happy halloween!

We dressed Eliad up as Yoda for his first Halloween. He's too young for the trick or treat candy, but he did go to Bible study this morning as Yoda, and we visited a couple neighbors. He also enjoyed seeing all the kids come to the door, and a lot of the trick or treaters recognized his costume. They loved the baby Yoda. 

I made his hat and ears from wool that I felted. (Technically it's wool that I fulled, but I usually get blank stares when I use that term.) 

I think he's a pretty cute Yoda. Happy Halloween!

32 weeks old. 31 Oct 2012.

pumpkin coconut walnut breakfast cookies

I worked out these pumpkin cookies this past summer when I wanted something yummy, healthy, and filling. They're based on a banana cookie recipe, but I didn't have bananas at the time, and I did have a big can of pumpkin left over from the winter. So I cracked that open, and made a couple batches of these delicious Pumpkin Coconut Walnut Breakfast Cookies. They're healthy and perfect for fall.

Pumpkin Coconut Walnut Breakfast Cookies

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 

1 Tbs golden flaxmeal

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice*

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup oil of your choice

1 Tbs agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease cookie sheet.

 

Combine oats, coconut, flaxmeal, spices, salt, walnuts, and cranberries. Stir together pumpkin, oil, agave nectar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Roll and flatten 2 tablespoons of mixture into a 2 inch round cookies and place onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until fragrant and golden. Cool on pan.

Yield: about 16 cookies.

 

*pumpkin pie spice is 4 parts cinnamon, 2 parts ginger, 1 part allspice, 1 part nutmeg

so for this recipe use:

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

homemade whole wheat dutch oven bread

I made bread for the first time ever. I found an easy bread recipe that requires lots of rising time and no kneading. The bread is baked in a preheated dutch oven. I've made several whole wheat loaves now, and it's going well. I'm looking forward to trying different flours soon too.

The first loaf didn't look so great, but it tasted good. The loaves since this one have looked much better.

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/4 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp instant or dry active yeast
1 1/3 cups cool water
additional flour for dusting

Directions:
In a medium bowl, stir together flours, salt, and yeast. Add water. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix until you have a sticky, wet dough. Cover bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is bubbly and the dough is more than doubled in size, 14-18 hours.

When the first rise is finished, generously dust a work surface with flour. Scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands or a spatula, lift the edges of the dough in towards the center. Tuck in the edges to make it round.

Generously dust a tea towel with flour. Place dough on towel, seam down and dust top lightly with flour. Fold towel loosely over dough and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 2-3 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. The dough should hold the impression when pressed with your finger. If it springs back, let it rise for another 20 minutes.

Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475 F with a rack positioned in the lower third, and place a covered 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 quart heavy pot in center of rack. Remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. (Remember the pot is hot. Be careful.) Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue baking until the bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15-20 minutes.

Makes: One 10-inch round

recipe source

baby led solids (BLW)

I've been pretty intrigued with the idea of baby led solids since I first heard about it several years ago. To me it makes a lot of sense for Eliad to feed himself and decide how much he needs; he's been doing that for 6+ months when he nurses. So instead of starting him with runny or mushy purees that we would spoon feed to him, we give him slices or chunks of soft food to feed himself.

Eliad has been interested in putting everything in his mouth for a couple months. So now that he's 6 months old, he's sitting up well on his own, and he seems to be swallowing some water when we help him practice using a cup, it seemed pretty safe to let him start trying solid food.

A couple weeks ago, on his 6 month birthday, I made some roasted sweet potato fries. He was certainly interested in trying them. But he was not impressed! 

We've since let him try avocado, a plum, cooked apple, cooked carrot sticks, and sweet potato fries again. He was happy with all of those. The problem he was having with everything except the sweet potato fries is that they're all slippery, and it all has a tendency to shoot out of his little hand. The plum was the easiest for him to hold since he could grab it with both hands. So now I'm trying to give him some larger pieces of food that he can hold with two hands, rather than the fry-like slices of fruit we tried serving.

first solid food. 6 months old. 21 Sept 2012.

6 months old

Eliad turned 6 months old a little over a week ago. It completely blows my mind that he's already half a year old. He had his 6 month check up with his doctor that same day. We learned that he is 28" tall and weighs 19 lbs, 14 oz. Here are some photos of the big boy on his half birthday.

6 months old. 21 Sept 2012.