Chickpea Salad and baby-food-making :)

I spent the afternoon making what is hopefully my last big batch of baby vegetables.  Baby is 10 months now and transitioning to table foods so I'm hoping this will tide us over!  You should have seen my kitchen at the end of the day!  It was quite a sight and I'd have been very embarrassed if anyone had seen it that way.

I talked recently with a friend about how most baby foods in the stores (and homemade by some) is pretty boring.  Carrots, sweet potato, peas, and green beans.... it's like they don't think babies can handle anything different.  Not so here!  I am an admittedly very picky eater, especially when it comes to veggies so I try hard to ensure that my children do not follow in my footsteps in that way.  This baby eats everything: red pepper, cucumber, spinach, avocado, turnips, parsnips, beets (big favourite!), broccoli, cauliflower, and of course all the regulars as well.    Most vegetables just have to be steamed and then blended for any baby to enjoy.  I took a picture of the red pepper to show you how 2 red peppers makes very little food! 

Tonight we had a family favourite: baked macaroni!  I've shared this recipe before so I won't bore you all with the details but you can find the recipe here.  Even the baby loves this recipe as I just used the mini food chopper to make it a little more baby friendly.  It was served with some green peas (leftover from baby food making) and a chickpea salad.  My kids are not crazy about tomatoes and I don't usually serve them because everyone is allowed some dislikes, right?  Tonight though I thought I'd suggest (strongly) that they try them and they didn't go over as badly as usual.  My oldest daughter even asked to have the salad in her lunch tomorrow so I consider that a win! 

Chickpea Salad

salad:

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 cucumber, seeded and chopped

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 chopped red onion

1/2 cup feta cheese

any chopped peppers you might have

dressing:

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tbsp fresh chopped rosemary

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

*Mix together salad ingredients

*In a food processor pulse together dressing ingredients several times, until well mixed

*Pour dressing over salad and let chill for at least 1 hour