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!