recipe

I thought I’d kick off this post with a discussion about food. I’ve been finding feeding Micah a challenge lately. He is becoming quite picky, and it is always either feast or famine with him. He is currently eating a diet of 100% table food (no more baby food for us!), but I am often unsure whether he is eating enough or eating healthy.

I think we have the best handle on breakfast. Micah wakes up in the morning and he will drink some milk – anywhere from 1-5 ounces. We usually sit and snuggle a bit on the couch while he is drinking his milk, and then he likes to go play with his toys and chase the dog. While he is playing, I prepare his breakfast (well, sometimes his Daddy does the cooking, too). We seem to have a “rotation” of breakfast foods – we either give Micah waffles, pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs or cereal. I prefer to give him french toast over regular toast because he gets some protein that way, too (since we use the bread to soak up an entire egg). I usually put a bit of cinnamon and vanilla in with his french toast, we try to vary the waffle and pancake flavors (blueberry, pumpkin, plain, etc.). We always give him fruit with breakfast – sometimes we put applesauce or homemade jam and/or yogurt ontop of the waffles/pancakes/french toast. With the eggs, sometimes we mix in veggies or melt cheese on top. He will usually eat a pretty hearty breakfast…except when he doesn’t. At the very least, I can usually get him to eat 1/2 a banana.

Sometimes, Micah likes to drink more milk later in the morning. I think on daycare days, they give him a morning snack of breakfast foods (although I am never sure how much he eats there). Around 10:30, we put him down for his nap, and he likes to sleep until at least 12. When he gets up from his nap, he usually drinks a few more ounces of milk and we start preparing lunch. I am beginning to find lunches a bit more difficult and boring. He will usually eat a melted cheese sandwich, but how many days in a row should he really be eating that? Micah also loves pizza – but isn’t that just a fancy melted cheese sandwich? We are able to sneak some pureed veggies in with the tomato sauce when we make pizza. He will eat hummus and chips as well for lunch. He does not seem to be particularly fond of eating meat/chicken for lunch – that is pretty much always a bust. We have very little luck getting him to eat pasta, although occasionally he’ll eat some tortellini or some lasagna. Micah loves veggie burgers – we usually alternate that with dinner a few times each week. I’m thinking of testing the waters with peanut butter soon to expand our lunch options. We’ve tried a number of other options – spinach patties (see the recipe below), and I make these delicious veggie/cheese/bisquick squares that he seems to like as well. Once again, we’ll top off the lunch meal with either some crackers, bread, and/or fruit – if all else fails, Micah will load up on fruit. Currently, he is having a love affair with Clementines – I think he would eat a dozen a day if I let him. Does anyone else have some good lunch suggestions for a picky 1 year old with only 4 teeth?

Naptime hits anywhere from 2:30-3:30. When he wakes up, I offer him milk and an afternoon snack. Afternoon snacks are the easiest – fruit is always a safe bet, but veggies are almost always a no-go. I buy him these sippy pouches of organic baby food that mixes fruit and veggies together – he loves to feed himself the sippy pouches and it is the best way to sneak in some veggies. Sometimes, Micah eats cheese for a snack, or crackers, or fruit, or cereal, or mum mums, or dried fruits (we are currently loving freeze-dried strawberries – the freeze dried fruits are wonderful because they sort of crumble and melt in Micah’s mouth). Pretty much any basic “snack” food is a hit with my little man.

Dinner time falls around 6 or 6:30. Once again, I find dinner challenging, and I am feeling starved for new ideas. Some nights (like tonight) a veggie burger is a hit. He particularly enjoys eating it with a touch of marinara sauce and a fork. I give Micah turkey burgers and hamburgers (with veggies mixed in), and we’ll try tortellini, lasagna, and pizza, but other nights there seems to be no winning. Some nights, everything I hand him ends up on the floor. At least the dog is always up for some dinner! On those nights, I try to get Micah to eat some crackers or cheese or fruit and call it a night.

We round out the day with some milk before bed. The last few nights, Micah says “night night” to me when he goes upstairs to sleep. It is just SOOO cute! I love watching how he communicates now – he knows the signs for “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” he tells me when he wants more food and when he is all done eating. He is using words more and more often, and just turning into a little boy before my eyes.

As promised, here is the recipe for my spinach patties:

1 pkg. chopped spinach—thawed and drained
½ cup bread crumbs
1 onion sautéed
¼ cup mozzarella cheese
½ cup egg beaters (or 2 eggs)
2 tbsp. parmesan cheese
Seasonings (I usually add garlic and a touch of salt)

Mix all ingredients together and make into patties. Bake at 350^o – 45 minutes to 1 hour. Can be made into a loaf.
Optional: shredded carrots, either cooked or sautéed, can be added.

Micah loved these! I used organic frozen spinach, an organic vidalia onion and organic cheese and eggs.

One of my friends always seems to post recipes and demonstrations of the food she makes for her daughter, so this is my feeble first attempt to give it a try. Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of every step along the way, so it is quite light on the pictures. You’ll just have to rely on my recipe and description!!

This is the 2nd time I’ve made turkey burgers for Micah. I actually am a vegetarian, so I have no idea how these taste, but Micah seems to love them, and Elliot says they are delicious. You could make these as a family dinner sometime, but I like having them around on-hand in my freezer because they are inexpensive, healthy, and I can pop one in the microwave and heat it up as needed in just one minute! We find this recipe quite inexpensive to make, and I think it is simple, too. We always use organic ingredients (meats and all the veggies) and in our area, we have been finding that Trader Joe’s has some of the best prices for organic food, especially the meats. We have also had success with the “house” brand organics at the leading grocery store chains.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 vidalia onion, finely diced
1-2 tsps minced garlic
1 egg
1/3 c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. grated zucchini (can substitute other veggies – I did it once with spinach, and I bet you could use pureed baby food, too, and I’m thinking about trying it with some tomatoes)

Take the ground turkey and place in a mixing bowl. Finely dice about 1/2 a vidalia onion. For the little babies, it is important to really make sure you have a fine dice – you want the onion to sort of disappear into the burger and just slide down their throat. I picked vidalia onions because they have a sweet flavor – they add some spice without being too strong. You could use a regular yellow onion instead, but use cautiously!!

Next, add about 1-2 tsps of minced garlic – Micah definitely likes the flavor, and you can go heavier as your baby develops a taste for spices. I’m lazy and buy my garlic pre-diced, but you could probably just use a garlic press with 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, or hand mince a clove or two. Feel free to add other seasonings to taste – whatever flavors you think will appeal to you and your baby! I have one friend that puts sage, basil and thyme into everything.

The next step is to prepare and shred the zucchini. The easiest way to prepare zucchini is to slice it in half, the long way:

Then, you take a spoon, and scrape out the seeds/pulp in the center. The zucchini will have a half-moon shape (or a c-shape) when you are done scraping. I scrape out the seeds/pulp because the texture is really not pleasant, and it does not add much flavor.

Next, grate the zucchini into the bowl. It may only take 1/2 a zucchini to get about 1/2 cup. You can feel free to add more or less zucchini as you see fit, and you can always substitute different vegetables. I have also made these with spinach instead of the zucchini, but any kind of squash, pumpkin or carrots or even broccoli could work just fine. Feel free to be creative! I am certain you could put pureed baby food in here, too (or instead of the grated vegetables). I like to grate the veggies because Micah really enjoys the textures right now. Adding the veggies is an easy way to sneak in some additional nutrition, especially now that Micah is getting picky about eating vegetables directly.

At this point, I add about 1/3 c bread crumbs and 1 egg. I find that the egg and bread crumbs help bind everything together and give it a good texture, but you can certainly try to leave it all out. I was told that after 8 months, we were allowed to give Micah things that contained egg whites, but we couldn’t give him a straight egg white. I’m not sure why that matters, but pancakes and bread with eggs and burgers with eggs mixed in were all on the “okay” list. If you are nervous about using the whites, you could just put in the yolk. Micah was probably at least 9 months old before we were really giving him protein on a regular basis, but turkey burgers and hamburgers were a great texture for him as we started introducing meats and “table” food instead of baby food.

I put it on one of those burger pans – with the drip pan underneath and the slotted top. You can make the burger any size you feel appropriate. The first time, I divided the mix up into 16 burgers, but this last time, I only made 12. I am thinking that as Micah eats more, next time around, I may only make 8-10. I bake them in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes or so. It is a good idea to flip them as they start to brown on one side. You can usually tell they are ready by splitting one in half to be sure they are cooked all the way through. If you are at all nervous, you can always take a meat thermometer, and poultry is considered “cooked” when it hits around 160-165. The meat will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven, so once it clears 160, it is good to go.

Here is what mine look like after they are cooked:

I then let them cool, then individually wrap and freeze them. You can freeze them on a cookie sheet and put them in a plastic bag once they are frozen – that way they won’t all stick together. I take them out one at a time when I want to give one to Micah, and they heat up in about 1 minute in the microwave. Any longer than that, they get too hot and we have to cool them down before we can feed him, but 1 minute makes them warm all the way through, and not hot.

Lately, Micah has gotten a bit picky, so he doesn’t always like to eat these plain. Tonight, we discovered that a bit of marinara sauce on top makes them even more delicious – as far as Micah is concerned. These turkey burgers have been great for us – we can almost always count on him gobbling them up whenever we serve one, and it comes complete with some built-in veggies. It feels like a very complete meal.

Spinach Patties

Turkey Burgers