General chat thread for puree lovers!

[Neenztwinz]

Before I started weaning my twins, I read about BLW and thought it looked like an amazing idea.

When I tried it I found my darling LOs didn't pick up a single thing never mind get it into the mouths.

So now I puree food and spoonfeed them and they are eating massive amounts and loving it - and sleeping all night!

So I thought I'd start a thread for others who are doing the same as me - we can swap ideas for meals and say what works for us (ie what makes them sleep ).

I gave my twins four plums plus ebm and baby rice for breakfast and they have had a big bowl of sweet potato, haricot beans and brocolli for lunch. More of the same for tea (plus maybe some swede and parsnip). They are 6.5mths old.

What did yours eat today?

Oh, and kate sorry to hear about the teething/cold. DD woke up 4 times two nights ago cause she was constipated and I'm still exhausted!

its ok - am sort of used to it as we have been constantly teething for months now - hopefully there will be a gap after these 4 though.

am really grumpy today - is anyone else finding this?I am having to bite my tongue on so many threads cos am feeling just so disagreeable...

btw at sat lunch dp had spicy lentil soup - had made so much lentil casserole that we didnt have enough ice cube trays etc so added chilli flakes, cumin and coriander and topped it with some double cream and it went down a treat

Hi, just popping in to get this back on my threads. giantkate just been taking note of your chicken casserole, thanks for that. Just to mention though, I did a lamb casserole yesterday and it had normal potatoes in as well as carrot and swede and it whizzed up fine.

Sorry to hear about teething trouble

Had a bit of a faux pas today... whizzed up some leftover roast chicken for DS with coleslaw instead of cottage cheese. He was eating it fine though until I notice egg in the ingredients and had a mild panic in case the egg wasn't cooked.

Maria the protein meals dont have to be any more of a faff. I've done the one pot chicken, chicken with sweet potato and apple, a few fish dishes, 'lovely lentils' (which actually makes a nice soup with some grown up seasoning), lamb hotpot all from AK/GF. The only difference really is that I store them in the freezer in tommee tippee snack pots rather than ice cubes (and in fact, that's a bit easier). You might want to stick a few portions of cheese sauce in the freezer too - handy for mixing with some of your veg cubes.

One thing about the AK/GF recipes - there's lots of 'make your own stock' faff and tbh, using a baby stock cube or just plain water is really fine for those recipes.

habbibu thanks for popping by.

Hi DramaQ, nice to see you back, how was your trip?

Don't worry about the egg not being cooked, it would have been pasteurised (more than likely anyway). Well cooked eggs are recommended because of the risk of salmonella, which isn't much of a risk anyway.

Ordinary potato seems to be fine if whizzed up with other stuff, but if done by itself, a blender will turn it all gluey and horrid.

Pasta with homemade tomato and mascarpone sauce has been a huge hit here! Also left over lamb dinner from our Sunday roast. I'm giving B more and more of the stuff we eat, which is making life soooooo much easier.

well hi all
i came on, started a poo discussion, and then disappeared!!
just don't always find time to post.
btw My ds is still pooing loads and yes i chuck down the loo - sometimes i have jaffa cake poos - round, brown on top and orange underneath - is that tmi??
still on 2 meals a day brekkie and tea, not looking forward to doing the lunch thing as we go out most days and on the couple of occassions we've gone out for tea it's a nightmare making sure you have everything so i'm sticking to boobs for lunch at the mo.
Is there a point when i def have to give 3 meals a day?

ooh just mentioned purees on a blw thread (stokke table top) lets see if i get into te..rouble!!

*whinegums. Trip was good, not had too much MN time since I got back. RL catching up with me and I've got shedloads to do before going back to work next month. Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, DS having some weight issues - just started this thread.

Glad to hear the egg would be ok - in that case, DS got on fine with coleslaw whizzed up with cooked chicken. Am that you're starting to give your LO more and more the same as you whinegums. Firstly, we can never get our tea ready in time for DS, and secondly I keep thinking it's just not suitable.

Can all of you feeding your LO's the same as you post daily menu's ?

On the subject of recipes... GKS you're clearly the undisputed queen of the casserole on here, so could you put one or two casserole recipes on here that would be easy to follow for a non-cook like me, with quantities etc, and that would be tasty for both baby and grown ups? Thought I might shock DH and actually cook his tea sometime soon .

Last but not least for now... was there discussion a few pages back about dried apricots? What do we think of them as finger food?

Quick q - how long cauliflower cheese ok for in fridge? Made last night.

BDQ - I would reuse that today tbh.

Whinegums - Queenofcasserole is quite a good name dont you think? If only I actually made proper casseroles rather than just bunging it all in a saucepan and quantities? arrgh I just bung in what I think will work.

You can have my proper adult casserole if you like though (though its not a casserole as such):

for 2 adults:

4 chicken thighs (or 2 breasts if you're going to whizz it up as well for baby)
a couple of cloves of garlic
some veg - so half a swede, 4 big carrots, 1 big onion, 2 big sweet potatoes, 1 big leek - whatever you want really - it can take courgettes and mushrooms as well if you've got them hanging about.
1 cup of white wine.
some hot stock or some boiled water.
a few rosemary sprigs and some thyme and some bay - whatever you've got growing or none if you havent.
a cup of rice if you want to bulk it up.

brown off the chicken in a frying pan then take it out and fry off the onion, leek and garlic. Season if its for adults only.

Put the rest of the veg in - chopped up to the same size so not diced but not huge either.

cover with stock/water and add the wine. bring to the boil then simmer for 40 mins. If you're putting the rice in put that in 20 mins towards the end.

Its done when the rice is cooked. Or after 40 mins if you've no rice.

I like the rice cos it creates a sort of fake risotto thing but obv you cant whizz it up and freeze it in the same way.

Apologies for the state of this recipe - I dont really follow them myself so dont know how they should go.

I will think about what we ate yesterday and add it in a minute.

right yesterday we had:

6.30am bf
7.15am 2 tbsps plum porridge with whole milk
10.00am half a hot cross bun.
10.30am bf
11.30am lentil casserole and quinoa and some pieces of cheese.
2.00pm bf
5.00pm 1 slice of toast and cream cheese (while I cooked dinner)
5.30pm some slices of pear and rounds of banana
5.45pm some spag bol with the rest of the family.

Yesterday we had homemade burgers and roasted potatoes and sweetcorn for dinner and I just made her a small burger and she had that as finger food and some potatoes and lots of corn which she picks up from the tray - its probably her fave veggie.

My dd is 9 months now though [disbelieving emoticon]

DramaQ - should clarify - B is eating more of the same stuff as us, but usually the day after, as we eat later. I puree or mash up his portion(s) and stick them in the fridge, and any extra into the freezer. Sunday dinner is particularly a big hit - I do extra veggies, chop up a bit of the roast and blend, sometimes with some stock or water if it needs it. I don't add salt during cooking, but other seasonings stay the same. I always do glazed carrots for example - cooked with a little water and unsalted butter and then finished with maple syrup. And roast potatoes and parsnips go into the mix too.

Storing stuff - 3 days in the fridge is usually absolutely fine. If anything I use was going to be out of date before the 3 days, that's my 'expiry.' For B anyway, for us, I smell and taste, and if that's ok, then I assume it's fine. Haven't poisoned anyone yet!

I made him a chicken mango curry thing if anyone wants the 'recipe' (inspired by Kate's comment when I originally posted about frozen mango I think) -

1 chicken breast
frozen mango - approx 6 chunks
1 large sweet potato
1 small onion
1/2 clove garlic
1 carrot
basmati rice - approx 2 - 3 tablespoons
curry powder/paste

Chop garlic, onion, carrot and sweet potato, saute in a little oil. Add a little curry powder or paste (I use about 1/2 tsp of medium, or 1/2 tsp of a medium Patak's paste). Cut the chicken breast into chunks of about 3 cm. Add to pan and fry off for a minute. Stir in the rice, and then add water or stock to cover, and the mango. Simmer til all is cooked and then mash/blend. (I find the rice is fine in this Kate). I sometimes add some Greek yogurt too.

Yesterday he had:

Porridge (half Plum baby fruity porridge with half Ready Brek) with EBM
1/2 slice toast
orange juice diluted 2/3rds water 1/3rd juice (most went on floor)

Early lunch as we were going swimming - baby pasta stars with tomato and marscapone sauce (we had rest of sauce for dinner with pancetta and pasta)

BF after swimming

Large chunk of my M&S peaches and cream tart (I was starving after swimming!!! That's my excuse anyway)

BF late afternoon

Roast chicken dinner (portion from freezer)
Mixed fruit puree with baby rice and milk
Rice cakes with cream cheese and cucumber sticks

Other things I've given him that we've had too include chicken and red wine casserole, sausage and mash, fish pie, chicken and leek pie, French toast, scrambled egg. I cook almost everything we have from scratch, the only change I make is leaving out salt. I know what you mean about wondering if stuff is suitable or not, but I reckon as long as you're making it yourself, and it's not too strongly flavoured (I've cut down on the amount of garlic I use for example) then go for it! I put more veggies/spuds/etc in B's portions and not as much meat as well. HTH.

that should have been the day before btw for the burgers - otherwise youll all think we're very greedy indeed...

chicken and mango curry sounds great - its ages since we did that...am going to follow your lead and do that on saturday.

thanks for the recipes girls! dd just had chicken and chickpea stew -- same as what we had last night. it had ginger and cinnamon and she didn't complain. quick question for gks: when did you drop the lunchtime bf? dd is 7 months now and has more or less the same schedule as yours but with bf after lunch. i suppose she'll just refuse when she's ready?

tbh mookickkick we have had that same schedule from the beginning - the feeds we have dropped are those at 5pm and 10pm and the night feeds of course - we never did have a feed at lunchtime.

My dd tends to nap for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and so there isnt really time for another bf anyway.

and yes I think once shes taking lots more lunch she will refuse that feed or start, take the letdown for her thirst and then fall asleep almost immediately - this is what my dd does sometimes for her bedtime bf if shes had too much dinner

Thanks for messages about gran, she was moved to palliative care at the hospital and they are looking after her great. Docs think she will go today but it is a blessing.

Food has become a bit of a nightmare here - I have started adding apple to everything to help make it taste nicer . I just keep telling myself as long as they are eating something... they have porridge and yogurt and oatibix but the main meals are sometimes a bit of a disaster, esp with E (T does tend to eat most things but even he has been a bit fussy last few days - teeth maybe). Will def try that chicken casserole though (it has sweet pot in so prob will go down well). I made butt sq risotto yuesterday from the AK book but they hated it (till I mixed it with sweet pot).

Kate you make me laugh - 'whatever you have growing' I am terrible, whenever there is fresh herbs in something I just either miss it out or throw something dried in. And that is for me an DH not the babies.

Thanks for popping in Habbibu! I am very touched actually

sorry about your gran Neenz - dont be afraid to talk to her - from my experience people can hear you even when they have been highly medicated.

with the DTs - will they eat toast and other finger foods? If so can you spread the casseroles or veggie purees onto the toast?

Kate do you just put the sweetcorn kernels on the tray?

I think I am too obsessed with volume... they have a piece of toast each before lunch and then I still expect them to eat a big bowl of mashed food each and then some yogurt too.

How much food do your LOs eat in a meal? eg half a bowl or 3 or 4 tbsps or a full bowl?

I always make too much and then feel crap if I have to throw stuff away. They are putting on good weights so they are not starving and they are not sleeping too bad either so I think maybe it is going OK but I just feel crap about it cos it is always the same thing (sweet pot/parsnip) or they hate it! I add other things in eg avocado, cod, chicken, spinach etc but it is not great

Neenz, sorry to hear the twins aren't eating so well. Hope it's teeth and not another cold!

Thanks gks. When dd started having breakfast, I sort of moved the 10:30 bf to 11:00 and then 11:30 so she could have bf food bf at lunch. Have now re-introduced it at 10:30 and give food then bf at lunch. I just feel dd is constantly eating! Gave her a rice cake yesterday. She looked at me blankly so I ate one to demonstrate. Then she got it! Why is it that everything goes straight into her mouth except the one time I hand her some food???

x-posted Kate, yeah I spread it on rice cakes etc and it goes down ok but I just don;t feel like they get enough but I think I am just expecting too much.

I put a few bit of sweetcorn on the tray at a time - sometimes I cook some peas and sweetcorn up together and then add some grated cheese so that it melts and forms lumps of cheese and veg and then put a bit of it at a time on the tray - too much and dd will just play with it or chuck it.

If she had lentil casserole for lunch then its just one large cube with lid and about 2 tbsps of quinoa - so not much at all really.

At dinner she will have a whole piece of toast and quite a lot of pasta/rice etc and a whole meatball.

If I do her some butter fried courgette she will eat nearly half a courgette and she will eat nearly a half of avocado for lunch or dinner. Banana - about a third of a large one.

Thanks Kate - I expect them to eat loads more than that so I think I am expecting too much. I will try that with the peas/corn and cheese. They do seem to like cheese batons.

T eats loads so when E has just a few spoons and then won't have any more I think I have failed whereas actually she has pron just had enohugh. It is hard not to compare them.

How many portions do you get out of your chicken casserole?

About two whole ice cube trays and 5 pots with lids I reckon though thats only with one breast of chicken - am quite mean with the protein if its just for dd.

So how many meals out of 2 breasts? I would give them half a breast between them for one meal but think maybe that is too much.

BTW they both scoffed their tea so I feel much better (it was still sweet pot but had avocado, rice, tomato and cheese in too). Next week I am going to make something new each day and just have some sweet pot ready on the side to mix in it in case they don't like it!

blimey - something new everyday? I think thats a lot of pressure and anxiety if they dont like it though isnt it? I also hate that feeling of making something and it not being liked - though conversely am very much aware that what I'm giving dd is lacking in variety compared to what her brother had.

um so lets see um thats about 15 meals I reckon.

Other times she will eat a whole meatball - golf ball sized so the protein portion I give is variable.