AND WE'RE BACK! A Catch up and some meal ideas

I've been struggling with a Babe who all of a sudden decided that the fantastic nap routine she FINALLY got on was NO GOOD and that she much rather nap on the go, which has meant that between that and 2 trips to Canada in the last couple of months I haven't had much time to sit down and post anything here. 

Over the past couple of months (from 10-12 months) I can't say that I have noticed any big changes in  MiniMe's approach to eating, her likes and dislikes, or her appetite.  She is still excited by food more often than not and even on the days when she isn't feeling well she will still eat most of what we are offering her.  

At 10.5 months her bottom 2 teeth FINALLY came through and we have noticed that she is trying to rip stuff like bread into smaller bites using them, but without the top guys it is still pretty difficult.  She definitely prefers her food in smaller bite-sized pieces. Every day I will offer her something in a bigger piece but she leaves it until I cut it up smaller (strips of chicken, toast, banana...anything).  The bite sized pieces I offer her are still large enough that she needs to gum them though. 

While we were away visiting family in Canada we ate out a lot and most places were very accommodating making us veggies without salt, sweet potato fries without salt, bringing a side of toast and peanut butter, or an extra scrambled egg.  She helped things, of course, with her big smiles and goo goo eyes.  I often ordered something that we could share and then a side of something else to share because the KIDS menus just weren't appealing. 

We are back home now, trying to get over the 2nd lot of jet lag and resume normal service.  Here are a few things we have had over the past couple of weeks to offer some inspiration. 

Breakfast: Corn Flakes softened in milk, banana and peanut butter and jam bread roll ups

Breakfast: Scrambled Egg with cheese, blueberry porridge bar and yogurt

Brunch: French Toast, scrambled egg, beans and yogurt

Snack: Peanut Butter with mashed banana (slices of banana and a coffee for mum) 

Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese and broccoli 

I cut the spaghetti strands in thirds so they were easier to schlurp up 

Dinner: Beans, avocado and cheese

Dinner:  Pizza with cheese,ham and mushrooms (I make my own dough so there is no salt) 

Lunch: Minestrone Soup with Alphabet pasta and hummus bread roll ups 

10 month meal ideas

At 10 months MiniMe is still toothless! While this hasn't really stopped her from happily gumming most foods there are still some things that I am just too nervous to offer her.  One example is larger pieces of meat.  I shred pork and chicken for her, and crumble up mince and sausages but I just am not ready to give her larger pieces, yet.  I have also noticed that she isn't very good with gumming toast anymore. I don't know if it is because she is so used to chewing and swallowing that she gets impatient with things that take more work to break down.

Here are a selection of meals we have shared over the last few weeks.  We continue to combination feed so at breakfast I often offer her some sort of cereal and then fruit she can pick up and feed herself.  

Spring veg soup with giant couscous and cheese. Courgette, asparagus, peas, spinach  and green onions cooked in veg broth with giant couscous.

Weetabix with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.  MiniMe loves berries, we tend to have them every morning.

Toasted bagel with almon butter, banana, kiwi and blueberries (and Cheerios). Surprisingly, she finds toasted bagels much easier to eat than regular toast.  Maybe because bagels are softer? 

Baked Potatoes with baked beans and grated cheese.  She ate the cheese waiting for the beans and potato to cool off. Grated cheese, and beans for that matter, is great for practicing the pincer grip.  

Cream of Wheat cereal (like Ready Brek in the uk but wheat instead of oats) with blueberries and banana. 

Chicken curry with sweet potatoes and peas, rice and naan.  I shredded the chicken up to make it easier for MiniMe to gum and she devoured the lot. 

Pasta...thoughts

At 10 Months MiniMe is still sporting a toothless grin, which makes some foods tough to mash up and swallow.  Something she has had a lot of trouble with is pasta.  If it is baked or in soup there is no problem and she is fine with fresh pasta and stuffed pastas like ravioli from the chilled section in the grocery store, it the dried stuff that she just can't manage.  It isn't like I am cooking it al dente, I am cooking it until soft...too soft for me and Dad, but it just isn't working for her.  

I swear Heinz used to make children's pasta shapes. Sure they were overpriced but I am pretyy sure the pasta was thinner so the noodles were softer.  I know the shapes were just a way to entice picky eaters, but I do believe they would be easier for MiniMe to mash up.  

When visiting my parents in Canada I found some bug shaped vegetable pasta at The Bulk Barn and decided to give it a try.  It takes less time than penne to cook until soft enough for MiniMe and she gobbled it all up before I could even start my own meal so I decided to bring some home with us. 

Earlier this week I made MiniMe some Bug Pasta tossed with butter, Parmesan cheese and flakes of baked salmon for dinner.  During her morning nap I baked a salmon fillet and left it to cool, when it was time for dinner I just cooked up a handful of pasta, mixed it with butter and cheese and added in some salmon.  Dad and I had the rest of the salmon mixed with penne, creme fraiche, sauteed courgette and chilli flakes.  I cooked MiniMe's pasta first and then used the same water to cook our penne so no extra pots to wash! 

Mile High Picnic

I have been working on a longer post about my recent adventure traveling across thr Atlantic with MiniMe, but I thought that it might be helpful to post about the feeding bit of our trip separtely and share my irrationaly worry about how difficult it was going to be to feed MiniMe during our long haul flight.  Totally irrational, I might add.... I needn't have worried.  

I was worried that she would make a mess, that she would be fussy, that she would starve, that it woukd be awful.  In the end it was so much better than I imagined.  

We have a pretty flexible approach to feeding and eating and It doesn't bother me if I end up spoon feeding MiniMe 3 meals in 1 day. I really don't believe it will harm her in anyway and, besides, if she doesn't want to eat she won't. Plus, she often skips a meal and nurses instead.  All this worked in our favour on the flight.  Of course, if she were older and used to 3 meals every day and only feeding herself it might have been different.  Then again, if I wasn't travelling alone with her I wouldn't have been worried at all.  

I did contact the airline to ask about baby food and allowances and the advice I was given was that while sterilised jarred baby food was available on board I was allowed to bring food from home.  Solids were fine (a reasonable amount for the duration of the flight only...so no carting bags and bags of stuff on board) and liquids would be subject to the security limit except for formula or breast milk which was treated separately.  

Our flights also worked in our favour, and once I really thought about our routine and how our normal meal times might fit with the flights it occured to me that we would only be in the air for one meal and she would hopefully sleep the rest of the time.  

To minimise mess I only took foods that were easy for MiniMe to handle, or for me to hold while she gummed. I packed her a pretty generous picnic before we left for the airport of Broccoli bites, cottage cheese pancakes, almond butter sandwiches, bread sticks and a little pot of hummus,a banana, a small yogurt (subject to liquid control) and some rice cakes.  I never intended for her to eat it all and thought some of it might just be good as a distration.  

MiniMe was able to have a large breakfast at home and then we shared "lunch" at the airport before boarding our short flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam.  At the airport we shared an egg mayonaise sandwich and she also ate her yogurt and some banana.  Once landed and settled and waiting for our longer flight she had a bit of pancake and some sandwich.  By the time we boarded the plane and were up in the air and ready to eat she wasn't interested.  She was far too busy watching everyone.  The stewardess offered to bring me some baby food but I said no and thought that maybe later on I would get some.  Later on never came.  

MiniMe nursed on take off and landing and about every 2 hours in between. She didn't need solids.  

I am so glad I took too much food, even though I was sorry to have to throw a lot of it out.  There was every opportunity for her to become fussy and miserable but she managed to sleep, nurse and people watch.  

Recipe: Soft Cinnamon Apples

These apples are a great way to introduce apple pieces to little ones who don't have any teeth, they are soft and naturally sweet and a great treat for adults too!

A month or so ago I gave MiniMe some raw apple to gum...I had figured it would be like her gnawing on raw carrot or celery and if nothing else a nice feeling on her gums...it wasn't received very well.  Since then I've just avoided apples.  She happily eats all soft fruit and tinned pears but I haven't even thought about giving her apples...until I was scrolling through some Pinterest Pins and rembered some friends singing the praises of the sauteed cinnamon apples from the babyledweaningblog.com

Peeled apples sliced and sauteed in unsalted butter and cinnamon until soft and starting to get golden brown...how easy does that sound? 

I've read that cinnamon is a common allergin so be careful if your little one hasn't had cinnamon yet.  You could miss it out and just soften the apples in some butter, they are lovely and sweet as they are.  MiniMe has cinnamon on her porridge sometimes, so I knew she wasn't likely to have a reaction to it.  

Today I used a medium sized Braeburn Apple, about 1 Tbsp of unsalted butter and a good sprikle of cinnamon.  In a small frying pan I just melted the butter, tossed in the peeled apple slices, sprinkled them with cinnamon and then kept turning them until they were soft and beginning to brown...about 7ish minutes.  

MiniMe had some with her lunch...2 slices to be exact, I ate the rest. 

Recipe: Spinach Ricotta Pasta Bake

A while ago my pal posted the cutest picture of her little dude completely covered in spinach.  She had given him pasta with spinach and he had pretty much devoured the pasta while spreading the spinach all over his face. It was so sweet.  I was reminded of her gorgeous picture when MiniMe had some Tuna Pasta Bake over the weekend and quickly planned to make her a ricotta spinach casserole during the week.

Until now MiniMe hasn't manged gumming pasta very well. She does well with ravioli and other fresh pastas, since it is so much thinner, but the dried stuff has always been too tough for her...until now.  Cooked in a casserole the pasta is very soft, and we can easily cut it into manageable sized pieces for her. 

To feed 2 greedy adults and 1 little munchkin with some leftover for an adult snack or little one's meal the next day...

Wash and wilt 200g of baby spinach (don't need oil, the spinach will wilt with the water on the leaves from being washed).  Once cooled chop finely, this way you don't need to spend time breaking off the stems from the spinach leaves.  Put the spinach in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta and sauce.  Cook 500g pasta or your choice, we used shells because they are easier for MiniMe to gum.  While the pasta is cooking mix a 250g tub of ricotta into the spinach and add a good pinch of black pepper and a handful of grated parmsean cheese.  When the pasta is almost done cooking scoop out about a cup of the cooking water. Add this a couple of Tbsp at a time to the spinach mixture to loosen the sauce, to your liking. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to spinach mix. Combine and pour pasta into an appropriately sized oven proof dish. At this point top with grated cheddar and put under a hot grill until cheese is bubbly and melted, or let pasta cool in your dish and refridgerate until dinner time (you know, if you have time to make it in the morning while your little one naps). When you are ready to heat it up, top with grated cheese and cover with foil, pop into the oven at about 180c until the casserole is warmed through, about 30 mins. Take foil off and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and golden.  

It seems like a lot of steps, but I was able to throw this together AND clean up in the time MiniMe napped yesterday, so it is really is a quick dish.  

Recipe: Broccoli Cheese Bites

We think MiniMe is a pretty good eater, she happily chows down on most of what we offer her and when we look back over the past 10ish weeks it is amazing to think how well she has progressed.  Those first few weeks feel like ages ago, and at that point it felt like she was never going to actually swallow anything...but now she is picking up bite sized pieces, confidently gumming them down and swallowing.  Sure there is still a good amount if gagging, but we put that down to her being the product of two very greedy parents...it was inevitable that she would want to shove whole pieces if fruit, bread, chicken in her mouth.  Since we've been cutting her food into bite sized pieces she's been gagging less.

Broccoli still gets the stink eye...even after all this time...it is not received well.  I don't get it, broccoli seems to a firm favourite of so many babes just starting weaning...so why is MiniMe avoiding it like the plague? Who knows.  I am not that concerned, really, but I can't help thinking about all those good vitamens and nutrients she's missing out on by avoiding broccoli.  Silly, I know, since she eats loads of other great veg but I just can't help myself.  

So I searched Pinterest for some broccoli inspiration and came across a huge selection of recipes for cheesy broccoli patties...problem solved. 

250g Broccoli cooked and finely chopped, 100g cheddar cheese grated, 1/2cup breadcrumbs,1 or 2 eggs ( depending on size, start with 1 and see how moist it makes the mixture) and a pinch of paprika....mix it all together, form into patties and bake on a lined baking sheet at 180C for about 25 mins or until golden.  MiniMe happily munched away on bite sized pieces of these patties at room temperature and also straight from the fridge...she didn't have ketchup...I did though!