Does your toddler ever interrupt your morning grooming rituals by barging in to the washroom to observe your transformation from ok to one step closer to fabulous?  Mine does.  “What’s that you’re putting on your eyes?”  “Why do you do that”?  “Why is your hair curly some days and straight other days?”  He’s a boy…he doesn’t get it but I attempt to explain the method behind the madness.  As an example, I happen to use 2 different hair sprays that look identical in packaging and application. I enlighten him with the fact that 1 is for hold and 1 is for shine.  I am adamant that the two are compulsory for my aforementioned “one step closer to fabulous” procedure.  I then provide him with a live demonstration by spraying to hold and spraying to shine. I eagerly ask him to take a look at the result.  He comes in close to the finished coifed product and I ask, “so what do you see”, anticipating the only response possible…OOOH SHINEY!  Instead all he says is “GREY”.  Oh boy.  That’s $12.99 and 5 minutes of my life I’m never going to get back.

Let’s give my self-esteem a break and make some homemade baby food that is not one step closer to fabulous because it’s already there.  Pita pizza!!  Pizza is always a crowd favorite so let’s get those Solid Food Professionals of 12 months + in on the secret as to why it’s so tasty.

I’m going to use chicken, mushrooms and red peppers for the toppings but will sauté the veggies a bit so that they are nice and soft and easy for baby to handle.  Sometimes with peppers if you put them on the pizza raw they are still a bit hard once the pizza comes out of the oven.  By sautéing them you ensure the veggies are tender and easy for baby to digest.

Adding the mushrooms provides a great source of potassium and red pepper is packed with dietary fiber aiding in digestion so it’s great to sneak them in there.  At 12 months, if it tastes good and is interesting to pick up and eat, baby will typically eat it.  Lucky thing this pita pizza just happens to be pretty tasty and fun to eat.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Pita Pizzeria

Ingredients

• 2 whole wheat pitas
  
• ¼ cup diced red pepper
• ¼ cup diced mushrooms
• ½ cup diced cooked chicken
• 2 tsps. butter
• 1 plum tomato, seeded and diced
• ½ cup low sodium tomato sauce
• ¼ tsp. oregano
• ¼ tsp. basil
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• ¼ tsp. honey
• ½ cup shredded mozzarella

Baby Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400˚C.
   
2. Clean, seed and dice peppers and clean and dice mushrooms and set aside.
3. Chop cooked chicken into small diced pieces.  If you don’t have cooked chicken on hand cut 1 boneless skinless chicken breast into small pieces and sauté in melted butter in pan over medium heat until cooked through and brown on both sides, approx. 10 minutes.  Then you can cut into small diced pieces and set aside.
4. Clean, seed and dice tomato.
5. Melt 1 tsp. of butter in small sauce pan over medium heat. Add in diced tomato and cook for about 2 minutes until tomatoes begin to soften.
6. Add in tomato sauce, oregano, basil, pinch of salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and honey.  Stir and simmer over medium/low heat for approx. 10 minutes until flavours develop.
7. Meanwhile melt 1 tsp. of butter in sauce pan.  Add in peppers, mushrooms and chicken and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until peppers start to soften.
8. When sauce is done spread evenly over 2 pitas.  Add sautéed veggies and chicken on top of sauce on each pita then top with ¼ cup of mozzarella on each.
9. Put pitas on a pizza pan and place in the pre-heated oven for approx. 15 minutes until cheese is melted and edges of pizza are starting to brown.
10. Remove from oven when ready and let cool for a few minutes.
11. Cut into finger food sized pieces for baby and serve.

Makes – 2 Pita Pizzas

Note: Try making a larger batch of the pizza sauce then you can freeze the extra in ice cube trays and take out as much as you want to thaw whenever you feel the urge to make some pizza.  Then it’s just a matter of sautéing the veggies instead of having to make the sauce also.

I can’t stop thinking about that “grey” comment.  Surely I can’t have grey hair yet?  Although I do have 2 kids, a dog, a husband, a full time job, and (in all of my spare time) a baby food cook book in the works. I guess I’ll have to give the dog one less walk to fit in the time for a hair colour appointment.