Cooking Lite - What are some cool facts about babies/toddlers, and some fun recipes?

What are some cool facts about babies/toddlers, and some fun recipes?

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 under Italian Cooking Recipes

My son is 15 months, I’m expecting a 2nd baby as well.
Kind of looking for something new in my routine, I just got some recipes for homemade soups and broths from my grandma,
I normally stick in the Italian area when I cook meals, spaghetti, pastas, rigatoni I make tacos a lot and have baked chicken at my grandma’s a lot too. I’m starting to boil more vegetables, like cauliflower, broccoli, carrots maybe celery too.

But I can’t think of any other recipes for dinner and raw meat grosses me out but I’m gonna have to start cooking with it sooner or later o.o

I was also wondering some facts about toddlers in their 2s stage, my son doesn’t talk yet! He says words like ”no” and ”ba ba” and he knows what things mean, like if I say ”come here” or ”give me a kiss” he knows that, and he knows which toys are which when I say ”go grab your book!” he’ll grab it but I just am curious about this stage and some facts.

Also differences or things that may be easier for 2nd pregnancies, apparently I found out at my doctor’s you always feel a little ”bigger” your 2nd pregnancy around, and it’s totally true because I bloated and got bigger so fast I thought ”I’ve GOTTA be having twins lol”. I’m not though.

As far as that goes, I live alone with my son and seriously cannot wait to move into a bigger apartment so I have more kitchen space

I can’t think of any more lunch ideas too besides sandwiches and macoroni, and hamrolls ahhh that’s normally what people eat everyday though huh. I’m just not used to actually feeding someone ELSE and seeing that he eats basically the same thing everyday lol. I just don’t want him bored. Maybe I’ll buy some avacados and find new recipes.

2 Comments so far »

tobyink - said
July 21 2011 @ 09:31
What facts do I know specifically about kids your son’s age… hmmm… he probably doesn’t understand how mirrors work yet – that he’s seeing a reflection of himself. Kids apparently figure them out around 18 months.
You’re by no means the only person grossed out by raw meat. I’m not much of a fan of it either, and I spent some time working as a chef before University! Just think about the end result, and wash your hands a lot afterwards. That’ll make you feel better.
My daughter – who is nearly 2.5 – loves Italian. I posted a recipe for one of her favourite pasta meals a week ago:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110705082200AA9npFZ
Home-made pizza is good too. She loves helping mix the dough, and watching the toppings being chopped (and trying small bits of them raw – for those that are safe to eat raw). Popular toppings include: ham & mushroom; ham & artichoke; sloppy giuseppe; smoked sausage & peppers.
She likes any food with wine in it. Cook it for long enough (and it does need to be pretty long) and most of the alcohol boils off. Coq au vin, spaghetti Bolognese, etc.
Sausages are also generally popular, so meals like toad in the hole go down well. But I think you’re probably American, so aren’t likely to have access to decent sausages.
Here’s a recipe for Quorn chilli. Quorn is one of those meat substitutes, and is made of a mushroom-like fungus. No vegetarians in our household (and this recipe isn’t strictly vegetarian), but we use quite a lot of Quorn – it’s cheap, tasty and low in fat.
300g bag of frozen Quorn mince
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of pinto/kidney beans, drained
1 onion, diced
0.5 green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa (optional)
400 mL beef stock (from cubes is fine)
2 tbsp tomato puree (optional)
sliced chilli peppers (quantity depends on how spicy you want to make it)
sunflower oil
small handful of coriander leaves
Spices:
1 tsp cumin seeds
0.5 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
0.25 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
0.25 tsp black onion seeds (optional)
0.25 tsp celery seeds (optional)
1 or 2 allspice seeds, crushed (optional)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger, or 0.5 tsp dried ginger powder (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano
Fry the onion, green pepper, chilli and spices in sunflower oil, stirring occasionally. When starting to look cooked, add the frozen Quorn. Stir until it’s looking mostly defrosted and then add the tomatoes, beef stock, cocoa and tomato puree. Simmer gently for at least 30 minutes. Chop and add the coriander just moments before serving.
Goes well with rice, tortilla chips, potato wedges, whatever. Leftovers are nice on toast with cheese melted on.
Regarding second pregnancies, I’m probably not an expert, lacking the right "equipment", but according to my wife, you feel them kicking at a much earlier stage the second time around (because you know more what to look out for.)
Hannah Watts - said
July 21 2011 @ 09:31
This might sound a bit odd but have you heard of women who turn there breast milk into cheese? it’s really interesting. I’m not saying you should feed your friends your breast cheese but it might be a interesting way to feed toddlers or babies. might be a fantastic way to convert babies from drinking to eating solids