I’m tired.  You know that feeling when you have so many things on deck to do and not enough hours in the week to do them all?  What’s that you say, “of course”!?  I know…I’m sure everyone wishes for more time.  We try to cram so much activity and richness in our lives it leaves us feeling unaccomplished, (even though we’ve accomplished a ton) overwhelmed, and dead tired.  Maybe what we need is a little “get out of your head free card” for a day.  Even sick days are non-existent these days.  We press on and hack all over our co-workers because if we were to sit still for one day it would be an admission of defeat.

Do you remember when you were a kid and kind of sick but not really and you got to stay home from school?  You know…you may have had the sniffles but it was nothing that lying on the couch watching TV getting catered to couldn’t fix right up.  Oh yes…how wonderful it would be to have a day to lay on the couch in my jammies, with my pillow that never sees the light of day in any other room in the house other than my bedroom.  I would watch “The Friendly Giant”, “Mr. Dress Up”, “The Price is Right” and “Leave it to Beaver” all in that order…just like the good ol’ days. But then what?  More lying down?  Who am I kidding?  OK, I’ll just take a half day “get out of your head free card” then I’ll carry on with my quest because it’s Cherry season!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We have a cherry tree in our backyard that we planted about 5 years ago and this is the first year we have big, red, juicy cherries.  It’s so exciting except we have to come up with inventive ways to get to the beauties before the birds do.

Now it makes complete sense why they call that elevated work platform thingy a cherry picker.  It would be the perfect thing for our back yard.  Not sure where we would store it though.  My husband’s method of balancing himself on a less than sturdy tin roof shed also works.

Cherries are low in calories, high in fiber and calcium and full of nutrients.  These are a great addition to your homemade baby food repertoire for babies 8 months +.  Once you get the pits out it’s smooth sailing and so easy to puree them and add to some of baby’s favorite foods like banana and baby cereal.  For more info on cherries for baby check out the Wholesome Baby food website.

This cherry puree is also great for adults.  Think about it…what tastes great with cherries?  Drizzle this puree over ice cream, pancakes, oatmeal, bananas, yogurt, granola, pork chops, and potatoes? O.K. maybe not potatoes…or maybe?  You won’t know until you try.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Cherry Love Puree with Banana

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh cherries or however many you can muster up the energy to pit
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 banana

Baby Steps

1. Slice cherries down the middle all around, twist, separate and dig out the pit with the pointed end of a peeler.  Or if you have a cherry pitting tool, even better!
2. Put cherries in a saucepan with 1 tbsp. of water and heat over medium low heat for about 5 minutes until cherries are soft and juicy.
3. Remove from heat, let cool slightly then puree with hand held blender or method of choice into a smooth, saucy consistency.
4. Mash some banana and add a tbsp. of the cherry puree, swirl around and serve to baby.
5. Cherry puree can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months if you were able to make a nice big batch.

Makes: About ½ cup of cherry puree, but again feel free to make as much as you want and then freeze some so you have it on hand whenever the mood strikes.

Note:  For babies who can handle finger food, slice instead of mash the banana and drizzle cherry puree over the top.  They will love the bright colour of the cherries and of course enjoy feeding themselves the slices of banana dripping with cherry love.

To all of you who can relate to my concern about being tired and doing too many things, take a break.  Stay in your jammies for half a day and pick some cherries and things will sort themselves out.