Exploring Vegetables

We're in a stage right now in which Tye can chew many foods with her 12 teeth (including 4 molars), but some vegetables remain challenging.  For example, raw carrots, which she bites chunks out of and then can't chew the chunks well enough and so they're spit out onto the table; or greens and lettuces, which require a great deal of oral dexterity to manipulate once they're soft and soggy on the tongue.  I don't want to hide these vegetables- say, pureed in other foods- because I want Tye to experience the flavors and textures of the vegetables.  But now I'm constantly searching for ways to prepare vegetables in a size and shape Tye can handle.  


One success we've had is soup, which allows me to cook the vegetables in any size I want.  A few favorites recently include:

• Cauliflower and Stilton Soup:  Though this sounds like a stinky flavor combo, the cauliflower and blue cheese paired beautifully for a buttery, super-rich flavor.  Tye ate several helpings, as did Tyler and I! (Unlike the recipe, I skipped pureeing the soup and left it chunky) 
• Spicy Chard Soup:  I used a scissors to chop the chard in Tye's portion into small enough pieces for her to handle, and she loved the broth (I subbed vegetable broth).  My favorite part of this soup is being able to add toppings-including hard boiled eggs, lemon Greek yogurt, and pita chips- to each diner's desires, making a unique bowl each time.
• Farmshare Soup:  Last summer, the evening before our farm share delivery, I would dice up all the remaining vegetables in our crisper bin, then sautee them and add a box of creamy tomato soup.  Everything is good in this, from greens to sweet corn to root vegetables.  Since tomato soup is Tye's favorite, this always results in a full belly.

Now that warmer weather is arriving, I'm looking to find other recipes for vegetable exploration (even if I'm okay with eating soup year-round, sometimes others prefer a cooler dish).  So far this season, we've been experimenting with:

• Cinnamon-spiced Chard Pancakes: A new family favorite, these are a great last-minute meal and a fun finger food (you can substitute bread crumbs, saltine cracker crumbs, panko, or almond flour for the matzoh meal)
• Vegetable Quiches, like this Broccoli Garlic Quiche, or most often, a combination of recipes since I like to use a variety of vegetables
• Fried Rice: I sautee onion, garlic, and ginger in coconut oil, then add whatever diced vegetables I have; add a couple eggs scrambled separately.  For as many vegetables as you have, add about an even amount of brown rice cooked in broth.  Season with soy sauce.  Last night's veggie fried rice included grated carrots, red cabbage, broccoli, beet greens, green onion, and halved grape tomatoes.  Tye ate everything but the tomatoes, but she even tasted those several times.  

We don't cook a separate meal for Tye, so she has been exposed to a variety of flavors and aromas in our kitchen.  She loves some strange foods- like olives, blue cheese, and seaweed- but considering I was eating all of those during my pregnancy and while nursing, perhaps it's not that strange.  Tye can also handle spicy foods already, even hotter than either her grandmas, which amazes us.  When we're out at a restaurant, Tye's mature palate is helpful because we can feed her from our plates rather than order her a kiddie menu item  (I've yet to find a restaurant where this method doesn't work).  In a family where eating is an important social event, tasting the same foods as us also allows Tye to participate in the meal.    After all, an appreciation for good food doesn't have to wait for a full set of teeth.  

An Easter Swing

An Interview with Tye

Hosted by Granddad

Happy Easter

She even smiles when she's asleep!

Though I think I would be smiling, too, after a three and a half hour long nap...

To Tye, at 17 months

Dear Tye,


Another month has flown by leaving a collection of your first accomplishments in its wake.  Your growing vocabulary has at least doubled in the past month, if not more, as you've learned how to imitate our words at our request- a game you love.  On the list now: hi, bye, mommy, daddy, doggy, kitty, Ziggy, woof, eat, all done, no, potty, pee pee, puppy, GG, PawPaw, Gram (and an a for effort for Granddad), Titi (for Tiana), car, cheese, Quise (for Marquise), Bobby (for Aubrey), toes, eyes, ball, bird, go, baby, bubble, night (as in goodnight), moon, and some consistent approximations including train ("tchu") and bunny ("mummmy").  Perhaps the funniest is your collection of functional tonal patterns: saying nothing other than "oooh" at different pitches, you can communicate to us "Where is it?" "I don't know," and "There it is." Recently, you've been walking around the house or riding in the carrier rehearsing your family's names: "mommy, daddy, doggy, baby," over and over again.   


This month, you taught yourself how to climb up the couch into the dangerously high window sill.  You also learned how to unlock my iPhone (which explains the sudden increase in accidental calls from my phone).  You can point to your eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, teeth, ears, and hair upon our request. You can stack your blocks higher, run faster, and climb the ladder at the playground.  Wow, you've been busy this month.


When you explore the world, you do it bravely, whether it's the slide at the park or the aisles of the grocery store.  However, attention from strangers still sends you running back to cling to my legs in sudden shyness.  Life is a fragile balancing act for you of wanting to explore every object, every detail and stubbornly wanting to do everything yourself without help from an adult- and yet being afraid to be without the comfort zone that adult provides.  I'd say you're doing a perfect job so far.

You are my sunshine, Tye.  I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.  


Love, 
Mama

Why Tye won't be eating non-organic meat anytime soon

Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute reported today that 47% of  supermarket meat from five cities (including Chicago) tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus, and of that 47%, 52% of the strains were resistant to three different antibiotics.  Just think about that- when you go to the grocery store and pick up a package of meat, you have a 50/50 chance that it contains Staph, and a 1 in 4 chance that it contains an antibiotic resistant superbug.  

The researchers noted that these samples of meat were not contaminated due to handling but the meat itself contained the bacteria, and the Staph is resistant because of the antibiotics used in factory farmed feedlots.  According to the CDC,  about 11,000 Americans die every year from S. aureus, more than half of whom contracted the resistant form of S. aureus known as MRSA.  Those at highest risk are young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems.  Guess who fits in that category?  Tye.  

I don't have an issue with Tye eating meat, but I have major issues surrounding exposing her to potentially lethal strains of bacteria.  That medium rare steak?  That chicken that's just barely done and dripping a little pink juice?  A 50/50 chance it contains Staph?  I'm just not willing to take that risk with my child, who is in the at-risk category because of her age.  

Re-read that statistic:  the same bacteria found in half the supermarket meat kills 11,000 people a year.  Is it worth the risk for yourself?  (If you do continue to eat factory farmed meat, please please please, practice safe food preparation to prevent cross-contamination and cook your meat thoroughly!)

We recently joined a farm share for meat, dairy, and eggs.  It's a local farm with organic grass-fed beef, raw dairy, and pastured chickens, eggs, lamb, turkey, and pork with a pickup location in Chicago.  These foods are available at a significantly reduced cost in comparison with similar goods at Whole Foods Market, and we know the exact farm where the meat was raised.  Because the animals are raised in pastures and fed natural diets (no corn for the cows, no soy for the chickens or pork, no same-species meat or mystery feed), the animals are naturally healthy and don't need copious amounts of antibiotics.  They also don't naturally contain dangerous S. aureus bacteria.  I feel comfortable with Tye eating meat from this local farm with healthy animals.  I even make our scrambled eggs a little runny and share with Tye my eggs over easy, with beautiful bright orange runny yolks because I trust they're from healthy hens.

I'm not, and never have been, against consuming animal products when they are raised humanely and truly healthfully.  Unfortunately, that can be really difficult to find in the US (and is why I was vegan for 3 years and am still mostly vegetarian).  Tye won't be vegetarian, but especially with terrifying statistics like these in my back pocket, she likely won't be eating non-organic meat anytime soon.  

Tye eating one of her favorite snacks, roasted seaweed (seriously!)