Banana Freeze {0 WW+ Dessert}

I first heard of this over on the Weight Watchers message board. And when I read it I had to go to Google and find a recipe to make sure it was real. Well... it was! And although the results weren't *exactly* like jumping into a pint of Ben & Jerry's it was pretty darn close. And my son couldn't tell the difference. His bowl was cleaned (and licked) within 5 minutes.

Since it's so easy to make I highly suggest you putting some bananas in the freezer now so you can make this in the afternoon. It's summer! You need a light and cool snack to refresh you and this is just the thing. And you might find that making it is pretty fun and kid/baby friendly too. Next time we make this I'm going to play with mix ins. I could imagine a handful of walnuts or some peanut butter chips would knock this treat out of the park!

Inspired By: The Kitchn

 

Banana Freeze Ice Cream

• 3 bananas

Peel bananas and dice into small pieces. Place banana pieces in a ziploc bag or a plate and freeze for 1-2 hours. Place frozen bananas in the blender and turn it on. When the bananas go up the sides of the blender scrape them down back into the bottom and wait for the magic to happen.

Once the bananas resemble soft serve ice cream transfer to a bowl, stick a spoon in and enjoy! If you'd like top with some chocolate syrup 

Pumpkin Puree

While out on our weekly shopping trip at Trader Joe's two weeks ago my son noticed the pumpkins they had everywhere and begged me to get one. So I, being the nice mommy I am, said of course! I threw in a pie pumpkin and let him hold it all the way from shopping to check out to the car. He had to place it on the seat when it came time to get his stickers but happily held it all the way home enjoying the "heby" pumpkin.

When we went to Trader Joe's the next week he insisted we buy another one. So of course I obliged and told him that we'd have to bake them up soon so we could make things with the pumpkin. He said "I hep" and I said of course. So I had to let him help me roast these up and puree them. And I'll also let him help when I start baking and cooking with the puree!

This is the exact same thing I did when I pureed pumpkin for him last year when he was eating purees and he LOVED it. You may want to strain it a bit more to get a smoother texture if your feeding it to a younger baby but the consistency of this puree was pretty smooth. 

Enjoy!

Source: Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food

Pumpkin Puree

• 2 sugar or pie pumpkins
• Lemon juice
• Water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut both top and bottom of pumpkins off. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds and stringy guts. Place seeds aside if you want to bake them up for a healthy, yummy snack for later (or to use as a topping on many pumpkin goodies).

Place cut and cleaned pumpkins in a baking dish with the skin side down. Sprinkle the pumpkin flesh with a little lemon juice (or butter if you prefer). Bake for 30-45 minutes or until flesh is soft and a little golden brown on the tops (very little). I baked mine for 35 minutes.

Set aside and let cool. Once cool to the touch remove skin from flesh with either a peeler or a pairing knife. I find it easier to use a pairing knife. The cooked pumpkin's skin should come off easily. Dice flesh up into cubes.

Place cubed pumpkin into a food processor and pulse until smooth. You may have to add a little water to get things going. I added about 1/4-1/2 a cup depending on the batch and how many cubes were in the processor at once.

Once the pumpkin is very smooth place it in a mesh strainer over a bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes to an hour to remove excess water from the puree. Once this is done the puree is ready to use! You can use it to make pies, muffins, and other sweet or savory dishes.

My little helper making sure he was a part of the whole process...

Adventures in Toddler Food: Apple Carrot Sauce

About two weeks ago the family went up to pick apples at an apple orchard just east of us. We brought home about 6 pounds worth of apples and I knew I wanted to make two things: applesauce and apple pie. Well, I made the applesauce yesterday and the dough for the pie is in the fridge for today!

Instead of keeping the applesauce as just apples I added some carrots in as well to give it more nutrition. My son LOVES apple carrot crushers from Trader Joe's and I just knew he'd love this mix. And guess what? I was totally right!

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Apple Carrot Sauce

• 8 small/medium or 4 large apples, skinned ,cored, and cut in quarters
• 6 carrots, trimmed, cleaned & cut into coins
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water

Skin, core, and cut your apples into quarters. Clean, trim and cut carrots. Add the pieces of apple and carrot into your crockpot. Add the juice from the lemon, and the water. Pour in the vanilla, and add the cinnamon and brown sugar.
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. When the apples and carrots are super tender, mash with a potato masher or large fork. Place the mash into a food processor or blender to blend into a smooth consistency (you do not have to do this but I like the texture of the blended sauce).

Serve and enjoy!

My son trying to lick the bowl before asking for more...

Adventures in Baby Food: Peaches

Peaches are another great food to start with if baby isn't quite 6 months. They're easy to digest, have a diuretic affect and act as a laxative. So if baby seem stopped up from rice cereal or another fruit/veggie, use these to get things going again :) Then everyone is happy (before becoming a mom I did not think I'd even be talking about these things!)

E loved the peaches. I really didn't doubt if he would like them though. He's liked everything we've given him so far. And he's a great eater. He lets you know when he wants more and and lets you know when he's done. He even is using his sippy cup in between "bites". This solids thing is getting more and more fun!

Source: Wholesomebabyfood.com



Peach Puree

• 4 small-medium organic peaches

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut peaches in half and take out the pits. Place peaches in a dish with 1" of water. Bake until soft or until the skin starts to peel up (roughly 20 minutes for me... shorter if the peaches are riper).

Let cool (I didn't wait for them to cool too much) and peel skin off. Place fruit in blender/processor and puree. Strain through strainer and, if needed, use cooking water to thin out or cereal to thicken up the puree.

Serve or store.



After feeding E his lunch I decided to make use of the mesh feeder we got with our food mill (still haven't used) and put an ice cube in there for him to gnaw on. It was GREAT! He loved it. And I didn't have to wipe him up too much from the puree because he had already sucked everything off by the time he was done with his ice cube!

Adventures in Baby Food: Carrots

I was at Trader Joes yesterday and picked up a bag of organic baby carrots for dinner tonight. We just finished off the last of the pears so I decided to try them with E. They were a big hit! He easily ate two tablespoons. He was making sounds almost the whole time :) He really likes this solids thing!

Solids are getting easier and easier to prepare. I can't wait to start making large batches to freeze once I figure out what he likes and what he doesn't like. But so far he's liked everything.

And in a month or so I'll actually be able to start making things more fun... you'll see more "spiced up" recipes :)

Source: my head



Carrot Puree

• organic baby carrots

Steam carrots until soft. Puree in food processor. Strain puree into a bowl. Divide into separate portions and serve.

Yup... it's that easy.

Adventures in Baby Food: Pears

E has had a bit of trouble staying "regular" if you know what I mean. And today I had to deal with a not so fun situation... 5 days of not "going" leads to a fun mess for Mommy to clean up. So I went in search of a solution to our solid food problem.

A few lovely mommy friends I "chat" with suggested a few solutions. One of which was pears. I hadn't even had pears on my radar yet for baby foods and was sticking with a list I saw somewhere listing rice cereal, sweet potatoes, avocado, & bananas as good starter foods for 4-6 month babies. I was a bit hesitant to veer off this list because we started E on solids at 5 months instead of the recommended 6 months.

But I did venture off that list today and E loved it! He downed 1/2 of the puree I made and wanted more! I didn't give him more since the serving was roughly 1/2 a small pear. This equaled 2-3 tablespoons of puree. This is definitely easy to whip up... under 20 minutes to steam, puree, and serve!

Source: wholesomebabyfood.com



Pear Puree

• 1 ripe pear (or more if you are doing large batches to freeze)

Peel, core and dice pear. Steam pear for 10 minutes or until a bit soft. Place in food processor and puree until there are no lumps whatsoever. Put pear through strainer just in case (you don't have to do this but I did). Allow puree to cool a bit and serve to baby! Store any left overs in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

Soon to be updated with a video of E eating the yummy puree!

Adventures in Baby Food: Sweet Potatoes

My sweet little boy is growing so quickly! He's been eating rice cereal for a week now and I thought he might like a little change. So I whipped up some sweet potatoes for him this afternoon to see how he'd like it. And he loved it! He was all grins and kept pulling the spoon in for more. I guess it was a success. We're going to stay with the sweet potatoes for now and than move on to avocados next weekend! Oh, the joys of baby food.

Source: Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron



Sweet Potatoes for Baby

• 3 small sweet potatoes or 1 large
• food processor
• strainer
• breast milk (no, seriously... it's an ingredient :))

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash sweet potatoes thoroughly (use a vegetable brush if needed). Poke holes all over potatoes and place them on a cookie tray covered with foil.

Bake for 45 minutes and let cool. Once cool, peel and pop into the food processor. The skins literally fall off after you pick at them. Process for about 30 seconds to one minute and scrape the edges of the bowl to make sure everything is processed.

Once everything is processed very well and there are no lumps whatsoever place the potatoes into the strainer and press through into a bowl. I used a small spatula to scrape off the potatoes on the other end of the strainer. Discard the lumps, bits, and strings left over in the strainer.

Mix 1-2 tablespoons of the sweet potatoes with enough milk to thin out to the right consistency and serve to baby.

Store left over sweet potatoes in air tight containers for refrigeration (lasts 2-3 days). Or use a freezer method. Do not store with breast milk. We're considering buying these when we start doing large batches of food. But we want to make sure E likes what we serve him before making huge batches :)



All stored and ready for tomorrow and Monday



YUM!