The last, but not least, recipe in my Make Ahead Brunch series: a Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bundt Cake. This buttery and bright cake, spiked with fresh berries, is perfect for brunch, especially with warmer weather upon us. It can be baked in a regular baking pan, but using a bundt playfully hides a cinnamony crunch at the bottom and allows for a lemon glaze over the top. Because who doesn’t need an extra punch of lemon flavor on a sleepy weekend morning?
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When planning my make-ahead brunch, I was looking for a hearty salad to pair with the Spinach and Cheese Strata. At first I considered something with, well, bacon (I told you I was conflicted about serving a brunch without breakfast meat!), but then I came across this salad. Hold the bacon, add the squash! It may not seem like the most exciting move but, trust me, you can’t get better than deeply caramelized chunks of butternut squash tossed with escarole, apple and high-quality aged cheddar. And then you get the satisfaction of having made a totally satisfying, meat-free brunch.
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We recently had friends over for brunch. They don’t have kids (yet!), so we made a plan for 12:30 pm (a “morning” plan for after noon, imagine that!). That would have normally taken the pressure off of cooking the day-of, except for the fact that we had other friends over the night before, friends for whom I cooked dinner, friends who also have no children and stay up later than we usually do. I needed a plan. A plan that would make back-to-back entertaining possible. Even with two little kids.
And it did. My plan—it worked!
If you ask me, every brunch needs a) coffee, b) savory eggs, c) something sweet and d) something light and healthy to balance out the eggs and sweet. My brunch menu was complete with all of these essential elements and all I had to do the day-of was put eggs in the oven and toss together a salad. THAT’S ALL.
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I’ve met so many wonderful, thoughtful, food-loving parents since I’ve started blogging, many of whom I’ve come to know through Twitter. One of my lovely Twitter friends is Jenna of Food with Kid Appeal, a self-proclaimed recovering picky eater who inspires parents to grow good eaters. Her recipes are wholesome, fun and thoughtfully take into account limited time, energy and budgets.
Without further ado, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Jenna. If you don’t already, check out her blog, follow her on Twitter (and me, too, while you’re at it!) and enjoy this great post inspired by the book 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. You know that I’m a huge proponent of spicing up food for even the youngest eaters (offering such adventurous foods was the inspiration behind ChowBaby foods!), so I LOVE this post. Enjoy!
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When I’m asked by friends to give them some pointers on getting baby started on baby food, or the transition to table food, one of the things I like to tell them are about some super foods they might not think of as being good for baby. Most parents know that fruits, veggies and whole grains should be on baby’s spoon, but are herbs and spices front and center in your menu as good eats for baby?
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Here’s the skinny (or not-so-skinny, as it were): Cascadian Farms is owned by General Mills who recently quietly reformulated Purely O’s adding THREE times the sugar, fillers including corn meal and sweeteners including tapioca syrup.

O’s cereals are one of THE most popular first finger foods. They are consumed by babies as young as 8-months-old and General Mills doesn’t have the moral clarity, or just plain business ethics, to tell us? They didn’t even have to advertise the details. How about just informing us to look at the nutrition panel for changes? We can—and should—take it from there.

I don’t know about you, but this enrages me. Makes me wonder what kind of society will live in that we can’t trust the companies that feed our children to keep things like unnecessary excess fat and sugar and endocrine disruptors (e.g., Bisphenol-A) out of our babies’ food and food containers. Or to at least tell us that they haven’t (remember the Sigg debacle?). I guess, as Marion Nestle points out, it’s just business as usual for these big companies.

What do you think? Am I overreacting? Will you keep buying Cascadian Farm O’s? If not, is it just because of the sugar, or also on principle?

If, like me, you plan on giving up O’s all together, consider these breakfast alternatives:

• oatmeal with your favorite add-in’s (we love this banana pecan oatmeal
• whole grain toast with slow cooker apple butter
• toast or whole grain bagel with pumpkin walnut cream cheese
• 10-minute blueberry almond morning polenta
• plain yogurt with my all purpose blueberry puree
• coco-banana date smoothies
• orange cardamom french toast
• sweet potato muffins with cream cheese filling (can be stored in the freezer and reheated in just minutes in the oven or seconds in the microwave for an on-the-go option)

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week is all about the Best Of ChowMama 2009! To help ensure that you begin 2010 with a recipe box loaded with quick and healthy recipes that your whole family will love, I’ve hand selected my favorites (recipes that I return to over and over again) and the most popular recipes as measured by traffic and comments (ones that worked out well for me and you).
You’ve been waiting for today, haven’t you? Healthy sweet treats and desserts it is. Enjoy! Tomorrow is the last day of this “best of” extravaganza and we’ll delve into parenting posts, because how we feed our families is central to how we raise our kids.
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