Getting Poppy to eat has been a challenge. From the start it was quite clear that Poppy was going to eat what she wanted when she wanted and if she didn’t like it then there was no way it was staying in her mouth. We have been through the “headshaking” phase where I would try to distract her to get a quick bite in ( this doesn’t work well if you want to get more food in after the first distraction ); then we were in the “just because it’s in doesn’t mean it’s staying in” phase where she would happily eat a ton of food, stuffing her cheeks to the brim and as I sat watching with joyful relief that she was finally eating she would open her little mouth and proceed to spit every last bit out. This was beyond frustrating. I knew there were a few different options on how to deal with this and I chose simply not to react as it seemed to me she was trying to get a reaction every time she did it. Thankfully after a few weeks this phase ended and now we are into the “Mommy gives Poppy a wide variety of food and Poppy decides what she wants” phase. These days what Poppy wants is smoothies ( this is how I get veggies into her )  bread, cheese and fruit. Because she is so into bread I thought I would try and make my own bread and see how much good stuff I could throw into it without Poppy knowing. This bread was my first try. It is quite good – both Poppy and “grownups” love it. It’s full of goodness and super moist..maybe a bit too moist but that hasn’t stopped anyone from devouring the 2 loaves I have made so far. I have a few tricks I will try next time to see if I can shorten the baking time and take a bit more of the moisture out of it but for now this is my go to bread recipe for Poppy and if she could talk she would absolutely tell you to make it!

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese, pulse in food processor if you don’t want any chunks
• 1/2 cup pitted dates + 1 tbsp water, puree in food processor until the dates turn into a paste
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 super ripe banana, mashed
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 med zucchini, shredded and pressed between paper towels to get some of the excess moisture out
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon

You can also add about 1/4 cup flax seeds or other seeds, dried fruit, nuts, choc chip or carob chips if you want.

Preheat oven to 350. In a Med bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a separate medium bowl mix the cottage cheese, date paste, apple sauce, mashed banana, pumpkin, oil and egg. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Fold in the zucchini ( and nuts, seeds, fruit, choc chips etc if using ). Pour batter into a well greased 9″ loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour 30 min. Insert thickest point of loaf with a wooden skewer; if it comes out relatively clean it’s done. Remove from oven let sit for 10 min and then turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.

I serve this to Poppy as is or with a little organic apple butter for a treat.