He likes spicy!

Today for lunch, TP's Daddy made spicy chicken soup with ho fun noodles which consisted of chicken fried in birds eye chilli's and a whole host of other ingredients that only TP's Daddy knows. He made the soup not realising that TP would be partaking so it wasn't made any calmer for little mouths, so I have to say I was quite nervous about giving it to TP.

No need to worry, he wolfed down the chicken and loved the noodles too, he kept sticking his tongue out so I think it may have been a bit hot but he was fine. TP had a special way to eat his noodles too, he grabbed them in his hand and sucked it into his mouth!

Over-paranoid Mummy still gave TP raspberry yoghurt for afters just incase his mouth was hot. :D

Anyway, he's basically been off his food for the last week or so but he's definately found his appetite again.

The royal wave has gone

Yesterday TP gave his first real wave. No more sticking his arm up in the air ow that he can do a proper wave, he's waving at everything including tree's on his Granny's allotment! Ofcourse, he won't do it on demand so once I get a picture of him doing it then I will be sure to post it. :D

Sleep is for the weak...

I haven't updated for a few days, simply because I'm knackered! I have a bad cold coming and TP has decided that he doesn't need to sleep and I feel like I'm spending every hour of the day in his nursery trying to get him to sleep! Even now as I type this, he was asleep but as soon as he went in the cot the wake up switch went on and now he's playing after a 10 minute nap. I don't know how he does it. :/ I've also started a diary to note milk feeds/ food feeds / nap and sleep times.

Anyway, food has been a bit hit and miss over the past few days, I'm not sure if he has some more teeth coming or he's having a growth spurt. TP has been feeding almost 2 hourly, night time included so something is definitely afoot!

On a brighter note, I tried him with some scrambled eggs again on Thursday (he didn't like them the first time he tried them) and he really enjoyed them this time, so hooray! Although, I did cheat a little and put cheese in too - he seems to eat anything that has cheese on it. :D

Risotto

Well today I thought I would try and make risotto, which was probably a disaster waiting to happen because of two things... I've never had risotto and I followed a recipe on the rice packet which didn't have any measurements, plus I added a couple of my own ingredients!

Its lamb chops for Mummy & Daddy tonight, so I chopped off a bit of lamb to put in, diced some courgette, onion, aubergine and peppers and some tinned tomatoes. Made it how it told me to on the packet and URGH it was horrid! TP took one handful, put it in his mouth and pulled a face as if to say, "Oh my God Mother, WHAT IS THIS?!", so I quickly whizzed up some quesadilla instead with mozzarella and baby leaf spinach. Dinner, rescued!

For afters rather than the usual fruit or yoghurt I normally give him, we had some plum loaf made my Soreen and he munched it down so quickly!

I think it was a bit tart...

Joe really likes raspberries in his yoghurt, so I had some leftover that needed eating so I thought I would give him a few to eat - afterall he needs to pratice that pincer grip! I put them on his tray and he carefully picked one up, put it to his mouth and bit down and then......


He only did this on the first bite of every raspberry and then munched the rest down before starting on the next.

On another note, it would seem that the pincer grip has appeared, right out of nowhere!

Gnocchi with Cheese & Creme Fraiche Sauce

Friday's are always hectic in this house. We have swimming at 1.30pm, right in the middle of the day which means I have to leave the house at 12.15pm ish to get there on time, so needless to say lunch usually goes out of the window, unless I am already in town and at a cafe. The problem with that is, is that TP is far too nosey to have a milk feed anywhere other than in the privacy of his bedroom, curtains closed and lights out... no really! So, rather than miss a milk feed, I miss out lunch - for the time being anyway, until I really need to give him lunch everyday.

For dinner tonight, I had a go at making a cheese sauce for TP's gnocchi rather than the usual pesto. I haven't made it before, normally I can't stand cheese sauce but oo, this one was quite tasty! TP wolfed his down, I think he had about 7 bits of gnocchi! We finished it off by sharing a lovely Empire apple, which he prefers to eat whole. It was funny actually because I think he has now discovered what his teeth are for, each time he grated the apple with his bottom teeth and got something deposited into his mouth he did a little shout and a big smile, it was very cute!

Cheese & Creme Fraiche Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup Creme Fraiche
1/4 tsp garlic - Im very lazy and used "Very Lazy Garlic"
1/2 cup vegetable stock - I use 1 tsp of sundried tomato paste and half a cup of boiled water.
Cornflour to thicken
1/2 - 1 cup of grated cheese (I use anything that is in the fridge, tonight it was Monterey Jack and Parmesan)
Couple of twists of black pepper

Method
Put the Creme Fraiche and stock in a pan and stir together and then stir in the garlic.
Add the cornflour, keep stirring or it will go lumpy!
Bring to the boil then add the cheese and pepper.
Stir until you reach your preferred thickness, if it too runny for you add a bit more cornflour.

Polenta....

Well I thought we would try polenta, its good for you and something different. I was told to make it then grill it with either cheese or a pasta type sauce so I made it according to the packet and left it to cool and then grilled it on each side until it was golden. It wasn't really grabbing my attention much, it made me think of gruel (not that I actually know what gruel is!) and it was actually quite horrid! Ahwell, TP might like it.

So I whizzed up some tomato, courgette & aubergine sauce and poured it over the polenta and popped it on the tray. He took one taste and pulled the biggest EWW face ever! At least, my boy has some taste!

All was not lost, a quick blend of raspberries added to the yoghurt saved dinner! :D

Tomato, Courgette & Aubergine Sauce

Ingredients
1 large tomato - skinned
1/4 courgette - peeled & sliced
1/4 aubergine - peeled & sliced
1/4 Red Onion - chopped
Garlic
Olive Oil

Method
Put the oil in the pan and heat
Add garlic, onion & tomato stir frequently until tomato is slightly soft
Add courgette & aubergine and keep stirring
If sauce is very thick you can add a little bit of water.
Once the vegetables are blended together, take off the heat and serve.

I blended the sauce so it was nice and smooth to go over the polenta but it would be really nice left chunky over pasta or gnocchi.

First proper lunch date.

Today was our first proper organised lunch date. We met a couple of TP's friends at the local childrens play centre (www.jansmadhouse.co.uk), its a really great place! Its a massive industrial unit and there is a HUGE play area, ball pit, slides, climbing nets that sort of thing and around the outside it has nice sofa's, two seperate soft play areas - one for toddlers and one for babies and then right at the end there is a cafe area, where they make all home-cooked food, and it tastes great! I wouldn't recommend going during the school holidays - we made that mistake once and stood around for 10 minutes before calling it a day and heading off to a nearby cafe but during school hours its really nice for the babies - theres cake for the Mum's too!

Anyway, I took a pack up for TP which consisted of Organix apple rice cakes (he really likes them!), a mini babybel, an apricot, an Organix gingerbread man and a couple of pieces of dried mango for him to suck on. If truth be known, I wasn't really expecting him to eat anything but he scoffed the lot!


So the day out was a resounding success. :D

Blueberry Pancakes

Joe's dinner yesterday was blueberry pancakes. I made a batch so I can freeze some for later, although they are so nice there are never many left over!


So here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Olive Oil
2 eggs, separated
75 ml milk (I use full fat)
100g wholemeal self-raising flour - you could also use regular self-raising
100g blueberries

Method
Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.
In a seperate bowl mix the egg yolks, milk and flour.
Fold in the egg whites, then the blueberries.

Lightly coat a frying pan with oil and heat the oil until it starts to smoke.
Add a few spoonfuls of batter - so that you have small round pancakes.
Cook for a minute or two, flip (or turn with a spatula, if like me your flipping skills aren't great!) and cook on the other side for a further minute.

Make sure that the blueberries are cooled before giving to your little one! I usually slice a pancake in half and test the heat of the blueberries before handing over.

I've also doubled the quantities and froze the pancakes, seperated with baking paper for a nice quick snack!

TP's 1st Christmas

I was looking forward to Christmas this year. TP was really into his Christmas pressies, I was expecting him to prefer the wrapping paper rather than the toys but he actually enjoyed playing with the toys as each one was unwrapped!

Daddy cooked dinner and we were more excited about eating the dinner than anything else lol! We were home alone this year, so we had rib of beef rather than traditional turkey, as neither of us really like it. Suffice to say, TP takes after his Mummy & Daddy for his love of food and even tasted the sprouts!

To date

Right, Im going to start a fresh today so here a brief update on everything that Joe has had since we started.

Brekkie:
Weetabix - Small amount of milk dribbled on the biscuit to make it slightly soft but not too soft that it falls apart.
Raisin Wheats - Again, with a small amout of milk to soften them.
Porridge - Ok, he seems to HATE porridge but I keep trying!
Hot Cross Buns - I cant explain in words just how much TP loves these, which is great because I do too!
Raisin & Cinnamon Bagels - Another firm favourite, we've not tried them with crea mcheese yet but that may be a lunch to try!
Toast - with banana's mainly.

Lunch:
Veggies - Roasted, steamed, mashed or boiled.
Ravioli - Done tinned, am yet to try out that new pasta maker we got for Christmas!
Sandwich - mostly with cheese, not tried cooked meats in a sandwich yet.
Pitta pockets - cheese and carrot / cheese on its own / tomatoes & cheese - does anyone see a pattern here? :P
Yoghurt - Home made (oh yes!) witha fruit puree (home blended, none of this jarred stuff!)
Rice cakes
Blueberry Pancakes

Dinner:
Roast dinner - He's had chicken, beef and lamb so far, all a hit!
Curry - Yes, he tried some meat from my bhuna, some bombay potato and onion bhaji!
Quesadilla - mainly with cheese and veggies
Gnocchi
Pasta twirls
Pesto - making my own. :D
Jacket potato
Potato wedges
Fishcakes - homemade again.

There must be more but my mind has blank for now!

First foods

TP's first foods were fruit and veg! The very first thing he had was banana, he loved it although it was very slippery so I improvised and chopped the end off a peeled banana and cut the skin down so that he had his very own mini 'nana! Since then we've given him all kinds of fruit and veg, a few of his favourites are...

Apricots - he ADORES apricots, they are his absolute favourite fruit.
Raspberries - Not so sure about them on their own but loves them blended into yoghurt.
Banana - Another firm favourite although I've found its easier if I use the crinkle cutter to chip bits off for him - he can get a much better grip.
Mango - Again, the crinkle cutter comes in VERY handy with mango!
Apple - You cant eat an apple without TP begging for a bit, at first I was worried about the choking thing and would stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so but I feel confident that he can manage a small bit with supervision.
Pears - ANother favourite, I've just started to give him a whole pear to hold himself, I just peel half of the pear so that he can hold onto the skin side.
Blueberries - He cant quite manage these without me splitting them, he's not mastered his pincer grip yet but loves them blended into yoghurt.
Butternut Squash - Cut into crinkle chips and roasted with garlic.
Parsnips - Cut into chips and roasted (sometimes with ginger!).
Sweet Potato - Again, cut into chips and roasted, sometimes with garlic.
Cabbage - Oddly, he really liked cabbage!
Swede - I mash the swede and he grabs handfuls and shoves them into his mouth lol!

Another toofy!

We saw our first tooth on New Years Eve and today I just found a 2nd tooth! Well lets hope all those sleepless nights will start to ease up now that we have our 2 bottom teeth.

I keep trying to look at them but tp keeps sticking his tongue over, he's keeping them a closely guarded secret lol.

Where it all began

At 5 and a half months, we started Tigerpiddler (to be known as TP!) weaning. I had done lots of reading (yay for the interweb!) and found this different way of weaning where you bypassed puree and went straight to finger food, known as Baby Led Weaning.

Although the guidelines say wait until 6 months, Joe had started to show interest in food and could sit up unaided, although not for a long time and I decided to introduce him slowly with the odd bit of fruit and veg here and there, afterall it's baby led weaning!

Like every new Mum, I was a little worried that he wouldn't be eating as much as puree-fed babies and also I was afraid he would choke (not realising the difference between choking and gagging). Luckily, I had stumbled upon an excellent BLW blog & forum ran by Aitch. BLW Blog and BLW Forum , which is full of excellent tips and people who can help you with almost any question!

So, for anyone wondering how to begin at the BLW lark, here are a few things you need to know...

Babies can survive on breastmilk alone for up to 1 year - in some countries they milk feed for up to 2 years!

Food should be seen as a new toy until your little one is around 1 year.

Your baby WILL gag, pull "eww" faces and sometimes throw more away than he will eat - its normal! The gagging thing is all part of the learning process and after a couple of weeks the gagging will subside a little as your baby will have learned to cough up bits that are too big to swallow.

If you dont like mess, go buy a mat to sit underneath your high chair. :P

Hello!

Im setting up this blog on behalf of my son, who was born in June, last year. We've recently started weaning him the baby led way and this will most likely be an account of the weaning!