Tag Archives: cinnamon

Baby’s Thanksgiving Table: Fun & Flavorful

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Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving!

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Whether your little one is just starting out on purees, or you have an older baby mastering finger foods, Thanksgiving is one of the best times of year for introducing flavor to your child’s ever-growing palate!

As adults we are fortunate to enjoy all the flavors and spices of the season:  Delicious roasted turkey rubbed with savory herb butter.  Sage, rosemary and thyme play prominent roles in flavoring stuffing and seasonal root vegetables. Pumpkin pies and sweets are amped up with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

We often think we have to create separate and bland versions of these dishes for baby because they are too young for such tastes.

But I assure you they are not!

As you know, my mission is to encourage parents to feed their babies diverse foods and seasonings from the very first bites.  Including your baby in the family meal (and Thanksgiving is the ultimate family meal!), flavors and all, is a great start to raising an adventurous eater.

So how can we bring these flavors to our babies and toddlers?

  • For brand new eaters (6 months and up), puree parts of the Thanksgiving meal.  Roasted root vegetables, like parsnip or carrots, are easily turned into the right consistency with the help of a little stock or water. Flavor them with whatever you usually use—rosemary, sage, cumin, even a bit of mild curry powder.  Let your little one explore, in puree form, what you are feeding the adults.
  • For older babies, roasted or steamed root vegetables are the perfect finger food.  Already soft and tender, you simply have to cut the veggies into bite-size pieces and serve.
  • Other ideas? Sweet potato puree with a pinch of baby-friendly ground cinnamon and/or nutmeg, good for all ages.
  • Mashed potatoes with herbed garlic butter.  Children and potatoes usually go together well!
  • Thanksgiving soups, ranging from brothy to creamy are perfect to serve to babies.  Butternut squash soup, in particular, is a favorite.  It’s a flavorful, yet mild vegetable and can be spiced with everything from onion and garlic to nutmeg and sage.
  • Pumpkin puree with cinnamon, clove or pumpkin pie spice mix is always a nice and easy way to introduce flavors.
  • Stuffing. Yes, your baby can have some, but probably best to make sure your little one is ready for finger foods.  Also, watch out for large chunks of nuts or raisins or other items that might be too big for baby. Otherwise stuffing is a treat!
  • Cranberry Applesauce.  Whisk a little cranberry sauce into your regular applesauce for a sweet and tasty dessert.

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Thanksgiving is about loved ones, food and family.  And a good meal can bring us all together.  Include your little butterball in all of the foodie festivities!

From Ela’s highchair to your little one’s, bon appetit and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

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Easy Ways to Dress Up Yogurt for Babies (Adults Too!)

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Hello Everyone!

Baby yogurt. Best thing ever.  It’s easy, nutritious and always available. Best of all, Ela loves the stuff.  When my harried self is at a loss (or just too exhausted) for lunch or snack ideas a little container of yogurt comes to our rescue.  Not only Ela, but Kirina and even myself slurp down cooling yogurt in one form or another (Kirina has moved onto yogurt tubes, me, I sort of indulge in a few bites of Ela’s yogurt.  The years of buying creamy, whole-milk yogurt are fleeting and I must take advantage!  It’s so much tastier than the adult, boring, low-fat stuff.  Sigh.  I love dairy fat.  The fat does not love me back).

Whole milk yogurt doesn’t always come in lots of flavors. Yes, there are the pre-made baby yogurt containers, but Ela grew weary of those week after week….after week…after, um week (two kids equals chaos.  which equals a heavy reliance on yogurt containers).  Our wallet also grew weary.  Mommy had to think fast! I tried this:

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Whole milk yogurt.  Plain.  Creamy.  Organic.  Yum, right?  I got this in response:

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More of a yuck than a yum.

I can’t blame her.  It’s not like I sit around eating plain yogurt either. I eat it with fresh fruit, a spoonful of jam, even a sprinkling of ground cardamom.

Think of yogurt as a blank canvas for you to decorate with fun flavors. Not only are you creating variety for your little one, but you are also training their taste buds to appreciate new tastes.  Here’s a combo Ela appreciated:

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Kiwi, mango and cardamom.

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The kiwi was fresh and the mango frozen (frozen fruits are a wonderful thing to have on hand!  Especially for out-of-season fruits).  I ground up the cardamom, just a pinch, with a mortar and pestle.  Just mash everything up and add to yogurt.  The consistency will depend on the age of your baby (chunkier textures are ok for babies over 8 months).

Try other fruits and spices too.  Cinnamon, grated nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice. Get creative to keep baby’s taste buds happy and engaged!

From Ela’s highchair to your little one’s bon appetit!

Ginger to the Rescue: Using Spices to Boost Baby’s Immunity & Soothe Tummies

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My babies are sick. 😦

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In fact, my whole family got sick this past week. Ela, who just turned 9-months, has been battling a cold and chest congestion, while Kirina, 3-years, got nailed with the stomach bug. My poor husband (who shouldered most of the cleaning-up and rescue duty because he 1) has a stronger stomach than me 2) is more mature about baby throw-up, meaning, he doesn’t scream and run away and 3) he’s just better at this stuff, or, so I tell myself.  Whatever, he’s just the better parent and I suck! But I digress) also got nailed with some hybrid of whatever the girls have.  Me?  I’m coughing a lot, and losing my mind (update: I started this post a few days ago. I now have a fever and am totally miserable!).

We haven’t been able to eat much in the Saini household this week, but some things have been wonderful.  In fact, they’ve been surprisingly effective.  The first being ginger, our new best friend.  Did you know ginger has been around for a zillion years and is known to soothe all sorts of tummy problems?  It reduces inflammation and is very protective. Asian countries use ginger in just about everything, particularly ginger teas (I remember drinking hot water and ginger infusions when I was pregnant).  Kirina’s nurse even recommended flat ginger ale for her stomach.

How could I use ginger with Ela?  Too young for soda for sure, but it got me thinking, what if I infuse cooking water with ginger and boil/steam her veggies in it?  I tried a carrot and ginger combo.  I thought it would be a great immunity booster, and also a gentle way to introduce ginger to her palate (hey, I have to multi-task. I’m still in the business of spicing up baby food people!).

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It was awesome! And super easy. Simply take a slice or two of fresh ginger root and add it to your water while boiling/steaming your vegetable of choice.  The carrots took on a lovely, light ginger flavor.  Ela ate them all up! I think this cooking method would be fabulous with lots of different herbs and spices.  Mint, cilantro, basil leaves, etc.  Even a clove or two in boiling water would create a nice perfume and gentle flavor.

Give it a try and let me know your thoughts! And most of all, stay well this holiday (and cold and flu) season.  Lots of love!

From Ela’s highchair to your little one’s, bon appetit!

 

 

Happy Halloween! How About Some Pumpkin For Your Little Pumpkin?

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Hello everyone,

Happy Halloween! It’s the best day ever! Or, well, one of the best days ever. 🙂  I am, and always have been obsessed with Halloween.  I love everything about it…the dressing up, the decorations, lights, pumpkin picking/carving, and most of all, trick-or-treating.  In fact, I love it so much I’ve been waiting for Kirina to grow old enough for trick-or-treating, just so I can re-live those days of ringing doorbells and getting candy.  Mmm, candy.  Yes, it is what you’re thinking.  I am going to raid my innocent 3-year-old’s candy bag and treat myself to whatever I find appealing.  I figure this is the least she can do for me since I had to, um, birth her, which might I remind everyone involved lots of pain and bad hospital food.  Nothing a free peanut-butter cup won’t fix. 🙂

At any rate, what about baby Ela?!  She needs a treat too.  A special new meal is in order.  On pumpkin day, why not eat pumpkin?!  It’s time for Ela to branch out on her veggies, which quite frankly, we are struggling with.  She doesn’t eat them straight like Kirina used to…Ela wants it sweet, mixed in with applesauce or some other fruit puree.  Which is fine, but it is important to keep her tastes diverse.  Well, we found winners with two great recipes today.  We made pumpkin two ways:

Pumpkin Puree with Cinnamon Butter

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The recipe is easy. I lightly coat a small sautee pan with butter and add 1 tsp of finely chopped onion or shallot.  Add a pinch of cinnamon and cook onions until very soft, about 5 minutes.  Add 4-6 ounces of preferably organic canned pumpkin puree (you can make your own puree too, but it’s Halloween and we need some time savers today!).  Sautee for a minute or two with the onions and add water to reach your preferred consistency (Ela always likes things on the thinner side).  Finally, blend with a stick blender or food mill to create a smooth puree.

Questions I often get from parents? Why onion? Why butter?

Because they taste GOOD. I agree that we should not be adding lots of “stuff” to baby food, but I think a little bit of these ingredients (yes, butter) gives the food so much taste and dimension. Babies are people too! Serve them interesting meals and they’ll keep exploring and asking for more.

The second variation I made was a Pumpkin Sage Puree.  I took a fresh sage leaf and sautéed it in the onion/butter mixture for a few seconds. Sage is strong, so just a scent of it will do if you are introducing this spice to baby for the first time.

So give a little pumpkin to your pumpkin!  Have fun and enjoy tonight.  I have to run and get outfits ready (Ana & Elsa, what else?).

From Ela’s high chair to your little one’s, BOO! and Bon Appetit!

‘Tis the Seasonings!

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‘Tis the Seasonings!

Just a quick post to talk about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  I’m still building my site here, but I wanted to make sure to post some thoughts about making Thanksgiving tasty for the littlest butterballs in our lives.

That would be babies, not turkeys.

As adults we are lucky to enjoy the all the flavors and spices of the season. Turkeys are rubbed down with savory herbed butters.  Rosemary, thyme and sage play prominent roles in seasoning everything from turkeys, to stuffings to gravies.  Nutmeg and cinnamon are wonderful warming spices used in sweet potatoes, yams and pumpkin pies. 

How can we bring these flavors to our babies and toddlers?

You might be thinking they are too young for such tastes, but I assure you they are not. Thanksgiving is the perfect time of year to introduce your little one to different seasonings and ingredients.  The idea is to use, for lack of a better word, baby steps.  A pinch of this or a pinch of that is all you need.  In fact, each holiday or family feast should be looked at as an opportunity to broaden your babies’ taste buds.  As I will discuss in future posts, baby taste buds need to be nurtured from the start.  Feeding baby a diverse array of seasonings from the moment they can enjoy solids will enable them to appreciate a wider variety of foods as they get older. 

Take this time of year to share these flavors with your baby and toddler. Here are some quick and easy ideas for your little ones (for full recipes hop over to the recipe page):

Babies (6 months and up):

Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Purée

Nutmeg Sweet Potatoes

Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Carrot or Parsnip Purée with Sage

Curried Carrot Purée

For Toddlers (12 months and up):

Since toddlers can eat a wider variety of textures, be sure to introduce them to the above spices via your regular Thanksgiving table food.  Stuffing and potatoes are obvious favorites.  It’s ok, and actually encouraged, to give your toddler tastes of full-seasoned dishes.  If your little one refuses, don’t give up! Remember, it can take 10-15 tries before a baby/toddler starts to like the taste of a particular seasoning or ingredient.  Experiment and have fun.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!