vegie lentil casserole

these portions feed you and your baby. blend for younger babies of course. for babies used to finger food this is great as they can pick out the vegie pieces and shovel in a bit of the mushy bits with a spoon. tonight i mixed through some kamut penne as well.

1/2 cup dry green lentils (or any legume of your choice)
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 red capsicum cut into long slices
1/2 eggplant cut into long slices
1/2 carrot thinly sliced
2 tomatoes finely chopped
4 Tsp tomato paste (optional)
handful of fresh parsley finely chopped
2 handfuls of spinach leaves finely chopped
1/2 clove garlic crushed

soak lentils for the day. drain soak water and put in a pot covered generously with fresh water. bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins or until lentils are soft.
while lentils are cooking saute up the onions in a pan/pot with a dash of oil or just some water. once onions are soft add the capsicum and saute for a few minutes. then add eggplant and saute until soft. then add carrots and saute - they will soften more later. then add tomatoes, stir and cover to simmer for a few minutes. stir through tomato paste, spinach, parsley and garlic. remove from heat once spinach is soft. mix with the cooked lentils.
serve as is or blended. makes a great meal with quinoa, pasta or polenta.

purple salad

1 T finely diced tomato
1 T finely shaved cucumber
1 tsp finely chopped red cabbage
1 heaped tsp grated beetroot
2 T cooked green lentils
1 T tahini

steam beetroot after grating for a few minutes to soften it. you could also use a spoonful of a good quality beetroot dip if you wanted to cheat as i sometimes have! stir all ingredients together in a bowl and spoon feed or put in a wrap. blend for younger babies. zac preferred this meal spoon fed and didn't touch the wrap i also offered - weird as it is usually the other way round!

high fat all good mix

1 T avocado
1 T coconut milk
1 T ground pumpkin seeds
1 T macadamia butter
1 T cooked brown rice
1 T cooked lentils
1 T steamed vegie pieces (i used broccoli, sweet potato and peas)
1/2tsp golden kelp
optional: any herbs and spices your baby likes

mix all ingredients together in the bowl or blend for younger babies. Zac devoured this dish tonight along with his finder foods.

raw kale and tahini

1 bunch of kale, chopped as finely as you can (but not blended)
1/8tsp salt (you could choose to blanch the kale so there would be no need for salt but it is such a tiny amount for the huge amount of kale, and this makes about 10 baby servings so each serve has really not that much salt in the end)
3T tahini
juice of 1 lemon

chop up kale and put it in a bowl. sprinkle salt over kale and mix through with hands, squeezing clumps of kale as you go. you are aiming to squeeze the kale until it is dark green and moist. pour in lemon juice and squeeze clumps of kale a bit more to mix through the juice. mix through the tahini - adding more if you want it creamier.
i normally spoon out a bit for zac and do a second round of chopping on this spoonful. it sticks together with the tahini and you can get the kale leaves smaller with a second chop so it is easier for baby to eat. i serve the rest (without a second chop) to myself and my husband, oli, and mix it througb a garden salad for us. or you could divvy up the whole lot for baby by refrigerating or freezing small portions for later.
i use this for zac to be spoonfed, or spread it on a sandwich, or mixed it through some quinoa.

quinoa and (not)meatballs

this was meant to be spaghetti and meatballs but at the last minute i looked in the cupboard and there was no spaghetti! so out came the quinoa instead! the photo i took looks very professional with the white background - however the meal was just plonked on his white high chair tray and the white tray turned out to be quite an effective background for the shot!

you could follow the recipe for lentil balls on the 11/3/11 post and the tomato based pasta sauce recipe on the 5/2/11, however the following recipe i whizzed up a less complicated version.

1/2 C cooked green lentils
1-2 T protein powder (i use sun warrior raw brown rice protein powder) or flour
1/2 tsp golden kelp
1/4 C quinoa (or 25g spaghetti)
1/2 C boiling water
1/2 C tomato paste
1/2 C broccoli, kale and eggplant chopped
1/2 clove garlic
1/4 C water

mix the lentils and golden kelp with enough protein powder or flour to make a dough that will clump together easily into small balls. shape the balls and fry, grill or bake.
place quinoa with 1/2 C boiling water in a pot and cook covered on low heat until water is absorbed (normally takes 10-15mins).
add the remaining ingredients in a separate pot. cover and cook over medium heat for 10 mins (or until vegies are soft but brocolli hasn't lost it's bright green colour).
serve together on the high chair tray. blend quinoa, sauce and lentils (before making them into balls) for younger babies.
make larger proportions of this to share as dinner for the whole family.

a drizzle of tahini over this dish would make it even tastier i think.

chickpeas, quinoa and vegie pilaf

1/2 C cooked chickpeas, mashed with a fork
1/2 C cooked quinoa
3/4 C diced mixed vegies (i used corn, kale, green beans, green capsicum, broccoli)
handful of chopped fresh parsley, coriander, shallots
2 tsp tahini
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

stir all ingredients in a bowl and serve, or blend for younger babies. i make a bigger quantity of this so i can eat some for dinner too and keep some aside as fillings for wraps, pastry parcels, sandwiches, or to make into vegie burger patties (just add some quinoa flour and blended chia seeds with a bit of water)

fresh organic produce

i like to know zac is eating a colourful fresh flavoursome meal. i also want to make sure every mouthful i get into his mouth is full of nutrients rather than him filling up on low nutrient foods. i really believe that not only is fresh organic produce better nutritionally for our children and ourselves but it also makes the dishes taste so much better. i'm sure if you compare a dish made with fresh organic produce as opposed to the produce that you find in supermarkets you would definitely taste a difference. i think it is why a lot of people can't fathom how a vegan or vegetarian diet could be tasty and satisfying, or why a lot of us need to add salt and sugar to foods, because a lot of people are used to bland vegies with the animal products being the flavoursome key ingredient. i aim to make things for him that i would like to eat myself and steer away from foods that i would not eat (like baby rice cereal or jarred baby foods - i just can't see how the nutritional content of those foods would be very high as they were probably picked, cooked and packaged a long time ago and often have to be fortified with nutrients to make them seem worthwhile).
i think having meals that are fresh colourful and flavoursome has a lot to do with zac's willingness to eat the foods i offer him. i also think that it may have something to do with him not having "white" foods offered as his first foods - like rice cereal, yoghurt, white potato mash, white soft bread. he started on banana, green smoothies , avocado, tahini and steamed vegie finger food. of course the other influencing factor would be that i was eating a plant-based diet all through pregnancy and preconception, and now when i am still breastfeeding him. additionally, Zac goes shopping with us to the farmers market and food coop and he picks vegies with me from our garden which is all part of what i think is important for introducing our children to the wonders of fresh organic produce. oh and he loves to spin the lettuce!