Green veggies

Kyle did pretty well with his green veggies while we were on puree, but now that he loves his finger food, it seems that he is not as interested. The green beans and peas are just not cutting it anymore, and although he will still eat the Happy Baby Spinach and Mango puree, it's just not the same when he can't feed himself. So I tried zucchini last night for a little variety, and it wasn't a big hit. So, I'm thinking that we are going to have to try sneaking it into his diet. Here's the recipe that I am going to try the following. Of course, I am going to have to tweak it a little bit not to use egg whites, and I have already omitted the nuts from the recipe. It will definitely be easier to do these things once Kyle is past the 1-year mark! On top of that, I want to play around with using some whole wheat flour and applesauce. I'll report back with the final recipe. Zucchini Bread Source: © Cooking Light Magazine

RECIPE INGREDIENTS 3 cups shredded zucchini (about 3 medium) 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 5 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 1/2 cups skim milk 6 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 large eggs (YOLKS?!?!?!?) Cooking spray

RECIPE METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press zucchini on several layers of paper towels. Cover with additional paper towels; set aside.

Combine flour, 1 cup granulated sugar, walnuts, and next 6 ingredients (walnuts through nutmeg) in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl; stir with a whisk. Add zucchini; stir. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Divide batter evenly between 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Serving size: 1 slice (12 slices per loaf)

Recipe reprinted by permission of © Cooking Light Magazine. All rights reserved.

Nutrition Facts

Yield: 24 servings Facts per Serving

Calories:	183	Fat:	6g	Carbohydrates:	30g
Cholesterol:	19mg	Sodium:	64mg	Protein:	4g
Fiber:	1g	% Cal. from Fat:	30%	% Cal. from Carbs:	66%

Time saving tips

These things may seem pretty obvious, but it was a while before I started doing them, and after that, I wondered why I hadn't started earlier!

• Use a Sharpie pen to mark the date that you opened the baby food jar, cereal box, etc. If it is in a container that you don't want permanently marked, have some masking tape handy to write on and apply.

• Prepare a whole week's (or several days) worth of cereal at once. When Kyle is sees food, he is immediately starving and wants it NOW. He doesn't want to stand around waiting for me to measure out cereal into his bowl. So I have six of the Gerber bowls with lids and I prepare 3 or 4 of those at a time and have them ready for his breakfast the next morning. Of course, the next problem is where to find the room to store the filled bowls!

• If you are going for the fresh foods route, rather than jarred, it was much easier for me to make up a huge batch at once and then freeze all of it in an ice cube tray. Each cube was about 1 oz, so I could defrost 3-4 at a time as needed. However, be careful about making up TOO much in advance. Kyle moved on to finger foods pretty quickly, so now I have a freezer full of pureed veggies that I need to throw away or find someone to donate them to! You can also freeze prepared finger foods to save some prep time..

• For those who use formula, I would premeasure the water the night before to save a little time when making up formula for Kyle's morning cereal. Again, he had little patience to stand there watching me trying to get the volume right! Having a formula dispenser ready helped too, although most of the time I tended just to scoop out of the container anyway.