Cooking Category
Making Your Own Baby Food
You finally arrive at that stage where baby can actually start on solid food. You head over to the grocery store and stock up on all those yummy baby food flavors only to have sticker shock at check out. The good news is there are options – like making your own baby food. And it’s not as difficult as it seems. Michelle LaRowe has a great, easy guide to making your own baby food. (Remember the mom, nanny & writer that we interviewed this past Monday for Mom Monday?)
Here it is:
How To Make Your Own Baby Food:*
- Steam or bake fresh fruits or vegetables until tender.
- Puree cooked fruits or vegetables in a good processor or blender.
- Fill an ice cube tray with pureed food.
- Cover the filled ice cube tray with plastic wrap and freeze.
- Once the puree cubes are frozen, transfer them to a plastic freezer storage bag and label it with the food type and date. Cubes should be used within one month of freezing.
- Thaw and heat as needed. Breast milk, formula, or water can be added to thin the puree before serving. Each cube equals about 1 ounce of baby food.
Do you make your own baby food? What “tricks & tips” work for you?
Share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment & you will be entered to win a copy of A Mom’s Ultimate Book of Lists by Michelle LaRowe!
*Excerpted with permission from A Mom’s Ultimate Book of Lists by Michelle LaRowe, published by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2010
Nutrition, Food Revolution and Your Child
Perhaps you have seen the trailer for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution showing how he is trying to transform the way America’s children eat. In the trailer we see kids unable to identify a tomato, potato and other various fruit and vegetables. It is sad to watch, but the story doesn’t end there. Jamie is challenging all of us as individuals and as a family to live healthier lives. It’s not always easy to get children to eat their fruit and veggies when they would rather have cookies or chips. A few things can help make nutritious food more palatable for our kids and even ourselves!
- Let your children be part of the fruit & vegetable “decision making.” Let them pick out the fruit and vegetables when shopping.
- Assign different nights where your child can pick which vegetable will be served with dinner. This sort of “ownership” can help them feel more in “control” of their meal.
- Serve fruit with a non-fat or sugar-free yogurt as a dip.
- Make a healthy trail mix with raisins, cereal and nuts.
- Put chopped fruit into jello.
- Make fun shapes out of fruit and vegetables so your children will look forward to eating it.
- Give healthy “sweet” alternatives to candy and ice-cream. We liked this easy and healthy smoothie recipe as an alternative to ice-cream for kids & adults
.
Banana Smoothie
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 small banana
1/4 teaspoon honey (optional)
Place all the ingredients in a blender . Blend on high speed until smooth.
Will you be joining the Food Revolution? How do you get your children to eat their fruit and vegetables? Share your tips with us!
Kolcraft and the Food Network
We are excited here at Kolcraft that Andres Barrera, son of one of our Kolcraft employees, is going to be on Chopped!
Andres’ mom, Yolanda, is part of our Kolcraft family. She keeps things running smooth in our accounting department. Right now she’s talking about food not numbers! She is very excited that her son and favorite chef is on Chopped. We are excited too so yesterday, I had the chance to sit down with Yolanda and ask her how her son’s love for cooking started.
“Growing up, Andres loved to make Ramen noodle soup! We were talking about this and he said, ‘That soup was my epiphany and that’s when the chef in me was born.’
My kids were ‘latch key’ kids. When they came home from school and waited for me to come home to start dinner, Andres would pull out a package of his favorite flavored Ramen noodle soup and experiment. Each time he made it, he used different ingredients to improve the flavor. My children didn’t eat this every day, maybe once a week, but this was his all time favorite to experiment with!
When he was little, one of his favorite dishes that we made together was Calavacita. This is an easy-to-make Mexican Pork Stew. I would cut up the meat and he would cut the vegetables. He watched while I cooked it and noted how and when I put the spices in.”
Right in Yolanda’s kitchen, her little blooming chef began his career! You can catch this famous “Kolcraft Chef” (Yep, we claim him as our own by proxy!) on Food Network’s Chopped on March 2nd.
Yolanda’s Mexican Pork Stew:
- 1lb lean pork
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ lb yellow squash
- ½ lb zucchini squash
- 1 med onion, chopped
- 1 med poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
- 2 med tomatoes, chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ tsp freshly ground cumin
- ½ cup of water
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Salt and pepper to taste
Cut up pork into small cubes and season with black pepper. Add to a skillet with the olive oil and brown on medium heat. While that’s cooking cut up the yellow and green squash length wise and then into ½ inch pieces, set aside. When the meat is nice and brown add the onions and flour stirring constantly so that they don’t burn. When the onions are almost transparent add the remaining ingredients including the water. Cover and simmer until the squash is cooked but still firm. Season to taste with salt.
Cooking with your children can be a great way to teach them about nutrition and spend time “bonding.” What is your favorite recipe to cook with your children? Share it with us in the blog comments and you and your little chef can be picked to be highlighted on our website!
