We had this last night. So, Boo loved this and I loved it. T hated it. He's fed up with the vegetarian meals...LOL! I got it out of a Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook entitled "Simple Suppers." Someone recommended it to me and I think it's pretty great!
And by the way, quinoa is pronounced "keen-wa". Oops...and all this time I was saying "quin-oh-uh". My bad. A friend recommended this product and I'm glad that we tried it. It was super easy to prepare and I could definitely see this going with a lot of things.
We had the leftovers for breakfast this morning as we got around pretty late and I just didn't feel like making much, what with my recently sprained ankle and all. Yes, I'm afraid that it's made me quite lazy!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
No Battles
You know one thing I really appreciate about BLW thus far. No battles. He eats what he wants and leaves what he doesn't. I really think that's the way to go. I know there's people that would disagree and go on about nutrition and this and that. I could see that if I was giving him veggies and ice cream all the time and he chooses to eat only the ice cream. But I'm making healthy choices for our family and he's being exposed to those healthy things. I'm not saying that I've never made a bad choice, because we ordered pizza over the weekend. So, I am human. BUT, overall he's presented with healthy items and he picks and chooses which of them to eat. I feel that it's extremely respectful of him as a person. I mean, I'd be pissed if someone told me I HAD to eat brussel sprouts. I HATE them and I know I'll make up that nutrition in other ways.
As Boo gets older I plan to continue the spirit of BLW. Granted he won't be a baby anymore. But I don't think that once he's two or three or whatever we'll all of a sudden decide now we have to change the way he's presented with food. I grew up under the "clean your plate" mentality. And look where that got me. I'm just in the past year learning how to make healthy choices and prepare healthy meals. I'm proud to say that I now shop the perimeter of the grocery store, which is the "healthy" thing to do. I also incorporate lots of vegetables and legumes into our diet. I'm getting better at it as I do this more and more. But anyways, my point is that if I'm just now learning how to eat healthy at 29 years old, then the "clean your plate" mentality did nothing for me as far as healthy eating goes. Just something to consider.
Some food for thought. Okay - I just HAD to throw in the bad pun!
As Boo gets older I plan to continue the spirit of BLW. Granted he won't be a baby anymore. But I don't think that once he's two or three or whatever we'll all of a sudden decide now we have to change the way he's presented with food. I grew up under the "clean your plate" mentality. And look where that got me. I'm just in the past year learning how to make healthy choices and prepare healthy meals. I'm proud to say that I now shop the perimeter of the grocery store, which is the "healthy" thing to do. I also incorporate lots of vegetables and legumes into our diet. I'm getting better at it as I do this more and more. But anyways, my point is that if I'm just now learning how to eat healthy at 29 years old, then the "clean your plate" mentality did nothing for me as far as healthy eating goes. Just something to consider.
Some food for thought. Okay - I just HAD to throw in the bad pun!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Yesterday's Picnic
Yesterday we had a picnic. Boo ate really nicely. He sat on the blanket for part of the picnic and then he sat on my lap for a bit too. He had cold sesame noodles. I got the recipe off of one of the vegetarian blogs I've been reading:
Cold Sesame Noodle recipe
You'll have to do a search, but you'll find it. Anyways, it's a great recipe. I've made it twice in the past couple of weeks as we strive to be more vegetarian-like lately. Boo loves it even though it's got a bit of a kick to it with the red pepper flakes. It was perfect to take to a picnic.
I took some homemade salsa with my fresh garden tomatoes. YUMMM!!! This is the first time that I've gotten to make my salsa with tomatoes from my garden. It was so good. Anyways, Boo had a bit of that on top of some melba toast.
And then of course he had blueberries. It wouldn't be a summer picnic without some fresh fruit. He did so well sitting on the blanket and eating. I was pretty impressed with him!
Cold Sesame Noodle recipe
You'll have to do a search, but you'll find it. Anyways, it's a great recipe. I've made it twice in the past couple of weeks as we strive to be more vegetarian-like lately. Boo loves it even though it's got a bit of a kick to it with the red pepper flakes. It was perfect to take to a picnic.
I took some homemade salsa with my fresh garden tomatoes. YUMMM!!! This is the first time that I've gotten to make my salsa with tomatoes from my garden. It was so good. Anyways, Boo had a bit of that on top of some melba toast.
And then of course he had blueberries. It wouldn't be a summer picnic without some fresh fruit. He did so well sitting on the blanket and eating. I was pretty impressed with him!
Cleaning Boo
I decided to post this as there were some questions about cleaning children during the BLW process. I am by no means an expert. I've just found some things that work for us and if it can help someone else in their journey, then that's wonderful. Anyways, first thing that helps is a good highchair. Nothing with cloth. I've never had a highchair with cloth on it, but I can only imagine the horrible mess it would be. Crevices are bad too as they will get filled with gunk. We use the antilop highchair from IKEA and I couldn't be happier with the choice. There are some cuter options out there, but honestly, I don't feel a need to have something with animal or nursery print in the middle of my kitchen. Here's a link to the highchair in case you're looking for one:
IKEA Highchair
The tray comes separately so be sure to get the tray also!
Good full-coverage bibs. I've read on my BLW yahoo group that some people are using muslin tied around the baby. I think that would also do the job quite nicely. Here's what I use:
I-Play Bibs
One thing I've done is put some soap and water in a spray bottle. I use Dr. Bronner's, but you can use any mild soap that you like. Often I will spray Boo down before he even leaves the highchair. Then I may follow with a wet paper towel. If he's not that messy I may skip the initial spraying and just carry him to the sink to wash his hands in the faucet. One day after blackberries I just plopped his entire body into the sink for an impromptu bath. Most days though I just get what I can. If there's food dangling from his hair I'll scrub his head with the cloth and get the food out and send him on his way to play!
So hopefully this will be helpful to someone in the journey of BLW!
IKEA Highchair
The tray comes separately so be sure to get the tray also!
Good full-coverage bibs. I've read on my BLW yahoo group that some people are using muslin tied around the baby. I think that would also do the job quite nicely. Here's what I use:
I-Play Bibs
One thing I've done is put some soap and water in a spray bottle. I use Dr. Bronner's, but you can use any mild soap that you like. Often I will spray Boo down before he even leaves the highchair. Then I may follow with a wet paper towel. If he's not that messy I may skip the initial spraying and just carry him to the sink to wash his hands in the faucet. One day after blackberries I just plopped his entire body into the sink for an impromptu bath. Most days though I just get what I can. If there's food dangling from his hair I'll scrub his head with the cloth and get the food out and send him on his way to play!
So hopefully this will be helpful to someone in the journey of BLW!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Toddlerhood
Well, it's been a long time. I'm afraid that I've neglected this blog. Bad bad. And here I had this vision of helping to bring BLW to moms in the US. I guess I have to keep up the blog if I'm going to be of inspiration to everybody.
So here's where we're at. Boo loves to eat and I get excited about the variety of things that he loves. He's tried my homemade salsa - which does have a bit of a kick to it - and he loves it. Just this last week I discovered that he LOVES chickpeas and lentils. The chickpeas I shouldn't be suprised as he loves humus. The lentils he really chowed down on. We tried scrambled tofu today...a new one for both of us. Boo LOVED it and so did I. It was extremely tasty.
I can tell he's entering toddlerhood though in that he definitely has those picky days that are so typical of this stage. There are days that he'd eat nothing but fruit if he could. In the spirit of BLW I try to let him pick and choose for himself. However, I've found that if fruit is part of the meal I must hide it until the end. I found out the hard way that too much fruit makes for really awful diapers. And since we're doing cloth diapering it's even worse. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure you can imagine!
We're in "extended breastfeeding" now. In the US pretty much anything past a year is considered "extended breastfeeding." How sad since so many other countries don't think anything of breastfeeding beyond a year. So Boo is 13 months now. I haven't gotten any weird looks yet for continuing to nurse him, but I imagine as he gets older the looks will come. The World Health Organization recommends that children be breastfed until the age of two at least. So that's my goal. I really want as much as possible to allow Boo to take the lead on his weaning, rather than forcing my own agenda on him. I've been trying to do some reading on extended breastfeeding. Perhaps when I get some time I'll post some links to articles and such.
So here's where we're at. Boo loves to eat and I get excited about the variety of things that he loves. He's tried my homemade salsa - which does have a bit of a kick to it - and he loves it. Just this last week I discovered that he LOVES chickpeas and lentils. The chickpeas I shouldn't be suprised as he loves humus. The lentils he really chowed down on. We tried scrambled tofu today...a new one for both of us. Boo LOVED it and so did I. It was extremely tasty.
I can tell he's entering toddlerhood though in that he definitely has those picky days that are so typical of this stage. There are days that he'd eat nothing but fruit if he could. In the spirit of BLW I try to let him pick and choose for himself. However, I've found that if fruit is part of the meal I must hide it until the end. I found out the hard way that too much fruit makes for really awful diapers. And since we're doing cloth diapering it's even worse. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure you can imagine!
We're in "extended breastfeeding" now. In the US pretty much anything past a year is considered "extended breastfeeding." How sad since so many other countries don't think anything of breastfeeding beyond a year. So Boo is 13 months now. I haven't gotten any weird looks yet for continuing to nurse him, but I imagine as he gets older the looks will come. The World Health Organization recommends that children be breastfed until the age of two at least. So that's my goal. I really want as much as possible to allow Boo to take the lead on his weaning, rather than forcing my own agenda on him. I've been trying to do some reading on extended breastfeeding. Perhaps when I get some time I'll post some links to articles and such.
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