I think we have a milk-product addiction.

Grown up yogurts, full of seeds and such, sugar-free kids ones and sugar-packed fromage frais. Baby yogurts, a big tub of natural yogurt for everyone, a big tub of Greek yogurt because why not?

Some kids yogurt tube things, frozen for a pretend-it’s-an-ice-pop treat. (Never mind the Ben & Jerry’s, and mini Lidl magnum knock-offs)

Creme fraiche and sour cream – are they even that different?

Butter, salted & unsalted – waiting to become cake.

Dairygold spread- for weekend toast.

Milk, ‘pink’ and half or full-fat, to fulfill gender stereotypes

Mozzarella, 2 packs which might go to live on a pizza. Emmenthal & cheddar for sandwiches and the rest. Parmesan for cooking. Cream cheese for crackers for everyone. Feta for muffins & spanokopita. Cashel Blue for grown up treats. Halloumi for griddling with lemon juice & chilli…Sweet cheeses, that’s a lot!

Oh, there’s a lonely mini Baby-bel, bought in a net of its friends, on offer and mostly only played with.

This isn’t a list of things we buy over time – this is a list of what’s in our fridge right now. There’s another whole plethora of potential milk-based goodness that might be in there any other week (cream, ricotta, marscapone, the very occasional novelty cheese-string)

My sons are 3.5 and very nearly 1. The younger only has daily yogurt and some cheese in meals, he isn’t even drinking cows milk yet and yet still, this is what we get through as a family.

I dread to think of their teenage years, the pair of them hanging out of a fridge door downing milk straight from the carton. Actually I’m going to have to start looking for those massive American containers I’ve only ever seen on TV aren’t I? (What is a quart anyway?) I’m going to need a 3rd job, as if bringing up two boys and working full-time outside the home wasn’t enough. I’ll need to get my salary lodged straight to a dairy farmer.

We display no obvious allergies or sensitivities to any of the above but I can’t help thinking you can have too much of a good thing. Our diet is generally balanced (‘5-a-day’ is a minimum under my roof) and I quite like alternative milks to cows’ in my coffee – like rice, or almond or soya. So at home I wonder should I replace some of that lot with these? Or would it just be a homeopathic dose – a drop of almond milk in a bath of the cows kind?

Having written this post, I saw the Dairy Free Kids blog latest post this morning,  it’s inspired me to make some changes.  Have you or your family cut down on dairy and found tasty alternatives? I’d love to hear.

– Jill

Rolling and moving and eating

fighting back

busy

gnocchi

We’ve been very busy here in Properfud Towers.   My mama does running away a lot now.  Sometimes she gets medals and Dom has to not hit me with them.  My mama and dada are work work working all the time and though sometimes I’m sad when they go I have lots of fun in my creche.  My lovely minders bring me to see my brother and all his friends sometimes and they all love playing with Baby Teddy which is me.

I like when they give me my fud in creche. But incase they forget now I eat my porridge or my weetabix every morning at home too. I shout at mama while she puts food on my spoon so I can grab it from her.  She tries to eat hers at the same time and that is slow.  Ssssh don’t tell them I have two brekkies. My big brother told me about doing that and I think it’s a good idea.   For my snack I like to have a banana too I like it whole with its little jacket still on it a bit.  I love nanas but DomDom doesn’t ever.  I try other baby’s food too, like Ambrosia Rice Pudding and fruit pots and I tried some of DomDom’s biccie and I don’t know if mama is always happy but I don’t mind if she isn’t because I am.

Mama is happy though really because now I eat my dinner with them too. She pretended she wasn’t worrying but she was and now I’m nearly 10 months and I’m  rolling all over the floor and pushing myself around a bit and it makes me very hungry so I have to eat.  Mama and Dada learned to make pizza and it’s yum I like the chewy cheese and crust and the little veggies on it.

I also like when she does other grubs called noki.  She does them a bit my brother likes them and my dada. I know because he ate the ones I dropped on the floor.  I see all the things he eats and I know if things are good that way. Mama says he’s to be a good infloons on me and eat up his veggies. He eats carrots and juicyredpepper n all while mama is making dinner but I saw him eat animally biccies with choccy too. I wonder when I will be having them? I shout and shout my loudest when I want what he has but it doesn’t work so instead I’m going to learn some of words soon so they can’t pick me up and sing songs and not give me what Dom has.

– Lil’ T

Who’s in charge?

Baby is!  I’m in charge of what he’s offered, but the ball is in his court when it comes to consumption. No poking or prodding a spoon into a clamped shut mouth. Just offer, and then don’t take it personally either way.

I’ve mentioned it over and over, but it’s really a point that needs to be hammered home when you take this approach – food under one is just for fun!

The one thing I’ve really noticed so far with Theo is that if he doesn’t feel like eating, he just won’t. In that regard I love baby led weaning because I’m not stressing over the fact that he was into breakfast but not into lunch or dinner. It’s not necessarily what we’re offering him, but whether he even feels like eating at all at that particular time.

I’ll have a bit of this then.

I wrote last summer about how Dominic had gotten into sandwiches. We send in a wrap, a small bagel, or a wholemeal sandwich with cheese & turkey in his lunch bag each day he goes to playschool. But it was never something he wanted as a baby – he used to look at them as a puzzle, something to pull apart and examine .

Today after a hectic morning at a local playcentre it was toasted sandwiches on the menu for lunch. I made Theo a little sandwich with the crusts off and he loved it. Crusts off so he didn’t just fill up on them, not because he couldn’t have them. He grasped it tight and it went straight in. I know well enough by now he would just let it fall to the ground and go back to gnawing a plate it if he didnt feel like eating.

I just put some cream cheese & some cheddar in it. I don’t think we’re ever going to have calcium issues in this house so it would be nice to veer away from cheese! I’m thinking avocado would be good, anything that “sticks” the sandwich together basically. Today was a bit of a hmm what’s in the fridge day.

I’d love to hear suggestions for a super healthy baby friendly sandwich filling?

– Jill

Sandwiches. A Journey.

not too hot

Mammy is mad for making me try new things.  Her and daddy eat sandwitches but I like to just eat the bits out of it and then other bread on it’s own with NO BUTTER unless I do want butter in which case they better know that I wanted butter that time.  I like bagels a lot with NO BUTTER.

Xmas eats, Pt 1

In this festive season of constant snacking & overflowing plates, Dominic has not been shy to join in. His usual rotating meals of stirfrys, soups and pastas are for a few days at least being replaced with Oma’s cooking. Oma is an excellent cook, catering for herself (coeliac), Opa (diabetic), her own (not particularly fussy) children, me (vegetarian) and her beloved grandson with what looks like minimal stress. Lucky for her he is following the path taken by her middle child and trying just about anything.

Today he ate appley porridge at home, toast on the go in his Great-Uncle Alfie’s house, and soup when he arrived at Oma and Opa’s. He snacked on some sugar free banana bread (BLW cookbook) then proceeded to try dinner from both his parents plates – buckwheat galette with cheese, spinach & tomato from mama, beef stew & mashed potato from dada.

I predict gout for him by new years eve.

– Jill

Baby Led Weaning cookbook – Frittata

Now, in fairness, any ol cookbook could probably tell you how to throw together a frittata.  But what I do continue to enjoy about the BLW cookbook is that it acts as a guide.  Helpful suggestions as to whats suitable for babys to have a go of, and added options for variations on the recipes.  Mark made the basic recipe and added in orange pepper.

It was a success.  Yussssss!  We’ve been experimenting with the fork a bit recently. So this was good for stabbing bits and pieces.  The child has atrocious table manners, so we’ve either been putting food directly on the table in front of him, or pre-loading spoons or forks.  If he doesn’t want whats in front of him he just swipes the food off the table onto the floor.  If he gets hold of the plate or bowl he tips it down his front.  I have to work that one out.  Any tips?

Have you noticed the pattern in our house?  I have a notion of what I might cook and look at about 6 recipes then make it up out of the fridge/my head.  Mark picks a specific recipe and heads to the supermarket.  Which is why he has made nearly all the stuff out of the cookbook, and then I write a flimsy post about it!

On the plus side, as I type this, I have homemade baked beans in the oven.  But I put in pinto beans not haricot beans.  What?  WHAT?

– Jill