Dip It!

As previously mentioned, fruits and veggies aren’t exactly Babyman’s cup of tea these days, which is ironic since our CSA is supplying us with so many vegetables!  I did some reading on getting kids to eat fruit & veg and lots of people recommend smoothies.  (Oh, by the way, this segment on the Today Show caught my ear this morning while I was packing lunches.  I’ve been buying a lot of frozen berries for the smoothie experiment.  Going to pay more attention going forward.)

I’ve had limited success with smoothies–Babyman wanted nothing to do with the most recent batch and I wound up eating most of it–but I had kind of a breakthrough last week with DIPS.  Turns out, Babyman loves to “dip it!”  He’ll dip carrots, chips, pita bread, chicken, you name it–and this works two ways: one, I can get him to at least *taste* carrots, bell pepper, and cucumber by using them as a conduit for hummus, and two, I can make dips out of other veggies and he’ll eat them on bread or pita.  Yay!

Last night I was taking stock of my rather large supply of zucchini and decided to go out on a limb and make zucchini cakes, figuring he could dip them in sour cream or mustard.  When Babyman was first starting on solids I used to make him chewy zucchini bites with egg and cheese, and these are basically a variation on that.  I got the basic recipe from Greene on Greens & Grains but made a few modifications.

Babyman ate two of these dipped in ketchup and honey mustard at lunch today: “Yummy, yummy!”  HUGE moral victory for mom.

Edamame Hummus Dip
1 cup steamed edamame beans, shelled (you can buy these all prepared at Trader Joe’s, or use frozen)
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  If too chunky, continue adding olive oil.  Serve as a dip, or spread on whole wheat toast with cream cheese for a tasty lunch option.

Zucchini Cakes
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup mozzarella or parmesan cheese (I use mozzarella because it’s so melty)
Salt & pepper, to taste (I think I used too much pepper)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp wheat germ (I add wheat germ to EVERTHING these days–why not?)

Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl, and add salt & pepper.  Mix in flour, baking powder, and wheat germ.  Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan.  Use a wooden spoon to dollop batter onto pan.  Working in batches, fry as you would pancakes, about 3 minutes per side, until lightly browned all over.  Let cool and serve!