(Mostly) Whole Grain Banana Muffins

Here is a cut and paste of a email string from late last week (you’ll have to read it bottom up):

From: RunSenoRun
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 2:26 PM
To: ChattyCha
Subject: RE: Seno Out

 
ha ha


From:
ChattyCha
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 2:02 PM
To: RunSenoRun
Subject: RE: Seno Out
Hi,
If you aren’t back on Monday, I am taking the bananas from your desk and making banana bread.
Just FYI.
 


 

From: RunSenoRun
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 9:00 AM
To: Our team at work
 Subject: Seno Out
 Rough night. As it stands, this spot by the computer is one of the few comfortable locations in my apartment, so I’ll probably be online most of the day. At this point, I could not curl myself into a car to get to the doctor so the best thing for me to do is just relax all weekend and see what Monday brings.

Indeed, my next-door-office neighbor did not make it back into the office on Monday, so last night I took his very ripe bananas home with me. The toddler and I had a grand time baking. She fiddles around with kitchen gadgets that I hand her and I do the actual baking. Then she has a fit when she can’t lick the spoon (raw egg, no eat), and I try to distract her wth other stuff. I did promise her a muffin when they came out of the oven, but by then (12 minutes later), she had promptly forgotten about the muffins because she was watching Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan. Is it a bad thing that I reneged on my promise (it was, after all, bedtime, and I didn’t want her hopped up on all sorts of sugar and such).

banana muffins via chattycha on flickr

These muffins have a combination of all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour, plus both white and brown sugars. I am experimenting with different levels of whole-grain flour to come up with an ideal taste/texture combination. I think we are pretty close with these. There is a slight nuttiness of the whole wheat, but it’s pretty subtle, and barely there when you eat them warm. Not a peep from the husband, the toddler, or any of the co-workers who have tried these, so I think I’m on to something.

Sadly, banana office neighbor is still out with back issues, so he will not enjoy the “fruits” of his labor. 

Sidenote on gadgets:

  1. I totally love the mini-muffin tins I got from Sur La Table last year. Bought them on sale, felt a little guilty, but now I’m glad I did. Perfect size for the toddler. One mini-muffin comes out to about 80 calories. Now that’s a muffin I can believe in.
  2. While we tend to shy away from unnecessary kitchen gadgets (mainly due to space issues in our kitchen), the mother-in-law gave us this nifty pancake/muffin batter dispenser. Yes, this means an extra gadget that requires washing. But, in my opinion, TOTALLY worth it! It really works like a charm and I’m impressed.

First foods

Hey it’s been a long while since I posted. I’m back here to talk about food. But not my food. Lily’s food. She turned 6 months this week and we celebrated by giving her her first taste of banana. Yum. It was an incredibly proud moment for us parents. I mashed up some banana and mixed it with breast milk, until it was the consistency of half-and-half or cream. Maybe a little thicker. First I dunked my finger and and let her suck on it. She wasn’t really into it so instead I tried one of those little baby spoons. Boy, she was all over that! She had been watching us eat for weeks now, and every now and then I would give her that same spoon to sort of play with. I’d pretend I was giving her something to eat so that she would put the spoon in her mouth. So yesterday, when the time was right, she knew just what to do.

Atta girl!

Atta girl!

So so proud. We decided to try banana as a first food rather than the standard rice cereal that every doctor mentions. We went to a First Foods class that recommended this. In fact, we learned in class that if Mom (that’s me) eats the same food every day for 14 days, that the food will be come a familiar taste to the baby. Well, it just so happens that I eat a banana nearly every day. So, why not go for it? Bananas are chock full of nutrients and are filling. And they are tasty, to boot.

What foods are up next? How about avocado? Sweet potato? Or something in season, maybe peaches, nectarines … What do you suggest?

Here are some resources, if you’d like to learn more about first foods: