Solid Foods

We followed the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines to wait to start Sadie on solid foods until she was 6 months old.
When we did, I wanted to make all of her food.  Between talking to her doctor, researching online and talking to friends, I ended up buying her cereals and making the rest of food.
Her doctor suggested starting with the cereals, veggies next, then fruits, not trying a new food within 5 days of another new food to ensure no food allergies, and adding one meal every two weeks.
We started her off with about a tablespoon of rice cereal (Gerber baby cereal) mixed with breastmilk at dinner time.  It was interesting to watch her at first because she really had to figure out how to take in the food.  She figured it out fairly quickly.  The next food we added was oatmeal cereal.
When we got to veggies/fruits, I used the Baby Chef that we received as a shower gift.  The left side steams the food and the right side purees it. (Can you tell from the monitor that this picture is from one night when she was asleep?)

 After pureeing her food, I put it in these wonderful freezer cube trays that a friend passed along to me (that have silicone on the very bottom to make it easier to get the food out).  I freeze the cubes and then pop them out and place them in ziplocks to thaw when I need them.

I can't remember the exact order of the foods that I introduced, but I think that I may have started with peas and then carrots.  I've followed the food suggestions from Wholesome Homemade Baby Foods to know what to introduce.  

  Sadie now eats carrots, peas, green beans, butternut squash, pumpkin, chicken, apples, pears.   As far as finger foods, she'll eat avocados and bananas.  We buy baby yogurt and Gerber puffs also.

Sadie is a great eater and she'll now (at almost 9 months)eat about 4 veggie cubes with cereal and milk mixed in as well as two cubes of fruit/some finger food for lunch and dinner.  For breakfast, she'll usually eat 2 cubes of fruit with oatmeal mixed in or yogurt and part of a banana.  She always tells us when she's finished by closing her lips or starting to fuss.  She's also started showing  a preference towards the sweeter parts of her meal.

Quiche

One gift that we receive for Christmas each year is a honey ham.  We have typically picked it up after Christmas and as much as we can eat, there's always left over.  This year, I chopped all of the extra and froze it so that we could use it for pizzas, etc.  After not having planned out my meals last week, I looked at what we had and figured out that I could make a Quiche.

I made quick pie crust using this recipe

1½ C sifted all purpose flour

  ½ tsp salt

 ½ C shortening

 4 to 5 TBS cold water

and then made my Quiche with a recipe from All Recipes
Ingredients:

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup half-and-half 3 eggs 2 slices Swiss cheese 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust

pie 1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach 1/2 cup canned mushrooms 1 (4.5 ounce) can ham, flaked 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Beat together flour, salt, half-and-half and eggs in a medium bowl.
3. Place Swiss cheese flat in the pie crust (I had shredded cheese that I layered on the bottom). Arrange spinach evenly over Swiss cheese, then cover with mushrooms (I didn't have mushrooms but did use onions and peppers). Pour the flour and egg mixture over mushrooms. Cover with flaked ham (mine was diced) and top with Cheddar cheese.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 45 to 55 minutes, until surface is golden brown.

Salad

I love Chickfila.  During my pregnancy, chicken biscuits were my Friday breakfast (so healthy, I know but so good).  Since I would prefer to lose rather than gain weight at this point, I have found a new favorite food at Chickfila.  The Grilled Market Salad is my new favorite, it has chicken, berries, blue cheese, granola, nuts, etc..this is how I make my salads (just throw everything you have in the bowl). Yum!

the Grilled Market Salad