Morning y’all and welcome! Baby girl Andee Lynn has been an eating machine lately, and I would like to share some of her meals with you all.
Now I am completely aware of the blessing that is year-long maternity leave, and realize that not everyone has this privilege. Being home for Andee’s first year has allowed me the time to cook a variety of foods for her. However, being a mom and balancing it all is still challenging. So while I basically cook all her food myself, I don’t always try out elaborate recipes and sometimes just throw whatever I can together. Buuutttt I’m getting ahead of myself here. Today I plan to just write about the recipes I have followed from two great resources: It All Begins with Food and Solid Starts. Be on the look out for another post in the future of meals I just throw together quickly for Andee. Now back to it….!
I have preached (PREACH IT SISTA!) my love for the book It All Begins with Food in almost every food related blog post I have written, but I really do find this book invaluable. I have made lots of recipes from this book for me and Keenan and tons for Andee. There are a variety of purees to choose from, which were great when Andee was only a puree girl. But now she has moved on to feeding herself more and more, so solids it is!
In the last few weeks I have made tropical white fish, avocado and watermelon mash and tender stewed beef following recipes from this book. Both of these recipes have turned out to be super delicious. In fact, Keenan and I added the tropical fish mash to tortillas and made some Mexican slaw and called it a day! As for the stewed beef, it was super easy to make because basically you just bake beef with apple juice on a low setting for several hours. And then WABAM! You have a great source of iron that tastes delicious! I also bought the ingredients to make chicken, apricot and fresh herb patties later this week. I find that meat is the hardest food group for me to come up with ideas for, so I’m happy to have found some recipes that work well.
I’ve also referred to the Solid Starts kit I bought about a month ago for several recipes. I have made zucchini patties, sweet potato spears, roasted cauliflower, quinoa with broccoli, carrots and peas, toast with mascarpone cheese, and the mascarpone cheese bean dip that I wrote about in this post. All of these recipes have been a great success. I love the zucchini patties, so I will make a batch for Andee and munch on some for myself as a snack throughout the week. And sometimes I’ll mix the patties with some greek yogurt just for a different texture and to add in some dairy for Andee. I have also found that the mascarpone cheese bean dip is great to add other things into such as pureed zucchini or pureed beets (I still have some frozen purees leftover :/). This dip is a bit thicker in texture, so it sticks to a spoon quite well. This is nice in terms of mess because Andee can feed herself way easier if the food actually stays on the spoon. Duh! LOL!
Coming up with ideas for feeding Andee has not always been easy, and has really stressed me out at times. I get so worried that I am not giving her the correct nutrients or providing the correct environment for her so that she builds a happy and healthy relationship with food. But both of the resources I mentioned have been super helpful for me. My goal with sharing Andee’s food journey is to simply provide another helpful resource and for any of you mamas to know that you are not alone. This food game is a challenge!
And as I mentioned earlier, be on the look out for a blog post in the future on how I just throw meals together for Andee. We all gotta make it work somehow, right?
Drop a note below and fill me in on your journey with feeding littles. I’d love to hear from ya!