The perpetual state of being for many mothers. You’re already waking up before the sun rises and burning late into the night on most days, so breakfast is usually a choice between the sugary cereals you love-to-hate, toaster pastries or the sausage and biscuits from your local fast-food joint. After all, it’s much better than not having breakfast at all, right?!

Yet, there is that nagging feeling of dissatisfaction you have… It would be nice to give your family more wholesome foods and still get out of the house on time.

A wholesome breakfast, made in 30 minutes or less, on a weekday morning, that the whole family enjoys – that is an exceptional feat. Like most moms, you wouldn’t even think of attempting it, because you live in the real world. But, the truth is, nothing exceptional gets done without planning and preparation. That includes breakfast. Which ever way you take it, if it’s going to be done,  you’ll have to plan your family’s breakfasts and make some preparations to ensure your plan flows smoothly.

Time Savers

The first thing to consider with breakfast meal plans is your morning routine. If all you have is 10 minutes, then don’t look at 30-minute recipes. Your options include meals that you make ahead and reheat when your ready to serve. The main point is to keep it simple and make it scrumptious. Here are some ideas to get you going:

Leftovers

Nothing makes like easier than waking up and seeing breakfast waiting in the fridge. You can always make extra portions of your family’s favourite stews and serve them up in the morning with a side of hashed potatoes or toasted wholegrain bread.

10-Minute Chili 

Leftovers also make great sandwich fillers.

10-Minute Soy-Glazed Salmon

Cereals

One of the more traditional breakfast dishes is hot cereal, slow-cooked and topped with your favourite fruit or nuts. But, these days, cereals come in many shapes and forms – most made to suit the schedules of busy moms. With a slow cooker, your hot cereal is waiting when you wake up.

Slow Cooker Banana Walnut Oatmeal

You will love setting up your rice cooker in the night, and waking up to cinnamon-scented kitchen the next day. Just open the pot and serve.

Rice Cooker Rice Porridge/Pudding

Your refrigerator is good for more than storage. Let some oats chill in there overnight for a pleasant surprise in the morning, that can be packaged to go.

Peanut Butter Overnight Oats

Don’t have time to sit and eat? Then bake your oatmeal, store in the freezer then reheat and run when you need to. Fill then with sweet fruit and nuts or simmered mushrooms and sautéed veggies.

Baked Oatmeal Cups

Smoothies

If all you have are 5 minutes, a smoothie is the perfect fix. To stay full for a longer time, drink at least 16 ounces, and if you have a big appetite 32 ounces will be ideal. Grab some fruit and salad greens, dump into your blender jar with some water and start sipping in 1… 2… 3… Just keep your freezer and fruit baskets stocked and your blender jar in reach.

Spinach Grape & Coconut Smoothie

For those who haven’t fallen in love with dreamy green blends, the vibrant orange from frozen mango will make you drain your cup.

Mango Yogurt Smoothie

Money Savers

Another important consideration for breakfast planning is your food budget. This means selecting recipes that use up what’s already in your cupboards and lets you buy the cheaper seasonal produce.

The first step is to identify the things your family likes to eat and putting them on repeat. Don’t worry! If they love it, they will eat it and if they get bored you can swap out with another favourite dish. In fact, the same dish can be made a variety of ways just by using different toppings or flavours. For example, oatmeal and muffins are often made in the following varieties: Maple and Brown Sugar,  Apples and Cinnamon,  Raisins & Cranberries,  Chocolate Chip,  Strawberry,  Blueberry or Banana. So, if you want to whip up a quick scramble, omelette or stir-fry everyday but want to offer some variety, you could add some of these options to your current favourites:

• Spinach & Mushrooms

• Baked Beans

• Smoked Salmon

• Lentils

There is nothing wrong with having the same dishes on rotation (especially when you use seasonal produce to guide you). Ever notice how many centenarians and top performers often eat the same thing every day? It pays to keep things simple once we find what we like. So, you can choose to have 5 different varieties of oatmeal each week or have a certain dish designated to a certain day of the week, for example:

• Mondays – Oatmeal
• Tuesdays – Sandwiches
• Wednesdays – Pancakes
• Thursdays – Scramble
• Fridays – Smoothies

So, don’t get frustrated by the morning rush. Don’t give up on being able to give your family something homemade, filling and nutritious to start the day. Just find the dishes that fit your morning routine and budget while satisfying your family’s cravings. Once you have a list of easy-to-make and tasty dishes, put them in rotation and savour the contentment of giving your little ones your best at the start of the day.

What healthy breakfast options do you turn to in a rush?

Запись 12 Healthy Breakfast Options for the Time-Strapped Mom впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

I never really understood why this particular drink was so important to doctors. I mean, humans after all produce milk for our own species, why is drinking milk from another species viewed with such a high regard, that some believe it to be mandatory? So I asked one pediatrician, and he answered, “It’s such an easy and convenient way to get fat, protein and calcium, why would you not want to give it to your child?” Ah, gotcha! So that was it: ease and convenience.

There are actually many reasons one would want to shield their young toddler from dairy. Reasons may range from eczema, to religious, to personal choice. And the truth is, although cow milk is promoted by many pediatricians, it is not necessary. What is most important is that we give our children a balanced diet so that they receive all the nutrition they need for a growing body. If you are looking for a beverage that is high in fat, try Coconut Milk. If you are looking for a rival to cow milk with regard to protein, Soy milk will be your best option. Many foods are fortified with calcium such as orange juice and cereals. Also green vegetables and white beans are naturally high in calcium. Therefore you can give you baby a healthy, nutritious diet without using dairy product at all. Below are some popular beverages that are alternatives to traditional cow milk. Some of the beverages are fortified with other vitamins that you will not get with milk such as vitamin E in Almond milk and Hemp is high in Omega 3’s. Check out the nutrition facts of a variety of non-dairy beverages below.

Hemp.com

Mommies, what alternatives to dairy do you give your children?

Запись 5 Non-Dairy Alternatives to Cow’s Milk for Young Children впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Today’s Sugary Habits 

We don’t need to look very far to observe the dangers of feasting on ice cream and cake. There are kindergarteners on insulin for type 2 diabetes, obesity is becoming more prevalent among elementary school children and teenagers are being hospitalised for heart disease and stroke.

The times have certainly changed; our eating habits and our food choices have deteriorated, and now we’re paying  the price. School canteens, corner shops,  and quick-service restaurants have become regular features in our daily lives,  having replaced home-cooked meals and fresh foods. These businesses provide us with shelf-stable,  readily-made and pre-packaged desserts loaded with genetically-modified ingredients,  synthetic preservatives, artificial flavours and unnatural colours. These individually-wrapped novelties are mass-produced and high-fat, high-calorie and sugar-laden with little to no nutrients,  even though they bear the same names as the lovingly-prepared,  wholesome desserts we enjoyed as children. Additionally, these treats are sold very cheaply and marketed,  not as once-in-a-while bites, but snack items to enjoy between meals. Ice cream sandwiches are munched during TV time,  sticky donuts and hand-held pies are served for breakfast. The average child can consume a handful of chocolates and caramels in half an hour without anyone batting an eye.

Cooking Dessert the Old Fashioned Way

When I was a child in Jamaica,  we had desserts for special occasions; Easter buns and Christmas cakes during the respective holidays,  sugar buns and rock cakes at special events, and my grandmother’s homemade puddings and pone whenever we had good sweet potato and corn harvests. Whenever my mother had time on the weekend, she tolerated us tangling her feet in the kitchen while she ‘rubbed up’ batches of pineapple-upside-down cake,  orange cake or baking sheets of warm,  flaky plantain tarts. When things were hectic, a scoop of rum n’ raisin ice cream or a small bowl of strawberry Jell-O was our Sunday afternoon delight.

Since treats were not a regular part of our diet, if we wanted something sweet after dinner, we had to make do with freshly picked fruit or baked nuts. Or, instead of drinking plain water or limeade with the evening meal,  we might get to guzzle down homemade fruit juice.

When I think back to my childhood desserts, I think of homemade goodies – not the stuff from the supermarket shelves or pastry shops. My mother and grandmothers always knew exactly what went into their baked goods and sourced high quality produce to create them. I can’t help but agree with medical professionals and nutritionists who’ve been saying that we, the new generation of Mommies, need to return to real, whole foods.

Planning for Dessert

The strategy of meal planning and pre-cooking can be applied to desserts – especially if you reserve dessert for a special/Sunday night dinner. Even if you decide to satisfy your sweet tooth on a daily basis, fruit-based desserts are an excellent way to get yummy tummies without the guilt or dietary ills. You’d be amazed at how fresh fruits can be transformed, quite quickly and easily, into freezer pops, ice creams, sorbets or slushies without giving you any extra work. By searching out some whole  food, plant-based recipes,  you can discover dishes that are easy for children to make and allow for them to enjoy something sweet without the adverse effects of excess sugars, fat or refined carbohydrates.

Healthy Dessert Ideas 

The following list of whole food plant-based desserts are a great place to start. If they become regular features in your family’s meal plans, you will certainly be decreasing the amount of ‘products’ in your diet and increasing the amount of ‘produce’ you consume. Here’s to healthy and delicious desserts,  for your family and mine:

1. Mint-Melon Sorbet Recipe here

2. Raspberry Lime Freezer Pops  Recipe here

3. Peanut Butter-Banana “Ice Cream” Recipe here

4. Vegan Chocolate Banana Mousse Recipe here

5. Dairy-Free Chocolate Bars Recipe here

6. Raw Strawberry Peppermint Cheesecake Recipe here

7. Coconut Cream Pie Recipe here

8. Vegan Strawberry-Banana Cupcakes Recipe here

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls Recipe here

Vegetarian Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe here

Didan Ashanta is a natural living enthusiast who blogs at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and 1-year-old daughter.

Запись 10 Healthy and Delicious Dessert Recipes впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

By Cassie King Eng

I am a meat eater, and a meat lover. I would have never in a million years thought that going vegetarian was possible for me. I mean, I really like vegetables, and our family probably eats more vegetables than the average American family. But no meat? That sounded so limited—and boring! But last January, I gave myself and my kids a 5-day vegetarian challenge, and believe it or not, we all loved it! I actually loved it so much, I continued my vegetarian diet for six months! Here’s why.

• It was cheap. Cutting meat out of my grocery list significantly lowered my grocery bill.
• It was clean. No more worrying about raw meat juice on the counter, scrubbing cutting boards, or nasty smelling trashcans.
• It was fast. Cooking and prep times are short. And clean-up is often shorter because you don’t have to worry about raw meat juices and greasy splatter.
• I loved what it did for my body. I became much more, ahem, regular, which had become a minor issue after the birth of my second child. My general sense of well-being improved because I knew I was doing something good for my body, and for my family. I also saw a marked improvement in my skin, which was an unexpected bonus!
• It is good for the environment. The meat business is notoriously harsh on the environment and requires tons of natural resources and produces tons of waste.

Although I have gone back to eating meat these days, I do it much more sparingly, and I am constantly looking for new and delicious vegetarian dishes to share with my family. I think everyone, even the healthiest of us, wants to find ways to incorporate more vegetables into our diet. And we want our kids to learn to love to eat their veggies too! Here are 5 super simple and delicious vegetarian recipes to help get you started!

1. Oven Roasted Broccoli (prep time: 5 min, cooking time: 12 minutes)
Vegan and gluten-free
Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli
1-2 tablespoons Olive oil
Kosher salt

Preheat your oven to 400 and move the oven rack to the top-most position, closest to your broilers. Rinse your broccoli and trim the end of the stalk. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces and toss in a large bowl with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt. (Less is better! You can always add more later). Spread the broccoli on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn your broiler on low and cook for an addition 1-3 minutes. Serves 2-3 as a side dish.

Additional notes: You can do this with just about any vegetable. Try sweet mini-peppers, cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, brussel sprouts, etc. You can also add your favorite spices. Some of my favorite options are minced fresh garlic or garlic powder, a sprinkle of cumin, paprika, or chili powder. It is so quick, easy, and versatile that we literally eat some version of this just about every day.

2. Cauliflower Rice (prep time: 5 min, cooking time: 10-15 min)
Vegan and gluten-free
Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
1 clove minced garlic
1 small shallot or half of a yellow/red onion, diced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt

Trim the leaves and tough stem off and rinse the cauliflower. Cut it into medium pieces (about 1-2 inches) and put into your food processes. Pulse until the cauliflower has been cut up into tiny pieces, resembling rice or couscous.

In a medium-sized pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and onion and sautee for 2-3 minutes until the onion softens and turns translucent. Add the cauliflower “rice” and a pinch of salt and stir it around for a minute or two. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cover the pan. Cook for an additional 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower has released some of its water and softened slightly. Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

3. Pot’o’beans (Active prep time: 5 min, Soaking time: 3-12 hours, Cooking time: 1 hour)
Vegan and gluten-free
Ingredients:
1 bag of dried beans (black, white, pinto, kidney, etc.)
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
vegetable stock (optional)
Kosher salt

Rinse the beans and pick out any stones or debris. Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water. The beans will expand so make sure your bowl is big enough to accommodate. Leave them to soak for 3-4 hours, or overnight.

Drain the beans. In a large pot, put the soaked beans, onion, garlic, bay leaf, and 2-3 teaspoons of salt. Cover completely with water or vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Cover the pot (leave it slightly cracked or the beans may boil over) and lower your heat to a simmer. Cook for about an hour, checking in at 45 minutes to see if they are done. The cooking time of the beans will vary depending on the kind of bean, how long they have been soaking, and whether you like your beans firm or soft. Usually it takes about 1-1.5 hours.

Additional Notes: Canned beans are convenient, but when you take into consideration how much cheaper dried beans are per serving, and how gross that slimy “bean juice” is in the can, it’s really worth it to make your own. You can also make lentil or split peas this way, but the cooking time will be much shorter (about 30 min). This recipe makes A LOT of beans and feeds my family of 6 for about a week! You can eat them as a side, on top of (cauliflower) rice, mix them into soups and pastas, put them on your salads, or eat a bowl of them with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh parsley or cilantro on top for a meal. They freeze well and you can drain them and put them into smaller freezer bags for later use, which makes them just as convenient as canned beans. If you’re not strictly vegetarian, you can use chicken stock, or even better, just throw old bones from last night’s pork chops, or roasted chicken (I always keep bones in the freezer for stock and things like this) into the pot with the beans while they are cooking. You can also make these in your crock pot. It takes about 3-4 hours on high, or 6+ hours on low.

4. White Bean Vegetable Soup (Prep time: 15 min, Cook time: 20-30 min)
Vegan and gluten-free
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 small onion, diced
1-2 carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
Additional assorted vegetables (zucchini, squash, chopped kale, leftover roasted vegetables from the first recipe)
1 can diced tomatoes
1-2 cups cooked white beans (from recipe above)
½ teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper

In a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add garlic, onion, carrot, celery and a pinch of salt and sauté until softened and slightly caramelized, about 3 minutes. Add any additional vegetables and the oregano sauté for another minute. Add the tomatoes and beans, a teaspoon of salt, then enough water (or vegetable stock) to cover everything. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

5. Gluten-free, Vegetarian Lasagna (Prep time: 20 min, Cook time: 1 hour)
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large eggplant
1-2 medium or small zucchinis,
15 oz. ricotta
½ cup grated parmesan
Small handful fresh parsley or basil, chopped (or 1 tsp dried herbs)
1 jar (or about 2-3 cups homemade) marinara sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 with the rack centered. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil and minced garlic. Set aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the ricotta, parmesan, herbs, and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Set aside.

Wash and trim the ends off the eggplant and zucchinis. With a mandolin slicer or a sharp knife, slice the eggplant and zucchinis into rounds about ¼” thick. Spread ½ cup of marinara in the bottom of a 9”x13” inch baking dish. Put one layer of eggplant slices over the sauce, and then one layer of zucchini slices. Spread the cheese mixture on top. Cover with another layer of eggplant and zucchini. Spread the remaining marinara on top, and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Drizzle with garlicky olive oil.

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is slightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Serves 6-10.

Additional notes: This is a great recipe to make with kids. My 2- and 4-year-olds love to layer the veggies and sprinkle the cheese on top. They might not love eggplant, but if they help make it, they are much more likely to eat it! I often up the veggie content bye stirring in chopped frozen broccoli or kale into the ricotta mixture. You can also make this ahead of time and refrigerate for up to 2 days before baking.

Ladies, what simple and delicious vegetarian recipes would you add to this list?!

Cassie King Eng is a mother of 4 who lives in Chicago.

Запись 5 Simple Vegetarian Recipes (That Even Meat Eaters Will Love) впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

During high school, I did a course called ‘Home & Family Management’ and I learned all sorts of practical and useful things like how to clean kitchen a stove and refrigerator, how to make a budget and spend wisely. I really enjoyed writing out menus and creating meal plans, but, my teachers never grabbed the opportunity to show us the connection between the content in our textbooks and real-life. Since I’ve had to manage my own home, I have referenced my old textbooks, on a number of occasions, for the guidelines and strategies that make my life a little less insane. The fact is, we all have to eat and manage our homes, but most of us have a hard time figuring out how to keep the tummies fed, stay within our means and not waste time while we’re at it. Most days, you’ll find yourself going from the fridge to the cupboards to the counter, trying to decide what to make or you’ll end up grabbing last minute meals on the road, which are usually costly, unhealthy or both and this cycle keeps repeating when you don’t have a plan.

Planning your family’s meals is an easy, time-saving, budget-friendly and healthy process that every home manager should master. It requires just a few minutes of brainstorming and a quick inventory of your kitchen cupboards to start off. Once you’ve selected the meals you want to prepare, you can shop for the needed ingredients and then just follow the menu plan. Choosing your daily meals in advance is easy, because you already have a history of your family’s food likes and dislikes. Plus, you know what dishes you can make well and enjoy making. The menu planning habit saves time because you will not spend time wondering what to cook, wandering around the store because you don’t have a list or making repeat visits to the grocery store to pick up ingredients you suddenly ran out of. You will also save money by using up the ingredients you already have at home and buying only what you have planned for. More than anything else, properly planning your meals will ensure that your family is eating healthy, balanced meals, that you have lovingly prepared.

Planning Your Menu
1. Make a list of your family’s favorite meals, or meals you know how to prepare.

2. Once you’ve made the list, take a look at your kitchen/pantry to see what ingredients you already have in store, then choose the dishes you can prepare based on those ingredients.

3. Once you’ve decided on that, get a calendar or notebook and choose which days you plan to make which dish. Start with just 7 dinners and once you’ve made it through a week successfully, you can plan for 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners. As you come up with new meal ideas, rotate weekly menus to add some variety.

Shopping From Your Menu
Having checked your cupboards and refrigerator for what you already have on hand, make a grocery list of the ingredients you will need.

4. When making your grocery list, try to determine which items you’ll want to purchase weekly, bi-weekly and monthly. This will help you to spread the cash around appropriately. Then, you can plan to buy the staple items in bulk, e.g. whole grains, cereals, dry and canned beans, nuts, dried fruits, pasta and spices.

5. Try to reduce or eliminate the amount of heavily processed and packaged foods you buy – to save money and improve your health.

6. Choose locally-grown and seasonal produce, because they will be the freshest and most nutritious. If your menu plan has shredded cabbage as a side salad, but you get to the grocers and realise that romaine lettuce is on special, it is perfectly fine to switch things up if the savings are significant. Just be careful to stick to your list (don’t waver too much from the original plan) and avoid buying on impulse.

7. If your supermarket or green grocer delivers items, ordering online is another excellent way to cut down on the time and money spent.

Cooking From Your Menu
8. The most important thing to do when cooking from a menu plan, is to use the perishables first. If you got a deal on lots of fresh produce, try to portion, package and freeze them for using later. Otherwise, you end up with spoilage.

9. Practice stock rotation: Don’t pack all the new groceries in the front of your cupboards while the older items get pushed to the back and eventually go bad.

10. Try cooking in batches and storing meals in the freezer. It doesn’t need to be a month’s supply of bean stew, but if you can make two or three dinner’s worth of stew and pack them in separate containers for freezing, then you will have dinner ready in 10 minutes on those nights you’re too busy to cook. If you get around to it, you can also pre-pack and, even flavour, your cereals for breakfast. For example, serving oatmeal for breakfast 4 days a week doesn’t have to be boring if you’ve flavoured it with cinnamon and brown sugar, dried apples and walnuts, peanuts and raisins, or coconut flakes and ginger. Besides, if you cook enough for two or more nights, you can announce that you’re serving ‘rechauffé’ (a French cookery word which basically means ‘left overs’). Rechauffé doesn’t just mean re-heating the dish you ate the night before, because you can always take a dish and ‘remix’ it. This means, a main dish that was fried, can be simmered in some barbecue sauce and served as a brand new dish the following night.

11. If you’re a bit lost for ideas, browse the internet for an avalanche of menu plans and recipes. But remember that it is best to start with things you already cook on a regular basis. This is an example of 7 dinners I would make for my family, and these dishes are pretty easy to make once you have a plan. Aside from the Chow Mein (stir-fried), all the dishes are ‘boiled’ or tossed in the oven:

 
12. If you don’t know how (or don’t want) to make 5 or 6 different main dishes for the week, serve the same main dish and just switch up the starchy side dish and veggies. Some of the options for sides include:

 
13. To make things easy, decide on nightly themes, for example: soup on Saturdays, pasta on Wednesdays, and left-overs on Mondays. If you enjoy foreign cuisines, try Asian stir-fry or African stew nights.

14. Plan for nights off, whether you go out to dinner, get take-out delivered or just have rechauffé.

15. In planning for leftovers, choose dishes that you’ll want to ‘Cook Once and Eat Twice’ or dishes that you’ll want to ‘Fix then Remix’, e.g. a side dish of rice turned into a main dish of fried rice.

Once you master these tips, you’ll feel comfortable to try new dishes and increase your repertoire in the kitchen. Then you’ll wonder why you weren’t planning your menus all along.

How do you do your meal planning? What challenges do you face with it? What tips would you add to this?

Didan Ashanta is a natural living enthusiast who blogs at DidanAshanta.com. A native of Jamaica, she currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and 1-year-old daughter.

Запись No More Wasting and Overspending: 15 Essential Meal Planning Tips впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Making your own baby food may sound cumbersome, but I find it to be as easy as making a smoothie and actually quite fun.  And when you calculate the cost of store bought baby food, you will find that making your own is a lot cheaper.  Besides, when you are your child’s chef, you get to choose foods that you wouldn’t even find in the baby food section, like black eyes peas and collard greens, plantains and black beans, or even quinoa and yams.

There are a lot of new products out there marketed to new moms who want to make homemade baby food.  But you do not need a hundred dollar product to make your own baby food.  You probably already have everything you need in your kitchen.

Just follow four simple steps:

1. Prepare: Washing and cutting up the food.

2. Cook: You can steam them with a pot and a steam basket, steam them in the microwave, bake or boil your ingredients.  All will work, but steaming preserves most of the nutrients.

3. Mash, Blend or Puree: You can mash with a fork, potato masher or put it in a food processor or blender. It all depends on the texture of the food and how long you cooked it for.

4. Freeze, Store and Label: Dates are important to put on the food so that you don’t keep it too long before serving. Some people freeze their baby food in ice trays, but I prefer specially made baby food containers with the lid attached. Masking tape works well for labeling.  You can freeze baby food for up to a month and store fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator for 48 hours.

 
When I started making baby food the two solids I started out with were bananas followed by avocados. All you need is a fork to mash and a spoon to feed.  Just make sure each is ripe. 

Bananas are a great first food because they are sweet and loaded with potassium and they are sweet. Avocados are awesome because they have that good fat and are a great source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C, K, folate, and B6.

After this I dived into a variety of fruits and vegetables.  We continue to make homemade applesauce and will probably never stop eating this one.  We slice the apples (I keep the peels on) steam them, then blend.  Yummy!   If you choose you can add cinnamon, but for the baby’s first taste I like to just feed them the plan fruit or vegetable.  Remember they haven’t had all the seasonings we are used to so they wont miss it.

If you live in a warm or hot climate, you may want to make your baby a popsicle.  My daughters loved these especially when they were teething!  I made these by taking the puree from their baby food and putting them in these cute little baby popsicle molds.  These are good for babies that can hold things on their own.  I would make apple popsicles, mango, and even yam popsicles!

Combining  foods is where things get fun.  Here are a few recipes that we enjoy:

1. No Cook Mango/Banana Puree (6 months and up) 
Ingredients
2 ripe bananas
2 ripe mangoes
2 tablespoons full of water (optional)

Directions
Peel the bananas and mangoes.  Cut the mango and discard the seed.  Place all food in food processor.   Add water for thinner consistency.  Freeze or serve.

2. Apple/Pear Quinoa 
Ingredients
1 apple
1 pear
1 cup of dry quinoa
2 cups of water
dash of cinnamon

Directions
Rinse off quinoa in a fine mesh strainer.  Add quinoa to a pot of water to cook for about 15 minutes.  While quinoa is cooking, cut up pears and apples.  (Remove skin if desired) Place cut up apples and pears in a steam basket and steam.  After quinoa is done cooking, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  Place apples and pears into a food processor and puree.  Combine and mix fruit with quinoa.  Add a dash of cinnamon.  Freeze or serve.

3. Yams & Greens (10 months and up) 
Ingredients
2 large Yams
1 bunch of collard greens
1/4th cup of garlic
1/8 cup of red onions

Directions
Wash and chop collards, onions and garlic.  Place them in of water pot to boil for an hour.  Wash and peel yams.  Place in steamer and steam for 45 minutes.  Combine yams and other veggies in food processor and puree.  Freeze or serve.

Eventually your child will move on to eating raw fruits and vegetables.  Some parents even skip purees altogether and use baby led weaning.  I am a smoothie addict and love to cook, so I prefer making the food.  But, as with everything, there are many ways to parent!

Mommies, have you ever made your own baby food?  What recipes did your baby like the most?

Angele is a wife to a wonderful creative husband, mother to two beautiful intelligent daughters and a lover of art, education and laughter.  She is the creator and author of ABC remix.

Запись 3 Simple and Delicious Homemade Baby Food Recipes впервые появилась Baby & Blog | Celebrating Black Mommyhood.

Before we talk snacks, let me clarify something – I’m not a healthy food expert.   In fact, for dinner last night, my kids ate re-heated fast food fries and a bruised banana.  For dinner. What can I say? It was a rough day, and I abandoned any real dinner plans early in the afternoon.  So if your kids are snacking on high fructose corn syrup straight from the bottle – no judgment here, friend.  We’re all doing the best we can.

And I do try my best to provide wholesome, appealing snacks, but sometimes it’s tough. My kids usually snack once in the morning and then sometimes again in the afternoon, depending on what time we’re having dinner.  On days where I serve three meals and two snacks, my kitchen starts to feel a little more like a diner.

So even though I aim to serve healthful snacks, as the cook/waitress/busboy, I tend to get in ruts. Those Veggie Straws at Costco are just too cheap and too easy.  I mean, they’re veggies, right?  Some of them are even green!

Come mid-winter, I need some new snacks.  Though whole fruits and veggies (we love clementines, baby carrots, cucumbers, etc.) are always top choice, it’s nice, and sometimes cheaper, to switch it up.

If you’re in a snack rut, here are 5, semi-easy ideas for sweet snacks that are hopefully a little more nutritious than reheated fries.  I’ll cover savory snacks in another post.

1.       Oatmeal Energy Balls

I tried these at a friend’s house and have made almost every week since.  Though I’m not sure about the “energy” claim, it’s a great recipe to make with kids, and there’s no baking time.  There are lots of versions online.  Here’s what I do:

½ cup honey

Warm the honey in a small pan on the stove until it’s bubbling.  Turn off the heat and whisk in

½ cup peanut butter (preferably unsweetened)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, stir together

1 cup oats
½ cup toasted almonds, chopped (or packaged roasted/salted almonds.  If using salted almonds, omit the salt.)
¼ cup ground flax seed
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
Pinch salt

Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Let it cool in the fridge for a bit (or not) and then shape into balls.  Or forget about it in the fridge and tell your kids you’re having spoonfuls of energy chunks instead.

2.       Sweet Potatoes with Maple Cinnamon Yogurt

I discovered this by accident when I had to bring snacks for my son’s preschool and had nothing snackish in my cupboards!  I wondered how it would go over, but the kiddos loved it!

I simply cut up sweet potatoes into sticks and serve them with a yogurt dip.

Yogurt Dip (serves 2)

Stir together

½ cup plain, whole milk yogurt
1 tsp real maple syrup or honey (use more or less based on your taste)
pinch of cinnamon

3.       Peanut Butter Popcorn

This is an extra special snack for us – often on Friday afternoons. We love popping popcorn on the stove.  I use coconut oil but have used olive oil or even vegetable oil if I’m out.

Here’s the recipe from Frugal Granola;

1/3 Cup Honey
scant 2/3 Cup natural Peanut Butter
3/4 to 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 quarts Popped Corn

Heat honey in a small saucepan over medium heat just until it starts bubbling. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir vigorously over heat until well blended and smooth. Be careful; mixture is hot and will stick to skin! Immediately pour honey mixture over popcorn and stir to coat. Let cool slightly before serving (if you can resist).

My only tweak to her recipe is to turn the heat off when you stir in the peanut butter.   Otherwise it has a really stiff texture that’s hard to pour on the popcorn.  Also, I like to add some sea salt after the peanut butter mixture goes on the popcorn.  It hits that sweet/salty spot.  Watch out – this is addictive!

4.       Pistachios

This is obviously not a recipe, but I’ve just discovered that pistachios are an awesome kid snack.  1) They’re great for practicing fine motor skills.  2) They take forever to eat – always a bonus if the day is dragging a bit.

The only drawback is that they’re not cheap, so these are a special treat for us.  Also, be sure to check the label carefully.  I bought some Salt and Pepper Pistachios that my kids looovvveed, but later I happened to glance at the label and realized, of course they like them, sugar is the number three ingredient!  More like Salt and Pepper and Sugar Pistachios.  Next time I’ll go for the plain old roasted and salted ones.

5.       Homemade Green Smoothie Popsicles

Who doesn’t love popsicles?  I got these molds a few years ago for my birthday, and we use them all the time.  But I don’t spend a lot of time making fancy orange creamsicles (although now that I think about it, that sounds awesome).  My secret – I throw any leftover green smoothie into a popsicle mold for a snack the next day.  My kids turn their noses up at some of my smoothies – especially the greener, less sweet ones, but they have never not gobbled down a popsicle.

Ladies, what recipes would you add to the list? Share them below!

Lindsey lives on and loves the west side of Chicago with her husband Mike and her kids – Caleb, 4 and Lily, 2. She works part time as a doula and childbirth educator and is fascinated by all things birth. In winter she likes to bake with sourdough, and in summer she likes everything. In all things, she is covered with God’s grace.

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