Avocado Chickpea Sandwiches

Teething bites!

The kid is getting both his top and bottom canines in at the moment.  What that means is, in addition to being awake for 3 hour blocks of time in the middle of the night, he is even pickier than normal.  

He eats fruit, gathered spinach scramble, and...nope...that's about it.  Luckily it's summer and that means lots of fresh seasonal fruit.  

Luckily for me the husband will eat almost anything I put in front of him.  He sometimes grumbles a bit and says, "I bet this is healthy, isn't it?"  Gee, is this the thanks I get for trying to extend his healthy years?  

But seriously, he's actually a good sport. 

Eggplant Fritters

The summer seems to be dragging on.  It's hot, it's humid and it doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon.  We're lucky out here in Alabama to not be suffering from the drought as much as the rest of the country.  Unfortunately our grass has come out of it's dormancy with a vengeance.  It's takes about 3 days before it looks like it needs to be mowed again. Sigh!  Did I mention how hot it is.

This weekend we sat outside with cool glasses of homemade lemonade on our freshly mowed grass watching the kid play around in the backyard.  He was supposed to be playing in the splash pool, but he doesn't have much interest in it.  The husband said that it was what living in the South was meant to be--sipping lemonade on the back patio.  What a romantic!

Broccoli and Cauliflower Fritters

I really like cooking.  I would think that is pretty obvious by now. Putting aside all modesty, I'd say I'm pretty good at it.  But there is one aspect of cooking that I struggle with.  And that is timing all the components of a meal in such a way that they all arrive on the table, steaming hot, at roughly the same time.  

Seriously, it's a challenge.  4:00 p.m. rolls around and I stare at my mostly immaculately clean kitchen and I make a plan.  I calculate the cooking times of the pasta/rice/quinoa and how long the recipe says to saute the onions/peppers/meat.  My steaming chart says it takes some quantity of minutes to steam broccoli/carrots/insert-healthy-sounding-food-here.  With this data I should be able to figure out how to get everything done by five and all at the same time.  It is, after all, basic math.  I taught math, this shouldn't be hard.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

I wasn't going to have a picky eater.  It just wasn't going to happen.  I suppose it was mostly ignorance, but I truly believed that picky eaters were the result of parents themselves.  I no longer believe that.  It might still be true, but that would mean I'm to blame for my child's pickyness...ergo, I no longer believe that.

The kid's favorite food is sweet potatoes.  High in phyto-nutrients and vitamins A and C, it's a favorite I try to encourage.  Of course, it's one of the only things he'll eat.  During the cooler months I cut sweet potatoes into fry shapes, toss them with some oil and cinnamon and bake them at around 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  It was my go to food for him when I knew he wouldn't eat what I made, or when we were going out to dinner.  Sweet potatoes guarantee a happy kid and a full belly.

Gathered Spinach Scramble and thoughts on feeding babies

Much to my mother's initial horror, I never spoon fed the kid rice cereal.  In fact I didn't spoon feed him at all.  Before he was born I decided that I would be allowing him to self feed.  When he was a little over 6 months old we put him in his high chair and gave him a piece of avocado...and he LOVED it.  

From there we experimented with steamed veggies, roasted sweet potatoes, peaches, pears, oatmeal balls, veggie pancakes...pretty much anything he could gum.  This method of feeding babies is called baby led weaning or baby led solids.  It's becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons.  One of those reasons is that you don't have to spend hours spoon feeding a baby and you can enjoy meals together as a family.  Another benefit is that children who are introduced to foods this way are less likely to choke as they get older because they learned to chew first, then swallow (while spoon feeding teaches swallowing first).