Category — Recipes

Cute kid

Last week I decided to try to make Tzatziki sauce. In high school we used to love to go to YaYa center (a local “mall”) and eat gyros – the best gyros I’ve ever had anywhere. I got this recipe from a recipe blog I like to read: Cumin and Coriander, and got the ingredients I didn’t have (fresh dill and cucumbers – I don’t like cucumbers, so don’t usually buy them.)

Opening the fresh dill container took me back to high school where Buddy used to make dill cucumbers and sell them – he’d sell out of a 5-10 gallon container in a day!

And then the smell and taste of the tzatziki reminded me of those delicious YaYa gyros. I fried some chopped up steak in olive oil, and added a lot of salt and pepper. I also made chapatis. Then I spread the tzatziki sauce on the chapatis, and put the meat and tomatoes on top. It wasn’t quite YaYa, but close.

Here’s the Tzatziki sauce recipe: She suggests serving it with toasted pita bread – I’ll have to try that. I’d also say that the sauce was the best the first day, but leftovers were good too. I used fat free yogurt and sour cream and it turned out fine (and was only 1 weight watcher point if you split it into 5 servings.)

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 a cucumber, unpeeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, grated
1 tbsp sea salt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp minced fresh dill
1 garlic clove, grated or minced
pita bread

Place a sieve over a small bowl. Line the sieve with cheese cloth. Pour yogurt on top, cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight to drain.

Combine cucumber, dill, sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, and add to the yogurt. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Silly new teeth face

Coriena has reached a new eating stage – she now wants to feed herself. We had chicken chili (see recipe below) for dinner tonight, so I ground hers up and started feeding her. She made horrible faces and spat it out and smeared it all over her face, hands, etc. So I gave her the beans and cut up chicken on her tray, and she happily fed herself.

I also discovered this week that she loves to feed herself peas (sorry, Wil and Sarah) and cut up green beans.

Oh, and during Thanksgiving week she got 3 new teeth, so now she has 3 on top, and one on the bottom.

So happy day for me, no more feeding my child. She can now “do it my-by-self!!”

Chicken Chili by Rinnie Hersman/Mom Meiners
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. chopped chicken
1/4 cup onion
1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water and 1 tsp. chicken bullion)
4 oz. canned chilis
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cilantro
1/4 tsp. red pepper
2-3 16 oz. cans beans (black, kidney, garbanzo, white)

Saute chicken and onion in olive oil. Add rest of ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese if desired.

The other night I was feeding Coriena baby carrots – another food in the list of baby foods we’ve been experimenting with over the last month. Most of the carrots were getting drooled or spat out. On a whim, I gave her some of the juice from my Mexican Stew (see recipe below). She loved it!!! She gobbled it right down, and barely drooled any of it out.

It runs in the family – my two distinct memories of Meredith’s early eating adventures consist of chapatis and Cuban Black Beans. And she likes to add hot sauce to her food. And then there was Lauren, who would have no solids until she was 8 months old!!
On another note, Coriena had her 6 month check up the other day. She’s 26 inches long and 19 lbs, 2oz – she grew another inch and gained about 2 1/2 pounds in the last two months. So I guess she’s not starving!! (Interestingly, at the same age Lauren was the same height and a couple ounces more, and Meredith was almost TWO POUNDS heaver – and only 1/2 inch taller!!!) These pictures are of each of them at 6 months.
Mexican Stew – from my mom
1-2 lbs. stew meat
1 can diced tomato
1 cup chopped onion (I just put in some onion flakes)
1 tsp. chili powder
1 taco seasoning package
2 cans beans (black, kidney, whatever you like)
1 can garbanzo beans or corn

Mix together and simmer for 30 minutes, OR cook in pressure cooker for 8 minutes. OR you can cook first 4 ingredients in crockpot on low for 9 hours, and add last 3 ingredients for last 1/2 hour.