Food Rut

When we started out with the whole solid food thing, L did not have any interest.  Milk was his favorite and thats all he wanted which was fine, I didn't want to make meals a bad association so I offered food often but if he refused I didn't push it.

Finally around 8 months he decided he liked food but really only liked very few baby foods, so I decided to just start offering the food we were eating.  He ended up loving regular food and now he basically just eats what we eat.  I am actually kind of amazed at what he eats and I know as he gets more into the throws of toddlerhood things can change daily but I have yet to offer him anything he won't eat.

The problem is, aside from dinner we don't really eat a whole lot and I know he needs to eat more but I just feel like I feed him all the same things and I don't want him eating mac and cheese and chicken nuggets every day.  I know he needs more fruits and veggies and right now he likes those squeeze pack things of fruit and veggies because he likes to hold them and squeeze them but he can't eat those forever.

At breakfast he usually has oatmeal, greek yogurt, waffles, or banana.  The real issue is lunch.  I just never know what to feed him because I don't really eat lunch. Also on nights when I work and hubby gets home late sometimes I just don't have time to make dinner and then I'm scrounging the cabinets for something to throw together for him.

What do you feed your toddlers? I just need some new ideas!

Baby Food Made by Momma

SO while I was pregnant and actually probably before I was pregnant I had decided I wanted to make my own baby food.  I have seen and smelled jarred food and was honestly completely disgusted by it.

I came across this blog Styleberry Blog and besides the fact that she is awesome she had a really awesome post about making her baby food.  I am very much a visual person and she has this video that shows step by step her process.  After watching that and reading her food post I was completely sold 100%!

I have only done sweet potatoes and pumpkin so far as that's all we have tried, I plan to do a big shopping trip soon to stockpile my freezer with different foods for him for when we get to them.

The sweet potatoes were beyond easy, All I did was wash them, poke holes in them and wrap them in foil then bake on 400 for 30-45 minutes...be sure to watch them so they don't overcook.  Once they are done just scoop the meat out of the skin and put into the blender (I used the magic bullet) with some water and puree adding more water depending on the thinness you want. I then put it into ice cube trays and into the freezer.

Shawna of Styleberry blog recommends these ice cube trays, and so do I.  Each cube is an ounce so its good to keep track of how much baby eats and also it makes storage so much more space efficient since the cubes line up perfectly in a gallon size freezer ziploc.

I was initially very intimidated by the pumpkin but I thought the health benefits for L outweighed the scaredness of me haha.  In reality it wasn't hard at all.  To start, I cut the pumpkin in half then scooped out the innards

Then put them open side down in a baking dish with about 1-2 inches of water and bake on 400 for an hour.  The skin will pull away from the meat and this is what mine looked like I obviously had already scooped out the one half.  It was so easy since it was basically already separated.

Then you do the same thing as with the sweet potatoes just puree and put into the ice cube trays which look like this

I really followed the process from the blog I linked to above, I also used the website Wholesome Baby which is a fantastic resource.

Once again, the process was so easy and I actually tasted both things which they were both tasty, I honestly would not really expect my child to eat something that is foul tasting, I honestly taste everything I give him!