Food On the Go

[cocococo]

I cook all DS's meals when we are at home and try to be careful about what I give him - I cook it all myself and use organic. However when we are out and about I give him organic jars as I find it much easier to transport and it's just so much easier.

He'll be one in a few weeks and those toddler jars just look enormous - I'd much rather give him things I've prepared but he's not very good with large lumps or finger foods - I think he's a bit lazy (wonder where he gets it from)!

I don't really want to be transporting lamb casserole and pasta dishes around with me but this is the sort of thing my freezer is packed with for him!

Can anyone give me ideas to tempt him that are quick to prepare and easy to transport. I have bought a mini-cooler bag and some bowls with lids to get us started! I just need some inspiration now!

Cheers!

Presumably yoghurts are an easy option. Also pureed/mashed fruit is OK cold. I give DS kiwi fruit - cut in half and then scoop out with the spoon. Or is that too lumpy. Banana can easily be mashed on location

Savoury mush thats OK cold is a bit more of a challenge. Although a pasta or couscous salad (with the salad bits fairly small) might be OK. Cottage cheese with bits in (eg pineapple, sweetcorn etc). Something based on avacado - although might be a problem with it going brown. Grated cheese?

I would keep trying with the finger foods also as that can be a real diverter when out and about as well as giving extra culinary scope.

HTH.

I presume that whatever you make just now e.g with pasta you whizz to a mush? If not, then the lumps in the toddler jars (or at least the Organix ones) are so soft as to be not noticed as lumps when chewing; you could easily mash them with a fork to make a smoother puree if that's what he prefers. It can be amazing how much they can put away though, or maybe 1/2 jar would be enough? I make all of ds's food and found that if I took it places they wouldn't warm it for me (although they would warm a jar which I thought was ridiculous) - some nonsense health & safety rule about potential contamination! I gave up on taking my food out when he got to that stage and he happily eats soup & bread for lunch (plus a yogurt - don't forget to put it in a freezer bag!) with something more substantial at tea time. Check with the place about the texture of the soup if it's an issue. Also, take your own cutlery - ds much prefers his baby cutlery from Ikea than trying to use a teaspoon.

What about taking some homemade hummus/houmous (???) and pitta bread for him to dip in it? Dd loves this followed by a banana when we are out and about.

Yes, my ds loves hummous and bread of all kinds. Also bananas. Got off the plane last week with no food and went to to shop and bought brown bread, hummous, a banana & yoghourt and he was fine. In France a restaurant made an omelette specially for him, which we cut up and he ate with his fingers. He ate it with bread and followed it with chocolate ice-cream (well, we were on holiday!). He likes soup too, which is our standby if we stay out longer than intended and don't have food. He even ate half my toasted veg panini in Costas the other day (and has no teeth at all)

Just wanted to ask. I looked in Tesco at hummous ingredients, and they had peanuts in them (organic hummous). Do you buy special one?

For home-made hummous I blend up a tin of organic chick-peas with the juice of half a lemon (if consistency is too thick, then you can just add a bit of water, or natural yoghurt to it). Mine loved soup, too - sucked it through a straw and ate it with cheese breadsticks. How about grating up an apple, finely, and adding it to a bit of natural yoghurt - it discolours a bit, but still tastes fine - likewise brown avocado looks horrid, but still tastes ok. You could always try something like gnocci - that's nice and soft, even if I can't spell it - and I seem to remember doing a lot of mashed up rice salads - rice, with grated apple, some mashed up pineapple, raisins, cheese and so forth.

loads of lovley ideas! Thanks