Finger painting fun & cookies for a friend!

This morning there was a scheduled power outage at the gym.  Booo!  That means mommy can't get her much needed workout in, and Zach can't play with all the toys & friends at the co-op!  Instead, we decided to spend the day crossing a few things off of our summer to do list.  

First up- finger painting!  Who doesn't love finger painting?  I know I love getting my hands all dirty in the name of art!  A toddler and finger paint is just a fun disaster waiting to happen, so we grabbed our paper and paint, and headed out to the back to have fun.  As a person who's spent a lot of time with toddlers and finger paint, I stripped Z of his clothes except his diaper, threw an apron on him, and grabbed baby wipes before heading outside.  

You know your kid is talented when he can paint two masterpieces at once!

Adding my finishing touches mom!

Mom!  I'm dirty!

trying to grab the camera

Gotta give myself a kiss because I'm so good looking!

OK- done.  Now hose me down!

After our finger painting fun, we hosed the dirty boy off, got his clothes back on, and proceeded to bake some cookies for friends.  I couldn't bear the thought of a cookie loaded with sugar for a 17 month old, so we found a yummy healthy, raw, sugar free, and even vegan recipe for a coconut lemon cookie.  I love both lemons and coconut in the summer and a healthy cookie recipe was just what I was looking for!  Unfortunately, this did not make as many cookies as we'd have liked.  We had to have some for ourselves of course, but there was not enough to share after that for everyone.  Instead, we chose to share them with our very fit and healthy neighbor, Alicia.  She just loves unique recipes like this one!  Here is the recipe for those who would like to try these cookies!  

Lemon Coconut Meltaways (adapted from ADDICTED to VEGGIES)

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup coconut flour

2 large pinches of salt

6 tablespoons agave

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

1.  Mix dry ingredients in your mixer.  

2.  Mix wet ingredients.  Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients with motor running.  

3.  Bake in oven at the lowest temperature for about 45-60 minutes with the door cracked open.  Put the cookies in the fridge when they are done to cool before eating!  

4. Consume, if you haven't already eaten all the dough (this dough is actually edible considering it's raw!)

Even though we couldn't share this recipe with everyone, we did enjoy making them.  There will be more cookies to come to the rest of our friends in Okinawa!

Stepanoff Summer Sixty Checkoff:

Finger Paint

Bake cookies for friends

baby friendly banana bread muffins

This week, out of nowhere, I have adopted a new son.  My sweet, bald, little boy has been replaced by a stubborn, but still bald, mischievous little man. No longer will my boy allow Mama or Dada to spoon feed him.  Oh no, he will try to grab that spoon from our hands and get food all over the place.  He will fuss and turn his head every time that spoon of whatever yumminess comes toward that little mouth.  What a little booger I now have.  I believe I will be inventing the term "stubborn 1's" for the next year of his life.
He will eat finger food (and of course throw some on the floor for the dog to eat) every morning and evening.  But heaven forbid a spoon comes out.  So lately, I have been trying to give him any kind of finger food so he will at least eat something!  I have been giving him pieces of tofu coated with infant cereal, and have been racking my brain for other alternatives to cheerios at breakfast.
Zach loves bananas, so I thought banana bread would be a great breakfast food for this picky little man.  Unfortunately, I racked the internet for days searching for a wheat free egg free recipe, but found very little.  I figured this was ok, as wheat is fine in moderation for little ones.  I started searching for vegan recipes, since they didn't contain any eggs.  After some searching, I found the perfect recipe for moist, banana bread muffins, perfect for a certain stubborn bald boy over at The Clean Eating Mama.  I found the recipe to be exactly what I was looking for, and went to baking.  They came out perfect, the only issue I had, was they came out a bit sweeter then I was comfortable with feeding an infant.  Next time I will decrease the sugar a bit, but not too much.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup olive oil oil OR 1/4 vegan butter like Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup organic raw sugar 
• 1/2 cup organic brown sugar
• 1 cup unbleached organic white flour and 1 cup organic whole wheat    flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 360 degrees 
Cream oil with sugars. In a separate bowl mash bananas with a fork. Add bananas to oil and sugar and mix well. 
Now add the dry ingredients to the wet, making sure to scrape the sides and mix well. 
Spray cooking spray in a muffin tin and add dollops of batter into each slot – 3/4 of the way full. 
Bake for 25 minutes. 
Makes 12 muffins. 

This recipe was perfect for both babies and adults alike!  

paleo baby friendly "cornbread" muffins

As many of you know, I seriously watch my wheat intake.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that I'm Paleo, but I do eat similar to our primal ancestors.  Many of my recipes come from Paleo friendly websites.  When I was in the States, I stocked up on coconut flour, since they didn't sell it here.  When I returned... they started carrying it here! 

When Zach started eating solid foods, I told myself that I would limit his wheat intake too.  I've read too many articles about wheat being associated with a number of different childhood disorders.  I won't pinpoint wheat here, as I do eat it on occasion, and see no harm in doing so.  I just think that the amount of wheat type products Americans consume today is far more then our bodies need.  I simply limit both Zach and my intake of wheat.

When I stumbled upon a Paleo recipe for "cornbread" muffins, I knew I had to try them.  I of course had to alter the recipe a bit.  It originally called for 8 eggs, but since babies can't have egg whites, I substituted with flaxseed.  

Here's my Baby friendly recipe:

"Cornbread" muffins

8 Tablespoons flax seed

1 1/2 cup water

2/3 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup butter (or mix coconut butter and EVOO) (Next time, I will try this with Coconut oil)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix flax seed and water and allow to sit for 2 minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk together coconut flour, salt, and baking powder.  Whisk flax/water mixture with butter.  Add coconut flour mixture to the mixture and stir to combine.  I used a kitchen Aid to blend quickly until it formed a dough mixture.  Divide the batter among greased muffin tins.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden browned.  Take out of the oven and let cool.  

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Banana oatmeal

We like food in this house.  Dima can eat 5 1/2 hot dogs in one sitting before going out to dinner (as I once learned at ikea in Virginia).  I love to cook.  I am constantly scouring the internet for interesting and different HEALTHY recipes for us to eat. Health is one thing that I will be insisting be a part of my child's life.  So I am constantly coming up with something new to cook for my little man.  This morning I decided to do some experimenting with some of the foods i already know Zach likes.  My boy is a big fan of pumpkin (good thing, because I've purchased about 10 cans, as the commissary tends to run low this time of year) and enjoys sharing a banana with mommy in the mornings.  I was not at all surprised at his liking this oatmeal this morning. I told myself I'd start writing down these recipes so I will not lose them.  So here it is.  Like I said, I did this on a whim and didn't measure anything.  I just created the cereal/oatmeal to the consistency Zach likes then added in some banana and pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Banana Oatmeal

Baby rice cereal/oatmeal (whatever your little one prefers or you have on hand)
Breastmilk/formula
1 Tablespoon pumpkin
1/2 banana, (pureed or in small chunks, depending on baby's age)
dash of cinnamon

Zach loved this.  I think breakfast is his favorite meal of the day.  He rarely makes a face at me while eating!