Ok, sorry for the delay in posting. Sam has had his first double ear infection and possibly roseola. So, he actually as not been eating very well and I haven't tried many new foods. But, he is on the last day of antibiotics and is eating great once again.

One of the latest foods I have frozen is cooked lentils. I didn't use the baby food cooker to cook these because they need more than steaming obviously. I boiled water, added the lentils and a bay leaf, boiled until tender. Really not hard and I didn't measure anything. Just filled a pot with water and put about 1/2 # of dried lentils. These require no pre-soaking like black or pinto beans. Once the lentils have grown in size and you think they are pretty tender then I cut the heat down and just simmered while I prepared other food. (Make sure you remove the bay leaf before pureeing).
I froze ice cubes of the lentil puree (left it sort of chunky, so not actually pureed smooth). Sam has had them several times mixed with different foods or just plain. I mixed with cauliflower puree and also pumpkin. He was a big fan of both items.

I was driving home from work on Friday and on the side of the road some ladies were selling muscadine grapes. Since imported grapes are pretty much a no-no anymore due to the high levels of pesticides, I thought locally grown grapes might be a better choice. For those of you who aren't accustomed to eating muscadines, they are a little different than traditional grapes. They are large globe grapes and are very very sweet, with a taste sort of like concord grapes. The outside skin is pretty tough but definitely edible for people with a full set of teeth. For Sam, I quartered the grapes, removed the seeds and peeled off the skin. He ate them with his breakfast this morning and loved them!

Another thing I have started doing is pureeing up some of the foods we have been eating for dinner. One of the first things I pureed was chicken and dumplings. He really loved that, I mean who doesn't love homemade chicken and dumplings! Yes I know you are thinking, but there is milk in that!?! But I weighed the options and just decided to try and see what would happen and nothing happened. He ate it and the portion of milk that he actually received was probably negligible. It is not something he gets on a regular basis so I let him live a little ;)

Email me with any good recipes you have tried! juletay@aim.com

Sam is moving into regular foods. As I had talked aobut in the previous posts, Sam is really acting bored with the pureed food. This morning I toasted 1 slice of whole wheat bread (we use Nature's Own) and removed the crust. Hard boiled 2 eggs and removed the yolks (I fed the white's to the dogs). You need to start out using only egg yolk and leave out the white because it is more allergenic than the yolk. I mashed the yolk and spread it over the toast. It was very crumbly so i just mashed the toast with my fingers and smushed the egg yolk into the toast. Then I tore it into little bites and just laid it on his tray table. He LOVED it! He was shoveling it in with both fists. We also had diced banana and some water in a sippy cup. I am not using any baby juice yet. I want him to learn to love the taste of plain water. I am not a big juice drinker myself because I really don't see the need. If you eat the actual fruit it is much more nutritious. The only juices we buy are pomegranate or acai. Occasionally we buy some martenelli's apple juice as a treat or maybe the V8 fusion juices, but it is not something regularly purchased.

This week we have begun to wean the milk and make sure he is getting more nutrition from the foods he eats. He had been getting 4-5 6 oz bottles each day (usually around 28 oz total). Over the past few days I have been giving around 18-20 oz and sending extra snacks to school with him.

One hurdle we have had lately is the food he gets at daycare. They provide the food for all the kids there but I always send Sam his own lunch and breakfast and snacks. I guess I know I am picky about certain things and other people are not, so I want to make sure he is getting the best possible nutrition. This is the time when you are building their palettes and teaching variety. Here is the problem, in the afternoon they are giving them graham crackers. Not a bad snack, but, I just don't like him having sweet snacks all of the time. It is hard to bring it up at daycare because I don't want to be one of THOSE parents. I try sending extra snacks from home and on his report card I saw, cookies, yesterday. Ugh, I guess I am going to have to say something because I really don't want him having cookies and things like that until he has learned that real, whole, unsweetened foods are good first. I do not want to be the food police by any means, but I am trying to get him to love certain things before he realizes there is junk out there that tastes awesome. Any thoughts on this?

Over the past few days I have noticed that sam is not getting as excited during mealtime as he used to. In the past, as soon as you put him in his high chair he starts kicking his legs and twisting his hands in excitement for the meal to come. Not anymore....unless.....he sees me eating something other that what he has. I guess this is his way of telling me.....MOM, i want a bite of what you've got! Today during lunch I was feeding him sweet potato/white potato (mashed of course) and I was eating a black bean patty on whole wheat bread. He wasn't acting excited at all, just sort of going through the motions. Then I decided to take a bite of my sandwich and he started acting excited again. So I decided I would give him some of my black bean patty.....he did ok. But this leads me to my next thought, if you took a pizza cutter and cut up a black bean patty that would be a great source of protein for the baby. I am not a big fan of pureed meat. I bought one thing of pureed baby meat just to try. It smelled weird and tasted weird. I vow not to buy those anymore and just make my own. I also do not believe that there has to be meat at every meal, just a source of protein. There are kids out there that will not eat meat (my niece Ava) and this would be a great substitute for her (if she would eat it...who knows). My husband and I do not eat meat at every meal, there are many meals where we just have veggies and starch. Before I got pregnant I had been without meat 5 months until the morning sickness started. I could NOT stand any of the sources of protein like tofu, tvp, soy, ugh, just could not do it. So I started eating meat again and have not returned to that lifestyle....yet.
So, baby sam is telling me that he is over the baby food 24/7 and ready for some finger foods. I guess tomorrow I will be coming up with some new a la carte items for sam's menu. I will let you know how it works out ;) Let me know if you have tried any cool and healthy finger food ideas that may not be very common!