Foods on the go

[Marisa's Mom]

What kinds of foods do you take with you when you run out of the house with your LO?

Just trying to get ideas for new things to take on the go. I feel like I'm always taking the same things, and it's usually full of carbs. I find it way too easy to fill up baby on carbs.

My DD is 13 months old, transitioning into solids & not quite eating everything off my plates yet (she can't eat big tough meat chunks yet, per Pediatrician, so we grind up her meats in the food processor when we're at home), so I have to make sure there is something for her to eat when we go out. Here's the tricky part... she usually likes her food warm, and I can't always heat up foods while we're out unless I'm at someone's house. So things I tend to bring are easy to carry or easy to eat cold :  cheerios, rice cake, crackers, cheese (although it gets warm while we're out and then it turns icky), yams, applesauce (not very filling). These are some of the things I'll take with me when we go out to a restaurant, just in case there isn't anything on my plate that she can easily nibble off of.

[tylersmommy]

Well, we do a lot of sandwiches, but Tyler's the King of Carbs! We've also bought cups of fruit, like the kind you'd put in a lunchbox, and toted those. We have an insulated tote bag in case we want to bring cold stuff like cheese, cottage cheese (the individual serving cups) or yogurt.

[isaac'smom]

Isaac loves cucumbers diced up in small bits. He's also a carb-addict so he loves Cheerios, crackers, bread bites, etc. Bananas are really portable too...all you need is a knife to slice it!
 

[Marisa's Mom]

Well, we do a lot of sandwiches, but Tyler's the King of Carbs! We've also bought cups of fruit, like the kind you'd put in a lunchbox, and toted those. We have an insulated tote bag in case we want to bring cold stuff like cheese, cottage cheese (the individual serving cups) or yogurt.

DD isn't doing sandwiches yet, but I'm sure someday soon I'll be making PB&J or grilled cheese for her.

I hadn't thought of those cups of fruit, that's a good idea. She usually gets a banana in the morning, and sometimes later in the day I'll give her another fruit serving in the form of applesauce or in yogurt. Taking applesauce on the go is kinda messy, so I really don't like to do it.

I didn't know cottage cheese came in individual serving cups! Will have to take a closer look at the supermarket. I usually choose yogurt over cottage cheese because every time I look at the nutrition label, there is always more calcium in yogurt. But I should introduce cottage cheese to DD one of these days... I bet she'd love it with some fruit thrown into it.

I like the insulated tote bag idea. Not sure how I'd manage with one more bag though. I'm still trying to figure out my diaper bag situation. What do you do?  Do you do one big bag as diaper bag & purse? Or do you have separate purse and separate diaper bag? I used to do one bag for everything, and it was heavy!!! But now that I am carrying DD around more often in the Ergo Baby Carrier when we do walks around the neighborhood, I find it easier to carry just my purse, which has a long shoulder strap I can just sling across my chest. But then, I really hate it when I have to carry baby, AND both purse AND diaper bag.

[Marisa's Mom]

Isaac loves cucumbers diced up in small bits. He's also a carb-addict so he loves Cheerios, crackers, bread bites, etc. Bananas are really portable too...all you need is a knife to slice it!
 

I used to take a banana on the go, but ever since she self-weaned and DH has to do breakfast duty, he has been feeding her banana in the mornings. Sigh...

Do you give Isaac cucumbers raw? I haven't given DD any raw veggies yet. Hmmm.. wonder what she'd think of cucumber. We really don't eat cucumber, and I always look at them at the store and think omigosh, that's so huge, how will we ever finish one?

It's too easy to give DD carbs. I really do try to give her a balanced diet. It's just more challenging when we're out and about...

[evanskimberley]

Raisins
bananas
melon - if its more on the hard than soft side
grapes - cut in half
carrot sticks, raw or cooked
strawberries
blueberries (well any berries i suppose)

[sa]

how about baby cereal, or instant porridge, those you only need to add hot water.
i usually bring a insulated mug of hot water, mix the cereal with banana or fruit.
nice, warm and filling meal 

[Tonya]

We use the insulated bags as well. If we're going to be out for a bit and need some milk as well, we have ice packs that we throw in.

As for the fruit, Gerbers recently came out with Freeze dried fruit - comes in a bag, and it's really the same texture and consistency as Cheerios - perfect healthy snack!
Ds doesn't eat ANY fruit at all - hates it - but he does eat that fruit, so we always have a bag or two with us!  In the car, stroller, etc.....(can you tell I just love the stuff? )

[isaac'smom]

Re: the cucumbers....

I've been feeding him the cucumbers raw since he was probably 12-13 months old. I'm not aware of anything about not giving raw veggies at that age. My only concern was choking, so I started with really little chunks and I always peeled the peels off. You could also grate/shred the cucumber to start. He loves them. I've been taking some in my lunches as well so the whole cucumber doesn't go to waste.

[Marisa's Mom]

Ds doesn't eat ANY fruit at all - hates it - but he does eat that fruit, so we always have a bag or two with us!  In the car, stroller, etc.....(can you tell I just love the stuff? )

What a lovely "problem" to have. DD definitely prefers fruits over veggies. I'll have to look for those Gerber dried fruits.

Ice packs is a good idea. The only kind I have are the big heavy boxy hard plastic kind. I suppose they sell smaller ones that you can throw into a diaper bag?  What I really need is an insulated sippy cup.

[Marisa's Mom]

I've been feeding him the cucumbers raw since he was probably 12-13 months old. I'm not aware of anything about not giving raw veggies at that age. My only concern was choking, so I started with really little chunks and I always peeled the peels off. You could also grate/shred the cucumber to start. He loves them. I've been taking some in my lunches as well so the whole cucumber doesn't go to waste.

Ah, grating the cucumbers is a great idea, hadn't thought of doing that. I dunno, I was just under the impression that we were only supposed to offer well cooked veggies. I haven't given her any raw veggies yet. I also have to take into consideration that my LO started solids much later than the average baby. She started showing interest in solids 3 months ago when she was 10 months old, so she's 6 months behind the babies who started solids at 4 months. We're slowly introducing her to more table foods, and slowly increasing the chunkiness of her foods.

[me and bean]

bean is 13 months too, he usually eats some of our plates, but i always take -

fresh fruit (grapes, kiwifruit, ripe pear, strawberries - i just cut and peel at the restaurant)

dried fruit (raisins, prunes, apricots, dates - in that section of the supermarket you can get bags of mixed orchard or tropical fruits, and bean loves them all - again, i just chop them up at the restaurant)

cereal (loves kashi mighty bites, cheerios) or crackers

and as you do, rice cakes.

i don't worry too much about what he has to eat when we are out, cause i know his next meal at home will be a good one.

[Marisa's Mom]

I hadn't thought of taking fruit to cut/peel at the restaurant, it just sounds so messy to me. LOL. I notice it is strawberry season, I should pick up some. I'm a little hesitant since our Pediatrician warned us that it can cause a mild rash. Just introduce a little bit at a time, I guess.

DD eats fast & furiously. The beauty with rice cakes is that I can give her a chunk, and it'll take her a few minutes to work on it, which gives me some time to get a few bites into MY mouth, LOL. Otherwise, I end up spending most of the time trying to shovel food into her mouth fast enough cuz she likes the food to keep coming nonstop. I'm sure it will get better once she is better at feeding herself...

I recently noticed that Quaker makes rice cakes in a "chocolate crunch" flavor. Sounds interesting, so I had to pick up a package, haven't opened it yet. We're still finishing up the "lightly salted" flavor, then we have to work on the "apple cinnamon" flavor first.

Discovered that DD is a little picky about her foods, or maybe she's not always as daring to try something new. I've had her nibble on a burrito I pick up from a local burrito shop. However when I went to a restaurant and ordered a burrito thinking she could nibble off my plate, she didn't like it at all. She made a face. I guess the restaurant burrito had a different flavor she found disagreeable or something. LOL.