When it comes to food, I like to keep things interesting. I like to try new foods and flavours all the time to offer my girls a wide variety of tastes and at to keep from getting bored of cooking the same old thing. I struggle with keeping snack time interesting though.
Snack time is unique in that the food consumed needs to be quick and easy and sometimes portable. Add healthy into the mix and things get tricky. While my girls would be happy if they could just eat crackers at every snack, I try and push the fruits and veggies at each snack time.
I was recently introduced to Baby Gourmet. It was recommended by a friend and then I was contacted to try it by the company and see how we liked it. While it is geared towards younger children I thought I'd give it a try as the girls like applesauce, it is healthy and it is easy to take on the go.
I was very excited to receive our box and even more excited when I saw the flavours they had sent us. With flavours such as Old Fashioned Apple Crisp, Tropical Banana Bliss and Sweet Potato Pie my mouth started watering! I opened up the Apple Crisp one first and was delighted to find that it actually tasted like Apple Crisp and had the texture of Apple Sauce. It was a hit with the girls! Juliet liked eating it out of a bowl with a spoon and Ainsley enjoyed eating it directly out of the spout! Yay, we can add a new portable snack item to the list!
Even the vegetable fruit combos were very well received and of course had to taste it and it was blended very well. These are also great to add to smoothies or yogurt for great flavour and to up my veggie and fruit intake.
Overall, I was very happy with the product and the packaging was great! I am excited to have a new healthy snack option to offer my kids.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week One - Success!
Last week was a good one. We made all the recipes I had listed on my menu plan and they were delicious! The recipes were easy to make and it made me feel better that our family was eating a very well rounded diet with new tastes. Juliet loved the fish and the enoki mushrooms (to my surprise). For this week I am using recipes from Rose Reisman and here is what I have planned for our dinners:
1. Fillet of Beef with Creamy Sesame Sauce
2. Chicken Chili with Barley and Black Beans
3. Salmon Stuffed with mixed olives and Sundried Tomatoes
4. Make your own pizza
I'm also planning on making a Fig and Cinnamon Loaf for snacks and for side vegetables Roast Onions and Sweet Potato and Yellow spilt pea soup with Goat cheese.
Yum!
I still haven't signed up at a gym mainly because while I was sick with the flu, I bruised my ribs and they still hurt!
This week's goal is to go to Zen Beginnings and meet with a nutritionist to get tips on how I can boost my immune system.
1. Fillet of Beef with Creamy Sesame Sauce
2. Chicken Chili with Barley and Black Beans
3. Salmon Stuffed with mixed olives and Sundried Tomatoes
4. Make your own pizza
I'm also planning on making a Fig and Cinnamon Loaf for snacks and for side vegetables Roast Onions and Sweet Potato and Yellow spilt pea soup with Goat cheese.
Yum!
I still haven't signed up at a gym mainly because while I was sick with the flu, I bruised my ribs and they still hurt!
This week's goal is to go to Zen Beginnings and meet with a nutritionist to get tips on how I can boost my immune system.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
She Requested Steak and Potatoes
Motherhood is funny. Just when you think you have a plan set, your child throws you for a loop and it all changes.
I was so paranoid about breastfeeding and pumping enough milk for my daughter while I'm away at work. My pediatrician said at four months old my daughter could start rice cereal, so my goal was to start letting her chow down on her four month birthday.
Then, I started reading some articles and recommendations (from organizations like AAP, and WHO) for babies to wait until they're six months to start solids. My understanding of this is because your baby's stomach is fully developed, less likely to develop allergies and ready for solids sometime between 4-6 months but to be safe (and since all babies develop differently), it's better just to wait until 6 months.
Surprisingly I have been able to keep up with pumping, and my frozen stash hasn't had to take too much of a hit. So at four months I made a goal to continue exclusively breastfeeding until six months. After all, this is recommended, and it was going so well, why change it up? This became my new BIG HUGE breastfeeding goal. I doubted I'd last three months, much less six. But even if I dried up I'd probably have enough frozen to get us through the last few weeks and by George, I was going to do it if it killed me!
Famous last words.
Around four and a half months my daughter started acting funny around food. Others may call it "showing interest." I tried to ignore it.
I ignored her reaching for my bowl of oatmeal every morning, and the fact that she'd lean toward me and open her mouth when a spoon came her direction. But one afternoon, when I wasn't quick enough she grabbed a tater tot off my plate, put it in her mouth and started chewing. In a panic I pulled it out of her mouth and sadly admitted two things. 1. I need to start eating better and 2. She's probably ready for solids.
To be sure I read a few articles about the signs of being ready.
Older than four months- Check
Sitting up unsupported- A little wobbly but- Check
Able to let us know when she's full by turning away from a bottle or unlatching- Check
Loss of tongue-thrust-reflex-based on how she momentarily chowed down on the tater tot I'd have to say- Check
Showing interest in food- Double Check
So I had come to the realization that my daughter is probably ready for solids. But was I ready to give in to her readiness? I was planning to skip rice cereal all together, and had Christmas as her date set to have her first "meal". Oh yes, with squash, pictures, music, it would be a big deal. Plus, breastfeeding was going so well, and I wasn't ready to say she was no longer exclusively breastfed. This was my badge of pride. My "I DID IT" sign I could have in my back pocket the rest of my life, pulling it out on the rare occasion of the awkward question "how long did you breastfeed?" I played out the scenario in my mind. "A year" I'd tell them, and be sure to add in the unnecessary additive "six months exclusively."
I read more in my baby food book about first foods for babies and decided an organic brown rice cereal would be a good choice if we were going to start early. I want to stay gluten-free with her for a year, and brown rice would be a healthy start. Plus I can mix in breast milk and she'd be familiar with the taste.
I found a brand I liked and was ok with trying, and prepared to loose my exclusive breastfeeding virginity.
I thought it would be a little sad but it wasn't in the least. Just like I thought, she was ready. She leaned in and opened wide from the start and surprisingly, more of it made it in her mouth then on her bib. After her first few bites she was ready to chow down; so much so, when it was all over, she licked the bowl.
Of course I got it all on video.
Lil' J loved her yummy rice and milk. The next night she didn't miss one bite and was mad when it was all gone.
I can't wait until Christmas when she can have some REAL food. I already have her bib picked out, but I'm not sure which food it will be. Maybe avocado, sweet potato or squash. I'm leaning towards a vegetable and sticking with different veggies a little while before introducing fruit (besides avocado). I'm still torn between baby-led weaning and pureeing, so I may make a soft finger-food version for her to pick up, and a puree version as well and just see which she prefers. I imagine we'll do a mix of both until she moves all the way to feeding herself.
What was your baby's first food?
I was so paranoid about breastfeeding and pumping enough milk for my daughter while I'm away at work. My pediatrician said at four months old my daughter could start rice cereal, so my goal was to start letting her chow down on her four month birthday.
Then, I started reading some articles and recommendations (from organizations like AAP, and WHO) for babies to wait until they're six months to start solids. My understanding of this is because your baby's stomach is fully developed, less likely to develop allergies and ready for solids sometime between 4-6 months but to be safe (and since all babies develop differently), it's better just to wait until 6 months.
Surprisingly I have been able to keep up with pumping, and my frozen stash hasn't had to take too much of a hit. So at four months I made a goal to continue exclusively breastfeeding until six months. After all, this is recommended, and it was going so well, why change it up? This became my new BIG HUGE breastfeeding goal. I doubted I'd last three months, much less six. But even if I dried up I'd probably have enough frozen to get us through the last few weeks and by George, I was going to do it if it killed me!
Famous last words.
Around four and a half months my daughter started acting funny around food. Others may call it "showing interest." I tried to ignore it.
I ignored her reaching for my bowl of oatmeal every morning, and the fact that she'd lean toward me and open her mouth when a spoon came her direction. But one afternoon, when I wasn't quick enough she grabbed a tater tot off my plate, put it in her mouth and started chewing. In a panic I pulled it out of her mouth and sadly admitted two things. 1. I need to start eating better and 2. She's probably ready for solids.
To be sure I read a few articles about the signs of being ready.
Older than four months- Check
Sitting up unsupported- A little wobbly but- Check
Able to let us know when she's full by turning away from a bottle or unlatching- Check
Loss of tongue-thrust-reflex-based on how she momentarily chowed down on the tater tot I'd have to say- Check
Showing interest in food- Double Check
So I had come to the realization that my daughter is probably ready for solids. But was I ready to give in to her readiness? I was planning to skip rice cereal all together, and had Christmas as her date set to have her first "meal". Oh yes, with squash, pictures, music, it would be a big deal. Plus, breastfeeding was going so well, and I wasn't ready to say she was no longer exclusively breastfed. This was my badge of pride. My "I DID IT" sign I could have in my back pocket the rest of my life, pulling it out on the rare occasion of the awkward question "how long did you breastfeed?" I played out the scenario in my mind. "A year" I'd tell them, and be sure to add in the unnecessary additive "six months exclusively."
I read more in my baby food book about first foods for babies and decided an organic brown rice cereal would be a good choice if we were going to start early. I want to stay gluten-free with her for a year, and brown rice would be a healthy start. Plus I can mix in breast milk and she'd be familiar with the taste.
I found a brand I liked and was ok with trying, and prepared to loose my exclusive breastfeeding virginity.
What was your baby's first food?
Friday, January 8, 2010
HELP! I Need Your Recipes!
If you know me, you know I'm NOT a cook. But as my appetite grows bigger and bigger the more I'm realizing I need to find more things to cook and fast, or I'm going to turn Spawnie into a double cheeseburger meal! I'm not a big chef... Not in the least. Usually the thought of cooking a new recipe sends me into a mild panic attack to be followed by a migraine as I try to decipher the steps to make it.
Last year I took a stab at making more foods. I joined a frozen meal making group with my church, and made 3 frozen meals to store... Two of them are still in my freezer. At least when I'm ready to make them the directions are on the bag as there's no way I'd remember how to cook what's in them.
My friend gave me a recipe for stomboli, and it's become one of my favorites to make. The first couple of times I made it, it took me several hours to translate the ingredient: "A clove of garlic"? what the heck is that? "Genova Salami," as opposed to regular?.. I had no idea there were so many kinds of a simple meat. I bought my first bottle of olive oil to make that recipe, and it came out really good!
About my third time making it for us I got a little cocky and rushed it. I accidentally turned the oven up an extra 100 degrees and sadly, this was the result:
Luckily I have such a sweet husband cause although it was burnt black, he ate it anyway and told me the inside was good.
I've gotten a little more confidence since then and started making things that I was craving from scratch. Like beignets and peach cobbler for example. And I was beginning to stock up on what are basic cooking and baking essentials for many.
While I haven't personally felt like I've succeeded in accomplishing my goal of "learning how to cook" I have crossed off the Baby Bucket List the desire to "feel more comfortable in the kitchen." Now that I'm more comfortable, I need to know what else to make.
Cookbooks intimidate me. I usually judge a recipe by:
1. How pretty the picture looks
2. How many ingredients I understand.
3. How many ingredients there are (more than 5-8 breaks me into a nervous sweat reading it).
4. How long it takes to make.
Usually flipping through books I only spot a select few that fit my immediate qualifications. I was getting good at eating healthy when I had the goal of getting pregnant, now I've been slacking a little. As a part of my "Future Mama" journey on Modern Mom, they hooked me up with nutritionist, Julie Hammerstein, and she was able to give me A LOT of good tips on what types of meals are good, and what to make sure I'm eating, so now I'm more inspired to MAKE stuff.
So I've decided to turn to you... My fellow blog friends! Please please please leave your recipe ideas! I've started using allrecipes.com which is great, but it's sometimes hard to use if I'm not sure what I'm looking to cook, and daunting when people leave all of those extra comments about what to add/take out.
So if you know something that would be easy for a culinary talent-deprived mom-to-be please share! I'm hoping to get quite a few recipes down pat before Spawnie gets here! If you have some already written on your blog I've put up a linky for you to add it. just put the name of the recipe in the title and link to that post!
Also please let me know book ideas and anything else you think would be helpful!
Last year I took a stab at making more foods. I joined a frozen meal making group with my church, and made 3 frozen meals to store... Two of them are still in my freezer. At least when I'm ready to make them the directions are on the bag as there's no way I'd remember how to cook what's in them.
My friend gave me a recipe for stomboli, and it's become one of my favorites to make. The first couple of times I made it, it took me several hours to translate the ingredient: "A clove of garlic"? what the heck is that? "Genova Salami," as opposed to regular?.. I had no idea there were so many kinds of a simple meat. I bought my first bottle of olive oil to make that recipe, and it came out really good!
About my third time making it for us I got a little cocky and rushed it. I accidentally turned the oven up an extra 100 degrees and sadly, this was the result:
Luckily I have such a sweet husband cause although it was burnt black, he ate it anyway and told me the inside was good.I've gotten a little more confidence since then and started making things that I was craving from scratch. Like beignets and peach cobbler for example. And I was beginning to stock up on what are basic cooking and baking essentials for many.
While I haven't personally felt like I've succeeded in accomplishing my goal of "learning how to cook" I have crossed off the Baby Bucket List the desire to "feel more comfortable in the kitchen." Now that I'm more comfortable, I need to know what else to make.Cookbooks intimidate me. I usually judge a recipe by:
1. How pretty the picture looks
2. How many ingredients I understand.
3. How many ingredients there are (more than 5-8 breaks me into a nervous sweat reading it).
4. How long it takes to make.
Usually flipping through books I only spot a select few that fit my immediate qualifications. I was getting good at eating healthy when I had the goal of getting pregnant, now I've been slacking a little. As a part of my "Future Mama" journey on Modern Mom, they hooked me up with nutritionist, Julie Hammerstein, and she was able to give me A LOT of good tips on what types of meals are good, and what to make sure I'm eating, so now I'm more inspired to MAKE stuff.
So I've decided to turn to you... My fellow blog friends! Please please please leave your recipe ideas! I've started using allrecipes.com which is great, but it's sometimes hard to use if I'm not sure what I'm looking to cook, and daunting when people leave all of those extra comments about what to add/take out.
So if you know something that would be easy for a culinary talent-deprived mom-to-be please share! I'm hoping to get quite a few recipes down pat before Spawnie gets here! If you have some already written on your blog I've put up a linky for you to add it. just put the name of the recipe in the title and link to that post!
Also please let me know book ideas and anything else you think would be helpful!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Addiction
Since I started this blog I've been trying to be better at being healthy and I made goals here and here. I still can't cook (oh but I did join a freezer meal group that I'll have to tell you about) and I'm on and off on my walk commitment. Eating better is another habit I want to have before I get pregnant. I have a lot of friends who have turned into organic advocates since having kids. I'm not sure I'm with them on everything, I have a lot of research to do (and saving, that stuff is expensive!) but I am starting with small things like Caffeine for example...Research shows that too much caffeine can reduce your ability to absorb iron, which apparently, you need plenty of for pregnancy, and drinking/eating caffeine increase the risk for stillbirth! Eeek! Lucky for me I don't drink coffee or tea anyway so it's the Dr. Peppers and Rockstar energy drinks I'll need to wean myself off of. Apparently, going cold turkey may cause nasty headaches so I'm taking baby steps. I'm also trying to kick carbonation too. I'm not sure what it does beside make me burp a lot, but I've heard it's not that healthy.
Know of any other pre-pregnancy/ pregnancy eating habits I should know about?
PS: In that picture I'm eating a doughnut, a taquito, a hot dog, and some hot coco. Obviously, I NEED your help!
Friday, December 12, 2008
The First Accomplishment
I cooked! I made Chicken Parmesan. It wasn't completely homemade but it was made at home!
Originally I was going to make chicken alfredo but the dogs ate the chicken I had on the ocunter defrosting, so I had to make the parmesan instead.
The box said "Ready in 30min" which really means an hour for me but it came out well. The picture doesn't look pretty but I promise it tasted yummy! I even lad leftovers so I could eat it at work the next day.
Originally I was going to make chicken alfredo but the dogs ate the chicken I had on the ocunter defrosting, so I had to make the parmesan instead.
The box said "Ready in 30min" which really means an hour for me but it came out well. The picture doesn't look pretty but I promise it tasted yummy! I even lad leftovers so I could eat it at work the next day.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Update Part 1
Here's an update on my previous challenges (cooking and jogging):
I suck.... I ran once this last week and haven't cooked yet. Cooking is just REALLY hard for me. I printed out all of these yummy recipes that seemed like they'd be easy to cook, but I got SO overwhelmed and got a headache just trying to figure out what was what at the store. Basically anything that needs more than five ingredients is out of the picture for me right now. I bought a couple of boxed dinners that have the stuff you need... Chicken, parmesan sauce, and all that extra stuff separated into different baggies. Then on the box it takes me through step by step how to make it. I know it's pathetic, but seriously that's all I can do... And I haven't even done THAT yet!! I'm making the chicken parmesan tonight though. I'll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, please let me know your favorite EASY (key word there) recipes. I'm seriously going to take baby steps with this cooking thing.
PS: Everyone keeps telling me about allrecipes.com but I can't seem to find the easy section... where's that?
I suck.... I ran once this last week and haven't cooked yet. Cooking is just REALLY hard for me. I printed out all of these yummy recipes that seemed like they'd be easy to cook, but I got SO overwhelmed and got a headache just trying to figure out what was what at the store. Basically anything that needs more than five ingredients is out of the picture for me right now. I bought a couple of boxed dinners that have the stuff you need... Chicken, parmesan sauce, and all that extra stuff separated into different baggies. Then on the box it takes me through step by step how to make it. I know it's pathetic, but seriously that's all I can do... And I haven't even done THAT yet!! I'm making the chicken parmesan tonight though. I'll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, please let me know your favorite EASY (key word there) recipes. I'm seriously going to take baby steps with this cooking thing.
PS: Everyone keeps telling me about allrecipes.com but I can't seem to find the easy section... where's that?
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The First Challenge
The first challenge I'm making for myself is the task of cooking. I don't like cooking, I never know what to cook. I don't know if my attention span is that short or what but I give up after reading the seventh ingredient. My husband doesn't cook much either so for the sake of my future offspring, I've decided I'll try once again to learn this skill.
Thanks to recommendations from my friends I've found allrecipes.com to be a great website for 15 minute meals. People have also told me about Rachel Ray's website and a few others but I wasn't able to quickly locate the fast and easy section so I'm sticking with this for now.
I printed out about 12 recipes that are either crock pot meals or meals that claim to be prepared in 15 minutes or less. I'm making a reasonable goal of cooking at least one new recipe a week. I'm starting next week! I'm not sure what I'm making yet but I will be cheesy and post pictures once it's complete.
Thanks to recommendations from my friends I've found allrecipes.com to be a great website for 15 minute meals. People have also told me about Rachel Ray's website and a few others but I wasn't able to quickly locate the fast and easy section so I'm sticking with this for now.
I printed out about 12 recipes that are either crock pot meals or meals that claim to be prepared in 15 minutes or less. I'm making a reasonable goal of cooking at least one new recipe a week. I'm starting next week! I'm not sure what I'm making yet but I will be cheesy and post pictures once it's complete.
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