Friday marks the last day of this allergen week, but I didn’t have anymore shellfish to introduce and so we skipped it.
Instead, I wanted to try out a recipe that some moms in my BLW group swear by.
The swearing is because babies need more iron in their diet after turning six months and most of us don’t want to deal with giving vitamins and rather fit the iron into babies diet.
So what do you eat with lots of iron? Meats and dark green vegetables!
And this recipe is a “hidden” vegetable one, using spinach.
So all you do is mix two eggs with one banana and add in about a quarter cup of frozen spinach.
Sorry, nothing is measured in BLW half the time and the other half it’s odd measurements when you’re not making in bulk.
I also decided to serve blackberry yogurt on the side of the pancakes.
Malina’s breakfast
With very few options, Malina went for the pancakes.
“Is this an odd color?”
She seemed to like the pancakes well enough and I can attest that they were more banana flavored than anything. If not for the color I don’t think anyone would bat an eye at them.
After she tore into her first piece for a bit and ate a few bites I offered her a spoon and let her go at the yogurt.
“I prefer spoons.”
She didn’t hate the yogurt but she preferred chewing on her spoon to eating further. I think she might be teething again but there is no sign of a third tooth on the way so who knows.
So remember, sometimes baby just wants to chew on the non edible things and that’s okay, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
I’ve fallen behind with these posts. Sorry to anyone who’s actually keeping up, but I’ve just been really tired and trying to relax more lately. That and I got really into a Korean Historical Drama and spent a lot of my free time watching that. It’s over now though and even though I’m still tired (I’m sure I won’t be again someday) I’m trying to get back on top of this.
So on Thursday we were still doing shellfish and I decided to do double hidden shrimp for our breakfast.
The first thing was seafood Korean pancakes with shrimp and squid, the second was a shrimp furikake omelet, then a few strips of cheddar cheese, and a strawberry.
Malina’s breakfast
And Malina has a newish favorite, the whole strawberry. She went for it first and thanks to her two teeth she’s able to scrape off good sized chunks.
“This strawberry is huge!”
The next thing she went for was the seafood pancakes. We’ve had the scallion ones before and these ones I got at our local oriental market. I’m adventurous and can read the packaging, but after we started to eat it I knew for sure there was squid and shrimp in these. Also little red hot peppers, but baby didn’t mind.
She might be a spice head like me.
“This looks familiar.”
The next thing she tried was the cheddar cheese strips. She wasn’t really a fan though. She put the pieces in her mouth and then she spat them out.
To be fair, the cheese was sharper than I expected and she probably didn’t like the flavor.
“I’m figuring this cheese out.”
Finally, she tried the egg omelet.
If you remember, Malina is not a fan of eggs very many ways. The omelet eggs were one of the ones she did not care for. That being said, I thought now that there had been time between then and now that she might have changed her stance.
She did try it and she did seem to be okay with it up until I took the picture.
“These are not the right eggs.”
So maybe egg omelets are still a no go but I’ll try again. It’s better to keep exposing her to the different textures.
So remember, it’s okay to introduce new and old things baby might not like it is all for their benefit after all, so you are doing great and you’ve got this!
I love not being stuck in the idea of what are breakfast foods and what aren’t. Like, if I want to eat something that is generally considered ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ foods for breakfast no one can actually stop me. So when we had steak for dinner I cut some up and put it aside for Malina to have with her breakfast. That also is a great thing, utilizing left overs from dinner the previous night as parts of our breakfast. I’m already thinking of more ways to do this too, since I only have time for meal prep on weekends sometimes.
Oh, I deliberately did not save some steak for me, though. I had plans involving some berry scones I made yesterday.
We also had steamed green beans, the last of the fresh strawberries, cream cheese, and the peanut butter oat muffins.
Malina’s breakfast
Now who wants to guess what baby girl went for first?
“Got to eat them berries.”
You guessed it. The strawberries. I guess she really likes them. I’m going to have to make a plate of all her favorites and find out what she prefers when presented with all of the things she likes.
She’s gotten better at picking the strawberries up and putting them in her mouth. She’s actually started eating a new way too. She stuffs her mouth and chews and sucks on the foods. Then, after some time, she’ll swallow the bits or spit them out.
It’s been a little stressful to see her shove a whole berry slice in her mouth followed by a second one. But she doesn’t gag or choke and it seems fine for now.
She ate only ate one berry though before grabbing the next thing. A piece of steak.
“Moo?”
She picked up the piece and after looking at it she brought it to her mouth. Then she made a upset face and tossed it to Pluto. Then she got mad and tossed the second piece at me.
She then felt around on her plate, mashing up one of the muffins, and settled on the green beans next.
“These have a nice give and good flavor.”
Unlike the steak, she liked the green beans. I know I’ve given them to her before but I can’t remember right now if she liked them. But today she ate two of the beans and seemed to really enjoy them like her strawberries. Which she went back to and discovered the cream cheese next to them.
“This stuff feels interesting. I’m going to wipe it EVERYWHERE!”
The cream cheese I gave Malina was whipped, so it was not as thick as traditional cream cheese. I also only have her a small amount and wasn’t really sure if she’d mess with it let alone try it.
She found it next to the strawberries though and started to mix her fingers in it and spread it on her tray. She did try it a bit but she wasn’t too interested in eating it.
After a little more time she started to grunt, which I’m beginning to think is her way of showing annoyance and telling me she’s done, and shortly after she threw one of the muffins to the floor.
Clean up crew
I decided to show you our clean up crewman, Pluto, hard at work eating all the droppings.
After she threw the first muffin and started to try and throw the rest, I took the tray from her and we ended breakfast before it could get too messy.
So she ate her fruits and vegetables but not really anything else. I’m still happy though, despite her resistance to eating the peanut muffins, I know she’ll be willing to try them later and that is why half the batch is frozen.
So remember, even if the dog eats more than the baby, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
I did food prep yesterday and had breakfast ready to go with little to do this morning. since we’re doing the peanut allergen I made peanut butter muffins from one of my BLW cookbooks. I made a batch of 24 mini muffins and froze half of them for later. I also made corn fritters.
So our breakfast spread was the muffins, corn fritters, sour cream, and fresh strawberries.
Malina’s breakfast
And being that the strawberries were prominent and she’d had some the day before, Malina went for the first.
“Strawberries are yummy.”
She was quick to pick them up today and mash them into her mouth. She ate two whole slices right away and I was worried she would choke with the way she was eating. Luckily she is apparently good at eating them and I was worried for nothing.
She was all over her berries that it took a bit before she was interested in anything else.
When she was though, the next thing she went for was the corn fritters.
“Hey mama, catch!”
And this is where breakfast took a turn.
Malina was not pleased with the fritters. She was actually so upset that she threw them at me and proceeded to throw the rest of her food until she only had strawberries left. At least she looked happy as she did it.
Then she went back to her berries (I ended up giving her more) and ate another two.
To be fair, the fritters were not very good. The recipe was from one of the BLW cookbooks and I had high hopes, but it was really bad. Honestly, since I didn’t like it I should have expected her reaction. Oh well.
So today Malina only ate strawberries. You can’t win them all.
So remember, even if baby will only eat one thing, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
When baby has been sick you typically don’t sleep well. Either baby being upset, you worrying, or just everything will just about keep you awake most of the night. And not in a way that you get to binge Netflix or something either.
As a result, I burned what should have been a simple breakfast. We had left over waffles from yesterday and I popped them in the toaster oven to heat them up for us. I then went to grab yogurt as a side and figure out a fruits since I still wasn’t dealing with vegetables and wanted to keep things on the bland side for Malina.
The waffles became so hard and dark, I don’t know where my head was. I tried to make up for it with toast but found we were out of bread.
With being 2-0 I grabbed the easiest thing left. Plain cereal O’s. Fortified with Iron of course and with reduced sodium.
So that was breakfast. Cereal, strawberry yogurt, and blueberries in the silicone feeder. It took me an hour from getting up to do this too, so yeah. Not my best day.
Malina didn’t care though, she was happy to be feeling better and happy to see the food put down on her tray.
The little things make me feel better about the sucky parts.
Malina’s breakfast
I think she expects good things from the feeders because she’s started going for them first when offered. I was kinda worried though since these were blueberries and she hasn’t liked them at all.
“I don’t like blueberries. These aren’t blueberries, I’d know.”
Much to my surprise and great joy, she ate them and really liked them. It makes me think the problem might be the skins of the blueberries. Which means I have a way to deal with the bag of frozen blueberries now too. Win-win.
Next, Malina tried to eat the plain cereal O’s. She has gotten a lot more dexterous and is able to pick things up easier, but she’s still working on developing that pincer grasp. She did get a few o’s up though and into her mouth.
“Sprinkle these over here.”
I think she liked them but she was not happy with the challenge of eating them. She ate a couple and then threw and pushed the rest around.
So we moved on to her strawberry yogurt.
“I just want to eat the spoon.”
Haven’t found a flavor combination she doesn’t like for her yogurts yet. She seemed to enjoy the strawberry flavor and then moved on to chewing up her spoon.
Still, she ate some of everything and even though this was on the unplanned side of things she did well with it.
So remember, even when your exhausted and can’t cook to save your life, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!
Malina was sick and recovering all day Saturday starting a few hours after breakfast. It was the same thing as last time and she was better by early evening, though we kept her low energy and relaxed. As a result I didn’t notice that I hadn’t submitted the previous post or the summary post. Then I ran out of time to write this one up and get it up. So I’m a bit behind.
For breakfast we started our ‘new’ allergen, peanuts! The best way to do this is using peanut butter and other smooth, ground, or powdered sources of peanut since the whole but is a choking hazard. I wanted to introduce it in a new way though and quickly came to a solution.
Waffles. Peanut butter waffles.
So I made my normal waffle batter and then incorporated some thinned and softened peanut butter into the mixture.
Note: to soften and thin peanut butter I mixed equal parts hot water and peanut butter together. It’s less sticky and easier to incorporate into the recipe this way.
Then I heated up the waffle iron and moved onto our sides.
I’ve had a hard time working in vegetables lately, and ran into the same dilemma today. So instead I decided to not worry about it and got some frozen banana and put it in the silicone feeder. Then I fried up an egg for a more familiar protein and called it good.
Malina’s breakfast
The first thing Malina went for was her bananas.
“Bananas are the best.”
She focused on them until she was finished with them and I bet you can guess where the feeder ended up.
On the floor.
Classic Malina. Finished the food and tossed the leftovers to Pluto. He hasn’t gotten fat yet, but he is trying.
The next thing she went for was the waffles, but I forgot to take pictures as things divulged into a sticky mess because I gave her a small amount of maple syrup with the waffles.
She liked the waffles though and ate about three squares worth of the sticks.
She did not attempt to eat the eggs today and instead flipped the plate onto the floor.
I must have not secured it to the tray right, and what a mess that was.
Still, she ate the waffles and seemed to like them a lot. So that is something I’ll be repeating, since I personally prefer waffles to pancakes any day.
So remember, even when there are too many messes and they are just popping up everywhere, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!
Today is our fourth day trying the fish allergen. Malina hasn’t really eaten enough of any of the fish presented so far for me to rule out anything, but I had high hopes it would change today as we tried the trout cakes I mentioned yesterday.
The trout cakes utilize the same mix of ingredients as the tuna cakes except they have trout instead of tuna. This recipe is actually from one of my BLW cookbooks (—) and I altered the recipe to allow for the tuna cakes (halving all ingredients between two bowls and adding 1 egg). I also baked everything (350F for 30 minutes) instead of pan frying. I have to say though that these things have kept well in the fridge, reheated well, and taste good. Especially the trout ones.
I also served mandarin oranges today and lemon yogurt (being mindful of sugar and sodium).
Malina’s breakfast.
I think Malina might be teething again, though not as bad and hard as when she cut her last tooth. It would explain her reluctance to eat that she’s displayed recently.
I coaxed her into starting breakfast by offering her a spoon of yogurt though and she was quick to take it and chewed on the spoon between bites.
“I love you-gurt.”
She liked the lemon yogurt it seems. She ate about half of what I offered and even saved the spoon from an accidental fall all by herself.
Now that she was interested and eating she moved on to the mandarins herself.
“Mandarins are my favorite.”
She still loves those too. She chewed on them and ate the insides before discarding the pulp. I’m starting to feel like I should offer her more slices because the juices are not as filling, but I’m holding back until she’s eating more of everything on her plate.
She went through all her mandarin slices and then went back to the yogurt. Only when she’d eaten or dropped most of those did she turn her attention to the trout cakes.
Personally, I think she’s avoiding the fish on purpose. Probably because of the smell. I’m going to have to figure out another way of approaching this now that I think I know what’s going on.
“This fish is good. I only want good fish now.”
Malina was hesitant to bite into the trout cake even after she picked it up. She started to pull it apart first and smash it on her tray. But she did get curious enough to put a piece in her mouth.
Then there was a change.
She ate a bite and then put more of the cake in her mouth. She was eating it. Finally, she was actually eating fish! She then spent some time shoving pieces in her mouth, spitting out some of it, dropping other pieces, but still chewing and eating enough of it up for me to count this as a success.
Tuna, bad. Sardines, bad. Trout, good. Very good.
I’m so thrilled she ate the fish, but I’m also worried now because she has all day to have a reaction and to get through. I’m almost certain she’ll be fine though. She hasn’t had a reaction so far and breakfast is two hours behind us as I write this.
So remember, even if you have to try something over and over again to get a success, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
Meal prep is amazing. I knew it was. I still remember how happy I was when Malina was born that I’d done enough meal prep while still pregnant to cover dinner for the first three months. Yeah, that was amazing.
I’ll probably do something similar later when I get a better idea of what things Malina likes. Also, I still have these allergens to introduce and make sure nothing surprises us.
So I did meal prep for this week. Yesterday evening I spent about an hour making our fish for this week. We are doing more tuna and trout. I’ll probably give her some sockeye salmon too, but I didn’t get to dealing with that yesterday.
So today we are trying tuna again and this time it’s in these mini cake patties that I made in my mini muffin tin. These things are made with tuna, potatoes, spinach, sour cream, green onion, and egg. So there is a lot of good stuff here.
The second part of breakfast this morning was banana rolled in crusted animal crackers. The crumbs make it easier for baby to grab and hold.
Malina’s breakfast.
Malina wasn’t really into breakfast this morning however.
It too some time and a lot of miming, but she did inevitably try the bananas after about ten minutes.
“These bananas are strange.”
She ate about two, maybe three, bites of the banana before it devolved into smashing.
The smashing turned into throwing though and that is what ended up happing to the rest of her breakfast. That was one mess I couldn’t use the dog for.
So today was a bad day for food and we still haven’t gotten her to try the fish we’ve offered. I’m still hopeful and hope that persistence will win out.
So just remember, even when baby destroys the kitchen redecorating, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!
Week four and we are doin Fish as our allergen introduction. We love fish here, so we are both excited to share fish with Malina as well as see what preferences she has as we go along.
As you might know, cooked fish is very flaky for the most part. This makes it harder to eat for a baby like Malina who is still developing her pincer grasp. So my solution was to make fish cakes.
The rules for making any type of meatball or patty are simple. You have your meat, a breading, and a binding agent. I found a ton of recipes but they all require more prep than I had time for. So instead I improvised a recipe and got lucky that it turned out.
Today we had tuna cakes, plain goat cheese, and blackberries.
Malina’s plate.
To make the tuna cakes I drained a can of tuna, mixed in some japanese mayonnaise, and then mixed in panko until I got the right consistency.
Next, I heated a bit of olive oil in a pan and added my patties once heated. These don’t really need to be cooked as much as warmed and when they were ready after about 3 minutes per side I severed them up.
Malina took in her spread and decided to start with her tuna cake.
“Why way when I can play?”
I wish I could say it didn’t fall apart quickly, but Malina is skilled in tearing her food to bits. I also wish I could say she ate some of the tuna, but she avoided actually eating a single bite as she tore it apart and tossed pieces to Pluto.
There will be plenty of time later to try tuna again, and there are still other fish to get her to try as well. So I just accepted this one as not working and waited for Malina to try the next food.
She decided to go for the plain goat cheese.
“Creamy and just the right mix of tart and sweet.”
We are also big cheese fans here. We also haven’t found a second cheese Malina likes, so we went with the next one on our list. Goat cheese. It’s a lightly sour with hints of sweet creamy cheese. Sometimes it can be more crumbly light gets as well, but the one we got was a slightly creamier texture than cream cheese.
Malina loved it.
My bet is that the sour was her favorite part and then the consistency was next. She ate it well enough with her fingers and enjoyed it though.
Riding the success of the cheese, Malina went for her blackberries last.
Again, she enjoyed it. I cut them into quarters lengthwise and she has just a small amount of difficulty picking them up. Just not enough to stop her from enjoying the berries.
It’s unfortunate that the tuna didn’t work out but honestly just seeing her handle it and eat the rest of her breakfast was good enough for me. Like I said, there is plenty of time to try again.
So remember, even if baby doesn’t eat what they are supposed to, you are still doing great and you’ve got this!
Malina’s BLW Food Adventures 