Little Tummy Yummies: How I Do It: Cooking

I am really intrigued by the “How I Do It” series that the Chronicles of a Babywise Mom is doing over on her blog. One of the reasons why Kelly and I started LTY was so that Mommies could share their experiences and their recipes. I am going to share how I do it, cooking wise that is, and I would LOVE it if you could share how YOU do it in the comments below!

I would also like to add that I only have one 19 month old at home and I live within walking distance to a good grocery store. This going to look differently for every person depending on how many kids you have, their ages and where you live. I am definitely hoping to hear from Kelly how she does it with a newborn and an under 2 year old, when she gets finished with her rest period after the birth of Epicutie Asher! It will help me know what I will be facing when my time comes.

Our Routine – we eat at approximately these times everyday

Breakfast – 8 to 9
Lunch – 11 to 12
Snack – 3:30 to 4
Dinner – 6 to 7

***In case you can’t tell, Little Frances is a SLOW eater!

General Tips:

Like the Babywise Mom, I keep breakfast and lunch simple and dinner is my time to experiment and cook big meals. Even at dinner, I would not call myself an adventurous cook! I don’t like big messes or having a lot of half ingredients that I have to remember to use later or else they will go bad.
Even though Little Frances is way past the phase where she needs purees there are still a few that I keep on hand to give her as a side, especially carrot and butternut squash. I still use a lot of purees in my cooking, in case you can’t tell!
I have also been occasionally buying the fruit mix of a European organic baby food – where I live, good fruit in the winter time besides oranges can be hard to come by (even bananas and apples!) or extremely expensive when I do find it. Little Frances loves this chilled! Even with that said, I have been realizing that I need to challenge myself and Little Frances to try new fruits or go and look a little harder for them.
I live about a 5 minute walk from the best grocery store in town, and as a result, I don’t usually need to do much planning ahead. I usually decide what to do for dinner in the morning and I stop by and pick up the ingredients on my morning walk with Little Frances.
Little Frances doesn’t seem to mind it when I mix up my list of compatible foods. However, I still try to keep the foods compatible – for example, I don’t like to give Little Frances veggies with peanut butter and jelly because to me, those just don’t seem to go together. Sometimes its necessary though when you are getting to an empty pantry.

Breakfast is usually one of the following options, drink options in parenthesis:

Oatmeal cooked in whole milk, sweetened with a mashed ripe banana (water)
A baby omelet with carrot/spinach/cauliflower puree and cheese (orange juice)
Yogurt with a banana or other fruit (water)
French toast with butternut squash (milk)
Banana bread or zucchini bread with fruit or yogurt (milk)

Lunch is usually one of the following options:

Leftovers from the night before
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with small yogurt, raisins and apple (milk)
Grilled cheese sandwich with butternut squash, pureed carrots and fruit (water)
Lunch meat and cheese, crackers, fruit and raisins (water)

Snack

A small or half milkshake with crackers or baby cookies
Banana and crackers or baby cookies (milk)
Cheese and crackers (juice mixed with water)
Banana bread or zucchini bread (milk)

Dinner

Anything from the LTY’s “family food” option!
I am a huge fan of the Jessica Seinfeld cookbooks, the recipes are healthy and simple without a ton of ingredients.
I usually have Little Frances “cook” with me. She gets a couple of bowls mixed with raisins and goldfish crackers and a wooden spoon, sometimes I use uncooked elbow macaroni. That keeps her busy so that I can cook!

You can read about The Babywise Mom’s “How I Do It: Meals” HERE.

Please share! I would love some tips.

Also, don’t forget about our fundraiser for Kai! For a donation of ANY AMOUNT (even $1), you can be entered to win a 13 cup Kitchen Aid Processor! For details, click here: