Baby Food Project: Months 7-8

For those of you following the baby food project, I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a long time.  After deciphering a lot of what the book says and trying to create a "menu" plan for Jude's food, I've organized it in a way that I hope is helpful for some of you and cuts out some work for you! 

While I have always tried making healthy and well-balanced meals for Greg and myself, reading about making food for a baby and ensuring that they get the spectrum of vitamins and nutrients that they need for their rapid development, it has really challenged and made me re-think our eating habits.  I am cutting back in many ways (through coupons and meal planning) on my regular grocery budget to allow some room to go to the Common Crow (our local health food store - small, local version of Whole Foods) to buy natural foods and vitamin supplements.  

Jude is 8 months old and I am still introducing a new food every 3 days.  My friend, Lisbeth, suggested buying frozen veggies as you can often get organic frozen veggies for the same price (or cheaper) than fresh non-organic veggies.  This has been super helpful as it has also cut down on my food prep time for Jude because the frozen veggies are already washed and cut.  I just have to throw them in my steamer and puree them.  

Foods that I introduced during months 7 and 8:

Whole Grains:  Millet, Oat, and Brown Rice, wheat germ

Veggies:  summer squash, broccoli, asparagus, okra

Fruits:  apricots, apples, papaya, kiwi, cantaloupe

Protein: tofu, tahini, brewer's yeast, ground flaxseed, ground pumpkin seeds

Dairy:  yogurt

Vit/Mineral enhancers: brewer's yeast, kelp powder (seaweed), flaxseed oil, wheat germ

I hope it's encouraging to say that I didn't know about a lot of these things - didn't even know what kelp powder, flaxseed oil, brewer's yeast, etc etc were.  So don't think that you can't introduce them into your baby's diet if you're not that familiar with them.  I'm learning as I go and I have to look a lot of things up!  But I called my pediatrician to run those things by him first and he gave me the OK.  

The daunting thing for me was to try to figure out how to incorporate these things into meals and how much to give them, what combinations, etc.  So I put together a chart (b/c i'm a little type A over the top) and hopefully it will cut out some time for you. 

He nurses 4x/day and has three solid food meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

Breakfast:  Super Porridge meal (I grind large amounts of the millet, oat, and brown rice grains in my blender and store them in mason jars in my fridge.  I have one big mason jar in which i've mixed all three grains and that's what i use to make his multi-grain cereal from.  I make a batch every 3 days with 1 1/4 c. boiling water and 4 Tbsp of the mixed multi grains and let it cook on low for 10 min on the stove top.  I separate it into 3 food cups and store in the fridge.   Every morning, we grab one of the cups of cooked cereal and add the other things to it. This is what it consists of:

• approx 1/3 c. cooked multi-grain cereal
• 1 Vit C frozen cube
• 1 super green frozen cube
• 1/2 tsp. brewer's yeast
• pinch of kelp powder

Lunch:  Yogurt-based meal.  I use Stonyfield Farm yogurt...it's local, organic, and thinner, less sugar than many yogurts.  I've been getting the YoBaby packs for $1 so I've been buying them lately as they are the perfect amount.  This is what goes in it:

• 4 oz yogurt (plain)
• 1 protein
• 1 Vit C frozen cube
• 1 Vit A frozen cube
• wheat germ (about 1-2 tsp.)

Dinner:  smaller meal since I nurse him about an hour after dinner before he goes to bed.  This meal is:

• 2 other fruits/vegetables
• enhancer

These lists are posted on the wall, along with lists of what foods count in which food group category and we just kind of rotate through them.  Here are pictures of what that chart looks like if it helps you.

Jude is a big eater....and he eats everything I give him.  But don't be discouraged if your baby doesn't eat this much or is picky about things!  I also don't have much room in my freezer for anything but Jude's food (and ice cream, of course) because of the way I do it.  I use Tuesdays as my day to make his food - any food i've run out of and new foods I'm introducing that week. And I make big batches and freeze them.

I'd love to learn from you guys too!  What are some time-saving tricks you've learned, different foods you've introduced, ways of planning balanced meals, etc. etc.  Post if you can so we can all learn from each other!  I have so much to learn and would love to know the different ways and things you guys have found to work!