Back in Business

Okay! After a few weeks on auto pilot, I'm ready to move full speed ahead with finger foods again. I'm hoping to use up most of my purees in the freezer and then only keep a few staples like pureed squash on hand. Otherwise, I think Sophie's ready to take mostly foods she can pick up with her hands (with the exception of a few favorites like yogurt and cottage cheese). She LOVES little pieces of cheese, peas, and of course cheerios and bananas. She's gotten a lot faster and more accurate recently as her hand-eye coordination improves.

So tonight after my grocery store trip and getting the kids in bed, I hunkered down in the kitchen and got some new things made up.

Baby cereal pancakes - whole wheat flour, store-bought baby oatmeal cereal, banana, and a little cinnamon and vanilla. The batter is pretty thick and dense so they don't keep a very round shape on the griddle when flipped. :)
Broccoli cheese nuggets... just like it sounds, plus some egg yolks and bread crumbs to bind.

Both of the above recipes are from my favorite wholesomebabyfood.com website.

Also, I got a bunch of basics diced up and steamed/baked. This will be Sophie's first week trying zucchini and summer squash. Will used to love these and has since changed his mind. I remember when he was just about 15 months or so taking a little container of steamed (cold) squash chunks and a baggie of fishy crackers to a soccer game we attended as a snack. Everyone thought it was funny that I packed squash for a snack, but Will devoured it. Now, prepping food like this again brings back good memories of doing the same for Will. It's so handy to just take an evening to dice and steam a whole bunch of fruits and veggies and keep them in storage containers in the fridge for meals that week.

Summer squash getting ready to steam on the stove top.

Sweet potato dices tossed with a little canola oil and nutmeg.

Getting ready to bake.

Steamed pear dices ready for the fridge.

Chicken strips simmering in some stock with a couple bay leaves. I'll leave these in strips in a container and tear/shred them up for a meal as needed.

Tomorrows breakfast and lunch for the babysitter (left to right): breakfast is banana, blueberry yogurt, baby cereal pancake... and lunch is broccoli cheese nugget, diced pear, sweet potato puree to mix with cottage cheese (one of her faves). She's pretty consistently up to about 4 ounces/cubes of food now and gradually taking less milk - tear :( - my baby's growing up!