Solid Food Adventures - by Jenna

The girls need some more sources of protein in their diet, so I’ve introduced egg yolks.  Egg white are a potentially allergenic food, so they aren’t introduced until later (12 months).  Egg yolks by themselves have lots of nutritional benefits  including vitamins and protein.

How I prepared egg yolks:

1. I separated the eggs yolks (1 each was more than enough to start).
2. I mixed in a little milk or water.
3. I scrambled them in the frying pan with a little oil.
4. I chopped up the cooked eggs and mixed them with pureed fruit for breakfast.

Day 1: It was hard to get the egg pieces in to small enough of pieces for the girls to eat. They don’t have good chewing skills yet, so they spit out the larger pieces of egg.  I think I should probably mash the cooked egg with a fork to make the pieces smaller.  The girls didn’t seem to mind the eggs except that they were hard to chew.

Next days: I’ve made oven omelets for the girls.  This makes a meal that is a much better consistency.  It is easier to feed them because it doesn’t have large pieces of egg to chop.  The only problem is that the bowl and the food are very hot when they come out of the oven.  I’ve transferred the food to another bowl and put it in the fridge for a few minutes to cool down before they eat.

This was a really easy meal that can be customized according to everyone’s tastes.  It is a variation of other egg dishes like omelets, frittata or crustless quiche.  The basic ingredients are eggs mixed with spices and a little milk, poured over top of fillings (chopped vegetables, meat, etc) and sprinkled with cheese.  Here’s what I prepared for dinner:

For the babies:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cubes vegetable puree (I used carrots)
• 2 cubes fruit puree (I used applesauce)
• 2 cubes expressed breastmilk (you could use formula or water instead)

Mix.  Pour in to ovenproof bowl and cook for 30 minutes at 350.

Any other fillings either pureed or chopped could be used instead.  Older babies could have cheese, too.

For adults:

Combine:

•  2 egg whites (from the eggs for the babies)
• 4 eggs
• milk
• mixed herb seasoning
• salt and pepper

Pour over top of fillings:

• chopped onion, peppers and mushrooms
• chopped leftover baked potatoes

Sprinkle with cheese.  Cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Broil a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Variations:

This meal could easily be customized to suit everyone’s tastes by making the egg mixture, and then pouring it over individual (overproof) bowls with fillings.  Everyone could choose their own fillings.  Here are some other filling suggestions:

• mexican style with salsa or green chillies
• leftover salmon with dill and cream cheese
• leftover ham with pineapple
• rice, stirfried vegetables and a little soya sauce
•  vegetarian with roasted vegetables (onion, garlic, pepper, tomatoes, zucchini)
• whatever you have in the fridge…..

There are some days I feel like I’m working in a restaurant trying to feed everyone their own favourite meals.  So, whenever I can, I try to prepare what I call “parallel meals.” We aren’t always eating exactly the same things, but when it is possible we eat similar foods.  When we all eat a variation of the same meal there is less work, less planning and fewer dishes. Here are some examples:

Oatmeal for breakfast

I make one pot of oatmeal.  First, I take out a small serving for Big Brother who is old enough to decide if he wants raisins, cinnamon, soy milk or cows milk with his oatmeal.  He usually also has a piece of toast with peanut butter for breakfast.  Second, I ta

ke out a couple of tablespoons of oatmeal to mix with 3 or 4 cubes of fruit puree for the girls.  Depending how thick it is, I might also add a cube or two of breastmilk.  Then I eat what’s left with soy milk, brown sugar and raisins.

Eggs for breakfast

On weekends, Dad makes eggs for breakfast.  He scrambles 2 egg yolks for the girls, and the 2 egg whites for Big Brother.  He then fries eggs for the adults.

Rice and sweet potato for dinner

For dinner we were having meatballs with rice and sweet potatoes.  This was a good meal for adults and toddlers, but it required a bit of work for the babies.  They were out of cubes of rice and vegetables, so this was a good time to restock.  I cooked extra rice and a large sweet potato.  Then I made puree for them.  They ate some for dinner and I froze the rest.

Fruit pieces for lunch

When Big Brother is having fruit for lunch (melon, plums, pears, bananas), I chop up some pieces for the girls at the same time.  The girls only eat a little bit as finger food,  so they can easily share.  It also keeps them busy while I get the rest of the meal ready or cleaned up.

Many babies have rice as their first food.  I didn’t avoid introducing it for any particular reason, but other grains like oats seemed easier to feed to babies.  Now that they can eat food with more texture, I’ve finally introduced rice. You can make your own rice cereal as baby food (here’s how), but since the girls are older now, I just introduced rice pureed with sweet potato.  Rice can be hard to puree, so I decided to mix it with a vegetable to make a nicer consistency.

How I prepared rice:

1. I cooked brown rice according to the instructions on the package.
2. When it was cooked, I pureed it with some cooked sweet potato and water from cooking the sweet potato.
3. I left the puree quite chunky.  You can tell there are chopped up grain of rice in it, but they are small enough for the babies to eat.

Day 1: The girls seemed okay with new texture.  They have already had oatmeal prepared like this, so pureed food with chunks of grain is not unfamiliar to them.  I think sweet potatoes are one of their favourite vegetables, or at least a familiar food, so the flavour wasn’t new to them.

Next days: I’m trying to feed the girls at least one grain a day (rice, oatmeal or quinoa). I also try to vary them, though they have oats almost every day.  I haven’t noticed any problems with constipation, which can be a problem with rice.  I have also tried pureeing rice with carrots, which worked well.  I don’t think that it would work as well with a “watery” vegetable like zucchini because it wouldn’t stick together. I may try creating a whole meal (meat, vegetable, grain) combination using rice.

Here’s a tip: freeze expressed breastmilk in ice cube trays, like your other baby food purees.  Then when you need some, it is ready to use. With my son, I always had a bottle or two of expressed breastmilk in the fridge because I was pumping every day.  With the girls, I don’t pump as often.  One day when I had a bottle of pumped milk they didn’t drink, I decided to freeze it in small quantities rather than as a full serving. I filled the ice cube tray about 2/3 full, which I think is about 1 tablespoon. When they were frozen, I put them in a plastic bag, just like my other purees. I’ve used the milk to thin purees, to cool down food quickly (just toss in a frozen cube of milk), and to make a cereal or a puree creamier.

The girls seemed to enjoy the chicken in their diet, so I’m now adding turkey. Like chicken, it is high in protein and iron, and it is something our family eats fairly often.

I decided to make the turkey in to a stew for the same reasons as I did with the chicken. I used ground turkey because I had some in the fridge for making meatballs (here’s the recipe).

How I prepared turkey stew:

1. In a medium-sized pot, I put 4 or 5 peeled carrots chopped in half so they would fit in the pot, 1 pear chopped in to large pieces and 1/2 a package of ground turkey.
2. I added about 1.5 cups of water.
3. I boiled everything until the carrots and pears were cooked.  The ground turkey cooked very quickly.
4. I pureed the turkey, carrots and pears.  The puree was still quite thick, but I can thin it when I serve it with another cube of fruit or vegetable or some breastmilk.

Day 1: The girls both ate the stew without any complaints.  The meat was well pureed so I don’t think they texture was a problem.

Next days: I’m trying to serve protein at least once a day.  The girls now have 4 protein options (egg yolks, tofu, turkey and chicken).  If I was making this again, I’d replace the pears with another vegetable, probably a green vegetable like peas, beans or zucchini.  I might also add some cooked rice or quinoa so it has carbohydrates as well.  Then it would be a complete meal, with some fruit for dessert.

The girls are almost eight months old, so I’ve decided it is time for them to add so meat to their diet.  I’ve chosen chicken to start because it is high in protein and iron, and it is something our family eats often.

I decided to make the chicken in to a stew with vegetables instead of introducing it as a separate puree for these reasons:

• chicken, sweet potato and zucchini includes meat, an orange vegetable and a green vegetable, which is a good combination for a meal
• I can serve the stew as a complete meal by itself or I can add other fruits and vegetables
• combining the chicken with vegetables  makes it easier to puree in to a fairly smooth consistency
• the texture of the chicken mixed with the vegetables will be more familiar will they the girls get used to the flavour of chicken

How I prepared chicken stew:

1. In a medium-sized pot, I put 1 chopped sweet potato with the skin on, 1 chopped zucchini with the skin on and 2 chicken thighs.  I left the vegetables in fairly large pieces because I know they cook quickly.
2. I added 1.5 cups of water.
3. I boiled everything until the chicken was cooked.  The vegetables were easily cooked by the time the chicken was ready.
4. I removed the skin and bones from the chicken and chopped it in to smaller pieces.
5. I pureed the chicken, vegetables and cooking water.  The puree was still quite thick, but I can thin it when I serve it with another cube of fruit or vegetable or some breastmilk.

Day 1: The chicken stew was a surprisingly big success.  Yellow Bib, who usually eats less than her sister, gobbled it up. Green Bib also ate it without any negative reaction.

Next days: Both girls continue to eat the chicken stew enthusiastically. They’ve been having it at least once a day for a few days now. I’ve been mixing in another cube or two of veggies to make it a full meal.  I have noticed the girls are having fewer dirty diapers since we’ve introduced meat.  I suspect that’s because some of their servings of fruit and vegetables have been replaced with meat.

I thought you might be interested in what the girls eat in a day.  This is the total food for both babies, plus some notes on how their meals paralleled the rest of the family’s.

Breakfast:

• 1 scrambled egg yolk (Big Brother (BB) ate the scrambled egg white, and Mom and Dad had eggs too)
• 1/4 of a large peach chopped/mashed (BB ate another quarter and we saved the rest for the next day)

Lunch:

• 2 cubes of pureed sweet potato mixed with 2 cubes of pureed carrots

Supper:

• 2 cubes of pureed zucchini
• mashed banana with quinoa and one cube of frozen breastmilk (we had quinoa with cranberry and herbs)

When we got back from holidays, our supply of frozen baby food was getting low. Since the girls were also eating larger meals, it seemed like a good time to stock up the freezer with baby food.

For fruit, I halved and pitted plums, nectarines and pears.  I put them skin side up in a baking pan with about an inch of water in the pan.

For vegetables, I chopped sweet potato in half.  I filled the rest of the pan with baby carrots. I also snuck in a zucchini, cut in half and skin side up (not in the picture). I put them in another baking pan with about an inch of water.

I baked both pans in the oven at 350. It took about 30-40 minutes for everything to be cooked.  The carrots and pears took the longest, so next time I would put them in a separate dish.

When the fruits and veggies were cooked, they were easy to poke with a fork.  I let them cool for a few minutes.

For the fruit, I peeled the nectarines (I left the skin on the plums and the pears). I cut the cores out of the pears. I pureed each fruit separately.  The plum juice made the water pink, and the pears turned slightly pink too.  The fruit didn’t need much thinning.

For the vegetables, I peeled the sweet potato (I left the skin on the zucchini). I chopped the vegetables so they would fit in the hand blender’s container.  I pureed each vegetable separately.  I thinned the vegetables with the fruit juice.  I didn’t use the vegetable juice because most of it had evaporated.

With the applesauce I made on the stove and some frozen peas I pureed, I filled 9 ice cube trays of fruits and vegetables, plus I kept out enough food for 2 days worth of meals. This was enough food to feed the girls for more than a week.  So, I know that if I do one batch of cooking plus some raw food (tofu, bananas, avocado), I’m set for the whole week. This would be helpful approach for moms who are back at work, or who would rather not prepare food every few days, or feeding two hungry babies.

I’ve decided to introduce the girls to peas. They have already had a couple of orange vegetables (carrots and sweet potatoes) but they only have one green vegetable (beans). Find out more about the nutritional benefits of peas here.

With Big Brother (BB) I made pureed peas from fresh peas. It took a long time for them to get soft enough to puree (20+ minutes), and after all that, he did not like the texture at all.  This was one of the few foods he refused to eat. So, this time, I’ve decided to use frozen peas instead.

How I prepared peas:

1. I steamed frozen peas according the instructions on the package.
2. I pureed the peas with the cooking water using my hand blender. I pureed them quite a bit so they were as smooth as possible. The puree was still quite thick, but I left it that way.  I can thin it out with fruit or breastmilk when I serve it.

Day 1:  Nana fed the girls peas for the first time.  She thought they’d already had peas, so obviously they didn’t object too much.

Day 2: Yellow Bib (YB) usually eats a few bites of whatever I’m serving and then closes her mouth.  She makes up for it by breastfeeding an extra time at night.  So, I’m guessing her lack of interest in peas is just part of her normal response to food.

Day 3: Now that the girls have both orange and green vegetables in their diets, I will try to make sure they eat at least one orange serving and one green serving every day.  That will give them some variety in flavour and in nutrients.