Hey it’s Jess here, aka Prosecco Mum, I live down on the sunny South Coast with Stuart and the gruesome twosome – Sofia who is 4 and Arlo who’s almost 18 months.
Do you remember the days when all you did was feed milk, milk and more milk followed by the non-stop back patting to bring up that last little belly burp? I couldn’t wait to start introducing foods – it just seemed so much more easier nipping out knowing if you’ve forgotten anything, you could buy it and feed your little one on the go.
With Sofia we mainly fed her purees and pre-prepared pouches and finger food style snacks in-between. Being a first time mum I was slightly worried about the idea of baby led weaning, I favoured to the idea of spoon feeding for a few reasons; knowing how much she was eating, smooth purees for less choke risk and of course, less mess!
We did baby led weaning with Arlo more by accident than anything else. He was sat in his highchair with us at the table whilst we were eating breakfast one morning and started reaching out, so I gave him a piece of toast – and prayed that he didn’t choke. He didn’t, he just sucked on it looking at us like ‘why have you been giving me milk which has been making me sick when I could have been eating this’?!
So, where possible we decided to continue on the journey…
We started off with softer foods such as toast, avocado and bananas just to get Arlo used to something other than milk and it wasn’t long until he was joining us at meal times for the same foods we were all tucking into, it was really nice to have the whole family ‘eating’ together and even better that one of us didn’t have to eat one handed whilst we spoon fed a baby with the other.
The one thing that I really did struggle with, and still do to an extent, is what to feed them that has more nutrition than a cheese burger happy meal. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of them liking something and you giving it to them all the time because you know they’ll eat it, my kids would literally live on a diet of cocktail sausages if they could.
Some of our favourite dinners include:
Fish cakes
These may be shop bought cod cakes, or homemade if I’m feeling particularly fancy. If I make them from scratch, I usually follow this recipe to make ten cakes:
– 400g of cod or haddock (or 200g white fish and 200g salmon)
– Enough milk to cover the fish in the pan (about 300ml)
– 5 medium size potatoes – peel and cut into dice size cubes
– You can add peas and sweetcorn too if you fancy
Cut the fish fillets in small chunks and put in a low frying pan and cover with milk. Poach the fish for 2-3 minutes then take off the heat. Meanwhile, boil up the pan of potatoes ready to mash them – once mashed, add the fish (and any extras you decide on). Dip your hands in flour and shape the potatoey-fishy mixture into bite size fish cakes. Fry with a small amount of oil, for around two minutes on each side.
Voila! We usually have ours served with broccoli florets and carrot batons.
Cottage Pie
Arlo loves a hearty meal and so cottage pie always brings a smile to his face at dinner time. We usually batch cook a family size one, have that as a meal and then portion the rest down to be frozen and eaten when I don’t want to cook fresh.
Egg fried rice
This is a firm favourite in our house – it’s super quick to make and is relatively healthy plus you can change the ingredients every time you do it.
We usually add:
- Ham or chopped up chicken
- Sweetcorn
- Peas
- Black olives
Toast fingers with a fried egg
When the kids have been at nursery and school and just need a lighter ‘snack’ for dinner, Sofia will always ask for fried egg and toast.
I flip the egg over so the yolk forms a bit of a paste (as opposed to being really runny) and they dip the soldiers into it. There is never a crumb left in sight!
Cheesy mashed potato and sausages with beans
I tend to batch cook mashed potato and freeze it into smaller portions, when it’s one of those days – there’s nothing better than cheesy mash, sausages and beans for dinner….and if I’m feeling really lazy, then I’m not ashamed to admit the frankfurters come out!
To keep them going through the day, there are always snacks on board!
Our favourite snacks are:
- Ella’s Kitchen Melty Sticks
- Rice Cakes
- Rich Tea Biscuits
- Chocolate brioche (the Aldi ones are fab as they’re individually wrapped)
- Kiddilicious Wafers
- Bananas
- Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Avocado slices
- Sweetcorn niblets
- Pom Bear
And my top tips?
Buy coveralls and a huge mat to cover the floor!
Now that Arlo is older he is definitely more independent and there’s no way we can even attempt to feed him. He eats with a fork and spoon, barely making a mess and there’s not a lot of food that he won’t eat. I do think a lot of that is to do with him feeding himself a variety of tastes and textures at such a young age.
I did a food diary when Arlo was 11 months which may gave you some further inspiration and if you’re just starting out on your weaning journey then you may want to take a look at some of my essentials!
Hope this post has helped give you some ideas on some quick & easy dinners! Thank you so much to Charlotte for letting me write this post – you can find me on Instagram & Twitter.
