Lunch Ideas 9+months

[*Natasha*]

Hi Everyone,

Can you share what you give your babies for lunch, i was giving and still giving yoghurt but want to give her something else first especially when i drop her lunch bottle over the next month or so.
So far i have given: baked beans, scrambled egg, sandwich,

TIA.

[Marisa's Mom]

toast, yams, mashed potatoes, burrito, scrambled egg w/veggies, mac & cheese, meat loaf, noodles w/veggies & tofu, strawberries, avocado, peaches, apples, grapes, mango, spaghetti w/veggies & tofu, waffle, pancake, cheese, tomatoes, etc....

[Sarah O]

Those are all great!  I don't have any to add but actually have a question about serving some of these foods that Marisa's Mom listed (sorry to hijack the post!)...How do you serve mac & cheese?  noodles with veggies?  burrito??  Are these all finger foods?  Sorry to be ignorant but I don't get how your LO's are eating these...being fed with an implement or somehow biting off pieces or blending to a puree or

Thanks...
Sarah

[bneydgrl]

Lunch is normally a meat, veggie and some starch. 

Meats: meat sticks, crumbled hamburger meat, meatloaf, shredded chicken, egg yolk

Veggie: green beans, cooked carrots, corn,

Starch: cheerios, puffs, peices of bread, macaroni

I normally give one of each as a finger food and then also try to feed her a little of a jarrd baby dinner (2-4oz) if she'll let me    If not then meals are all finger foods

[KellyC]

I give things like chicken casserole and lamb hotpot for lunch followed by a fromage frais or yogurt and some fruit as a finger food.  At dinner time Zander has something like a thick soup followed by plenty of finger foods; toast or bread and butter, oatcakes, cheese chunks, breadsticks, rice cakes etc.  I try to get the carbs in in the evening to keep him fuller for the night!

[Marisa's Mom]

How do you serve mac & cheese?  noodles with veggies?  burrito??  Are these all finger foods?  Sorry to be ignorant but I don't get how your LO's are eating these...being fed with an implement or somehow biting off pieces or blending to a puree or

Anything not in small enough pieces or are "hard" get chopped up into smaller pieces and/or run through the food processor to make a consistency that is appropriate. As she learns to eat solids, they get chopped up into larger pieces and/or run through the food processor to make a "coarser" less pureed texture.

Noodles with veggies. I just make noodles, cooking real well until soft, let cool, then chop it up into tiny pieces. I add soft cooked veggies (usually zucchini, squash, carrots) that are chopped into tiny pieces. I also add some tofu for protein (an easy protein that's soft for beginner eaters!), and a bit of broth for flavor.  I do something similar with spaghetti, except I drown it in pasta sauce which she loves loves loves!

The macaroni noodles are really soft, easy to gum. They can also be broken down to smaller bits with the fork as you feed.

DD gets burrito when she is nibbling off my lunch. It's very flavorful and she must love it cuz she's never turned it down, lol. I only give the soft parts of the burrito to DD, which is mainly the beans. But she also gets bits of the other fillings (avocado, tomatoes, cheese,  rice, etc). I make sure to tear up the meat pieces into very very tiny bits (with my fork & knife) before giving them to her and she's been ok with that. I suppose I could take a small chunk of my burrito and chop it up (or run through the food processor) before feeding it to her, but that hasn't been necessary so I don't do it. She's been ok with me picking out pieces with the fork for her.

These are all foods I try NOT to turn into finger foods, however on those days where she doesn't feel like being fed by me, I will let her use her fingers just to get some food into her mouth.    I tend to manage to feed her these "messier" foods by letting her feed herself with the "less messy" stuff. As long as I give her a little "independence" to feed herself with some foods, she's ok with me feeding her other foods.

Oh when I say food processor, I actually mean a small 3-cup Cuisinart mini-prep style food processor. Making such a small amount in a regular size 7-, 11- or 14-cup food processor wouldn't work out as well. It took me a while to decide to get a mini-prep, but after getting it and using it the first few times to make baby food, it has got to be one of the best items I've bought and I wish I had picked one up earlier. And it's nice to know I can still use it for other cooking uses after I no longer need to make baby food, so it's not like it will be a total waste later on like other baby products can be.

We went to the inlaws yesterday for lunch. One of the dishes my MIL made was a stew with beef, carrots, & tofu ribbons. I picked out the carrots & tofu ribbons, cut them into tiny pieces for DD, and DD loved it. I think it made my MIL happy to know that her GD loves her food.    I'm thinking I should really get into make stews! Of course at home, I would use a knife to cut up the meat into tiny bits (even though it should be soft & tender from stewing) just to make sure DD is ok with it. 

DD started the solids game much later than most babies, at around 11 months (instead of the 4+ mos many babies begin at), so the doctor advised us to continue giving her pureed meats until our next appt (which is next month) to see how she's doing. Instead of spending money on baby food jars, I just let her eat the same foods we have for dinner. I just run it through the food processor first, gradually changing the texture from "watery" puree (like the jars) to a fine/"coarse" chop.

[bneydgrl]

Could you clarify how you prep the tofu?  I was interestd in this as a prtein source but not sure how to make it tastier?  How long will it keep also?

[Marisa's Mom]

Veggie: green beans, cooked carrots, corn,

Since you mentioned corn, you just reminded me of another thing that DD loves to eat...

I make her Cream Style Corn (you get it in cans in the canned veggies section) and crack an egg into it, making sure to stir it up so the egg gets cooked & mixed in real good. DD inhales the stuff, probably because it's slightly on the sweet side. I just add a bit of toast with it and she's got herself lunch. One can is good for about 3 to 4 servings, so I just save the leftovers for the next couple days.

[Marisa's Mom]

I try to get the carbs in in the evening to keep him fuller for the night!

LOL, that's my thinking too!  However DH was trying to explain to me that carbs can be a form of "sugar" too. I'm still unclear how that works. 

[Marisa's Mom]

Could you clarify how you prep the tofu?  I was interestd in this as a prtein source but not sure how to make it tastier?  How long will it keep also?

I'm still learning how to add tofu to our diet. I don't do anything special other than chop it up into tiny cubes for DD (or larger cubes if I'm throwing it into our dinner dishes).

I throw tofu in with spaghetti or noodles. I think it works better with spaghetti though cuz I'll chop up spaghetti and throw it in one of those Rubbermaid Stain Shield plastic containers (which is supposed to resist tomato sauce stains), add the cubed tofu and sauce. Stir it up and store in the fridge. The tofu gets "marinated" in the sauce and thus picks up some flavoring. Before feeding DD, all I have to do is spoon out some of this spaghetti/tofu/sauce mixture, add some already cooked veggies, top off with a little more sauce, stir & heat. She loves the stuff!

When you cook noodles in a broth, you can throw in some tofu into it and it will pick up some of the flavors. You can also throw tofu into any stir frys you make. I also use it in pasta dishes. I've started to throw tofu into almost anything I make, lol. I even put some on salads. You can eat tofu straight out of the container. I just rinse it, take what I need, and put the rest in a plastic container & cover it with water before storing in the fridge. Tofu comes in three different firmness. DD has no trouble with the firm tofu (which is the one I usually get because it always seems to have higher calcium content, and I figure that can't hurt, right? LOL), but you might want to start with the medium firmness before decided whether you want to go for silken/soft or firm.

One of my vegan friends gave me a tofu suggestion. I haven't tried it yet. Let me go dig it out of her email to me.

> Tofu:  try taking the package and putting it in the
> freezer.  Later, when you remember it, put it in the
> refrigerator (where it started).  Later, when it is
> thawed, take it out and cut it into about 6 slices,
> as
> if it were a loaf of bread.  Brown them.  Wait til
> they get some color.  We use olive oil in an iron
> skillet.  Then, put them in the sauce long enough
> for
> them to get a bit puffed up again...then they will
> have flavor and a certain chewiness, almost.  Dare
> you.

[sophiems]

I try to get the carbs in in the evening to keep him fuller for the night!

LOL, that's my thinking too! However DH was trying to explain to me that carbs can be a form of "sugar" too. I'm still unclear how that works.

It's my understanding that if the carb is not whole grain than your body treats it like sugar.  If you give your lo white bread, and all sorts of things like pasta, puffs, etc. like that and none is whole grain, than there is virtually no nutritional value to it and does more harm than good.  You can find whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, etc. that is fine to give before bed, because the whole grains have the protein in too.  The best is to complement whole grain with a protein.  Like whole grain toast with natural peanut butter (natural doesn't have hydrogenated fats) is really good for you. 

[KellyC]

That's ok - Zander gets the 'good' versions of everything!

[Marisa's Mom]

Ah... that's probably why I feel the same way after eating at McDonalds, Italian food, Vietnamese pho (noodles), Japanese udon (noodles), etc...

Of course, there's the other extreme, where the food you eat keeps you stuffed for an unusually LONG time which also can't be good for you.

Ok, what is it about white bread that kids love so much? I don't plan on introducing white to DD. She gets wheat bread right now and she seems fine with it.