First Harvest!

Oh how wonderful it is to have our first harvest of the season! What is it? RADISHES, of course. I admit, I have been snacking on spinach, kale, Swiss chard and arugula for weeks now, but there is something exciting about actually pulling something out of the ground. The radishes are spicier than usual this year, but not too peppery! Just perfect sliced on a salad, added to fish tacos, or eaten immediately after rinsing off with the hose!

I think my favorite part about this first harvest was actually having my helper with me in the garden. I have worked with many children in school gardens and have relished in the joys of discovery, exploration, wonder and awe that I see on their faces. But witnessing your own child digging their tiny fingers into the soil and squealing with delight as they watch you pull a bright red something out of the ground is priceless!

Gardening Season Has Begun!

This past weekend I finally got started in the garden! I geared up by taking a Vegetable Gardening seminar which was held at my local nursery with my Dad. Although we didn’t learn too many new things this time around, it was great to get a refresher and learn about some new organic fertilizers out there. Next, we got into our work clothes and while my husband and father made a new 3 x 26 foot raised bed (woo hoo!), I sifted soil from the compost pile and hauled it over to two small raised beds so that we can start our cold weather crops.What does that entail? Well, basically I go to a spot on our decade-old compost heap where everything has been 100% decomposed into rich, black, silky soil. I place a screen over a wheel barrow and shovel the soil from the compost onto the screen. This sifts the soil, removing sticks, rocks and other such things that we do not want in the garden while breaking up large clumps. Think of it like sifting flour for baking. The final product is a fluffy, nutrient dense soil perfect for gardening.  So I hauled three wheel barrows full to the garden to add to two raised beds which have settled since the fall. Once the fresh stuff is added, I turned and raked the beds to get a nice mix of old and new soil.

In this photo I have my screen set up near the bed to help prep the soil and weed, too. But you can see the setup!

Ahhh….. ready to plant.

Amazingly, it took more time to seed the two beds than anything else. I carefully take white twine and make two rows down the center of one plot to guide my planting. This bed will be radishes, spinach and arugula. They tolerate the cold weather and grow quickly (as close to instant gratification as it comes when vegetable gardening). Next, I place the sugar-snap pea trellis over this and plant two rows of snap peas along the outer edge of the garden. Maximize space when you can!

Here is what the bed looked like after planting:

I think that once things start sprouting, you can get a better idea for how this bed was planned. The radishes, arugula and spinach will be growing and harvested before the peas take over the trellis and shade them out. The twine serves as a dual purpose of guiding the planting as I said before but also locating the seedlings among sprouting weeds!

The second bed that I started contains green onion, kale and Swiss chard. These are also able to grow in the colder temperatures and are very nutritious! You can harvest these greens when they are tender and young or let them grow to maturity. I tend to harvest them young as I find them to be more delicate and tasty this way. If you are trying to eat more greens but are intimidated by the texture and robust flavor of some, growing your own allows you to harvest on the early side when they are tender and sweet instead! Here is the greens bed:

It felt good to finally get my hands in the ground again. Well, now I just have to wait until things sprout. More to come (and next time I will remember to take more pictures!). Let me know if you have questions! Remember, you can do all of this in containers on a balcony (which I did for years) and enlist the help of your spouse, friends, family and children, too.

Breakfast with Boisterous Babies!

Stop it! Wait! No! Please don’t throw that!

 

These are words that I often end up saying as I try to get my very happy, super excited baby boy to eat his breakfast. I have to tell you that he LOVES to eat, but now that he is realizing that he is the one with the control over what goes into his mouth, it is becoming more and more challenging to get some semblance of a well balanced breakfast into his sweet belly.

 

When feeding a boisterous baby, the key is to keep them interested in what they are eating. Here are 4 tips (with recipes/ideas!) to keep your boisterous baby absolutely enthralled with their breakfast.

1.      Make their breakfast SO delicious that they are too excited to eat to fight with you for the spoon.

Deelicious Oatmeal: Purchase organic instant oatmeal from your local grocery store. The organic oatmeal will not have artificial sweeteners or crazy additives that you find in all the other brands. Follow the directions to make a packet, then divide into three small bowls. Cover two for the next two mornings. Add chopped banana and a few tablespoons of infant cereal into one bowl of oatmeal. Mix with breast milk, formula or whatever liquid you usually use. Warm for 10-15 seconds in the microwave and check that it is a safe temperature for your baby. The increase in texture will keep them interested as they love to explore the feel of new foods in their mouth! Plus, it challenges your child in a wonderful way to explore and enjoy new ways of eating familiar foods.

2.      Alternate between finger foods and spoon-fed foods.

Yes, this might make breakfast take a little bit longer, but as patience dwindles and the spoon grabbing begins, take a break! Set aside the bowl and offer some finger foods. This allows your child to practice the skills they have such a strong urge to learn! Be sure to make sure that your little one has an empty mouth before offering spoon-fed foods again to avoid choking.

Breakfast Finger Foods:

4-6 months: Rice rusks (Mum-Mum brand is great). Babies can grab and hold these oblong crackers and bring them to their mouth, but they dissolve quickly.

Rice Rusks Keep Him Happy!

6-8 months: Puffs and diced ripe mango, banana, avocado or diced canned peaches and pears. All of these foods are easily broken down with the mashing of gums. Be sure to make sure pieces are in fact small and soft enough for baby. Some of the wet items may be hard for baby to grasp with their newly developed pincer grasp, so hold them in your hand to help them along!

9 months and up: Once baby has teeth and has been introduced to more complex foods like bread, teething biscuits and egg yolk, these make great more “advanced” finger foods.

3.      Engage your child.

Sometimes it is not about what you are eating, but the interaction you have with your child as you feed them. Mealtimes should be pleasant, filled with positive verbal interaction (coos and babbling is just perfect) and FUN. So fight the morning grumpies and be HAPPY to feed your child! Make silly faces, sing songs, talk to them about what they would like to do for the day, and say “mmmmnnnnnn!” as you feed them. You will be amazed at how much more relaxed and enjoyable mealtimes will become when you set the tone. Keep this trend going as they grow into their teenage years and you will benefit from some amazing time to communicate with your children.

4.      Think outside the box.

Adults love to stick to their familiar breakfast items. We don’t have to do that for our babies! Maybe breakfast is a challenging time because your child does not want oatmeal and fruit! Maybe it is time to try foods that are not typically breakfast foods. My son loves pumpkin apple puree. It is so simple to make and can be enjoyed as a new twist to any meal. Take one 15 oz. can of organic pumpkin puree and mix with two cups of apple sauce in a large mixing bowl.  Once they are well incorporated, transfer into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze. Try adding the pumpkin apple puree cubes into warm cereal or plain yogurt for a new flavor boost. Be sure to put a few cubes in the fridge at night so they are thawed for breakfast. If you forget, it is wonderful warm, so just heat them in the microwave right out of the freezer! Your child will appreciate a new flavor in their otherwise repetitive breakfasts!

 

This brand of pumpkin is ultra smooth and has great flavor.

I hope that this has gotten you thinking about ways to challenge, engage and distract your boisterous baby at breakfast! Feel free to try these new tactics at all mealtimes, too. :0)

Nourish The Soul

As a Dietitian, people ask me all the time if I ever eat an ice cream sundae, devour a large order of French fries, or indulge in more than one martini. I always say “Yes”! Why? Because it is the truth.

Tonight, my husband and I plopped down at the kitchen table after putting our son to bed, and shared with one another about our intense, draining and demanding days.
“What do you want to eat?”, I asked.
“Something Good.”, Drew replied.
I knew what he meant. Drew needed food. Real food.

“Chicken Parm with an inappropriate amount of cheese, a pile of pasta and garlicky broccolini?”, I asked.

Drew simply replied: “I love you.”

So I donned my favorite apron, and set up the breading station, sauté pan, griddle and boiled a pot of water. I started arranging ingredients, grating fresh Parmesan cheese, and toasting some garlic in a pan. I uncorked a bottle of red and drank my first glass before I even unwrapped the chicken breasts! Was I worried about calories? Nope. I wasn’t even thinking about that tonight. My husband and I needed time to refuel, relax, and reconnect. A hot, decadent, delicious, home-cooked meal was the exact venue we needed in order to achieve this.

I think that as a culture we have lost sight of meals like this as an occasional thing. Heck, we can buy a frozen dinner just like mine (albeit much less tasty!) and eat it every night. Hence the obesity epidemic. But this is also important to share with the calorie conscious and strict eaters, too! I think that we need to remember that often times meals are not just fuel for our bodies, but nourishment for our souls. It is in the kitchen and around the dinner table that we find time with our families and loved ones. Food in this case becomes a venue for zesty conversation and hearty laughter. These are just as important to our health as omega-3 fats and phytochemicals.

As a dietitian, I strive to set a good example for my clients and students. I truly practice what I preach. I want to make sure that I convey that eating healthfully is important…90% of the time. The other 10% should be saved for holidays, celebrations, and days like today when I need to smile at my husband over our tiny kitchen table with new sauce stains on my favorite apron.

Oh, and I apologize for the poor quality photo. I guess that is what you get after two glasses of
Wine!

Making Baby Food Puts Money IN the Bank!

My son eats a LOT. He has always been a big eater. Even when he was exclusively breast fed, he would nurse every two hours on the nose, AROUND THE CLOCK. After five weeks of the marathon nursing he slept 6 hours through the night, giving me a much needed break from the nursing. Amazing! When he started solids, it was strangely a very easy transition. By his third meal he was a pro at having his mouth open and ready for each bite. By his fifth meal he was squealing with delight as I clipped the straps of his high chair and placed the tray in front of him. Now… well… he is a bottomless pit.

Which brings me to why I started to make my own baby food. As a Registered Dietitian, I knew that I wanted to take a stab at making homemade baby food. I feel like I need to be able to give real world advice and feedback to my clients on all the gold standards of nutrition. Homemade baby food is definitely a gold standard! Why? Because it is giving your child the freshest, safest and most nutritious food that you can! Why serve them veggies that have been pureed and stored in a glass jar for maybe months if not years when you can make them fresh food from your very own kitchen? BUT…What I did not realize when I first started making baby food is that I would need to make homemade baby food to save us from over drafting our bank account at the grocery store! So yes, homemade babyfood is also the least expensive baby food option, and therefore frees up a lot of money to help enrich other areas of home life for your child.

Think about it. A case of twelve 2.2oz jars of organic baby food can be purchased at a GOOD DEAL for $8.50 from online retailers. That is 71 cents per jar or 32 cents per ounce. You can purchase an organic acorn squash and a organic butternut squash for a TOTAL of around $6 and make over 64 ounces of baby food (4 ice cube trays which hold 16 one ounce cubes)! That is less than 9 cents per ounce! Sure, it takes about 25 minutes of kitchen work and some oven time… but that’s less time than driving to the grocery store, choosing the foods, checking out and driving back home! AND, you can do it all in your pajamas while the baby naps. I love that part.

Anyways. Back to the point. My son eats a LOT, and so by making baby food I am able to meet his needs for a large quantity of food without sacrificing the quality of nutrition or our financial stability.

Here is a recipe for amazingly easy squash which puts about $14 into the bank when you substitute it for purchased organic squash in 2-3oz jars!

Ingredients:

• Organic acorn squash.
• Organic butternut squash

Tools:

• A large kitchen knife
• A sturdy cutting board
• A cookie sheet
• Oh, and an oven

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Wash the squash thoroughly with cool water. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
3. Cut each squash in half carefully. This part takes some muscle!
4. Spoon out the seeds and stringy stuff with a spoon. (You can keep the seeds for yourself to roast for a snack!)
5. Place the squash cut side down on the cookie sheet. Roast for 35 minutes or until the thickest part of the squash is very soft. If you can place a butter knife through the squash like… well, like butter, then they are done!
6. Let them cool completely.
7. Scrape the cooked squash into a bowl and mash with a hand potato masher, or for younger babies you can puree it in a blender! if necessary, you can add a little water to make pureeing it easier.
8. Portion the squash into ice cube trays, empty plastic baby food containers or small tupperware containers and freeze! Transfer the frozen cubes into a labeled freezer ziplock bag and grab a cube when it is time to eat, microwave it to a safe temperature and FEED YOUR BABY!

Roasted Butternut and Acorn Squash

This squash was baked *face down* on a cookie sheet in a 400*F oven for 35 minutes.

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