Hide your veggies!

When Hunter first started eating foods I discovered this book by Author Annabel Karmel called First Meals Food Diary. It had alot of great first purees and tons of tips and tricks on how to get your baby to enjoy foods, which are suitable for freezing and how to do so, and when you should be giving your baby what foods. The best part about the book is that it grows with your child. It has first purees, fingers and spoons, toddler food, and then 3 years and beyond. Alot of the recipies she has are totally adult friendly, too. I've made large batches and fed the meal to Sonny and he's totally dug them too.

Last night I made Hidden Vegetable Bolognaise (with a few little tweaks...only cuz I didn't have certain things on hand or what not) and it was delicious!! Hunter is getting to that very-picky-with-veggies stage and this was the perfect meal to make to hide all those wonderful nutrients in a sauce. My only problem is that he doesn't like pasta (what the?). I mean...he sees a noodle, shell, macaroni, anything pasta like coming at him and turns his head in disgust. I made this with spaghetti...and he wasn't having it...but I wanted to see if he liked the sauce so then I just scooped a little into a bowl (it's nice and hearty) and he gobbled it all up. So I spread it on a whole wheat toast and he ate it like a sloppy joe.

Best part about this meal....it provides protein, iron, zinc, beta-carotene, folate, vits B2, B3, & C, and prebiotics (I only know this because the author lists all the nutrients for each meal in her recipies...wonderful!) Hope you all enjoy this! It's good for you, too, and you'd never know it!!

Shredding and chopping the veggies (with a little apple on the side for momma's snacking)

HIDDEN VEGETABLE BOLOGNAISE

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion

1 small leek, thinly sliced (I didn't have this on hand...so I just left it out)

1/2 stalk celery, diced

1/4 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced (I used 1/2 a green....again...it's just what i had on hand)

1 small carrot, peeled and grated

1/2 sweet apple, peeled and grated

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 14oz can crushed tomatoes (i used diced...it gets ground up anyway)

1 lb ground beef

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tbsp ketchup

1 cup beef stock

1/4 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper (I went pretty light on this...just little pinches)

Heat oil in a large pan and saute the veggies, apple, and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor, add the tomatoes, then blen until smooth

Add ground beef to the pan and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned and crumbly. If your child likes a finer texture or is not ready for to chunky a food, you can transfer the browned beef to a food processor; pulse the machine on and off until the beef is well-chopped.

Add the tomato and veggie sauce to the beef and stir in the tomato paste, ketchup, stock, and oregano. Bring up to a simmer and cook until the sauce has thickened, about 40-45 minutes. Season (a little) with salt and pepper.