Edamame, Carrots & Cauliflower

I wanted to introduce edamame, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. I didn’t want to just give it to him plain just yet, so I thought some carrots would accompany it well. I used frozen, shelled edamame that I thawed in the microwave and fresh steamed carrots. I hand chopped them into fine pieces. I gave Drew one bite; hmmm, no. Tried a second bite; hmmm, still no. So, I thawed out one of my dressed up cauliflower cubes and mixed it in. That did it; Drew was good to go after that! Just goes to show that cooking for your baby is mostly trial & error and experimentation.

Pasta with Cauliflower & Cheese

Drew had an interesting week. I got a little food happy and introduced him to Cheerios, cheese, pineapple, and the frozen baby dinners; which have several new and different ingredients. What happens? Of course he breaks out in a rash. This was similar the one he had with avocado. So, we stopped with all the new foods and I thought it would be gone the next day; but no it got worse of the next two days. It is finally gone and I am re-introducing the new foods one a time. First Cheerios, which of course I don't believe was the culprit, but just in case. Second, cheese.

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Today for lunch Drew had Ditalini pasta mixed with our dressed up cauliflower and shredded cheddar cheese. No real recipe to follow, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I did add a pinch of garlic too, his first time for this. I got the idea from wholesomebabyfood.com that did the same thing, but with carrots. Seeing how we are out of carrots I thought I'd try it with the cauliflower. This smelled so good that I had to try it for myself. Both Drew and I give it two thumbs up!

Baked Chicken & Cauliflower Dressed Up

Last week Drew tried something old & something new. Drew loves cauliflower, so for added flavor I boiled the cauliflower in chicken broth (low sodium) and than pureed it with a little bit of the left over broth & a bit of butter. I believe Drew likes it just as much, if not more than the plain cauliflower.

According to my Cooking for Baby book, they recommend starting Chicken between 9 and 11 months. Drew was about 8 1/2 decided to try it. We did so because he had been eating solids since 4 months and doing well on them. He also did well with the ground turkey. We took boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used four, but I think I'll just do two next time), put them on an oiled cooking rack over a foil lined pan. We cooked them for about 24 minutes, flipping them half way through. We have a digital cooking thermometer that helps us cook chicken thoroughly. I highly recommend one. I pureed half of this and chopped the rest for finger foods. Drew is not fond of this in either form. I tried mixing it with sweet potatoes too, which helped a little. I might try white meat next time to see if he likes it better and I plan on making a pasta too.

So this week our new foods were cauliflower and peaches. Cauliflower may just be Drew's new favorite food for now. For the cauliflower, we just took a half a head of cauliflower and steamed it until tender (about 10 minutes). We than used the food processor and blended it with a little bit of formula. I just give it to Drew straight up, I haven't mixed it with any other foods yet.

As for peaches, I bought a frozen bag a peach slices. This way, I get two uses out of them. First, I can put a frozen peach in Drew's mesh feeder to help with his teething. Second, I can thaw out a slice or two at a time (about 50 seconds in defrost mode in the microwave) and chop them into pieces for Drew to eat as regular. The are a little difficult for him to pick up with his hand yet, so most the time I use a spoon to feed it to him or stir in the pieces with his oatmeal for breakfast. He was not a fan of the peaches at first; in fact, he gagged a little than spit up his first try. But now he really enjoys them.

(Drew is 7 1/2 months now)