During the last 48 hours, J has had a peanut butter sandwich, fish sticks, and chocolate chip cookie in her mouth. She's 8 months old.
After, a big sigh of relief that she didn't explode with some kind of deadly allergic reaction, I've taken this as a prompt to be a little more vigilant parent. With one very mobile baby, and a toddler who is very eager to help, I also have decided to try to fix more foods that are safe for both children to eat. I thought I had posted my favorite breakfast before, but can't seem to find it. But basically it's this:
Rosemary Garlic Apples (And Sausage)
Slice apples and saute them in a pan with minced garlic and rosemary (I used dried). When cooked, take them out and cook your sausage as usual (I prefer smoked, but you can use any kind) with a little apple juice. Once the meat is cooked, add your apples back to the pan, and heat through. Then serve hot. Or skip the sausage all together and just serve the apples.
This makes the best savory/sweet breakfast combo, yes, even better than chocolate meat. I made this for L and I recently, and decided to let J try the apples. She has been the most eager eater, and these apples are definitely her favorite. I've taken to fixing the apples alone, as a quick meal for the three of us.
I was recently asked somewhat incredulously, "You make all J baby food, don't you?" And it caught me a little off guard. It's a little odd to me that even though most people "make" most of their own food (by make, I mean prepare, of course), it's so unusual for someone to make baby food. So, let me just clarify. I don't slave away, pureeing lots of little jars of goo. At dinner time, I make sure I include something in our meal that J can eat. And when we sit down at the table, I take some lima beans out of our soup, or rice from our stir fry, or apples or carrots or whatever, and drop it in the little baby food mill, and voila.
This does mean, that she gets seasoned food, which is fine by me. I don't give her anything too spicy or salty, but the girl loves garlic. Of course, we are also big fans of those puffs that dissolve in your mouth - which is so convenient when you go out. I'm not opposed to pre-made baby foods, but I definitely think this simple little food mill is worth more than it's very low price. (Thanks, Tara!)
7 comments:
Love this post Laura. Simple, sweet, tasty stuff and reminders about keeping life real & simple with little ones. We've also had some garlic lovers. When Oliver started eating solids around 10 months, I mainly fed him avocados. But then...it was SO much easier to just give him big bites of our (highly garliced!!)guacamole that Wade had lovingly prepared. How surprised we were that he LOVED it, salt, pepper, garlic and all. The funniest part were his little baby burps, which after that no longer smelled like sweet baby milk. He smelled like an old Italian man from that day forward. But hey, it's good for the immune system.
With Daniel, I was soooooo determined to make all of his baby food, thinking it would be a bit of extra work--but it turned out to not be a big deal at all. When he was eating lots of sweet potatoes and bananas, so were we. If you're cooking for the family anyway, like you said, it's really no extra work to just include something the baby can have.
Where did you get your food grinder? Mine stinks and I hate using it, but yours looks like it's a bit more heavy-duty than mine.
Good for you! I loved making my kids' baby food. Cheaper and better for them, and a much better selection than the options at the grocery store. (My youngest loves everything veggie now, even raw onions).
I just dice everything for my 8 month old and make sure it's soft. He wouldn't eat any purees so we just skipped that part. I had grand dreams of making all kind of nifty baby food, had books, food processors, The Wean Machine, etc... but nope- wouldn't eat purees just like he won't take a bottle. I'm actually a wee bit jealous that you get to use a food mill. He won't even let me feed him, he insists on doing it all himself.
Yeah, it's definitely weird to feed the baby little jars of glop. Shudder. My second kiddo wasn't super-interested in solids until she was old enough to chew and feed herself. I was SO happy to avoid the extra bit of hassle of baby foods.
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