Favorite Baby Purees

These are a few of my baby's favorite purees. She absolutely loves them! The recipes came from the book Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in making your own baby food. All of the recipes are very healthy and easy to prepare. This has been my first experience with making my own baby food and I love it! I love knowing exactly where the food is coming from and what is in it. Most of the recipes you can freeze. It is very convenient and economical because you can make numerous meals, freeze them, and take them out as you need them. It really is not that time consuming and it has made feeding time so much fun. I love trying the different recipes and introducing my baby to all different types of healthy food, not just the basic fruits and vegetables. I purchased these trays to freeze the food in, but I'm sure you can use ice cube trays as long as you cover them. I use a mini food processor, but I think any blender/hand blender/food mill/food processor will get the job done. The recipes that I listed below are for babies 7 months and up.

Potato, Leek, Carrot, and Peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup washed and sliced white park of a leek
2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
1 1/4 cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the leek for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the potatoes and carrot and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Add the frozen peas and continue to cook for about 6 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Puree in a food mill or blender/food processor. This recipe is suitable for freezing.



Pasta with Butternut Squash, Tomato, and Cheese
1 small butternut squash, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons tiny pasta starts (I used tiny alphabet letters)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (**see note below)
1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons milk
Steam or boil the butternut squash for 10 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package, but without adding salt to the water. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and saute the tomatoes until mushy, then stir in the cheese until melted. Blend the cooked butternut squash and tomato and cheese mixture together with the milk using a blender/food processor, and stir in the pasta. This recipe is suitable for freezing.
**For the tomatoes: Plunge them into boiling water for 30 seconds. Transfer to cold water, then peel, seed, and chop.



Blueberry, Banana, and Apple
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
Put all the fruit into a heavy-bottomed pan and cook, covered, over low heat for 8-10 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 5 more minutes or until most of the juices have evaporated. Mash or puree fruit together by hand or with a blender/food processor. This recipe is unsuitable for freezing.



Yummy Banana
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small banana, sliced
3 tablespoons orange juice
Melt the butter in a small frying pan or saucepan and saute the banana for 1 minute. Pour in the orange juice and cook for another minute. Mash with a fork. This recipe is unsuitable for freezing.

Now That's A Cupcake!

This has got to be the biggest cupcake I've ever seen! Have you ever noticed how a cupcake usually tastes better than a piece of cake? I was so anxious to try out this giant cupcake pan not only because it's a giant cupcake (and I love cupcakes), but also I was curious as to how the cake would taste. Turns out, this giant cupcake actually tastes just like a little cupcake. I've made two cakes now using this pan and both turned out really cute and tasted exceptionally good!

Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Whipped Cream Icing

For the cake part of this recipe, I added 1/2 packet of instant pistachio pudding mix to a box of dry white cake mix and mixed as I usually do. For the frosting, I added the remaining packet of pudding mix to 1/2 quart whipping cream and let it mix (for quite a long time) until peaks formed. Using a spatula, I frosted the top of the cupcake and then sprinkled chopped pistachios on top. I also put a layer of icing between the top/bottom half of the cupcake. This was such a fun and easy cake to make!

Calling All Nutella Fans...

This post is for you! I recently stumbled across this recipe (over at Bakin' and Eggs) for Banana and Nutella muffins. I love Nutella and I love it even more with bananas, so I knew I needed to try this recipe. I just made it yesterday, and it was delicious! There's nothing like biting into a fresh, hot muffin with Nutella oozing out of the center! The recipe said it made 12 muffins, but I had leftover batter, so I added 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips to the remaining batter and made an additional 12 mini chocolate chip banana muffins (no Nutella). Those turned out delicious as well! I pretty much ate muffins for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday!

Banana Nutella Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)

1/3 cup sour cream (I used light)
1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup Nutella

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners or coat with cooking spray. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stirring with a whisk. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Beat sugar and butter with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy and well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana mixture and beat until blended. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed just until moist.

Fill muffin tins about 1/4 of the way full with batter. Place 1 teaspoon (or desired amount) of Nutella in the center of each muffin. Fill muffin tins with remaining batter. They should be about 3/4 full.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before enjoying!

If making the mini muffins, add the chocolate chips to the remaining batter and bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Happy May Day!

For the past two years the kids and I have delivered May baskets early in the morning on May 1st to our friends and neighbors. Of course we had to continue with the tradition this year. Inspired by the flower arrangements I saw at Keukenhof, we used teacups and saucers as our flower planters. I let the kids pick out the flowers they wanted to use and then let them do the planting. They fit perfectly into the teacups, so it was very easy for them to plant. They turned out really cute! We also made little paper baskets filled with candy to go with the flowers. We woke up early and delivered them this morning. The kids had so much fun ringing the doorbell and then running. There is just something about trying not to get caught!

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, so we are going to use this same idea to make gifts for the special teachers in our lives. The teacups are such a simple and thoughtful gift to make and very fun for kids to do. The baskets are super easy to make as well. All you need is a sealed envelope (any type will work). Cut the envelope as shown in the pic below. Use markers or crayons to decorate your basket.

I hope you enjoy your May Day!