Afternoon in the Kitchen

Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day rattling around the kitchen, which is a rare occurrence. While I love the results that home cooking and baking produce, the thought of the clean up and step by step instructions usually stop me in my tracks (apart from the necessary daily meal making). Daryll is a more enthusiastic baker and can usually have something whipped up in no time. I had to make baby food, so I figured if I was making a mess, might as well go whole hog.

We recently returned from Vacation in Massachusetts earlier this month, where we spent days eating yummy summer vacation junk food and deviating from our mostly clean eating diet (more on that another time). Last week we were still on the sugar buzz and bought a few packs of biscuits (cookies) to have when guests come over, and mowed through them ourselves :) So this week we refused to buy any more, as they would just get eaten! Out of sight, out of mind right? Wrong! I've been craving cookies all week in a big way! I finally caved as I really wanted a biscuit to go with my afternoon coffee and started googling "vegan cookies coconut oil."

 I came across this site The Minimalist Baker and their recipe for Vegan Gluten Free Banana Pecan Shortbread (Butter-Free). I just happened to have everything on hand so decided to give it a whirl. (FYI there are tons and tons of healthy cookie, treat, ice cream etc. options online and on Pinterest these days which is making healthy eating so much easier!) Check out their link to get the full instructions. Their whole M.O. is to use 10 ingredients or less I think, and one bowl, which suits me perfectly. I actually made them while talking to my mom, and they turned out sooooo good! They are by no means a healthy cookie - see copious amounts of coconut oil. But they are definitely a clean and healthier option to the store bought variety loaded with preservatives and nasties. No production pictures but here is one of the final result.

Yum! (I did sub the flour mix for rice and spelt which is what I happened to have, and used walnuts instead of pecans and they turned out great. You can really get creative.)

Milo's baby food was a big hit as well. I just steamed 4 carrots, 3 parsnips and one apple until soft and then pureed it together with some of the steaming water and a little garlic powder (He loves garlic and cinnamon). I used the remainder of the water to cook up a little baby pasta and just packed it all in the baby food containers for quick and easy lunches. He devoured a portion for dinner! Happy baby. Here is the after shot of lunch today!

I'm starting to get him used to feeding himself. We've started with those little rice puff thingys/rings that he can hold real well and work on his pincer grasp and he also likes to feed himself bananas so we started working on spoon skills. He fed mama with the spoon (only make believe) and he fed himself (again no food, just practicing getting it into his mouth. He's getting there! It's amazing how much they learn and grow every day.

That's all from the kitchen for now! Ta ta!