I'm struggling with meal ideas, especially for lunch!

[NoTeaForMe]

Hello,

My daughter is 7.5 months now and food is going really well. She's eating finger foods quite well now and she has quite lumpy purees! For tea I am giving her things like bolognaise, chicken and mash, salmon and mash etc. All is well but I guess I could still do more. She loves it all!

Lunchtime I'm struggling though. If she's having a 'proper' meal at tea I'm presuming lunch shouldn't be carb filled too?! I just don't know! She has been having her veg purees still but to be honest it feels like we're not progressing on that front!

She shared my scrambled egg on toast yesterday which she loved, she really enjoyed smushing up the egg in her hands! I'd already got her a purée ready as I wasn't sure if she'd like the egg-I know she likes toast! She then had about 5 spoonfuls of purée. So still quite a bit considering how much finger food she seemed to eat! Anyway-today I'm going to have cheese on toast and share that with her and steam her some brocolli. Is this the kind of thing I should be doing for lunch now? Just more normal food? What else can I give her? What about meat?

Hmm, any bright ideas for me? How often can she have the same thing? How many times could she have egg in a week for example!

Thanks

[CMOTdibbler]

Yup, just share whatever food you are having with her - I'd do a bit of salad with cheese on toast, sandwiches with cherry toms and carrot sticks, omelette and salad - just normal lunch stuff

[MmeBlueberry]

Just give her the same food as everyone else.

[SharkSkinThing]

I agree! It's hard though, when they say 'eat what you eat' - we don't always have baby friendly dinners!

My DS is 10 months old and has things like:

Scrambled egg
Toast and homemade baked beans
Pitta bread cut into fingers (as it can get a bit hot!) with cream cheese or hummus
Sweet potato or parsnip 'chips' - homemade, dead easy, and he loves them - carrots work well, too - you can do a few days' worth of these, too, and they're brilliant finger food.
Cold cooked pasta shapes
Steamed veg - broccoli etc
Bit of cheese
Natural yogurt and fruit puree (I cheat and squirt in a bit of those Ella's Kitchen ones)
Any suitable leftovers from our dinner (rice, cous cous, meat etc)
Lumps of melon, cucumber

He also loves a hunk of french bread and butter or will share my sandwich.

I make a baby friendly veggie and lentil pasta sauce once a week and freeze it in little pots, then just defrost over night and stir into some pasta for him. Happy to pass on the 'recipe' if you want it.

HTH x

[BR44]

My biggest lunchtime success to date is potato cakes. Leftover mash mixed with a bit of flour, grated cheese and spring onion (or whatever you have in the fridge, to be honest) formed in to patties and then shallow fried in a little bit of unsalted butter. My 8mo DS can't get enough. Good finger foods, but also soft enough to be insinuated in to his mouth by me when he is struggling!
I think I'll add some spinach and herbs to the next batch.

[SharkSkinThing]

Ohhh, BR44 - they sound good...my DS isn't that keen on mash but they sound just the ticket to tempt him!

[BR44]

SharkSkinThing - They really are! I made quite a few yesterday and was intending to add a couple to my lunch, but the little brute snaffled them all!!

[SharkSkinThing]

I currently have a batch of cheese straws in the oven.

I am NOT a stepford wife, really, just that we went to a fete thing this morning and junior shark snatched mine out of my fist and shoved it into his mouth, so I thought, hmmm...interesting...though no doubt he will not like my version! :0