Posts Tagged ‘baby food making’

A great early finger food

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

At our Baby Food Making Workshop last week at Whole Foods in Cranston we all sampled Apple Chicken Balls.  What a big hit! Here is the recipe, as promised:

Makes 20 balls

Suitable for freezing

You will need

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks

Half tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme or sage, chopped or a pinch mixed herbs

1 chicken stock cube, crumbled (from one year)

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Salt and freshly ground pepper (from one year)

Plain flour for coating

Vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1 Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté half the onion for about 5 minutes.

2 Using your hands, squeeze out a little excess liquid from the grated apple.

3 Mix the apple with the chicken, cooked and remaining raw onion, herbs, stock cube (from one year) and breadcrumbs, and roughly chop in a food processor for a few seconds.

4 Season with a little salt and pepper (from one year).

5 With your hands, form into about 20 little balls, roll in flour and fry in shallow oil for about 5 minutes until lightly golden and cooked through.

Recipe is from New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel published by Ebury Press

Enjoy! -Kelly

Bellani Maternity and Whole Foods Cranston team up!

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Are you interested in learning how to make your own baby food? Do you
already make your own baby food, but would like to learn new
techniques and ways to incorporate multiple flavors and textures? If
so, Join Kelly LaChance Guertin and Shannon Giorgio from Bellani
Maternity on October 29th to learn more from this exciting workshop.
Topics covered will include: which foods to always buy organic, ways
to add consistency as a child gets older, keeping food fun and
nutritionally beneficial to your child. Bring questions, and get ready
to roll up your sleeves, we will be making baby food on site! You will
leave with recipes, coupons and more. Be prepared to take baby food to
new heights!  Class is at 6 pm, please call Bellani to register, 401-234-1279.

Make 2009 a year of healthy choices for your baby

Friday, December 26th, 2008

100 million of us Americans will make new years resolutions this year (that’s 1/3 of us!) A majority of those resolutions will be to lose weight or eat healthier. Have we thought about healthier eating for our children? Look back at 2008, did you introduce solid foods? Do you feel you have you been making the best choices for them when it comes to what is going into their mouths? We all know it’s hard to find the time to prepare healthy, nutritious meals but think of it this way…in the half hour (ok…maybe an hour at first) that it takes to watch your favorite television show you can prepare your baby healthy foods for the whole week. If making your own baby food has been something you have been thinking about, you’re in the right place. Kelly has been making baby food since Emilia started solids, and after feeding her many of her meals I have to tell you it smells better, tastes better (I had to try the sweet potatoes) and is nutritionally better for her. While we were at the ABC Show in Vegas, we got to demo the Beaba cook. It was only available at Williams Sonoma at the time and as soon as we could get it delivered to us we did.

At Bellani we took out the guesswork to help you get started. One of the greatest inventions in the history of baby-food making would have to be the Beaba 4-in-1 steam cooker-blender. beabaThe Beaba functions in 4 ways: It steams, blends, reheats, and even defrosts. Can you imagine only having to clean 1 container? We think it’s amazing. Aside from consolidating all of the steps for baby food making, you can be assured that by preparing the food via this method you are preserving as many vitamins and minerals as possible as opposed to microwaving or other preparatory methods.

If an all-in-one appliance sounds a little too intimidating, there is also the KidCo Food Mill available in electric as well as manual. food_mill food_mill_electic
KidCo also has a great selection of other baby food preparing gadgets like the Healthy Snack multi-slicer that will stand to be useful even after your “baby” is a baby (I use my multi-slicer at home to make baked sweet potatoes fries…so delicious!)

Eating healthy isn’t always easy. But now there are tools to make it easier, faster and less expensive (I still can’t believe how much those little jars cost, not to mention the frozen ones at Whole Foods). The decision to make your own baby food is a personal choice and you might find that not only is your baby is eating healthier, but you are too! What a great resolution.