Beyond the jar

My mother's baby food mill from when we were little.

I have been uber lazy about making homemade baby food.

The benefit of this is that James has probably eaten a much wider variety of foods than I would have cooked myself. Whenever I do to a new store I see what the organic baby food options are and pick any he hasn't had previously. I usually get at least two jars/pouches/meals worth. Often he makes a face the first try but will consent to eat it. The second time around he totally fine. So far he hasn't refused/spit anything out. I am hoping by continuing to serve him a wide variety of foods he won't become a picky eater as I was. Tim apparently ate pretty much everything. So far James is following in Tim's footsteps but I know he will eventually hit those phases where every child become particular about colors, textures, tempatures and smells.

The downside to jarred baby food is the expense. With a baby boy who eats more like a toddler- somedays eating up to five 6oz jars his food is more expensive than mine. So I have been introducing more finger foods- which help a bit both with filling up his belly and with fine motor skill practice. However often those finger foods - cooked carrot, cheese, banana and Os- don't make a very complete or nutritious meal. So I introduced scrambled egg yolks- which he LOVES- and who wouldn't love a yolk whisked with heavy cream and scrambled in butter?
Then this past Thursday our girls' bookclub got together and I made Red Lentils with Coconut Milk. Before salted the dish I put some aside for James to try the next day.

Post-baby foodmill.

Success!

Give me more, Momma.

Highly nutritious are lentils. And highly diaper filling! All that fiber...
Some of the new tastes for James in this dish are: red lentils, coconut milk, ginger, tumeric, cardamon, cumin, coriander, red pepper, and cilantro.