Broccoli even your baby will love!

For New Years we headed down to San Diego to visit my Auntie Julie for a little stay-cation. She cooked dinner for us one night and Soluna loved her broccoli. This was a pleasant surprise considering Soluna has hated broccoli for the past few months. There was a time when she liked it, but that was short-lived. It's an easy recipe. So here goes:

Auntie Julie's Garlic Broccoli
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic (mashed)
broccoli with stems cut
water
salt and pepper (for taste)

Pour a small amount of olive oil into a pan and heat. When warm enough, saute the 6 cloves of garlic. Once lightly browned, add broccoli and add water so that broccoli is 1/2 submerged. Sprinkle salt and pepper, if desired. Cover pan and cook for 10-12 minutes until broccoli is desired consistently. Strain and serve!

Filipino Arroz Caldo for the family and the baby!

Feeding Soluna food that is healthy and makes her do the yummy-dance while saying "Mmmmmm ... Mmmmm ... Mmmmm" has been one of my greatest challenges as a new mama. The past few months there has been one recipe that has almost always led to the aforementioned positive feedback from our little 11.5 month old. I'd like to share it with y'all because f'real... where can you find ethnic recipes for babies online?!?

Aya's Arroz Caldo Recipe for the Family and the Baby
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of garlic
2 1-inch slices of ginger
1 diced onion
1.5 cups of uncooked white rice (although you can experiment with brown rice)
10 cups of water
3 lbs of chicken (I prefer breast or drumstick, but you can choose what you want)
Patis or Filipino fish sauce
black pepper
1 chopped green onion
For extra veggies in babies food:
brocolli, carrots, cauliflower - I use a bag of veggies from Trader Joe's
water

Arroz Caldo directions:
In a large pot heat the olive oil. Lightly brown the garlic. Then add in the ginger and onion. Saute until the onion is translucent. Add the rice and saute for a few minutes. Add the water and bring to boil. Reduce the temperature and then add the chicken. Cook for 30 minutes. Add a small amount of patis for taste and a dash of black pepper. *** Set-aside what is for your baby! *** After the set-aside, you may want to add the rest of the patis and much more black pepper until you feel it tastes "right." Serve immediately and garnish bowl with green onion.

Baby's Arroz Caldo directions:
In a very small pot put a few pieces of brocolli, carrots, and cauliflower in about an inch of water. Cover the pot and cook for 10 minutes. When you are done cooking, mash up all the veggies or slice into small pieces depending on the texture your baby is eating at the time. Add as much of this mix into your Arroz Caldo set-aside as you want! Pull apart pieces of the chicken and add to the Arroz Caldo.

There you have it! YUM! Veggies, rice and chicken!

on a more practical food note...

Today I made my first batches of baby food. I had practically been preparing Soluna's food at each meal. This meant, she ended up eating a lot of avocados. Avocados, I think, are the easiest baby food because all you gotta do is wait until it's ripe, cut it open, scoop the goods out, mash/stir and serve. Avocados are especailly good for healthy baby brain development and my sister says that her Brazilian friends say that it's perfect for fattening babies up!

So anyways, I finally got Soluna's baby food cups in the mail. I made a run to Berkeley Bowl (another hippie mama thing to do) and started making batches of pear and sweet potato baby food. I mean seperately, not together. It was hella easy.

I just steamed the pears (20 minutes) and sweet potatoes (40 minutes). Peeled and cut them up. Popped them into the blender. Pureed them until they were the right consistency. The sweet potatoes needed a little bit of water. And... Tada! Homemade, Super Baby Food. I scooped out the puree into the food cups I bought and popped them into the fridge.

We kept one of the pear cups out for Soluna to try.. not her favorite! I think this might be her first food rejection. But, we're going to try it again in a few days.

gerber vs. homemade baby food

So last weekend as I was mashing avocados at a diner while eating breakfast with my in-laws, my suegra asked why we weren't feeding Soluna Gerber baby food. She said it was made especially for babies. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. Unfortunately, "No habla Espanol!" ... I know, I suck. I really wish that I hadn't made the horrible decision to learn German in high school. Now, I am at a conversational disadvantage. I am reliant on Benji's translations that often come way after the conversation is over, sometimes in the car on the way home, or don't happen at all if he doesn't feel like it or doesn't want me to know what the heck is going on.

In response to the Gerber question, that I was pretty ready to answer, Benji must have mumbled something about how it was cheaper to make homemade food. Which is true, but only part of the reason why we have chosen to make our own food. Okay, not to bust out my Super Baby Food book again, but fresh homemade baby foods will always have fresh ingredients, will not contain extra salt or preservatives and is more food and less water. I found more information on this topic right here.

The other night I dragged Benji to Manzanita Restaurant, which is literally around the corner from our home. It's a macrobiotic vegan spot and I REALLY love it. I forgot how good a plain steamed sweet carrot tasted or how mung beans can be so rich in flavor. We have become so out of touch from the simple pleasures of simple foods. It is so nice and refreshing to have a plate full of food that hasn't been overly spiced or overly processed. My point is... Why can't it be natural to eat less food from boxes and jars? Shouldn't we all be eating more "whole foods" and wouldn't it be nice to see real fruits and vegetables more often? Especially for our littlest ones, isn't it better to go more natural. I think this is how it should be for me and for Soluna... and Benji, if he wants.

Lifestyle changes. God help me, I'm becoming a brown hippie! (More about my hippie-ness later. I have some mama confessions.)

GERBER

VS.
HOMEMADE

okay, neither looks appetizing... but you gotta taste for yourself!