Combined weaning

I have had the title of this post in my draft folder since November, but inspired by something I overheard today, decided to finish it. We decided to begin weaning the Mini Grumpy Egyptian when she was five and a half months old as she was showing an interest in food and seemed hungry. It was quite hard working out whether she was interested in food or interested in food in that it was new and she found it interesting rather than wanting to eat it. Her first meal was some puréed sweet potato and boy did she inhale it!

This lovely image is taken from the My Little Lunchbox Blog with thanks. It isn't mine!

We chose to go for a mixture of baby led and traditional weaning so would feed with a spoon, but offer soft foods for her to try and eat by herself. We did this because it was the way the Grumpy Egyptian and I were both weaned and we don't have any trouble eating, just the opposite in fact! I know some mum's think that spoon feeding is the same as force feeding, but I've never spooned food into the Mini Grumpy Egyptian's mouth if she's crying or forced her to eat something she doesn't want. By choosing a selection of age/teeth appropriate finger foods at each meal as well as something warm for dinner or a yoghurt at breakfast, she is trying a whole host of flavours.

We started off with two small meals a day - breakfast and dinner - with breastfeeding as needed and her top up bottle of formula mid-afternoon. We tried some pouches, which she was keen on to start, but very soon got bored of singular/plain flavours and would spit it out. We moved into more advanced flavours and I found curry paste pots for children (found in the baby food aisle) were fantastic. I could remove some of the meat and vegetables that I was making our curry with and in a separate pan mix it with the curry paste, some tomatoes and yoghurt and we have enough to freeze for five meals. I also used pouches to make a quick meal with pasta if we were eating something that was inappropriate (too spicy, etc) for her to have.

Around six and a half months in and we introduced a small lunch as well before increasing portion sizes. I was worried that the mini one would overeat, but we found that she quickly found what was a comfortable amount for her to eat and would refuse anymore when full. Five months on and we are yet to find anything this little girl won't eat! She appears to have her mother's sweet tooth but will happily tuck into trees (broccoli), watermelon, pepper slices and is rather partial to a little cauliflower cheese. I give her lots of finger foods at every meal, but am still spoon feeding her yoghurt/wet foods because I'm not sure she's ready to spoon feed herself. When cooking I add no salt to our food and use the Heinz stock cubes that I get from the baby food aisle so if it's suitable for the mini one then she can have some of what we're eating. She likes Moroccan meatball Tagine, tomato pasta, homemade sweet and normal potato wedges as well as gnawing on a bit of steak when it's around.

She doesn't eat pork for religious reasons, but that hasn't seemed a problem so far. When out and about she likes egg and cress or peanut butter sandwiches. Cheese always makes an appearance at lunchtime and I have a container of rice crackers, breadsticks and mini kids flapjacks that never leave the nappy changing bag.

I do worry she doesn't get enough variety, but reading above makes me realise perhaps she does! A frantic Google search one day led me to Kayla and her gorgeous blog My Lovely Little Lunchbox (I'm so jealous, I won't lie) where she writes about the delicious food she makes her little one so I've managed to get some great tips from there. When did you start giving your little ones their own spoon/cutlery? It is her birthday next month so I am pinning away on Pinterest for a couple of cheap but cheerful birthday food ideas.

The Egyptian Mummy

I love cake...

 

What more do you really need to know about someone? Coffee, lemon, chocolate, Victoria, cream, boozy, beetroot... If they make a cake out of it I'm likely to love it. Since I had the Mini Grumpy Egyptian I have been really awful when it comes to cooking and actually having the time to bake never seems to crop up. A recent look on a couple of my favourite blogs made me aware about Credit Crunch Munch where the point is to post a recipe for something that saves money by using up things you already have.

I got a thinking and one vegetable I have always liked but REALLY got into while pregnant was the sweet potato so there are always some lying around the kitchen. I also like cream cheese icing on a red velvet, but it can be quite expensive to make so I tried the Sainsbury's Basic Cream Cheese and couldn't taste the difference. The end result is a moist and orange-tinged cupcake with tangy icing that gives you a deliciously not over sweet treat that has to be good for you... Well it has vegetables in it!

Sweet potato cupcakes with spiced cream cheese icing

Ingredients
200g butter
200g light brown sugar
3 eggs
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 medium sized sweet potatoes (peeled and grated)
Pinch of salt
Handful of chopped nuts (optional)

Icing
200g soft cream cheese
50g butter
Half tsp mixed spice (use cinnamon if you only have that)
Half tsp ginger powder
100g-150g icing sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
Half tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and place cupcake cases in a tin. Allow the butter for the cake to come up to room temperature and beat it in a large mixing bowl with the brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the mix and fold gently. Now add the grated sweet potato and nuts into the bowl and fold everything together. Spoon heaped tablespoons of the batter into the cake cases and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cakes are golden on top and cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack while you make the icing. In a clean bowl beat the cream cheese, vanilla extract, mixed spice, ginger and icing sugar together. Now add the softened butter and using an electric whisk, beat the mixture until it is smooth (no buttery lumps!) and thick. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes before spooning or piping onto the cooled cakes. Keep in the fridge once iced and eat within two days (as if cake ever lasts that long).

Notes
Some chopped stem ginger would be gorgeous in the cake batter but we didn't have any in the house. You could also put a little mixed spice in the batter, but I prefer keeping the cake flavour quite simple.

If you want to get involved with Credit Crunch Munch, pop over to Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours for all the details.