Baby Food

I started feeding Odin solid foods a few weeks ago, and it's been quite the adventure for both of us.

Even just knowing where to start is confusing. There is way too much information out there. Purees, baby led weaning, cereals or no cereals, fruits or no fruits, juice or no juice, water or no water, the connection between starting solids and skin troubles, and just as we were starting out all the news articles about iron and breast fed babies... It seems like everyone has an opinion. I decided to keep it simple. I asked our GP, and she said 5.5 months is a fine time to start as long as he's showing interest. She said to stay away from sweetened juices and water and to make sure I don't wait too long to try iron-rich foods like meat or tofu. I did a little research and found a nice, simple chart of what foods are fine when from Wholesome Baby Food that made sense to me. Then we went for it.

We started off with mashed yams at Thanksgiving dinner. Not a big hit. He wasn't sure what to think, really. Then I tried avocado. He didn't like it straight up, but loved it thinned out with a bit of breast milk. Same with carrots.

adventures in yams

So far he's tried apples, avocados, pears, carrots, peas, butternut squash, yams, oatmeal and rice, all purees, some homemade, some prepared. No bad reactions, not even gas or constipation. Rice cereal is by far his favourite. He likes jarred peas better than oatmeal. What a weirdo.

avocado - yuck!

Overall, this whole solid food thing has been fun so far. I love watching his reactions to new things. It does make me a little sad too. He's growing up so quickly!

rice cereal is serious business

Rawwwwr!

Happy Hallowe'en from the cutest monster ever!

He's too little to trick-or-treat and it's pouring rain outside, so he's just dressed up to hang around the house. But costumes are fun no matter what!

In the meantime...

I have a couple of restaurant reviews that I need to write up for you guys, but in the meantime, here are some recent photos of my 6-month-old cutie...

Veg Eats Vancouver: Lucky's Doughnuts

Just a quick post to sing the praises of Lucky's Doughnuts, a new-ish doughnut place inside 49th Parallel Coffee on Main St. This place has been all over the blogosphere (did I just use that word?) and I finally got to try it out. I had the Salted Caramel Old Fashioned, and oh my god, it may just be the best thing I've ever eaten. It's definitely the best doughnut I've ever had.

It's so nice that there are artisan doughnut shops opening up (and let's not forget Lee's on Granvile Island), especially since our national doughnut chain, which shall remain unnamed, reheats frozen doughnuts rather than making them fresh. I once heard that Canadians eat more doughnuts per capita than any other people in the world. I don't know if that's true, but I know frozen doughnuts should be a crime.

Diet be damned! I will eat at Lucky's Doughnuts again!

 

This Week in My Kitchen: Local Food Products

I'm dog/cat-sitting for my mom this month, and she lives near a fancy gourmet grocery store called Meinhardt Fine Foods. Tonight I decided to treat myself to dinner from there. I don't have a lot of time to cook since I have to get Odin to bed around 6:30, so it had to be something fast and easy. I found some great foods from local Vancouver companies to make a quick, healthy, yummy dinner. Here's what I had:

Happy Planet Thai Coconut Soup with Sunrise Firm Tofu
I've wanted to try Happy Planet soups for a while, but they aren't cheap and I usually end up passing them by for something cheaper, if less healthy and delicious. The Thai Coconut Soup was SO worth it! I love red coconut curry, and this had just the right amount of hot and sweet. I added some local tofu for a filling, balanced meal and even after dessert I'm already thinking about seconds.

Rico n' Lalo Frozen Fruit Bars
I noticed these fruit bars because of the fantastic packaging, then saw that they are local and all natural. The fact that they're low-calorie is a bonus! I chose lime flavour as a perfect ending for the red curry soup. It was so good! Sweet and tart and refreshing! I'm excited that there are three bars left in the package...