Foodie Fridays: Canned cannellini

Wow, the week has really flown by, and its Friday again!  I love how beans are packed with fibre and protein (great when the kid doesn't like to chew meat), and came across these white beans some time ago when I tried making minestrone soup.  So here's a quick little recipe using cannellini beans (that come in a can):

Oops, no picture of the food this round.  Everytime I cook this, I forget to take a shot! :p

Simple Cannellini   

(Adapted from a recipe in "Cooking Italian with Kids", which I borrowed from the library)

Ingredients: 

:: A can of cannellini beans

:: 1/2 a small onion (diced)

:: 1 garlic clove (crushed)

:: 2 tablespoons olive oil

:: 2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped, optional)

Steps:

1. Rinse a couple of times and soak beans for about an hour (as beans may be soaked in salt water).

2. Put beans in saucepan, add onion and garlic, season with black pepper and olive oil.

3. Set aside for 30 minutes.

4. Heat beans gently til warm, stir periodically.  

Pretty simple yes?  It just needs a little bit of planning before hand to factor in the soaking time, and gives you beans minus other stuff like tomato sauce (think baked beans, but without the sauce).  Some kids that love picking at beans to self-feed might like this... let me know if you try this! 

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Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for the whole family?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Foodie Fridays: Mac & cheese

Little boy really has a fondness for cheese.  He grabs the cheese bits off our salad when we are out, and loves scraping and eating the cream cheese on his toast.  We joke that its because he's born in the year of the mouse (in fact, the tip of the tail of the mouse, since he came along the day before CNY eve... which made me happy, since I made it home in time for reunion dinner!).  Anyway, since he loves cheese, I've been trying out various cheesy recipes, and am comforted to know that at least the cheese omphs up the protein and fat content in our picky and small eater's diet.

One of those recipes was this macaroni and cheese recipe from Chubby Hubby.  I did have to make some modifications though, and halved everything since it was just for the 3 of us, and replaced the mimolette and gruyere with mozzarella (no time to hunt for those).  I also lowered the salt to just a pinch, and ditched the kirsch, since I was cooking for the lil boy.  It still turned out pretty yummy even with all those changes, and we just had some baked veggies on the side.

Does your little one like cheese?  What are their favourite cheese-based meals? 

 

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Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for the whole family?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Foodie Fridays: Yummy cheesy mushrooms

We had a chance to eat these really yummy mushrooms over at a birthday party sometime ago.  Our friend A was nice enough to share with me her recipe for them, and I recently tried making them for our mushroom-loving little boy, and they were certainly a hit!  They are really simple to prepare, but pretty nutritious, and make for great finger food especially for toddlers. :)

Cheesy Mushrooms

Ingredients:

:: Portobello mushrooms

:: Mozzarella cheese

:: Garlic (I used 2 cloves to cook 5 mushrooms as I love the garlicky taste!)

(Amounts will have to be adjusted by your preference and the number of people you want to prepare for!)

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Chop garlic and fry in olive oil.

2. Wash mushrooms, line in a tray with bottoms facing upwards, and drench mushrooms in oil and garlic.

3.  Sprinkle mushrooms with cheese (ensure entire surface is covered).  Bake for approximately 7-10 minutes and serve!

Simple, yes?  These can be done in a toaster too, if you don't want to have the hassle of using the oven, and are perfect for picnics too... Let me know if you do try making them!

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Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for the whole family?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Blessed weekend!

Foodie Fridays: Ah, Alfredo!

Hubby has been working late some days, and that usually means I have to cook dinner while minding the toddler at the same time.  Which equates to the simpler the preparation process, the better!  Usually on such days, I resort to cooking pasta (remember the easy chilli tuna pasta recipe that came from mainly cans?).

Since the little boy LOVES mushrooms, I like preparing a mock mushroom "alfredo" sauce for our pasta when I'm pressed for time.  And as its for the whole family and the grown-ups need to watch their     waistlines, I use milk instead of cream (after all, cream doesn't keep very long, and there's always milk in the fridge!).

Please excuse the little hand.  He was excited about having "many many mushrooms!" for dinner.  

Mock mushroom "alfredo" sauce

(serves 2 adults and 1 tiny tummy)

Ingredients: 

:: 1.5 cups milk (use low-fat if cooking for adults, and normal full-cream milk if cooking just for kids)

:: 200 g button mushrooms (sliced)

:: 3 cloves garlic (chopped)

:: Grated cheese (eg. Mozzarella or parmesan)

:: Olive oil

:: Basil or other herbs

Steps: 

1. Heat up olive oil in frying pan, fry garlic for 1 minute.

2. Add mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes.

3. Pour milk in and leave to simmer for 10 minutes, turn down heat to low once milk starts to bubble.  Add herbs (don't be too generous if cooking for kids), stir.

4. Add cheese (how much to add depends on how thick you want your sauce to be, so experiment! :p), stir, and remove from heat.

DONE!  Usually I'll have the pot of pasta boiling at the same time, and dinner is ready before the boy is able to get into any major trouble.  And there will be steamed veggies or salad on the side.  If you want to up the protein content of the dish, you can use egg pasta (I used tagliatelle).

While this probably won't be something on your dinner menu when you have guests (the sauce would not be as rich and thick as the version using eggs and cream), its an easy creamy sauce to prepare on lazy or busy days.  I like to improvise on this version, and sometimes add cod (or other white fish), or leftover ham, with veggies like carrots, corn and cherry tomatoes.

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Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for the whole family?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Blessed weekend!

Foodie Fridays: Easy peasy breakfasts (Apple cinnamon oatmeal)

Breakfasts are usually a simple affair at home.  Hubby is usually rushing to work and doesn't have time some days except to gulp down his coffee, while I usually just like to have toast or cereal in the morning.  The same goes for the little boy, who we've noticed doesn't really eat much during his morning meal.  Most mornings, he has a cup of milk along with some cereal (Cheerios/cornflakes), yoghurt and fruits (berries/raisins), or a slice of bread with cream cheese and a little fruit.  Then on days that he's not feeling too well or teething (and can't chew much), or we're trying to rush to go somewhere, I like to give him oatmeal instead.  Here's one of my favourite oatmeal dishes that little boy loves:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Ingredients (serves one tiny tummy):

:: 3 heaped tablespoons oatmeal (We use quick-cook oatmeal for ease of preparation, but steel-cut/rolled oats are healthier versions.  Kids may not like the "rougher" texture though.)

:: 1/3 an apple, peeled and cubed

:: 2 teaspoons raisins 

:: A pinch of cinnamon

Steps:

1. Sprinkle cinnamon on apple chunks and steam for a minute (steam longer for younger kids, or omit steaming if your kids like their apples crunchy).

2. Add hot, boiling water to oatmeal, mix until desired thickness.

3. Add apple chunks and raisins to oatmeal, stir.

All done! :)  Junior J is quite ok with mild-tasting foods, so I get away with not adding stuff to my oatmeal, but if your kids prefer a sweeter version, you can mix in some apple juice or a dollop of honey (Note: Honey can only be used for kids above 1 year old, due to risk of botulism) to the oatmeal.  You can also switch out the apple with pear or other fruits, the same goes for the raisins.  

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Since I have readers asking for meal ideas for kids, we're now on the look-out for recipes for petite palates to feature on the blog!  Do you have any tried and tested recipes for meals suitable for children?  If you have some easy-to-prepare, healthy recipes for kids, do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com, with the ingredients, steps, and if possible, a nice sharp photo of the food!  We'll post the recipes on Fridays, with a link back to your blog if you have one... :)

Have a blessed weekend!    

Weaning Wednesdays: Meet our mealtime monster

Ok, its been a long time since I've written about Junior J's meals.  The boy oddly has regressed in terms of his food preference, and now only eats stuff that has been pureed smooth.  So for every lunch and dinner, he gets variations of an oatmeal-based porridge (with all sorts of veg/meat mixed inside and run through my hand-held blender), and breakfast usually consists of milk (we've resorted to Pediasure to up the calorie count), cheese and some carbs (bread/different cereals that we rotate).

He's been a difficult one to feed.  We've tried giving him small portions of "table" food to self-feed, such as corn, cucumber, pasta or cereal to self-feed... and some days he'll happily sit there and try to feed himself while we hastily try to spoon in oatmeal in between:

Junior J on one of his better days, eating breakfast from his snack cup

However, usually the self-feeding thing lasts for about 10 minutes before he starts to (1) feed the dog his food, (2) spit or (3) fling his plate (and all of its contents) to the floor... all options which make the dog very happy, and us, not so!

So right now, the only thing that seems to work would be to keep him occupied by all sorts of activities (which I console myself are helping him to develop his fine-motor skills), while feeding him his oatmeal and spooning fluid (water/milk/soup) in between mouthfuls to make him swallow (yes, he has the skill of storing all that liquid food in his mouth, like a hamster!):

Reading board books, and stacking cubes

Taking things in and out of boxes

Putting cotton wool into a vitamin container, and learning to cap it

Poking toothpicks into holes in a soft board

He's usually quite ok when he's out for meals, but keeping him occupied with stuff helps...

And many a time, he starts to get restless halfway through the meal (each meal takes almost an hour!), and we resort to using the iPhone and letting him watch videos of himself, or play educational games.  I know, I've seen those "looks" parents give me when they see our kid, barely two, engrossed in poking at the screen, but trust me, we only whip it out of desperation when nothing else works.  The boy's weight gain hasn't been too great (especially after the recent bouts of illness), otherwise I'd just stick to the "don't eat just starve" philosophy.

On good days, we manage to get him to finish his food... and on bad days, he puts his head on the table and refuses to eat.  Or he ends up like this:

The bib says it all!

So far, the only two people that have managed to make him eat his meals would be myself, and the hubby (and even the hubby can't seem to tolerate feeding him for more than 30 minutes!).  I'm really almost to the end of my tether, and my only consolations are that the boy (1) is generally easy-going apart from mealtimes, (2) is still wanting his breastmilk, and (3) has finally consented to wear bibs again during meals (of course, with the condition that he puts his little frog toy in the pocket of the bib!).   So parents, please help me out here... do share any tips/experiences you've had for feeding/getting a toddler to eat!

Weaning Wednesdays: Dairy allergies & spitting

The boy has been showing an interest in feeding himself and using his own utensils, and recently has been spitting out food for every meal, especially if we fed him mushy stuff like porridge or oatmeal.  We've tried distracting him with books, with music, and so far, only the iPhone seems to work.  That one I resorted to in a final act of desperation one night, when the GE bug was wrecking havoc in my innards and I had to feed the boy on my own as the hubby was working late.  Believe me, we use it only when nothing gets into the boy's stomach, only because he was slipping off the percentile charts last time.  Otherwise I would have just left it as "if you don't eat, you'll just be hungry".  Its also be hard to churn out yummy food when the boy is on a no-soy, no-dairy diet. :(

Aside from the "distract and feed" method, we've also given the boy his own spoon as well as chunks of veggies to self-feed.  However, that also doesn't work all the time as he still does spit the food after awhile, especially if he's bored. :(  So I decided to try giving him "grown-up" food. Over the weekend, I was feeling a little inspired in the kitchen department, and aside from cooking our meals, did this for one of the boy's meals:

The presentation helped initially since he was really interested in the stuff on the plate (steamed zucchini and sweet potato slices, and bits of chicken pan-fried with peeled cherry tomatoes, something I thought up while raiding the fridge.  We fed him using a plastic plate though!).  We managed to get about half of the stuff in, and he ate the chicken which he normally spits out when its in smaller chunks in porridge, but ended up spitting food at the later part of the meal.

We've not found a fool-proof method to make him eat, but doing these things seem to help:

1. Letting the boy have his utensils, and letting him self-feed.  He gets really frustrated when he can't spoon food out of his bowl and starts throwing his utensils, so I usually help him to spear food on his fork and let him put the food in his mouth.  That seems easier for him compared to the spooning bit.  Or we'll scoop food into the spoon and let him hold it while we direct it to his mouth (he tends to flip the spoon otherwise, and gets frustrated that no food gets in).

2. Feeding him stuff off our plates: He's always been interested in what we're eating, so sometimes we'll give him what we're eating (like rice/breakfast cereal), and he eats it.

3. Keeping him occupied with books/music.  The spitting seems to be more frequent if he's not engaged in something.  Its pretty much goes against the Montessori philosophy, but hey, right now I can't have him slipping off the chart anymore!

4. Keeping his meals varied.  The boy loves to try new foods (no food neophobia for this guy), so he tends to eat a little more when there's new stuff on offer that he likes.

Also, I found these sites useful for more tips on feeding these fussy fellows:

:: On toddler feeding problems
:: Tips on feeding
:: Tips on using utensils

Ah... and finally, we brought the boy to see a PD specializing in gastroenterology yesterday to check his reflux, constipation and his terrible appetite  (hence the late post)... It turned out that what we thought was constipation (no poop for sometimes 6 days!) turned out to be normal bowel movements for a fellow who is still getting quite a bit of breastmilk, and the PD recommended we try grown-up food for the boy as he may not like all the mushy stuff anymore.

Junior J was in his element at the clinic: He flirted non-stop with the PD and the medical student attached to her, and made eyes at the both of them, only to be rewarded with a trip to the nurse to get poked (granted, he also got himself a Transformer sticker for his efforts!).  The boy had to get 3 ml of blood drawn for a RAST (Radioallergosorbent Test) test, to confirm if he had allergies to peanuts, soy and milk that may be causing his reflux up to now (when I ate those foods).  Drawing the blood was a nightmare: The nurse had to poke him a couple of times before she managed to get any blood, and the boy writhed and screamed and cried.  By the time she managed to start dripping the blood into a tube, the fellow was red in the face from all the crying, and struggled so much I thought he might fracture his arm since the hubby was holding him really tight.  However, after a feed and a 30 minute nap, he woke up A-ok and examined his plasters with lots of interest!

Foodie Fridays: Making muffins and cooking party

We attended a "cooking party" today, so I couldn't resist postponing the Friday food post til today so that I could blog about the food we made!  The "Cookyn with Mervyn" sessions are run by one of our bible study mate's brother-in-law, so she organized a session for some of us.

So anyway, the cooking party was filled with lots of good cooking tips and fresh ingredients...

You can put garlic cloves in the green contraption in the background, roll it between your palms, and voila!  Peeled garlic!

... and it was lots of fun!  The menu for the day:

Home-smoked salmon with Japanese cucumber yoghurt 

(the salmon was really moist!)

Salmon, all ready to be smoked

Spaghetti and prawns tossed in laksa and cashew nut pesto 

(this was so amazingly yummy, and surprisingly easy to make...)

Roasted Kurobuta pork with miso orange sauce

Chocolate mousse with fresh berries

Berry berry good... (just that I only could eat one mouthful thanks to my non-dairy diet!)

Oh... and mentioning my non-dairy diet reminds me, Ariana over at Becoming Mom recently blogged about some veggie muffins that she made for her son.  The recipe was non-soy and non-dairy, so I couldn't resist baking some on Friday, and let Junior J try one this morning for breakfast.  The muffins turned out super moist and pretty yummy (and you would never know that there was no dairy in them, plus that it had zucchini and carrots in there!), and the boy ate part of his muffin and seemed to like it. That means they have to be pretty good, since he's so fussy about his food, and usually spits new foods out when he tries them (no spitting this time!).  We put less batter in each cup since the boy has a small appetite, so they ended up looking like this:

The recipe is a keeper for sure, and I think I'll probably bake another batch next weekend!  Thanks Ariana for sharing, and have a great weekend everyone! :)