Dessert doesn't have to be cookies or cake. Try something fresh and healthy and enjoy a guilt-free dessert. Baked apples are easy and inexpensive to make. After each bite, Mikey made the sign language sign for "more, more." I was happy to oblige because these were harmless apples with only a tablespoon of honey. Best of all, Mikey and I enjoyed the pleasure of something sweet together. Since I don't feed him processed food loaded with sugar, it really is a special moment and I don't have to sacrifice my principles.
4 Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
1 tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Cut apples into slivers and put in a mixing bowl. Squeeze in the juice from half of a lemon. Pour in honey and almost all the cinnamon, save a little for the top. Mix everything together well. Put the apple mixture into a pie dish. Cut the butter into small cubes and scatter on top. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon over the butter and apples. Cover and put in the oven for 50 minutes or until apples are soft. Serve warm or at room temperature. These are sweet enough alone, but a small bit of warm maple syrup for dipping is good too!
It's hard to get away from packaged food when it comes to snacks. When I am looking in my pantry for a quick snack, dried fruit is an excellent and tasty choice. I have dates, figs, apricots, and raisins on hand all the time. Mikey loves them because they're so sweet. What makes them sweet is the unprocessed natural sugar in them. Sugar from these real foods has a long list of vitamins and minerals that processed white sugar doesn't give us. Of course, it's all still sugar and so dried fruit should be a treat and eaten in small quantities.
Every now and then, I don’t mind giving Mikey a little taste of heaven. Hey, we all like to bite into something sweet! But dessert doesn’t have to be filled with high fructose corn syrup. Instead, make your little one a crunchy pear or apple pie.
Ruth’s recipe on p. 344 is actually for a Crunchy Apple Crisp, but I made it with pears because big juicy ones are dripping off the trees here in
The recipe looks long but it calls for simple ingredients and the preparation goes by quickly. I didn’t regret my efforts. Initially, I was skeptical because I love to make pear pies the traditional way, but I think that I favor this healthier version. The oat crust adds flavor and texture that traditional pies lack.
Here’s my variation of the recipe:
Step #1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the following together in a big bowl:
4 to 5 pears, peeled, cored, and chopped into small pieces
3 tablespoons honey
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon or pumpkin spice
2 tablespoons cubed unsalted butter
Step #2
Pour the pear mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Step #3
In the same bowl that contained the pears, combine these ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour (I use pastry flour because I am making a dessert not bread.)
¼ cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin spice
Don’t dump it on the pears yet!
Step #4
Mix ¼ cup melted butter with 6 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup. (I used granulated sugar this time because I ran out of honey after Step #1.)
Mix into oat mixture and then pour over pears.
Press the oat mixture down into the pears with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Next time I make this delicious pie, I’ll try adding the walnuts that Ruth suggests. I just didn’t have them handy this time around.
I’d even make this for an adult dinner party if I ever have one of those again!
(This is the second dessert recipe that I’ve made from Super Baby Food. Read my post on the first dessert that I tried.)
Liz Lemon? Do you know this girl? She’s the lead in 30 Rock, a sitcom set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live–type show. Comic writer Tina Fey stars as Liz. Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin, is Liz’s boss, and he calls her “Lemon.” I find the name catchy, fun, and endearing, and I adore Liz’s principled and unflappable character. She can maintain her cool in the absurd situations that pop up throughout the screwball plots (she’d be the perfect mom). The show is a must-see, especially for busy moms who deserve a break and a good laugh.
All of this to say, every time I cook with a lemon I think of Liz Lemon. And when I think of Liz Lemon, I smile.
Although, making a special trip to the store to buy a lemon for two tablespoons of juice doesn’t make me smile. Before I tried the ice cube method in the Super Baby Food book, I either found myself wasting lemons or never having enough of them. When a recipe called for two tablespoons of lemon, I never had it. When I had two lemons sitting on my kitchen counter, nothing wanted lemon juice.
Juicing my lemons into an ice cube tray solves both of these problems. I squeeze the juice out of lemons as soon as I bring them home from the store—and they never go bad. What’s more, I have cubes of juice ready and waiting for any recipe.
Before I start juicing, I wash my hands because I always have to fish out seeds. I prefer to use a tool to help me juice, but Mikey is using my yellow juicing tool as a bath toy right now, so that’s out. The lemon cubes can stay in the freezer up to three months. One cube equals about one tablespoon of juice. I can get about two to four cubes per lemon. No more last-minute trips to the store for lemons!
You can read Ruth Yaron’s tips for choosing and freezing lemons on pages 437 to 438.
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San Francisco is full of all sorts of grocery stores. We’ve got everything from Safeway to Whole Foods. My favorite store isn’t even a chain: Rainbow Grocery is a unique co-op with an organic orientation. It’s an especially great place to shop for fruit. I find more local, organic fruit here and the prices are cheaper than Whole Foods. I just got back from Rainbow today and here’s a list of my fruity purchases and how I like to use them:
Bananas—last the entire week; Michael eats at least one a day.
Strawberries—Michael will finish a basket in one sitting; I can’t chop these fast enough.
Corn—side dish for dinner; baby loves to eat corn on the cob!
Eggplant—toss into an adult stir-fry or use in an eggplant Parmesan recipe for baby.
Grapes—snack food or lunch side dish.
Basil—put in a food processor to make homemade pesto in a snap.
Arugula—lunch for baby and me: smoked salmon sandwiches with goat cheese and arugula.
Melons—great cubed snack; cut melon lasts a couple days in the refrigerator.
Watermelons—Messy, messy, but a yummy cubed snack; cut melon lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator; eat in the high chair if possible; I had to mop after this afternoon’s watermelon snack.
Nectarines and peaches—snack or lunch side dish.
Pineapple—snack or lunch side dish.
Blueberries— snack, lunch side dish, or dessert for mommy.
Look for local fruit or at least produce grown in the state in which you live. I try to stick to California fruit—because I figure the kiwis grown in my state are going to taste fresher than those from Chile. Rainbow Grocery identifies the source of its produce with labels and more and more groceries—even Safeway—are adopting this practice. What’s more, buying locally is an easy way to tell what’s in season. If you buy in-season fruit, it will taste so much better. Also in-season fruit is cheaper. These days I’m buying so much fruit that I’ve gotten to know the prices. In general, I never buy anything over $3.60 a pound. mangoes can jump from $1.50 a pound to $6 a pound, and so I always look at the price before I toss the mangoes into the cart.
I don't restrict myself to only California fruit (yet!) because fruit like mangoes are just too good to pass up. Mangoes reduce the risk of cancer more than any other fruit or vegetable.
I buy organic for my baby because he is fresh and new and I don’t want to spoil him with pesticides and hormones. I don’t want his body jeopardized on my watch. My new habit saves me money because I don’t buy anything that I don’t know. If there’s an ingredient that is unrecognizable, I don’t buy it. This simple rule eliminates a lot, you'd be surprised. Even orange juice isn't so easy to buy. I just want to buy orange juice that says, "Ingredients: orange juice." I really should be using a juicer and juicing my loose oranges but I haven't crossed over there yet. I only do it every once in awhile.
Now, my kitchen is stocked with snack food for the week. I give my baby as much fruit as he wants. I don’t consider it dessert like ice cream. I figure, the more fruit he eats, the healthier he’ll be. Forget the goldfish crackers; instead cut up a juicy cantaloupe—loaded with beta-carotene and vitamin C and A—for your love bunny. If it isn’t substantial enough, cube some whole wheat bread to go with it. How easy is that? Forgive me if I’m starting to sound like Rachel Ray.
Rainbow has an amazing assortment of bulk foods. I especially love the bulk fig bars. For one, they are bulk, which means no packaging waste. Two, they are made with healthy ingredients and still taste as good as the Fig Newtons that I grew up eating. Now, I would never buy that kind because . . . well just read the ingredients. And so, sometimes, I cube the bulk fig cookies for Michael and pack a couple for me too.
Important lesson: Spend your money on unpackaged fresh fruit rather than highly processed kid snacks packaged in boxes. No need to waste time making a grocery list: Just go and buy produce that’s locally grown, well-priced, and fresh and tasty looking.
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