What We Eat Wednesdays

2 year olds lunch: peanut butter sandwich on homemade bread, apple slices, and a few veggie chips. (Veggie chips aren't a regular thing in our house, they were leftover from when we had some people over so I let her have some as a little treat.)

What is all this GMO stuff?

There is a lot of news right now about Proposition 37 in California and so I thought it might be helpful to give you some resources so you can understand what is going on. Here is a helpful article by Mark Bittman (author of  books like Food Matters and How to Cook Everything). Also great website with some helpful FAQ's: http://www.carighttoknow.org/.

Recipe Review

 From Weelicious.com, Veggie Heavy Pizza Sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the bell peppers, carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Saute until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly.
2. Add the tomatoes, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, puree with an immersion hand blender (or in a regular blender) until almost smooth.
4. Return sauce to the heat and simmer until thick, 10-20 minutes. The longer you simmer this sauce the thicker and more flavorful it will become. You can simmer up to 2 hours.

My Review:
I loved the idea of having a lot of veggies in this sauce. But I tasted it and wasn't a fan at all, I just hoped the kids would be! Quite a strong taste of the bell pepper.

Kids Review: 
My 2 yr. old hated it. One mouthful and she was done. I used it mixed in with other items for my 8 month and she ate it that way, but not on its own. I won't be making this one again with this exact recipe - perhaps without the bell pepper I might.

What We Eat Wednesdays

My 2 year olds meal: Banana Pancakes with banana slices and blueberries. And milk.

Fall Recipe: Apple Cider Pancakes

Apple Cider Pancakes 

(I saw several recipes and adapted what
I found to come up with this)

2 cups white wheat flour
½ t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup apple cider

In a small bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into a bowl of the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (not until smooth, lumps are good).

Vegetable Puree Recipe

From Weelicious.com, Italian Green Vegetable Puree

Ingredients

• 1 medium zucchini, sliced
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup tomato or marinara sauce
• 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

Preparation

1. Place the zucchini and broccoli florets in a steamer pot over boiling water, steam for 5 minutes and allow to cool.
2. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.
3. Serve.

What We Eat Wednesdays

This delicious-looking (ha!) puree is what my 8 month old recently had to eat. It is a mixture of straight squash puree and an "Italian Green Vegetable puree" that I found from weelicious.com (There are several recipes I've recently tried from that site and I will be reviewing them for you soon.).

One of my 2 year olds lunches: toast with butter, apple slices, scrambled egg (it was going to be fried egg, but I messed up flipping it which is why it looks funny).

Recipe Review

A new addition to this blog is going to be reviewing some of the recipes out there for babies and toddlers. To start, I'm going to review a few recipes from a website that I visit fairly often - weelicious.com - for which I have both positive and negative reviews. I'm going to include my review, as well as what my kids thought. To kick off these reviews...

From Weelicious.com, Broccoli, Potato, and Cheese Puree:

Ingredients

• 1 large potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese (i used white cheddar cheese)

Preparation

1. Place the potato cubes in a steamer pot over boiling water and cook for 6 minutes.
2. Add the broccoli and steam for an additional 4 minutes or until vegetables are fork tender.
3. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and puree. 
4. Serve.

My Review: The picture that accompanied this recipe looked delicious, a puree of normal texture that had a light green tint to it. It's actually much thicker than a regular puree is, it is really just like thick mashed potatoes. You can taste the broccoli in it, but it's not an overpowering flavor. You cannot taste the cheese at all, so you could skip that completely. Next time I make it I am going to add in 1 c. cauliflower and see if changing the ratio of potato to veggie helps thin it out a bit, as well as add some more nutrition to it. I ate some with my leftovers for lunch and added some more cheese on top for a bit more flavor.

Kids Review: 2 year old did not like it. 7 month old ate it fine.

Fall Recipe: Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet Potato Soup
(Slightly adapted from: Giada De Laurentiis' Weeknights with Giada)

3 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 T. olive oil
3 large or 6 small shallots, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
2 stems fresh rosemary
6 c. chicken broth (homemade or low-sodium)
1/2 c. (4oz.) marscarpone cheese, at room temperature
3 T. maple syrup or honey*


1. In a large stockpot, melt the butter and oil.
2. Add the shallots and garlic, season with 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper. Cook 3-4 mins. until soft.
3. Add sweet potatoes, rosemary, and chicken broth, season with 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper.
4. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer and cook 20-25 mins. until sweet potatoes are tender.
5. Turn off the heat, remove rosemary, and blend until smooth and thick.
6. Whisk in cheese and syrup until smooth.

*do not use honey if a child under the age of 1 will be eating the soup

What We Eat Wednesdays

My 2 year olds breakfast recently: a bowl of whole milk plain yogurt and blueberries, and some banana bread that we were given. Not pictured: a glass of milk.

Fall Recipes: Apple Quesadilla

Apple Quesadilla

1 Tortilla
Freshly made applesauce (or apple slices*)
Cheese, grated

1. Spread some applesauce in a thin layer on the tortilla
2. Top with shredded cheese (cheddar is recommended)
3. Heat up on a griddle, skillet, or frying pan until cheese is melted

*You can use some thin apple slices for older toddlers instead of applesauce if you want.

Weekend Reading

Here are some links to some interesting articles that I'll be reading this weekend, perhaps you'll find them interesting too!

Arsenic in Rice?! (and baby rice cereal)

Helpful information on shopping places other than just your local grocery store: Whole Foods on a Budget

A great website about GMO's (Genetically Modified) along with their petitions to fight for a healthier, better America: Food Democracy Now!

What We Eat Wednesdays

Introducing: What We Eat Wednesdays!

Every Wednesday I'm going to try and show you what my kids eat (I have a 2 year old and a 7 month old) for a breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner. I cannot promise the most amazing pictures, but I hope this little look into our food life might help you, inspire you, or encourage you with what you are already doing!  To kick things off, I present to you last night's dinner (for my 2 yr. old) -

Before:
- 1/2 apple, sliced
- 1/2 banana bread cookie (I'm still working on adjusting the recipe, it's almost there!)
- Refried bean burrito (1/2 tortilla, refried beans, cheese, diced tomatoes, chopped up spinach)

After:
She ate the cookie right away, followed by the apple. She left about half the burrito (it's now todays lunch)










Not pictured: her drink. We give her a sippy cup of milk in the morning and when she's finished that, we give her water for the rest of the day.

The Truth About MSG

By now most people know that MSG is bad and are avoiding it. But, what many people don't know is that the food companies have come up with many ways to list it in the ingredients without us, the consumer, knowing that it is in fact MSG or closely related and therefore probably contains MSG (this is due to the fact that so many people have put up a fight to keep this bad additive out of food).

Here is a link to a site that lists the names that are used for MSG, including yeast extract, soy protein, and more: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html.

If you aren't aware about MSG, here is some basic information to help make you aware...

MSG, or Monosodium glutamate, can have a stronger affect on some people than others - if they have a higher sensitivity. MSG is "generally recognized as safe" by the FDA. There are many side affects associated with MSG, the most common being:

• Headache
• Flushing
• Sweating
• Facial pressure or tightness
• Numbness, tingling or burning in the face, neck and other areas
• Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)
• Chest pain
• Nausea
• Weakness

Children are more susceptible to the affects of MSG than adults. As MSG is a cheaper, very flavorful additive the food industry is putting a big fight for MSG - they claim it is fine for consumption and that very, very few people have reactions to it. Scientific studies have shown, however, that up to 40% of the population are having reactions to it. They are also starting to link MSG to other health problems and are doing studies on that now. Also, many countries have limited or have strict requirements concerning labeling with MSG. Recently, MSG has been approved for being sprayed on crops in California... no studies have been done yet related to this.