten-free, and 100 percent natural with no trans fats, no cholesterol, no hydrogenated oil, and no high-fructose corn syrup. Made from pure, simple ingredients: peanuts and salt."

I LOVE peanut butter. I could probably eat a house of it, especially if paired with chocolate or strawberry jam. In fact, when it comes to pb&j, my husband and I should have bought stock in it years ago because it was our lunch staple for years.

PETA's argument for peanut butter is that it's protein and not meat. Mine is that it is delish. I have been doing some reading on it, though, and I am finding scary things in the traditional super market pb. As in, high fructose corn syrup (which I don't care what those commercials say-- it's not good for you). So when I saw this PETA butter and the fact that it's made with all-natural ingredients, my interest was piqued.

I'm thinking I might try it. Why not?

No Impact Week Day 4: Food

**If this is the first post you are reading on No Impact Week,
you might want to read this one to orient yourself.**

Sierra Club No Impact Week's Day 4 is food-focused.

And if you regularly read A Mom Writing, you know I have been working on greening our food habits for awhile.
Are we great at it? Not yet.
Are we better than we used to be? Holy wow, yes.

The key to local eating ** local= food grown within 250 miles of your locale** is in knowing where you live. I grew up in the town we live in currently, but I didn't know the farms in the surrounding area. I didn't know the farmers market dates. I didn't know a lot of things, but when I looked, I found it.

And FINDING it has made it possible for us to have the following local products on a regular basis:

1. Fruit: peaches, apples, berries, plums, tomatoes, etc.
2. Veggies: string beans, swiss chard, peppers, eggplant, cucumber, corn, etc.
3. Meat (as in of the grass-fed, free range kind): beef, lamb, chicken
4. Dairy: butter, cheese (limited choices on the cheese)
5. Bread: fresh-baked "green" bakery bread, rolls, etc.
6. Wine: a full range (but cranberry wine from Valenzano winery is my favorite)
7. Other (as in of the cage free, organic kind): eggs, herbs, flowers

I think it is important for me to mention now that you will find animal protein in our diet. We are not vegetarian or vegan, and while I think those eating habits are fabulous, our family is comfortable eating meat. We are not comfortable eating protein sourced from feedlots. We are not comfortable eating primarily corn-fed beef. Our feelings are that if the meat comes from a farm where animals are treated correctly and respectfully, without use of hormones or heavy use of antibiotics, we are happy eating it. Pastured protein is delicious and nutritious in moderation. We are always trying to develop alternative meal ideas for dinner featuring protein from beans or quinoa, etc., though.

WHERE did I find the information to get all of that food locally?

http://www.localharvest.org

An online directory of farms, CSAs, farmers markets, and events. Search by your zip code and see what is near you. I would have never known an alpaca farm is within 20 miles of my home if I hadn't searched. And if you look on here before your go on vacation, you can still eat farm fresh food on vacation (Yes, we did this. The picture below is from Ludlow, Vermont's Farmers Market)

0 0 0

Let's get real here. I'm not a green saint-- we do sometimes get take out (it's usually pizza from our favorite place), and we do eat some processed food. The point of this week was to avoid it as much as possible so obviously we have not and do not plan on eating anything other than home-cooked meals. But we still bought some packaged, processed food. Here is a list of the non-local things we bought:

cereal
organic milk
whole wheat pretzels
a giant bag of organic pears
a giant bag of organic sweet potatoes
sandwich-style wheat bread
luna bars
clif bars
organic yogurtturkey bacon
mozzarella cheese
chocolate chips
organic pasta
organic fair trade coffee
organic half & half

**We gave up bananas and avocados for the week. We were inspired to switch from plain old coffee to fair trade organic for now. We are not ready to eliminate coffee from our diet, and if you saw No Impact Man, it seems that was the hardest thing for Colin Beavan's wife Michelle to give up, too. We don't drink coffee on a regular basis, and we will savor our moments with it.**

The No Impact Manual highly suggests swapping the processed for the local, and I am sitting here staring at this list trying to figure out what I would do differently. From the ingredients we purchased this weekend, here are some samples of the meals we are and will eat this week (Gabe has bits and pieces of these meals, but he also eats many of the foods I have already made, frozen, and written about here). I have bolded eight ingredients for us to research finding and purchasing locally.

Breakfasts
Yogurt and Pear
Luna Bar
Cereal with Milk
Eggs with Cinnamon Toast
Local: eggs, butter
Not: ha, everything else.

Lunch One
Baked Potato with Tomatoes, Butter, Salt
Local: tomatoes, butter
Not: potato, salt

Lunch Two
Sweet Potato and Pretzels with Peanut Butter
Local: Nothing

Dinner One
Free Range Pork Chops with Cinnamon Apples and String Beans
Local: pork, apples, string beans
Not: olive oil, cinnamon

Dinner Two
Pepper Cheese Omelets or Swiss Chard Omelets (with or without Turkey Bacon), Plums, and Bakery Bread
Local: eggs, pepper, swiss chard, plums, bakery bread
Not: cheese, turkey bacon, salt, pepper

Dinner Three
Pastured Roasted Chicken with String Beans and Potatoes
Local: chicken, string beans, butter, rosemary
Not: potatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, lemon, olive oil

Dinner Four
Chili Con Carne
Local: ground beef, tomatoes, corn, carrots, green pepper, red pepper
Not: pinto beans, red kidney beans, salt, pepper, chili powder, hot sauce, cumin, olive oil

Dessert
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Local: butter, eggsNot: flour, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder

Are you seeing a trend? I'm seeing a lot of spices and baking ingredients as main offenders. Other issues? Those foods which are not in season or native to our area, such as lemons, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pears.



A Tip on Eating Local All Year Long
Make and freeze local ingredients while they are in season. I made my first batch ever of tomato sauce this week to freeze, and I will be doing one big batch this weekend as tomato season comes to a close. Other great foods to freeze are green beans, peas, and corn.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we pull the plug .
The power is going out (on everything possible).

Vote for YOUR Favorite Farm Market.

Have you headed over to the American Farmland Trust's website and voted for your favorite Farmers Market yet? Do it today here! Support local food.


"At the end of the contest, one small, medium, large, and a new category, boutique, farmers market will win the title of “America’s Favorite Farmers Market” for 2010. The reward for the winning market in each category will be a shipment of No Farms No Food® tote bags, along with other prizes including free printing services from igreenprint and free graphic design services from Virginia based design firm, SQN Communications. The categories are based on the number of vendors the farmers market has. The four categories are Boutique - 15 or fewer vendors, Small 16 - 30 vendors, Medium, 31 - 55 vendors, and Large, more than 56 vendors."

Sounds like a great reason to vote! If you shop local, support local.

The Tuna Calculator

Every so often, I visit the Environmental Working Group's website because it always has something fabulous like the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides or a list of Kid-Friendly Sunscreens. Today, I noticed for the first time, the Tuna Calculator.


I have always loved tuna, and when I was pregnant, I almost fell on the ground and threw a tantrum when my doctor told me I really shouldn't have any tuna, definitely no albacore.

Well, the tuna calculator still tells me not to eat albacore, but it also helped me know my limits based on my weight, etc., and gave me a nice little synopsis on the issues of tuna.

Check it out-- especially if you are a tuna eater!

P.S. You should enter the Yoreganics giveaway below.

You should go cheese tasting.

I am not a cheese person, but because I am so into the local food thing, I thought it would be a good experience to visit a cheese and maple syrup farm while in Vermont. I read that Sugarbush Farm of Woodstock, VT did free tastings and educational tours, and more than anything, I just wanted to understand the difference between each grade of Maple Syrup...


I got much more than I bargained for-- as in, I tasted fourteen cheeses (I skipped the 15th-- a blue), plus all four grades of syrup. The tasting was free and amazingly informative. I am discovering more and more that I am a food nerd, fascinated by the details of cheese preservation and the science of creating maple syrup (seriously gallons of tree sap go into just the drizzle on your pancakes!).


Here is the deal on the grades of Maple Syrup:

Fancy -- very sweet, thin, with delicate maple flavor
Medium Amber -- smooth, maple flavor, acclaimed as "most popular"
Dark Amber -- like the medium, but more serious, a little heavier
Grade B -- intensely flavored of maple, most commonly used in cooking

If I can help it, I will never purchase anything other than pure maple syrup ever again. The taste and the authenticity of the real stuff is absolutely worth it.

And so, we tasted, we purchased, Gabe met some farm animals, and I am pleased to say I have a pint of Medium Amber pure maple syrup in our pantry for our pancakes and some Mountain Jack, Sage, Maple & Hickory Smoked, and Aged Cheddar cheeses in the fridge. Gabriel even tasted his first cheese today, a little sampling of Mountain Jack-- (the VT version of Monterey Jack) he gobbled it like wild.

I find myself reminded that even your most 'unfavorite' foods are delicious when they are fresh and locally prepared. I highly encourage you to look around your area and find local food treasures to explore. And if you go to VT, please stop in at Sugarbush and try their cheeses and syrup. As for me, I'll be looking for some NJ cheese that stands up to the batch we brought home from the Green Mountains.

The Little Chicken that Couldn't.

This is a vigil for our cage free roasted chicken that never finished roasting because the power went out for four hours yesterday evening, and we had to trash it due to sanitation reasons.

::Pouty face::
(I really am extremely bummed about this.)

--

Also, I have fun news! We're prepping for our Vermont vacation. Don't worry-- there's internet access up there so I am sure I will not be able to restrain myself from posting. In other words, you all will be on the road with us.

AND within the next month I'll be doing a review of a really cool book for teens on the not so earth-friendly state of things-- Get Real by Mara Rockliff-- and review/giveaway of Yoreganics laundry and lip balm. Yum.

Stay tuned!

To Market, To Market.

Today, we went to the Farmers' Market. There is a new(er) one closer to us than the one we attended this morning, but I discovered there is a free range, grass fed dairy/meat farm at this market. And they take preorders online!






So, we got to the market as early as we could manage, got some iced coffee (WHEW! I got a huge pick-me-up from that caffeine. I'm still getting used to drinking coffee occasionally again after going cold turkey from pregnancy). We perused, we bought lots of produce, and we stopped by and grabbed our bag o' preorder. It was a seriously awesome family morning.

Here's the bounty, Jersey/PA (we're less than 20 miles from Philly) Fresh!

A. Small Peaches
B. Tomatoes
C. Red Potatoes
D. Italian Eggplants
E. Blackberries
F. String Beans
G. Yellow Summer Squash
H. Focaccia
I. Tuscan Wheat Rolls
J. Rosemary
K. 3 lb. Ground Beef in 1 lb. packs
L. 4.8 lb. Whole Chicken
M. 1 lb. Pork Chops
N. 1/2 lb. block Butter

Yummy.


Almost as yummy as my little one
sitting in his carseat, turning the pages of his favorite book, with his little feet crossed.

Food Edits: Thinking Green to Greener

Oh. Hi, Tower of Eggplant.

Looks delish, right? It was. And it was arguably a greener, healthier dish than I would have made years ago. However, I am in a big revamp stage in our cooking, and it has caused me to really identify how I can do better for our family.

Let's break it down by ingredient and origin.

Ingredients:
Eggplant, from farm roadstand
Mozzarella Cheese, from Whole Foods-- in the local section
Pasta, from Trader Joe's
Panko Bread Crumbs, from Trader Joe's
Basil, from our basil plant
Tomato Sauce, from a can (Hi, sodium!)

What's wrong here?
I can make bread crumbs. I can make tomato sauce. And I can find better options for pasta, maybe even from the farm market. I could take the cheese a step farther and get more personal as to who I buy it from.

What's not wrong here?
The recipe. Thanks, Mario Batali. I didn't follow it exactly, but who ever does?

I encourage you all to take some time to think about the little things you can do in your meals that might make them just a little more local and healthy.

Oh Joe and the O No! of Certified Organics.

I mention Trader Joe's often. Our family shops there weekly-- just as we also make a weekly or biweekly stop for a few items at Whole Foods (for Gabe's organic produce I can't find elsewhere, local cheese, and Nature's Rancher Chicken) and local farm stands (for as much of our produce as possible).

But the bulk of our packaged, frozen, dairy, and protein products all come from our weekly stop at Trader Joe's. Because of this, it obviously irked me when I saw a blog post referring to a May article in Sustainable Industries questioning Trader Joe's seemingly eco-friendly practices.

I came across the blog post because I had deliberately googled Trader Joe's organic practices. The more I read, the more I realize that the organic label is not necessarily the best promise on how sustainable a farm is. And since I fed Gabriel his first organic plain whole milk yogurt from Trader Joe's this morning, I thought, hmmm... I really should know where this milk originated.

And this article points out the problem with Trader Joe's. They do not disclose who their feeder farms are-- so they literally will not tell you where my baby's yogurt originated. And because they do not offer disclosure, it leads consumers to wonder if the low prices at Trader Joe's are actually due to their selling mostly Trader Joe's label products (cutting out the middle man and a lot of distributor mileage) or because their products are organic at a cost.

This brings up some issues with the organic "label," which I have not really discussed on my blog prior to now. Organic food is optimum when taking into consideration it is better to consume foods without pesticides, grass-fed meats, etc. But just because a farm is certified organic does not mean its practices are totally sustainable. For instance, and this is per my watching of the film No Impact Man (I'll post more fully on this later) last night, an organic farm might keep to organic standards, but they might not treat their cows as nicely as the non-certified farm down the street. And that non-certified farm may only not be certified because it costs so much money to go through the certification process OR because they do treat their sick cows with antibiotics as needed whereas certified organic dairy farms cannot treat their cows with antibiotics ever.

But let's remember that the certified organic label is helpful and an honorable thing for a farm, and it is a clear indication to a consumer that a product does meet a certain standard. There are lobbyists trying to extinguish or lax the standards for the organic label, and that prospect is much scarier than the current pitfalls in organic certification. Many organic advocates want more stringent standards. You can go here for more information on organic certification.

When Trader Joe's will not disclose the farms used for their organic food, the question is raised: Are the locales a secret for the sake of competition (and that's almost fair-- Trader Joe's sure does have the best prices for the coolest food around. Why jeopardize losing customers by telling other companies where to go get the same product base?) or for the sake of keeping secrets from their eco-minded consumers? "No comment," is never a good answer.

While reading these articles will not deter me from shopping at Trader Joe's, it is going to again ramp up my efforts to purchase more local food. When it's local, you can go step onto that farm and see things for yourself. There is full disclosure because there are no closed doors. As a journalist, I see transparency as required, so why shouldn't I expect that of my food?

In any case, we'll be taking our first trip to a new(er) local farm market this Saturday, and it will be the opening of our more official dedication to local food. And that will be including our protein and dairy and whatever else we eat. It's time to take our food revolution to the next level-- local.

Incredible Edible Eggs

In our house, it seems the egg comes before the chicken, for Gabriel anyway.

As in, Gabriel had his first scrambled eggs this morning. As an eight-month-old, he is generally considered to be ready for egg yolks. Not egg whites-- that's best reserved for the one-year-old-- so skip the whole egg and separate the yolks out for your younger babies.

I mixed two egg yolks with about .5 oz. of breastmilk, and then I poured it into the skillet to cook. It was a weird consistency, though they looked like your average more-yellow-than-white eggs. Gabriel didn't eat too much, but he was interested so we shall see if he starts to eat them as a breakfast/dinner protein option.

For more information on the health benefits of eggs for babies and some egg babyfood recipes, head to Wholesome Baby Food's egg section here.

Naturally Vanilla Patriot Cake.

Happy Belated Fourth of July!

And with that in mind, here's my recipe for the absolutely delicious flag cake above. Yes, a cake with berries. I know with my berry obsession you are all very surprised.

Ingredients

Cake
2 boxes baked Trader Joe's All Natural Vanilla Cake in a 13 x 9 pan, cooled

Filling
1 10-16 oz. bag Trader Joe's Very Cherry Berry Mix, defrosted
1/4 c. water
2 tbsp. sugar
2-3 tbsp. flour


Whipped Cream
2.5 c. Heavy Cream
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla

Toppings
Whole Lotta Strawberries, hulled and sliced thin
Plenty o' blueberries, preferably organic

Directions

1. Once the cake is baked, start working on the filling. Pour the thawed berries into a large sauce pan, add sugar, add water, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, let the berries cook for about ten minutes. I was inspired to make my own filling after reading this raspberry filling recipe.

2. Pour hot berry mixture into food processor and pulse until it turns into a puree.

3. Push puree through sieve to rid the berries of seeds.

4. Pour the puree back into the sauce pan and begin heating again. Add flour to thicken. Once heated and thicker (filling should not slip through fork), pour into bowl and set aside.

5. While the filling cools, slowly release cake from 13 x 9 pan in order to slice it. Cut it in half. Then, turn knife sideways and slice cake in half so that filling can be placed between layers.

6. Return the bottom layer of the sliced cake to the pan, and spread the filling. Once the filling is spread, place the top layer of the cake back into the pan.

7. Place cake in refrigerator and covered until a few hours before serving. When it is within a few hours to serve, it is time to make the homemade whipped cream and decorating.


8. Make the homemade whipped cream. In order for cream to whip as nicely as possible, chill the bowl and mixing utensils for about twenty minutes before making the whipped cream.

9. While my sugar to cream ratio is less different from Paula's, I used Ms. Deen's directions here. Pour 2.5 c. heavy cream into chilled bowl. Start mixing on low speed with hand mixer. Slowly add 1/4 c. sugar and 1 tbsp. vanilla. As cream thickens, raise the speed of the mixer. Keep mixing until the cream is fairly thick, but be careful not to go too far or you will get butter.


10. Spread whipped cream over cake. You will have extra whipped cream to put on the side with fresh berries.
11. Decorate the cake with the berries.


12. Chill, slice, and serve. It's light and rich at the same time, so be ready for a serious treat.

Milk for Mama.

I've always liked milk. I like it skim, whole, as ice cream, half and half, chocolate, soy, strawberry, almond, in my coffee, in my chai tea, you name it. I'm a milk-loving girl, and so far, my bones seem to be strong so I will stick with the mentality that milk does a body good.

There's a lot of controversy over whether milk should be consumed pasteurized (or not), and I am starting to research that topic, but I'm a newbie to that debate so my opinions on that are far from worth reading.

What IS worth your reading or seeing or really TASTING is the smoothie I made for myself this afternoon.


Firstly, I used nonfat REAL frozen yogurt (made from all natural cows) alla Trader Joe's. This is not your typical "frozen yogurt." It is tangy, tart, and tantalizing-- so much so that it is kind of hard to eat without fruit.

The yogurt was awesome with strawberries last week, but I decided to shake things up (and literally put Gabe in his crib with music and toys, the door shut while I blended to avoid his fearful screams of blender use) by mixing the yogurt with some frozen organic wild blueberries and an organic banana.

It was AWESOME. So fresh and energizing. It was just what the doctor ordered after working the early part of the day and heading into Gabriel's bewitching hour.

The recipe?
Well, I didn't measure, but...

A little less than 3/4 c. frozen yogurt?
About 1/2 c. frozen organic wild blueberries?
1 banana. I know this.

It made the amount I have in the glass, minus a bite. *Wink.*

Bon Appe-yogurt!

Boy, Meet Watermelon.

Boy meets watermelon.

Boy inspects and mutilates watermelon.

Boy eats watermelon.


Thank you for joining us in this adventure of baby led solids.

Got A Lot of Eating To Do

My Mom is borrowing my camera so my post on 'my not so green thumb' is now postponed until I can snap a shot of my ailing plants. So what am I doing instead as my little one takes an actual nap in his crib? Reading about his food.

I decided I wanted to do homemade babyfood while I was pregnant, and I remembered the other day I had cut out a list from a magazine (most likely American Baby, Parents, or Parenting) inspired by Dr. Greene's suggestion to introduce a taste from all 21 plant families before age one. I just refreshed myself on food for baby with the list and reading this great article from Dr. Greene on homemade babyfood.

In any case, I was sitting here looking at this list thinking, boy, we've got a lot of eating to do (yes, please hum that to "Got a Lot of Livin' To Do" from Bye Bye, Birdie -- sidenote: when my sister was in high school, she was the cutest 'Kim McAfee' there ever was.)

So this list suggests G eat something from the following groups (I'm listing what Gabe has tried underneath the groups in italics. Foods yet to try are plain. Foods I really want G to try before age one are in color.) I went here for further reference. I still am sort of confused on family names and things so this list is not comprehensive of all the tastes Gabe will try.

Mushrooms - yet to try
Portobello mushrooms

Bromeliads - yet to try
Pineapples

Woody Trees - check!
-Bananas

Cruciferous Vegetables - yet to try
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Mustard
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Collards
Turnips

Myrtles - yet to try
Guava
Cloves

Umbrellifers - check!
-Carrots
Celery
Dill
Parsley
Fennel
Parsnip

Health Plants - check!
-Blueberries
-Cranberries

Legumes - check!
-Peas
-Green Beans
-Chick Peas
-Soy beans
-Lentils

Gourds - check!
-Zucchini
-Pumpkin
-Butternut Squash
-Summer Squash
-Acorn Squash
-Watermelon
-Cucumber
-Cantaloupe
-Honeydew

Composites - yet to try
Escarole
Lettuce
Artichokes

Sesames - yet to try
-Sesame Seeds (hmm... maybe some sesame seasoning?)

Lilies - yet to try
-Asparagus

Rosy plants - check!
-Apples
-Apricots
-Peaches
-Pears
-Plums
-Cherries
-Strawberries (age one)
-Raspberries (age one)
-Blackberries (age one)

Grapes - yet to try
-Grapes

Citrus Plants (age one) - yet to try
-Orange
-Grapefruit

Nightshades - yet to try
-White Potatoes (I made a potato puree that turned out HORRIBLY. Take two coming soon.)
-Eggplants
-Peppers
-Tomatoes

Laurels check!
-Avocado

Amaranths - yet to try
-Spinach
-Swiss Chard
-Quinoa (I really want to make G a quinoa cereal sometime soon.)

Loosestrifes - yet to try
Pomegranate (Maybe G will get some Pom. juice at age one. I don't understand how he could eat this otherwise, as yummy as I find the seeds in my champagne.)

True Grasses - check!
-Barley
-Oats
-Brown Rice

Bindweeds - check!
-Sweet Potatoes

Where do these go?
Mint
Mangoes

Um, we are 9/21. We've got a lot of eating to do! Gabriel is eight months today, and we started solids just over two months ago so 9/21 is not too bad of a showing for that schedule. And with Gabe's reflux, I've been reluctant to introduce him to foods which are reportedly gas-inducing or harder to digest like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, etc. But that little tummy matures every day, and this little man is getting ready for a real smorgasbord of food!

Things that Make Me Smile.

First of all, Trader Joe's puts together a little pack o' guacamole produce just the right size for a small get together. Yum.


Secondly, my Dad (as in, my Dad is super cool) sent me this blast from the past (1950s) today:


Clearly, I need to start drinking more beer so that I AND Gabriel can get a little pick me up. *Snicker Snicker*

Happy Weekend!!

A Gentleman at the Table

Basically, he stole his bowl and spoon and said,
"Mom, I got this. All over me."

Juice Boxes: Friend or Foe?

My husband and I inherited a red 1996 Thunderbird a few years ago, and my husband loves it. We bought a second car when I started working part-time because the amount of driving I would have to do in the morning would have been insane with one vehicle. Well, our precious little T-Bird decided to you know, um, die, last week so we are a one car household for a week or so. (We are so, so, so lucky that we are getting another car for a very minimal cost. Family is amazing.)

In any case, if I am driving, I am either listening to NPR or a random mix CD we burned for our drive to Shenandoah. I just love NPR. It's bursting with such interesting, diverse stories. And I cannot lie-- sometimes my most peaceful moment of the day is as I drive a snoozing Gabriel home from work, listening to All Things Considered, Fresh Air, you-name-it.

ANYWAY, in the annoying suburban traffic to and from dropping my husband off at the train and to and from work, babysitter, pediatrician, who-knows-what today, I listened to NPR as usual.


And then comes this story. About JUICE. About LEAD. ABOUT KIDDIE JUICE WITH LEAD IN IT. I wrote all that obnoxiously bigger because it is totally fine to start reading this entry from this point (especially if you are bored by my droning on an on about our family car issues and my potential unhealthy love of driving while listening to NPR.)

What's in my juice?

I write about making homemade babyfood all of the time. And when I hear stories like this, I am so glad I am trying to keep my kiddo on unprocessed, organic food made from scratch. Sure, I have given him organic banana puffs to help him learn the pincer grasp, and yes, we buy Earth's Best baby cereal because I just am not up for grinding oatmeal myself (who knows? maybe now that I wrote this I will feel challenged to try it), but most everything he eats is organic and made by Mommy.

But no matter how glad I am that most of what he eats right now is homemade organics, I know that as he gets older it will not only become easier to feed him processed food, but it is going to get more difficult to intercept the processed food from reaching him. And let it be known that the lead-contaminated juice mentioned in the NPR story was not just conventional juice-- some of it was organic. Organic food does not prevent all hell from breaking loose. (I do think homemade whole food has a lot to do with preventing bad food from getting into a child's diet, though.)

I started joking around that I wanted to get a juicer (I've wanted one for me for a long time) for the baby --so that he could have juice fresh from fruit without any added sugar-- just a little while ago. I say I joked about wanting it because when the words came out of my mouth to my husband, I thought, "Is this healthy or is this overprotective?"

And now I hear this story about LEAD in KIDDIE JUICE, and I think to myself, "NO! I am not being overprotective! Manufactured foods are RIDICULOUS."

I am sure there is more to come on this story, and I will keep on reading and educating myself, but suffice it to say, my husband stopped laughing about me asking for a juicer tonight.

We Flew Over to the Organic Farmstand.

Is there anything better than a pay-as-you-go farmstand?

We stopped by a local organic farm this afternoon for a fresh treat or two, and we decided to grab a little box o' peas. The box was $2.00. Not a bad deal for the freshest, sweetest eat-'em-like-you-see-'em little peas I ever tried. I cannot wait to cook some and mush them up for Gabriel!




We'll be visiting this farm quite a few times over the summer and fall so stay tuned for more fresh, local, organic produce posts!