BLW when do you get time to cook?

[creations]

OK, so I thought the idea was for LO to have the same meals as me and for us to sit down at the table together for meal times.  Sounds great.  But how do you fit it in?  When do you cook?

At the moment we have breakfast together sitting at the dining table, he has baby porridge on loaded spoons (he loves breakfast and enjoys self feeding, he wouldn't want me to feed him), I have cereal, and usually we both have a piece of fruit of some sort either after porridge or a bit later as a snack.

At lunch time it's more a case of grab something.  He ends up with toast and cream cheese or hummus and I might have the same or I'll have a sandwich and give him an un-made sandwich (all the same stuff but in larger pieces to pick up and a finger of bread) and I can just about keep him entertained in a highchair in the kitchen whilst I make this.  It means we end up eating in the kitchen though rather than at the dining table which isn't quite right.  Sometimes, if I've had a chance, I bake/roast/steam some veg in the morning so he can have that either at home or I take it out with us if we have to go out but this isn't a meal for me, I just eat a bite as an example to him.  We might also have a piece of fruit.

Dinner it gets worse.  There is zero time to make a proper meal.  We start BT routine at 6, asleep by 7.  So at the moment his meal is around 5.30pm and another baby cereal (and he usually won't self feed much or at all at this time as he is tired and impatient to get the food in) and I don't eat (I spend the time feeding him) although he will pick up a finger food. For example tonight we both had some nectarine together so that I could 'pretend' we were sitting down for a meal together and after the fruit I fed him the baby cereal.  Then the BT routine.  After that is usually my time to get the house cleared up, chores done and my own dinner.  So how do I have dinner with DS?  I wouldn't mind eating at around 5.30pm with him but there's no time to cook a meal for then.  What do you do?

The only thing I can think of is to make a meal the night before and re-heat it for a 5.30pm feed but I'm not a fan of microwaves so don't have one and reheating certain things is ok (fish pie or casserole for example that would reheat in the oven and doesn't really need my attention) but reheating steamed veg and a piece of chicken or fish is just madness.

We are only a couple of weeks into solids so I am not too stressed about us not really having proper meals together just yet, but I really wouldn't want to continue with cereal/porridge for both breakfast and dinner for a long time.  I enjoy cooking, I enjoy healthy food and I enjoy (massively) seeing DS learn about food and try things out, so mixing baby porridge with formula twice per day just doesn't seem right.

I need to know how you work your day so that you get to eat together, please help me 

[Peek-a-boo]

Could you do your meal prep during LO's nap time and then put the meal together while LO has some independent play time? 

Perhaps make a cupboard or drawer in the kitchen with fun things for LO to play with (whisk, plastic bowls, etc) so LO can "help" with kitchen stuff while you work.

[creations]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes that sounds like the logical thing to do but our daily schedule gets in the way.  We are out almost every afternoon (mostly unavoidable) which means his last nap often takes place in the car on the way home and I end up sitting in the car for an additional 20 mins or so to let him finish sleeping.  He is also far less happy to have independent play later in the day and wants my full attention.  His best time is the morning, loves to have a play on his own then and I use that time to get his first milk feed ready and then breakfast ready.  He has a good nap time in the morning too but my time is taken up clearing up from breakfast, getting laundry in and getting myself showered so that I'm ready for the next 'shift' when he wakes.

Our daily schedule just doesn't appear to allow for cooking!  There must be a solution to this.  I'll probably look back in a few weeks and wonder why I found it so difficult.

[~inbalance~]

I think that you have to make it a priority if you want healthy, fresh meals.  I know it is hard, I struggle with it too (especially since I don't particularly enjoy cooking!).  I think the best strategy is prepping as much as you can before.  So at times when he is more content to play independently, or while he naps, or even the evening before, go ahead and prepare as much as possible.  Chop up all the veggies, and take out everything you plan to cook with and have it handy.  Weekly meal planning really helps with this, as you already know what you are going to make.  It takes a bit of time to do, but it is fully worth it (and saves you $$ when grocery shopping as well).  If you don't have a slow cooker, maybe invest in one.  They are not necessarily expensive and are well worth the money.  On days when you know you will be particularly rushed, plan to use it so that dinner is already ready and you don't have to do anything but set the table.  There are thousands of amazing slow cooker recipes out there, you could use it every day if you wanted!

[creations]

Thanks Martina.
Today was slightly different.  I cooked a casserole/stew last night after BT and just re-heated it today for lunch rather than the 'grab toast with a topper and fruit'.  DS Doesn't seem to like to try too many different things in one go yet, prob as we've only been on solids a couple of weeks.  I made the casserole with very small chunks and very big chunks so the small ones turned to a mush/gravy/thickener and the larger ones could be picked up finger food wise.  He only really got into the massive piece of courgette he picked up but he really enjoyed it and it's nice to know I at least offered a variety and got to eat healthily myself.

I think I'll have to do this type of prepared meal (fish pie, pasta bake, etc stuff that can be reheated in the oven) for during the week when we are out a lot of afternoons and then at the weekend when we have a chance to be at home I can do a 'separates' meal ie fish/meat, potatoes, steamed veg - the sort of thing that you have to actually stand there and cook.

I buy very little in the way of pre-pack food and much prefer healthy home made food so I know I'll find a way around this somehow.  Just difficult at the moment getting into a new routine.  The strange thing is that I know I can make a meal start to finish in 20 - 30 mins, it's not like it takes a long time, I just can't squeeze it in and entertain LO at the same time yet.

We will get there!!

[~inbalance~]

It will hopefully get easier as he gets older.  I remember feeling like this too when my boys were that age, but as they got older I found I was able to spend more time preparing meals for the family. 

[Peek-a-boo]

Also, there's no need to start a LO on 3 meals per day.  I usually just served dinner from 6-8 months, then added in breakfast, and finally lunch.  It's really about experimentation with flavors at textures at first, not calories.  Perhaps ease yourself into it a bit.

[creations]

Also, there's no need to start a LO on 3 meals per day

Hi Bethany.  I had no expectation of starting out on 3 meals per day, but DS had other ideas.  After having to eat in secret for about a month to avoid him getting upset I finally started to offer him some foods and he just went with it immediately.  The second he got solids he was totally eating it, not just exploring, and he spent all day asking for more food.  I kept offering milk but he didn't want that and I'm having to monitor his milk intake now to make sure he doesn't drop too much, he's just staying over the 600ml per day.  Some days I've been glad he's had porridge because it means he is still getting his milk in it.
It's not 3 full on meals, he still only wants one or perhaps two different things at the same time rather than a whole host of flavours.
Today he had breakfast: porridge, grape, prune.
lunch: steamed carrot batons and hummous
dinner: white fish, cheesy sweet potato chunky mash. yogurt.

I think it all just happened a bit too fast for me to keep up.

He just loves eating - he is only a little boy though!