lunch ideas for a 9 month old

[JennyWren]

Does anyone have any new ideas for reasonably easy lunch ideas?
My dd is 9 months old and eats very well - both being spoon-fed and self-feeding finger foods. She eats a wide range of things, but I am getting a bit stuck on lunch-type ideas. She has cereal with fruit for breakfast and a hot tea (meat and veg/casseroles/pasta dishes etc.), but at lunchtime I like to give her mostly finger food, followed by a yoghurt/custard-type pudding if she still seems hungry. Normally I give her toast/bread with butter/cream cheese, cheese-on-toast, beans and toast fingers, soup with toast/rice cakes. It's just that it seems to be a fairly limited range - I like to ring the changes for myself, so I want to do the same for her. But my alternatives tend to be things like a sausage roll instead of a sandwich, and I don't really think that is appropriate for dd. Any other ideas would be great!

cauli cheese, pasta sauces that can be used with pasta of course and jacket tatties and tuna/mayo but not sure how much tuna is allowed per week, but can i just ask which brand of beans you use??

Hi Shellybelly! I use the low-salt, low-sugar versions from either Heinz or Tesco, depending on where I have been shopping. She doesn't have them very often, but she loves them. We tend to eat the standard versions ourselves (because I buy them in bulk from Costco), so I open a tin and put three portions in pots in the freezer and give her one portion 'fresh'. The it is almost as quick to defrost/heat in the microwave as it is to just warm up.

Sorry - I should have said, thanks for the ideas! She has had pasta/peas/sweetcorn mixed with cheese sauce, which went down well, so I should do that more often. I haven't given her cauliflower cheese for ages either - we get a veg bag delivery but cauli isn't in season and I don't often need to buy extras, but I could get a small bag of frozen florets and use those. I've never tried jacket potatoes though - do you know if they would freeze well, if I made up a few one evening and froze them so that they could be thawed overnight and heated up as and when?

What about offering her more of the finger food?

Steamed carrot sticks
Warm Pita bread with houmous(mine loved this)
Chopped cherry toms
Sweetcorn fritters/pancakes - easy to make
Falafel
Chick peas in a lemon vinagrette (mine still loves that now)
Home made pizza slices
Cold meat balls (home made)
Cheese and tuna toastie

hi there! my ds is nearly 7 mos, so having a look here for food ideas...but, he's still on puree-ish things...am i going too slow? no teeth yet, but should i start giving things like finger foods you mentioned? and pasta? is it ok without teeth (i am first time mum, still learning!)

Hi RM. I started out with lightly done toast and grated apple with my ds. Some babies manage ok as they have razor sharp gums.

thanks meggmoo.

does anyone know how much tuna they are allowed, am going to try tuna/mayo and sweetcorn mushed up

Shellybelly - I haven't heard any rules on how much tuna, so I can't be a lot of help, but you should choose tuna in spring water or oil, rather than in brine, because of the salt level.
Rockmama - I started dd on finger foods at the same time as purees (6 months) and she took to them really well. She didn't have any teeth at the time, she just gummed things to death Even now, she only has one and a bit teeth (the second has cut through today!!), and yet she is happy to have toast, rice cakes, veg, fruit, and now meat, too. I started with ripe, juicy pear - dd loves the sweet taste, so it encouraged her to persevere - and steamed carrot sticks, and went from there.

Meggmoo - thanks for the ideas. Fritter, falafel and pizza slices are things that I can prepare lots of and then freeze, which is ideal for me. Do you know if you can freeze houmous? If I keep it in the fridge I'll eat it before dd gets a look in, and that won't do my diet any good at all!!!

I've frozen home made hummous and it was fine on defrosting!

Brill - thanks CorrieDale. Chickpeas, here I come!