Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bread

Ah....fall. The leaves changing colors, the pumpkins, Halloween decorations around the neighborhood, the 93 degree weather...WAIT - WHAT????

Yes, it was 93 degrees today at my house. In the middle of October. What is happening to fall? It is not OK to have to run my air conditioner this time of the year! I am just not willing to give up my favorite season, so in protest of the weather - here is a recipe for the best pumpkin bread I have ever had. It would go great with a cup of coffee or tea, a crackling fire and curling up with a quilt and a good book.

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1/2 of a 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

sprinkle of nutmeg - about 1/8 tsp.

1/2 cup chopped pecans

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

3/4 tbls. all purpose flour

Whisk eggs and add 1c. sugar and cooled melted butter and whisk until blended. Stir in the pumpkin, water and vanilla.

Add the baking soda and powder, salt and spices to the whole wheat flour in a measuring cup and stir together. Add to the pumpkin mixture and stir until combined. Do not over mix or your bread will be tough.

 

Pour half the batter into a bread pan sprayed with cooking spray (or buttered and floured).

Beat together cream cheese,  1/4 c. sugar, egg and AP flour until combined. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter in the bread pan, spreading with a knife or spatula to cover the all the batter. 

 Then top with the remaining pumpkin batter, sprinkle the pecans over the top evenly and bake at 350 degrees in the center of the oven for 1 hour.

Remove and cool. Then eat a nice, big slice and enjoy some "mommy" time. I gave a slice to my son, he liked it too. I cut the top off his slice and ate it myself...you know, since nuts can be a choking hazard for little ones. Not because I wanted to eat it or anything ;)

The easiest way to make winter squash

Today I finally discovered the best, quickest, easiest way to make winter squash for babies and toddlers. I can't believe I just now realized it. I have been trying so hard to sneak calories into it that I never realized I was doing it the hard way! Now I know...and know you know, too!

My local grocery store had a sale on winter squash last week. I picked up these 3 bad boys for around $1 each and decided to experiment with some new squash types because they were just too pretty not to buy.

Acorn - not new for us, but sweet and yummy
Carnival - tastes a bit like sweet potato or Butternut squash and looks very good in a bowl on your table as fall decoration until you bake it! This one took a little longer to bake
Delicata squash - the long skinny one, really good, smooth and sweet. Also had little sweet potato like flavor. I read this is an "heirloom" variety.

5 easy steps to yummy winter squash:
1. Wash the outside of the squash and cut it in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. 
2. Take a baking pan and add about 1/4" of water to it, then place the cleaned squash flesh side down into the water.
3. Bake on 375 for 45 minutes
4. Remove from oven, turn flesh side up and let cool on a paper towel. At this point, I smeared on a little butter, you could also sprinkle on some cinnamon. Or not - it's up to you!
5. After it cools about 10 minutes, take a spoon and scoop out all the flesh, careful not to get any of the skin. Now all you have to do it smash it up with a fork - it should be very soft already. For a younger baby, you can puree it super duper smooth at this point also.

That's it. I didn't need any extra liquid or anything. So easy. Why did I not do this before?!?!

Caramelized Banana Coconut Quinoa

Wow, the title of this one sounds fancy! It is actually really easy, nutritious and as a bonus makes your house smell just divine! The only difficult part is holding back the urge to take the hot caramelized bananas for yourself and pair them with some vanilla ice cream - and I don't even like bananas :) 

Quinoa is a wheat free grain that is kind of like a small little pearl and has a little "pop" when you bite it. It is almost like couscous, but a little "crunchier". It is a good alternative to oatmeal or rice to fill the whole grain requirement of your little one's diet.

1 cup water

1 13.5 oz can of whole fat coconut milk

1 cup quinoa

3 large bananas - overripe is good

2 tbls. butter, softened

A few dashes of cinnamon

1 tbls. vanilla flavored agave nectar (if you have plain just add in a little vanilla when you mash the bananas)

First, turn on your broiler and let it preheat while you start the quinoa. Add the water and 1 cup of coconut milk to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add in the quinoa, give it a stir and let it come back up to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Now start on your bananas. Peel them and slice them in half lengthwise. Place them into a baking dish (I used a bread pan) and give them a good smear of butter and sprinkle them with a little cinnamon. Lastly, drizzle them with the agave nectar. Now place them under the broiler on an oven rack about 6 inches from the heat.

 

Heat them for about 15 minutes, watching them closely to make sure they don't get to brown. You want them to get a nice caramely brown color. The will start smelling really, really good when they get close to being done. They should look a little something like this...

Really, if you are a banana person, I dare you not to break out the vanilla ice cream right now. Maybe it is not a bad idea to add a 4th banana into the mix so that you can eat one ;)

Let your bananas cool down a bit, by this time your quinoa should be just about done and look like this...

The liquid should be absorbed and there should be a noticeable little white crescent shape on the grains.

Now mash your bananas with a fork and add them into the quinoa and mix them all together. As the mixture starts to cool it will get thicker, so I added the rest of the coconut milk, a little at a time to reach the right consistency. 

Now, if your little one is good with rice and small pasta, you can serve this as is. It has almost a crunchy texture. Since little A has not had it before I went ahead and pureed half of it in the food processor and then mixed it back together with the un-pureed half to ease him into it. If you have a younger baby I would recommend starting out by pureeing the whole thing.

By the way, this freezes just fine - the bananas get a little darker, but taste the same :)

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Cheese

the ingredients

I don't know if it was my mom's idea or my dad's idea, but somehow, growing up Brussels sprouts always had grated cheddar and bacon on top of them at our house. I think that was how they got us to eat them. Now I love them and am using my parents tricks to get little A to love them, too! I have not yet given little A bacon so I left it out of this recipe, if your little one is good with bacon, then go ahead and include a few slices of chopped fried bacon along with the cheese.

1 lb Brussels sprouts

1/2 white onion, slices

1 clove minced garlic

3 tbls. olive oil

1/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Wash the sprouts, cut the bottom and peel off any damage leaves. If your sprouts are large, cut them in half. Heat olive oil in large skillet, add in onion and garlic, saute for a few minutes and add the sprouts and chicken broth. I used some left over broth that I froze from the pureed chicken recipe. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the sprouts are very tender when pricked with a fork, turn off the heat, add the grated cheese and pepper (and bacon it you want to use it). put the lid back on and let it steam for 5-10 minutes.

At this point, you can cut the sprouts into a smaller size and serve it to your older babies or you can puree it for the younger crowd. To puree, pour everything into a food processor, adding extra chicken broth and olive oil to help puree. Puree as smooth as you would like, adding the extra liquid as needed to get a smoother puree.

Serve or spoon into ice cube trays to freeze. Mixes well with sweet potatoes, butternut squash and chicken.

Maple Apple Acorn Squash

the finished product

Fall is my favorite season. Favorite foods. Favorite holidays. And it is just around the corner! The weather is starting to get cooler, so here is my first fall themed recipe. I make this in a sweet version with cinnamon and a savory version that I pair with chicken. Little A loves his squash! This recipe is for a puree, but if your little one is into self finger feeding, just mix the chunks of apples and squash together and serve as a finger food.

1 large acorn squash

2 small apples - whatever is your favorite type

4 tsp. olive oil

2 tsp. maple syrup

1 tbls. butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut acorn squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds - reminds you of pumpkin carving, doesn't it? Place on cookie sheet and brush each half with 2 tsp. olive oil. Peel and core apples and dice them. I left the peels on in this batch because I was feeling lazy...if your baby is older, feel free to leave the peels on, too!

Put 1/2 diced apples in the middle of each squash. Drizzle with maple syrup and dot the top of each squash with 1/2 tbls. butter. 

Bake for 45 - 60 minutes, depending on the size of your squash. You want the squash and apples to be fork tender. Remove from the oven and cool about 15 minutes. If your apples get a little burnt on top, don't worry - or just remove those apples, believe me there will be plenty of apples still!

Empty the apples into a food processor along with the juice. Peel the squash (it should come off easily), cut into chunks and place in the food processor with the apples. At this point, you need to decide if you want this to be a sweet or savory puree. If you want a sweet puree, add in apple juice to almost cover the squash and sprinkle in a little cinnamon. If your after a savory puree, add in a little more olive oil and chicken broth to almost cover the squash. Them puree to your desired consistency and serve or freeze in ice cube trays.

Just a little tip...

I don't know about you, but I am really sick of paying for overpriced organic baby yogurt. Little A eats yogurt daily, and I was paying $3.50 for 4 4 oz. containers of a single flavor - no variety at all and almost $1 per serving. The other day I got smart and found this - a big 32 oz. tub of organic whole milk plain yogurt for $4 - twice the servings so I am paying half of what I was for the little cartons. I can control everything, from the type of fruit to how much sugar is in them - because plain yogurt is a little "sour creamy" tasting, I add a little squirt of agave nectar.

So, I add 3 cubes of fruit puree to 1/2 cup yogurt and mix in a little baby oatmeal cereal to thicken it up a bit for my little one. I tried it, and it was sooooo much better tasting then the cartons!

Purple Applesauce

I bought beets at the farmers market as part of my "try a new veggie every week" plan. The only problem was that I really had no idea what to do with them. I recently read some good stuff about beets, that they are full of antioxidants and have a sweet flavor. No one told me to be really careful when cooking with them if you don't want pink splatter stains everywhere! I paired them with apples to take advantage of the sweetness.

3 beets, bottom and stems cut off 

3 apples - whatever type is your babies favorite, I used Fujis

Fill large saucepan with about 2" of water and bring to a boil. Peel the beets and peel and core the apples and chop into about 1" pieces. Put the chunks into a steamer basket in place in the saucepan. Cover and steam for about 15 minutes. Place soft chunks into a food processor and pour in a little bit of the steaming water (hello, nutrients!) to help puree. Puree to your desired consistency. Cool and serve or spoon into an ice cube tray to freeze individual portions.

Alternately, you can use a Babycook steamer on the vegetable setting or even boil them instead of steaming. Steaming keeps the most nutrients. You can also add a little butter and cinnamon to them. Make sure that your baby is wearing a bib or clothes that you don't care about when eating this, because I am pretty sure it will stain ;)

Ready to freeze