Meatballs, Applesauce, & Sweet Potatoes

I am quickly learning the magnitude of a boy’s appetite. Growing up in a family of girls (my poor father), I never experienced the healthy appetite of a growing boy! My husband has warned me but I am only beginning to understand how much baby G will eat in his lifetime. With the combination of my patience, or lack thereof, and his daddy’s appetite, when it comes to dinnertime, we have a monster in our high chair!

When I gave G his first Cheerio, I stood back, cringing, waiting for him to start choking. To my surprise, he had no problem gumming the Cheerio and swallowing it down. Now when he shoves six into his mouth at once, I just throw some more onto his tray. Now that G seems to prefer finger foods, I struggled for new ideas for fast, easy, and nutritional finger foods. 

As I was throwing diced carrots, shredded chicken and bread down onto his tray I thought, meatballs! Why can’t I make him his own meatballs? So, I experimented in my kitchen and was quite pleased with my results. Both Daddy and G loved the turkey meatballs I threw together!

G’s Meatballs

1 lb ground turkey

1 large carrot, peeled & grated

2 small McIntosh apples, peeled, cored & grated

½ cup panko breadcrumbs

2 – 3 T. Italian Parsley, finely chopped

½ teaspoon dried basil (if you have fresh basil, use it! 2-3 T. fresh)

¼ teaspoon dried marjoram

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine everything in large bowl. Mix together with your hands until everything is incorporated but do not over mix. Shape meatballs into about 1 ½-inch balls. You can make the meatballs any size you like. Place meatballs onto a sheet pan lightly coated with olive oil. Bake meatballs for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

Let meatballs cool and break meatballs apart into small pieces for baby to grab. Freeze the remaining meatballs and pop out of the freezer anytime. Reheat in microwave at 50% power for about 2 minutes.

Here are some of G’s other favorites that we always keep on hand for our impatient little man.

Applesauce

4 -5 McIntosh Apples, Peeled, Cored, & cut into 1 inch cubes

½ - 1 Cup Water

¼ Teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ Teaspoon Cardamom

Place all ingredients into a saucepan on stovetop on high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until apples are cooked through. Stir the apples every 5 minutes or so to prevent apples from sticking to bottom of pan. Once the apples are cooked through you can mash with potato masher directly in pan, or you can use an emersion blender, food processor, or regular blender.

Store in refrigerator for up to two weeks, which mine never makes it past one week since both G & Daddy loves, loves, loves applesauce!

 

Diced Sweet Potatoes

I really do not consider this a recipe; rather it is just a method of cooking sweet potatoes. Since G loves sweet potatoes so much and they are healthy as is, the only ingredients are sweet potatoes! This is what you do:

1. Peal 2-3 potatoes 
2. Cut potatoes into about ¼ inch cubes. I use my vegetable chopper for this. It saves a ton of time, of which I never have enough. 
3. Place in steamer on stove top.
4. I use a regular pot with a steamer basket inside. Add about 1 inch of water to the pot. 
5. Bring water to boil on high heat, reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

I cannot keep these on G’s tray. He gobbles them up faster than I can put more down!