Homemade Finger Food Meals for Baby – Sante Fe Chicken with Black Beans

I'm not a nutritionist or doctor; I'm sharing this today so that hopefully it will help some of my other Mommy friends who are starting their babies on solids soon and want to cook their own baby food.  ANY questions you have about your baby and food you should always check with your pediatrician!
 

One of the greatest stressors I have faced as a Mother is in the daily feeding of my daughter.  When she was a newborn and I was actively failing at breastfeeding I was worried she wasn’t getting enough, not latching correctly, “Why is she fighting me??!” moments…the list goes on.  Fast forward to her 4 month well-baby visit and her pediatrician gives me the green light to add rice cereal to her diet, another feeding baby freak out (will starting her this early cause allergies, etc).  I didn’t start her on cereal until she was 5.5 months and we have moved on through all the veggies and fruits – just purchasing pureed baby food from the store.  But when it came time to start introducing meat – well, I just didn’t feel good feeding her a meat product that came in a shelf stable package.  And then there’s the business of grinding it up…I mean, have you tried pureed meat?  Ew, gag.

So I waited and as it turns out lady luck threw me a bone and Emma started to detest the purees altogether around 8 months (when her Doctor said she would need to start eating meat).  She would spit it out, the spoon became a toy (which means I couldn’t have it back to put more food on it), and feeding time became a chore/nightmare.  Thank goodness she was ready for finger foods (more than just those little puff things) as we soon discovered she would rather just do it herself (and Momma got her hands free)!  But this meant I had to start cooking due to my trust issues with shelf stable meat products.  So cook I did, and it’s really not that hard – all you need is a crock pot, some steamed fresh or frozen veggies and a muffin tin.  I have read numerous blogs that also use an ice cube tray for purees but a muffin tin has been great for me so far. 

I scoured the web for baby food recipes and most are for baby food purees and not very appealing (well, to me).  The main thing I learned about making your own baby food is to watch the salt and sugar.  Babies really don’t need these in large quantities.  Now that Emma is a little older, we are experimenting with seasonings, etc.  But her first meals were pretty plain.

I also try to cook everything from whole foods (I do buy whole grain pasta from the store) and rarely use stuff from cans.  The recipe I’m going to share with you today does have a can of black beans in it, but I rinsed and soaked the beans to make sure the majority of the salt is removed.

So, for me this is a 2 day process.  I think soft meats that are poached in the crock pot cube up more easily when they are cold.  So I cook my meats the day before I’m ready to freeze some baby food.

For this round of dinners I bought a package of 4 chicken breasts.  Wash them up, trim the fat and place them in your crock pot covered in water.  I should have added more water because all that water will get nice and yummy and that will make some good gravy!  Plus I’ve read that when you poach meat in water all the goodness travels out of the meat into the water so making gravy is one way to make sure you keep your goods.  :)

I cooked these on high and they were done in 5 hours.  Now a crock pot gravy tip I learned from my Mother: An hour before you expect them done, mix up 2-3 Tbsp of flour with about 3-5 Tbsp COLD water (maybe more, you don’t want to make glue it should be kinda watery).  I use an old mayo container to shake it because you want to make sure the flour is mixed up good (another good tip from my Mother).  If you just dumped the flour in there you would end up with lumpy gravy – nobody likes lumpy gravy.  I stir in my slurry mixture around the chicken and re-cover to let it thicken.  It works great, thanks Mom!

 

When everybody is good and cooked just pack this away in a container in the fridge (make sure you scrape out all that gravy) and we’ll deal with it tomorrow.  Now pour yourself a glass of wine or something!

The next day bust out your muffin tin.  That’s right – we are going to use the muffin tin to assemble, portion, and freeze our baby meals. 

Let’s assemble our ingredients:

·         Drain, rinse and soak a can of black beans (or make some from dried beans).

·         Wash, seed and petite dice one roma tomato

·         Finely chop a small amount of cilantro (about 2 Tbsp)

·         Dice two of your chicken breasts (you want the pieces small so baby doesn’t choke – about the size of a pea or your pinkie nail).

·         If you want to add some spice (not too spicy), you can make your own taco seasoning.  I did, it was easy.  I adapted a recipe from Whole New Mom going light on the pepper and omitting the salt/red pepper flakes.  I halved the recipe too because I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out.  1 Tbsp of the homemade taco seasoning was just right for 2 breasts and some gravy.

 

The line up for the taco seasoning.

Layering the ingredients.

I suppose you could just mix it all together in a big bowl and then divide it up in the muffin tin.  For some reason, I don’t do it this way.  I “layer” it.  I start with the beans, then add some tomatoes, a little cilantro, and top it all off with my taco chicken/gravy mixture.  Give a little press and your ready for some plastic wrap and to throw it in the freezer.  It should be frozen later that night but definitely by the next morning.

My chicken, a little gravy and my taco seasoning mixture.  Next time I'll warm up with gravy and mix in the taco seasoning - then fold in the cold cubed chicken.  I kinda mashed it up doing it this way.

 

I’m using a metal muffin pan and I’ve never really greased it up or anything.  I just jam a butter knife down one side and the little muffin meals just pop out!  I put them in a freezer bag all labeled up and now I have 12 meals ready to go for Emma’s lunches or dinners.  The fit perfectly in the Take and Toss containers made for kids and they are cooked and yummy after 1 min in the microwave (mine is 1100 watts).  Perfect portion size too!  If you think it’s too big you can cut it frozen to divide it in half so one half is for dinner and the other half goes back in the fridge for the next day.

A bit on the frosty side but they have never tasted freezer burned or anything.

All warmed up and ready to go.  She what I mean about the mashed up chicken??  Super soft but she had some chunks to grab up.

Another satisfied customer!

Every week I make a new flavor with different veggies, meats, and pasta.  I’ll try to get them up here.

Some of the meals Emma has enjoyed:

·         Roast turkey (I used the wings – next time I will roast up some thighs), with carrots, celery and onions over whole grain macaroni

·         Pork loin with apple gravy (fancy, huh…I just plopped a small pork loin in the crock pot and covered it with apple juice and water), sweet potatoes, peas and whole grain macaroni

·         Chicken (boneless, skinless thigh meat) and broccoli with potatoes

·         Chicken breast, potatoes, peas with gravy



Pork and apple gravy with sweet potato, peas and whole grain macaroni.

 

Meals I’m planning:

·         Chicken, macaroni and cheese with broccoli

·         Beef, potatoes and green beans

·         Something with quinoa

·         Something with chopped spinach

Not only is making your own baby food cheaper (a package of 6 organic meat toddler meals is like $9 – I pretty much get 12 or more for this price) and you know exactly what’s going in your baby’s food because you put it there!!  Plus you can cook baby friendly versions of what you make at home and hope to avoid a picky eater later in life (one can dream, right)!

These seem like they would travel well too.  We are planning a beach trip soon so all I will have to do is pop some in another bag and take along in the cooler until we get to the hotel.

And I have caught Daddy stealing pieces off of Emma’s tray before so if he’s willing to eat it, you know it’s good!

If you have any good baby food recipes I would love to try them!

 

 

Rotisserie BBQ Ribs

I’m not sure what everyone’s Labor Day plans are, but hopefully they include a grill.  I know our grill will see (and has seen – is this even proper English?) a few fires this Holiday weekend.

Every time we have people over, we love to cook for them – and we usually cook ribs.  They are easy (yes, they are) and SO GOOD!  The hubster and I are collaborating on this post to share how we BBQ some amazing pork back ribs.

We own a Weber 22.5” kettle grill.  BEST grill ever, you can seriously do so much with it.  One nifty accessory is the Rotisserie.  When I first bought it for my Hubs, every time we grilled we had to use it.  So one day he wanted some ribs and we decided to take them for a spin on our new toy.  HOLY COW so good!!  It’s my favorite way to prepare them and while you are limited to the amount you can cook (usually just one rack but I have squeezed two on there before) you won’t be disappointed in the flavor or texture.

A great tip passed down from my FIL.  Line your grill with foil.  Lots of nasty fat will drip out of your food.  This will keep all of that nasty gunk off of your grill and it's easy to change.  The really wide heavy duty foil works best.

* Note:  I am not a professional photographer.  I try to take good pictures but my kitchen is not set up to be a "trendy blog background."  Also, we have several BBQ tools that are pretty old.  And old stuff kinda get this, well we'll call it patina, coloring from being used on the grill over and over.  It's not dirty...it's just well loved.  :)

So, let’s get started.  Prep is pretty easy – you will need a rack of pork back ribs (aka baby backs), yellow mustard and seasoning (or “rub”) of your choice.  You will not taste the mustard; some say it tenderizes the meat, some say it’s not even necessary but we have found it helps all that tasty rub stay on…so we use it religiously.

 

 Bust open that pack, wash and dry those ribs.  Now flip them over, bone side up.  You will notice a membrane that coats the entire back of your ribs.  This is called the silver skin and I don’t care how “low and slow” you cook these babies, this will still be tough.  So we need to pull it off.  Just wiggle a butter knife or fork under one corner and pull it back.  It can be slippery so use a paper towel to get a grip.

It may tear on you, it's okay.  Just make sure to remove it all from the entire back surface.

 See the difference with the silver skin removed?

Now, slather those babies up with some mustard and then give it a generous coating of your rub.  We like to pat it in so it sticks better.

This is our BBQ pan.  It's a cheap pan that has been abused but once it's lived it's life I don't feel so bad throwing it away.  See what I mean about "petina?"

Now for the fun part, skewering!  Make a small cut in between about every 3-4 ribs.  This will help you weave the spit through the ribs.

 

Slide the first rotisserie tine onto the spit and then start to weave your ribs on there.  This part is kinda weird but you want to thread it on there and be gentle so you don’t rip up all that glorious meat!

Rotisserie tines (or forks, whatever), spit, and a handsome man ready to do battle with some ribs!

 

When you’re done you’ll have a meat “m” or wave.  Slide the other tine in place and adjust them so the rack is centered in the middle of the spit. 

Now, let’s talk about setting up your grill.  As you can see in the picture below, this is how our grill looks with the rotisserie attachment – sweet!

We use charcoal and we don’t want a roaring fire so we only filled our chimney up about half way.

When the coals are mostly gray, they are ready to go.  Dump them out on either side of your grill, leaving the middle area empty.  You could place a drip pan in the center and fill it with water or beer…but we’re lazy and didn’t do this part.

 

Now, put your lid on and insert a grill thermometer in one of the vents.  You want your temperature between 300-315 degrees.  On the Weber, we control the temp by adjusting the vents on the bottom.  Vents wide open = HOT fire, vents closed = NO fire.  So somewhere there is a happy medium and it’s your job to find it.  But you’re doing it now, before you put your ribs on, so you don’t have to worry about cooking them too hot.

 Now that your fire has calmed down, let’s get those ribs on!  Insert the spit, get them spinning, add your wood of choice (if you want some smokey flavor), and close the lid.  Make sure you have your grill thermometer going in the vent so you can monitor the temperature (ours started to die so Mike started another small fire after 45 mins).   If they are on the small side (like 2.5 lbs, I would check them after 1.5 hours).  Our ribs were closer to 3 lbs so I checked them at 2 hours and those babies were DONE!

 

I’m sure there is someone out there wondering about barbeque sauce.  And why not, it’s delicious!  When we first started cooking ribs we never did sauce.  But lately, I’ve been in the mood to try different sauces so we decided to sauce these as well.  Repeat after me, “I promise to NEVER apply BBQ sauce until I know my meat is done.”  Why?  Because all that heavenly sauce has sugar in it…and sugar burns at high temps.   And that tastes nasty.  And then your neighbors smell it and cringe because they know you are scorching the crap out of some perfectly good meat (I may or may not be that particular neighbor…okay, I am).

Sooo, to test for doneness with ribs it’s easy.  You’ll notice in the pictures the meat has pulled away from the bones.  That’s a good indicator but the best way to tell is to give a few bones a tug.  If the bone tugs easily away from the meat, you’re golden.  We don’t want it to fall apart.  Everyone talks about “fall off the bone ribs” and honestly I don’t get it.  Who wants to eat mushy (because that’s what happens when you cook them until the bones fall off) meat?!  You want your ribs to be tender but still have just a bit of tug when you take a bite. 

I’ll get off my BBQ soapbox now so we can lightly sauce up the ribs.  Let them spin for another 5 minutes (to set the sauce) and pull them off.  It’s time to eat so slice them up and dig in!

If you notice there is a slight pink color to these ribs.  They are fully cooked, this is known as the "smoke ring."  It's caused by a chemical reaction in the meat when exposed to smoke during cooking.  Not the best smoke ring this time around.

See my bite mark?  I think I should get extra points for even putting it down to take a picture.  They didn't last long after this, I can tell you that!!

Before I sign off here I want to give a special shout out to my Father-in-Law.  He was the one to get myself and my hubby hooked on cooking BBQ and grilling food.  He laid a very good foundation and continues to be a resource when Mike and I want to branch out to new BBQ areas!  If it wasn't for him, we would not be eating this well!

Does anyone think they will try some Rotisserie BBQ ribs?  If you do, let me know!