Baby Friendly Cereal Bars

Baby Charlie really likes to eat, and I really like to feed him things that are good for him, free of sodium and sugars and preservatives that I can't even pronounce.  The ingredients on some manufactured "healthy" baby treats make me shudder.  I turned to the internet to get some ideas for making my own.  That's where I discovered Lou's awesome site.  She's got some amazing healthy, baby-friendly recipes.  First I tried following her recipe for these cereal bars to the letter, but for whatever reason, it just didn't work for me.  I couldn't get the dough to be an actual workable dough for the life of me, and I certainly couldn't get it to roll out.  I have no idea what I did wrong, or why it didn't work out, but I didn't let it discourage me, and I did what I always do.  I used her great recipe as my base, made some adjustments, and tried again.

I finally achieved success, and so far we've had apple, banana, and yellow squash cereal bars.  The baby thinks these are the best thing ever, and I'm pretty happy with them myself.  He gets his yummy snack without all that added stuff that I don't want him to have, and I get peace of mind from knowing that he's starting off his life eating well.

Hmmmm what's this?

Coconut Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Stew with Quinoa and Kale

Whew.  That's a long name for something that was pure improvisation.  This stew was born from a case of the blues.  It's gray and rainy and cold and altogether nasty outside, precisely the weather I really hate.  I have a chest cold, and the cough is driving me crazy.  I'm chronically sleep deprived and completely exhausted.  I went and worked out, but it was a gargantuan effort, and it made me feel worse instead of better.  Everything was just crappy, and I needed comfort.  It was also lunch time, so comfort food sprang from the meager ingredients I have in my kitchen.  It's also got three super foods, but that happened completely by accident.  I was just using things I thought would be good together.  I suppose it says something at least slightly positive about my eating habits that I even had three super foods hanging out in my kitchen!

Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Pizza

Pizza for breakfast.  This sounds like a winning idea to me!  When I saw Chocolate Covered Katie's Breakfast Pizzert, I knew I was going to have to try it out ASAP.  Because I'm me, however, I can't just let a recipe be.  I had to tweak it to suit my needs and tastes.  These days I do my best to use oat flour instead of any other, or at least a combination.  I'm all about the lactogenic foods!  With the exception of the chocolate chips, this is quite healthy, as well.  It's no added fat, refined sugar free, and made with oat flour and fruit.

You could probably make this into a healthy dessert actually, but you'd have to sweeten it up a bit.  It would be really good with maple syrup, I think.

Thai Peanut Salad with Marinated Tempeh

Let me just say, right up front, that there's NOTHING authentically Thai about this salad at all.  I just gave it this name, because I marinated the tempeh in the sauce from my Sesame Peanut Noodles.  However, authentic or not, it was mighty tasty and very filling.  It made for a great post workout lunch, because I was starving!