Whole Foods Homeschool Tour

We visited our local Whole Foods today along with some other homeschoolers. They gave a nice presentation on the type of foods in the store and gave out samples for the kids to try. You can tell by the looks on their faces what they thought of some foods. But at least they tried some new things.

Kale Chips!

Some friends recommended we try making kale chips. Kale is super cheap
and the recipe is simple so what's to lose? So today Elisabeth helped
me prepare the Kale for the oven.

1) Clean and thoroughly dry the kale. 2) Remove the stem. 3) Cut or
tear into similarly sized pieces. 4) Add to bowl along with 1 TB of
olive oil and salt as desired. 5) Stir until evenly coated and then
spread on a pan covered with parchment paper. 6) Place in oven that is
preheated to 350 degrees. 7) Bake until slightly brown - for my oven
turned out to be about 7-8 minutes.

The astounding thing was Elisabeth actually ate a couple of pieces
without any coercion. Afterwards, she said, "I don't want any more
because it looks like seaweed." Oh well, she still ate a vegetable
that wasn't green beans so mission accomplished!

Jonah's New Restaurant Creation

Chicken nuggets and French fries wrapped in a flour tortilla. Not exactly low carb, but I must admit I was pleased he got a bit adventurous and did something different with his food.

A Dash of this....

This is by no means a cooking blog, but I was so happy with this new recipe I made today that I wanted to share. My grandmother's clam dip and chips, Kelly's grandmothers sausage balls, and my moms fudge tempted us constantly over the holidays with their sweet and savory goodness. Needless to say we indulged quite a bit and now need to visit South Beach once again. Phase 1 is challenging to plan meals for, so I did a little internet searching a came across a recipe for a spicy pinto bean soup that sounded tasty and very "doable." Soup is just the thing to hit the spot around here with temperatures remaining unseasonably cold with high's in the 30's. Burrrr.... I did make a couple of changes though - I used one Serano pepper instead the can of peppers and left out the optional ham flavor concentrate (never heard of that before). It was really good! Has a little kick to it, but again just the thing to warm you up on a cold day.

An Enthusiastic Eater

A week into eating solid foods, little Elisabeth is a pro.

Elisabeth's First Solids

We were at Chili's for lunch and Kelly was holding Elisabeth while he ate. She kept grabbing at the things in his hand and the stuff on the table. Kelly stuck his finger in some ranch dressing and offered it to her. She got all excited and tried to grab his hand and really seemed to like it. She responded similarly to a bit of ketchup. That told me that she was past ready for some solid food. She's 5 1/2 months now and I was planning to wait until the 6 month mark before trying the solid food. Jonah didn't start eating solid until 6 1/2 months. So I got some jars of 1st foods - banana and apple sauce. That evening I gave her some and she loved it. She ate almost a whole jar the very first time. So the first day she ate a jar and a half of banana. The second day she finished the banana and ate a whole jar of apple sauce. Jonah was not as enthusiastic when he started eating solids and he spit up a lot. Elisabeth is already opening her mouth well and everything. And so we have hit a new milestone earlier than mommy planned.