What do you feed your baby when you’re going on a plane or a long car ride? These tips will hopefully help make it a lot easier!

We started shooting short cooking programs at weelicious when the site began a few years ago. It was a way for me to get into the kitchen with Kenya to demonstrate how to pull off fast, fresh and easy meals and show how involving kids in the kitchen gets them interested in eating a larger variety of foods. In my experience, when kids have a hand at preparing some of their meal, they’re much more excited about eating it.

Over the next few days, we’re going to highlight a few of our favorite video recipes from the past year. I tried to select the episodes that either generated the most feedback on the message board or that Kenya requested the most! As 2009 comes to a close, hopefully your life will feel a bit slower and easier this week so you can watch some programs with your family and be inspired to get into the kitchen together and make some fun meals!

Kenya loves Avocado Shake. It’s hands down his favorite video of the year (make sure to watch until the last few seconds to see why), so I had to put it up first! Today at the farmers’ market we bought 3 different varieties of avocado: Bacon, Hass and Fuerte. They were all super soft, creamy and delicious, so you can be sure we’ll be celebrating this recipe before 2010 gets here!

Happy holidays!

I hadn’t even thought about adding this on as a recipe until I realized that we made FOUR of these quesadillas just this week alone. This means 3 things to me: 1) I’m pretty sure that kids will love them because Kenya hasn’t stopped asking for them, 2) for me to be so happy making them must mean they only take minutes to throw together and 3) they’re perfect for anyone on a budget because they’re made with some of the staples I always seem to have laying around the house. This recipe costs me just over $1.50 for 2 servings and there are never leftovers. I call that a recipe worth making again and again!

Avocado & Cheese Quesadilla (Serves 2)

1 Small Avocado, cut into thin slices
1/2 Cup Cheese, shredded (I used a 3 cheese blend of monterey jack, cheddar and mozzarella)
2 Whole Wheat or Spelt Tortillas

1. Place a tortilla in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
2. Cover with half of the cheese and top with the avocado slices.
3. Cover with remaining cheese and tortilla, slightly pressing down.
4. Cook in the saute pan for 6 minutes total, turning halfway through.
5. Cut into wedges.
6. Serve.

Here’s a recipe I meant to put up all summer long, because summertime is burger time. But when you think about it, all the time is burger time!

I like a hamburger or turkey burger as much as the next person, but I also love a salmon burger. They’re so easy to prepare and everyone in our family adores them.

Salmon is a very important food for kids because it’s so high in protein, good fats and omega 3 fatty acids which aids in brain development. And did you know that a 4oz piece of salmon has a full day’s requirement of vitamin D, one of the few foods that can make that claim.

I made 8 medium sized burgers for a barbecue recently using this recipe and thinking I’d have leftovers. Nice try, before I knew it, every bite was gone. At least I know we all got our fill of vitamin D for the day!

Salmon Burgers (Serves 4)

1 Lb. Fresh Salmon, skinned
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Capers
1 Tbsp Fresh or 1 Tsp Dried Dill
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Oil
Accompaniments: Lemon Yogurt Sauce, Mayonnaise, Avocado, Tomato or Lettuce
Buns or Rolls

1. Place the first 5 ingredients in a food processor and pulse until just combined (you should still see tiny pieces of salmon).
2. Form into patties and place on a sheet tray lined with foil or plastic wrap (mixture will be sticky. Using wet hands will make forming the patties much easier).
3. Cover and refrigerate the salmon patties for 1 hour.
3. Heat oil over medium/high heat in a large skillet.
4. Cook the patties for 3 minutes on each side.
5. Place on a bun and top with desired accompaniments.
6. Serve.

Make sure to watch the VERY end of this one. Hilarious!

Here’s the recipe for Avocado Shakes. Enjoy and Happy 4th of July!

Yummy! I have no other words to describe this dish. We love breakfast burritos in our home because they’re so quick to prepare and are the perfect protein-packed breakfast after a long night’s sleep (if we’re lucky enough to get one these days). I love watching Kenya’s little hands grabbing the tortilla-wrapped egg, bean and salsa filling as it drips out onto his plate. I can’t say this is the neatest meal to consume, but it sure is delicious and, trust me, every bite will ultimately wind up in your little ones mouth!

P.S. My husband thinks the picture above looks more like a taco then a burrito. Picky, picky! I wanted everyone to see all the yummy filling!

Breakfast Burritos (Serves 4)

4 Eggs
2 Tbsp Milk
3/4 Cup Pinto Beans, cooked, rinsed and drained
1/2 Cup Salsa
Canola Oil Spray, Oil or Butter for pan
2 Corn Tortillas, warmed if desired
Sour Cream, Cheese or Avocado, optional

1. Whisk the eggs, milk, and salt in a bowl.
2. Heat a nonstick pan over low to medium heat and spray or grease with oil or butter.
3. Pour in the egg mixture and stir until almost scrambled, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the beans and salsa and cook for 2 minutes or until ingredients are heated through.
5. Place scrambled egg mixture and other optional ingredients into tortillas and roll or fold in half.
6. Serve.

This isn’t a recipe that I just came up with out of the blue. I’ve actually been making this for husband for ages. For many years he was a vegetarian and so I was always trying to come up with new and exciting recipes that would offer him protein and vegetables (unlike me, a total carnivore at heart). This dish is now a regular in our house. There’s almost always a bowl of it in the fridge because it’s so quick and easy to prepare, but it’s also healthy.
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a fantastic grain for kids because it has more protein then other grains, contains more calcium then milk, plus it’s easy to digest. Quinoa is also full of B vitamins, vitamin E and iron which 9% of toddlers, 700,000 in the U.S. alone have shown to have to be deficiency in.
I made this for my “kids dinner party” recently and all the little ones loved it. One of my friends kept saying her daughter “hates avocado”. Being kind of sneaky (I know! I’m all against sneaking foods, but this was just an experiment, I swear!), I asked her daughter if she wanted a bite of the quinoa mexicana salad and she said yes. When I tell you she gobbled up this dish AND the avocado it proves that sometimes, even little ones can be open minded to new flavors. You just never know.

Quinoa Mexicana Salad (makes 6-8 toddler servings)

1/2 Cup Quinoa, washed and drained
1 Cup Water
1/2 cup fresh or frozen Corn, cooked
1 Avocado, chopped
1/2 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Cilantro, chopped
1/4 Tsp Cumin
Salt to taste

1. Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover for 15 minutes.
3. Place the quinoa in a bowl and cool.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Serve.

Once in a while, when Kenya starts to go a little batty while I’m cooking in the kitchen, I’ll stop what I’m doing to make something with him. Even at 18 months it’s amazing how much he’s capable of doing. He can totally be my co-pilot on this recipe. He helps me peel a banana and plop it in the blender. Then, I’ll wash and scoop the avocado and yogurt into the blender and then let him press the buttons so he can watch it all mix together. His eyes light up so brightly at this culinary achievement. It’s amazing how including Kenya in the process makes him want to enjoy new foods and snack on healthy favorites. Even better, helping Mommy out in the kitchen chills him out a little and takes that crazy baby energy down a notch.
Bananas and avocado are not only monsters of nutrition, but they also make a creamy and delicious combination for babies and toddlers. Avocados are rich in the antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamin C and E while bananas are filled with magnesium and potassium. This puree is so thick and rich, I decided to get all fancy and call it a mousse — yes, we’re so fancy here at weelicious :).
I wrote that this recipe makes enough for 3 toddler servings, but after Kenya and I finished making this batch and dug the spatula in the blender for bite after bite, nothing remained at the end….except for the smiles on our faces.

Banana Avocado Mousse (3 Baby Servings)

1 Banana, peeled and chopped
1/2 Avocado, peeled and cubed
1/4 Cup Whole Milk Yogurt
2 Tbsp Rice Milk (you can also use almond, soy or whole milk)

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until thick, but smooth.
2. Serve.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

The hardest part about making dips that are both flavorful and delicious is that they’re usually packed with mayonnaise and sour cream which are heavenly, but not very healthy — certainly not anywhere as nutritious as a rich avocado, which is a great substitute.
Avocados have the creamiest consistency for making a dip. They’re packed with the antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. Even better is that you can add to this recipe virtually any fresh herb you can find. I have cilantro, dill and garlic chives growing like weeds in my garden, so that’s the combination that I used, but now that Kenya seems to want to eat this dip at every meal, next week it could be basil, parsley and tarragon.
No matter what vegetable you are serving, it will be a perfect match with this dip.

Avocado Herb Dip (Makes 1/2 Cup)

1 Avocado, peeled and pitted
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise or Vegannaise
2 Tbsp Plain Yogurt
2 Tbsp Herbs (I used cilantro, dill and garlic chives and a pinch of marjoram, but you could use tarragon, basil, parsley, or anything you enjoy)
1 1/2 Tsp Lemon Juice

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
2. Serve.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

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