Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Eating

Iain has leapt across 3 new food hurdles this week.

First, he had his first spice. We like cinnamon in nearly everything, and we like it in large quantities. For instance, when I make apple pie, it contains about 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg if I'm feeling crazy. Then I put a little more in the streusel.

So Iain needed to learn to love cinnamon ASAP. Plus, I have a baby food book I like (by Christine Splichal) that advocates introducing spices and herbs so that you can use non-salt flavorings in baby food.

We introduced Iain to cinnamon a little at a time, first in squash, then banana. He liked it.

OK, on to the next:

Applesauce. Yum.


I called my mother, who said "what recipe? You just cook some apples!" After a little interrogation, that translated to: peel, core, cut up an apple. Heat in a skillet with a little butter and some water (and cinnamon!). Cook until soft, then puree. Easy.
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Iain took to that like a duck to water. No problem at all. Tonight we tried Mott's natural apple sauce, which has nothing in it but apples, water, and citric acid, and that was ok. I had to add cinnamon, though, because it was bland and Iain looked at me like "this sucks." So I doctored it.
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Charles said, "See? He likes your cooking better." Also, the commercial stuff is really watery, whereas mine is very thick. Iain was not great at eating such mushy stuff. He dripped.
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Finally, we've re-introduced peas. This time, with cereal mixed in and apple sauce as an incentive, the peas disappeared into The Maw. Iain ate about half a portion last night and a whole portion tonight. So that checks off peas.
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Whew.

3 comments:

SarahHub said...

Isn't it crazy when moms give you a recipe? My mom always starts with "You know how to make that..."

Rae said...

So, I was thinking, "That applesauce sounds so good," until you started mixing it with peas and cereal!!! I guess that goes to show that children will eat almost anything sweet. I was known to eat bubble gum icecream as a kid. Now it gives me the hiebbie-jiebbies.

Fiona said...

HA! No, I didn't mix the foods. I mean, I *have* done that, to sweeten things like greenbeans.

But in this case it was alternating bites. So think of it as a plate with a piece of bread (cereal), a pile of peas (veg) and for dessert: applesauce.

I wouldn't make you eat peas. Charles won't eat them, either.