Homemade Turkey Meatballs For Baby

Our food journey has been really challenging with the nugget. He's struggled with prolonged vomiting and now has some trauma around eating. Except carbs. He loves his carbs.This summer he was pounding yogurt and milk and eating his weight in puffs, crackers, and all manner of bread products. He was refusing anything else I offered him in the fruit and veg families, with the notable exception of bananas... the great binder of the fruit family.I think you know where this is going... We had so many mornings of horrible crying and so much pain and pushing because now... we were constipated. That poor guy! He just can't get it together. Everyone had suggestions but with a toddler attitude and the traumatic memory around eating (three weeks of vomiting when you eat will do that to you... anyone remember tequila and college? Or Captain Morgan's... omg just thinking of that makes me a little queasy...) we were getting nowhere. He was open to prune pouches but they weren't totally doing the job. A friend and I were talking about sneaking veg into meatballs so I decided... it was time.I looked up a number of recipes and decided on this one as our base recipe with some modifications from other recipes I saw online. Honestly, you can use any summer squash you are growing or find at the grocery store. Pattypan, calabacita, zucchini, yellow squash. You will find zucchini and yellow squash nearly year round at your grocery store... I recommend buying it frozen if it is not in season (aka not in the summer). Frozen veggies are amazing in that they are picked at the peak of freshness and flash frozen. I prefer buying them if something is out of season. Plus they are SO cheap!Nugs Homemade Turkey and Secret Veggie Meatballs -

• 16oz of lean ground turkey
• 1 carrot (peeled and grated... or just washed and grated...)
• 1 small zucchini (peeled and grated)
• 1 small yellow squash (peeled and grated)
• 1/2 cup Wheat Germ
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt (or split it up, garlic and salt)
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder (if you want)
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper (if you want)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees (F, of course). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper... if you don't have parchment paper (which I didn't), you can use foil but for the love of all that is holy OIL THE FOIL! (haha... oil the foil...) These guys stick to the pan.Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together with your hands. The recipe I linked to had a really good instruction for this part... don't over mix it, it will make the meatballs tough).Form your meatball and place on the tray. If you are a 'rule follower' you can use a tablespoon scoop or you can make them your own size. I did a bunch of small ones for nugs and some bigger ones for our dinner. The original recipe says you will get 48 but I got less.Put them on the baking sheet (NOT TOUCHING) and bake for 20 minutes.---These were delicious and even my husband enjoyed eating them. It's a great way to sneak in veggies and they freeze/defrost really well.Share your comments, pictures, and variations below! 

Homemade Beans & Rice

My little guy is about as brand loyal as one year olds get! When it comes to food, he's pretty much obsessed with the Plum Organics pouches. And of these pouches, his absolute favorite is the Plum World Baby Mexico pouch. The ingredients are beans and rice with sweet corn, red bell pepper, cilantro and lime. Pretty fancy for baby food, eh?Well at $1.30+ per pouch I thought, maybe I can make a close approximation for the nugget for less per serving. I found these recipes online and thought I could use the ingredients from the Plum pouch and the quantities from the recipe to make something that nugget enjoys. I really just tossed things in and we got a pretty good end result. No great pictures of nugs eating it but here's my guesstimate recipe and some pictures of the mixture.Nugs Homemade Beans and Rice pouch -

• 1 cup organic brown rice
• 1/2 a red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup of frozen sweet corn
• 1 can organic black beans
• Handful of fresh cilantro
• 1/2 a lime, juiced
• Water (as needed)

Prep the rice as you normally would (and if you are as hopeless as I am at cooking rice, here are some tips).Saute or bake the bell pepper until soft and defrost the corn.Combine it all (rice, pepper, corn, beans, cilantro, lime) and puree. Slowly add water as needed to smooth it out. You could also use chicken or vegetable stock, formula, breast milk... whatever liquid you want.The liquid is where I went wrong on the first attempt. I didn't add enough and it was still a bit too thick for nugs. The other recommendation I have is TASTE IT! Try it and see what it needs. Maybe more or less lime, cilantro... maybe toss some salt in. With nugget, he has reflux and so he actually need salt and seasoning to make food taste good to him. Between the burning acid and the medicine that dulls the tastebuds, he prefers seasoned foods but more on that another time!Post below with pics and stories after you try the recipe! I would love to hear it! Does your nugget love a particular brand of food?

Haykin Family Cider

Because we didn't have enough going on in our lives...If you don't know us or haven't spent much time with us recently you may not know that Dan (my loving and wonderful and slightly obsessive husband) has become more than slightly obsessed with making his own hard apple cider.Yes, I assist... I did a lot of cutting, grinding and pressing before the baby came. I do less now... more wrangling the nugget while he works but I do press and remove stickers on occasion but my role has matured to consulting on yeasts, taste testing and helping to refine carbonation and flavor.We started this adventure October 31, 2013... and this year it has really paid off. Not only is he making incredibly tasty cider for me to drink to my heart's content... he has won some awards this year. Like big awards.First up was the Washington State Mead and Cider Cup. He won first and second place in the Standard Cider/Perry category -

C1: Standard Cider & Perry

1st Place: Daniel Haykin with Leftovers – New World Cider2nd Place: Daniel Haykin with Dandee Red/Kinderkrisp Blend Cider – New World Cider

AND he won Best Cider in the competition and was just shy of Overall Best of Show!

BEST CIDER: Daniel Haykin with Dandee Red/Kinderkrisp Blend Cider – New World Cider

Then he entered his 'holy grail' of cider competitions - what they call GLINTCAP - Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition. This has both a commercial and non-commercial division. He was in the competition with major producers (think Angry Orchard and Woodchuck along with local guys Glider Cider and Stem Ciders among others). Granted, they were not in the same division but you get that this is a big competition. The non-commercial division awarded 14 Gold, 47 Silver, 83 Bronze. Daniel won, in the New World Cider - Modern area, one Gold, four Silvers, and one Bronze! Everything he entered in the competition medaled!!

New World Cider — Modern

GOLDDaniel Haykin – Redfree/Dandy Red/Ginger Gold/Akane/Kinderkrisp

SILVERDaniel Haykin – Jonathan/Ruby Jon/Gala/Golden SupremeDaniel Haykin – LeftoversDaniel Haykin – Macintosh/Diva/Red DeliciousDaniel Haykin – Sweet Red Delicious/Opal/Jonagold

BRONZEDaniel Haykin – Cripps Pink/Red Delicious/Pink Lady/Gala

That's a pretty big deal for us, especially for our first round of competitions. We are still waiting to hear about the third competition. I will add to this post when we do.I made a little website for our 'cidery' (aka our basement). Maybe one day it will be something more. Check it out here - Haykin Family CideryOh and at our new house, we have planted apple trees... and they are beginning to bud. If any of you thought this was a passing hobby... think again! :)