Browse Category: projects

Egg Bites

IMG_7886I had some chicken and spinach in the fridge so I made some egg bites for Kumquat.  I got inspiration from Pintrest but kinda winged it.  It started out with the following ingredients:

  • 7 eggs
  • chopped baby spinach (about two handfuls)
  • chopped cooked chicken from two nights ago (about two handfuls)
  • 1/2 cup of shredded cheese I found in the fridge
  • 1/2 cup of whole milk

IMG_7887They all went in a bowl together.  I mixed the wet ingredients together first and then dumped all the dry ingredients afterward.

I used a little baking spray on the bottom of each of the muffin wells and wiped it up with a paper towel to spread it evenly.  Then I used a ladle to get them into the muffin tins and I had just the right amount to fill all 12 wells.

IMG_7888They went into the oven at 350 degrees until they were puffed up and golden around the edges.

IMG_7890Here’s the final product!  They went into the freezer in ziploc bags for future meals.  Let’s hope Kumquat eats them up!

 

Feeding Therapist Mommy Fail

chicken liverAt Kumquat’s last check-up, we learned that she’s anemic and needs more iron-rich foods.  So, being the dutiful mommy, I went to Whole Foods and bought chicken livers.  I’ve had chicken liver prepared in a fancy restaurant and I’m a fan of foie gras so I was excited to make a fancy pate for the little one.

Tonight after the kid went to sleep, I took out my recipe and cut up the onion as it had instructed.  Then it was time to unwrap the package of livers and I was a little grossed out.  But I powered through and cleaned them and trimmed off the connective tissue and veins with a stink-face that made my forehead tired.  Then I fired up the stove and began the saute portion of the recipe.   As I stirred and shuffled the ingredients around, I thought, “it’s not so bad” with a fake look of contentment on my face.

Then it was time to put it all in the food processor with the lemon juice and salt.  Sounded pretty good so far in my head.  The lid went on and I pureed it to a smooth consistency.  Seems easy enough.

THEN…I uncovered the bowl and a huge cloud of nastiness wafted over me and I thought I was going to hurl.  My eyes watered and I had to do everything to hold it together.  I had to scrape the gray mush off the sides of the bowl and I was utterly grossed out.  I hate to say this but it looked and smelled like something I should be giving to Koa.  By the way, he was sitting right there at my feet waiting for something to drop.

Once I got it all out of the food processor and into a container for storage, it was time to taste it.  I had Jes take a taste first and he said, “It just tastes like liver.”  So I gave it a try and had to do everything I could to not throw up.  Luckily for me there was a can of ice cold limonata in the fridge to save me.

How am I going to keep it together long enough to feed this to my 12-month-old?!  As a mom and therapist, I told myself I’d try everything I fed her and I did.  Can I fake it well enough to convince her it’s tasty?  Don’t think so.  I’m just crossing my fingers that she’ll just gobble it down like everything else I’ve given her.  If she doesn’t go for it, Koa’s going to have a feast later this week.

UPDATE: She ate it and finished a full helping of it.  Good baby.  I didn’t make any faces and it actually tasted better cold from the fridge the next day.  Good job, me. ;P

Air Plants

west elmOn Sunday, I met up with Elaine for brunch in Palo Alto and stopped at West Elm.  They had a whole garden section filled with succulents, vases, and accessories.  airplantsI couldn’t resist picking up a a few air plants to add to my collection of succulents.

vaseI already had this square vase and river rocks and all I had to do was drop these three little guys inside.  They don’t require any soil and you only need to “water” them twice a week by spraying them.

Pear Puree

I’m making baby food again!  This time I used my stick blender!!  Yeeeaaahh, Baby!  I only bought one pear (organic, of course) at the supermarket this time so I could experiment but I think I should have bought more.  Here’s what I did:

1) I peeled the pear.

2) I cut the pear into chunks.

3) They all went into the measuring cup.

4) And then bzzzzzzz went the stick blender!

Here is the finished product.  I got a smooth puree in just seconds.  However, I didn’t buy enough pears so I ended up with a few lumps since the stick blender requires a little more volume to get it all pureed.

Regardless, Kumquat loved it and I was able to join her by eating the chunks for her.  Yum.

Happy Sweet Potato Day!

Kumquat is one week away from turning 6 months old and in honor of the appearance of her first tooth, I decided to start her on solids today.  For her first meal, I wanted to make sweet potato puree so we took a little trip to the Farmers’ Market and picked up a couple for $1.50.  What a deal!

This was my first attempt at making my very own baby food and it was pretty fun.  Here’s what I did:

After washing them, I wrapped them in foil.

They went in the toaster oven at 325 degrees and cooked for about an hour and a half.

Yeah, that’s a long time.  I think it needed to be baked at 350 instead.

When they were done, they looked so tasty – like Thanksgiving tasty.

Once they cooled, I cut them in half and they went into the ricer.

It was super easy to get the sweet potato mashed and looked pretty cool when it came out like spaghetti.

The sweet potato came out nice and smooth while all the “strings” and skin stayed in the ricer.

When I mixed it up, it was pretty thick so I thinned out a small portion with a tablespoon of water at a time until it was a thin puree.  It’s so simple and nutritious and without anything extra added to it.

Here’s the final product along with Kumquat’s cute little spoon. 🙂

After I fed Kumquat and knew that it was passable to her, I prepared the rest of the batch and it all went into the ice cube tray and in the freezer.

When it was all frozen, they popped out so easily!

They all went into a freezer bag and now they’re in little 3/4-ounce portions. Neato.

It’s a little bit of work for a whole lot of awesome.  I think Kumquat liked it and as a therapist who feeds babies for a living, this was an exciting day for me too. 🙂

New Goal!

I simply love cookies and I just read this list of the Best 12 Cookies in SF and realized that I’ve had only one of the 12.  Dang.  I’m behind.  So this is my new goal: Try every cookie on the list before I leave this city.  I don’t think we’re moving out of SF any time soon but I suppose anything can happen, right?!  So if we all of a sudden have to pack up and move to Hawaii or something, I will need to fulfill this goal before we move – even if I have to use up my last two days driving around the city picking up one of each!

So far the only one I’ve tried is the Gingersnap from Miette but I might be able to convince my co-worker to snag me a chocolate chip walnut from Mission Beach Cafe since his boyfriend is THE Alan Carter, the pastry chef.