Baby Led Weaning

Pinteresting Post of the week... Baby Food!

Our little guy is 6.5 months now and ready more than ever for solid food. Like leaping at the plate ready! As soon as he gets put in his highchair he is leaning as far forward as he can possible be with both hands reached out towards the table and his plate of food.

The basic idea of baby led weaning (BLW) is that rather than introduce your baby purree's, followed by mash, followed by bigger lumps, followed by solid food. You just go straight the solids! a.k.a. food introduction for the lazy mom :) Except that it's NOT the lazy way at all and right now creates a big mess as he learns how to navigate the 6-8 inches from table to mouth. Quite a bit of food currently ends up on the floor (we don't have a tray on our highchair it pulls right up to the table - which is great for storage and the eventuality that he will be at the table, but currently his pocket bib doesn't quite do justice what a tray might catch)

In any case, I'm always on the hunt for BLW ideas that will provide the nutrition he needs with the least amount of mess. Enter: Cucumber Ring! Someone had the ingenious idea to cut the seeds out of the middle (wasn't me) but this is AWESOME! Keeps him happy, busy, and healthy, and a nice slice of cold cucumber does wonders on the teething gums as well, double rainbow bonus :)

Another brilliant idea that I've found and cannot take credit for is:

The banana with a peel handle (no mushed banana here) This runs a close second to the cucumber ring.

Gluten Free Treats!

I was originally thinking that this would be more of a incentive to "get my craft on" so to speak, but one of the boards I pin to is called "Things that Look Nummy" and while I am typically distrusting of many online recipes... I had a wonderful friend (who also happens to have Celiac disease) babysitting for me. I wanted to thank her with a tasty GF treat so I thought I go to my pin board and see what I could find. Gluten Free seems to have been a bit of trend lately in the foodie and diet worlds (even for those who don't necessitate a GF diet) and there are plenty of tasty looking recipes out there that would tempt even the most bread, meat, and cheese kinda guy :)

I thought I should try my recipe out first on my husband and myself before preparing a "treat" for someone else (just in case it was a major flop) So I found this delicious looking "Cheesy Garlic Cauliflower Breadsticks" recipe and thought it would be a winner.... turns out not exactly as I thought it would be. It was tasty, however I was hoping it would be more crispy like breadsticks, and it turned out a little more omelette-y... we did eat it but I decided that it wasn't going to be what I would serve my stellar babysitter the next night. Pin, Lose or Draw? LOSE...

But now I was running out of time to do a trial run of my creation before hand so I took a gamble on this Gluten Free Dairy Free Pumpkin Cupcake recipe and it was DELICIOUS!! So good. I will definitely be making this one again. They pretty much taste like pumpkin doughnuts :) I switched up the icing from the recipe though and did a maple glaze (maple syrup mixed with icing sugar... yes sugar mixed with sugar) and like I said this is definitely going in the recipe box.  

They were the perfect craving kicker that this fall weather has been kicking up and would go wonderfully with a Pumpkin Spice Latte (if you love pumpkin as much as I do anyways). 

Happy Eating <3 p="">

Sarah.

And The Pears Just Keep Coming!

 So I leave town for about 10 days to visit family and I'm dreading the look of the patio when I get home because I know it will be covered in pears starting to over ripen, full of fruit flies, and not an altogether lovely sight. However to my surprise its not so bad. There are a few over ripe pears, a few flies, but not the festering mess I was expecting. The tree however is still FULL of ripe pears and they are getting BIG! I climbed up a picked a few with the help of my sister and now between those and they rest I hadn't processed from before I left I once again had more than I know what to do with... SO

Puffed Pear Pancake (childhood favourite!)

• Pre-heat oven to 425 F
• Fill a greased frittata pan (or glass pie plate) with enough sliced poached (or canned) pears to fully cover the bottom - we used about 6/7 I think  but they were on the smaller side
• Beat two eggs
• Add 1/2 cup all purpose flour - whisk in
• Add 1/2 cup milk - whisk in slowly
• Add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp cardammom
• Pour mixture over top of pears.
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Remove from oven and flip over (by placing a plate on top, flip the pancake, then slide it back into it's dish)
• Sprinkle with sugar and cardamom and voila!

AND

Ginger Pear Marmalade

• Zest three limes and set aside
• Juice three limes and put in large bowl
• Peel, core, and thinly slice 8 cups of pears
• Coat with juice from limes
• Add 3 tbsp of minced crystallized ginger
• Add 4 cups of sugar and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour

***meanwhile prepare canning jars

• Add zest to 1 1/4 cups of water and stirring frequently let come to a boil until liquid is reduced by half
• Remove zest and add water to pears
• Stirring frequently, boil pears for approximately 15 minutes
• Add zest back in and continue boiling for another 5 minutes or until mix reaches a gel stage
• Spoon into your canning jars leaving 1/4" room at the top, add sterilized lids and rings, and place in canner for 10 minutes

Enjoy!

Saturday Scrumptious Snacks!

Peppery Pear Salsa (courtesy of my mom)

1 cup vingear
8 cups chopped pears
3 finely diced red peppers
3 finely diced green peppers
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp salt
2 tsp dry mustard powder
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

- Bring everything to a boil and simmer for at least 5 minutes or until liquid thickens a bit.


  *Optional* I also added 2 jalapenos and 1 red onion to this recipe for a bit more of a kick and less sweet salsa 


Honey Almond Flax Granola

1 cup coconut
5 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 cups almond meal
3 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup dried blueberries
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil

- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- Mix together all dry ingredients EXCEPT the dried fruit
- Combine honey, cinnamon, oil in a saucepan and bring to just boiling.
- Coat dry ingredients with honey mixture and spread out evenly in a cookie tray (or two)
- Bake in oven for 20 minutes (or until golden brown) stirring halfway
- Cool and add in dried fruit


Enjoy some Scrumptious Saturday Snacks!

Loves,
Sarah

So I Have a VERY Productive Pear Tree... Now What?

Now what you ask?

Jam! Jelly! Pearsauce! Oh My!

So much thanks to my mother who canned all sorts of goodies when I was younger and a bit of how to/follow the pictures help from Pick Your Own and I was all set to make up some lovely pear jam this evening. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at this batch of 14 jars didn't even put a dent in the massive amount of pears I still need to process (and there is still more on the tree!) But the Jam is ultra tasty and we'll be enjoying it all year long! 

Final Product. Yummy!!