Salmon Cakes

A healthy meal we can make a batch of to last us a few days!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Salmon filet (we used wild sockeye)
• 1 red and 1 yellow bell peppers, though two of any color work (diced)
• 1/2 red onion (diced)
• 1/4 c or 3-4 stalks celery (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (optional)
• 3-4Tbps olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c breadcrumbs
• Seafood seasoning (e.g., Old Bay) to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon (or a lime if you realize you don’t have a lemon, as was our case!)

Ahead of time, bake salmon at 400 for about 10-12 minutes. 
Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Let cool and then refrigerate.

Dice veggies (including garlic, if using it).


Cook in olive oil until soft.  ~10 minutes.  Turn off heat and let cool.


Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add cooked salmon (remove skin if not done yet), seasonings, and citric. 
Shred by hand. 
Add egg, breadcrumb, and cooled veggies. 

Mix by hand to combine.


Form into balls, slightly larger than golf bowls and then press into thick patties.



  
Cook on non-stick or grill pan on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes each side. 
Cover with lid or aluminum foil to trap steam while cooking.


Enjoy!  It was definitely at hit with my 9 month old!

Banana Blueberry Oatmeal Bites

I’m always looking for something quick, easy, and healthy for breakfast for my baby girl.  Fruit, yogurt, and toast are standbys but I was wanting something a bit more inventive.  Enter oatmeal bites!

Ingredients:

• One banana (for the binding agent)
• 10 blueberries (for flavor, you can do pretty much whatever you want to flavor it)
• 1/2 cup dry Oatmeal (I used instant)
• Splash of breastmilk (activates the oats; could do water, too)

Mash the banana with a hand masher or fork. 
Squish the blueberries (between your fingers is fine!).  Mix well.

Add about a half cup of dry oatmeal and a splash of milk. 
You can play with the amounts of these two ingredients to get the consistency you want.

Roll mixture into ball, then flatten. I put them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. 
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Consistency should be firm but chewy.

Serve!  My daughter loved that she could easily pick these up and eat them.  She ate every last bite!

Green Pops!

Between my daughter’s teething and being mindful of her iron intake (in part due to us doing baby led weaning and therefore skipping all purees, including baby cereal), I decided to make some frozen, iron fortified treats!

Ingredients:

• 15 leave of raw spinach (high in iron)
• One Mango (Vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron)
• 5 oz breastmilk (good for everything!)

I started with doing a rough chop of the mango (I snuck a few pieces for my gal to gnaw on for breakfast, too).  I put this in my food processor with the spinach.

Blend well until liquified.  I then poured this mixture into a measuring cup so that the transfer into the ice cube tray would be easier since there’s a spout.  I folded in my 5 oz of breastmilk and stirred well.

Next step:  Pour into the ice cube tray.  I filled mine about 2/3 full and it filled up the whole tray that way.

I froze them for a few hours until solid.  Then, I popped them out of the ice tray and put them in a ziplock bag for easy access in the future (and so I could have my ice tray back!).

I put mine in a mesh feeder, though if you had ice pop makers, you could just serve these on a stick as well.  It was a hit with my 8.5 month old!