Wholesome Baby Food Recipes Blog – A Homemade Baby Food News Blog

Last year we wrote a post about stringy winter squash and pumpkin purees. This year, I am copying the post below and I am adding some images as well.

I took the pictures last night after baking 4 butternut squashes, squashs, squash-es   and 7 sweet potatoes. The squash may look funny to you – I add cinnamon and allspice to the water before I bake the squash. It makes a mess of the pan but the whole house smells yummy and the squash taste fabulous too! So here are the pictures of the strings in squash.  I slipped a paper towel under a few so you might see the fibers better:

We wrote “When scooping out the “meat” of many winter squash types, you may encounter some very hard “strings”. These strings are actually the veins of the shell. Look at the acorn squash or sugar pumpkin and notice it’s ridges. Between these ridges are the “veins” or strings that you may find once you have cut and then baked the squash or pumpkin.

To avoid getting these hard little strings in your puree, scoop the insides out gently and not too closely to the shell. If you have baked your squash or pumpkin enough, these strings or veins will easily fall away from the shell as the meat is separated from it.”

One of the joys of the Fall and Thanksgiving season is the abundance of our favorite veggies like pumpkin, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. This season may also be the season of the orange baby!

Your family may be eating a larger amount of orange winter squashes such as acorn and butternut at this time of the year. Sweet potatoes may be served in abundance during this time of the year as well. These veggies are rich in Carotene; carotene is the precursor to Vitamin A.

One small downside to the fabulous amounts of carotene is that your skin can turn orange! Eating a large amount of carotenoid rich veggies will cause the skin to take on an orange hue. Orange skin is a symptom of a condition known as carotenemia. Rest assured, carotenemia is harmless even though it may look unpleasant.

Infants and small children are affected with carotenemia more often than adults are. Your little one’s nose may turn orange as may the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

Carrots, pumpkin, squash, spinach and sweet potato are the main veggies that can give baby an orange glow. These foods are not only holiday favorites, they are also favorites of most babies everywhere.

This holiday season, don’t panic if suddenly you realize that your baby has an orange nose. The odds are she may have simply eaten too many carotene rich veggies. Please do keep in mind that this same type of hue may be associated with jaundice. Babies who are sickly should be checked out by a physician to ensure that jaundice is not the cause of the change in skin color.

Read our My Baby is Orange! page to learn more and see some comments from visitors about their “orange babies”.

Every now and then we have a parent write in that their little one has experienced a reaction to a certain food that we have not listed as being an allergy issue. On our Allergy information page, we list those foods that are common and high allergens. We note this allergy risk information on the food specific page as well (i.e. on our Egg page).

It is very important to keep in mind that ANY food has the possibility of being an allergen.

We have updated our Allergy page as well as the food specific pages with information about Oral Allergy Syndrome. A visitor wrote to tell us her 6 month old baby had a plum allergy and wondered why we did not list plums as being a high allergen. Plums are not considered a high allergen and are not in the group of most common or highly allergenic foods. Plums may give someone with pollen sensitivity OAS. I hope to hear back from this Mom about the exact type of allergy her little one was diagnosed with. Due to this email, we set about adding OAS information to all those food specific pages where OAS is possible. We’re posting the information below as a quick read.

What is Oral Allergy Syndrome:

OAS occurs when a person sensitive/allergic to pollen develops a reaction to fruits/veggies that have a similar type of pollen or protein.

Symptoms of Oral Allergy Syndrome:

Itching & swelling of the lips, the mouth and/or throat are typical symptoms. These symptoms normally appear within minutes of eating the offending food and may be worse during the spring and fall pollen seasons. Rarely is an OAS life threatening.

Here are the common OAS culprits:

Birch Pollen Allergies

Birch pollen allergies are associated with apple, carrot, cherry, pear, peach, plum, fennel, walnut, potato, spinach, buckwheat, peanut, honey, celery, and kiwifruit.

Cedar Allergies

Japanese cedar allergies are associated with melon, apple, peach, and kiwifruit.

Mugwort Allergies

Mugwort allergies are associated with celery, carrot, spices, melon, watermelon, apple, hazelnut, and chestnut.

Grass Pollen

Grass pollen allergies are associated with melon, tomato, watermelon, orange, rice and cherry.

Ragweed Pollen

Ragweed allergies are associated with melon, chamomile, honey, banana, and sunflower seeds.

Latex (a natural rubber)

Those with Latex allergies may be cross-reactive to banana, avocado, kiwi and papaya.

One Pot Thanksgiving Dinner - A simple and quick recipe making use of the Thanksgiving foods.

Leave out Meat for babies 6-8 months, unless your pediatrician has given the go-ahead for meats.

On Thanksgiving Day, you may also take a piece of cooked turkey and combine it with the veggies being served to create Baby’s Thanksgiving Dinner.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Turkey – uncooked ( some breast or leg meat )
1/2 cup peeled and cubed winter squash
1/2 cup peeled and cubed white potato
1/2 cup peeled and cubed sweet potato
1 small handful of fresh or frozen cranberries**

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized sauce pan
Add 2 cups of water and bring to a gentle boil.  Turn heat to low; simmer on low for 20 minutes or until turkey is no longer pink and veggies may be easily pierced with a fork.

Transfer cooked One Pot Thanksgiving Dinner to a large mixing bowl and mash or chop as needed.   Process in a blender or food processor if needed for babies who do not like lumps and textures. This will freeze nicely if pureed.

** Cranberries may be a bit acidic and could give a baby a rash.  We would recommend leaving out the cranberries if your little one is sensitive to foods and/or is under 8 months of age! **

One of the easiest things to make in a crock pot is applesauce.

Simply peel, core and chunk 4 pounds of apples (about 16 medium-large apples) and toss them in the crockpot.  Add about 2 cups of water and turn the crockpot on low.  Cook for 4-6 hours or until the apples are soft and mushy.

Add nutmeg, cinnamon or allspice to the pot if desired.  I usually add 1 tsp. allspice and a shake of vanilla.  When the apples have cooked down, you can pass them through a strainer and mash or puree them in desired.   This should make a lot of applesauce so be prepared to freeze some or give it away!

This basic “recipe” will also work for pears!

If you’re feeling adventurous, trythis simple, no nonsense recipe for apples & lentils in the crockpot!  This is a great mix for babies 8 months+ and a great way to get your older kiddos to eat some proteins!

2 cups of lentils (use the red ones!) – washed
8 cups of water
3 large apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1 small onion – peeled & diced
pinch of garlic
pinch of cinnamon

Add the lentils to the crockpot and then the water.  Toss in the apples and onions.  Sprinkle the spices.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.   Check the liquid level but try not to peek too often!  You should be able to use a potato masher to get this mushy enough for baby.  Serve with chicken or pork ; better yet, shred up some cooked chicken or pork and add to the lentil mix and serve to baby.

Enjoy