finger food

My son Taj is 9 months and is right into the swing of things with finger food. It is messy, fun and very interesting!

Little people grow up so fast, to think I started him on solids at 7 months and it was all mashy, to me unappetising and not that interesting. I started off with rice cereal, expressing the milk and he loved it. Why wouldn't he, he is a boob man!

Once he had mastered the art of eating we moved onto the veges. I started with mashy potato, which he made the hmmm noices with! From that reaction I based all my mixed vegetables around potato. I really have come up with some great combinations all to my lovely Annabel Karmel' book, Feeding Your Baby & Toddler. This is the bible of cooking with kids. Taj's favourite would have to be the spinach, potato, parsnip and leek puree.

Spinach, Potato, Parsnip & Leek Puree

30g butter

50g leek washed and finely sliced

250g potatoes peeled and chopped

100g parsnips peeled and chopped

250ml of boiling water

100g fresh spinach washed and tough stalks removed

40g grated cheddar cheese

melt the butter in a saucepan, add the leek and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the potatoes and parsnips, saute for 1 minute, then pour over the boiling wate. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Add the fresh spinach leaves and cook for 3-4 minutes. Drain the vegetables, reserving the cooking liquid. Blend vegetables together with 50 ml of the cooking liquid and the grated cheddar. Add more liquid if necessary to thin the puree.

Now we have moved onto wanting to feed ourselves and this comes with his first assertive behaviour! This morning we had yoghurt rubbed through the hair with weetbix. Kind of cool as it was a natural hair gel! For this new stage I am going with the flow and understanding that he is going to get messy, I am going to have food thrown at me and all over the floor. I have already been in trouble for trying to feed him and he does some kind of grunt, I think this is his way of being assertive, or telling me he is a boy! He is also being assertive with not wanting to wear a bib by taking it off at every meal time. I am pretty much getting him changed after each meal!

Some great finger food ideas that I have tried are bread fingers with avocado, pasta, cheese (grated or a slice), avocado fingers, potato fingers, sweet potato fingers, banana, bread with avocado and cottage cheese and I must say most of these things end up squished between his fingers, mashed through his hair and thrown around the kitchen. I am not too sure how much gets eaten!

I am really enjoying this stage of his development. I now look forward to exploring more foods and tonight I am introducing meat balls!

Just a quick added extra, Taj loves the meat balls!!! He is up to his second one!