Because Piper Needs to Eat

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Piper is eating lots of food now. We're still working on the weaning thing, but she's really enjoying the supplemental food we give her. I usually try to make dinners that she can eat with us, and when we're eating something she can't have (she's allergic to dairy), I have to think of something else. With the brain fog I experience, sometimes, it's pretty tough to come up with something interesting to feed her, and she does like variety. It's easier for me to have a set list of meal ideas so I can have ingredients on hand.

Since I'm fresh out of creativity this week, I'm posting to ask for some meal ideas. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, whatever comes to mind. What have you tried with your kids? What did your mom do for you?

And yes, this post is a TOTAL bid for comments. ;-)

7 comments:

Jessica said...

I feel your pain, especially with the dairy thing. I have several things that I feed Lucy on a regular basis. For protein, I keep around a supply of...
* Frozen chicken nuggets (Costco sells some that are "100% natural," whatever that means)
* Frozen hot dogs (nitrate-free, which I get in the health food section at Giant/Martins)
* Lunchmeat (Hormel has a nitrate-free variety that I find at Super Walmart).

I am making turkey meatballs for her today, and am planning on freezing the rest. I also make chicken roasters fairly often and feed her leftovers from that. And then there's always peanut butter and jelly (though she isn't a huge fan of this).

The key for me is having something easy (usually frozen) on hand so I don't have to make it from scratch. This has made my life MUCH easier!

To complete the meal, I usually heat up some frozen veggies and / or give her some fresh or canned fruit. She is also a huge fan of beans, which is nice. And for snacks or some extra carbs, I usually give her some kind of cracker. (I'm not sure all of these are completely dairy-free, but since Lucy seems only to have lactose issues, a tiny bit of dairy doesn't seem to matter.)

Hope that helps. And I'll be checking back to see if anyone else has other ideas! :-)

Leeann said...

My first ever solid food meal was my mom's spaghetti. I kept asking for "mo, peas" ("more, please") becasue it tasted so good... tragically, I ate a little *too* much and it all came back to haunt me/my mother.
In any event... I'll send you some recipes. Including spaghetti, which will now forever remind you of Leeann gorging on pasta at 14 months or so :-P

~Me said...

I don't know if she'll like them, but I used to give Allison steamed carrots when she was little. It was something she could hold and feed herself, but because they were nice and mushy I didn't have to worry about her choking. Bannanas are really good cut up too. Other than that there are some of the obvious

- cheerios
- animal crackers
- canned greenbeans can actually be great too!
- fruit cups

This is terrible, but I've really forgotten what I fed her at that age. How time flys!

dancebythelight said...

*Black beans
*Cream of wheat (with water instead of milk) I always stir in some mashed bananas or apple sauce
*Grapes halved
*Peas (frozen is okay)
*Blueberries (frozen is okay)
*Apple sauce
*Pureed Apple & Cabbage:
1 apple grated
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1/4 c. water
2 tb. raisins
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, simmer covered for 10 minutes. Puree until smooth. I used to make a bunch of this and freeze in ice cubes. My guys loved it!

Jessica said...

Oh... I forgot about breakfast. Lucy is not a huge breakfast person. I usually give her a bottle of rice milk and then something else later one. "Something else" usually consists of eggs, fruit, dry cereal, or pancakes / waffles (made with rice milk instead of milk, and I freeze the leftovers so I have them handy). I also give her fruit-filled cereal bars, although again I'm not positive these are dairy-free (nor am I sure they're very nutritious, but oh well :-p).

Most things are finger foods since she hasn't really figured out spoons yet. Other than that, I give her whatever we're eating if she can have it.

Christy said...

I was allergic to dairy as a kid too - rough stuff. Spaghetti and tacos (without the cheese) were popular during those days. Also, I liked peanut butter on graham crackers (or rice cakes). Different than a peanut butter sandwich, so it kept me happy. :-)

S. Mehrens said...

Oh, forgot to mention, Lauren's REALLY into scrambled eggs right now. For breakfast this morning she ate: 2 scrambled eggs, a 1/4 cup of cut up fruit (peaches, pears, grapes), and nearly an entire biscuit! Scrambled eggs have been a recent favorite.

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