Dragon Fruit

After losing all of our food during a power outage, I had to go shopping to replace everything.

Coincidentally, this power outage required us to live like nomads for a brief (but stressful) period of time this past week and I'm just coming up for air and can finally do some blogging. A big shout out to my dad for taking us in - and letting us take over his house - so we had a place to keep Sheridan's formula ingredients. Also, a REALLY big thank you to our fabulous neighbors, Yolanda and John, who took SIX MONTHS WORTH of Sheridan's frozen food and stored it for us. We didn't lose a singly morsel for Sheridan. We, on the other hand, lost everything. Which brings me back to my story...

As I was walking through the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op an interesting "thing" caught my eye. The sign below it read "Dragon Fruit" and I'd never seen it before in my life. Looks like this...


I'm always thinking about what food to introduce next for Sheridan, and quite honestly, I've gotten a bit lazy lately. He has so much variety in his diet now (each meal typically consists of at least six different food items), that I haven't been really good about consistently introducing new foods every few days. But here was an opportunity!

I asked the produce guy, "What can you tell me about dragon fruit?" He simply offered to cut one up and let me try it. I couldn't pass that up (I try everything I give to Sheridan, and at $10.99 a pound I wasn't that eager to experiment on something called dragon fruit).

And it was good (the texture is like a kiwi, flavor is similar to a kiwi and tart strawberry for lack of a more specific description - I had never tasted anything like it). And it was absolutely gorgeous on the inside. It actually turned heads in the produce section (many people rushed over to get their taste... and quite a few left with a dragon fruit in their bag). Now how many fruits do you know that can turn heads?!

So I bought two and headed home to have Sheridan try it.

I cut it up...

(I told you it was beautiful!)

Scooped out the insides (it really is the exact same texture as kiwi, right down to the black seeds - just bright fuschia/purple!)


And mashed it in a bowl.


I let Gary feed it to him (I'm not stupid). And Sheridan took his first bite.


Then Gary attempted a second bite...


And then Sheridan opened wide for more...


So I decided it's a winner and blended up the remaining dragon fruit to freeze in cubes (I got 24 cubes out of the remaining fruit).


I wish I had left it whole for mashing instead of blending it (I'm borrowing my friend's VitaMix for a test run and I forgot that it pulverizes everything). So, it's a bit soupy and runny, but will mix well with a cube of apples or something a bit more dense.

Add another new food to the list! If only Gary and I ate as healthy as Sheridan...

And here's the list (all items are organic) for anyone who cares:

Fruits

apples
apricots
avocado
bananas
blackberries
blueberries (probably his absolute favorite food)
cantaloupe
cherries
dragon fruit
kiwi
mangoes
nectarines
papaya (he's not a fan, but will eat it mixed with other fruits)
peaches
pears
plums
pumpkin (mix with apples + cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves = yum!)
raspberries
strawberries
tomatoes (I make him homemade marinara and freeze it in cubes)
watermelon
yellow doll watermelon

Veggies/Legumes

beets
black beans
broccoli
butternut squash (he loves this with marinara)
carrots
cauliflower
corn (one of his fave veggies)
lentils
parsnips
spinach
sweet peas (other fave)
sweet potato (other fave)
zucchini

Grains

Brown rice
Oats
Quinoa
Kamut
Barbara's Breakfast Os (gluten-free, organic version of cheerios that uses ingredients already on this list - these are great for working on the pincer grasp and learning self-feeding!)

I make a homemade porridge (hot cereal) with brown rice, oats, or quinoa (or any combination of them together) that Sheridan loves. And the best gluten-free pastas I've found are made with brown rice, quinoa, or corn + quinoa.

Fish

Dover sole (he's only had it twice)

Fats

avocado
butter (used very sparingly)
coconut oil
flaxseed oil
olive oil
sunflower oil

Spices/Herbs

basil
cinnamon
cloves
cumin
garlic
nutmeg
onions
oregano
parsley

YOUR TURN: What does your little one like that's not on this list? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Feeding Baby

Yesterday, Jennifer and I decided to get together to make food for our boys. Ever since Sheridan was born, I have made everything he eats "from scratch." Yes, including his formula. Once he started eating solids I continued that tradition. Everything he eats is organic and made from scratch in our very own kitchen. So, his apples? Nothin' but apples. Peas? Just peas - and a bit of olive oil added for some healthy fats. You get the picture...

So, Jen and I decided to get together and make big batches of a bunch of stuff - much more fun to do it together and we could tackle a lot in a small amount of time.

ON THE MENU:

Sweet Potatoes
Mangoes
Butternut Squash
Peas
Broccoli
Apples
Cauliflower (both white and orange!)
Black Beans
Strawberries
Sauteed onions and garlic (for the beans and broccoli)
Carrots and Parsnips
Peaches
Papaya

Pretty ambitious for 3 1/2 hours, huh? You betcha! And, alas, we didn't get through everything... we still had to do the peas, broccoli, and carrots/parsnips on our own. But it's pretty amazing that we did get everything else done. Now if I could just buy more freezing trays so I can actually freeze everything we made! :)

I don't have any pictures of us actually making the food - we (and Jen's kitchen!) were a mess, so probably better not to see the "action" shots. But we had a lot of fun, and our little taste tester, Joaquin, loved the couple of items he tried for lunch!

Here's a few of the things we made...

I put everything in ziploc bags until I could get home and start freezing it.
Here's some papaya (on the left) and roasted butternut squash - Sheridan LOVED the butternut squash roasted!

Here's just a few trays: peaches, mango, strawberries, apples

Although I think we might have worn out Jen's VitaMix (I hope it's working again today!), I truly believe this is the best way to feed our babies (and ourselves, but Sheridan definitely eats better than me and Gary - something we need to fix!). And babies love it! Here's a few of Sheridan's favorites:

Top Row, from Left: Peas, Pumpkin, Strawberries, Mango
Bottom Row, from Left: Sweet Potato, Banana, Apples, Broccoli, Peaches

Blackberries (L) and Blueberries

Who wouldn't LOVE to eat this way?!