A 10oz. bag of frozen veggies is perfect for cooking and puréeing using your favorite method, then freezing.
BATCH PREP METHODS: Part I – Cooking
BATCH PREP METHODS: Part II – Storing
METHOD
Summer nights are just wonderful for grilling. And, what mom doesn’t love enjoying dinner outside with LESS CLEANUP? I do, that’s for sure.
Pizza is one of my favorite foods ever. It just is. It’s wonderful. Well, to be healthier and know our ingredients, I’ve started making the dough, sauce, and preparing the toppings…all for the grill. Another wonderful thing is to pop something you might normally bake and freeze for the little ones onto the grill while you’re enjoying your meal and closing the lid.
INGREDIENTS
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
{I used organic, canned versions of the above, but pureeing and making your own would be great!}
1 TBS ground oregano
1 1/2 tsp dried minced garlic
1 tsp ground paprika
DIRECTIONS
Mix all together.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm water
1 tsp raw honey
1 TBS yeast
2.5-3 cups flour (I use spelt or whole wheat or a mixture of both.)
1 tsp sale
toppings of your choice
shredded cheese of your choice
DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water and stir. Set aside until frothy (7-10 minutes).
Pour yeast mixture into large bowl and add salt and flour (slowly). Mix together. Add more flour if needed to make dough consistency.
Knead 5-10 minutes.
Let rise for thicker dough.
HOW TO COOK IN OVEN
(Adapt for your grilling on pizza stone or directly on grate. Use parchment paper under pizza placed directly on the grill, for easy transfers.)
Grease your pizza pan or stone with extra virgin coconut oil.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place kneaded dough on pan and spread. Add sauce, toppings, and cheese and cook for 25-30 minutes.
Blend olive oil and fresh garlic and spread with brush on the crust.
I’ve made this quite a few times now and still haven’t quite perfected the soaking of the grains for the dough. It turns out quite chewy, but with a great taste. I’m still working on it, so if you have any tips, please share. You can also easily freeze this uncooked dough in freezer bags.
The boys love pizza, much to my delight! It is something that I’m careful to cut into small bites, especially with the chewy dough, and this is not an easy task. The squash turned out well and I just stored it in the refrigerator. This made it easy to cut into bite-size pieces and warm up for a few lunches the rest of the weekend.
Homemade pizza is one of my favorites and personalizing it with your own toppings can give it that perfect taste your wanting. I love the yummy taste from the grill, but the recipe works well on the pizza stone in the oven too. We will continue to enjoy pizza this way through the fall and winter to come.
Use your baby food-making skills to your benefit. Help the bottom-line by paying attention to a few key things and you’ll save even more money than what you’re already saving by not buying, storing, and disposing of all of those jars and packages of food.
No cooking, pureeing, blending, smoothing, freezing, etc. required. Yes, now that’s a recipe for success. You just need a fork and a bowl. What’s this magic concoction, you ask? Well, it’s nothing more than some of nature’s best foods. Bananas and Avocados. I love, love, love them for the ease of portability, mashing, and transportation. Take them with you on-the-go. Pull them out of the fruit bowl and in seconds, you have instant, fresh, real, whole baby food. The best part is these foods are wholesale and grow with your child from baby to toddler and on. If fact, why not enjoy the other half yourself for a healthy snack.
Bananas
Peel a banana. Mash it with a fork to the desired consistency. Feed to baby.
Avocado
Cut around the length of the fruit. Twist the sections apart. Scoop out the insides. Mash it with a fork to the desired consistency. Feed to baby.
Banana-Avocado
Follow simple instructions above and mash together.
Bananas
Peel a banana. Cut lengthwise, then crosswise into desired piece size. Serve to baby or toddler as finger foods.
Avocado
Cut around the length of the fruit. Twist the sections apart. Cut gridlines inside the shell. Scoop out pieces with a spoon to separate from skin. Serve to baby or toddler as finger foods.
Banana-Avocado
Follow simple instructions above and serve together as a combo-snack or meal.
NOTE: Avocado and Banana are great first foods and can be introduced at 6 months.
Oh, so much changes in just one short year. As my boys approached their first birthday, I grew weepy thinking back on all we had experienced with the joy of life during the exciting first year.
Here are notes from our schedule for 10-12 months.
MONTH 10
Cereal was consistent and we were adding more fruits and vegetables throughout the day. While following the 3-5 day wait rule, I added various fruits for breakfast, green veggies for lunch, and orange veggies for dinner. The boys were taking 2 full naps and a third catnap in the late afternoon. I got them up for the day at 7:00am and they had a bottle and ate breakfast. They had another bottle and ate lunch at 11:00. Then, they would have another bottle and eat their afternoon meal at 3:00pm. The last feeding of the day was just a bottle at 7:00pm right before being laid down for bedtime. This 4 hour schedule worked well for a while.
MONTH 11
This month, we were down to just 2 naps around 9:00am and 1:00pm. The eating schedule stayed about the same while adding more and more quantities as well as mixing flavors. Some favorites were mango, blueberries, pears, avocado, banana, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, and carrots.MONTH 12
Our sleeping and eating schedules stayed generally the same with lunch and the afternoon meal each moving about 30 minutes later. We kept increasing food amounts, varieties, textures, and mixtures. At this point, the boys were generally eating about 26-32 oz formula, 6-8 oz fruit, 1/2 cup porridge, and 6-8 oz vegetables every day. This was split up as follows:
RESOURCES
I’ve mentioned these before, but my two favorite resources have been Super Baby Food
Be sure to also see these previous posts.
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 10-12 Months (you are here)
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 7-9 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 4-6 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 0-3 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: Introduction
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
As always, be sure to discuss any feeding options, ideas, struggles, or issues along the way with your pediatrician.
Consistency is key. Decide what you want your daily routine to be and stick with it. Babies, children, and adults enjoy routine and knowing what to expect next. You will, of course, need to change with your children as they grow, but getting this established early is something that you will be thankful for in the future.
Keep taking notes and writing what your baby eats, how much, and how often. It will great in knowing where to go next and noting any allergy triggers or sleep issues. Full tummies like their sleep. My boys also definitely eat better when they are well rested.
NOTE: A month references the time from turning that age until the next older month. So, if your baby was born on January 1st, then those first weeks are considered MONTH 1 until he reaches February 1st. From then until March 2nd is considered MONTH 2. Remember that there are 52 weeks in a year, so it’s not an even 4 weeks per month.
Please share your thoughts and ideas.
Do you ever get home from the farmer’s market or the grocery with all of your fresh produce and wonder where to store each item? I’m constantly questioning if I should store things in my fruit bowl, in my pantry, or in the refrigerator.
RIPEN FRUITS AT HOME
Speed up the ripening by placing fruit in a single layer in a large paper bag with several holes, folding over the top of the bag. Leave the bag on the counter while the fruit ripens in 1-2 days. The refrigerator will continue to keep the ripened fruit fresh for several days.
Please share any thoughts or ideas.
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This was a very fun time. I felt like we really hit a groove and many things with our routine such as sleeping and eating really fell into place and stayed consistent for a while. Both boys also started crawling and pulling up to stand during this period which is so fun.
Here are notes from our schedule for 7-9 months.
MONTH 7
Cereal was consistent and we were adding more fruits and vegetables throughout the day. While following the 3-5 day wait rule, I added various fruits for breakfast, green veggies for lunch, and orange veggies for dinner. The boys were taking 2 full naps and a third catnap in the late afternoon. I got them up for the day at 7:00am and they had a bottle and ate breakfast. They had another bottle and ate lunch at 11:00. Then, they would have another bottle and eat their afternoon meal at 3:00pm. The last feeding of the day was just a bottle at 7:00pm right before being laid down for bedtime. This 4 hour schedule worked well for a while.
MONTH 8
This month, we were down to just 2 naps around 9:00am and 1:00pm. The eating schedule stayed about the same while adding more and more quantities as well as mixing flavors. Some favorites were mango, blueberries, pears, avocado, banana, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, and carrots.MONTH 9
Our sleeping and eating schedules stayed generally the same with lunch and the afternoon meal each moving about 30 minutes later. We kept increasing food amounts, varieties, textures, and mixtures. At this point, the boys were generally eating about 26-32 oz formula, 6-8 oz fruit, 1/2 cup porridge, and 6-8 oz vegetables every day. This was split up as follows:
RESOURCES
I’ve mentioned these before, but my two favorite resources have been Super Baby Food
Be sure to also see these previous posts.
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 10-12 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 7-9 Months (you are here)
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 4-6 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: 0-3 Months
SAMPLE BABY FEEDING SCHEDULES: Introduction
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
As always, be sure to discuss any feeding options, ideas, struggles, or issues along the way with your pediatrician.
Consistency is key. Decide what you want your daily routine to be and stick with it. Babies, children, and adults enjoy routine and knowing what to expect next. You will, of course, need to change with your children as they grow, but getting this established early is something that you will be thankful for in the future.
Keep taking notes and writing what your baby eats, how much, and how often. It will great in knowing where to go next and noting any allergy triggers or sleep issues. Full tummies like their sleep. My boys also definitely eat better when they are well rested.
NOTE: A month references the time from turning that age until the next older month. So, if your baby was born on January 1st, then those first weeks are considered MONTH 1 until he reaches February 1st. From then until March 2nd is considered MONTH 2. Remember that there are 52 weeks in a year, so it’s not an even 4 weeks per month.
Please share your thoughts and ideas.
::
When you’re making food cubes to store in the freezer, save yourself some materials. Freeze them in regular ice cube trays, but put them inside of large freezer bags that you will use for storing in the freezer once you pop them out. This saves the extra piece of foil, cling wrap, or wax paper that you would have used to cover each tray.
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ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT TO VOTE: Invite your friends and family to vote and follow the blog. The more votes, the better the results. Then, stay tuned to see the final results.
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I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or a food expert and you should always consult your pediatrician when choosing food for your baby or toddler.
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