Six First Foods for Baby (that aren't cereal)

That little chunk is six-months old this week. The time with baby number two is flying by in hyper speed. Breast feeding was way more successful for me with my second, but he seemed to be growing so fast that at his four month appointment I asked the doctor about starting real food. A lot has changed since we started our first on solids almost 3 years ago. The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that parents wait until their babies are 6 months old before introducing food. They're also changing some recommendation of what baby's first foods should be. Rice or oat cereal was the norm just a few short years ago. 

As we work on changing our diet as a family - the idea of feeding Emmett super processed rice cereal became less and less appealing to me. We talked this out with our pediatrician and she supported us taking an alternate route. As with anything baby related - this is just what we decided would be best for our family and we sought the advice of professionals along the way. Emmett's first meal (at about 5 months, again with the support of our doctor) was a smashed avocado. Since then he has tried a variety of vegetable and fruit purees - and even homemade cereal:  

Avocado: Full of healthy fat, protein and fiber, Avocado is arguably one of the worlds most perfect foods. It doesn't even have to be cooked to give to baby. We smash our by hand with a little bit of water to thin it out enough for baby. 

Banana: Another easy to prepare first food, bananas are high in potassium and just sweet enough. Again you can smash a super ripe banana with a fork or puree it with a little water for baby. 

Sweet Potato: We love love love a sweet potato - they are high in beta carotene, fiber and a good source of carbohydrates. Its super easy to throw a couple sweet potatoes in the oven to roast on a Sunday and then puree the 'meat' of the potato after it has cooled. 

Apple: Steamed and pureed apples are a favorite in our house. Our three year old even loves to eat this apple sauce.  

Zucchini: Zucchini is such an awesome starter starch for little ones - the taste is slightly sweet, not too 'green'. I love to roast them before pureeing with a little bit of water. 

Oatmeal: Not all cereal is bad! Oats are actually a pretty awesome, but stay away from instant oats and try to buy gluten free oats if you can. Here's a simple oat cereal recipe perfect for baby: 

1/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup water

Pour the water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium high heat. Grind your oats into a fine powder, a food processor or high powered blender will do the trick. Gradually whisk these into the boiling water, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Cool and serve.

If you're looking to improve the eating habits of your whole family - from your littlest bits to your meat-and-potatoes husband - look no further than Prescribe Nutrition's Kids Rule Program! I'll be playing along and you can get 30% off with the code STIRANDSCRIBBLE. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Lactation

Brace yourselves friends, I'm going to talk about breast feeding again. Just over three years ago I shared my choice to stop breastfeeding Ella when she was just 7 weeks. At the time, it felt like such a hard heavy decision and disappointment, but now that she's basically a grown up (as in she turned three last week) it seems so silly to have cried over breast milk. 

I was exclaiming to a friend recently how different the second baby experience has been than the first, to which the friend replied "Of course, its different. You're a whole other person than you were 3 years ago!" Duh. Being a mom to Ella prepared me to be a mom for Emmett. My breastfeeding experience with Emmett has also been tremendously easier. 

One thing I learned between Ella and Emmett is that there is a whole list of foods that are actually reported to increase a mother's milk supply naturally. Galactagogues are foods that naturally promote breast milk production. While little scientific data exists, anecdotal evidence suggests that consuming food such as fennel, chickpeas, or papaya will help breast feeding mothers. Oats and other whole grains and beer are also reported to have the same affect. 

There's a small niche of food companies working to full fill the needs of nursing mother's and I actually stumbled upon the idea of lactation cookies through Amazon (which has saved me too many times during these "new mom of two" times). I tried a few pre-made cookies as well as some mixes for "milk maker" cookies cookies. Whether they actually worked or there was just a placebo affect - I decided to create my own cookies.

These 'lactation' cookies are a hack of my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Oats are regularly prescribed to nursing mamas for milk supply. Flaxseed meal and brewer's yeast are added for the same reason and both were easily found at my local Whole Foods Market (you can also order both on Amazon). I've decreased the chocolate (which can some times upset tiny tummies) and messed with the sugar ratio a bit. 

I wasn't even planning to share this recipe, but this is seriously the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever had. The edges are crisp but the rest of the cookie is pleasantly chewy, there's just the right amount of cinnamon and chocolate. And here's the thing - you can't taste the flaxseed or brewer's yeast - so unless you tell them no one would ever know that this cookie helps with lactation. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Lactation 
Makes 3 dozen cookies

These cookies are designed to help breast feeding mamas increase their milk supply. They will not introduce lactation in Dads, kiddos or neighbors - so feel free to share. If you just want to enjoy these as the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - omit the brewer's yeast but leave the flaxseed meal and be sure to refrigerate the dough as directed below.

1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brewer's yeast
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine the water and flax seed meal in a small bowl and set aside. Beat together the butter and sugars in until lightened and fluffy. Add the water-flax mixture, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, brewer's yeast, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir to combine.  Finally add the oats and chocolate chips and stir to incorporate.

Scoop the dough into 2 tablespoon sized rounds and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 12 cookies at a time on parchment lined sheet pans for 8 to12 minutes. The edges should be golden brown and the middles should look slightly damp still - cool for 2 minutes on the pan. Then remove to a cooling rack.

Baked Falafel with Simple Yogurt Dressing

There is a lot of cooking in my kitchen for other people - steak for my husband, a whole series for my daughter, BBQ for my in-laws. This Baked Falafel is just for me. I could eat meatless hearty salads for every meal and I love greek food. The hubby will pass on tomatoes and olives and our little darling is only really interested in strawberries and cheese toast these days. 

Luckily - I'm the only cook in the house and everyone just has to deal with my whims. Just kidding, being a wife and mom just means I need meals that 1. I love and 2. I can adapt for my sweet finicky family. This Baked Falafel is good like that. My husband will eat these in a pita pocket without the tomatoes and olives and with very little yogurt sauce. Ella will have her sauce on the side, actually she'll have everything separate, please. Me? I love to eat these guys on a big bed of lettuce with lots of feta, lots of ripe tomatoes, and lots of stinky olives. The falafel and Simple Yogurt dressing also make a pretty hearty appetizer with some sliced cucumbers. 

Like most of the recipes I share here - these Baked Falafel are adaptable and forgiving. Out of cornmeal? Use all-purpose flour. Hate mint? Just chop up some parsley. The yogurt sauce can handle some red wine vinegar instead of the lemon (because 9 times out of 10 -  I forgot to buy the lemon). 

Baked Falafel 

makes 24 small falafel patties, 4-6 servings 

2 (16 ounces) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed 

1 small onion or shallot, grated 

1 clove garlic, minced 

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup finely chopped minced herbs - I like thyme, oregano and mint but parsley is a good neutral 

1 teaspoon smoked paprika 

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

olive oil 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mash together the chickpeas, onion, garlic, cornmeal, herbs, paprika and salt with a potato masher in a large bowl until most of the chickpeas are smashed and the mixture holds together when pressed. You can also pulse the mixture in a food processor 10-15 times until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and also holds together when pressed. 

Coat a baking sheet with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Scoop the chickpea mixture into 2 tablespoon sized balls (I like a small fisher for this) and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 12 minutes, flip and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Serve with Simple Yogurt Dressing, pita bread, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. 

Simple Yogurt Dressing 

makes about 1 cup dressing

1 cup greek yogurt 

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

1 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs - such as chives and mint

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

Mix together yogurt, lemon juice, herbs, and salt. Let the mixture sit for at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Psst. This is how I set up the components of a greek salad for Ella. She is 1000% guaranteed to eat the bread, yogurt sauce, and cucumbers. Every once in a great while she will eat the tomatoes and the feta too - so I keep trying.

feeding baby | Strawberry Milk Mix

Further evidence that mytoddler daughter rules our kitchen - out of season strawberries in my fridge. Strawberries have been a weekly addition to our shopping cart since December. I get it kiddo - at two years old you just love what you love and you aren't worried whether your berries are seasonal, local, organic, or even washed. 

Ella basically has a strawberry radar on full blast. One particularly ornery Saturday - she insisted on being outside of the shopping cart to help. Luck would have it that there was a strawberry display just inside the store entrance. She stopped mesmerized, "stawbewrries" she whispered. I was trying to find the shopping list, trying not to block the busy store entrance, and clearly not paying attention when a quart of strawberries was lobed into the cart by a toddler obsessed. That carton of strawberries burst open - all over the shopping cart and the  store floor. 

I tried not to laugh as I scolded Ella. "Oh no, no, Ella we have to be gentle with our strawberries". I moved the shopping cart out of the way, smushing berries with the wheels, trying my best to let other shoppers in the door. And as I started picking up stray berries from the grocery store floor - another quart of berries hit the side of the cart to the cheer of "more stawbewrries pease!" I just lost it; I was in a full on giggle fit in the entrance of a very busy grocery store on a Saturday. We bought two pints of terribly bruised out of season strawberries that day. 

We also buy a lot of dried strawberries and freeze dried strawberries for snacks too. Ella has a dairy sensitivity that keeps her from enjoying store bought strawberry milk. So I worked up this Strawberry Milk Mix to indulge Ella's strawberry obsessions and use up some of the freeze dried strawberries that start to get stale after someone leaves the package open.  

There are lots of recipe on the web for making strawberry milk with fresh strawberries (heck, there is even Strawberry Almond Milk to be made) but fresh strawberries don't last very long at our house and I wanted something that could be a quick anytime treat - not a drag out the blender and the strainer treat. 

Strawberry Milk Mix 
makes 3 cups 

3 cups freeze dried strawberries - about 14 ounces
1 cup sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla powder, optional 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 

Pulse together the strawberries, sugar, vanilla powder, and salt in a food processor to a fine powder. Store in an airtight container for up to a month. 

Combine 1 tablespoon of powder with 8 ounces of milk, almond milk, heck even yogurt and stir to combine well. Enjoy! 

Valentine's Day Snack Mix

I never thought I would be this mom. 

I hoped to be one of those cool moms - you know the ones that fight the man and don't make a big deal about holidays, or first days of preschool, or make homemade snacks. 

When you aren't a parent you formulate a lot of opinions about the mom you will and won't be ("I'll never let my kid watch watch t.v./drink juice/eat refined sugar/fill in the blank) but actually being a parent instantly changes all of that. Suddenly you're so in love with a teeny person, a tyrant-like tiny person, but still so in love. Some days you'll bend your own pre-baby rules just to survive and other days you'll do the same just to make them smile. 

I am was anti-Valentine's day. I swore we would never-ever-ever celebrate Valentine's Day as a family. And yet here - I am buying classroom Valentine's Day cards and making snack mix for preschoolers. Yes - I realize that this is completely ridiculous and I still absolutely love it. Receiving a kiss (without asking!!) and hearing "Mama - I wube Baletines" is all it takes for me to start planning again for next year. 

Ella is also starting preschool this week (I've written about her other childcare here) and I'm just not even ready. She has a little lunch box and a classroom with a cubby to hang her coat and she will be spending the day with a bunch of people I don't know. Valentine's day is the most wonderful distraction for this big change -ever-ever. 

We used Pear Tree Greetings for our family Christmas Cards this year after a lot of friends recommended them (noted for having excellent customer service). And we loved the results! They were affordable, they shipped quickly, and the paper quality was awesome. So when the folks at Pear Tree Greetings asked me to try their Classroom Valentine's Day cards - I happily agreed. 

I ordered a couple variations on classroom Valentine's Day cards from Pear Tree Greetings - it was tough to decide because I loved the classic "puny" Valentine's Day cards and my husband loved the photo cards. We both loved the photo-booth Valentine's Day cards too.  I picked my favorite puny Valentine - Bee Mine, photo postcards to send to Grandmas, Grandpas, and MawMaws, and photo cards to give to friends and family.  

I'm packaging this obsessives snack mix with Ell'a classroom Valentine's Day cards, because I am official that mom and because I love Ella - I'm okay with that.  

Valentine's Day Snack Mix

makes 20 (1/2 cup) servings  

Ella really loves (we all do) the muddy-buddy style snack mix that my mother in-law makes for the holidays, but its full of sugar. I was looking for a way to mimic the fun of that snack in a little bit healthier way - I'd say we nailed it. Even my husband cannot stop eating this. 

2 large egg whites 

1 cup granulated sugar 

1 tablespoon water 

4 cups chex cereal 

4 cups multi-grain cherrios cereal 

1 cup pretzel goldfish crackers 

1/2 cup sprinkles  

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 cup freeze dried strawberries 

1 cup freeze dried yogurt bites 

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly grease two baking sheets. 

Whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and water until foamy in a large bowl. Add the cereals and crackers to the bowl and stir until well coated. Add the sprinkles and stir until combined. Divide the snack mix between the two prepared baking pans and spread into an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes. Stir and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the snack mix is dry. Cool completely before adding the strawberries and yogurt bites. Store in an airtight container for up to a week**. 

** The baked component of this snack mix will last longer without the strawberries and yogurt bites. You could make this now and add the berries and bites before packaging. 

Please note: Pear Tree Greetings did provide our Valentine's Day Cards (and sponsored last week's Instagram Giveaway) but all opinions are my own. I would never feature a product/company I didn't love. Its all about the recipes anyway, y'all.* 

Ella's Play Kitchen Remodel

No, no we haven't decided to remodel our kitchen - yet. 

Today our daughter Ella turns 2! I seriously can't even believe two years have gone this quickly. I've been a bit of a mess about the whole thing. I'm planning on sharing some of the details from her birthday party next week - like I did last year - but a few folks asked for details on her play kitchen after I shared a photo of her "before" kitchen. 

I prefer to make her a birthday gift instead of buying one since her birthday is just off the heels of Christmas. Also I'm just the kind of sentimental nut who can't leave well enough alone. I was insistent that "we" build her a play kitchen, by "we" I mean my husband. Said husband was also insistent that we did not have time, that a store-bought kitchen would suffice, and that he was not making a damn thing from scratch. 

I tried shopping and even settled on a play kitchen to order online. This guide was incredible helpful, but the week I should have ordered it I just could not push "pay". I wanted Ella's play kitchen to be as special as she is to me. Also I think these birthday projects give me something to obsess over so that I don't have to accept that my little baby keeps growing up despite my pleas for her to stay a baby forever.

I did what any other blogger would do and posted my query on the webernet - was it better to buy a play kitchen of DIY one? A facebook friend suggested that we look on craigslist for a used play kitchen. And that's where I found this vintage gem. Originally the seller was asking $100 but the vintage play kitchen had been listed for several weeks and wasn't in the best shape. Much to my delight the seller accepted my low-ball offer of just $40! 

This vintage play kitchen was the best compromise for the husband and I; We got a sturdy wooden play kitchen that he didn't have to build but that need just enough work to make it feel like a from scratch DIY.  

The cabinets tops were warped and scratched - so they were the first thing to go. We made a trip to Home Depot for some paint (a quart of white and a quart of magnet paint) some knobs, handles, a set of push lights, and a 24 inch by 36 inch board of oak. We'd hoped to find a bathroom faucet to use for a sink, but the ones we liked were expensive and the cheap ones were kind of bulky. 

My husband removed the doors on all three pieces (the fridge, oven, and cabinet) and painted the oven and cabinet with three coats of white paint and primer in one (I believe it was RustOleum. He used the old tops as templates to cut the two new counter tops and then used the leftover wood to make a short back splash, which he also painted white. 

The magnet paint was the biggest splurge of the project - at $19 a can - but I really wanted Ella to be able to use her magnets on her fridge. We painted three coats on the sides and door fronts of the fridge. I would have done another few coats, but we were literally painting the magnet paint on the night before her birthday party and we still needed to do two coats of white paint over the magnet paint. Small magnets stick just fine to the finished fridge, but larger magnets don't hold at all. 

I had originally painted two burners on the new counter top with the magnet paint as well (I traced a roll of masking tape with a pencil and filled in the circle with a small paint brush) but my mom discovered some old electric cal-rods in one of the closets in our shop (we're still moving in and discovering things in our new home) So my husband attached two of them as well. 

We attached new handles to all three cabinets. I painted some unfinished wooden knobs with two coats of kraft paint and labelled them with a paint pen to act as playful oven knobs. We also added a push light inside the oven. We have plans to add another light to the fridge, but since the play fridge's paint was still drying when we moved it from our workshop into the house the morning of Ella's birthday party (we wanted her to "open" it on her birthday party day so she could play with it with her friends)we had to wait and still haven't gotten to it. 

I ordered a set of Plan Toys Pots and Pans and a Plan Toys Baking set, but everything else came from either our house, the dollar spot at Target or the dollar store. Also her aunt gave her a Melissa and Doug cookie set as a birthday gift. My husband added a small hook for Ella's pot holders. 

We found plastic cutting boards, baking pans, and the pot holders at the dollar store. A pen cup from Target holds all her utensils. 

We already had a colorful plastic dinnerware set that Ella has been playing with (I think it also came from Target) but I did pick up a few more plastic bowls at Target. 

I collected a few recyclables (an empty oatmeal container, a washed and dried half and half pint) to fill her fridge. In the future, we'll add some play food and maybe a sink. I'd also love to paint or cover the shelves, but we are all loving playing in her play kitchen! I haven't eaten this many pretend cookies and this much imaginary chocolate pudding ever. 

I'm keeping a pin board of play kitchens and play food going - feel free to follow along. Do your littles have a play kitchen? Did you buy or DIY? How do you deal with your kiddos growing up? 

Feeding Baby: Cooking with Toddlers 101

My daughter has always been an active participant in our kitchen. When she was a baby, I'd stick her in a bouncy seat and let her listen to cooking from a safe distance. I'd share tools with her while I cooked as she grew. Later, I'd even pull her highchair up to a counter and let her watch and play while I cooked. We've recently entered ruthless toddler-hood and now she wants to "help" with everything! 

Good Morning Muffins

This may or may not be a blogpost about how I told my toddler we were having cupcakes for breakfast, when, in fact, we actually ate muffins full of fruit, vegetables, and wheat germ. And she liked it. 

Feeding Baby | Strawberry Oatmeal Yogurt Pops

Honest mom moment here: Last weekend I let my daughter have a popsicle for breakfast. Actually she had two - because after she devoured the first one I couldn't help but answer her plea for "more, pease". These Strawberry Oatmeal Yogurt Pops were designed from breakfast anyway.

Feeding Baby | Nana's Frosty

Today's recipe is like our Thirsty Thursday for the under 5 set. There is no booze, but I consider the banana frosty as much a classic kids drink as the Shirley Temple. Maybe you know this banana smoothie by any other name: Banana Freeze, Faux Ice Cream, or as we call it in our house - 'Nana's Frosty. 

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Dear Lovely Neighbor:  

So sorry for the other night when my husband had a five-ton truck stuck in your driveway. Thank you for parking in ours while we waited for the tow truck. Also sorry about that patch of grass and for what was surely a lot of swearing coming from said husband. 
I hope your little boy enjoyed seeing that semi-truck lifter pick that five-ton off the ground and that you will accept these Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies as a token of both apology and thanks.  

Sorry and thanks again, Meghan 

FEEDING BABY: Leftover Oatmeal Muffins

*Cora is the Winner of the Breakfast for Dinner giveaway from last  week! Congrats Cora, I'll be sending you an e-mail shortly.*

Well, it has been quite a while since we talked about feeding baby, huh? I guess I was all caught up in playing mama and got too busy to share what I was making for our daughter, Ella. I had planned and shot a couple of posts along the way but they never made it here. Now Ella is 13 months and a lot has changed since we first introduced purees. 

{Feeding Baby}: Firsts

Let's keep things real around here. Ella's first "real food" {as in non-formula} was not a puree of the lovely organic carrots you see above. Her very first was brown rice cereal, followed by oat cereal, and then very ripe bananas. So, you know, nothing worth snapping a picture of. 

{Feeding Baby}: FEED NEEDS & GIVEAWAY

{This is not the beginning of S&S turning into a baby blog or even a baby food blog; But in the interest of sharing everything I know/am always learning about food, I want to document my experiences in feeding Ella during her first year.}

{Feeding Baby}: Breast is Best

{I promise this is not the beginning of S&S turning into a baby blog or even a baby food blog; But in the interest of sharing everything I know/am always learning about food, I want to document my experiences in feeding Ella during her first year.}

During my pregnancy, I had a regular joke about breastfeeding - anytime someone asked if I planned to, I'd point to my {very, umm, blessed} chest and say "If I can't breastfeed - I'm gonna be mad at someone!" I never even imagined I would have trouble feeding my baby breast milk. But a few weeks ago, I quit giving Ella breast milk.