Category Archives: Parenting

Baby Bird’s Banana Smash Cake: A Healthier Option for a First Birthday

Posted on October 25, 2012 | 3 comments

The idea of a “smash cake” is getting more and more popular these days. It is generally a small cake given to a one-year-old at his or her party. Babies can dive into it and make a mess, while a larger cake is reserved for the rest of the party. Some parents also find this an opportunity to make baby’s cake more healthy. Since I attempted a tres leches cake for our baby’s first birthday party, I saw exactly how much sugar went into it and wanted to give her something a little healthier and developed this healthy banana smash cake.

banana smash cake: a healthy smash cake recipe for baby's first birthday

This banana smash cake will not be winning any beauty contests. If you would like to find a tutorial on decorating a gorgeous smash cake, try this one. However, I couldn’t find any decent, healthy recipes for cake for a one-year-old that looked like they tasted good. Our baby has had wheat and now whole eggs, so my main concern was reducing the sugar. Since she loves bananas, I decided to make something up, based on my banana bread and a basic banana cake. Feel free to substitute a gluten-free flour mix. You can also try using flax or chia seeds in place of the eggs.

It was also important to me to avoid any artificial dyes or coloring, as well as artificial ingredients in general. A lot of “frosting” is partially hydrogenated shortening plus sugar and food coloring. I tried whipping up a can of coconut milk, which was popular on pinterest, but frankly, it tasted like a can. I decided there was nothing wrong with a little bit of organic cream, especially since whole fat yogurt is one of her staples.




The most challenging part of making a mini cake is simply finding mini pans. Before you go out and buy something, look and see what you might have at home. I had oven safe ramekins that looked about the right size. I also had 4″ tart pans that I thought could make little “layers” for a two layer cake. After filling up the ramekin and pans, I had enough batter to fill up a pan of one dozen mini muffins. I figured Baby would be able to share the healthy treats with her baby friends. And with the mini muffins the three of us were able to sample the cake straight from the oven (it really was best warm).

banana smash cake: a healthy smash cake recipe for baby's first birthday

Baby Bird’s Banana Smash Cake Recipe

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Baby Bird's Banana Smash Cake: A Healthier Option for a First Birthday
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Recipe type: Dessert
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A healthy banana cake, low in sugar and free of artificial ingredients or coloring, ideal for a baby's first birthday.
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cup flour
  • 1½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ cup coconut oil (or butter)
  • ½ cup date sugar or sweetener of your choice
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
  • ⅓ cup kefir, baby yogurt or sour cream
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar or agave (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line bottom of ramekin with a cut out circle of parchment paper. Grease pans (4" ramekin or mini tart pans plus mini muffin pan.)
  2. Sift dry ingredients (the first four ingredients) together.
  3. In a mixer, cream the oil and sugar until fluffy. (Note: coconut oil does not get as fluffy as butter.) Add the egg and vanilla and beat until light. Gently stir in the bananas, alternating with the dry ingredients and the kefir or yogurt.
  4. Pour into the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mini muffins and mini tart pans: 12 minutes. Ramekin: 35-40 minutes.
  5. Let cool completely before frosting.
  6. To make the frosting: Whip cream, vanilla and sugar in a mixer with a wire attachment until stiff peaks form. Let baby taste from the bowl.
  7. Decorate the cake rustic style or smooth out and decorate with piping. Top with a candle and baby's favorite fruit.

 

Variation: One of Baby’s friends turned one this past weekend and her mom made an adorable caterpillar cake for her Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party. The head was the baby’s smash cake and the body was cupcakes for the rest of the party.

Update: Try Baby Bird’s Pumpkin Smash Cake for a gluten-free option!


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Posted in Dessert, Entertaining, Food, Healthy Recipes, Homemade Baby Food, Recipes for the Whole Family

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Baba Ganoush

Posted on October 6, 2012 | 8 comments

Perhaps our baby bird is a rare one, but she absolutely adores eggplant. She gobbles down the soft roasted vegetable faster than I can cut it for her. But she loves it best made into a garlicky baba ganoush.

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I’ve found that the easiest way to prepare eggplant is to stab it once or twice with a fork and stick it whole in a hot oven for an hour. If you don’t puncture the skin, steam within the eggplant may cause it to explode in your oven. (Yes, it can really happen.) Roasting–or grilling–whole, there is no need to cut or salt it to reduce bitterness, or to use oil in order to make the flesh tender.

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The eggplant is done when it gets soft and easily can be mushed in. After cooling, it looks wrinkly and is easy to peel. One more reason why I love this preparation is that it becomes easy to separate the tentacles of flesh from the seed pods with your hands. I personally prefer not to eat the seeds.

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Easy Roast Eggplant Dip: Baba Ganoush Recipe

  • 2 medium to large eggplant
  • 1/4 cup of sesame tahini
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil
  • 2 or more cloves fresh garlic
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • smoked paprika and cumin
  • (optional) 1 T. of toasted sesame seeds
  • (optional) paprika, zatar and/or olive oil for garnishing
  • (optional but delicious) pomegranate seeds for garnishing

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place eggplant in a baking dish. Pierce the skin of each eggplant with a fork or knife. Bake for about 1 hour, until the skin is easily indented and the flesh feels mushy. Allow to cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel and discard the peel, stem and seeds. (Eggplant can then be stored for later use. Try roasting an extra eggplant for baby food or other recipes.) Reserve any liquid with the flesh.

2. Put eggplant flesh and liquid, tahini, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, cumin and sesame seeds in a blender. Note: quantities are all suggestions. Blend until smooth. If the blender struggles, try adding more oil or liquid. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.

3. (Optional) Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika, zatar, fresh pomegranate seeds and/or a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with pita chips, pita wedges or crudites (aka veggies). Also great in pita sandwiches.

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Tips for Feeding Baby:

Our baby has loved this as a puree starting at 9-10 months. Before that I pureed the roast eggplant with other vegetables, starting at 8 months. Small cut bites of soft roasted eggplant make excellent finger foods for baby led weaning. She also likes baba ganoush mixed with rice, either eating it with her hands or practicing her spoon skills.

Our baby has never had any digestive issues from eggplant, but her skin does turn red when she applies baba ganoush topically, perhaps from the eggplant, but definitely from the lemon juice and garlic, too. She loves to rub her food into her face and hair, so I try to keep it out of her eyes.

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Posted in Healthy Recipes, Homemade Baby Food, Recipes for the Whole Family, Recipes from the Garden

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Happy Birthday Baby Bird

Posted on September 17, 2012 | 8 comments

Our little Baby Bird is 1 today. I can’t quite believe it.

Papa Bird brought her in to cuddle this morning and I told her the story of her birth… how she was in mommy’s tummy and wanted to come out and see us, so she kicky-kicked a hole in her bath in my tummy and then came out.

It made me realize that I never got around to writing up her birth story. I thought about it, but I guess having a newborn got in the way. If you are only reading this blog for seasonal recipes, feel free to skip ahead.

Well, there is a little bit of tomato preserving in the story…

One day and one year ago… I was settling into maternity leave. All the babies in my family were late (or induced) so I was getting mentally prepared to bide my time. I had stopped officially working a week before, but was still going in to work meetings. I filled up my social calendar with lunch dates and figured I would rather cancel a lunch date than sit around the house waiting. I went shopping for the first time and bought her a little outfit.

I wasn’t interested in having the doctor induce me early, but once I was full term and everything looked healthy, I was all for natural remedies for inducing labor. Walking, spicy food, eggplant, basil, evening primrose oil… basically everything but castor oil (which I don’t recommend.) I had been drinking Red Raspberry Tea (Iced) for most of the third trimester. I went to regular Acupuncture throughout the pregnancy. He was treating my common pregnancy symptoms and using Chinese “Pretty Baby” points. With my OB’s okay, he had started doing points to help induce labor and sent me home with a stick of moxa. If you are looking for a natural remedy to induce labor, my husband and I are convinced it was moxabustion that did it!

The night before Baby was born, my husband held a lit stick of moxa up to certain points on my lower back, lower stomach and feet. Little baby was a kicker, but right after the moxa, she started kicking like never before. It didn’t feel like anything was wrong, just like she was especially active and happy and excited.

Pregnancy insomnia and I were old friends, so around 3 am on the 17th I went into the nursery to read. I went back to bed at 5 am and before I fell asleep, I felt my water break! I knew that “was it.” Still, I decided to let my husband sleep a little longer and started packing last-minute items for our bags. There was some laundry to put away (the new “coming home” outfit I had bought–that didn’t fit her until she was 4 months old) and several pounds of heirloom tomatoes from the garden to process and freeze. Around 6 am I woke up my husband, and calmly told him not to worry but it was time to go to the hospital. “No rush, but let’s get ready.” I washed my hair (which if you know me is actually an event) and he watered the garden and told our neighbors to look after the chickens. Then I started feeling nauseous and told him to rush.

Around 8 am we checked in to Sharp Mary Birch Hospital. We were so lucky to have a hospital devoted entirely to women and newborns. I was also a Sharp employee at the time and somehow got flagged as a VIP. (We ended up getting a great private recovery room in a quiet corner.) Since the 18th was my father’s birthday, my husband was hoping the labor and delivery would take all night so baby would have his birthday. (I was NOT wishing it would take all night.) I was only half an inch dilated, so they started me on Pitocin. My little sister came by around lunch time to bring my husband food and visit. She ended up staying through the delivery.

Many of my friends have tried for natural child births. My mother delivered all three of us medication free. While I admire that, I was a realist that I don’t have great pain tolerance. I also have known a lot of people who had a lot of expectations in their birth plan, and nearly all were disappointed. I know that many do have completely natural child births, but lately, it seemed that all of my friends who tried for it ended up with C-Sections! So my philosophy was to go with the flow, request the least amount of intervention necessary, and trust in the medical team I selected. I think our birth “wish list” had only 4 items on it… including to have the least amount of interventions and that one of us was always with baby. I was, however, rigid on breastfeeding. I didn’t want any formula or pacifiers introduced and I wanted to be able to breastfeed her right away. The hospital, fortunately, was already on board with that, and did all of that anyway.

In any case, I hadn’t ruled out getting an epidural. After the contractions started getting quite intense, I asked them to check my dilation. I figured that if I was close, like a 7 or 8, I would skip the epidural. Turns out I was only at 3 cm, so I opted for it. Getting the epidural was actually the worst part of the whole experience. It made me feel shaky and throw up. But then I felt relaxed and took a little nap. Thankfully it was not so strong that I was numb, but it lessened the severity of the contractions so that they felt more like the Braxton-Hicks “false” contractions I was used to. I was also able to feel when to push.

Around 6 pm they told me to start pushing. It took about 2 hours. It was definitely work. Good thing I stayed active with exercise during the pregnancy. My husband was great throughout the whole experience but I did snap at him once when I thought he was playing Words with Friends between pushes. Halfway through it the doctor and nurse assigned to me switched, but it really didn’t matter. The new OB was female. She thought it was great that Baby had so much hair and gave her a mohawk as she was crowning.

At 7:56 pm on September 17, 2011 our Baby Bird was born. 18 inches long and 6 pounds 14 onces.

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It hardly seems possible but we love her more and more each day.

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Posted in Family Adventures, Our Family, Parenting, Pregnancy

How To Boil the Perfect Fresh Egg

Posted on August 23, 2012 | 5 comments

On our little backyard homestead, summer brings not only a bounty of vegetables and herbs, but also a plethora of eggs. Chickens respond to the longer days and increased light and are at their peak of production. This is one reason why commercial egg producers will keep lights on the hens, day and night. We live in San Diego and have never felt the need to add artificial light, but if you live more to the north, it might be something to consider for a few hours a day during the winter months.

This year I have been having fun swapping or trading extra eggs with other local urban homesteaders. In exchange for eggs and some dairy products, we have received homemade jams, fresh salad, kombucha, lemons and lemon curd, AVOCADOS (our absolute fav), home-baked bread, homemade granola, fresh bay leaves, chicken broth and more.

But one of my favorite ways to enjoy extra eggs is to hard boil a batch. Hardboiled egg yolk has also been a staple in baby’s diet, especially during months 6-10. Plenty of people use the following technique, but it was my grandmother who showed me how.

Boiling the Perfect Egg

Step 1: If using fresh eggs, wash them.

Step 2: Place the eggs in a medium-sized pot. Try to have enough eggs so that they are somewhat cozy, without too much room, and only in one layer.

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Step 3: Cover the eggs in cold water.

Step 4: Put the pot on high heat and bring to a boil.

Step 5: As soon as the water boils, take it off the heat, cover with a lid and set a timer for 12 minutes.

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Step 6: Have a bowl ready with cold water and ice. As soon as 12 minutes are up, pour out the hot water, rinse once with cold tap water and then transfer to the ice bath. If you leave them in the pot to cool, the water will quickly heat up again from the residual heat in the pot and continue cooking the eggs.

Ways to Enjoy the Eggs:

For baby the yummiest combo is half a hardboiled yolk, mashed avocado and breastmilk. My baby is “so over” purées at 11 months but will make an exception for this silky, creamy concoction. No special equipment needed other than a fork for mashing, making this a great combo to take on the road.

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Hardboiled eggs make a great quick snack. Just like the raw energy bites, I love having instant food on hand. Oftentimes, when I am making baby something with the yolk, I just pop the white of the egg in my mouth. :)

My go-to summer lunch includes a green salad topped with sliced hardboiled eggs, an artisan balsamic vinegar and olive oil and fresh veggies. You can use any dressing you like, but try a really good balsamic and oil. There is something magical about the way the bits of yolk mix with the vinegar. Perhaps it is emulsifying a little in the mouth?

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This salad has spring mix, avocado, hardboiled egg, tomatoes from my garden, snap peas from my mom’s garden, an espresso balsamic, blood orange olive oil and a little truffled goat cheese. The oil and vinegar are from a local shop.

Notes:

Occasionally fresh eggs will be hard to peel. One tip is to reserve the oldest eggs in your fridge for boiling. Papa Bird shares that thin shells can be a symptom of a calcium deficiency in the chickens. A simple remedy is to feed the hens shells that you have rinsed and crushed up. Since he has been doing that our eggs peel easily now.

Egg yolk can be constipating for babies. At one point we had to cut back from eggs daily to every other day.

And finally: Papa Bird’s tip on how to tell if an egg is raw or hardboiled. Try to spin it like a top… if it spins, it’s cooked. If it wobbles and can’t get a decent spin, it is raw.

5 Comments

Posted in Backyard Chickens, Healthy Recipes, Homemade Baby Food, Recipes for the Whole Family, Recipes from the Garden, Step by Step with Pictures

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Red Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea

Posted on August 17, 2012 | 6 comments

With the weather heating up I have been enjoying a drink I first made last summer. Raspberry Leaf Tea (Amazon link) is well known for it’s uses during pregnancy*, especially during the last trimester. Among other things it supposedly tones the uterus, so that when it is time to push, it is strong and fit. I never liked the taste of pregnancy teas, but sometime during the dog days of last summer, I decided to try Raspberry Leaf iced. This time last year I always had a pitcher in the fridge. It is delicious! I sweetened it and it tastes remarkably like Sweet Tea, but without the caffeine.

Red Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea

Baby Bird is 11 months old today (happy month birthday, sweetie!) and I am down to my pre-pregnancy weight, thanks to breastfeeding, our regular diet, the Bar Method and genetics. But I notice that my internal guts are just a little stretched out. I look thin in the morning but eating even a little food makes for a 20-week-looking food baby. Natural, I know, but it made me start wondering if Raspberry Leaf, as a uterine toner, would be helpful postpartum, as well.

The answer? Who knows?! But it tastes delicious on a hot day.

Red Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea Recipe

Step 1: Bring at least 3-4 cups of filtered water to a boil.

Step 2: Place four bags of Raspberry Leaf Tea in a pitcher.

Step 3: Pour boiling water over the bags and a little less than halfway filling the pitcher.

Red Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea

Step 4: Let steep 20-30 minutes.

Step 5: Remove the tea bags and compost them.

Step 6: Add sugar, to taste, or a sweetener of your choice. (If you are looking for alternatives to sugar check out this Article with options for alternative sweeteners.) By mixing in the sugar while the tea is hot, it will dissolve easily. Sometimes I forget to do this before chilling. In that case I use a liquid sweetener, such as agave.

Step 7: Add a lot of ice to the pitcher and some cool water until it is full.

Step 8: Chill longer in the fridge if needed, and enjoy!

Note:

Raspberry Leaf Tea should not be confused with Raspberry Tea, as in tea flavored with the fruit. The latter is usually sweet and doesn’t really have the same health benefits. I usually use the Traditional Medicinals brand.

*Click here for a peer reviewed article on the safety and efficacy of Raspberry Leaf Tea. The study found that RRL can shorten the length of labor without side effects. It also suggests that the tea can be helpful in reducing both pre- and post-term babies and may reduce the need for interventions, including forceps, vacuum and cesarean section.

Updates:

1. I think it has definitely had a beneficial effect. I have lost 2.5″ off of my waist just this summer.

2. We have just added a store of products and supplies that we love. You can purchase Raspberry Leaf Tea on our store page, which will be fulfilled by Amazon, or directly from Amazon, here.



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Posted in Natural Remedies, Pregnancy

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