weaning Archives - Munchies and Munchkins

The Weaning Diet

August 8, 2014 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Chloe has been eating solid food for just over two months and wow she loves it. So far we are yet to offer her anything that she has turned down.
We started off with the typical sweet potato purees but it really wasn’t long at all before it was clear she wanted more. A lot more in fact.

So what does she eat?

Finger Foods/Snacks:

Sticks of Cucumber/Carrot and Peppers
Wedges of cheese
Oven baked sweet potato chips
Melon
Breadsticks
Rice cakes
White toast
Brioche

Favourite Meals:

Spaghetti bolognese
Roast chicken dinner
Beef stew
Macaroni cheese
Gnocchi tomato bake
Homemade fish fingers
Lasagne
Mild chicken curry with rice
Scrambled eggs

She seems to have taken after her sister with her try anything attitude which makes life a bit easier. I know that if we go out for the day and I forget to pack a pouch ( yes we do use pouches as well as homemade meals) then I can nearly always find her something to eat or she will steal my ice cream..

A typical day of food for Chloe looks a bit like this:

Breakfast:

Yoghurt and fruit or toast and fruit

Mid morning:

Rice cake or a breadstick

Lunch:

Scrambled eggs and some veggies or fruit.

Afternoon snack:

Cheese or a baby biscotti

Dinner:

Whatver we eat, perhaps a roast dinner or pasta dish – if we eat something she can’t then she will happily devour a food pouch.

Supper:

A small bowl of porridge

She is also still exclusively breastfed and has small amounts of water throughout the day. Her breastfeeds are not regular or scheduled although I’m trying to set up more of a routine for us.

Spaghetti or pasta is definitely her favourite and I love the way she manages to suck the strands into her mouth – it’s so cute!

She would probably eat more if I offered it! She’s a starver and often sneaks bits of my meals.
Most foods she will try to feed herself using her fingers although I spoon feed her the messy things like yoghurt or stew and let her play with the spoon afterwards.

What does your baby eat? Any meal suggestions?

One last pic .. Chloe biting off more than she can chew:

Foodie baby. Recipe challenge week 5

August 23, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I realised that I was feeding Izzy a lot of ready made baby foods. Ok so I had an excuse as we had been away and it just wasn’t possible to prepare food for Izzy at festivals otherwise but since being home I have been determined to change her diet and introduce new foods and textures.

In the last few weeks we have tried lots of new foods with various levels of success.

Firstly:

Drop Scones

You can find the recipe here
I adjusted the sugar levels slightly as was a little too much for my liking but otherwise I kept it the same.

Izzy had these for breakfast served slightly warm spread with unsalted butter and she loved them! She also had some the following day served cold as a snack.

We ate them too with lots of maple syrup and they were so good.

Cheese and tomato slice

Puff pastry
Cheese
Tomatoes
Peppers
Passata

I used puff pastry sheets cut into squares, I then scored a 2cm border around the square and poked a fork in the middle a few times just to break the surface not to go through completely. I then put a little passata in the middle and spread it with a knife, sprinkled with cheese and added some chopped cherry tomatoes and peppers. For mine and Andrews I added red onion and freshly ground pepper. I baked in the oven until puffed up and the underneath was cooked completely.

Izzy really enjoyed this immediately which I didn’t expect as I thought the texture would be too different for her but it was a success and we enjoyed them also served with a light salad.

Best served warm straight from the oven but obviously check it has cooled enough for your child especially the tomatoes!

You could add almost anything to these.

Omelette/scrambled egg combo

Eggs
Spinach (baby leaf)
Tomatoes
Full fat milk
Cheese
Butter

Chop spinach and tomatoes into very small pieces and saute until soft in the butter. Beat eggs with some full fat milk (Ingredient amounts depend on how many of you are eating) and pour over your spinach and tomatoes then sprinkle with grated cheese. Leave egg mixture set and then used a fork scramble it up and ensure egg is fully cooked before dishing up.

Izzy absolutely loves this and her dad does too.

I realise these recipes probably don’t seem very exciting to us adults but to a baby discovering new food it’s a whole new world of flavours.

I have also noticed that on the days Izzy has protein rich dishes such as omelettes or chicken curry which she also loves that she seems to sleep longer and is more settled. Yay.

Wean your baby the Plum way

August 16, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Back in June, organic baby food brand, Plum, ran a competition to win a sought after place at the
first ever Plum Cookery School.

Five lucky mums were invited down to Buckinghamshire where the Cookery School opened its doors to reveal some of the tasty secrets behind Plum’s recipes and offered expert advice to support parents through the weaning process. The cookery school was made extra exciting with two special guests, celebrity chef Rachel Allen and child nutrition expert, Beverley Glock, who were both
a great help and really lovely as you will see in the new weaning videos.

I was one of those lucky mums and myself and Izzy had a fab time.

Plum’s new videos are designed to ensure that other mums can take advantage of Rachel
and Beverley’s advice whilst learning lots of cooking tips, eating fabulous food and having many of
their weaning worries resolved.

Click here to see the Plum Cookery School action in the third of Plum’s weaning videos. This video
covers stage three of weaning, where Beverley Glock cooks up two tasty dishes, including a Beef
Stroganoff that the whole family can enjoy. Please ignore my lack of camera skills.

If this video has got tummies rumbling and you can’t wait to learn more, all you need to do is
head on over to Plum’s You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/plumbaby).

The Plum cookery School in pictures:

If your little un hasn’t yet tried Plum products I’d recommend you give them a whirl as they taste amazing. Plus at the moment you can get a free coupon to download on Plum’s Facebook Page, now is your perfect time to introduce your baby to Plum! They are going thick and fast though and they only have 10,000 to give away, so hurry!
www.facebook.com/plumbaby

A Plum Prize

July 5, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 6 Comments

*Before we start at the end of this blog is a very lovely easy to enter competition.*

A month or so ago whilst Izzy was having one of those days (and nights) I entered a spurt of competitions online..mainly to kill time while she was napping as I knew she would be awake before I got the chance to actually do anything. Well it looks like I should thank my teething child as it has definitely paid off.

Two weeks ago I had an email telling me that I had won a competition with Plum Baby if you hadn’t heard of Plum and well if you aren’t a parent that could certainly be the case they produce an organic food range for babies and toddlers which is a bit different to the norm..definitely more adventurous that you would expect for little uns but in a good way. So the email informed me I had won an all expenses paid trip to Buckinghamshire staying at a hotel, two days at Plum cookery school with food expert Beverley Glock and one of my fave celeb chefs Rachel Allen ( check my earlier blogs for one of her awesome biscuit recipes) that’s pretty good yes but wait there is more.. They also threw in £500 to spend on Izzy and a video camera to continue filming the weaning journey. Woop I was more than excited.

Train travel was included in the prize so I ( very hesitantly ) climbed aboard a train from Swansea and made 4 changes including London underground at rush hour all by myself (and Izzy of course).
It was pretty scary but most people were amazingly helpful and I had an offer to lift the pram off at every stop.. I think my beautiful little girl made people all gooey.

The first day at the cookery school I met the other mums ( there were 5 winners in total) and their wonderful babies! This was easily one of my favourite parts of the whole experience.. Izzy loved spending time with babies of a similar age and I enjoyed chatting to some really lovely mums. We met Beverly and Rachel who were both really friendly and down to earth.

Rachel and Beverley showed us how to cook dishes such as stroganoff and sweet cape curry (to the same recipe as Plum use for their sweet cape taste adventures) as well as Muffins using a pouch of fruit purée as a substitute for a lot of the fat content of a usual muffin- definitely one to try.

To finish off we made chicken nuggets ( the healthy way) using chunks of chicken breast dipped in egg and covered in crushed up Plum baby crisps. These were so good you would never know they were covered in baby snacks.

I enjoyed all the recipes although I was ever so slightly disappointed that we weren’t more hands on with regards to the cooking as I do love to cook but I picked up a load of tips including : wash your eggs prior to use.. (If you are wondering why just think about it a little longer) using fruit puree to sweeten cakes etc. The only one I will admit that I won’t be trying at home is the cauliflower cheese made with formula milk to serve to the whole family- I tried it and it tasted fine but just not for me..sorry Beverley.

I’ll finish off with some more lovely photos and a bit of good news for my lovely readers I have not 1, not 2 but 3 sets of the new taste adventure range Plum baby food up for grabs and it couldn’t be more simple to enter, in fact I am giving you 3 entries each. 1. Comment underneath telling me why you would love some Plum goodies. 2. Tweet me @writingforfun telling me why 3. Post a pic of your baby on twitter with the hashtag #Iwantsomeplummunchies I will pick 3 winners from all entries made before 8pm on July 15th 2012.

*a quick thank you to all at Plum, Beverley Glock and Rachel Allen as well as Finn PR.

The Weaning Diet

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Foodie baby. Recipe challenge week 5

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Wean your baby the Plum way

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A Plum Prize

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