Baby's Shepherd's Pie?

All 3 of the Sandler babes are getting BIG!

When the boys first started solids I was able to get away with cooking every other day or so.  Not anymore.  My once tiny newborns are now 9 months old and weighed in at 22lbs, 5ounces EACH at their 9 month check up.  They are each 29 1/2 inches tall.  In other words, we have some big boys!  And these boys need fuel to keep up with their serious growing.  They eat a ton.  I am seriously scared to see what my grocery bills will be like when they are teenagers!

Tonight I wanted to make something quick and easy for their dinner tomorrow.  I spotted a bag of frozen peas and a bag of frozen corn in my freezer, along with ground turkey that I had already cooked up.  Perfect!  There was something familiar in these ingredients....I love shepherd's pie prepared with turkey.  I ate this for lunch alot when I was pregnant with the boys.  It's such a good comfort food.  I could steam carrots with the peas and corn and put the puree on top of white mashed potato.

The boys love "baby mashies."  I steam diced potato and mash it with about 2 oz of their formula.  The formula makes the mashies creamy just like we add milk and/or butter to our own mashed potatoes.  You can add alot to baby mashies: corn, spinach or even a half sweet potato and half white potato.  Add a protein too and you will have one happy baby with a nice full tummy!

A note on corn: corn is great for a bit of protein and carbohydrates which makes it a good food for energy.  Other than that, corn has no other nutritional value and considered "empty calories."  Don't give your baby a meal of just corn.  I always use a small amount of corn.  It is sweet and it thickens up some of our thinner dishes.  Corn will also be a good finger food down the road.

In the interest of time, I whipped up peas/corn/ground turkey and added a bit of cooked white rice that I made for our chili dinner.  It's a hearty, thick meal my boys will really enjoy!  We'll do Baby Shepherd's pie when we have a little more time to prep and gourmet it up.

Island chicken

Of all the things I mix with chicken, I wanted to focus on a dish I like to call Island Chicken.  It's chicken breast mixed with mango and papaya.  My Mom and my sister, Erica, threw me a magnificent bridal shower 6 years ago.  The food was delicious and one of the main dishes was Mango Chicken.  It stood out in my mind because of it's sweetness.  The boys don't have a problem eating chicken and veggies but I thought, what a treat for them- sweet, yummy chicken!

Papaya is sweet and high in vitamin C, A and E.  It is also very high in fiber.  This is a reason why papaya is not recommended as a 1st food.  Introduce papaya after your babe's tummy has digested the classic 1st foods well and proved strong.  Honestly- papaya smells awful.  This is why I spend the extra money and buy papaya already cut up.

Mango is high in vitamin A and fiber.  It also contains a higher level of carotenoids than any other fruit.  Carotenoids are a naturally occurring pigment that gives the fruit or vegetable the red, yellow or orange color.  Carotenoids aid in preventing vitamin A deficiency.  They are also a powerful antioxident and thought to give the immune system a major boost, even helping to ward off the common cold.  This is great news for those of us who have 3 year olds in school, bringing home icky germs!  I buy mango already cut up.  I once bought a whole mango, let it ripen and attempted to cut it up.  It took forever and was extremely tedious...and slippery.  I love to cook but my knife skills are not that of a chef!

August and Jude also enjoy the papaya/mango combo for breakfast or a "dessert" after lunch.  Papaya/pear was another winner as is each fruit on it's own.

August and Jude hold hands while they eat alot!

Other favorite chicken dishes:

Sweet potato/corn/chicken

Butternut squash/apple/chicken

Zucchini/carrot (or apple or pear)/chicken

peas/rice/chicken

eggplant/potato/chicken

The green machine(s)

Green veggies get a bad rap, especially with kids.  In one of Juliet's favorite books, Pinkalicious, young Pinkalicious' skin turns pink after eating too many pink cupcakes.  The only antidote is a diet of green vegetables only.  She "chokes down artichokes, gags on grapes and burps up Brussel sprouts."  Juliet thinks this is hilarious.  She also refuses to eat most anything green.  I am guilty of this myself.  Most mornings, Joel makes himself a green smoothie, complete with spinach and kale.  I tease him relentlessly but it is really healthy and an easy way to get the benefits of leafy greens.  I just can't bear the thought of drinking spinach!  But, I am really the one missing out on the healthy goodness.

August gives peas a chance!

Jude loves his green goodness!

Peas are a great first green food for babies.  Juliet did not enjoy peas but August and Jude loved them from the start.  They are pleasant to eat.  1 cup of peas contains more protein than 1 tablespoon of peanut butter.  Peas are also packed with calcium, vitamin A and iron.  I buy frozen organic peas, steam and puree them.  The boys have enjoy peas mixed with a ton of different veggies and fruits: carrots, zucchini, apples.  I gave them their first taste of beef mixed with peas.  Peas can be chunky when pureed so if you want a smoother blend, rinse them in cold water first.

Green beans are another good first green food for babies as they are a low allergy risk food.  Green beans are high in calcium, vitamin K and vitamin C.  The first time I bought green beans, I found them already trimmed, washed and bagged at Whole Foods.  I cut them in half and steamed them with peas and Jude and August really enjoyed the combo.  The second time I decided to buy frozen and that was a huge mistake.  I may have gotten a bad bag but the frozen green beans smelled awful and pureed into the chunkiest, nastiest mix that I could not feed to my babies.  Now I just buy them fresh and a favorite combo is green beans/carrot/squash.

I wanted to give spinach to my lil Popeyes but, to me, it tastes so bitter.  I decided to mix it up with butternut squash to start and the combo was a raving success!  I couldn't believe it.  This is the combo that started the name "green machine!"  After a few tries with this puree, I learned to add more butternut squash and not go too crazy with the spinach.  Spinach has a ton of calcium and is a great source of iron and vitamin A.  I buy organic frozen spinach though I have read that fresh is probably a better idea.

Whether your kids gobble down greens or not, they will all grow up healthy and strong!  Here are my 3 loves on Halloween.

 

August is a gourmand

I decided to start making baby food with the premise that I wouldn't make 100% of their food.  I wasn't sure that I would have the time to make absolutely every last bite.  I thought making their food would be a fun project and not necessarily a must for their health.  I am far from a purest in any realm of my babies' lives.  No way is "the best," just "better" for us.

I made everything fresh for a little over one month.  Then the day came when I didn't have time to make lunch for the next day, which was a protein meal.  When I was at Whole Foods the next morning, I picked up a jar of Earth's Best sweet potatoes and chicken and a jar of fruit.  I figured no problem, I'll just warm it up like I do with the homemade food.  Well, I was WRONG.  Beyond wrong.  My happy little eater, August, was angry.  He cried.  He yelled.  He snarfed, spit it out and waved his arms in the air.  He made an array of pitiful faces ranging from disgust to fury!  I felt awful.  Jude, on the other hand, happily ate every last bite.  That is just so Jude.

After this debacle, I got to thinking why the harsh reaction?  I did a little research and found some interesting facts.  Processed baby food is cooked at extremely high temperatures to kill bacteria and extend shelf life.  This food can be stored in jars at room temperature waiting for someone to buy it.  And the average shelf life of a jar of baby food is 2 years.  This process not only kills bacteria, it kills taste and compromises essential vitamins and nutrients.  The smell and color is also different.  While babies do not have the refined palates of adults, smell and color do contribute to their dining experiences and get them excited about their meal.  I notice my fresh carrots are a much more vibrant orange compared to jarred carrots which always looked a bit watery to me too.

My conclusion is that there nothing wrong with jarred food.  Juliet ate jars of Earth's Best and she thrived.  I spoiled my boys with food and August took to it!  He does not want to "go with the flow" when it comes to his grub.  He wants a fresh, homemade meal.  What man doesn't?!  Now I am sure to always make time to cook for my little gourmands!

"hey brother, you think she's giving us the good stuff?!"

You can't beat beets!

Beets are often neglected in the preparation of babyfood.  Beets have a smooth texture, great color and taste sweet and delicious.  They are also packed full of important nutrients like calcium, potassium and Vitamin A.  Beets also have alot of fiber.  2 medium sized beets contain 2 grams of fiber.  And speaking of the effects of fiber, don't be alarmed if your baby's poop is pinkish or redish the next day.  Jude had a little red surprise for me the day after he had beets!

Select small or medium sized beets.  Larger beets can be tough and woody in the center.  Medium sized beets also taste better.  If you purchase beets with the leafy greens still attached, do not feed them to your baby.  They can be difficult for even adults to digest.

This is the beet I bought.  There was a bin full of loose beets at Whole Foods.  I know, it's weird looking!  To prepare this bad boy, I simply boiled it for an hour.  This is the best way to prepare beets.  Removing or puncturing the skin before the beet is cooked will result in loss of nutrients and flavor.  It is also the easiest way to cook them- the skin will literally slide right off after it is cooked.  After the skin is removed, dice up your beets and puree!  Our first beet puree was beets mixed with ground turkey.  August and Jude loved it!

2 satisfied customers!

As Hurricane Sandy approached New York City, my family and I were evacuated.  We live in lower Manhattan in North Battery Park City- the infamous Zone A.  We packed up our car and trekked to my parents on Long Island.  Not really a better option, but we had no choice.  I barely had any food prepared for the boys so I packed up my Beaba Baby Cook, amongst countless other things, and we hit the road.  We sat glued to the news as I cooked up a storm as this disaster of a storm slowly approached.  I finished up just as the power went out.  One of the dishes I prepared was "Purple Potatoes:" beets and white potato.  They loved it.  This time I actually found pre washed, cooked and packed beets at Whole Foods.  All I had to do was dice, steam and puree.  In the future I would also add an apple or a pear or carrots for added eye appeal.

Purple potatoes!

 When the boys are a bit older, roasted beets will make a colorful and healthy finger food for them.  

Sources:

Homemade Baby Food Recipes

Wholesome Baby Food