Make Your Own Paleo Baby Food

The title of this post makes me sound crunchier than I am.  I never intended to be a "make your own baby food" type of gal.  It seemed like such a precious thing to do that uber-controlling parents did. But, my assumptions have been debunked.

I am now a baby-food-making convert.  The reason is simple.  It's easier.

I have two little mouths to feed.  I want to give them organic, natural foods.  Purchasing the quantity of organic baby food that I would need to feed two babies for a whole week would cost a fortune, and I'd have to go to multiple stores to find it.  What I do is way cheaper and way easier and creates far less waste.  It all started innocently enough.  I hemmed and hawed over what their first food should be for weeks, finally settling on avocados.  Mushy, full of healthy fats and nutrients, hermetically sealed in their own packaging, it seemed perfect.  I didn't have to steam or puree anything- just mush with the back of a spoon et voila!

So, we started with avocados.  Laziness meant that we stuck with avocados for three weeks before trying anything else.  In this time the babies went from sort of tolerating it, to tolerating it moderately, to enjoying it!  By this time both they, and I, were ready to try something else.  At that point I had decided a couple new foods to try.  First was egg yolks.  I simply boil a few eggs for three or four minutes and after the yolk has cooled a bit they slurp it up.  Not much chewing is involved so it is a relatively painless process and a great way to guarantee a lot of nutrition in short order.  The babies have really enjoyed yolks and I like to take the extra time to make it for them on my days off.

Next up was sweet potatoes.  I buy a big bag of organic sweet potatoes and steam about half of them. 35 minutes in the steamer and they are ready to be peeled.  My handy stick blender makes mush of them in no time.  Add a little formula or water to thin out the consistency and you are good to go.  I store mine in little snack containers that hold probably four ounces or so.  I don't make enough to need to freeze it- generally we have been running out every four days or so.  When that happens I go back to my trusty avocados if I don't have time to make something else until the weekend.

After they had mastered the consistency of the sweet potato I decided to let them try bananas.  This was their first fruit and naturally they quite like the sweeter taste!  Again, no steaming or pureeing necessary- just some mushing with a spoon and you're good to go.

But I wanted another veggie and something that I could be sure would be palatable.  I am sure there are plenty of moms out there pureeing kale and spinach for their babies but it is more important to me to make them food I know they are going to like and enjoy- and instill in them a healthy desire and appetite for real food, rather than force something down their throats.  So I decided on organic carrots. Do you know how much two pounds of organic carrots costs?  $1.89.  Do you know how much one pouch of organic carrots costs at Target?  $1.63.  You do the math.  All two pounds of it steamed in about 20 minutes, and only took a few minutes more to puree, and now I have six containers of carrots in the fridge, meals for the week!

The last food we have introduced thus far is organic applesauce.  I just got a big jar of it and have been adding it to different foods here and there.  I like how watery it is and its amazing ability to make practically anything palatable.  Applesauce was really the sole sweetener I used for Sara until she was two years old!  I added it to oatmeal, plain yogurt, even cottage cheese, rather than use sugar or another sweetener.  It's versatile, healthy, and cheap!  Can't complain about that!

We will probably work on carrots for a couple weeks and then add in something else.  The reality is that I will not be steaming and pureeing multiple vegetables at a time and doling them out into separate containers, or creating little custom combinations.  And frankly, I would rather move on to soft table foods sooner rather than later.  Poached chicken, soft scrambled eggs, some soft cauliflower, etc.  When there is one person feeding three people you tend to prefer not spoon feeding two of them, right?

Do you make your own baby food? Any suggestions for me?  I have to say, I approached this with complete and total nonchalance.  Not because I'm that cool, but because I devoted basically zero thought to it.  I was terrified what my grocery bill would be buying jarred baby food and frankly, did not have a high opinion of it from my experiences feeding sari.  Expensive, crappy tasting, and makes tons of garbage.  Um, no thanks?  So I started with avocado and assumed I'd figure out the rest later.  What started out as me just wanting to give them organic baby food turned into me becoming a weirdo crunchy baby food maker.  And you know what?  I think I'll stick with it.

Carrot Cake Breakfast Muffins- Grain, Sugar, Gluten, Dairy Free

Told ya I wasn't going to stop posting #faileo type recipes!  Actually, these are little nutritional power houses, which is great because typically for breakfast, S will have a muffin every day.  Or, a nuffin as she calls them.  I make them every weekend because they are fast, portable, and delicious, and she can eat them once she gets to daycare/preschool.  This particular muffin is really great because it's full of carrots (I am having a rough time getting her to eat veggies these days) but they taste and smell pretty decadent.  No, I did not eat one.  I'm sticking to my sugar detox guns!

Carrot Cake Breakfast Muffins- Free of sugar, grain, dairy, gluten
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
3-4 tbsp preferred liquid sweetener
1/4 cup oil, like walnut or melted coconut
2 eggs
2 4 oz. containers organic carrot baby food
1 tsp vanilla
handful of raisins- optional

Mix the first 5 ingredients together well, get out any lumps with a fork.  In a separate bowl, combine your eggs, oil, vanilla, carrot, and sweetener.  Mix well, and add wet to dry.  Fold in your raisins, and spoon into lined muffin tin.  This made 8 good sized muffins for me.  Bake at 350 until the tops have browned nicely.  These will be pretty dense little guys.  Feel free to replace raisins with chopped nuts, chopped apple, chopped pineapple, or just leave out entirely!  These do not have a cakey consistency whatsoever, these are unmistakeably muffinish in texture, so don't be fooled by the name.  They just have that familiar, warm, and lovely carrot cake flavor profile.  But, feel free to have one for dessert, with some coconut cream frosting!  That is, unless you are detoxing along with me!  I should probably call this detox what it really is- a sweetener detox, since I don't technically eat sugar anyways- but sugar detox just sounds so much cooler doesn't it?

Regardless, this is a health snack or toddler breakfast you can feel good about.  Enjoy!

Grain-Free Carrot Spice Muffins

How about a delish, nut free, grain free muffin bursting with healthy carrots and vitamin A?  These make an awesome on the go snack or breakfast and can be dressed up further with raisins, walnuts, frosting, etc!  But on their own they are just an easy, healthy little snack, perfect for kids and adults.

Feel free to up the ante on the spices, I didn't want these to be too spicy for S but these could stand a little more kick if that's your thing.

Grain-Free Carrot Spice Muffins
1 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
5 large carrots, grated (I used the cuisinart grater attachment, then to get some of the moisture out, microwaved for about 5 minutes, stirring at a few intervals)
8 eggs, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk (I used whole, but use what you got)
1 cup liquid sweetener (I used my SF simple syrup!!)

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt, use a fork to combine well and get out any lumps.  In a separate bowl, mix your milk, eggs, oil, sweetener, and vanilla.  Add wet to dry and incorporate.  Add in your grated carrots.  Feel free to add in nuts or dried fruit at this point.  Spoon into your muffin pan and bake at 350 until the tops are golden brown.  This made 15 muffins, 3 of which were super-sized, so I bet it would make more like 16 regulars.

I made these for a road-trip we are taking for July 4th- can't wait!  Also, made a big batch of my paleo oatmeal cookies, and some egg muffins!  We are so excited to take a family vacay, it's been forever!

Please try these out!  Who could complain about this!

One thing I have found baking so often with coconut flour is that you really really need to bake these completely.  No leaving them a little soggy.  The texture improves lots if it is completely baked through and done done done.  Just my two cents anyhow.

Have a great day GFGs! Xoxox

Carrot Fries

See previous post for a pic!  Nope, those weren't sweet potato fries, they were carrot fries!  Ok ok, maybe calling them fries is a bit of a stretch.  But so is calling oven-baked sweet potato fries a french fry.  And these carrot fries are a similar texture to sweet potato fries.  I made mine pretty salty, to mute the overly sweet taste oven baked carrots can get.  They were really yummy, and a nice lower-starch alternative to sweet potato fries, which I can't really eat anyways. 


Carrot Fries
6-8 med/large carrots (you could use your veg peeler to get the skins off first, but I didn't) sliced lengthwise and then halved again, and then cut into very thin sticks.  The thinner they're cut the crisper they'll turn out.
1 tbsp kosher/sea salt
2 tbsp EVOO
optional:  1/2 tsp cayenne, or black pepper

Preheat your oven to 450.  On a large baking sheet toss your carrots together with your EVOO and seasonings, make sure they are all coated well and spread out evenly so they crisp up rather than steam.  I baked mine for 30 minutes, but start checking at 25.  I wanted mine as crisp as possible rather than soggy, and I ended up burning a few in the process, which is fine because this makes quite a lot! 

Once again, we ate these with my homemade ketchup, but some homemade/organic ranch would be awesome too!  Have fun guys! XoXoGFG

Use What You Have Tuesday= Cumin and Paprika Spiced Carrots and Orange Roughy

 

Yes, that's right.  I am beginning yet another post with an ode to some frozen bag of veg from TJ's.  S looooooves carrots.  I love carrots.  We all love carrots.  I have had this bag in the freezer for awhile and have seen some awesome carrot recipes lately- many of them calling for cumin.  One of my top five favorite spices- well, top ten anyways (celery salt- how did I not know about you until now?).  Along with some frozen fish and a can of chickpeas- dinner dunzo in about 25 minutes.  Best of all, the pumpkinhead scarfed down her spicy fish and carrots like a champ.

Honestly- there is no need to post an actual recipe.  I sprinkled cumin, paprika, salt and pepper quite liberally over the carrots and a can of rinsed and drained chickpeas on a sheet pan with EVOO and roasted at 500 degrees for about 25 minutes.  I seasoned the fish just the same and cooked in a large saute pan over med-high heat, 3 or 4 min. per side.  I drizzled just a bit of EVOO over the fish so the spices would stick, et voila!  The fish I was using is super easy to cook, it comes skinless and boneless, and there is about 16 ounces total, certainly plenty for 2-3 people.

I've also discovered that my favorite Door County Tart Cherries can also be ordered online!  OMG that is definitely going on the list of things to order.  I have not been able to find dried unsweetened cherries that actually taste like something resembling a cherry.  These cherries are a rare find- www.countryovens.com!
   Having a grand old time swallowing five hundred vitamins a day, although I'm pleased to report no more burping clouds of cinnamon through my nose.  HIIT is also super (not) fun and I like how efficient it is- I was in a rush this morning so squeezed my workout into 20min, how can you complain about that?!  Last random thought of the night- have you heard of these? 
Teeny tiny eensy weensy little cans of champagne!  Or, sparkling white wine I suppose since it's from CA.  OMG these things are freaking cute as hell!  My cousin was serving them at her rehearsal din and I about died.  They are so stinkin' cute.  It's ridiculous.  I could just be woefully behind the times, I don't get out much and certainly not to very many drinking establishments these days, but these things are just obscenely presh.  If I ever have a party, with like, adults, again, I'm so serving these little babies.  Alrighty then- that's it for me.  G'night all- XoXoGFG