BLW ideas and recipe thread

[TribbleWithoutAnEasterEgg]

I thought I would start a thread for people to post ideas easy recipes that they've used whilst doing BLW.

If you're anything like me and a lazy busy person, you sometimes don't have time to be faffing around with essence of coconut and cumin powder.

So I'll start, I made frittata the other night.

I peeled two large potatoes and sliced them up into big chunks and then boiled them until soft. I then fried these in a large frying pan with a red and yellow pepper that I had cut into strips. Whilst these were cooking I sliced a bull tomato and some mozzarella into slices. I then beat six eggs with a little milk and when the potatoes and peppers were cooked I added the eggs and layered the tomatoes and mozzarella on top and left to cook until it started to solidify around the sides. Once this was done, I popped this under the grill until it was browned off.

I served this with rice and gave a slice to DS who found the wedges quite easy to pick up and have a go at. You can add whatever you want to this recipe and for even more ease you can used canned new potatoes in water instead of peeling and cooking them yourself.

It was very simple and quick to do and went down well with all concerned.

Good idea!

DD is only 29 weeks so she's not really able to chew very well (she actually eats quite a bit but is totally reliant on gums - no teeth!), but the following have worked really well so far:

• Mozzarella
• Avocado
• Polenta (cooked into a brick, cut into slices and fried in olive oil)
• Homemade pork meat balls (we've found beef mince is too hard - pork is much more suitable for gums!)
• Homemade fish cakes (mashed potato, tinned tuna and a few fine slices of spring onions)
• Scrambled egg
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Strawberries
• Papaya
• Pitta bread with hummous

... and that's pretty much DD's diet right now!

Polenta, asparagus and avocado have been the most successful - DD can just eat and eat those! The textures/tastes seem perfect for her.

some things really haven't worked - meat generally, carrots (soft boiled but she doesn't like them!) and pasta. Oh and homemade sushi rice balls - impossible! Oh yes, and banana - she just ignores it!

I am interested in evryone else's ideas... DD has only been at it a few weeks but has 3 meals a day. She refuses totally to be fed with a spoon (hence my doing BLW... I probably wouldn't have chosen to otherwise!) and, as I said, has no teeth, so seems to get a bit frustrated if I misjudge what she can manage and present her with food she can't really eat.

Hopefully you've both found this forum as well, by Aitch - lots of recipes on there. Remember though that the idea is not to be using special recipes just for them - just cook whatever you usually do and give them that

:)

My DD's absolute favourite so far is toast with cashew nut butter on it. You can make cashew nut butter by just whizzing some cashews in a blender - continue until they become butter-like. She loves this and another benefit is that as it's sticky she doesn't drop any - wolfs it all down!

We also made lentils mixed with cheese (to make it a bit more solid) and she loved that. She also loved home made pizza and spanish omlette. Hates plain steamed veggies and won't touch banana yet though!

Fliss - I do get that but, truth be told, I am not really doing BLW because I am a great beleiver in the philosophy... I am doing it because I have no choice as DD is a total spoon refuser. Its BLW and finger foods or no solids at all!

at lunch time I generally eat the same thing as her - mozzarella, avocado and pitta for instance, but we eat our dinner after she's in bed (she goes at 6.30/7), so her tea is just for her really.

Obi When you do lentils mixed with cheese, how do you do it? Do you make it like potatoe cakes?

Fliss I think in my case, it's more having an idea of what to feed them. Just to say give them anything is a bit much to get in my baby brained state. I sort of need to see what others are doing or have fed their children so I can think 'oh yeah I can do that too' and I figured having a thread with ideas might give me a bit more inspiration beyond pitta bread and hummus.

Oh we did creamy spinach pasta tonight and it went down a storm.

Cook some spinach in whatever way you choose along with some peppers cut into strips. Cook the pasta (we used riggatoni as it's easier to grip) and as this is cooking grate some cheese of your choice. Once all the ingrediants are cooked stir them all together with a pot of creme fresh and serve.

Legally Have you tried puree on toast? I know it sounds a bit insane but I've done this and DS has wolfed it down.

DS is a carnivore, ;oves lumps of meat but tends to bite off too-big bits, and sometimes chokes-then-pukes, which is never a blast. so we're going with meat-that-crumbles at the moment. Wins so far have been home made hamburgers (with half pork and half beef mince) with teensy bits of chopped onion and whatever herbs I feel like, fried in a pan. I also make meatballs that way, which he devours with a tomatoey pasta sauce and bits of teeny pasta (not baby pasta exactly, just the small pasta you can buy to put in soup). He also adores meatloaf (beef mince, pork mince, breadcrumbs, egg, tom. puree, slow bake), and meatballs - all stuff we're having anyway, I just don't add any salt when I cook.

He adores peanut butter on rice cakes or bread, or breadsticks dipped in the stuff. Ditto philadelphia cheese. Erm... if we have a stew or something, he just eats chunks of that. Loves roasted or steamed sticks of most veg, adores broccoli, has mastered enough pincer grip to eat dry cheerios and throw around peas and sweetcorn...

He's just about (9 months) getting the hang of feeding himself from pre-loaded spoons. V. keen on mashed sweet potato-and-white-potato (which we have a lot cos DH loves it), and loves greek yoghurt (doesn't slip off the spoon like normal yog seems to). A lot ends up on the floor but he really enjoys feeding himself from the spoon. I found the best way for my patience was to have three or four spoons ready before I sit down next to him, then I just load a spoon and pass it over.
I found the BLW cookbook handy, but Aitch's forum has all the good stuff.

Tribble - haven't tried purees on toast but had HUGE success the last couple of days with pittas stuffed with a sort of homemade chicken pate:

• boil a couple of chicken thighs and drumsticks in water with a bouquet garni (as if making stock - in fact a I used most of the chicken and stock for a soup for me and DH)
• strip the mean of the chicken and blend with some of the stock, creme fraiche, avocado and a tiny squidge of lemon juice - it goes to a sort of tuna pate consistency
• stuff pittas with it and watch DD suck ALL of it out before chewing on the pitta

Err - "meat"!

Oh, also, quiche. When I'm chopping and frying up onion and garlic (eg for last night's spag bol) I cook extra, then ladle some of it into a (frozen, ready-made) pastry crust. Then I just chop in some bacon, or grate in some cheese, and crumble in some broccoli and some bits of mushroom, then pour over beaten eggs with a little milk, and a tiny bit of pepper. Bung in oven and have another dinner for me and DH, plus a few lunches for DS. DS loves quiche (specially if it has bacon in it), he picks it up like a piece of cake and really goes for it!

tribble v late response I'm sorry. The first time I just mixed in some cheese while the lentils were hot, let them cool then gave to DD. After that I became more adventurous and added egg and breadcrumbs and cooked in the oven so it all set together. I've since added veg to that (eg chopped courgettes and tomatoes) and it's great. DD loves it and so do I.