The
Good
Along
the way on our food adventures, there have been a lot of fun and many funny
times to account for “The Good.” Especially after I revised my outlook the
other night. (See: The Bad-Revisited.) What has made this adventure fun is: creating recipes for
her to eat, the ways in which she reacts to eating, and watching her get
excited about food. It is also especially gratifying to see her like something
now that she didn’t like before. Steamed carrots were not a huge hit the first
time she had them a month or two ago. Last week, she ate them up.
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| Carrots (and fingers) are yummy! |
Even
though I mentioned it in “The Bad”, the act of preparing her food falls much
more heavily into “The Good” category. I really enjoy cooking. Usually, I find
it relaxing. And especially now that I’m not spending a lot of time doing work
to prepare for teaching, (I took the year off from teaching elementary school)
I feel like I have time to explore recipes and learn more about food. I’m
nurturing my own inner foodie and chef.
So, to me, it’s fun to see what fruits and vegetables are organic at the
grocery store or in the organic or “What’s Good” category from Fresh
Direct. (I can have fresh groceries delivered to me? I will definitely take advantage of
that!)
And, I need to say that in an ideal world, we would live somewhere warm
and tropical where a variety of organic fruits and vegetables would be
available year -round from local sources. But, I live in New York City so
that’s not my reality. I’ve decided that I’m going to give Eliana organic and
local fruits and vegetables as much as possible. When that doesn’t work, I can
use frozen organic produce from Wild
Harvest or Cascadian Farm. And
when all else fails, if at least the majority of the produce I feed her is
organic, some non-organic produce shouldn’t ruin my day.
Anyway,
after I shop, I have to figure out what to do with all the food. What
interesting recipes do I already know or are available online and in my
cookbooks? It’s an exciting challenge. Since I’m going the route of making
Eliana’s food, and at this point, just mashing up whatever we are eating, I’m
totally stepping up my cooking game (ask Matt, I’m pretty sure he agrees). I
want her to have a variety of tastes, textures and flavors. So, variety I try
to supply. I can now add red pepper flakes, cumin, cayenne pepper, hot sauce,
and Chinese 5-spice blend to the list of flavors she recently tried.
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| Broccolette mixture |
When
Eliana first gets the food in her mouth, she makes this funny, confused face
for a moment. She squints her eyes, draws her eyebrows together and purses her
lips. It’s like she is saying, “Huh. Well, now what do I do?” Then, if she
likes the food, she leans forward, begins flapping her arms and makes either
an, “OOOH!” or a ”MMMM!” sound. It’s so cute. Or, when she ate hummus for the
first time, it was so sticky that she had a hard time eating it. I know she
liked it because she made those “yummy” sounds and kept lunging at the spoon.
But then she would close her eyes and try to open her mouth, too. Imagine a dog
with peanut butter in its mouth. I probably could have added more oil or lemon
juice. Oops!
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| How do I eat this thing? |
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| Like this? |
And
now that she “feeds” herself? It’s a full-body experience. I guess on the plus
side, I don’t have so much food to freeze because I offer her more food at each
meal. I need to account for almost half of the food ending up on the floor, on
various parts of her chair, in her hair, all over her hands, face and bib, and,
all over my hands and sometimes hair and clothes. Maybe I need a bib, too. Or a
smock.
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| I found that banana "sticks" were easiest for her to grab. |
The
Messy
I’m
working on getting better about this one. Really, I am. You all will be so
proud
of me. AND, I’ve got some photos to prove it. I’ve learned that eating becomes a
whole lot less fun for Eliana when I constantly wipe her face. So, I try to
only do it once or twice during her meal, rather than after every bite. I try
very hard not to wipe her hands too, because there is no point. She eats with
her hands so they are full of food the whole time. (Eliana will NOT let me
offer her a spoon. She swipes the food right off it.) I’m not completely
reformed, though. I can’t help but grab at least some of the huge mounds of
mashed food that land on her chest or hang out on her cheek. I will admit, I
still get a little anxious as I look at her hands all covered in whatever she
is eating. But I love that she is enjoying eating and I know that touching the
food is part of her experience so I take a lot of deep, calming breaths. (Give
me a little credit, here. I’m working on my issues!)
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| Eating and finger painting. |
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| Do you see the tilapia hanging off her cheek? |
More messy photos to come!
love the idea of banana sticks! Will most definitely use that one!
ReplyDeleteOh great! Let me know how it goes. And, if you come up with any tips of your own, please share.
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