Baby Food Recipes 2/20/12

Here are some more of the recipes I’ve made for Eliana in the last few weeks:

Zucchini Puree

- 1 organic zucchini sliced or chopped

-  Olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add zucchini and a pinch of salt and stir. Add garlic and pinch of pepper. Stir and let cook around 4 or 5 minutes till tender but not mushy. Blend.

Let cool slightly before serving to baby.

Kale-Potato Puree

- ½ small organic potato- chopped (any kind except sweet potato- leave skin on)

- ¼ small yellow onion- chopped

- Several leaves of organic purple or green kale- stalk removed- roughly chopped or torn

- Olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Steam potato and set aside. Steam kale and set aside. Heat olive oil in pan on low-medium heat and add onion, garlic and salt. Cook until golden- around 4 minutes. Combine all ingredients and blend.

  Let cool slightly before serving to baby. 

My daddy likes to call this photo: Kale and Potato Goatee

Blueberry Puree

- 1 cup frozen, organic blueberries, thawed

-  ¼ cup orange juice (or other juice with no sugar added) for sweetness (if needed)

Puree blueberries. If tart, add juice as needed for a bit of sweetness. 

Variation: Mix with oatmeal or yogurt.

My hands got stained while making it.

So why was I surprised that her lips were purple for a day?

I had dressed her in all black. Didn't anticipate eating (and staining) the strap though. Oops!

Happy Cooking!

Fungus Among Us- Part 2

While Eliana napped I did some research and reminded myself how important and helpful it is for her little booty to be exposed.  So, I tried letting her little butt air out. A few times now.

And here’s how it went down:

I put down some disposable diaper pads and kept a bunch of toys on hand to give to her or make noise with in order to distract her. It probably helped that I hovered over her and let her pull and yank on my hair as much as she wanted. Anything to help the baby, huh?  Oh, yeah, and I blew air onto her exposed parts to dry them off. I wish I got a picture of the look she gave me. “Really, Mommy? You’re blowing on my butt?!” 

The first time I attempted this, Eliana actually stayed on her back for about 20 minutes before getting bored and wanting to army crawl anywhere else. The second attempt only lasted about 10 minutes. It ended with me wrestling a butt-naked Eliana back onto the pads while she smacked at my hands. I was barely able to apply the multiple creams on her booty and get enough cream off my hands in order to close the diaper before she got away. She’s a strong little one. She definitely cursed me out in her own little baby babble.

Thankfully, she seems to be feeling a bit better today. Yesterday she was fussy and clingier than usual. 

You'd be unhappy too with a fungus on your butt.

Today, her rash looks much less scary and she’s up to her usual antics.

For example:

Making new friends

With Camille the Cat

Helping me keep the floors clean

Who needs a Swiffer?

Doing some quality control checks

They say these don't break. Let me see if that's true.

Nope. No holes in this bottle.

Hmm, can I get in here somehow?

Spreading some birthday cheer

Happy Birthday, Uncle Greggy!

Making her hourly attempt at indulging in her foot fetish

Almost got it!

Working on crawling

Any day now! (Yikes!!)

Reading some books

So many books, so little time!

Trying to sit up

Look at me!!

And of course, eating!

Oatmeal with bananas makes me feel better.

And this feels good on my two teeth.

Just a typical day!

Fungus Among Us- Part 1

Some might think of poop as a bit of a departure from the typical content of the blog, but I figure it is related because what goes in, must come out…

Eliana had an appointment at the pediatrician yesterday morning for a rash that keeps showing up on her cheek. Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m going to see her doctor, I’m armed with a bunch of questions other than whatever the appointment was booked for. So, I planned to ask about the mark on her ankle that I thought might be a burn (F****ing baseboard heater!!), as well as the never-ending sleep questions. But, when I was changing her diaper in the morning, she had the beginnings of a diaper rash. Sadly, my baby’s butt is no stranger to an evil diaper rash, so it got me worried.

We were in the examination room and I began taking off the billions of layers we both need to wear to keep us warm. And that’s when I smelled the poop. Ugh. I began stripping her down even further when I felt her under-onesie was wet. With poop. Yuck! And you know me by now, so what was my first thought? Oh no! Her clothes! I’d actually put her in a cute white onesie with a little design as opposed to the standard Carter’s brand plain onesie. Eliana has only had one or two major “poop-tastraphes” where poop gets all over and her clothes get thrown out. Needless to say, I don’t deal with them well. (Are you surprised? If I freak out about food getting everywhere, can you imagine my reaction to poop getting everywhere?? Please.)

So, Eliana is screaming (she has some powerful lungs for such a little person) and I’m trying not to panic about the poop going all over the place and the fact that I have to change her on an elevated surface. I’ve stopped changing diapers and clothes anywhere except on our large floor mat now that she just wants to be moving. It makes me nervous that she will army-crawl off a changing table and I’m better able to keep her still when I can sit her on my lap or use my legs too. It’s a work out for both of us!

But, back to the exam room.  Eliana is half-naked, screaming bloody murder, and leaning out of her clothes to escape from me. I’m all red, frazzled and pleading with her to chill out and stay still.

And this is when the doctor walks in.

Obviously.

In my panicked state, I began rapid-fire telling her why we were there while trying to yank the nasty onesie off Eliana’s body. “Well, there’s a rash on her cheek that won’t go away and I think she might have a burn on her ankle from the heater and she has a diaper rash that I just discovered an hour ago and now there is poop all over.” The doctor calmly pointed out that I should probably pull the poop-soaked onesie down over Eliana’s shoulders to get it off rather than dragging it over her head. Duh. That makes a lot of sense. And then the doctor offered to help change her.

How's my T-Zone?

We got the other ailments sorted out. It is seasonal dry skin on her cheek so I now have to put Aquaphor all over Eliana’s face at every diaper change. 

Yes, it is a burn on her ankle but it isn’t infected so three times a day I have to put Neosporin on her ankle. 

And, it turns out, there is a fungus among us. Eliana has a fungal diaper rash. (EW!!! I mean, “Oh, my poor baby.”)

So, each time I change her diaper I have to gently blot, not wipe (how do you get all the sticky solid-food-eating poop off her butt that way?), then put Lotrimin, as in the stuff you put on athlete’s foot, all over her girl parts and booty, then cover all that with Desitin or any other heavy-duty-zinc-filled diaper cream. And, good luck in not getting some sort of bodily excrement, cream or lotion all over one or both of us. HAHAHAHA! Yeah, right. Oh wait. And the best part is that the mot effective remedy for diaper rash is to leave her “open to air” as in naked.

The set up-looks like a Red Cross center!

Mommy, are you really going to photograph a diaper change?

Took me most of the day to figure out that I should squeeze both creams into the diaper before applying.

I know this because, as I said earlier, my poor baby’s butt had the most evil diaper rash you could imagine back when she was a month old from being on three super strong antibiotics at once. You think those meds affect your tummy? Our only experience with projectile poops was during this time. 

My little lady was so sick that she was in the hospital and Matt and I would walk into her room and find her naked from the waist down with her little booty in the air and a tube of oxygen blowing right at it. It was actually a funny sight to see. But, Eliana was a new, new, new baby so she wasn’t mobile. Leaving her naked to poop and pee all over was certainly daunting but easily do-able since she pretty much slept anyway. 

After she came home from the hospital, Matt would put on his crappy shorts (pun intended) and sit shirtless on the easy chair (re-named the “poop chair”). I’d cover him in old towels and then wee-wee pads. Yep, the kind you use for your dog. Then I’d put my sweet little naked baby with her swollen, red butt right on his lap and we’d just hang out and watch tv for a while. 

But to try something like that now?  She doesn’t stay still! Ever. Even when she sleeps she creeps around her crib. And the mess? I shudder as I think about it.  

Poor Little Love

How does all this effect Eliana’s eating? Her eating isn’t supposed to change at all. Apparently, this type of rash isn’t uncommon.  But, I am going to change her diet a bit and give her more yogurt and oatmeal, rather than fruits and vegetables over the next few days. Yogurt to help kill the fungus and oatmeal to bind her poops a bit more. Luckily, she likes both (yogurt and oatmeal, not fungus and bound poops).

Hey! Can I get some food around here??

Bananas and yogurt. Yum!

We love the Love

Thanks for reading about me!

Thanks to everyone who is publicly “Following” us on Google, Facebook and Twitter and to those who are privately subscribing by email. We LOVE the Love! I’m so excited to learn that there are people out there who are interested in teeny tiny foodie. (People other than my family and friends who are bullied into reading the posts.) I was amazed to see that not only are people all over the U.S. reading us, but also, people in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Russia, Germany and Spain too! Wow! teeny tiny foodie has gone global! Wow!!

I got an email this morning from someone who asked about following us by an RSS feed. (Thanks for your interest!) I have to be honest here, I don't know what an RSS feed is. Full disclosure? A lot of the layout and “buttons” on teeny tiny foodie are a direct result of the efforts of my amazing brother-in-law, Greg. The “Facebook Like Box” and “Follow Us on Twitter” buttons? ALL GREG. (Thanks, Greg!!) I’m learning about some of this stuff as I go. But, in an effort to be proactive, I was looking at both the blog and our Facebook page this morning to try to figure out how to answer her question. Someone who is not a friend or family member is interested in us? I cannot disappoint!

So, if anyone is else interested, here are the ways in which you stay up to date with teeny tiny foodie by receiving new posts: (And, really, who wouldn’t want to receive our updates??)

On the blog:

• If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the posts, there is a button on the left side that says “Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).” When I tried it, what showed up in my email said RSS on it. (Are RSS and Atom the same thing?? Rest assured, I’m waiting for a response from Greg to tell me both what RSS is and how it differs from Atom.) But that is one method that seems to work.
• Also at the bottom of all the posts, there is a gadget on the right that says, “Follow by email.” This definitely works. But there is a 12-24 hour delay between when I post and when it will show up in your email inbox. 

On Facebook:

• Go to our page teeny tiny foodie . On the left side of the page under where it says how many people “Like” us and are “Talking about” us, there are two buttons you can use.  One says, “Get updates via RSS” and the other says, “Get updates via SMS.”
• If you “Like” us on Facebook, our new posts will always show up in your news feed. (Just learned that from Greg about 10 seconds ago.)

On Twitter:

We are @teenytinyfoodie

So, thanks again! We really do appreciate your interest.

And, Greg: If I missed any of the ways people can stay current with us, please let me know. ;)

Now, just because I think they are funny, here are a couple of the other attempts at a "Thank You" photo. 

Ooh! Can I eat that? Is it organic?

Alright. I've got things to do. Later!

Baby Food Recipes 2/8/12

Here are some recipes I've made for Eliana lately. 

Sweet Pea Puree

Sweet Pea Puree

- 1 cup frozen organic peas-thawed

- Pinch of salt and pepper

Steam peas. Puree and add salt and pepper.
Let cool slightly before serving to baby.

Hmm, I might like these. (1st day she tried them.)

No! I don't like peas! (2nd day.)

This next recipe is a variation of a soup recipe my friend Lara's mom makes. Lara's mom, Dalal, is an amazing cook. In high school and college my friends and I could always count on Lara's fridge to be full of yummy Lebanese food at any time of day. (Thanks, Dalal!)

Swiss Chard and Lentil Soup (inspired by Dalal’s recipe)

-  2 bunches organic Swiss chard (rainbow or regular), chopped

-1 onion, chopped

- ½ cup dried lentils (rinsed and drained)

- 1 cup large whole wheat couscous

- Olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper

Clean Swiss chard by putting it, chopped, into a large bowl of cold water. Let it sit for a few minutes. Drain and repeat until there is no soot at the bottom of the bowl. Heat olive oil in a large pot and sauté onions and garlic with a little bit of salt. Add water and Swiss chard, cover and bring to a boil on high heat. (Add the same amount of water you’d use to cook pasta.) Add lentils and boil for two minutes. Then, let simmer for about an hour, covered, on low-medium to low heat. Add salt, pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add couscous and cook 8 minutes. Puree and let cool slightly before serving to baby.

Swiss Chard Soup

Mmmm!

Trout is tasty!

Pan-Fried Trout -recipe by Anne Burrell

I made this recipe as directed for dinner for me and Matt. Then broke up tiny pieces of it the next morning for Eliana. She's now an official "pescatarian." 

The trout. I broke it into small pieces as I fed it to her. 

Still her favorite part of any meal: her sippy cup of water.

Happy Cooking!

Baby Food Recipes 2/1/12

Here are a couple more recipes I've made for Eliana:

Yam Soup - all vegetables are organic

- 3 yams (skin on) chopped

- 2 carrots chopped

- 1 zucchini chopped

- 2 yellow onions chopped

- 1 bag organic baby lettuce/spinach mix

- ¾ cup Fage Total Greek yogurt (or any other full-fat plain yogurt you like)

- 1 quart organic, low-sodium vegetable broth

- Olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pot on low-medium heat. Add onions with a pinch of salt. After 1 minute add chopped garlic and stir. Cook around 5 minutes. Add yams and carrots and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir. Cook around 5 more minutes. Add zucchini, stir and cook 2 minutes. Add vegetable broth, stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a medium simmer and cover for 20-30 minutes. Add yogurt and stir. Turn off heat. Blend with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Let cool slightly before serving to baby. 

The Yam Soup is something I was making for me and Matt. But, I put some aside for Eliana right after I blended it. Since a baby is supposed to have a lot less salt than an adult, I typically take out a cup or so of what I'm making for Eliana's batch after I put in only a bit of seasoning . Then I add more seasoning for us. 

Hummus

- ½ can organic chick peas - rinsed
- Juice of ½-1 lemon
- Olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Blend chick peas and olive oil in a food processor.  Add juice of ½ lemon, salt and pepper. Blend again and adjust seasonings and lemon juice to taste. 

Mmmm, hummus! More, please. 

Happy Cooking!