If you are looking for a blog where you can find vegetarian recipies created with minimum sugar, gluten and milk products, that tastes good and are organic and green, look no further than Danish mum Luise and Swedish dad David’s fantastic blog, Green Kitchen Stories.
The lovely Scandinavian couple, along with their beautiful 18 month old daughter Elsa, document their health-minded family meals. Each recipe is easy enough for any family to follow and unique enough that you couldn’t possibly get bored. (The team at AlexandAlexa.com tried making the Green Sushi Salad – we know, just the name is amazing – it tasted even better than it sounds!).
Though normally they blog from Sweden (in both Swedish and English), the little blogging family has gone on a 3 month trip to California, which will be followed by a 3 month trip to Asia and thus far, there recipes have been influenced by their journey as they use the freshest produce from their location.
We contacted Luise and David to find out what their favourite things are to make for baby Elsa, and this is what they said:
First, Vegetarian baby food doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult. Just keep in mind to add different kinds of protein, such as beans, lentils, seeds, quinoa or eggs. Different kinds of fat, such as avocado, coconut or good quality oils (flaxseed, olive, almond, sunflower), as well as, vitamins and minerals from different kinds of fruit and vegetables.
And the easiest way is to cook a lot of everything one or two days a week, store it in big jars that you keep in the fridge or freezer, and when it’s time for dinner, all you need to do is to take a spoonful from each jar, heat and serve!
Ps. Don’t forget the mild spices and fresh herbs, babies love that.
We have put together our daughter Elsa’s favourite meal. She actually eats everything that we put in front of her (including the napkins), but these things make her extra giddy. When we put this meal in front of her she started to clap her hands, jump up and down in her chair and even though she can’t speak yet, she really tried to say “gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme!”.
MAIN MEALS
Elsa’s absolute favorite food is – believe it or not – Sprouts!
They are easy for her to grab, put in her mouth and to play with. Even though most of them are ending up on the floor they can keep her occupied during a whole meal. Which gives us time to feed her the rest of her food (and to eat ourselves).
If we don’t give her sprouts we make sure that she has something else to hold on to and play with while she eats. Like this Cucumber ring.
Aubergine & Sweet Potato Mash:
1 aubergine
1 sweet potato
3 tbsp olive oil
Cut the vegetable in small peaces, boil them in water for 20 minutes.
Puree in a food processor or mash with a fork. Add the olive oil and stir around.
Beans & Herbs:
1 can beans
5 leaves of fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil…)
3 tbsp olive oil
Cook any kind of beans according to the package or use canned beans (as we usually do).
Puree beans and herbs in a food processor or mash with a fork. Add olive and stir around.
Lemon Quinoa:
Cook quinoa according to the package. Mix it with oil and juice from lemon or orange.
DESSERT
We want to keep her off ice cream, cookies and cakes as long as we can. Right now she is more than happy with a scoop of cinnamon applesauce, a coconut avocado mash and a slice of grapefruit to chew on.
Cinnamon Apple Sauce:
1 bag of apples
cinnamon
Cut the apples in small pieces and cook them on low heat until they soften, it will take about 20 – 30 minutes. When cooled off, drizzle with cinnamon and mash with a fork.
Coconut Avocado:
1 avocado
2 tbsp shredded coconut
1 tbsp flaxseed oil
Mix avocado, coconut and oil in a blender or with a fork.
