What did your toddler eat today? Part 5

[Khalam's Mama]

I am also not up to doing the whole hair and makeup thing regularly. Though I was too lazy before I had DS too so I can't blame him.
Got back to my prepreg weight by the time DS 5.5MO but would like to be back to my preTTC weight when I was exs 3xweek and not eating rubbish all day.

Today:
B: Porridge and 1/2 apricot
S: 1/2 rice cake
L: 1 slice sandwich - cheese and pesto. 1/2 apricot
and then it goes down hill...
D: few pieces corn, 15 blueberries, few bits tuna, a rich tea biscuit.  Declined chicken, cauliflower cheese, sweet potato pancake.
S: declined cereal
Decided he needed a poop 1/2 way through dinner which seemed to put him off. Hope he is not up all night.

[~Sara~]

(although, also partly because I havent ever gone back to the skinny me I was before so don't fit in anything else I own!!)

Same here!  My hips and rib cage just ain't the same!  Gone are the days of skinny jeans--hello curvy cut!

Glad to hear the dress code is jeans and t-shirt.  Might I add flip-flops to the attire?

B: yogurt, 1/3 banana
S: (I forgot what he ate...mommy brain)
L: leftover fettuccine, some more banana, yogurt bites (I've created a monster!)
D: turkey, bread, peaches, and some of mine & DH's dinner (tortellinis)

[Nauvoo]

B: 1/2 english muffin with cream cheese and 1 strawberry
S: 1/2 apple, milk
L: yogurt and a cheese sandwich minus the crust
S: crackers, and I shared my ice cream
D: other 1/2 english muffin with tomato sauce spinach and mozzarella cheese on top, pineapple which she apparently loves!!!
had a banana and milk before bed

Does anyone do smoothies?  If so do you use milk or juice based?

[teilvnav]

I haven't done smoothies, mostly because Nathan is terrified of the sound of the blender! I am interested in hearing what other people say, though.

Also, do you guys give your LO's tea? I recently heard of this and was surprised; I had never really heard of this. If so, what kinds?

[Mom to M&M]

Glad to hear the dress code is jeans and t-shirt.  Might I add flip-flops to the attire?

Definitely!!! LIVE in flip flops!!!

[Mom to M&M]

Haven't done tea - really wouldn't occur to me. Keep meaning to try smoothies but only just started the switch to whole milk so maybe in another month or so. Would probably do milk, yogurt and juice. Maybe add in green veggies too.

[Yazzie]

'm STILL wearing my maternity goggers and jeans - for comfort I might add, not because I'm still preggo size!! (although, also partly because I havent ever gone back to the skinny me I was before so don't fit in anything else I own!!)

Same here

So here's what ds had yesterday:

B : oatmeal & apple cereal with half a whole wheat cracker
S : 2 triangles of laughing cow cheese (ds wouldn't mind living on this alone..!) , plus a banana and 1/2 a mango
L : 2 meatballs, plus about 4 tbps of rice and spinach
S : Tried to give him some apples,  but he wasn't hungry
D : Yogurt with 2 crackers, tried giving him the apples but he wasn't interested

I'm finding more and more difficult to feed ds with a spoon, he just wants to self feed all the time, which isn't always easy

[~Sara~]

I'm finding more and more difficult to feed ds with a spoon, he just wants to self feed all the time, which isn't always easy Sad

Amy's going through the same thing with Nathan...perhaps she's got some advice?

I'm amazed at how much your LOs eat!

[Mom to M&M]

We're going through the same thing here too Yazzie. I can "sometimes" spoon or fork feed him while he self feeds something he loves (like blueberries) or if it's something he's really jazzed about like soup or yogurt. But we are also just getting as creative as possible with self feeding.

Who was it that did the hummus pasta? Think am going to try that later today. Do you just cook the pasta as normal and then add a T or so of hummus at the end? Any butter or anything else as well?

[teilvnav]

You rang? Ok, lots to type here...

Here is one awesome soup recipe. It is adapted from Anna's "Moroccan chicken and chickpeas" recipe from the menu planning thread a while back, and it is lovely! I will add another one in a minute.

Moroccan Chicken and Chickpea Soup

Chicken (2 breasts in cubes, skin off)
Medium onion, small dice
three garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
butter
Low salt chicken stock  (4-5 cups, depending on how liquidy you want it)
ground cumin
ground cinnamon
black pepper
1 smallish butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced, OR one smallish sweet potato, peeled and cubed
Can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Can of chopped tomatoes
a few handfuls (anywhere from 1/2 cup - 1 cup, as you like) of couscous
Pinch of saffron (optional)
a handful of pitted, sliced olives (optional)

- Heat butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat; add onion, garlic, 2 tsp ground cumin and 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and season with black pepper. Cook, stir occasionally, until the onions are soft (about 5 mins).

- Add chicken, squash, stock, chickpeas, tomatoes and saffron, if using. Stir well to coat all in the onion/spice mixture. Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Simmer about 15 minutes. Throw in a handful or two of couscous and simmer another 5 minutes or so (check that the chicken is cooked all the way through). Add olives when stew is finished cooking, if you are using them.

[teilvnav]

I did the hummus pasta; I use wagon wheels, or penne, or macaroni... anything small enough for his little hands to stuff in his mouth. I cook it as usual, then drain it and return it to the hot pot. I then add about a tsp of butter, and about a tbsp of the hummus. You can add more to taste; it absorbs right into the pasta. I also sometimes add some peas or someother type of veggie.

And yes, I am having issues spoon feeding Nathan. 'Issues' = he won't let me. 99% of his food right now is finger food, and I can occassionally sneak in a spoonful of something while he is feeding himself. I can't really give him yogurt, even; I have to give him a spoon and sneak in bites from another spoon, or help him use the spoon to feed himself. Meals take a lot longer now and I sometimes have issues deciding what he will have to eat, but we are managing ok. He is a good eater, as long as he likes what I give him. If he doesn't like it, he carefully spits it out and refuses to eat the rest of the meal! He did that last night, the little bum... I had very carefully de-boned some lovely pike fillet for him and lovingly cut up some roasted potatoes, carrots, and turnips. He took one bite of the turnip and spat it out, then refused to eat anything else and wanted to get down. So much for that!

[Mom to M&M]

Thanks Amy! Soup sounds good and will try that with the hummus pasta at dinner tonight.

Yazzie - what do you put the laughing cow triangles on for him?

[teilvnav]

Gah, I am starting to get fed up with Internal Service Errors, I tell you what!!! I have been trying to post other soup info.

Anyway, most of my other soup recipes aren't so much recipes as 'things thrown in a pot to cook together'.

- For chicken noodle, I would put about 6 cups of chicken stock in a pot on medium high. Throw in a chopped onion, a head or two of garlic, and some chopped up chicken (no skin). It tastes better in the end if you use raw chicken, but cooked is fine and a good way to use up leftover meat. Anyway, then put in a few stalks of chopped celery, a few chopped carrots, about a tsp of ginger, about 1/2 tsp of thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook that for an hour or two on a low simmer, and then put in some pasta (egg noodles, macaroni, or baby shells work best). Cook another 10-15 min until pasta is cooked, and there ya go.
- For a basic veggie soup, I start with about 5 cups of chicken or veggie stock, in a pot on medium high. Add a can of stewed or chopped tomatoes and some chopped onion, carrot, celery, green beans, peas, and zuchinni. Add to that about a 1/2 tsp of rosemary and some salt and pepper to taste. I usually add some lentils or chick peas as well. Towards the end you can add some chopped spinach and/or mushrooms if you like. Just simmer is until everything is cooked (the exact cooking time depends on what you put in; obviously lentil would take longer to cook than chick peas).

I always serve soup with bread or buns. If DS is giving me trouble spoon-feeding him, I just pick out chunks for him to feed himself and then dip pieces of the bread in the broth for him. That way he still gets the nice liquidy broth but I don't have to wrestle him with a spoon.

[mumofalice]

Loving the 'uniform' on this thread  Footwear for me is usually trainers if it's cold and wet outside (like it is today ) or birkenstocks or crocs if the weather is good - I know that crocs are a love/hate thing but I love 'em (as does DD!) and I wear them a lot because I feel I can only wear my birkenstocks if I've taken care of my feet (or rather my lovely beautician friend has - by giving them a mini pedicure and painted my toenails). Unless I actually make time to go to her house and be 'pampered' for an hour or two (if you call waxing pampering??) then I never end up finding the time to do anything for myself - in need of an appointment to tidy up the toes and the hair right now (sorry  ) in case we do get a bit of summer . . .

As for pre-pregnancy weight . . . I'm so not there  and my DD will be 3 in Sept. I could probably do with losing about a stone - but even if I do there's no way that I will ever be the same shape - don't think my boobs will ever recover from BF (not that I would change that) but think that if I do lose any more weight then they could disappear forever LOL - and I would definitely be much more pear-shaped than I was before I had DD - the boobs that I had made me much more hourglass.

Anyway . . . back to food. Amy both those soups sound lovely, thanks. The one I tend to make on a regular basis is cabbage, potato and bean soup - because (as you know from the meal planning thread) we quite often get a whole cabbage in our veg box and it's a good way of using up the whole head in one go before it goes sad - plus the soup is lovely (very thick) and we all love it. Made a variation this time with spices (gave it a hint of curry) which was as good if not better - happy to share if anyone wants it. Also done a cauliflower and blue cheese one a few times - again so that I could use up a whole head of cauliflower before it got wasted.

Today - not that great as I don't think DD is quite right (last tooth, bit snotty, bit tired)
B: bowl of cereal (half shreddies half rice crispies) & milk, few CN cornflakes on the side, some large pieces of the posh dried fruit  (pear, dates, apple), some smoothie*
S: none - we were at music group and she never bothered
L: slice of toast with garlic cream cheese, mixed green & black olives, few bits of sausage, banana, few blueberries, apple juice
S: scone with butter and jam (a whole one  ) - we were out and called into a farm shop with tea rooms, they had a special offer on where tea and scones were free  DH and I don't drink tea so had to pay for coffee but 3 scones for FREE!!!
D: refused bowl of pasta with home-made tomato sauce, chicken, olives and feta - didn't want anything - just had some water

*just remembered as I typed that someone asked about smoothies. As you can see we do give smoothies - today was a bit different as DH brought a banana & wholemeal grains one home from M&S. I usually make my own and do yoghurt, juice and fresh fruit - whatever we have that needs using up at the time - but tend to always put a banana in as it seems to go with everything.

[<Catherine>]

Today:-
B - 1 weetabix
S - 1/2 banana
L - Cheese and beans on toast, yogurt
S - gingerbread man
D - Generally refused as DH decided to give ANOTHER gingerbread man about 10 mins before dinner!!!! (Arrrgghhh, men!) Had a yogurt though.