Moving on from purees, what are you making now?

[Janus]

Hi there, I started off in the puree thread a couple of months ago and have loved the good ideas of what to cook and support to those of us who like to puree rather than BLW!
My dd3 is now 8 months and loves finger food, eg bits of toast, rice cakes, thinly sliced apple and pear, broccoli, green beans, etc, etc. What I'm finding hard is to get a whole balanced meal together so wondered how you are all getting on when you reach this stage.
So, any ideas for meals, more finger food ideas, any day-to-day experiences of moving from beloved purees?!
Thanks.

We started with a mixture of purees and finger foods at six months and now we are basically mashing or very briefly whizzing up things like chicken soup+basmati rice, pasta+baked beans+cheddar cheese, baked potatoes+cheese+beans, pasta+bolognese. I tend to also serve DS some whole versions of those, and when he (now 8 and half months) isn't teething he actually prefers no mush at all, but stuffs whole pastas etc in happily. But good to have whizzed/mashed some up in readiness if he decides it is all too much. Plus whole broccoli florets, whole potato wedges, lentil dahl with raisins, as all of them are so soft anyway. have a clean cloth under the table and you can just recycle the food as it falls, pop it in front of him again.

Also good to trya som easy whole bits of verg, boiled sliced courgette, whole french beans, cheddar cheese cubes, sourdough bread toasted with butter. I am getting hungry just thinking about my son's dinners.....

I forgot to say we generally have at least two differnt sorts of veg to handle, plus the main meal and generally bread, left-overs from the previous day/last meal and bits of fruit to gnaw on if he gets fed up. Oh I forgot to add, DP makes stunning veg soup with the neglected remains of our veg rack befor we do our big shop, and DS LOVES HIS DADDY'S SOUP! Oh my, you just have to say the words "soup" and "pasta" now and he starts slamming his hand down on the table impatiently. He reminds me of Father Jack, only less sweary and more grunty.

Hi there Janus - we are 8.5 months now and are doing mush at lunchtimes and then finger foods for the evening. Do you eat at a time that he could join in too?

I mostly just give dd whatever we (dp, ds and me) are having - so tonight it was bolognaise and rice but I did her some macaroni instead so that she could pick it up from the tray.

She also loves:

butter-fried courgettes, sweetcorn straight from the tin, tomatoes and cucumber, roast potatoes and sweet potatoes, lambs liver fried in really thin strips, fish pie, cheese on toast, any sort of casserole.

We BLW after starting on purees and I find easy finger foods (especially for out and about or when they aren't going to eat with me, for example at tea time) are dates, cucumber, rice cakes, cherries (stoned), slices of orange, toast, bits of pasta, mini babybel.

OK, so looking at the list I think we have tried most of finger food you have all mentioned, haven't done baby tomatoes and cheese on toast until today, thanks kate! She loves green beans, cubes of cheese, bits of fruit, etc, but if I give this does that constitute a meal for yours? I worry she hasn't eaten enough as I can't 'see' it like I can with cubes of puree! She loves jacket potatoes and cheese/baked beans, must remember to do that once a week now. I also made swede soup yesterday (lurks at the bottom of my veg box!) and she actually really liked it.
I also really struggle to make a casserole for all of us with no salt, it just makes me think it will be bland but do you make it and then add salt to the adult portion?
Must get some pasta shapes in and start eating a bit more of that, have used the soup pasta for a while but think she would enjoy chasing pasta round the highchair table!
Thanks, keep the ideas coming, I'm starting to feel more confident in the next step!

avocado and jacket potatoes is a good one as well as is avocado and wraps.

What contitutes a meal is a tricky one - at lunch today dd had one slice of toast which she ate most of and a quarter of avocado which all of it went down then 3/4 of a banana.

dinner she had spag bol with us (pepper, garlic, herbs etc but no salt and yes it is a bit blander than i would like but there we go). I put the spaghetti on the tray and she picked it up and then she picked up the bigger bits of mince and courgette/aubergine etc and the little bits got spooned in.

macaroni cheese is a good one to start with because you can spoon it in and put it on the tray for them to pick up. I grate cheese straight onto the tray - dd seems to prefer that to chunks.

If I'm lacking inspiration I just use one of the frozen purees - lamb or lentil casserole etc as a pasta sauce on top of some macaroni or penne.

Thanks Kate, can I just ask, do you give the penne to her whole or cut up? And does your little girl have teeth yet (and if so, does that help?).
I so know where you're coming from with regard to heating up puree and adding to pasta (although I'm on the little soup pasta), I'm gonna make use of all those lumps of puree! It's so quick too, a definite bonus.

I used up fruit I'd pureed by smearing it on toast as a kind of jam. or on rice cakes.

she has the penne whole yes but we dont tend to cook it that much - much more spaghetti and macaroni in this house - she has had 3 teeth for about a month now but was quite happily chewing the pasta before she got them.

I think if they can cope with toast and rice cakes then they are definately ready for pasta.