Juice and Jello

Juice!

Tyler was “prescribed” juice by his doctor on a few occasions. When he was little it was for constipation and a SMALL amount of apple juice or stewed prune juice (made by me, see recipe below) was used.

Now that Ty is older he NEVER gets normal juice. Your typical juice from a bottle is nothing more than sugar water. Even if you are getting “100% fruit juice” it is still the sugars and flavoring cooked out of the fruit with very little of the good stuff left over.

We do however give Tyler “juice” which is a fruit puree watered down to 1/3 strength. This is made by taking soft fruit (melon, berries, whatever we have laying around) and blending the entire fruit (peel and all, unless it is an un-eatable rind) with water. Tomatoes also work well in this kind of juice. This is then strained, frozen and watered down when he needs a little treat.

We used juice a lot when I had my surgery and Ty was grumpy. We also use it when he is teething, has intestinal problems, and when we just want to spoil him a little. By serving “juice” in this way we keep the fiber, vitamins, and “good” stuff in the juice but take out the fake and processed crap.

Jello!

Tyler recently had his first experience with “Jello.” Now I will be honest, this was pretty much junk food. I realize that I could have made it healthier, and I plan to next time, but this was kind of a spur of the moment idea on my part.

I did not use regular Jello when I made Ty’s gelatin treat. I did not want the fake flavor, chemicals and tons of sugar/fake sugar in the Jello so I bought WHITE grape juice, boiled it and followed the directions on a pack of PLAIN gelatin. I made a denser Jello and cooled it in an ice cube tray. I then cut the chunks into smaller pieces and let Ty play with it.

Plain gelatin comes from cows unless you get a Kosher gelatin, in which case it comes from fish. I have yet to find a “good” vegetarian Jello (I used to be a vegetarian and tried a few types) because they all seemed too soft or had an odd flavor.

Next time I will use Ty’s fruit puree and water to make the Jello. I will also probably put in a few berries or chunks to make it a little more fun!

Picture from: http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PFWRSQPAL._AA280_.jpg

Seriously, I am back!

The blog is back for real this time! After a request from my cousin and a friend I am starting it back up. It was down while I was recovering from my surgery, but since I am feeling much better I am going to start it back up again. So this week is pretty much going to be a catch up week and then I will resume normal entries (themed).

The Tyler Food Update:

Tyler is still eating many of the same foods as he had been before. Below is a typical day for Ty. Much of this information is what I gave my family as a guideline during my recent surgery.

Pre-Breakfast

½ a sippy cup of milk when he wakes up.

Tyler does not really have a "comfort" object (like a blanket or a binkie). Instead he likes to have a sippy cup around for whenever he wants a drink. We provide him with milk or water throughout the entire day.

Breakfast

Ty eats a bread, protein, fruit (1 handful or ½ a banana, no more), sometimes dairy, and sometimes vegetable. He always gets water along with his milk with breakfast.

Favorite breakfast foods:

• Tyler’s French toast (bread soaked in egg and cinnamon cooked in a little EVOO)
• Ty’s pancake (baby cereal, important up to 18 months, egg, and cinnamon)
• Cereal: Toddler cereal, iron enriched and organic, served dry
• Granola balls (cream cheese with baby safe homemade granola around it)
• Toast (whole wheat (ww) or sprouted grain (sg) and organic) with sunflower butter or cream cheese and cinnamon
• Egg, hardboiled and cut up or scrambled
• Egg with cheese and vegetables

Typical meals

· ½ pancake or French toast, handful of fruit, cream cheese pieces

· Handful of cereal, ½ banana, cheese cubes (1/2 a cheese stick), handful of frozen peas

· Hardboiled egg, thawed carrots (carrots cooked and then frozen), cream cheese, handful of cut fruit.

Lunch

Please give Ty a bread, protein, vegetable, fruit, and if he seems really hungry dairy

Typical Foods

· ½ tortilla (ww or sg and organic) or 1 piece of bread with melted cheese, tofu, and tomato

· ½ tortilla or 1 piece of bread with sunflower butter

· Leftover breakfast

· Steamed peas, broccoli, carrots, other veggie with a little salt and pepper or some cheese

· Tofu cubes with tofu seasoning (cinnamon, stevia, ginger)

· ½ an organic cheese stick in cubes

· Granola balls

· Frozen peas (still frozen), he loves this when he is teething

· ½ Serving (or more) of a casserole from the freezer warmed up to just above room temp

· ½ banana

· ½ small apple cut into pea sized chunks

· handful of strawberries cut up into small pieces or other berries

· small serving of plain yogurt (with smashed fruit) or cottage cheese

· pasta with parmesan cheese and EVOO

· Cut up chicken with BBQ spice

· Crackers (broken up into small pieces)

Dinner

For dinner we serve Ty similar to what he eats for lunch or he eats what we are eating. Ty usually does not eat a lot of food for dinner, reserving his larger meals for earlier in the day.

Snacks (2 per day)

· Smoothie (berries, bananas, tofu, spinach, broccoli…..)

· Cheese, crackers, fruit

· Fruit, cheese, vegetables

· Leftovers from meals

Foods we are not yet serving Tyler

Peanut butter, nut pieces, popcorn, hot dogs, processed meats

Juice-See more information on juice in the next blog

Non organic and non whole milk.

We try to give Ty only organic dairy products.

We also try to stick to organic bread and WHOLE wheat or grain products or sprouted grain. It is important to read labels when picking out bread products.