Division of Responsibility and Baby’s 1st Lentil Veggie Stew

Good morning and Happy St. Patty's Day!!

I was recently reading this book on baby recipes (go figure eh? Haha) and there were some stats on what the average toddler eats, I almost fell off my bike while I was reading (I will sometimes double my cardio w reading) so I had to look up the study for myself so here it is…

Feeding infants and toddlers study: what foods are infants and toddlers eating?

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, January 2004, Vol 104, supp 1, p 22-30

This was a descriptive analysis, based on a national random sample of 3,022 infants and toddlers age 4 to 24 months.

Here is a summary of the results:

• 18% to 33% of infants and toddlers between ages 7 and 24 months consumed no discrete servings of vegetables
• 23% to 33% consumed no fruits
• French fries were one of the three most common vegetables consumed by infants 9 to 11 months of age, by 15 to 18 months, french fries were the most common vegetable
• Almost half (46%) of 7- to 8-month-olds consumed some type of dessert, sweet, or sweetened beverage, and this percentage increased as age increased
• By 19 to 24 months, 62% of toddlers consumed a baked dessert, 20% consumed candy, and 44% consumed a sweetened beverage

Here is a summary of the applications:

• parents and caregivers should be encouraged to offer a wide variety of vegetables and fruits daily, with emphasis on dark green, leafy, and deep yellow vegetables and colorful fruits
• offer desserts, sweets, sweetened beverages, and salty snacks only occasionally, offering nutrient-dense, age-appropriate foods as alternatives (eg, fruit, cheese, yogurt, and cereals)
• water, milk, and 100% fruit juices should be offered as alternative beverages
• family-based approaches to developing healthy eating habits may be helpful as family food choices influence what foods are offered to children

Ok so what are your thoughts?

I am glad that I have had a few days to digest this because I was unable to respond earlier as my jaw was on the floor, maybe that is because I am somewhat naive we know that the rates of childhood obesity have soared in recent years I guess I just didn’t think that it would happen that young…but of course everyone is different but I honestly can’t believe by 18 months french fries were the most common vegetable I am assuming they weren’t sweet potato fries? Haha and sweets and candy oh my!!! This research is going on 7 years old so it would be interesting to see how that has changed in recent years – sounds like a PhD dissertation… ;-)

So how much should a ‘toddler’ eat? What is a toddler portion?

I said that I wasn’t going to call Julia a toddler until 18 months but it seems as though I am… kinda but not really :-) 

As we have learned 1^st hand in recent weeks, toddlers can become very picky eaters, they will have their favourites and eat nothing else as a mother (or father) you want to make sure that they eat something so how do you not fall into the trap of catering to their eating?

On average a toddler serving is about ¼ of an adult serving, so we first need to know how much an adult serving is as many people are not sure what constitutes  a serving size, for example according to Canada’s Food Guide 1 piece of bread is 1 serving therefore; ¼ slice of bread is a toddler serving. With this in mind it is important to have realistic expectations of how much your toddler should eat, it is also important to make every bite count towards their daily nutrient requirements, so we want to focus on healthy food choices you give your child choices and then they will decide on how much they will eat, this is the concept of 'division of responsibility' which Ellyn Satter has devoted a program of research to.  In brief parents decide what to buy where and how and when to serve it children will decide the amount if any they will eat, this can be a challenging concept to get your head around, but at the same time you are helping your child to become a competent eater.  Below is quoted from Ellyn's website:

Fundamental to parents' jobs is trusting children to decide how much and whether to eat. If parents do their jobs with feeding, children will do their jobs with eating:

• Children will eat
• They will eat the amount they need
• They will learn to eat the food their parents eat
• They will grow predictably
• They will learn to behave well at the table 

Well that all sounds simply... but when your child is refusing everything that you give them and then you start catering to the things that they will eat you have missed the boat on division of responsibility so I think that this is a great concept but it takes some practice to follow.

So now that we have established the division of responsibilty what are the daily nutritional requirements for toddlers this is a vary brief overview I will follow up posting more detail.

6 servings of grains 
3 + servings of fruits and veggies
2 servings of protein 
3 servings of milk (1 serving = 1/2 cup of milk)

 

Well I hope that clarifies some things about feeding toddlers.

 

So now on to the recipe of the day I guess you could even call it "IRISH" stew to fit for St. Patty's day haha...

Simply Pure Baby’s 1^st Lentil Veggie Stew

This simple health stew doubles as a perfect meal for the rest of your family, full of veggies, protein, fibre and flavour.  You could even prepare the night before and put in your slow cooker on low for a ready to eat meal at the end of a busy day.

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1 cup of veggie stock (homemade)

¾ cup grated celery root

3 bay leaves

½ tsp dried rosemary

¾ tsp turmeric

6 red potatoes washed and sliced, skin on

6 carrots peeled and sliced

2 cups of frozen peas (fresh would work)

2 cups of frozen green beans (fresh would work)

2 cups of cooked lentils I used brown lentils (depending when you add them you could use uncooked but would need to increase the water accordingly)

Fresh ground pepper to taste

4-6 cups of water for desired thickness (may also use stock)

1)      Sautee onion, garlic in evoo, once fragrant stir in grated celery root, rosemary and turmeric, once mixed add stock and bay leaves.

2)      Add in 4 cups of water, potatoes and carrots bring to a boil, simmer 25-30 min until soft depending on the size of your veggies, add peas, green beans, lentils and additional water as needed for desired consistency

3)      Once warmed through add fresh ground pepper to taste, reserve a portion for yourselves add the remaining into your food processor or use a hand held blender and puree to desired texture, fill ice cube trays, freeze and store

Options:

-          You could grate all your veggies for quicker cooking, I was making this to double as our meal so it worked out to puree it afterwards

-          Add 1 cup of chopped parsnips, turnip or sweet potatoes may have to adjust water

-          Next time I may add some barley to make it a complete meal with a serving of grains, for now I stir in some of Julia’s barley cereal and it works wonderfully 

This is the 1st time that I have ever made "stew" to be honest I don't even really like the word "stew" I just think of some bowl of over cooked veggies with chunks of meat in it haha... but this recipe changed the meaning of "stew" for me so I know have this idea to create a Caribbean type stew... here is the end product Before Puree...

 

 After Puree:

 

Side by Side:

I froze the extra portions in my ice cube trays as I would anything else... freezes well and Julia (& daddy) loved it a perfect well balanced family meal.


Duty calls I can hear my princess waking up we have some St. Patty's day surprises to do for daddy so we must get busy, here are your questions for today.  

What do you think about the results of the toddler eating study? Do you think that it would be different if repeated now? And "division of responsibility" any thoughts?

I leave you with a flash back to last St. Patty's day... I wonder how that hat sizes up now only one way to find out... stay tuned!!

 

DIY Baby Food PART 2 of 2 & Cupcakes

Well I have returned from my "blog-ation"... it was not intention things just got a bit hectic, I suppose one could say that starting a blog at the same time as retuning to work and transitioning your daughter into daycare is a fairly hefty feat.  It's been about 6 weeks now since I have been back to work, Julia is doing wonderful at daycare and we are really starting to see her personality shine - priceless!! The other day when I dropped her off she went right to the caregiver happily… which was fantastic but almost made me cry haha going back to work after a maternity leave is probably one of the biggest adjustments a family makes after the initial adjustment to having a baby of course ;-)

While being on mat leave you anticipate that dreaded ‘first’ day back to work for months… when we talked about me returning to work one of the things that I wanted to strive for was BALANCE - something I never really had before prior to pregnancy I was a complete work-a-holic and from the time our daughter was born my husband and I agreed that I would only return back to work part-time, and although it has only been 6 weeks I feel that this is going to work well... it allows me time to do all the things that are important to me - well kinda sorta you know what I mean... I am one of those people who always tries to do too much so I have also been making an effort to "balance" all the things that I want to do "I don't have to do everything everyday" and I tell myself this so I try to space things out.  There are always about 65 things that I want to make in the kitchen but only so much time... so I have been prioritizing that also.

On an exciting note little miss Julia has cut molar #4 it was a rough bout of teething many sleepless nights with all her teething she has always got multiple at the same time when her top teeth were coming in she cut all 4 front teeth at same time ouch!! So this bout of teething has been ongoing for the past month so it has posed feeding challenges with a lack of appetite so we have been offering a variety as always and it amazes us how she will take to certain things certain days yesterday she was all about the strawberries and today chili - I have just made a fresh batch of Simply Pure Baby's 1st Chili I will be posting soon!! Other new foods in past few weeks blueberry flax pancake 'cake', and baby's 1st granola we tried that this am and she is still not sure about it will post this recipe soon I have a little more tweaking to do.

Recap DIY Baby Food Part I

-          basic fruit purees

-          finger foods

-          “forbidden” foods under 12 months of age

Ok without further a due "DIY Baby Food Part II"

Cost Analysis of Making Own Baby Food:

Cost was never a factor that we considered as we just knew from the start that we were going to be making our own baby food for nutritional purposes.  But let’s look at the cost for a few basic veggies.

Simply Pure Basic Squash Puree $0.05 per ounce

Simply Pure Basic Pea Puree $0.08 per ounce 

Simply Pure Basic Carrot Pea Puree $0.06 per ounce  

PC organic $0.17 per ounce ($0.77/4.5oz jar)

Heinz (assorted) $0.20 per ounce ($0.89/4.5oz jar)

So the long and the short of it is, it is about 50% cheaper to make your baby food – however, this blog is not about penny pinching but a little extra savings never hurts you can put it back into buying high quality wholesome ingredients.  Here is more info on cost analysis, this is a great website it is actually the first one that I came across when I started making Julia’s baby food and I still reference it frequently. 

Simply Pure Basic Veggie Puree’s  

We already reviewed equipment and cooking methods in part I.  Featured here is butternut squash and peas both suitable as babies first foods and both dead simple to make here is a step by step...

Butternut squash is best local in the fall but those only last so long so lately they have been imported from Mexico, the same procedure is followed for pumpkin, acorn or buttercup squash.  We ate more squash this year then ever before I kept creating all these delicious soups (that is one thing all these puree's show you that anything can become soup) Julia has had each squash on it's own as well as mixed in various combos and butternut 'BN' is the winner.

1) First slice the squash in 1/2

2) Clean out the seeds with a spoon and discard

3) Place face down in a glass pan with about 1/2" of water, cover with foil and bake @375F for 45min or until a fork is softly pushed in (oppsie looks like daddy forgot to remove the sticker)

4) Scoop squash straight into food processor and puree to desired texture

4) Place into ice cube trays and transfer into freezer bags or storage containers once frozen - I missed getting a picture of this step check here for what it looks like 

Now for the peas

1) Purchase a bag of frozen peas (in the summer I used fresh peas)

2) Lightly steam the peas (4-5 min until thawed all the way through)

3) Place into food processor, puree to desired texture adding a little bit of the cooking water as needed - under 8 months you want to strain the peas to remove any extra pieces of "skin" that your baby may not like the texture of and here you have it Simply Pure's Basic Pea Puree

 

4) Place into ice cube trays and transfer into freezer bags or storage containers once frozen - I missed getting a picture of this step check here for what it looks like 

 

So here you have it 2 beautiful Simply Pure basic puree's suitable for baby's 1st food... as your baby gets a taste for things individually you can start mixing them peas and BN squash is a lovely combo (add some quinoa flakes for a full balanced meal)

Spices and Baby’s

Around 8 months is when it is safe to start introducing some spices, at this point your baby has already gotten used to some basic purees and will be ready for more new tastes.  Cinnamon and apple is a great first spice.  So we use spices for adding flavour to foods but have you ever thought of the benefits some of these spices have? What are your favourite spices? Upcoming I will post on spices, health benefits and what goes best with what.

Now can anyone guess what has been going on in The Delaney's Kitchen (aka upcoming posts)...

- Baby’s 1^st stew pictured below

- Baby's 1st chili & granola
- made my first ever loaf of bread... turned out devine
- I tackled an egg plant, tempha, nutritional yeast and a cashew cream sauce for the best lasanga that we have ever had
- whole wheat rosemary foccacia
- beans and grains 101 – soak what for how long?!
- Oat bars and banana carob granola bars

Baby's 1st Stew

Tempha Eggplant Lasagna with Cashew Cream Sauce

My 1st EVER Loaf of Bread SO EXCITING!!

Never a dull moment... in our kitchen and did you know we don't have a dishwasher - this is something that we need to remedy very soon when we bought our house there was no dishwasher and now that we are settled it is obvious this is an essential purchase that we need to make soon…

Well I think it's a wrap I hope this shows you how simple it is to make basic veggie puree's not only is it more cost effective for you to make your own baby food it is also more nutritious as we have previously discussed.

As I continue build my blog I will give step by step of all the purees that I have made… never enough time in a day.

Upcoming we will discuss seasonal produce and feeding a toddler – portions, snacks and more stay tuned and enjoy your weekend don’t forget the clocks go ahead tonight.

A few more shots of my St. Patty's day cupcakes, we have a dinner party tonight and we were asked to bring dessert which was a perfect excuse for me to practice making and decorating some more cupcakes (recipe to come after they are reviewed at our dinner party tonight - it is the same cupcake as Baby's 1st Cupcake but I changed the icing to a Maple Cinnamon Vegan Buttercream - now that is smooth and so much nicer for decorating) we attempted to shape them into a shamerock haha... see for yourself... do you have any special meals or snacks that you make for St. Patty's day?

Pesto 101

 Triple Green Power Pesto Bruschetta Pizza            

 Swiss Chard, Kale & Spinach Pesto w Roasted Garlic & White Beans

 

Somehow the month of February became “pesto” month at the Delaney’s it is just so funny because I talked about making pesto for months (maybe even a year or more you know how quickly time passes us by ;-), I just remember looking at it in the grocery store and seeing the fat content and the CHEESE and thinking it was just something that we wouldn’t/couldn’t eat.  I couldn’t have been more wrong now with an educated vegan eye pesto is not only EASY to make at home it is vegan and the possibilities are… endless and it is packed with fibre, iron, antioxidants, calcium and protein.  To date I have now made 4 variations of pesto and last night proved to be the winner.

It all started with this bunch of swiss chard that I bought (I had to start somewhere) I starred at it for 2 days in the fridge wondering what I was going to do with it so I started reading about it learning that it is not only a super food it is ranked the 2^nd healthiest food (next to spinach) then it came to me… “swiss chard + spinach pesto” so pesto was born into our kitchen this was batch number one it was fantastic, we tweaked things and decided to do the exact same thing with kale it was also delish, naturally our third batch was swiss chard, kale + spinach almost perfection except celery root… you maybe thinking what?! So in my cooking I try to elimated salt all together I know that it is essential for flavouring and so on so I heard from a dear friend that celery root acts as a natural salt in cooking so I decided this was the perfect addition to our final pesto tasting… and it sure was you would honestly think there was salt in it, it completed the flavour in a perfectly babyized way.  So I look forward to using celery root to replace salt in all kinds of soups and sauces now… I am not sure how long it will keep for so we have grated it all up and froze it in ice cube trays so we can pop it out as a salt replacer in almost anything (except baking I am not sure how that would fly in cookies haha).

Before we get to the recipe why eat kale or swiss chard?

Kale is often a vegetable that people are intimidated by or they don’t even know what it is or what it looks like.  Kale is nutrient dense packed with more calcium then a glass of cow’s milk and more easily absorbed, it is also high in folic acid important for child rearing years, and it may increase milk supply in breast feeding mothers.  You want to select kale that is firm and crisp like not brown or wilted, you can store in a plastic bag in refrigerator it is best used up within a few days of purchase.  Most people don’t like the “chewy” like texture of kale, but it can easily be used chopped as parsley, added to salads or steamed, pureed, frozen and added to ANYTHING – smoothies, tomatos sauces, chilli (I did this a few weeks back and you wouldn’t even know), I can mix a cube of kale into any of Julia’s purees without a second thought.

How does swiss chard add up to Kale?

Swiss chard is very popular in Mediterranean cuisine, it comes in green and red (we have tried both) and is ranked the second nutrient dense food following spinach.  High in vitamin K, A & C (vitamin C is important as it helps maximize the absorption of iron).  It has a great taste raw and we have found it to add a nice crunch to our spinach salads.

After trying each in a solo pesto with spinach it became obvious that they all must be married into one pesto...

 So here you have it…Triple Green Power Pesto Brushetta Pizza

Swiss Chard, Kale & Spinach Pesto w Roasted Garlic & White Beans

2 cups of spinach

6 cups of kale, chopped

8 cups of swiss chard (green or red), chopped

1 cup of fresh basil, chopped (when fresh from garden I would use 2 cups)

1 roasted garlic bulb

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup of toasted walnuts (or nut of choice we did use toasted cashews for the kale pesto)

1 ½ cups of white beans cooked fresh or a can well rinsed

½ cup grated celery root (salt replacer)

Fresh juice from ½ lemon

¼ cup of olive oil + 2 Tbsp for sauté + drizzle on garlic

Fresh ground pepper to taste

1)      Take one bulb of garlic, slice the top off, set in a tin foil bed (see photo) drizzle with olive oil and a few sprinkles of parsley, roast in oven @ 350F for 35-45 min, until golden brown (you can even roast this a day ahead to save time)

2)      Rinse, chop and prepare all your greens (swiss chard, kale and spinach), dice onion and peal and grate celery root (pictured below).

3)      Saute onion & garlic over medium heat in a large skillet with 2 Tbsp of olive oil, once softened add basil, celery root and garlic until fragrant.  Add swiss chard and kale, cover with lid steam over medium heat for about 10min until softened and cooked down add spinach cover steam for 2-3min, stir in white beans and walnuts until warm.

4)      Remove from heat put in food processor add lemon juice, olive oil and fresh ground pepper, pulse until desired texture and presto you have PESTO 

5)      Serve as desired featured here is with brushetta pizza, we also served over pasta with a side of roasted red peppers, zuchinni and crimini mushrooms – both are delish but the brushetta pizza was our favourite.

6)      You may store in fridge for 3 days, freeze in ice cube trays for baby (over 12 months because of walnuts and later if you have a family history of nut allergies), or freeze in a container or ziploc bag for an easy meal (we have enough pesto in the freezer now for a few months haha)

Bruschetta

3 medium tomatos, diced

½ cup fresh basil, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely grated

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1 tsp of coarse sea salt (optional we didn’t use this)

1 Tbsp of olive oil (we omitted this as we were having it with the pesto)

 1)      Chop and prepare tomatoes, basil, garlic and onion in a small bowl stir in balsamic vinegar and set aside in refrigerator until ready to use – doesn’t keep well so you want to use all in the same day.

Hub*’s Basil Infused Pizza Crust

1 cup whole wheat flour + ½ cup to add as needed

1 tsp of dried basil

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 ¼ tsp of yeast (we used quick rise)

1 tsp sugar

2/3 cup of very warm water

1)      Combine flour, basil and olive oil in a bowl

2)      Mix up warm water, sugar and yeast, add to flour stir until mixed the knead the dough with your hands for a few min on a floured surface adding additional flour as needed so dough is not sticky

3)      Place in a bowl, cover with a clean towel and place in a bag allow to rise 15min (unless you are using regular yeast then it will be longer follow instructions on the jar) - this is the dough after it rose (I forgot a picture before oppsie!!)

 4)      Dough should be double size after it has rose, work out the air and smooth onto you pizza pan or stone (we need to get a pizza stone), place in the oven 425F x 10-12 min

5)      Pull crust out lightly brush with 1-2Tbsp of olive oil, top with pesto and your brushetta mix, turn oven down to 350F bake until warmed through about 5-10min

6)      Slice and serve with a side spinach and swiss chard salad and maybe a glass of red wine… unless of course you  are serving to your toddler formula will be option of choice J

This is a very labour intensive meal, preparing the pesto a day ahead or having ready made in the freezer will make for a quicker dinner, but this is a perfect Saturday night dinner when you may have a little extra time in the kitchen… we are officially pestooooo’d out for a few weeks any way.

Enjoy your Sunday!!

Mark and Jessica

(my husband was a huge contributor to the photos and preparation of this meal so I need to give him credit)

We have one tiny slice of pizza for Julia to try at lunch… she has been loving her pesto with quinoa or pasta and pureed red peppers… time for a little mix up sans bruschetta, it is so fun watching her taste buds blossom she had brussel sprouts yesterday with parsnips and it was heaven and earth she couldn’t get enough… she has just learned to "roar" like a lion so she thought that it would be cute to take a picture of a lion from her puzzle haha :-)

Coming up next the long anticipated DIY Baby Food part #2… we have a busy day in the kitchen re-stocking veggie purees… 

This was the Devine Classic P-Nutty Fudge that I made for dessert last night... recipe to come!