Day 32 – Breakfast

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.

And being that the strawberries were prominent and she’d had some the day before, Malina went for the first.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 31 – Breakfast

I’m behind and I feel the pressure of time on me with everything I do. Or maybe it’s in my head because I worry about being the best mama to Malina. Today started like one of those days that you are already ready for its end. You know?

Malina woke up early according to our monitor, but I was so tired that I didn’t get up until she was crying 30 minutes later. She was fine the whole time, keeping herself company in her crib, but I feel bad about it.

Then I had to rush to feed her because she’d been up and I felt bad. As a further result, everything of planned about her solid breakfast was jumbled in my mind and it took me the whole hour after she finished nursing to get everything together and ready for her.

And as I write this I realize that this is the second day I forgot to incorporate peanuts. Smh.

At least this is the allergen we’ve introduced before here and there, but still. My plans have been foiled again by myself.

Breakfast was still good though and I’m proud of it, even if I messed up, because we had vegetables and fruit today!

Breakfast today was raspberry turnovers, fresh strawberries, sautéed basil zucchini, and ham (triple checked to make sure there was no honey).

And Malina went for the ham right away which was not what I expected.

She grabbed a strip and shoved it in her mouth. She then treated it like her oranges and chewed on it to get the flavors out before she inevitably spat it out. Still, she seemed to really like it.

The next thing she tried eating was her turnover.

She gnawed on the pastry and got the raspberry filling everywhere. She managed a couple bites before tossing it. She definitely liked the filling though, enough to put it in her hair.

The next thing she tried were her strawberries.

“I call this move Malina paw, hidden strawberry.”

She had a little bit of difficulty getting the strawberries into her hand and then into her mouth but she ate two whole slice! I was really worried when she shoved the first one in her mouth. But then it was gone and she was eating the next one. My little girl loves her berries.

The final thing that she gave a try was the sautéd zucchini.

“Interesting flavor, but I don’t think I like it.”

Malina didn’t seem to like the zucchini. She put one in her mouth and then quickly spit it out. But then she grabbed another and chewed on it more before tossing it. She did this with most of the spears. So she tried them all but didn’t really eat any of them.

So with that we got her to eat everything but the zucchini. Which is a little upsetting since I actually served a vegetable today and she didn’t eat it. Oh well, I tried.

So remember, even when everything takes longer than expected, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 30 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 29 – Breakfast

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.

The first thing Malina went for was her bananas.

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!

-Erica

Day 28 – Breakfast

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today is also the last day of week four and I am hesitant to say it but the end of our fish allergen introduction. Malina’s eaten enough of the fish the last few times and not had a reaction. I’m going to still find other ways to work different fish in and hopefully we find something that we can use often enough to keep an eye on her exposure, since fish is not a regular part of our diet, yet.

That being said, today’s breakfast was a repeat of our previous success, trout cakes. I served it along side frozen strawberries (because teething), lime yogurt, and potato latkes.

Malina was really irritable this morning though and being extra clingy. These have been good indicators that she might be teething again, as we’ve been able to see a second tooth poking up under the gums, and so I set her up with her frozen strawberries right away.

She loved them. By the time I got the rest of her breakfast in front of her the two strawberries inside the feeder were almost completely gone.

If only she liked the frozen blueberries I have an entire bag of 😭

With her meal set down she grabbed a latke right away. It’s been awhile, but I think she remembered them.

Yeah, she loves these still too. Smashing them in her mouth and tearing them apart with her tooth. That tooth is scary by the way and it’s not even halfway out. I can’t begin to imagine how it will be when she has two.

She took a break from the potato latkes to eat a trout cake next.

“Someone said something about plenty of fish, but I like my trout well enough.”

She was a little hesitant but she still was willing to eat the trout cakes. Which makes me happy and hopeful as trout isn’t too hard to get.

Last we had the lime yogurt. I gave Malina her spoon with some on it and let her set the pace.

“This is the type of bittersweet I like.”

She liked it. I wasn’t too surprised as she’s been gravitating towards sour and bitter foods. It also gives me an idea for future vegetables to try that kids normally don’t like because they are bitter. (Hint: bell-peppers)

She ate a couple spoonfuls and smashed, tore, and nibbled on the rest of her food until she was done and started to play with what was left. so I chalk this up to a good food day and a nice completion of the month.

I’ll be posting the summary shortly, but until then- Remember, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 25 – Breakfast

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 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.

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!

-Erica

Day 24 – Breakfast

Our fish today is sardines. I love fish, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I got to try sardines and anchovies (probably will introduce time Malina in the future, just not this week). I found out I liked them both and wondered why my family acted like they were bad.

I hope by introducing them to Malina that she will make her own decisions about it and have a more open mind to food as she grows up.

The rest of breakfast is as follows: sardines in water, steamed broccoli, blackberries, and cinnamon bread.

Eric made us cinnamon rolls and before we iced them I tore off two of the tails of the buns to offer to Malina. The sardines were from a can. The rest is fairly straight forward.

Malina touched everything on her plate when I set it down. Toying with me about what she would try first. Looking more for my reaction than caring about the food.

What she decided on though was her broccoli. But she had a hard time grabbing it at first and attempted to get it directly to her mouth in what she thought would be an easier way.

She had little luck though and tried again with her hands, finally getting one of the green trees with a little help.

She liked her broccoli. It had been a while but she still liked the tops more than the stalk. Still, she tried to eat them whole as we watched on.

Malina went for her cinnamon bread next. Grabbing one piece and chucking it off the side before grabbing the other and tasting it.

Her enjoyment probably made her regret her first reaction to the pastry but I couldn’t know for sure. She ate about an inch off the end, doing a good job of chewing and softening one end as she ate it.

The next thing she tried was her blackberries.

She did not seem to like them as much today or even be too interested in them. She popped two in her mouth and that was the end of that.

Malina does a lot of touching her food. She runs her hands through it, rips it apart, and tosses pieces to Pluto. She did this with the sardines throughout breakfast. I figured she wasn’t going to even try the fish today and started to look for signs that she was finished eating as we came up on 30 minutes since we started breakfast. Then Malina surprised me. She grabbed a piece of the fish and ate it.

She did not hate it but I’m not sure she liked it either. She ate the small piece though and soon after we called breakfast as being done.

So remember, even when baby doesn’t eat what you want them too, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 23 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 22 – Breakfast

So I hadn’t decided which of our remaining allergens to test this week before I made breakfast this morning so I decided to just make something nice with what we had on hand. Sometimes I look at our pantry and fridge and see nothing. Other times I see opportunity and get plenty of food ideas. Today was a big idea day.

Last weekend my husband made a soup that needed buttermilk as an ingredient. After he opened and used what he needed from the carton it got pushed to the back of the fridge. Luckily, I remembered it last night as I though about today and started planning for breakfast.

Buttermilk pancakes!

The recipe I decided to use is from one of my BLW apps (Annabel Karmel Recipes) that I have on my phone. But be warned, the recipes from here are in metric so you will need a scale and appropriate measuring equipment. I’ve been cooking a long time though so switching between different measuring systems I can handle.

These pancakes came out amazing too, by the way. I added about a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter but followed the rest of it to the ‘T’.

I also made my own mixed berry compote. I just tossed about a cup of frozen mixed berries into a sauce pan and heated on high until bubbly. Then I mashed up the berries to make a smoother texture and let it simmer on low until it thickened some. In the future I’ll probably play with this some. Add in some spices and what not to see what Malina likes, but spoiler alert: she loved the berries as is.

Then I served up some more homemade whipped cream without sugar and our leftover cucumbers from the other day. And somehow I managed to get this all done in 45 minutes.

Okay, it was planning and Eric holding Malina, but still I felt really good about this performance on my part.

And of course the first thing she went for was the pancakes as her other hand discovered the whipped cream. She was tentative at first, since this is the softest pancake she’s had yet (crepes are in our future) but she soon discovers that it tasted good.

“We should have started with these pancakes.”

She ate at least two strips. She loved her pancakes. Pluto was also given his tribute, though most of that was the cucumber. Malina was not feeling the savory cucumber as an accompaniment and was quick to discard them and go back to her pancakes.

She did however seem interested in the berry compote and whipped cream but unable to get any. I had the idea that she’d mix the pancake pieces in it, but that’s a skill she hasn’t developed yet. So instead I gave her a spoon and she then made a huge mess as she ate it.

As you can see, she liked it and promptly demolished it.

I feel good about this meal though. It might look sugar heavy but the only added sugar was 20g in the batter mix and she didn’t get all of that. Then whatever natural sugars that were in the berries. So I say it’s fine.

Starting tomorrow we will he going into fish as our allergen. I am planning to do some meal prep for the week with my time this weekend as well. And I’ll try to get my master post for the resources I use together.

So remember, even if you do offer sugar to baby, you are still doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 21 – Breakfast

And today marks the end of week 3! One more week and then we are officially a month into this.

So today our schedule was a bit off but somehow everything worked out for once. Breakfast was easy enough to figure out and when we got things going it was smooth sailing.

The last of the veggie nests, fried eggs, and mandarin oranges.

Nothing new today and everything served were things Malina has eaten and liked in the past. Still, repetition is good for taste development as well as continued exposure.

Not going to stand on ceremony, Malina went for her food right away and shoved a veggie nest into her face. Like she smashed it against her face and then realized “wait I need to open my mouth.” This was the second attempt and already she was doing better since her mouth was open.

It’s nice to see her enjoy her food and I am reminded of another reason that it’s good to repeat foods. When she likes something she’s more likely to eat it and more of it each time it’s offered. Including her fried eggs.

Malina also enjoyed her mandarin oranges. She’s been on and off with them recently but today was a good day and she ate two slices. Or at least she ate the juices of two slices, still not liking the pulp.

All in all a great breakfast and a nice finish to week three of Malina’s food adventure.

So remember, there are good days where things work out and even if today isn’t one you are still doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica