ChowBaby

Ahhh. La piña. The symbol of hospitality. Worthy of mention in the title of one of my favorite recent comedies. (Have you seen Pineapple Express?!) And the new favorite fruit in my house. Yea, yea. I know. So much for keeping it local. But January is a rough time for fruit in New York City and I didn't can or freeze. (Or pickle? Check it out: pickled limes from the fabulous food blog MattBites.com, quick pickled papaya or mango from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and pickled watermelon rind from Martha Stewart Everyday Food!) Plus, with Isaac's palate still developing, I want to introduce him to a wide range of flavors. And if we go somewhere tropical where pineapple is indigenous, Isaac won't be with us--ha!

It all started with a Trader Joe's Pineapple Fruit Bar, a 100% fruit snack that is Isaac's latest food obsession. I've tried the other flavors, but he only wants "pie-nipple" (which sounds great in public). He loves these things so much that I moved him on to fresh pineapple. I wanted to see if the love affair would last in the absence concentrated sweetness. It did. So, when it came time to make birthday cupcakes for play group (Isaac turned two 2 days ago!), these pineapple carrot cupcakes were the obvious choice. (I found them while looking for a cupcake recipe that called only for agave syrup--serendipity!) Another hit with Isaac. 

         

Click here to download:

PINEAPPLE.zip (764 KB)

With one last fresh pineapple lying around, yesterday afternoon I announced to Isaac that we'd have fresh pineapple for dessert. Wasn't I such a nice mama?! Sure. Nice. But not so smart. I hadn't checked if the pineapple was ripe before making the promise. (Did you know that one way to check a pineapple for ripeness is to pluck a leaf from the top--if it comes out easily, you're good to go.) Bad move. I had to come up with something quick. Roasted pineapple was the move. It would soften the under ripe fruit and concentrate the sweetness.

I cut off the top and bottom, cut the fruit in half, peeled it with a knife, cut out the core, and made 1/2" slices. I used a baking dish that was too small to arrange the pieces in one layer. That didn't cause any problem. I laid the first layer down, sprinkled lightly with organic sucanat and cardamom, the repeated the process with a second layer. I dabbed the whole shebang with butter, but don't think it was necessary. I baked for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, until the juices thickened into a nice, natural, syrupy coating.

I must have been overcompensating--or got caught up in the gooey sweetness of it all--because I mixed a 1/2 tsp of organic agave syrup with 1/4 c organic plain whole milk yogurt to top the whole thing off. (Plain yogurt would have worked just fine!) A sprinkle of cinnamon brought the whole thing together (balanced out the cardamom on the pineapple). (Sorry for the bad camera phone picture!)

This was Isaac's favorite pineapple dish yet. He couldn't stop saying, "MMM!" He seriously said it with every bite. Hysterical. Good thing our pineapple wasn't ripe!

I'm sure we'll have more adventures in pineapple-ville. But, in the meantime, all of this cooking with the tropical fruit got me wondering... is it even nutritious?! (Always smart to ask this question after you've stuffed your kid full of the stuff--LOL!) According to the World's Healthiest Foods, pineapple is an excellent source of manganese and vitamin C, and a good source of vitamins B1 and B6, copper, and dietary fiber. Manganese and B1 (thiamin) are both important for energy production and antioxidant defense. Vitamin C also provides antioxidant protection and immune system support. You can read more in WHF's profile of pineapple. Or check out the hard nutrition facts at NutritionData.com.

Works for me. (Phew!) So more pineapple stuff I will make. Got any pineapple recipes to share?

-S

   

Click here to download:

how_squeezing_an_orange_made_m.zip (1268 KB)

oh, juice. the bane of my mama existence. and probably the topic of many posts to come.

this is from a february 2007 policy statement from the american academy of pediatrics entitled The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics:

basically, juice doesn't provide the full scope of nutritional benefits as whole fruit and it's a lot easier to feed beyond the daily recommended intake (which means a whole lot of sugar) when fruit is served in juice form.

but fighting the requests for juice sometimes feels like a never ending battle. plus, as it turns out, organic juice, at least, can be a great source of vitamin C. (check out the section A Glass of Orange Juice More Protective than Vitamin C Alone.) good to know, especially in the winter months.

this morning i managed to give isaac a small cup of freshly squeezed orange juice without having to contend with begging for more. i bought juicing oranges for mulled wine this weekend (mama juice?). i grabbed one in my pre-coffee haze and decide to make a spectacle of squeezing it "special" for isaac. it yielded almost exactly 1/3 of a cup of juice (just about 3 oz)--a perfect serving size! once i had extracted all of the juice, which took all of 2 minutes, i let him play with the orange halves. you know how we're suckers for tactile food experiences here. plus it was fun, distracted him from wanting more juice, and gave him a concrete way of seeing that the juice was "all done" (as opposed to me sneakily slipping a full container back into the fridge while dishonestly--and guiltily--repeating, "all done").

-S

sounds strange, but it works. at least with the two veggies i've tried: sweet potato and butternut squash. (what else do you think you could use?) it's just like apple butter, really. (in fact, apple butter is a great reference for consistency.) and you can use it the same way. i usually spread veggie butter on our morning toast on top of a little butter. for today's snack, i spread squash on toast that also had some peanut butter on it. yum!

you can prepare the veggies however you'd like in order to make a thick-ish puree. i like to roast both sweet potatoes and squash. i'm sure you can steam (though you'll lose flavor) or boil (you'll lose flavor and nutrients). whatever is easiest.

once roasted and cooled, i peel the sweet potato and wrap the whole thing in foil. anytime over the next three days that i want some sweet potato butter, i just unwrapped it, cut off a slice and spread it with a knife. spreads smooth as melted butter and doesn't need any other flavor (though i sometimes sprinkle cinnamon on top).

as for the squash, i find it easier and neater to make the puree as soon as it has cooled. i don't mind lumpy and prefer to dirty as few dishes as possible, so i just mash it with a potato masher and season with a little bit of all natural, organic maple syrup and freshly grated ginger (best done using a microplane, one of my other favorite kitchen tools). 

so easy, a sweet treat (though less so than jam, in a good way), and a creative way to get an additional serving of veggies in the mix (without having to hide them!).

-S

(pictured: squash puree in a mason jar--i keep in the fridge for up to 3 days--and today's snack of toast with peanut butter & squash with a side of blueberries)

   

Click here to download:

use_veggies_instead_of_jam.zip (1240 KB)

isaac LOVES yogurt. i'm sure he'd eat it in all forms, though he's only been served plain organic whole milk yogurt and--a big treat in our house--ronnybrook farms yogurt drink. (i'd gloat about about never having served him yo baby, except that the yogurt drink we get is just as sugary--well, actually, it's not in the serving size i give isaac, but still--what's a mom to do?) isaac also loves a new introduction: trader joe's very green blend juice. i see absolutely no point, at least nutritionally, in serving children juice, but i also believe that almost every (whole, natural, or at least minimally processed) food can be a "sometimes" food.

the very green juice thing started as an experiment when isaac was last sick. i thought it might serve as a shortcut to some minimal nutrition while his desire to eat food was completely gone. (and, just gotta say that juice, even home pressed, is truly a shortcut--it can never provide the full scope of benefits provided by the same whole food ingredient.) it worked. big time. now isaac wants very green juice all the time, testing my tolerance for the whole "sometimes food" approach. i've since purchased a couple of bottles that have each lasted about a week (he gets little shots with breakfast some mornings). but this drink is sugary, even in small amounts. each serving is 28 g of sugar and our shots are about 1/2 a serving.

i had a revelation this morning that brought together the power of yogurt, yogurt drink, and the very green juice blend. (cue music from the heavens.) i took my no added sugar organic whole milk yogurt, added a tiny bit of the very green juice blend, and, voila, a "smoothie!" i tried this with the ronnybrook farms yogurt drink a while back, but it didn't work nearly as well. i guess adding plain yogurt to yogurt drink is basically watering down the good stuff. but this new concoction makes plain yogurt BETTER.

so, bottom line, isaac eats plain yogurt, it looks and tastes exciting, it's thinned out so that he can drink it (less mess), and he gets his green juice (i made a point of showing him that) in a serving size that i can feel good about. put that in your... something and... drink it? (if you keep reading this blog you'll see that growing up with immigrant parents makes for a complete and utter inability to keep idiomatic expressions straight.)

these videos are totally gratuitous. just experimenting with my flip and learning how to post video properly. watch them. especially if you feel you need a tutorial on stirring.

Click here to download:

VID00117.AVI (5912 KB)

Click here to download:

VID00119.AVI (2111 KB)

-S

happy belated thanksgiving, y'all! we're back in the office and out of our tryptophan haze. as i settled in with my double latte this morning (i was up way too late for a woman with a toddler!) and caught up on headlines, i came across a sad story about how diluted formula nearly killed a baby in florida.

the gist of the story is that a mom was thinning her baby's formula to make it last longer because she can't afford enough. additionally, she was feeding the baby water in between feedings to help keep him sated. apparently, what this is common. in fact, i found this definition of water intoxication (ie, water poisoning) from the 2002 McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine which specifically states, "it is common in infants living in poverty, whose parents 'stretch' powdered formula by adding water."

the mom in this florida case had no idea how much harm her money-saving ways could cause her baby. and without that knowledge, i can imagine any parent who can't afford enough food for their child feeling scared and pressured to think of ways to make their baby's sustenance last. i commend her for going public with this story. it must have been hard to do. but it highlights important, but less frequently talked about infant feeding information that, sadly, may be more relevant to more people as we weather hard economic times.

with that, here's a quick rundown of some facts on introducing water to your baby:

• common wisdom is that babies younger than 1-year-old, especially breast fed babies (breast milk is 80-90% water), do not need water
• but it is often said that you can begin introducing small amounts of water, especially to formula fed babies, at 6-months-old (consult with your pediatrician to determine when and how much water to give your baby)
• never give water to an infant younger than 6-months-old (unless otherwise instructed by your pediatrician)
• any age- and health-appropriate water intake should not serve as a substitute for breast milk and/or formula, which should always be made according to the manufacturer's instructions
• in fact, it's often suggested that sips be offered after meal time so that water doesn't interfere with baby's appetite for breast milk and/or formula
• too much water, which includes any water given to children younger than 6-months-old (unless otherwise indicated by your pediatrician), can cause serious health problems (immature kidneys expel sodium along with excess water, so giving infants too much water causes a sodium imbalance that can disrupt brain activity and cause, among other things, seizures)

if you are looking for ways to give this holiday season (and beyond!) you might consider donating formula to a local food bank (Feeding America--formerly America's Second Harvest--offers this food bank locator) or your local WIC (Women, Infant, Children) agency (WIC is state-run so the best way for you to locate a nearby agency is to google "WIC + [your state]"). formula is exceedingly expensive but vitally important to any infant whose mother is not exclusively breast feeding. any help struggling moms can get is help that can ensure the health and safety of their babies.

i know... heavy post following a holiday weekend, but i brought it around to giving and the holiday spirit, right?! now let's carry that on beyond december because we're all in this together...

-S

a friend who's toddler kept getting croup recently mentioned that she believes her son has been in much better health (and croup-free) since she switched him to goat's milk. fascinated (after all, i am greek), i began doing research.

apparently, goat's milk is the milk of choice in most of the world (not just greece!). and many adults who have cow's milk allergies can tolerate goat's milk, though it's not exactly clear why (nor is it as clear when it comes to very young children).

there seem to be two issues at hand: allergy & intolerance and nutrition. oh, there's also a matter of over-industrialized dairy in this country, but i'll leave that to you (or another post one day soon).

allergies and intolerance
while goat's milk tends to be more easily digested, it's composition (not nutritional profile--i'll get to that in a second) is pretty similar to cow's milk. one way that goat's milk is different, though, is that its fat globules don't cluster the way that they do in cow's milk. many, including dr. sears believe this is an explanation for why some people who have a hard time digesting cow's milk can more easily digest goat's milk.

some intolerance issues may be related to allergies. initial studies suggested that some of the proteins in cow's milk that cause allergic reactions are relatively absent in goat's milk. more recent studies have debunked that, concluding that... you guessed it... more research is needed to understand the role that proteins might play in milk tolerance. in fact, this article which i landed on from the Kelly Mom entry on goat's milk suggests that many researchers believe that infant's who are sensitive to cow's milk can also have serious allergic reactions to goat's milk.

nutrition
one of the first things i looked for when i started researching was a straight nutritional comparison of goat's and cow's milk. it may not seem at first glance like there is much difference, but there is. and it's meaningful. goat's milk has greater levels of vitamin A, riboflavin, calcium, potassium and niacin. awesome. it also has less iron, zinc, B6, and B12. (and, remember, folate is water soluble vitamin B.) not awesome, for infants especially.

it's important to consider these nutritional differences in the context of your or your child's specific health needs and overall diet before deciding which milk is the better option. you can also get a detailed profile of goat's milk at one of my favorite food research resources, World's Healthiest Foods.

the bottom line
everything i read suggests that children under 1 should never be given goat's milk (or cow's milk, of course) in lieu of breast milk and/or formula. and children under 3 who are allergic to cow's milk may also prove to be allergic to goat's milk. dr. greene provides specific guidance in his answer to a mom who asks about giving goat's milk to her cow's milk and soy sensitive 6-month-old.

if you have an older child who eats a well balanced diet and doesn't have any major health issues (or perhaps ones that might be well served by the nutrients in which goat's milk is abundant--check with your pediatrician), it seems that goat's milk is a fine addition (or substitution) to consider. and, if you're concerned about the impact of a massive cow dairy industry and the over-processing of cow's milk in the US, then it's something definitely worth looking into for older, lactose tolerant children.

as for isaac, my favorite (and the world's most willing) food guinea pig, he loved goat's milk. we've been switching between that and cow's milk effortlessly for a few weeks now and all is fine. (except when i can only find goat's milk for my coffee... then, not so fine. we're not in greece anymore, dorothy.)

-S

last night isaac and i tried something new: greenwheat freekeh. it's green (as in young) durum wheat.

maybe it's the funny name that caught my eye, or the fact that it looked so damn healthy:

i just mixed some freekeh (i bought mine at trader joe's, where it's sold fully cooked--i think it's usually sold dried) with butternut squash soup and warmed the whole thing up. we loved it! it's a little nutty and pleasantly chewy (in the way that israeli couscous is pleasantly chewy).

i think my next attempt at cooking with freekeh will be a breakfast porridge (instead of oatmeal or muesli). seems that's one common way to cook freekeh in the middle east where it's most commonly used. i'll probably use this recipe--post#5--as inspiration.

here is how trader joe's describes this yummy grain:
Freekeh (freak-ay) – yeah, it has a cool name, but what is it? It’s 100% "green" durum wheat (the variety used to make pasta) & it makes a unique alternative to rice, couscous or pasta. There's more! Grown in Australia, the durum is harvested before it has fully matured, then roasted with a selection of fresh, natural seasonings. Because it is harvested while young, Freekeh is higher in protein, vitamins and minerals than other grains. Plus it’s naturally sodium free and packed with fiber. And it's tasty. The Freekeh flavor is mellow, similar to couscous, and contributes to the creation of a sensational sides, salads or stuffings...

i'm sold! yummy, mid flavor; nutritional profile comparable, if not superior, to brown rice (our grain of choice); and flexible enough to use in breakfast, lunch or dinner.

if you're sold, too, learn more about freekeh!
history and overview
general description and nutritional info
nutritional profile and more (note: this is a commercial site from a producer of freekeh in Australia)

-S

i made flax seed more convenient than ever... totally by accident!

i buy organic whole flax seeds and grind them myself. (time saving tip: grind a week's worth and store in the fridge in an airtight container. i love my glass pyrex storage set. just don't keep too long since ground flax seed can go rancid.) i usually pulse just a few times, yielding a grind that still has some texture which works nicely with yogurt (my new FAVORITE--pear is best!!) or soup or oatmeal.

this time, though, i wasn't paying attention and pulsed longer. i ended up making a flax seed powder. it is a lot like a ground spice (of course!). what's the big deal, you ask? the difference in texture made it even easier for me to think of sprinkling it on all kinds of stuff. just this morning i sprinkled it on top of the butter and apple butter on isaac's toast, just the way i would cinnamon.

the powder doesn't have the same, yummy, mild nutty flavor that you get when you just lightly grind flax seed, so i'll probably end up using both textures. (i also keep the oil on hand for things like salad dressing.)

oh, and by the way, whole flax seeds are much harder to digest and, therefore, less nutritious. 

-S

okay. so food i know. but, apparently, drink... not so much.

at 22 months, i can count on my two hands how many times isaac's had juice. (i think that's about to change fast, though! we gave him some vitamin-C packed mango/orange/banana juice from Trader Joe's to help his cold this weekend, and calling it a "smoothie" did not prevent an impassioned plea for "juuuicce!" this morning.) he's a water and milk drinker, that kid. and some herbal tea every once and a while. 

with all the water our family drinks, we tend to buy bottled. usually Poland Spring. but i've been feeling pretty guilty about wasting all that packaging, especially given NYC's reputation for great tap water (which is fluoridated). well, as it turns out, it may be a good thing we've been giving isaac bottled water since it usually does NOT contain (much) fluoride. 

this weekend, i came across an article called Are We Poisoning Our Babies and Children With Fluoride. i'm not one for fear tactics, so the title is a little much, but it's really interesting. the best part is this video.

clear and with data. very compelling. at least enough to do more research and talk to my pediatrician. if you want to do more research, too, here are some leads:

http://fluoridealert.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation
http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/feeding/fluoride.html

if you decide to avoid your town/city's fluoridated tap water (figure out if your tap is fluoridated here), consider a water cooler instead of individual bottles to minimize packaging waste or, even better, a water filter that specifically filters fluoride. i haven't done enough research to recommend one yet, but this article--How to Remove Fluoride from Drinking Water--is a start. a google search for "water filter fluoride" brought up a bunch of stuff, too.

-S

this is THE fish list. (well, for now.)

find out what’s sustainable and low mercury to feed your family.

almost every time I buy fish for Isaac (about every other week), I repeat the same Google search: low mercury fish sustainable. I’ve gotten to a couple of great sites (that I then forget to bookmark) and may have even listed one or two here a while back. If I have, here’s another… and I’ve bookmarked this one. I like how it very clearly cross references mercury level info with sustainability info, and the list is comprehensive. It seems to have been most recently updated in June 2007. I hope they keep maintaining this. It’s super useful.

 http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/115/nofish

-S