Leon's hot chocolate

Makes 6 oz for baby and 12-ish for parent.

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk (not the light crap, and not the kind that is loaded with preservatives or sulphites. Thai Kitchen makes a good one)
1 heaping tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1 packed tsp very dark brown sugar
1 tsp Mexican vanilla

Add at end:
Cold whole milk
Cold skim milk

Whisk ingredients together in a small sauce pan over medium to low heat until it just starts to bubble. For baby, pour 3 oz into a bottle, and add 3 oz cold whole milk. Shake, test temperature, serve. For parent, pour remaining hot chocolate into large mug and cool to drinkable temperature with skim milk.

Yummy!

Leon's Curry

Leon, for those of you who read this and don't know, is 7 1/2 months old. He's super sweet, smart, cute, and he really, really likes his vegetables, and foods most people wouldn't expect a baby to love.

This particular recipe makes use of the Baby Bullet system, but would be easily adaptable to any blender system.

Ingredients:
Cooked organic sweet pumpkin
1 can organic coconut milk, separated
mild yellow curry powder

Using the Baby Bullet, make one short cup of pumpkin puree, using the watery part of the coconut milk to thin. Reserve half of this in the freezer for future use.

Fill remainder of short cup with thick coconut cream and a scant 1/8 tsp of curry powder. Blend until creamy. Serve.

Reserve the rest of the coconut milk for future use.

Leon absolutely loved it.

Variations would include adding other squashes and root vegetables as a baby's tastes mature.

postpartum I don't wanna eat my vegetables healthy cake

ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup nonfat milk
2 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 tsp. each soda, powder, cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c chopped nuts
1 c grated carrot
1 c grated zucchini
1 c grated yam

Optional: dried fruit or fresh fruit puree added

Icing: 1 brick low fat cream cheese, 1 pkg icing sugar, nonfat milk to moisten, vanilla  to taste.

Bake at 350 F for 40-50 minutes.

This recipe would probably make awesome breakfast muffins too, although personally I love the icing too much to try that...

French Onion Soup

My Dad's awesome recipe:

Sauté in butter:

1 clove garlic (or 1/8 tsp garlic powder)

2 to 3 sliced onions (not red)

Add:

1 can Campbells beef broth (I usually use 2 cans to serve 4 people)

1 tsp dijon mustard

½ tsp season salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp lemon juice

¼ tsp ground marjoram

Croutons: Break apart stale bread and put in 350 F oven with Parmesan cheese until slightly browned.

Pour soup into oven-safe bowls. Layer with mozzarella cheese in the middle, then croutons, and another layer of mozzarella on top. Put the bowls on a cookie sheet to help keep your oven clean from spills. Bake at 350 F for no more than 25 minutes – less if cheese is too runny.