Liam and the girls

Here's a cookbook recommendation for all of you with young kids: "Superfoods for Babies and Children," by Annabel Karmel. It has great recipes for starting at 6 months and going up to 3+ years. She has a bunch of info in the front on what kids need to grow and how each nutrient helps. Each of her recipes focuses on one ingredient and gives some nutritional information on the side as to how the meal will benefit your child. She also makes food interesting and fun for older kids.

My kids love her chicken balls and I like it because I'm able to sneak some veggies in them. Here's the recipe:

Finger-Picking Chicken Balls

1 TBS light olive oil
1 med. onion, finely chopped
1/2 c grated carrot
1 lg. Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated
2 6-oz boneless skinless chicken breasts (uncooked), cut into chunks
1 TBS chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 dried (optional)
1/2 c fresh white break crumbs
1 chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
salt and freshly ground pepper
all-purpose flour for coating chicken balls
vegetable oil for frying

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and saute 1/2 the onion and the grated carrot for 3 minutes,
stirring occasionally
2. Using your hands, squeeze out a little excess liquid from the grated apple.
3. Mix together the grated apple, chicken and sauteed onion and carrot along with the raw
chopped onion, parsley, thyme, bread crumbs and stock cube and chop for a few seconds in a
food processor.
4. Season with a little salt and pepper.
5. With your hands, form the mixture into about 20 balls, roll them in flour and fry in a little oil
until lightly golden and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.

To get a little "extra" calories in them, I add some sour cream on top and they go for it! Jack even likes them and had some for dinner last night. Can't go wrong with a dinner for everyone! I also end up with more than 20 so I freeze half the batch and can pull them out as I need to.

Update

I think that both Lily and Liam will be proficient walkers by Christmas. Liam is doing great! I watched them all walking around the play room this morning and had a vision of the trouble that is about to ensue. Ellie has also figured out how to move obejcts near other objects in order to climb higher. Uh oh!