Hi Mama C. I just want to jump in with a salt warning (mainly because in the last couple of days I have had my eyes opened to salt).
Under 1 year the max daily allowance is 1g salt (this is 0.4 sodium. Some packs tells you both some only one).
LOs usually eat lots of veg and fruit so there won't be a salt issue there (as long as you don't add when cooking) but there are some other things that have a shocking amount of salt in.
"Low salt, low sugar" baked beans still have 0.5g salt per 100g. A small can is 220g therefore 1.1g of salt.
The bread in my fridge at the moment has 0.47g salt per slice.
Therefore 1 slice of toast plus HALF small can of low salt baked beans just slightly tips over the daily allowance.
If you were to dish up beans on toast for lunch you would need to ensure for example that you only gave this amount (or less) and did not give anything else with salt in for the rest of the day.
Anything that comes in a pack read the pack first and just work out how much you can offer, things like, cheese, processed meats, canned fish, breakfast cereals etc. (You only really need to do this to begin with as you'll soon learn which are 'safe' and which are high in salt)
As you have been using jarred food this might not have been an issue thus far so just wanted to give a heads up on it as you move towards more home cooked and finger foods.
In terms of food ideas - you don't need to be a great cook to steam veg. Wash and chop it, shove it in a steamer and leave it for 5 to 10 mins depending on the size of pieces and what sort of veg it is. Biggish wedges or batons for finger foods. I personally have no problem with serving just veg for a meal as long as carbs and protein have been covered elsewhere in the day (eg porridge for breakfast, beans or piece of fish for dinner) or you can turn this into a full meal by mixing with pasta (don't add salt to the water) a spoon of cream cheese and a dash of milk to make a lovely smooth creamy sauce - that's got to be an easy dish for a non-cook. Fuseli (twists) are the easiest to pick up for finger foods. For a change of flavour (instead of cream cheese and milk) add a squirt of tomato puree/paste and a dash of water to slacken it up into a light sauce. And a great seasoning for non-cooks is powdered garlic, no need to peel and crush cloves just shake a pit of powder in (can add to either the cheesy version or the tom version).
And the save the day tip for non-cooks...if you over steam the veg and they turn to mush just mix it all up together add a bit of milk or water to slacken into a sauce and mix in pasta or spread on toast/chapati/pitta/rice cake (and next time steam for less time
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