“I’m so blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo-hooooo, I’m so blue I don’t know what to do!” 

If you are in the right demographic, you might know exactly how to sing those silly lines — proper French accent and falsetto included. It’s Madame Blueberry singing her operatic lament, of course, from a turn-of-the-century eponymous episode of VeggieTales. 

I haven’t seen that animated show of my childhood in probably 20 years, but the tune immediately pops right back into my head. [Side note, I always wondered if the greedy berry was based off of something, but never bothered to look it up until right now: Madame Bovary from a realist 1857 novel of the same name. Something new to add to my neverending reading list.] It’s a song my nine-month-old daughter could sing often these days; fortunately not in the emotional sense, although her teeth and allergies have been really bothering her this week. 

I actually mean in the physical sense — and clearly, she’s not cold in this weather. Just blue, so blue, thanks to her obsession with blueberries. 

She does well eating almost all foods so far, but a lot of B foods are at the top of her preferred list. Bananas, beef, beets, and most of all, blueberries. (Although she is not undiscerningly affirmative of foods that start with b, as the butternut squash and frozen cubes of bone broth I tried to feed her this morning did not go over as well.) I’m not quite sure how far babies are supposed to be able to see at this developmental stage, but I’m guessing I could find out some with accuracy if I just set a bowl of blueberries down at various distances from Kiah. 

I decided to be so smart the other day, and instead of cutting so many blueberries in half — okay, let’s be honest, I just eat half of each berry and give her the rest, she didn’t get her love of fruit out of nowhere — I figured I would just cook some berries down into a simple sauce to stir into yogurt. 

I did achieve my goal of not having to chase down and clean up all the dropped, thrown, and smacked berry halves. But I forgot how cooked blueberries take on an almost incandescent shade of deep dazzling blue that permeates and stains anything it touches. 

And, incidentally, it touches a lot of things when there’s a baby involved. 

Oh well, I had to do laundry anyway. And that vibrant blue color is not only an indication of rich blueberry flavor, but also of the presence of anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants found primarily in blue, purple, black, and red foods. Berries have the highest concentrations of anthocyanins, which may have significant health benefits, including reducing heart disease, lowering blood pressure, and improving brain function. All sorts of things that I as her mother care deeply about Kiah getting as she grows, and all sorts of things that she couldn’t care less about, as long as whatever she’s eating tastes like blueberries. 

So I’ll keep giving her blueberries in whatever format, and she’ll keep eating them, and the floor and our clothes will keep singing, “I’m so blue….”

Magical Blueberry Brownies 

I was going to share a recipe for some iteration of vibrantly colored blueberry-beet yogurt parfait, but then I remembered the brownies a friend had made and their secret ingredient — blueberries! While I didn’t actually follow the recipe, I kept the surprisingly strong ratio of blueberries to cocoa powder the same, as they are the backbone of the brownies. All the anthocyanins are still present even though the blue color disappears, but don’t worry, a rich staining brown takes its place.

Prep tips: you can use fresh or thawed frozen blueberries. Also these are clearly not normal brownies so don’t expect that; just expect tasty.

• 1 ½ cups blueberries

• 1 ¼ cups cocoa powder

• ½ cup almond butter

• sugar or maple syrup to taste 

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

Process all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 325° for about 30 minutes, or until brownies have formed a crust on top and are firmed. Let cool in the pan for at least a little while before digging into — they will be crumbly, but oh so chocolatey. Store leftovers in the fridge. 

Amanda Miller lives with her husband, two young children, and whoever else God brings them through foster care on the family dairy farm in Hutchinson. She enjoys doing some catering, teaching cooking classes, and freelancing, but mostly chasing after her kids. Reach her at hyperpeanutbutter@gmail.com.