small wonders: feeding our families

Monday, March 03, 2014

feeding our families:: food for baby

I have been thinking a lot about how to feed this wee babe of mine lately. I felt uncertain about how to feed my other babies- opting to forgo the rice cereal, but not totally sure what to replace it with. My first babies ate a variety of fruits and veggies and bits of what we were eating, but I never felt really confident I was on the right path with the best foods to give my wee ones. One of my kiddos loved everything we gave him and my other really would have been happiest on a strict diet of bread and cookies! Later on, we discovered various food sensitivities and issues with food and gut health and I though back a lot to the early foods they had been eating, wondering if a more conscious, nourishing diet might have helped to avoid some of these issues. They hadn't been eating junk certainly, but I just had a feeling that we could have done better during those early months and years of feeding those little bellies.

So during this pregnancy I was just a wee bit preoccupied with thinking about nourishment and food. I didn't read a single book about pregnancy or birth this time around, but I did real lots about food! After our family's journey with the GAPS diet, and the healing we had with it, and with our focus still being on real, local, nourishing foods, I knew that was where we would start with this baby once she started joining us at the table.

But after lots of reading I came to the conclusion that there is no one right way to feed a baby! Babies first food's around the world vary hugely (soups, seaweeds, fruit, fish, eggs, legumes, butter, grain porriges, all kinds of different veggies and meaty bits and bobs!) and reflect local traditions, climates and tastes. All sorts of different foods are good for babies! And yet I also knew from our time on GAPS that having a healthy gut is so integral to good health, and that some foods are especially good at promoting digestive health. Plus, it seems obvious that since these little people are growing so darned fast, they need lots of good nutrients to grow on! So I decided to focus on food that was easily digestible and as nutrient dense as possible.

Thankfully wee Willa is happy to eat it all! Her very first food was homemade chicken broth and she approved! Since then she has tried all sorts of things, but usually broth is a componant- since it is so good for the tummy and such an all-round healthy food. And it is such an easy transition food from breast milk for little taste buds- no new textures to adjust to right away! Now many (but not all) of her meals start with bone broth -which the rest of the family is often eating as well- but with various veggies and/or meats mixed in and mashed up a bit with some healthy fats (coconut oil, butter ghee...) and a little probiotic food like whey from our homemade goat yogurt or some fermented veggies. So far some of her favorites are carrots, squash, leeks rutabagas, onions, meats- including liver (I wish the rest of us could learn to love it like she does!) fish, plain goat yogurt, avocado, banana, fresh carrot-celery juice, cooked apple (and gnawing on a raw one,) banana. She also adores our lacto-fermented pickles of all sorts- which is awesome as they are such a healthy probiotic food- and a great teething toy to boot! Lots of sources suggest egg yolk as a good first food, but they don't agree with Willa's tummy yet so we'll wait and try again later on those.

I am finding now as I am offering her a greater variety of things that usually she can be eating from the foods we are eating and there is getting to be less prep work to feed her. I make a lot of soup for our family, so I can just scoop out some veggies or meat and some broth and then add in other ingredients for the rest of the family. If I am making something just for her I try to make extra and freeze small portions, but already I am needing to do this less and less. She will be eating most of what we are eating fairly soon I think, though we will hold off on any grains for awhile. She seems pretty happy and healthy, so, hopefully we are on the right track.

My favorite resource has been Super Nutrition for Babies which has lots of great information and some excellent recipes- lots of great grain-free ones that our whole family has enjoyed. There is a chapter on baby feeding in the GAPS book which I have kept an eye on too. I also read French Kids Eat Everything when I was pregnanct and really enjoyed it (and it has finally helped me get my big boys to stop snacking insistently and my picky eater to start eating more real food which is something to celebrate!) It isn't specifially about feeding babies, but I was insprired by the variety and approach to feeding little ones that she talked about. Along the same lines is this beautiful website by a french mama- she posts her baby's weekly menu too, which is fun to read and glean ideas from! I also read Real Food for Mother and Baby while I was pregnant and it laid things out in a way that helped me feel calm and sure that feeding and nourishing mamas and little people is totally doable.

I am loving being part of the Feeding our Families discussion with other mama bloggers. Please check out the other posts, and join in on the comments too!

Melanie from Our Ash Grove

http://ourashgrove.blogspot.com

Jules from A Little Crafty Nest

http://alittlecraftynest.typepad.com

Melody from Bespoke

http://www.littlehomeblessings.com

Sarah from Our Island Home

http://sarah-ourislandhome.blogspot.com

Tonya from Joyful Living

http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com

Heather from Shivaya Naturals

http://www.shivayanaturals.com

Renee from Heirloom Seasons

http://heirloomseasons.blogspot.com

Monday, February 03, 2014

feeding our families

I am excited to be joining in with the feeding our families blog series hosted by the wonderful Renee, along with some lovely mama bloggers, all writing once a month for a year about the joys and challenges of keeping our families fed and nourished.

This is a topic close to my heart, as so much of my time and energy is spent in the kitchen, and thinking about meals and nutrition and preserving and preparing food for my family is central to my days. Growing up my family was pretty serious about food- if I had to list of my most vivid childhood memories many of them would center around it- my mom in the steamy kitchen canning vats of cherries and peaches, running through the mazes of raspberry canes at a berry farm, taking part in salmon cleaning work-bees when the salmon run was in, hiding my strange whole food lunches from my classmates at school. There was no processed food in my family's pantry. Words like "cake mix" and "instant"-anything were like swear words in my mother's kitchen.

And though I tried junk food here and there, I never could really enjoy it- not after growing up knowing how real food tasted, and knowing the importance and deep nourishment that being connected to our food can provide. Sure I traded those whole grain sandwiches my mom packed for potato chips now and then, and I certainly did keep the thermos of buckwheat-tofu noodle soup hidden deep in my backpack, but I never really wanted to eat the way my peers were eating. By the time I left home I had a stack of vegetarian cook books to cart along with me, and a few simple wholesome recipes up my sleeve. I met Perry when I was 21 and he was a terrific vegan cook, and we spent many happy hours together cooking and experimenting with cashew cheese and tofu cake and nut loaf and such.

And though the specifics of diet and food choices have morphed and changed in various ways over the years, having children and owning our own rural property has only deepened our connection to our food and where our food comes from. Nourishing my children has become such an important part of my days, and I can guess that when they look back on their own childhoods, food memories will be strong for them too. Cooking, preserving, growing and sourcing our foods are central to our family life. And though there is a lot else that I do as a homeschooling, stay-at-home mama, feeding our family is pretty core to every single day.

These days my thoughts on food center around what is simple to cook and nourishing to my family. I think about how to fit cooking from scratch into my full days. I think about how to get organized enough to make cooking and baking and soaking and sprouting and fermenting and all those other good things, somehow happen seamlessly in between the homeschooling and nursing and general mama duties (so far, I don't. But I keep trying!) I think about how to feed this little baby of mine. I think about how to get my picky child to try more food and how to get both boys to snack less and eat better at meals and how to cut the honey consumption and up the broth consumption. I meal plan (mostly.) I try and figure out recipes my kids will eat for the abundance of cabbage and turnips and rutabagas in our local food box.

And I compile lists of easy meals that can be thrown together with simple ingredients and not too much work. I'm not sure these could even be called recipes, as they are more approximations that I change and adapt depending on mood and timing and ingredients on hand, but I will try and share a few over the series in case they might work for someone elses family too. This one is a favorite egg dish that came to us from Perry's mom (thanks Nana!) and so it is known as Nana's Favorite Quiche in our house, though it isn't really a quiche. It is a fritata. But to my kids, there are quiches with crust (which they don't like,) and quiches without crusts (which they do.) They like this one. We often double it for lunch leftovers.

Nana's Favorite Quiche
5 eggs
1 cup ricotta or mix of feta, yogurt, milk, cheese etc (we never have ricotta so I usually mix yogurt and whatever cheese we have in a measuring cup.)
veggies of choice (mushrooms, tomatoes, greens, peppers- whatever you have and your kids like,)
herbs if you want some

saute veggies (and herbs if using) in cast iron pan until soft. Whisk eggs and cheese together. Pour egg mix into pan. Cook on stove top until starting to set, then finish under broiler. Eat up!