Show Us Your Life ~ Toddler Food

It's been awhile since I've participated in Kelly's "Show Us Your Life" blog linkup...but what better way to start back up than with food!!

Miss E is a little bit picky. By that I mean she usually eats pretty well, there are just days when she's not "feelin'" something in particular. Like chicken...sometimes she'll eat it, sometimes she won't. We usually have pretty good luck when we give her some ketchup to dip it in...she's just like her daddy, she thinks everything is better with ketchup!!

Breakfast...this is pretty standard (though she'd already eaten half of her fruit and toast). We go with fruit (usually strawberries, blueberries, or bananas), a 1/2 piece of toast (dry, most of the time), and some type of cereal (she loves oatmeal). On the weekends, or whenever I feel like cooking in the morning, we'll give her a plain waffle and let her dip it in syrup, or a biscuit with a little bit of jelly. She eats A LOT in the mornings...more than any other time of the day.

Lunch varies from day to day. Sometimes she'll have 1/2 of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, sometimes just lunch meat & some cheese. She loves quesadillas, & ham/cheese/tortilla roll-ups. We do applesauce, ritz crackers, grapes, goldfish, or pretzels for her "side"...just depends on what we have and what she's in the mood for.

Snacks vary as well. Jello is a big hit, as are Nilla Wafers (mmm, yummy!). Goldfish and Multi-Grain Cheerios are easiest, and I like to put those in little containers that have the plastic "vent" type things on the top. You know the ones...they keep stuff from spilling out, but make it easy for toddler hands to reach in and grab a handful. We've done graham crackers, and I just got a box of Annie's Organic Bunny Grahams. Those suckers are tasty! Fruit always goes over well, and so does cheese. Basically, she likes what I like...makes it pretty easy!

This is a E's typical dinner. We like for her to try whatever it is that we're eating, and provide her with enough sides to keep her from being hungry if she doesn't like it. She's a big fan of tomatoes, and will eat just about any fruit that we put in front of her. Peas, broccoli and green beans are okay if they are mixed with something (like spaghetti sauce...or ketchup!). Asparagus is iffy, and zucchini & squash are no-go's. Basically, she's not a big fan of veggies. Sadly, I think she gets that from me! But I keep trying, and that's what counts right? Right?!

Hope you got some good ideas...and I'd love to hear some of y'alls! I'm not very good at branching out, so I'm totally open to suggestions! Oh, and be on the look-out for the recipe for the pasta dish above. It's one of my favorites, and is oh-so-easy! I'll be sharing that soon :)

Baby Gourmet I Am NOT!!

To say that have had problems w/ Elli's food from the beginning would be an understatement! I can still hear the nurse at the pediatrician's office telling me (in her sweet Southern drawl), "honey, your baby is starving!". Breast-feeding just didn't work for me. Well it did but only for 4 months...but I digress. And then I thought making home-made baby food would be a perfect idea...and then my food processor broke, followed shortly thereafter by my blender. So, store-bought baby food it was, and to be honest it was super easy so I was happy. But now, I'm just stuck in a baby food rut, and I need some ideas!

So, this is basically what Miss Elli eats on a typical day:

Breakfast ~ Formula bottle, oatmeal & a fruit (mushed up banana or peach usually)

Lunch ~ Sippy of formula or water + apple juice, some kind of veggie baby food, cut up cheese, and some puffs, yogurt melts, or crunchies

Snack ~ Formula bottle, some sort of cracker or wafer, and either a fruit or a no-sugar added fruit sauce thing-y (like that description?!)

Dinner ~ Formula bottle, a little of whatever we are having, and either a veggie baby food or a meat meal baby food depending on what we're eating.

Here's the issue...I know she should be eating more protein, and I'd really like to start steering away from baby food all together. My problem is that since she has 1 lone tooth, I have a hard time giving her anything that isn't super soft. **Note that I said I have the problem...I'm sure it's more my issue than Elli's! Ha!** So, for example, I hate giving her broccoli/green beans/carrots because I feel like they're too hard (even when steamed really well), and I end up just giving her those veggies in baby food form. And what about meat? Oh, and shouldn't she be totally on the sippy cup by now? I keep reading that she should be, but she's just not a big fan of it and I'm afraid she won't be getting enough to drink if I take away her bottle. Oh to be a new mom!! Total stress!! TeeHee!!

Anyway, if anyone has any great pointers (or just some straight out advice) on what worked with your kiddo's, I'd love to hear it :) And I'll be posting about our fab-o trip to Memphis soon...I just feel like time has been flying by lately!

Success!!

Our first attempt at homemade baby food was peas...

this was Elli's reaction.

(Please excuse the runny nose, we're teething at the moment!!)

She wasn't a fan, obviously!

So then we tried sweet potato's...mommy's favorite!!

Just puree' the cooked potato's in the blender,

**Yes, that's a food processor in the above pic, but it didn't work so we moved to the blender...I'm ever-so-adaptable :)**

and you'll end up w/ some yummy goodness :)

Chris fed her one night...

and my dad fed her another...SUCCESS!!

I store the extra food in ice cube trays,

and I just get two per day out to thaw for dinner :)

So simple, so good, and so healthy for my sweet baby girl.

Next up: Zucchini!!

I gotta admit, I'm not all that confident that we'll get another happy reaction!!