Toddler Food... Coming Soon!

Well, faithful reader(s?), you've asked and I will deliver: tasty, creative toddler food!

(But, um, not today.)

Many of you have read post after post about making your own baby food and how to do that, and a few of you have asked if I have ideas for yummy ideas on what to feed our older babies.  I'll admit, my toddler is a very, VERY picky eater and actually, we just had him evaluated by an occupational therapist for possible Sensory Processing Disorder (he doesn't have it, or if he does, it's not severe enough to bother with formal therapy).  Though that was somewhat of a dead-end, the therapist did give me some interesting ideas for how to present food to Jack to help expand his diet.  It's a frustrating situation because I made his baby food and I exposed him to a GIGANTIC array of different tastes and textures and whatnot.  Being a "foodie" myself, and being a single mom for some part of that stage of his life (Daddy was out to sea) I had no problems immersing myself in food - selection, preparation, presentation and introduction with Jack as my little sidekick.  So his picky eating as a nearly 3-year old is an aggravating and mystifying problem with which we struggle daily.  Somewhere between his tofu- and garbanzo bean-eating days and today, his palate has restricted itself to the mundane flavors of the childhood stand-bys: chicken nuggets, hot-dogs, french-fries and strawberries.

*sigh*

I feel like a failure.

I guess I'm partially to blame - the introduction of the girly twins to our family dynamic didn't leave me with much time or energy to fight with him over meals.  Maybe I even enabled his tendencies by using my Sam's Club membership to purchase hot dogs in insane bulk quantities and simplify my life a little.  But what I'm left with is a kid whose lunch box is as predictable as the plot of House.

*bigger sigh*

THAT, however, is not to say that I don't know of - nay, DREAM of - fun, exciting, nutritious toddler meals that would make perfect blog-fodder for those of you who are finding yourselves immersed in the glorious world of Lunchables and Happy Meals.  And you know what?  If I commit myself to offering those ideas along to you, it will hold me accountable for breaking out of the preservative-filled trench into which we've fallen and might just do us all some good.

So, what do you say...?  Wanna join in this endeavor with us?  I'd welcome some fellow explorers of the foreign lands of well-rounded toddler eating habits!  Perhaps I'll even get some MckLinky action involved and you all can share your ideas, tips and recipes too! 

Oy.  Now it's out there.  Now I have to be on top of it.  I'm nervous.

Millions of Peaches...

... Peaches for baby!

Usually I like to use this method for peaches, but I can't find for the life of me, any fresh peaches up here right now.  I'm not going to stop hunting.  They are a billion times better tasting (though not any healthier!) than the frozen peaches I had to settle for.  So, I end up using this method instead:

I just steam some frozen peaches the same way I did my peas and beans etc. except I don't strain (as I do peas) afterward and I actually reserve the liquid in the bottom of the pan and freeze it as cubes on its own to mix with cereal or to cool down other food that's gotten too hot or to give in a sippy cup to ease constipation.

It's easy!

 

 

 

Not Me! Monday

So, it's been awhile since I've joined MckMama in her weekly blog carnival in which we all revel in our innocence and perfection.  Indeed, it's time for Not Me! Monday, so please, join in if you'd like or just let me know what all you (ahem) haven't been up to.




Well, first of all, since you have all been no doubt reading my blog for a little while, you know that I am the hippest, coolest, most fabulous mom that ever birthed 3 children, so it must not come as any surprise for you to know that I made sure to ring in 2010 in the most stylish of ways and that I would absolutely not ever dream of putting the children to bed, watching a quarter of a football game, and retiring to bed by 10 pm instead of some much more glamorous revelry.  That kind of lame boringness is reserved for moms who probably also wear the same jeans for a week straight and shower every 3 days and pass off a knot of hair wrapped with an elastic band as an "up-do"... and we all know that I'm absolutely NOT guilty of that.

Nor would I, super-mom who tackles all house-hold chores with an alacrity befitting some kind of domestic goddess, ever be too lazy to puree chicken in multiple batches and instead cram multiple pounds of cooked chicken thighs into the blender at once, producing more smoke than baby-food.  Someone like that is clearly a rookie baby-food maker, as a pro like myself would never over-work a prized kitchen appliance in a show of sloppy short-cutting simply to get to bed by 10 pm on New Year's Eve.  Pah.

Speaking of kitchen blunders...

Do you know what that is?  That is a pile of uncooked macaroni pasta on top of a burner on a flat-top stove.  It appears that some idiot (NOT me, mind you!) placed a gigantic, 7-lb bag of pasta on the back burner of the stove whilst attempting to heat the giant pot of water into which said pasta was supposed to go.  However, instead of turning the knob for the front burner, The Idiot must have turned the knob for the backm burner, heating first the plastic bag to melting point and then igniting the pasta on the bottom so that it began to smolder and produce (what must have been) a horrible smell, alerting all to the presence of burning(?) pasta.  Imagine (and I can only) the surprise when The Idiot attempted to get the pasta away from the source of the heat by picking the bag up from the top only to have the whole contents of the bag pour out the (burned/melted-out) bottom, bringing even MORE pasta into contact with the burner.  I mean, wow.  I can't tell you how glad I am that I don't have to be the one who, at parties and other social gatherings, can spark up (har har) a conversation by saying, "You know, hard as it is to believe, macaroni is flammable.  Trust me, I've done it!"   

And for one, final instance of "gosh-I'm-glad-I'm-not-that-stupid" brilliance, I'll leave you with the assurance that any woman who makes a comment like the following is probably not going to score above 80 on an IQ test.  Picture, if you will, a mother gazing intently at one of her infant daughters and noticing all the little details like curve of the nose and presence of dimples, shape of eyebrows, etc.  Then imagine her sighing and remarking to her husband, "You know, she has my this and your that... It's funny... she kind of looks like what you'd get if you and I somehow I don't know... mixed ourselves. You know?"  It doesn't even matter that seconds later it dawned on her that wow! that's exactly what happens when two people make a baby and 50% of each person's DNA winds up in their offspring.  It does not, in fact, matter that she smacked her forehead and admitted stupidity and laughed (albeit weakly) at her own moronic observation because her husband now has that ammunition forever and ever... you know, just in case that same woman fails to mention her pasta pyrotechnics at some social event in the future or neglects to own up to blender abuse when touting her domestic resume.

It imparts upon my heart a certain amount of levity when I marvel at what an absolute shit-show some people can be while I sit here, in my cute outfit, typing with manicured nails, sipping gourmet coffee, enjoying my clean, organized home.  I just thank the powers that be that such a disaster is... well, Not Me!

An Apple a Day... Baby-Food Apples

Wanna see me be lazy?

Here:

THIS is how you make apples... You know... the same way you do pears... but with apples.

You could also cut them up into little pieces and steam them, but the baking is a million times tastier. 

I'm actually getting ready to start introducing a few little bits of finger foods and diced, baked pears and apples (so they're nice and soft!) make a great choice.  I'll post more on that later.

Wow.  That WAS lazy.

A Little Introduction...

I want to take a whole post to introduce to you all, my few but faithful readers, a new blog.

My mom started a blog called Mu's Nus a couple weeks ago and if you're so inclined, please stop by.  See, my mom ("Mu" is a nickname started by one of my brother's friends... My kids call her "Gramu".) is a fabulous writer.  And what's interesting is that when I'm actually listening to her, she proves to have some fairly riveting stuff to say.  Better still, if she isn't saying anything fascinating at all, she at least tells it in a way that makes you laugh.

She is my inspiration for so much.  I wouldn't be the woman I am today and my children would not have the mother they do, nor would my husband have the wife he does if I weren't constantly striving to exude her strength and grace and to apply the lessons she taught me... and, hell, let's be serious - continues to teach me.  The same goes for writing.  Any iota of skill I have for the craft (and certainly the entirety of my love for words and wit) are directly attributable to her. 

So please, check out her little corner of the internet and say hi if you get a moment and the fancy strikes you.  I can't keep her all to myself...  

Babies' First Food: Avocados

I do avocados as the first food (after cereals, which I use to get them used to the spoon more than anything) because it is a nutritional power house.  Omega-3's, protein, crazy amounts of vitamins and high calorie density make an avocado one of the best foods you can give your kids.  Plus, you don't need to cook it.  AND if you're like me, leftovers are a welcome treat to smear on a sandwich.

So, I give you, the avocado:

Step 1:  Get your ripe avocado

 Step 2: With a large, sharp knife, slice all the way around it so it falls into 2 halves.

 

Step 3: Remove brown spots and the pit.  My favorite method of stress-relief pit-removal involves whacking the pit with the knife so it's embedded and then twist... the pit pops right out, then you turn the knife on its side, give it a good whack over the garbage can and you're pit-less!

 

 Step 4: Mash with fork!  Yay!  Delish!

 

Dating the Un-date-ables... Part I

See, I'm married.  I have three kids.  My love life is as exciting as watching the Titanic credits over and over until your retinas bleed.

But my sister...

She's a whole different story.  Well, really, lots of different stories.  Stories that I fully intend on telling my daughters when they're of age (or maybe when they're 3... these lessons are worth cementing in their memories, trust me.) so that they may avoid the many tragic romance mistakes Sis has made.

 Like this guy:

"Putz"* is the guy pointed to by the big yellow arrow (not that his friends aren't also putzes; I don't know them so they're safe for now) and on the left you'll note I've found a photo of Marv from Home Alone.  Yikes.  striking similarities, no? Those eerily arched eyebrows and that come-hither 'stache ("Who wants a mustache ride?") just absolutely scream "sexy".

*Names have been changed to make it a little less obvious.

Whoo... let me take a sec to cool off here.

It's not that Sis is a dog.  On the contrary - she's very pretty and smart and sassy and hip.  (I kinda wish I was as cute as her, but I'd never admit that in person.)


See?  At least the sweet Chester Child Molester 'stache didn't (supposedly; she might be lying - more on that later) show up until after she ditched him.  But look how cute that girl is.

You'll understand in a moment that this is really not even just about the looks (or, rather, the total and utter incompatibility of how they look) but it's so stinkin' much more.  It's even more than the fact that Putz is the same age as her (23) and lives in his mom's basement while he works at Target as a stock boy because he did a year at college and "took some time off to figure out what he really wanted to do" while SHE, meanwhile, was busy graduating from a great school's honors college with two degrees and lining up a killer job in a big city.

You know... growing up.

She told me about this dude and I immediately told her she was his Sugar Mamma.  I told her to steer clear of him because he was just looking for someone else's basement to live in while he "figured out what he really wanted to do".

Didn't go over so well.  Which is probably why she neglected to reveal to me the following information until long after he was out of the picture (the final straw for her, if you were wondering, was him asking her for money...):

He had a breathalyzer in his car.

Seriously? Sis, seriously?  You let this guy pick you up for your 4th date and you had to sit in the passenger seat while he blew and hummed into a device for several minutes so he could take you out and that didn't automatically trigger a "run the hell away" instinct?  Oy.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that it was the 4th date before he drove.  But Putz had a breathalyzer in his car for an underage DUI.  Quality.

So once Sis clued me in to this particular character flaw, she also felt comfortable enough informing me that "I took some time off school to figure out what I really want to do" actually means, in Putz-speak, "I got an underage DUI and dropped out of college."

For me, that would have been an absolute deal-breaker and there wouldn't have been a 5th date, let alone a 6-month relationship.

And don't assume the sex must have been great to keep her around.

I don't know.  I wish I understood what she was thinking, but it's obvious that she wasn't exactly proud of Putz or she wouldn't have neglected ("Ooops?  Did I forget to mention the breathalyzer? Silly me.") to divulge such amazingly ridiculous facts about him while she was dating him.

In this particular case, all I can do is toss my hands up and shake my head and offer her my shoulder when it's all over and try not to pee my pants laughing at her offer her my deepest sympathies when it doesn't work out.

Coming soon: What To Do When Your Boyfriend Wants to Be You and other tales from dating Mr. Little-Man-Syndrome...