Avocado!

The vegetarian baby has embarked on this next stage in her life! She had avocado on her 6-month birthday -- you can see the results. She seemed to like it pretty well, but then developed a cold that kept her from enjoying much of anything for about a week. Since the cold ended, though, she's been eating up her twice-daily meals.

Her absolute, hands-down favorite food so far is oatmeal. Because I was concerned about iron, I opted to use a fortified commercial brand instead of making my own. We feed her Earth's Best organic whole-grain oatmeal, and it's a hit!

To date, her foods and opinions on them include (in order of introduction):

-- avocado (liked, then didn't like, now likes)
-- sweet potato (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- [rice cereal] (she has just had some tastes of this at our "baby pre-school" class, she likes it fine)
-- oatmeal (her favorite)
-- unweetened applesauce (also introduced at baby pre-school and I decided to go ahead and let her eat a little every few days -- she loves it)
-- banana (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- peaches (just a taste, at pre-school, she liked them)

And next on the lineup, later today, is butternut squash. So there's some variation from my original plan, but on the whole I'm happy with the schedule so far.

I've been asked why I was skipping rice cereal. In my opinion, there's not much point to it. Rice cereal is usually given as a first food because it has a very low allergy risk. However, it doesn't have much to offer - nutritionally - other than calories and fortified iron. I decided that I wanted to maximize nutrition, and oatmeal offers more vitamins and fiber, as well as the iron, with a similarly low allergy risk.

With the exception of the oatmeal and applesauce, I am making all her food myself. I use the "food-cube" method. I buy the produce -- all organic -- then cook and/or puree it at home. She'll eat a bit fresh that day, and the rest gets frozen in an ice cube tray overnight. Then I pop the cubes out and store them in freezer bags. So far I've made two avocados, three sweet potatoes, and 2 bananas . . . and I have enough of all these foods to last another 10-15 days. It's much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than buying all those little jars! Plus it's very satisfying.

Garbanzo Beans with Spinach and Spices

One of my favorite quick-and-easy recipes -- very low-fat and nutritious!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 T canola oil
2 T ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you don't like it spicy)
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 10-oz package frozen spinach
2 tsp garam masala (Indian spice blend)
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the canola oil over medium heat until translucent.
2. Stir in the cumin, coriander, tumeric, and cayenne and heat for one minute.
3. Add the tomatoes and simmer five minutes.
4. Add the garbanzo beans and simmer five minutes.
5. Add the spinach and simmer until fully thawed. Stir it in.
6. Add the garam masala and salt to taste. Simmer a few more minutes and taste to adjust seasonings.

Serve over brown rice cooked with a little tumeric in the water for yellow coloring.
Optional: If you make it spicy, serve with plain nonfat yogurt on the side.

Sitting Up!

My baby girl can sit up by herself . . . she's growing up so fast! We're just a week and a half shy of her 6-month birthday, when she'll start solid foods. We'll start with vegetables and then fruits, in lieu of the traditional rice cereal which I'm hoping to skip altogether. I think early cereals will include oatmeal and quinoa, pending a little more research.

My current plan, assuming our pediatrician approves it, is to start with avocado, then sweet potatoes, carrots, green peas, bananas, pumpkin, and squash (heavy on the autumn harvest). I'm pretty excited and think it will be lots of fun for both of us!

Fat-Free Stir-Fry

Finally having recovered from my delivery & postpartum complications, I decided it was time to work on losing the pregnancy weight. I gained a rather astonishing 45 lbs... of which the baby was less than seven. Three months of breastfeeding and limited exercise enabled me to drop 25lbs, and finally at the beginning of July I felt ready to start focusing on diet.

I lost 30 lbs on Weight Watchers in 2004 and I am a big fan of the program. I find it works very well with being vegetarian. Since starting to count points and increase my exercise in the middle of July, I have dropped another five pounds. This recipe for fat-free stir-fry has become one of my lunchtime favorites over the past couple of weeks.

Points Value: 6 (without egg) or 8 (with egg)
All ingredients are Core

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked brown rice or whole wheat pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables
1/5 block of firm or extra firm tofu, diced
vegetable broth
soy sauce

Optional: chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped hard-boiled egg, cayenne pepper, whatever else you want to throw in

1. Heat a frying pan and spray it with cooking spray. Saute the onion and garlic, if using, until the onion is starting to soften.
2. Saute the tofu until the sides are starting to turn golden. Add vegetable broth as needed to keep the tofu from sticking to the pan.
3. Add the frozen vegetables and saute until cooked through. Add more vegetable broth as needed, and soy sauce for flavor.
4. Add the cooked rice or pasta and saute until heated through. Add more soy sauce as needed.
5. Remove from heat and turn onto a plate. It will be a large pile of food! Mix in the egg, if using.

Hints: When taking care of a baby all day, I don't have time to spend cooking rice or chopping vegetables. I'll make a large pot of rice one day to keep in the refrigerator and use for several days. Same goes for eggs - boil a bunch at once and then eat over several days. The frozen vegetables are a big time-saver, and are often more nutritious than fresh ones anyway. I like the vegetable broth that comes in a rectangular carton that you can keep in the refrigerator, just using as much as you need at a time.

Still Growing Strong and Rosy!

The photo is a bit outdated, being three weeks old, but my camera activity has slowed a bit recently. We believe she is now nearly 13 pounds, though we'll find out for sure week after next at her 4-month appointment. I can't believe my little girl is nearly four months old already! Time is going so fast.

She is smiling, laughing, and just starting to roll over (once in a while). She reaches for objects and puts them in her mouth. She loves songs, sleep, and walks in her stroller. She is a lot of fun!

Crockpot Black Bean Soup

This recipe is adapted from my newest cookbook: Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have made it several times, and loved it every time! It's really quite easy, and the crockpot cooking method is very user-friendly. If you don't have a crockpot, I think you could make it in a regular pot, too.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 T canola oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 carrots, halved and sliced
1 green bell pepper, diced OR 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth, or more
2 bay leaves
1 T ground cumin
2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

1. Drain or partially drain* the beans and place in a crock pot with water to cover by three inches. Cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the onions, garlic, carrots, and green pepper if using, until softened.
3. Add the vegetables, tomatoes, broth, and spices to the the beans.** Cook for at least another half hour to let the flavors blend.
4. Ladle some of the soup into a blender and puree. Return it to the crockpot and stir it in. It will thicken the soup. You can continue to puree until all of it is smooth, or leave some in chunks.

I like to eat it with sour cream or grated sharp cheddar cheese. You can also make this recipe with canned beans. I would use 3 15-oz cans and reduce the cooking time to six hours, with the vegetables included for the whole cooking time.

Weight Watchers points: 3 per cup of soup.

* Draining the rinse water from the beans reduces flatulence but also eliminates many of the B-vitamins that have soaked out into the water. I usually do a partial drain to try and get the best of both options.
** You can add the sauteed vegetables and the spices before or after cooking the beans. However, the tomatoes, vegetable broth, and salt should not be added until after the beans are completely cooked.

11 Weeks

Our vegetarian (breastfed) baby continues to grow! She weighed 11 lbs 4 oz at her 2-month check-up, continuing at the 50th percentile that she's been at all along. We are pleased.

I recently had a 3-day hospital stay, including two surgeries under general anesthesia, and managed to keep my milk supply strong despite a large loss of blood. (The surgeries were to repair damage caused by childbirth -- I had a uterine inversion and some accompanying issues.) I like to think that having a good diet with iron-rich vegetarian foods helps me to produce good milk!

Hummus

I tasted my first hummus in the summer of 1995, and have been a major fan ever since! It's nutritious and oh-so-delicious. Here is my basic recipe:

2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2-6 cloves of garlic (depending on your preferences), peeled and halved
1/2 cup tahini paste (sesame paste)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
juice and pulp of one lemon, or 3-4 T lemon juice
1 T ground cumin
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Put the beans and the garlic in a food processor with the large blade attached. Process until most of the beans are pureed.
2. Add the tahini, olive oil, water, and lemon juice. Process until smooth.
3. Add the cumin, salt, and pepper. Taste for flavor. Add more salt and pepper as needed.

Refrigerated, can last for up to a week. Eat with fresh vegetables, crackers, pita bread, or make into hummus-and-cheese sandwiches.

Optional additions: fresh basil leaves, fresh tomato, fresh parsley

6 Weeks and Growing

My baby is now six weeks old, and it seems that a vegetarian diet is just fine for breastfeeding. She weighed a whopping nine pounds even at her one-month checkup, and we're pretty sure she's over ten now! She's also grown more than two inches in length. She grows out of clothes so quickly that we don't have time to wear them all!

I haven't had much time for posting recipes lately but hope to be back to it soon. In the meantime, I'm eating lots of: Cheerios, oatmeal, spaghetti, beans, apples, and cheese.

My Vegetarian Baby is Born!

She arrived Friday, March 28, weighing 6 lbs 15 oz. She is beautiful!