Simply Pure Baby's 1st Muffins

   

Happy Valentines Day!!

As your baby grow's so does his or her's desire for food, tastes and textures.  Julia will be 13 months tomorrow and she is going through this "I want to feed myself stage" not with a spoon but her fingers sooo I decided it was time to make that baby oatmeal in a muffin so she can eat the chucks with her fingers and it was a success she was in love with her 1st muffins.  

It also seems that at this stage she is wanting more "flavours" she is in love with baby's 1st Red Sauce and Tornato Tomato Barely Risotto (coming soon) and last night for dinner she had curried green lentils with peas and carrots she couldn't eat it fast enough.  So if it has lots of flavour or she can eat it with her fingers she is all over it.  Which brings me to "finger foods" there are many things that are perfectly suitable for finger foods top two in our household right now, lightly steamed carrot sticks and peas (which are a close tie with rasions) tomorrow we are going to try edamame... and later this week we will post a list of baby's favorite finger foods and when is it appropriate to introduce finger foods and the age baby's develop that pincer grip to feed themselves.

This is what I sent to daycare with Julia to share with the other babies...

Alright enough chit chat.  Here we have Baby's 1st Vegan Muffins note these are wheat free, dairy free and egg free which are all important for many different children due to sensitivities and allergies, as well whole eggs are not recommended until after 12 months of age due to the high risk of allergy.  These muffins are also free of any 'bad' fats keeping them simple pure and wonderful for baby's 1st muffin.

Simply Pure Baby's 1st Mini Muffins

1/2c large flake oatmeal
2/3 cup oatmeal flour (or flour of choice) - may be able to use 1/3c infant cereal I have not tried that yet ;)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 egg replacer (1T ground flax + 3T water) or you may use an egg
2T olive oil
1/4 c maple syrup (may substitute 1/4c unsweetened apple sauce) 
3T brown sugar
1/2 cup blueberries
1 ripe banana

Preheat oven 350F

1) Mix oatmeal, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, in a separate bowl mix oil, egg replacer (1st mix flax and water in a bowl and allow it to 'gel' up), vanilla, syrup and banana.
2) Fold wet into dry stir until combined (don't over stir batter will become sticky) fold in blueberries and put into muffin papers
3) Fill mini muffin papers 3/4 full bake 10-12 min (until toothpick comes out clean), cool on a wire rack store in a sealed container or may freeze. 

Variations: Substitute raspberries for blueberries, substituting spelt or whole wheat flour for oatmeal flour.  If texture is an issue put batter into food processor and puree to desired texture.  I am going to continue to experiment with this recipe I would like to add bran and wheat germ (to increase fibre) everyone could use a little extra fibre in there diet.

So why eat blueberries? Not only are they yummy they make a perfect finger food and 1 serving of blueberries has as many disease fighting antioxidants as 5 servings of broccoli, apples, carrots and squash - so the question becomes why wouldn't you eat blueberries?

Have you made muffins for your baby?  Have you cooked with oat or spelt flour before?  What is your flour of choice for baking? What are your favorite muffins? Do you have any recipes that you can "babyize"?

Finger foods and Baby's 1st pancakes to come later this week (along with a schedule of baby's first foods month by month and easy to follow :)... and we are still in the midst of "pesto" experimentation full post to come on that later this month after we "babyize" the recipe this week... this is a preview of the Roasted Garlic + Kale Pesto w White Beans.

 .

 Enjoy your Monday and Happy Valentines Day!!

Momma J

Two Bite Double Down Dark Chocolate Brownies

Mommy and daddy need a Valentines treat too!

I had posted this recipe a few weeks back as a "Valentine's Day Preview" recently it won Oh She Glows Valentines Recipe contest AND I have decided that warrants a repost it so here it is...

VEGAN Two Bite Double Down Dark Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Brownies          

The sweet chocolate flavour of a brownie (but not too sweet) with the goodness of whole wheat, oats and the antioxidant powers of dark chocolate, these make a perfect high fibre well balanced dessert.  Serve on a plate of homemade raspberry jam for a black forest cake affair, perfect for a lushes valentines dessert!

 2 cups large flake oatmeal
1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup brown sugar (notice this is decreased from the 1st version)
2 T ground flax
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt (optional)
2/3 cup nondairy milk (I used almond milk)
2/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup dark chocolate, cut into chunks (may use dark chocolate chips)

1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) In a medium bowl sift dry ingredients together (oats, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt), set aside.
3) In a large bowl whisk together sugar, ground flax, non dairy milk, oil and vanilla, fold into dry ingredients, once mixed stir in dry ingredients add coconut and dark chocolate and voila!!
4) Use a tablespoon amount of batter roll into a ball and flatten w a fork place onto non-stick cookie sheet, cook for 10-12 min, then transfer onto wire rack for cooling

For a sweeter modification you may view Oh She Glows OR simply add 2T maple syrup or other liquid sweetener.  Serve them up as you like this is what we did last night...

 Tomorrow I will be posting Baby's 1st Muffin's... I am going to send some with Julia to share with the babies at daycare, the recipe is all rolled up and ready to go :-)

This was Julia a few hours ago enjoying a playdate with her little friends it was an indoor playground for babies how fun!!

That's it for now! Enjoy your Sunday, I am not going to ask any questions today will save those for tomorrow ;-)

DIY Baby Food PART 1 of 2

I just sat down to polish up my post for today and was just making my rounds on the computer first and much to my surprise my recipe Two Bite Double Down Dark Chocolate Brownies WON a Valentines Day Contest from Oh She Glows how exciting!! And motivating to get this posted so I can bring on my Valentines post... I made a special Valentines dinner tonight Roasted Garlic and Kale Pesto with White Beans over whole wheat bow tie pasta topped with oven roasted red peppers and crimini mushrooms it was DELISH!! Quite possibly one of the best things we have ever had and oddly enough we had the Two Bite Brownies for dessert tonight topped with fresh strawberries.

Ok back on track DYI Baby food...

So you have decided that maybe you would like to make your own baby food… but just don’t know where to start this guide will help.  

The choices that you make now regarding your baby's food will have life long effects.  Not only are a tonne of nutrients lost from commercially jarred baby food (due to the high temperatures of canning them) but they have a shelf life of ‘years’ doesn’t that seem a little strange that a jar of canned baby peas could be good from now till 2014? Not to mention taste… would you want to feed your baby something that you wouldn’t eat? Give it a try buy a jar of baby pea puree try it along side your baby puree and decide for yourself. When you make your own purees they taste delicious just like the actual food making all these baby puree’s has showed me you can make anything into a puree and if you have extra use up the puree in baking (eg. pumpkin puree in muffins) or a soup (squash, carrot, parsnip anything really). There are a multitude of reasons to make your own baby food: taste, cost (will discuss further in part 2), more nutritional and you are able to play with the textures of the food.  However, the point of this post is not to convince you to make your own baby food if you are reading this I am sure that you have already decided that.  

So lets get started…

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make your own baby food but you do need a few essentials: a couple of knifes, cutting boards, spatulas, measuring cups/spoons, ice cube trays, storage containers (or Ziploc freezer bags), a pot and steamer and a blender/food processor.

There are many different ways to “cook” your babies food: steaming, boiling, roasting, and poaching (used more for meats) and braising (your slow cooker).

Next step is to select your produce you want to chose local seasonal produce whenever possible (will discuss more on seasonal produce in part 2), you want to chose fruit that has no bruising or cuts, you want it to be firm or ripe (depending on when you will be cooking it) as you can see these bananas are ready to go I actually used those for granola bars not for Julia... oppsie (it is rare that I get bananas that color in out house as we go through a tonne of 'nanners) so... when I buy a bunch of fruit that needs ripening I always put into 1 bowl (usually a big one) so they can spread the love and ripen eachother!

 In this post I am going to an over view of simply pure basic purees pears, plums and apples.  The process for each is very similar. These are all suitable for babies after 6 months of age in part 2 we will discuss what to introduce when and what to avoid.  Under 1 year of age it is recommended that all fruits are lightly steamed to help babies break down the sugars.

 Here we go:

Simply Pure Pears (of your choice, bartlett, bosc, d’anjou)

1)      Wash the fruit thoroughly

2)      Peel the fruit (optional, I peeled everything while Julia was <12 months)

3)      Cut pear in ½ and core it out with paring knife or a melon baller (to decrease waste and maximize yield)

 4)      Meanwhile bring pot of water to a boil, place pears in steamer and gently steam 3-5min (longer if the fruit is not ripe)

5)      Put fruit into food processor, reserve some of the cooking water for pureeing as needed, puree to desired texture as this is a staple puree as your child advances to chunks you pulse pears a few times making a chunkier mixture - yes that is pears in the bowl below they turn darker after sitting for a few minutes

 

 6)      Allow mixture to cool then pour into ice cube tray and freeze 

 7)      Once frozen put into storage container and place back in freezer take out as needed

 Simply Pure Plums (red or black)

We have fine tuned this procedure over time we used to cut them in 1/2 , fight with the pit, steam them then fight with the skin… no longer…

1)      Wash the fruit thoroughly, remove any steams, preheat oven to 350F

2)      Cut and “X” through the plum right to the pit and all the way from top to bottom, cut out and marks in the skin

 3)      Place ½” of water in bottom of a baking pan, place fruit with “X” down in the pan (although they will roll around I am sure that it doesn't really matter), cover with tinfoil and bake 25-35min depending on the ripeness of your fruit to check if done stick a fork in fruit to check for softness

 4)      Once done remove fruit with a slotted spoon, remove the pit (this will be very easy the plum with split in your hand discard the pit and place plum into blender repeat for remaining plums, puree to desired texture (it is unlikely that you will need to add water as plums are very juicy once they are baked) **

5)      Repeat steps 6&7 above

**re: skins if you choice to remove the skins as I did till Julia was about 9 months take the hot plums put in ice cold water and the skins will peel off (this is a similar procedure as peaches will discuss further soon when we review all fruits)

Simply Pure Apples (gala, macintosh, honey crisp, granny smith, fuji, red prince… lots of variety have fun try new one’s, you can even mix and match for example try a sour granny smith with a honey crisp)

1)      Repeat process from pears – although may need to steam 7-10 min as apples tend to be a little harder the pears

2)      Add a sprinkle of cinnamon if you like, it is good to mix up flavours on your baby getting her used to a variety (discussion of spices and babies to come)

*I usually make really big batches of everything more time consuming up front but then you are not making your basic purees all the time and you will always have some stock in the freeze it always amazes me how we are always running low on something.  Having your partner help is also an asset especially when it comes to peeling pears, my husband is a pro haha!

When first introducing foods to baby you may choice to strain your fruits removing any larger fragments and fibres I remember the first time I did this to peaches I could not believe how much was stuck in the strainer.  You can do this until your baby starts to get used to textures and then straining is no longer required.

Well how simple is that? There you have it, the process for Simply Pure’s three basic fruit purees, veggie purees to follow with DIY Baby Food Part 2.

Are you making your own baby food? What tips or tricks do you have? 

Upcoming DIY Baby Food Part 2:

Simply Pure's basic veggie purees 

Cost analysis of buying commercial baby food versus making your own baby food

Why buy seasonal produce? What is in season when?

What to introduce when? And what to avoid?

Spices and babies

Stay tuned... we have perfected  Baby’s 1^st Muffins it passed our taste test and more importantly Julia’s (& one of her little friends) it is wheat free, dairy free and egg free... recipe to be posted next!

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Have you planned a special Valentine's Dinner? or made a special Valentine's treat?

Jessica

New Mom’s this one is for you…

Well I am trying to make my blog more user friendly as I am building it up I want to keep recipes organized for ease of access… so you will note my tabs along the top (I think I may become a computer technician in another life haha).  So there are lots of “coming soon” as an attempt to get myself organized.

Ok happy Tuesday hope everyone is having a good week Valentines Day is less than a week away and we have Family Day stat coming up how exciting!  I have these really cute Valentine’s Day mini-muffin papers so I am thinking Julia and I are going to create a Valentine’s treat for daddy (maybe it will even be baby proof…)

So I have been a mom for almost 13 months now and I will tell you it is by far the most amazing job that I have ever had… it is also the most challenging as you learn something new every day and you are constantly trying to figure out what your little one’s wants or needs.  We have done some sign language with Julia to help her communicate, she knows some basic signs such as: more, all done, water, milk, ball, bath we are working on more it is amazing when you see your little baby (I am not going to call her a toddler till 18 months haha) signing back at you makes all the persistence pay off (cause for months you are signing to them with no response).

Fatigue is an oh to common thing amongst new moms, seasoned moms I guess we could say all moms as there is never enough time in a day to do what we gotta do.  One of my energizers is my morning workout it doesn’t matter how tired I feel, how many times I was up last night, what time I went to bed bottom line I have a morning workout (I have a whole regime that I will get into at a later date “getting your body back after baby”).  After my workout I always refuel with a smoothie of some sort, I found/find with breasfeeding especially mid-end of workout is an energy crash so refuelling is key.

I was recently inspired by oh she glows “green monster movement” and decided to create and submit my own “Double Down Green Monster (GM)”. 

As a new mom to a nearly 13 month old precious baby girl I need to pack in all the nutrients I can to increase energy compensating for sleepless nights.

So here is what I have done:
2 cups fat free vanilla soy milk (you could substitute any milk)
3 cups of spinach (uncooked)
3 kiwi
2 bananas
1 cup frozen pineapple core (whenever we cut fresh pineapple we freeze the core as it enhances flavor, nutrients and texture of any smoothie)

I have named this “double down” for two reasons: firstly it’s a double batch as a new mom I don’t have time to make a fresh smoothie every morning so I simply freeze half take it out the next am put in some warm water and voila thawed and fresh as the day before in no time; secondly double punch of green, kiwi are often a forgotten about fruit loaded with vitamin C and many other nutrients.  I am going to get myself some matcha (finely ground green tea) to add in a future batch it is suppose to give a nice punch of energy, has anyone ever tried it?

I make these on a regular basis and rotate them with my regular smoothies (I will have to do a post on that in the near future I have many favourite combinations), I will never forget the 1^st time I handed my husband his 1^st green smoothie it was a look of “now what did my wife make” haha and now he too is hooked on the energizing GM.  So naturally with all this goodness and antioxidants I had to “babyize” this recipe for Julia so here is what I did:

Triple Down Baby Monster (offer after 12 month of age as kiwi can be allergenic and thus recommended after 1y of age unless you have a strong family history of allergies you should wait longer)

6 ripe kiwi

2 ripe banana

12 green grapes

1c of spinach

Toss it all in the blender puree to desired consistency, the juice from the grapes give this puree enough juice to mix up, if needed you could add more grapes.  Spoon into ice cube trays and all that green goodness is ready to go in your freezer.  I always try to take Julia’s food out the night before to limit microwave use but of course you could take it out defrost and serve!  Depending on your diet and the age of your baby you could add milk of your choice +/- yogurt to add some calcium it is really a perfect combination for people of all ages. 

Off to make a fresh batch of the double down “GM” so I can keep energy up to keep on blogging!!

Do you make smoothies? What are your favourite combinations? Are you a new or seasoned mom what are your energizing tips?

Can you guess what my next post will be about judging from these pictures... 

Baby’s 1st Crackers

You may be thinking why on earth would I make my own crackers? Well… when you start reading labels on cracker boxes you will quickly realize the ingredients are not so pure the majority of crackers are full of sugar (you need to be careful when label reading because sugar can be disguised as different names I will post on this at a later date but one of the killers is “organic liquid cane juice” well that sounds ok doesn’t it? Think again that is “liquid sugar”).  The 2 purest crackers that I have came across and the only 2 in our house (for back-up when we run out of home made ones) are triscuits and ryvita (Julia has tried both problem is they are a bit thin and hard for a 1^st cracker creating a wee bit of a choking hazard).

 I must also mention there are a variety of infant “teething biscuits” as well… where to start for starters our daughter doesn’t eat rice (as it worsens constipation) so she has never had the famous baby mum mum everyone talks about.  Let’s think about this it is basically like “stale air” no nutritional value, contains both sugar and salt… yet everyone feeds them to their baby... well not us, babies consume such small amounts of food wouldn’t you want them to have something “nutritious” sure for the first year of life “solid” food is merely for practice and their main source of nutrition is breastmilk or formula but still why not have them get a taste for something that has some nutritional value… sure there is also the “wheat” debate no wheat before 1 year of age – so when Julia was 7ish months and I thought she would like a teething biscuit I made these crackers with her cereal and powerhouse quinoa (one of the only grains that is a complete protein, no worries I will be doing and entire post on grains and what is what there are so many different ones' and eating variety is so important for adults and children).

Baby's 1st Crackers

2 cup flour * (1 cup dark rye and 1 cup whole wheat) – (see note below may also use infant cereal) + additional flour for counter and rolling out dough

¼ cup of olive oil

½ cup of warm water + a few table spoons if needed

1)      Preheat oven to 425

2)      Put flour in a mixing bowl, pour in oil, add in warm water and stir it takes a little bit of stirring to get it all mixed up you can use your hands if you wish, the dough will be very thick, let dough sit about 5 min (it seems to roll out better if it sits for a few min)

3)      Lightly flour your surface, place ball of dough on counter and begin rolling for baby’s 1^st crackers keep about 1/8-1/4” thickness (if you go too thin they will break off in pieces creating a choking hazard), once dough is rolled out cut into 1 ½” x 2 ½” rectangles (or other desired shape I just find this shape is easiest for baby to hold and eat) 1 batch will usually fit on 1 cookie sheet as you can place them close together (they don’t “grow” in the oven) 

4)      For any combinations with wheat poke with a fork making holes or they will bubble up cook time 10 min, flip at 5 min (for softer cracker cook less (8min) for crunchier cracker cook more (12min)

5)      Store in an air tight Tupperware for up to a week – **see note below re: freezing

6)      Variations – for adult crackers you may add 1tsp kosher salt or sprinkle with salt, 1 ½ tsp rosemary (as shown in these photos) you can even roll dough our thinner for more of a flatbread affair the possibilities are endless really, you can mix it up add flax or your favourite seed (you may have to adjust the water or cut the flour) – as I continue to experiment I will post more combinations

*I have used a variety of different flours (such as dark rye, spelt, whole wheat, barley, quinoa and I have even made with infant cereal as this not only fortifies the cracker but gives them a familiar taste as they “learn” how to eat a cracker) mixed them up ½ and ½ have fun and experiment.  You may have to add little bits of extra water depending on the flour you want dough thick not sticky.

**Also I know I don’t have time to be making crackers all the time so I make bigger batches and freeze them whole wheat freezes best, we found that when we froze rye crackers they lost their crunch (they were still good just different)

 Julia loving her cracker... gotta love the facial expression!!

It is probably becoming clear by now that I am not able to “just” post a recipe I want to educate you about why I have made the choice I have as well as some of the interesting facts about different foods for example do you know what the worlds 2^nd healthiest food is? Swiss chard I made it into a pesto last night which used as a base on our pizza (that recipe to come including hubby's famous herb-infused pizza crust, as well as more about why eat swiss chard).  So if that is #2 what is #1…? Any thoughts?

Here is a picture of the pesto recipe to come:

So this morning my husband gets up and wants to know "what's for breakfast?" (as we let daddy have a nice little sleep in today) so I said oatmeal pancakes of course this was funny because we never eat pancakes but I have been wanting to make them for Julia so with a little direction we had "Daddy's 1st Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes" Julia had already ate but we gave her some to try with a little maple syrup and she wasn't to sure... but that is normal of course as it can take 5-10 (or 20 - every reference is different) tries before a baby really likes something... and that raspberry jam on her pancake we made this summer along with strawberry jam and we also canned peaches what a lot of fun that was... all that to come in a future post, we wanted to can tomatoes but as you can imagine with a baby our time is always limited, next year we plan on adding them to our annual canning affair.

 

Now that I have given a few more previews of upcoming recipes I hope everyone is enjoying the superbowl (it's just one of those things we don't really get into, hence why I am blogging right now)... my next post is going to be for all you new mom's and experienced mom's as everyone can use a little "boost" of energy sometimes... now I will leave you with a few questions...

What are your favourite crackers? Do you know what is in them? Do you read the labels? Have you ever made crackers?