Chickpea Crunch

A week ago, I was poking around the internet looking for new snack ideas for the kids. I'm trying to break them - especially Noah - out of the crackers and raisins rut.

I wanted something nutritious, easy to prepare, and fun for them to eat. I found an idea on the Parenting magazine website. It's basically toasting chickpeas in the oven. We happen to have some, so I gave it a try.

We all loved them and they are so easy to make. Erin thought they tasted like popcorn.

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Read a little more about chickpeas and why they are so healthy for you. They're a great source of fiber, protein and iron.

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Chickpea Crunch

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
olive oil
salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas. Pat them dry with a paper towel.

In a mixing bowl, coat them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put them on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes. Stir them every 10 minutes to avoid burning.

They will continue to get crispier as they cool.

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Note: The second batch I made, I didn't let them get crispy enough coming out of the oven. So the next day they were a little soggy.

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Another option - which adds a layer of preparation - is using dry beans instead of buying them from a can. It's much cheaper, and the cans can have added salt (and maybe other things).

I just got done doing a batch that way and unfortunately, they didn't taste as good. BUT I'm not giving up...next time I'll just add some additional seasoning for more flavor.

If you want to do it this way:

1. Take as many beans as you want to use and soak them in water overnight - about 12 hours (don't add any salt to the water).
   
2. Put them in a pot - with a fresh batch of water - and cook them for 45min to an hour (bring to a boil and then simmer).
   
3. When they're done, drain the water, pat them dry and continue with the above recipe.

Happy snacking!

DIY: Homemade Crackers

As I further my quest to rid my family of highly processed foods kept around the house, I finally decided to tackle a staple around here: crackers. My children love crackers.

I went searching for something super easy to throw together that I wouldn't mind making about once a week (or however long a batch would last). I came across this recipe at allrecipes.com. I followed it exactly, but there were 2 major issues with it: they were bland and since the crackers are cut apart after baking, the outside ones get crispy but the inside ones stay soft.

After making some tweaks with each batch, I finally got them right on my fourth try. They are mild in flavor, so there is plenty of room to spice them up when we need to. But they do taste great, and my kids love them.

Whole Wheat Garlic Parmesan Crackers

1 3/4 cup whole wheat four
1 1/2 cup all-purpose four
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add olive oil and water. Ball up the dough.

On a flat floured surface - I do mine on parchment paper - roll out the dough (I do about a third at a time). Roll it out thin, but not so thin that you can't transfer it to the baking sheet.

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares.* Try to make them all roughly the same size so they cook evenly.

Transfer the squares to an ungreased baking sheet (they can be placed close together). Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until they start to get crispy. They will continue to get more crispy as they cool.

* I plan on trying to find a square cookie cutter to see if it makes it easier and faster to cut them out.

Mud Pie Wraps

In trying to come up with a dinner for tonight (something fun for the kids to eat that would be full of nutrition), here's what we put together:

Mud Pie Wraps

Layer 1: Whole wheat flour tortilla

Layer 2: Re-fried beans

Cook a half cup of dried pinto beans in water on the stove for about an hour and a half (until soft). Puree with some of the water remaining.

Saute half of a small onion, some chopped bell pepper (we used yellow), and some garlic powder (or fresh garlic if you have it).

Add pureed beans to the onion/pepper/garlic mixture. Sprinkle with salt.

Layer 3: Mashed avocado

Layer 4: Veggie Mix

Cut carrots and cucumber into thin sticks. In a bowl, mix together the veggies, some vinegar and a pinch of salt, pepper and sugar.

Layer 5: Salsa

Layer 6: Mexican style cheese

We crumbled some Queso Fresco

Smack N' Cheese

One of our kids' favorite meals is our simplified version of Rachael Ray's Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese, or as we call it: Smack N' Cheese.

It's an easy way to add a healthy vegetable to a classic, and it tastes amazing.

Smack N' Cheese with side dishes of roasted broccoli and potatoes

 

Smack N' Cheese

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups cooked butternut squash
1 1/2 cups milk (preferably whole milk, or half and half)
1/4 cup onions
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups uncooked macaroni noodles

Bake a medium butternut squash at 400 for about an hour (until soft). Scoop out 2 cups and set aside.

Saute onions and set aside.

In a pot on medium-high heat, combine shredded cheese and milk. Stir until cheese is melted. Add butternut squash, onions, salt, and garlic powder. Puree with a hand blender (or put all ingredients into a blender).

Cook noodles and combine with sauce.

(This served two adults and 3 kids with no leftovers)

Menu Monday

Every Monday I'm going to post our family's menu for the current week. It's simply to spark some ideas. If you'd like to see a recipe for something I've mentioned, please leave a comment and I'll post it as soon as I can.

Monday
Smack N' Cheese

Tuesday
Salmon/Zucchini fritters, homemade baked beans, carrot sticks

Wednesday
Bean burgers, homemade sweet potato fries, pickles

Thursday
Big salad

Friday
Pinto beans, kale and cornbread

Our delicious pizza dinner

(I won't have a photo with this post, since the pizza was devoured before I thought to blog about it)

Since finding this awesome (and quick and easy) pizza crust recipe, we have been making our own pizza for dinner just about weekly. We know it's something that the older two kids will eat, so that's good veggies straight to their tummies.

Tonight's was especially delicious, so I thought I would share what we did.

Sean and I just estimated the cost and we figure it was no more than $3 for the whole thing.

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The Paris Mountain

We're naming it that because we took the kids to Paris Mountain today (near Greenville, SC). 

The crust

This recipe with all whole wheat flour

The sauce (this will make a lot, we just freeze the rest in small containers for future pizzas...could also be used as pasta sauce)

1. Saute 1/2 an onion in a medium pot
2. Add half a cup to a cup of frozen veggies (we use a stir fry mix)
3. Add some basil, garlic powder, salt and sugar
4. Add a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
5. When veggies are soft, puree with a hand blender (or however you puree)

The toppings

1. Cooked bacon
2. Defrosted frozen spinach (fresh would also be great)
3. Chopped mushrooms
4. Canned crushed pinapple

The cheese

Mozzarella

DIY: Coffee Creamer

I've never been a huge coffee drinker, but I do drink more now than I used to. At home, Sean and I usually make a couple batches on the weekend mornings, saving some for cold coffee drinks during the week (adding sugar while it's still warm).

In a small glass, I put in some ice, fill it about half full with coffee and add a splash of skim milk. Makes a delicious iced coffee drink with my breakfast.

If we weren't on a budget and could afford premium wonderful-tasting coffee beans, then I'd probably drink it black. But since ours never tastes that great on its own, we normally add sugar and milk. We've recently started buying whole milk regularly for our one year old, so at least we now have that on hand (skim milk just doesn't really cut it).

But even so, I'm a little bored with coffee drinking. I need some more flavor. And since our family is getting better at the do-it-yourself routine, I'm looking for ways to make our own creamer.

Just to be sure I'm making the right decision, I did a little bit of looking at foodfacts.com to see what's in the store brand containers.

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Store-bought Coffee Creamers

Doing a search for "coffee creamer" on foodfacts.com will bring up 283 products (both liquid and powder). On this website, all products are given a grade from A to F (they call it a "Health Score Report Card"). You can also see the ingredient list along with the nutritional information, and they tell you good and bad things about each product.

Here's the breakdown of how many coffee creamer products there are per grade:

A: 0
B: 1
C or C-: 16
D+, D or D-: 52
F: 214

(of the 43 powders, all but one received an F)

So what's in these products? Let's look at one example (ingredient descriptions come from foodfacts):

Coffee-Mate Original Coffee Creamer

Water

Corn Syrup Solids - sugar produced from cornstarch

Cottonseed Oil - a viscous oil obtained from the seed of the cotton plant

Dipotassium Phosphate - a highly water-soluble salt often used as a fertilizer, food additive and buffering agent

Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil - basically it contains trans-fats (the bad fat)

Sodium Caseinate - a modified protein extracted from milk (considered non-dairy)

Artificial Flavors

Beta Carotene Added for Color

Carrageenan - a thickening agent obtained from seaweed (large amounts have harmed test animals colons; small amounts in food are generally recognized as safe)

Polysorbate 60 - an emulsifying agent that helps stabilize two substances that will not normally mix. It is made of corn, palm oil and petroleum. It does not spoil and sometimes used to replace dairy or fat to extend the products shelf life. Polysorbates are made by combining ethylene oxide, which is a precursor to antifreeze, with a sugar alcohol derivative.

So in summary, this creamer is made of water, sugar, salt, oil, trans fats, artificial flavors and preservatives. Yum.

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Homemade Coffee Creamers

Since I'm new to this idea, I can't offer you a long list of creamer recipes that I have tried and can verify are delicious (I can offer just one, listed below). But I did do some searching online for what others have done, and there are lots of good ideas out there. To give you a starting point, here are two sources of what looks like good recipes to try:

Deliciously Organic: Homemade Coffee Creamer

5 delicious homemade coffee creamers

In my first attempt at this, I wanted to use what I already had in my kitchen. And since you can't go wrong with chocolate, that's what I used. Here's what I put together:

1 cup whole milk

1 Tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking cocoa

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small pot, combine all ingredients. Stir over medium heat until dissolved. Store in the fridge.

I tried it this morning and it was pretty good. I'm looking forward to continuing to experiment with making my own creamer and to getting some recipes perfected. I'll share with you what I figure out...

Oh, and feel free to comment with any tips or recipes that you use!

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Butternut Squash Sauce

A while ago, Sean bought some butternut squash pasta sauce at Aldi and I loved it...probably because it's so sweet.

I wanted to give making our own version a try. It seemed like an easy way to sneak in an extra vegetable for our kids.

I looked over some recipes to get the basic idea of what to include, and then pretty much made up the amounts myself. Below is what I came up with....and it's spectacular!

The butternut squash is subtle, not overpowering at all. Everything blends well together and it has a nice, sweet, tangy flavor. And the kids loved it!

Homemade butternut squash pasta sauce on whole
wheat spaghetti, topped with Parmesan cheese

Cheryl's Delicious and Nutritious Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups cooked butternut squash
1/4 cup water
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp garlic
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp white sugar

Saute onions in olive oil. Combine onions, cooked butternut squash and water in food processor (or blender). Blend until smooth.

In a large sauce pan on medium heat, combine butternut squash mixture, crushed tomatoes, spices and sugar. Heat through.

Menu Monday

Every Monday I'm going to post our family's menu for the current week. It's simply to spark some ideas. If you'd like to see a recipe for something I've mentioned, please leave a comment and I'll post it as soon as I can.

Monday
Stir-fry with cabbage, broccoli and carrots

Tuesday
Spaghetti noodles with my homemade Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Wednesday
Pinto beans, kale and cornbread

Thursday
Salmon fritters, roasted potatoes, homemade coleslaw

Friday
Carrot soup

DIY: Caesar Dressing

With our pizza last night (topped with pineapple, roasted broccoli and onion), we had a side salad. The dressing I can't take credit for. Sean altered this recipe and came up with his own version of this delicious Caesar dressing.

Homemade Caesar dressing on Romain lettuce,
topped with Parmesan cheese

Caesar Dressing

2-3 tbsp mayonnaise
1-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
2-4 cloves of fresh garlic
1-3 tsp lemon juice
up to 1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

*amounts are approximate because Sean often doesn't measure when he cooks. Use the ranges to add more or less of the flavors that you like.

In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients except the olive oil. As it's blending, slowly drizzle the olive oil through the hole in the top of the lid.

Baby food (Part II)

As I wrote in a previous post, there are 2 main reasons to make your own baby food: to avoid ingredients that you don't want to give your baby (like preservatives, flour as "fillers," added sugar and salt), and to save money since store-bought jars are way overpriced.

If making your own baby food is a new concept for you, a good place to start is reading this article on babycenter.com: How to make your own baby food. It covers the basics.

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The Equipment

Baby Food Processor

You don't need much to get started making your own baby food. Mostly, you just need some type of gadget to puree the food.

Before our first child was born, we received a baby food processor as a gift. We've used it through three kids and it still works great. It blends up one or two servings at a time and can be thrown in the dishwasher for an easy clean up.

Hand Blender

We also use our hand blender when it's a larger batch of food, or just simply a fork if it's a banana or something really soft. Occasionally I'll use our potato masher.

So you certainly don't need to go out and buy an expensive appliance, just use what you already have.

The food

Starting out. 

When your baby starts eating around 4 to 6 months, you're probably going to be making single-ingredient meals. You'll be using all the basics: bananas, applesauce, peaches, pears, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.

For young babies, you will probably have to take off any fruit skins since you need to get it down to a fine texture. As they get older, you can leave the skins on when you puree it (a lot of the nutrients are in the skin).

(One thing to always consider is if the produce was grown using pesticides and chemicals, in which case you should always remove the skins. But if it's organic or a local pesticide-free farmer, then it would be okay.)

For vegetables, cook them as you would for yourself and then puree. Things like sweet potatoes and butternut squash can be done in the oven, and others can be steamed on the stove-top in water. Be sure not to overcook the vegetables or you will start to lose nutrients. Just get them soft enough to be able to be pureed.

The experienced eater.

Once your baby gets to the 8 to 9 month range, he/she will be ready for some more texture and multi-ingredient meals. Now you get to start using some more creativity in your preparations.

To make a big batch of food, what Sean and I do is pick two or three ingredients to mix together. We usually pick a grain or bean - like brown rice, quinoa, barley, pinto beans, navy beans - and one or two vegetables. Now is also when we start adding in leafy greens which have a lot more texture - kale, collard greens, spinach. So many nutrients! 

Once everything is cooked (often we'll cook all the ingredients in the same pot), we just use our hand blender to blend it up. The older the child gets, the less you need to blend it. We'll keep about 3 days worth in the fridge and freeze the rest.

And of course we still give the fruits as single ingredient meals or snacks. Other foods to add at this age are cottage cheese and yogurt (maybe mixed with fruit).

12 months+

Once you have a one year old, they should be eating a lot of what you make for dinner for the whole family. That's not always possible - like the nights you have pizza - so having the batches of pureed food around is still useful until they have most of their teeth in.

When I can, I take our dinners and either cut them up really small (like with pasta), or put them in the baby food processor (like homemade soup or chili).

Here is what our one year old typically eats: pureed grain/bean/veggie mixtures, adult meals pureed or chopped when possible, plain sweet potato, plain squash, mashed or pureed fruits, cottage cheese, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal (for breakfast).

A tip for storage

This is not my original idea by any means, but use an ice cube tray to store your baby food in the freezer. When you need a meal for that day, take out what you need (my one year old will eat 4 to 5 cubes per meal) and let it defrost for a bit and then microwave it the rest of the way.

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I just hope to give a little encouragement in trying to make your own food for your little one. If you use a lot of jars, but it seems overwhelming to switch completely over to homemade overnight, then start small. Just try one batch and see what happens. 

Baby Food (Part I)

Erin @ 7 months, eating mango

One of the things Sean and I got better about with each of our kids was making our own baby food. Our first born, Erin, had probably 85 to 90% of her baby food come from jars, and the rest was mashed up fruits from whatever we had.

Noah @ 4 months eating rice cereal

Our second born, Noah, started out with mostly jars, but as he got to the 9 to 12 month range, we started making batches of food at a time (but still had jars).

Luke @ 6 months eating
purple sweet potato

Then came our third, Luke, and I am proud to say that he is 13 months old and has never had a single jar of store-bought baby food.

So which is the better route to go? Of course pre-made meals in a jar are convenient (especially since babies eat so often). Not every mom has the extra time to make her own, especially for those who also work. But from my experience, it's not really that big of a deal to throw some food together and store most of it in the freezer for later. It's quite simple actually.

It's definitely cheaper to make your own, and you know exactly what you're feeding your baby. No preservatives and no added sugar or salt. Just fresh food.

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I came across an article on the Center for Science in the Public Interest website entitled Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food. It's from 1995, so of course things could have improved within these baby food companies since then. But for the most part, I bet it's mostly the same. The article looks at the nutritional value and cost of commercial baby food within the top 5 companies at the time (one has since gone bankrupt). Here are some statements from the article (it's worth reading the whole thing if you have a baby):

• Gerber and Heinz add substantial amounts of water and thickening agents (flours and chemically modified starches) to more than half of their twenty-five most popular fruits, mixed and creamed vegetables, desserts, and dinners for babies over six months (second- and third-stage foods). Not only are those products a monetary rip-off, they are also nutritionally inferior to similar products made without fillers...Many fewer products made by Beech-Nut and Earth's Best contain starchy fillers.
• The use of starchy thickening agents can mask the addition of a good deal of water. As any cook knows, a little bit of flour or starch can thicken a lot of liquid. The presence in a baby food of one or more fillers, such as rice flour, wheat flour, or modified starch, is a good indicator that the food is a dilute and nutritionally inferior product.
• Gerber and Heinz' cereals with fruit all contain added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. The addition of refined sugars to cereals is unnecessary. The added sugars may encourage a preference for heavily sweetened foods.
• Baby foods are greatly overpriced compared to similar regular foods. Examples include applesauce and fruit juices, as well as diced fruits and vegetables for toddlers. The nutrient content and physical characteristics of those baby foods do not differ significantly from those for adults. However, the baby foods cost up to several times as much per unit weight.
• Four million babies are born in the United States every year. By the time they reach twelve months of age, each of those infants has consumed, smeared around, or spit out an average of 600 jars of baby food.

Assuming all those statements are true, do you think you can do a better job? As long as you're not adding flour, sugar and salt, I think you will be.

Making your own baby food does not require a magic formula. Or if it does, then it's: Cook food. Puree.

To be continued...