More on the Kid-Friendly Front

I wanted to do a follow-up on a post I published a month or so ago. The topic was on kid-friendly or family-friendly restaurants that were nicer restaurants. Since that I post, I have been on the lookout for other restaurants that would fit this description and I found another one!

Cap City Diner, with 2 locations in Columbus, Ohio, is a Cameron Mitchell owned restaurant that takes your normal diner cuisine and makes it a lot better. A couple of our favorite items are their meatloaf, the pork chops are amazing, and my husband really likes the grilled cheese sandwich which has a friend egg on it. Anyway, we went there for dinner a few nights ago with my 1 year old (ok, he's 1 on the 21). I looked over the children's menu briefly to check out the offerings when something at the top caught my eye. There was a spot on the menu that said "Complimentary Baby Food Available". I asked the server about this, wondering if Cap City takes the time to make baby food or what. Turns out they have Gerber baby food that is available for free upon request. They had a nice selection of fruits and vegetables too. I was surprised that they had any, let alone 5 or 6 types to choose from! We ordered some for my son since he still only has 2 teeth, though 4 new ones are well on their way.

I think it is awesome and noteworthy that Cap City Diner has taken the time to consider their customers with small babies! Bravo! We will definitely be back!

Making Baby Food 101

My son is 11 months old and still only has a couple of teeth so we still feed him quite a bit of baby food. I have noticed that baby food can often tack on a lot of money at the grocery store. I have made some of my own baby food before and it is very easy. We go through a lot of applesauce because we mix it into my son's cereal so that he will eat it better. It is really simple to make applesauce for babies and really this same technique can be applied to a whole host of other fruits and vegetables. I have the book So Easy Baby Food, by Joan Ahlers and Cheryl Tallman which I use as a guide and is a great book to get you started.

First I quartered and peeled 4 Red Delicious apples. Put them in a microwave safe dish with about 1/4 cup or so of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave. I microwaved these apples for 4 minutes total, checking them in between for doneness. You want to be able to easily pierce them with a fork. I let them cool under the plastic wrap for just a couple of minutes.

Put the apple slices in a food processor with some of the cooking water. Puree until smooth. You dont want to add all the cooking liquid at one time, start with a little and slowly add it until you get the right consistency. Also, dont forget to vent the food processor to allow steam to escape.


Once you puree the apples to the consistency you want, spoon it into ice cube trays and let cool. Cover the ice cube trays and freeze overnight. The next day you can pop them out of the trays and freeze in a large ziplock bag. This is so handy! You can defrost just as many cubes as you need! Four Red Delicious apples made about 20 ounces of applesauce. You can use different apples, but I like the red delicious because they are sweet. I made applesauce for my son using Golden Delicious apples and he did not like them as well. They are a little more tart.

I did some math to see if making my own applesauce would save me any money at the grocery. I found that I broke out about even, however, I made this batch in the springtime when apples are not in season. I could probably find better prices on apples in the fall time. If you made baby food from fruits and vegetables that are in season, you made find yourself saving some money making it instead of buying it. There are other benefits, however, besides just monetary benefits. If you make your own you know exactly what is in there. You are able to pick the freshest produce for your baby's food. When you buy baby food, you assume the manufacturer is using the highest quality, freshest ingredients, but you dont really know. When you make it yourself, you know. Other great benefit is that you can make combinations of fruits and vegetables that you may not be able to buy, for example, my next batch of baby food is going to be zucchini and yellow squash with a dash of dried basil. Another great benefit comes if you are able to buy certified organic produce or even produce from farmer's markets. In doing this you are able to reduce the amount of herbicides, pesticides, and other chemicals that may be in baby food (because it was used in the produce they are using). Lastly, it is a lot of fun! You can be creative and cater the food to your baby's taste and diet!

I hope you try making you baby's food and have fun in the process!

Family-friendly Restaurants

The terms "Kid-friendly" or "Family-friendly" restaurant has always made me cringe. Before I had a baby of my own, this term always conjured up images of a restaurant that welcomed messy, bratty children either sitting in their high chair screaming or traipsing around the dining room while their parents continue to chow down on their meal, all the while being totally oblivious to the disruption their children are causing. Now as a parent, both terms still makes me cringe as I image places like Applebee's or Chuck E Cheese. Just because I have a child doesnt mean that I need to dumb down my palette so to speak. So when I talk about family-friendly or kid-friendly I may not be looking at the best restaurants (I dont expect a 5 or even 4 star restaurant to go out of its way to attract families), but I also hope to look at dining establishments that are at least a step above Applebee's. I also would like to add, however, that if I do choose to take my infant to a nice restaurant I would prefer not to get glares from the wait staff.

My son is currently 10 months old and so far only has 2 teeth. He doesn't seem to mind going to restaurants so we occasionally take him places with us. My son likes to watch my husband and I eat and try to eat with us, even if he has already had his dinner. However, with only 2 teeth, we have to be careful about what we give him to chew on. That is why I was quite pleased one Sunday when our little family went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. When we were seated they brought a complimentary "kids plate". They brought an appetizer plate full of goodies well beyond the normal fare. The plate consisted of a ramekin of Cheerios, an orange slice, crackers, and of course a kids menu full of activities and crayons. I found this to be very thoughtful! I can't really order off the kids' meal for him yet, so I think it is nice that someone in the company took a minute to think about families with little babies.

I have also been to the Cheesecake Factory when they have offered crackers and fruit! Why don't more restaurants do this? Though this would not be a major factor in my decision on where to dine, I would certain lean more towards a restaurant that took this kind of consideration!

It isn't complimentary Cheerios, but Bravo Cucina Italiana will often give kids a ball of raw pizza dough to play with. They will even bake it for children so make dough sculptures of shapes! What fun! My son had fun squeezing the dough which occupied him for a good 10 minutes!

I'm curious if there are other places out there that have similar services. If anyone knows of other restaurants that give complimentary snacks to babies and toddlers, please feel free to share similar experiences with other great restaurants.