Tackling toddler foods

He wants to examine everything.

Several weeks ago we started into really giving Isaac finger foods. We have been half-hearted but he was showing definite signs of being more interested in our food than his own pureed food. (I suppose a bit of me is excited to win his stomach back from Gerber too).

I have wrestled with this eating stage though. It is really hard for me. It just takes so long for him to eat a meal. I love watching him pick up all the foods and try new things, but goodness, it takes FOREVER. (And I just want to get to the pool)! Yes, I know I am being selfish again.

Actually, one of the hardest things about this stage for me is having good finger foods ready and available for him when he is ready to eat. I have heard many say, “I just feed him what we are eating.” Well, I haven’t exactly gotten into the swing of planning my meals to be edible by him yet. And for lunch I usually just warm up whatever looks good to me at the moment. And Isaac is usally ready to eat by then, he doesn’t want to wait for me to fix something.

So, I got to looking at the Happy Box and figured I could kill two birds with one stone; I can use up some of the produce before it goes bad and also set aside some good food for my little one.

So one afternoon I got my steamer out and started steaming some vegetables. I started with summer squash and broccoli. I steamed them in the steamer for about 20 minutes, let them cool, bagged them in single size portions, about 1/4 cup each, and put them in a gallon freezer bag. I then diced up some carrots and followed the same procedure. Now, when I need a fresh meal accompaniment (and I don’t have one already planned) I simply go to my beloved freezer and pull out a vegetable. It’s that easy!

Now the getting the child to eat it is another story. We definitely LOVE some broccoli. I usually have to give him that last if I want him to eat anything else. We like squash too. But carrots? He would rather do without carrots. I will keep trying though. . .

So as you are looking at some of that produce sprouting from your garden, remember that there is a little one that might just be excited to have you store some of it away for them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 11:11 am and is filed under Kitchen Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.