We continue to try various soups from a recent New York Times magazine! Recently, we made this hearty tomato soup.

Ingredients

• 3 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped or crushed finely in a blender
• 1-2 carrots, chopped
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 cups warm water
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• salt, pepper to taste

Method

Saute onion in olive oil; add carrots, garlic and tomato paste. Add chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and water. Mix well and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Garnish with chopped basil.

Serve hot with pita bread or naan.

Enjoy!

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

This is a guest post by Cathy Blount. She blogs at A Life Less Sweet about avoiding HFCS and watching what her family eats while learning about food along the way.

Summer is long gone as is the outdoor growing season where I live, but I still wanted to write about gardening with kids.  I especially love gardening with my kids in the summertime, but gardening is something that can be a fun learning experience any time of year.

Why do it?

There are so many great reasons to garden – with or without kids.  I get great satisfaction and pleasure from nurturing seeds to plants.  The vegetables that I buy in the grocery store are often varieties that are prized for their ability to travel and store well rather than for their flavor.  I love that I can grow extra-tasty varieties of vegetables and berries that I can’t get in the grocery store.  I love that I can buy a pack of seeds for less than two dollars and reap a bucketful of good stuff to eat.  And I love what it does for my kids.  They get to learn firsthand where the food we eat comes from.  And, better yet, they are often more likely to try vegetables that they grow than vegetables that we buy from the store.  My son made peace with both tomatoes and onions this year thanks to our cherry tomato vine and green onions.

Seasonal gardening

When is a good time to get started gardening?  Anytime!  Snow will soon be flying where I am, but there are still plenty of gardening opportunities.  In fall and winter, take the time to prep your garden for the next growing season if you’re in a cold climate or plant cool weather crops like lettuce, carrots, cabbage, peas, and broccoli if you’re in a warmer climate.  I planted garlic outdoors recently in hopes of having heirloom garlic to harvest next summer.  And now I’ll move my gardening indoors.  If you have a sunny window, you can grow herbs indoor year round.  We’ll stick mainly to low-light loving house plants and bulbs.

Gardening with kids

Gardening with kids can be a magical experience.  What kid doesn’t love digging in the dirt?  Let a child plant a seed and watch it transform to a seedling and then to a recognizable plant.  It takes patience, but the payoff is big!

Some tips for successful gardening with kids.  First, give them a say in what is planted.  My kids’ two requests this year were carrots and sunflowers.  Into the garden they went!  Second, give them some gardening responsibility.  Watering, weeding, planting seeds, helping with harvesting – let them help you tend the garden.  Not only will they learn more about how a plant goes from seed to fruited plant, but you’ll have help!  Last, let them help decide how to use the fruits or your gardening labor.  For us, this meant that strawberries went straight into little tummies, and kohlrabi was eaten both raw (at my son’s request) and roasted (my preference).

There are so many teachable moments in gardening.  Even pests, the bane of every gardener, can lead to a learning experience.  We choose to garden organically and honestly have very few pests to deal with (most pests can’t deal with our winters), but my kids still learned plenty about slugs and earwigs this year.  They can learn about the different bugs and animals that like to munch on the garden, about beneficial bugs that gardeners want to keep around (ladybugs, anyone?), and about why and how you choose to treat your garden for pests.

We also compost, which is another great learning opportunity.   I love watching our kitchen and yard scraps transform to deep black, rich dirt over the course of a year.  We have a big compost pile that we maintain, but they sell small compost bins and tumblers or you can build a small compost bin that is appropriate for your space.  Maintained properly, smell and pests are not an issue.   My son, in particular, loves the fact that we recycle our kitchen scraps rather than throw them away, and it gives him insight into the workings of the natural world.  We talk about what our compost heap needs to decompose the way we want it to – brown material and green material, air, moisture, and bacteria.  I keep two piles going at a time – one that I actively put kitchen scraps into, and one that is curing, that is, making that slow transformation to finished, black compost.  Because of our cold weather here, composting can be slow, so it was actually thrilling to add my first load of finished compost to my raised bed this fall.

Afraid you’ll have a brown thumb?

Let me tell you, I am no expert at this gardening business, but I managed to grow carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, broccoli, squash, green onions, potatoes, peas, green beans, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and lots of herbs in my garden in northern Wyoming this summer.  Just think of what you could grow someplace where frost isn’t a constant threat!  I learn a little more each year.  The mistakes are as educational to my kids and me as the successes.

Get started, be diligent with watering and weeding, and watch what happens!

This recipe is similar to our Whole Chicken with Orzo Salad we wrote about a while back. Whole chicken is very easy to cook and also very economical. Give it a try and let us know if you like it!

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces about 1 inch long
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 tsp rosemary
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, whole
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Remove and discard giblets and neck from the chicken cavity. Clean the chicken under running water.  Rinse off excess water and pat dry with a paper towel. Place a few pieces of potatoes and some carrots inside the cavity. Rub outside of the chicken with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and place in a deep covered baker (we used one from The Pampered Chef) lightly brushed with olive oil. Arrange the remaining potatoes and carrots around the chicken in the baker.

Preheat oven to 375 °F (190 ºC). Bake covered for 60 minutes. Carefully remove the lid and continue roasting for another 25 – 35 minutes. Remove chicken from baker about 10 minutes before carving.

Serve with bulgur pilav or basmati rice.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Don’t you just love it when your little ones come up with a funny comment in response to the food on the table? That is the idea behind the Big Words Little Foodies from Jenna of KidAppeal, who wants to encourage you to keep a notebook handy to capture funny mealtime stories and comments.

In the spirit of sharing, recently I wrote about how my son responded to Mom’s orzo-carrot soup with his give me some vitamin W soup! A slight variation in the soup recipe where orzo was replaced by alphabet pasta (we used the Publix store brand) had the twins going once again at lunch this weekend. This time, his twin sister came out with this one as she observed the floating alphabet letters in the soup and one particular letter stuck on her spoon:

Look mommy, the C is hanging from the spoon!

It was a very interesting observation which captured us completely by a delightful surprise. I had to go get the camera and capture a few pictures!

Here is the recipe for the alphabet pasta-carrot soup if you want to give it a try -

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2. 2 cups water
3. 1-2 medium tomatoes, diced or crushed in a food processor
4. 1/4 cup alphabet pasta
5. 1/2 cup uncut baby carrots, washed
6. 1 tbsp tomato paste
7. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8. 1/2 cup chopped parsley or cilantro

Method:

Add olive oil to a 1 quart saucepan and mix in tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. Add water and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, add alphabet pasta and carrots and simmer until pasta is cooked and carrots are soft. Add in cilantro or parsley. Serve with lemon.

Enjoy!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Roasted carrots sweeten this recipe and offer a fabulous way to get little ones to eat veggies in a new way. Carrots are rich in beta carotene, which is a great way to get some vitamin A in your child’s diet.

Ingredients

1. 3 Organic carrots
2. 3 cloves of garlic
3. olive oil
4. salt and pepper to taste
5. 1/2 pack of linguine
6. a little parmesan cheese
7. Italian herbs

Method

1. roast the sliced carrot on a tray at 350 degrees with the garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper for 20 minutes or until soft
2. then pureed
3. cook the pasta until al dente
4. heat a little olive oil with Italian herbs and toss the carrot puree with it and serve.

This recipe was sent to me by Rebecca Subbiah. She is a registered dietitian, freelance writer and a personal trainer. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccasubbiah and check out her very cute Chow and Chatter blog. She also runs Dietitian for Hire, a consulting company located in Winston Salem North Carolina offering Freelance Writing, Nutritional Counseling, Speaking Engagements and more.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

I don’t quite know why, but my son’s favorite number is the letter “W”! Comments like  “I am W years old”, or “This diesel has W freight cars” make perfect sense to him, while everybody else has to scratch their head to crack his code! Sometimes he also simply replaces a letter with “W” mid sentence to create his own emphasis. Quite silly of course, but the way he says it comes out very funny!

In the spirit of sharing funny mealtime stories and funny comments as part of Big Words Little Foodies from Jenna of KidAppeal, I thought of writing about how he responded to TwinToddlerMom’s simple, yet nutritious orzo soup with carrots:

Me: Hey guys! Look what we have for dinner today! This is a yummy soup! And look at those carrots – they have so much vitamin A which is good for your eyes.

Daughter: They have vitamin A? That is so silly….I want to try, I want to try….

Son: No. They have vitamin W. Mom – can you give me some vitamin W soup?

I waited patiently to see if they would actually try the soup and nibble on a few carrots from the soup. While my daughter enjoyed it, No such luck with my son -  he took a few spoons of the soup, but the carrots were untouched.

Me: How many carrots did you eat today?

Son: (Pause) Hmmm…W Carrots!

This was not going the way I had anticipated!

Then we tried to offer him a raw, uncut baby carrot out of our salad to see if he would go for that. Sure enough, he took it and started nibbling on it. Guess, he just likes them crunchy!

Here is the recipe for the orzo-carrot soup if you want to give it a try -

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2. 2 cups water
3. 1-2 medium tomatoes, diced or crushed in a food processor
4. 1/2 cup orzo
5. 1/2 cup uncut baby carrots, washed
6. 1 tbsp tomato paste
7. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8. 1/2 cup chopped parsley or cilantro

Method:

Add olive oil to a 1 quart saucepan and mix in tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. Add water and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, add orzo and carrots and simmer until orzo is cooked and carrots are soft. Add in cilantro or parsley. Serve with lemon.

Enjoy!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Earlier this week I wrote about 5 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin A. This is a very important vitamin especially for growing children. It is required for their eye health, immune system, healthy skin, bone development, brain development and development for blood cells. A severe deficiency is known to cause night blindness.

As a follow up, I decided to scan a few of my favorite recipe sites for kid-friendly and easy-to-make recipes rich in Vitamin A. Check them out and be sure to visit these blogs for more great recipes.

Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Bisque on Chow and Chatter

This recipe has a tripe-dose of vitamin A rich vegetables – sweet potato, carrots and butternut squash! Strictly speaking, bisque is a thick soup, but this recipe could easily be turned into rich, creamy dip for french bread or baked chips. I would skip the wine, of course, when offering it to your kids! Check it out.

Sweet Potato Quesadilla on Fix Me A Snack

This is such a cool idea for a quick snack rich in vitamin A! It uses sweet potato, applesauce and optionally cranberry sauce and of course cheese and tortillas. Our twins love crunchy quesadillas, so we are definitely going to give it a try!

Chili Mac ‘N Cheese with a Healthy Makeover on Meal Makeover Moms

Kids love Mac ‘n Cheese, but the problem is the fat and refined carbs from the usual ingredients – pasta, milk and cheese. The Meal Makover Moms did  a simple and clever ingredient swap to make this a healthier option. Vitamin A comes from the milk, cheese and the vegetarian chili.

Börek – Spinach Pastry on Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook

This is our family favorite! Spinach filling and a liquid mix made up of milk, egg and olive oil are added between layers of phyllo pastry and the whole stack is baked in the oven for a crunchy, yet soft spinach pastry. It is a great snack or an appetizer before a meal.

Butternut Squash Soup on Littlestomaks

We have made this recipe several times now and it has become one of our favorites. It takes a little longer to cook, but it is very good! The good thing is that you can make enough to last for a couple of days. Butternut squash is a great source of vitamin A and other vitamins.

Enjoy these recipes and let me know what you think!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

There is a reason why you might remember grandma’s eat your carrots advice! Vitamin A is really a very important vitamin for both you and your child. There is more to vitamin A than carrots though! That is why I thought of researching this topic  from a variety of sources and writing about it in a simple Q&A format. Let me know how you like it! Feel free to share your ideas, opinions and unique insight on this subject.

What is vitamin A?

Vitamin A is a general name for a class of nutrients which are important for our health, particularly eye health. Chemically, they are related to a substance called retinol. Most vitamin A supplements are formulated to have a certain form of retinol, for example retinyl palmitate or retinyl acetate. These compounds are soluble in fat. They are stored in the liver when taken from diet or supplements.

You might have heard that carrots are a good source of vitamin A. Well, that is only partly true. Carrots in fact contain a compound called beta-carotene, which is what gives the orange color. Beta-carotene is not vitamin A, but a provitamin A; that is, it is converted to vitamin A when it is absorbed in our intestines.

Why does my child need it?

Vitamin A is very important for a growing child. According to the 2nd edition of the PDR for Nutritional Supplements, vitamin A is critical for healthy vision and its deficiency is known to cause night blindness. It is also important for healthy skin, bone development, brain development and development of blood cells. It also supports proper functioning of our immune system.

How much vitamin A should my child be getting?
What are good sources of vitamin A?

In general, the daily recommended amount of vitamin A is 5000 IU (IU means International Units). For infants, however, the FDA has recommended a daily amount of 1500 IU. And for toddlers less than 4 years old, the recommendation is 2500 IU.

Since breastmilk is one of the best sources of vitamin A, the FDA recommends a daily amount of 8000 IU for pregnant and nursing women.

Now, if you are using a supplement, it is easy to keep track of the IU’s. But what if you are relying on fruits, veggies and other dietary sources of vitamin A? Here are a few guidelines for you (ref: Wikipedia.org):

1. One serving of milk (1 cup) typically has 10% of the recommended daily amount (RDA)
2. 1 hard-boiled egg (yolk) has about 10% of the RDA
3. 100 g of raw carrots will provide close to 100% of the RDA
4. 100 g of sweet potato will deliver about 80% of the RDA
5. 100 g of spinach has about 50%, collard greens about 40%, kale about 80%, pumpkin about 40% of the RDA
6. Cantaloupe, apricot, papaya, mango etc have lower amounts, but they are a good, diverse source of vitamins and minerals
7. Liver (beef, pork, turkey, chicken, fish) is a very rich source of vitamin A; 100 g provides over 700% of the RDA!

If you are using a supplement, be careful not to exceed the recommended dose and frequency. Also, select a brand known for using high purity ingredients. Check out my review of some of the popular kids brands of multivitamins.

What happens if my child does not get enough vitamin A?

When vitamin A rich foods are missing from your child’s diet over a long period of time, and you are not using any supplements, there is a possibility that your child may develop vitamin A deficiency. In case of certain medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis, Whipple’s disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, pancreatic disease and liver disease, there may be a problem with absorption of not only vitamin A from food but also other essential nutrients. Chances are, you are already consulting with a doctor if you are in this situation. If not, you should talk to your doctor about it as soon as possible.

In the rare case (at least in the developed countries), if your child does not get enough vitamin A and develops a deficiency, it can lead to dry eye and vision problems including night blindness. The range of vision problems associated with vitamin A deficiency is called xerophthalmia (xeros means dryness, ophthalmia means of the eye). It can make your child more prone to infections and compromise his immune system. Under extreme conditions, it can also slow down the child’s growth.

Should I be concerned about vitamin A deficiency?
Since vitamin A is stored in the liver, you do not need to worry about it on a day-to-day basis as long as your child is getting a balanced diet on average which includes a nice blend of fruits, veggies, dairy and meat products. In most of the developed countries, vitamin A deficiency is not a problem.

Having said that, clinical vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a big problem in poor countries of Africa and Asia according to this World Health Organization (WHO) report. Unicef’s childinfo.org has a nice summary of the global vitamin A deficiency problem, especially among children, which indicates that over 5 million children of pre-school age could have clinical VAD. And as many as 190 million pre-school age children and 19 million pregnant or nursing women do not have enough vitamin A in their daily diet, which puts them at a very high risk of VAD. This should be troubling to us even though it may not affect us directly in the developed world.

What do you think? What changes, if any, would you consider making to your child’s diet so she gets enough vitamin A? Do you have recipes that use vitamin A rich ingredients? I would love to hear from you!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Ever since we discovered quinoa a while back, we have been trying to make different recipes with it. This one is another very quick and simple recipe you can make easily. It tasted great and provided a good way to get some veggies in front of our twins.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup organic quinoa (we used the 365 brand from Whole Foods)
2. 1 cup cauliflower florets
3. 1 cup carrots, chopped
4. 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions
5. 2 – 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley)
6. 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
7. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8. salt, pepper and soy sauce to taste
9. 2 cups water

Method

Rinse quinoa well. Add quinoa, cauliflower, carrots and water in a saucepan, cover and bring to a boil. Season with soy sauce, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer about 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed and quinoa is opened up. When cooked, the quinoa grain appears soft and translucent. The germ ring is visible along the outside edge of the grain as seen in the picture above. Slowly fold in cilantro, green onions, vinegar and olive oil. Serve immediately.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Ingredients

1. 1 box (16 oz.) bow tie pasta (we used Ronzoni brand)
2. 2 medium sized zucchini, peeled and cubed
3. 4-5 baby carrots, cut into bite size pieces
4. 1 small onion, finely chopped or crushed in a food processor
5. 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6. Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cook pasta according to instructions on the box. We like to add a little salt and olive oil to the boiling water just before adding pasta. Do not overcook; the best way to judge if the pasta is cooked is to taste it.  Drain into a colander and shake well to remove all excess water. Set aside.

Heat  olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add zucchini and carrots and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add cooked pasta and mix well to cover the pasta evenly with olive oil and vegetables. Cover and cook at low heat for another 4-5 minutes. Serve immediately.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Ingredients

1. 2 medium sized fennel bulbs
2. 1/2 cup basmati rice
3. 5-6 baby carrots cut into bite sized pieces
4. 1/2  cup extra virgin olive oil
5. 2 cups warm water
6. 1 tsp sugar
7. Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Wash fennel bulbs thoroughly and chop into small pieces. You can include portions of the green stems cutting them into small round pieces. Add olive oil to a shallow saucepan on medium heat. Add the chopped fennel and saute lightly for around 5 minutes. Add rice and carrots and mix gently. Add warm water, sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook covered for about 25-30 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is cooked. Add more warm water if all water is absorbed before rice is fully cooked.

About Fennel

Source: Wikipedia

Fennel is a popular herb with a strong anise-like smell and flavor. It is one of the main components of absinthe, an alcoholic drink of historical significance! Used as a vegetable for its swollen white onion-like base, Florence Fennel has a milder anise like flavor but it is more aromatic and sweeter. Raw fennel bulb is very nutritious with a lot of fiber, B and C vitamins, and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium. Dried fennel seeds are used as a spice in many Indian and Middle Eastern recipes. Its medicinal value comes from anethole, a substance that acts as an antimicrobial and a plant-based estrogen. Fennel is also believed to provide comfort for digestive problems like gas. Learn more about Fennel on Wikipedia.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

4 toddler servings, 2 adult servings

Ingredients

1. 1 16 oz. can of red kidney beans
2. 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped or crushed in a food processor
3. 1 cup baby carrots, cut in bite size pieces, or shredded in a food processor
4. 2 medium tomatoes, crushed in food processor
5. Parsley
6. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
7. 1 tbsp tomato paste
8. 1 tsp sugar
9. 2 cups warm water

Method

Remove red beans from the can and wash in cold water. Add olive oil to a shallow saucepan on medium heat. Add onions and saute lightly for 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and carrots to the onions and mix lightly. Add red kidney beans and water. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until beans are soft (about 30-45 minutes). Add more water as needed, and continue to cook until desired consistency. Serve cold with Basmati rice or a slice of whole grain and plain yogurt.

You can also make this recipe with dry red kidney beans. You will need to soak them overnight and then boil them or steam them the next day before adding it the recipe described above.

About Red Kidney Beans

Wikimedia Commons

The red kidney bean, just like other dry beans, is an excellent source of starch, protein, dietary fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins (B1, B6) and folic acid. Soaking them for several hours before cooking reduces the cooking time. If you discard several batches of the soaking water, you will remove certain complex sugars which otherwise can cause indigestion and gas. You will still need to boil them, however soaking them overnight will substantially reduce the boiling time. You can also use a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time.

2 toddler servings, 1 adult serving

Ingredients

1. 1 small piece of boneless, skinless organic chicken thigh
2. ½ cup fine egg noodles, small pieces (Publix brand); substitute with whole grain noodles if desired
3. 5 small baby carrots
4. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5. 2 cups warm water

Method

Wash the chicken, remove excess water and cook it covered in a small saucepan on low-medium heat for about 15 minutes. It will turn soft and you should be able to easily separate it in small bite size pieces with a fork or knife. Cut carrots into small bite size pieces and add to the chicken in the same saucepan. Add olive oil and stir in noodles. Finally add warm water. Cover and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes on medium heat until noodles are soft and all the water is absorbed.