Nov 11th, 2010 // Baby Feeding
Baby Eats Broccoli from Rebecca Coleman on Vimeo.
Pardon the brief interruption from Thanksgiving Sides, but I’ve been meaning to share something with you about cooking with my other kid. More specifically, my 7 month old. My sister in law, who is a nurse practitioner and a certified lactation consultant, introduced me to a new baby feeding concept called Baby-Led Weaning. The basics premise of Baby Led Waning is that babies do not need to start with pureed food. The book Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods-and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater, encourages parents to let their babies explore foods on their own by presenting them with large chunks they can gnaw on. Babies naturally explore everything with their mouths and are actually pre-programmed to be able to feed themselves. I’m not a hippy-dippy mom so I was incredibly skeptical. But, my SIL is on her third kid and she very experienced with children – she ran a clinic at Georgetown Hospital – so I decided to give it a whirl. At 6 months old, I offered the baby a piece of broccoli. As you can see from the video, she put it right up to her mouth and began to gnaw on it! SHOCKING. AMAZING. UNREAL. It’s been a month and I have yet to spoon feed her anything. I’m really loving this concept. It seems so natural. I kind of can’t believe I did it any other way.
I know what you are thinking. You’re afraid she’ll choke, right? Well, the book says that babies are more likely to choke on spoonfed food than gnawed food. Reason being that with a spoon you are moving the food to the back of their mouths, but when they are feeding themselves they need to do this themselves. The book also says they don’t do this before they are ready. I don’t like to parent from books so I asked my pediatrician about this. She actually concurred. She was not worried about my baby choking from gnawing on food. (She, like the book, suggested we stay away from chokeables like raisins, nuts, grapes, hotdogs, etc.)
I know this isn’t for everyone. But I’ll be updating you on our adventures if you’re interested. Oh, and if you want to try this at home, I encourage you to check out the book. I’m not the expert – I’m the guinea pig!
Nov 11th, 2010 // Recipes, Sides
I do understand your reservations. Cooked cauliflower is often tasteless, soggy and bland. But I urge you to give this veggie just one more shot before you write it off forever.
When cooked properly, cauliflower is so sweet and nutty that I could eat an entire bowl for dinner. That’s exactly what I did tonight. My kid ate some too. (He thinks it’s white broccoli. Almost too easy!)
It makes for an excellent Thanksgiving side dish because it keeps its good looks and delicious flavor even as it cools down. You don’t have to worry about pulling it out of the oven right before you sit down to eat. I love a good veggie make-over story. Now for the recipe…
Read more after the jump…
Nov 10th, 2010 // Recipes, Sides
How A-MAZING would it be to dunk these little cornbread donuts into your gravy on Thanksgiving? I’ll answer that for you. It would be dreamy. I’d bet they would be a bit of a show stopper too. They’ll all be talking about how you had donuts on the table on Turkey Day!
The idea to do this came from my friend, Macki. She doesn’t like to see her pans to get lonely so she encouraged me to think about using some of my pans for things other than what they are intended. (She already knows I’m the queen of the muffin pan.)
After giving it some serious thought, we came up with the idea of making cornbread donuts using our mini donut pan! Who doesn’t like a good corn bread recipe?
A little someone liked the cornbread donuts very much! Now for the recipe…
Read more after the jump…
Nov 9th, 2010 // Recipes, Sides
The other day when we were at a restaurant my kid’s seat was facing a huge chalkboard listing of the daily specials. He looked at it and then looked at me excitedly while screaming “my name is on that sign!” I was preparing to let him down gently (he’s just learning to read) when I realized right there on the sign were the words “Asparagus Soup.” Asapara-GUS. As in, GUS. Which is indeed my kid’s name.
This morning I told him I had a surprise food in the fridge. I handed him an asparagus bunch and he lit right up. It’s his signature veggie!
I put him to work snapping off the tough stems. What could be better for a boy than to be permitted to break things? Made my job a heck of a lot easier too.
What I love most about this recipe is that I actually prefer it when it’s been refrigerated and then spritzed with lemon right before serving. It’s the perfect make-ahead veggie for turkey day! Now for the recipe…
Read more after the jump…
Nov 9th, 2010 // Desserts
Hmmm…did I happen to mention that I count dessert as a side? By the end of all that Thanksgiving planning it’s hard to even think about dessert… so we’re starting with it. I gave my kid a choice of several different dessert ideas and he picked upside down apple cake. I’m not sure if it was the apples or the “upside down” that enticed him, but I was quite pleased with his decision.
Squeezing the lemon is one of his very favorite cooking activities. This lemon was particularly difficult. The look on my kid’s face is priceless.
While he was layering the apples, I turned my back for a moment and my kid decided to sneak a slice of apple. He forgot we had tossed them in lemon and couldn’t hide his sour face when I turned back around. That made us both giggle.
The cake requires that you cool it completely before slicing. My kid is at school and hasn’t had the chance to try it yet, but I have. I’m deeply in love. He better get home soon before I eat the entire cake! Now for the recipe…
Read more after the jump…
