Toddler Food
I'm a terrible googler. I've just spent an hour looking for a good food blog by a parent of a toddler; I want some recipe ideas. Right now my main challenge with August is to keep him from choking even though he only has four teeth (so chewing's not entirely natural for him). I'm also suddenly obsessed with things I've never thought much about before: pesticides on produce, hormones and antibiotics in meat, poultry, milk. Strong flavors are not necessarily out, but I'm pretty sure spicy foods are. If I spend more than 6 minutes at a time on something in the kitchen August starts to grab onto my knees.
I love to find things he loves, though. I get this canned low-mercury tuna from FD, and he devours it (even though tuna's kind of a strong flavor). He likes medium-flavored cheese (I haven't tried stinky cheese, but the mild stuff isn't so interesting to him). He loved the pumpkin spice cookies I made and the marbled butter cookie from the local bakery, hated packaged zweiback. Doesn't like mashed potatoes, but likes sweet potatoes and the potato croquettes friends brought for Thanksgiving dinner. Full-fat yogurt.
I've had success with frittatas, finger-friendly pastas (the one with tuna, peas and a little grated hard cheese was popular), meatballs. Simple baked white fish. Faux pho from The New American Cooking.
You might try http://kitschenette.typepad.com/redkitchen/ or her companion blog - she has two small kids and writes about food.
Hi, Kim, if you really want to go natural with baby food, next time you're cookingrice, try skimming the liquid just before it burbles over, then add some honey and your baby's choice of mashed fruit. And hey, tuna sounds good too. Just make sure it's dolphin-safe brand. But I digress here.
Since you mentioned teeth, i should probably tell you my youngest was born with hers already out.
Say Hi to August for me!
p.s.
Nice blog you got here.
I bought Annabel Karmel's book when my daughter was born and used the recipes and ideas from her book and website
http://www.cookingforchildren.co.uk/
starting from when my daughter started on solids.
Thanks for the suggestions. I was sure I wasn't the first parent to find feeding the baby a fun, interesting and challenging new task. Tonight I picked up some knishes from Knish Nosh, and August dug right in for about four bites, then decided he wouldn't eat any more of it (but he did have quite a bit of fun smooshing it all over his tray).
I just stumbled upon your blog, and I find it very interesting. Just thought you should know that your feed ins't available, so I can't add you to bloglines.
I have a toddler food suggestion that I can give you, let me find the recipe and I'll get back to you with it, my 16 month old son loves it. It's basically grated potatos and zuchini and other stuff mixed up and fried.
Rotem, your recipe sounds great. It sounds like something I'd like to eat, and potatoes and zucchinis are, so far, on August's list of things he'll allow to pass between his lips. (He's actually not that picky yet.)
My little guy (19mnths) loves avo, and bannana pieces to self feed and will devour a mix of hummous and ricotta cheese. All healthy !!