Breastfeeding? Check. Formula? Check. Stage 1, 2 and 3 foods? Check. And now what?
Hi, my name is Rocío (pronounced "ro-THEE-o"), and I'm a busy mom like yourself who wants to make sure her child gets the right nutrition. My then mainly toothless 8 month old daughter wanted pieces of meat or fish, pasta and selected steamed vegetables she could feed herself with. Alright, no problem! Until she went on strike... and I freaked. I remember specifically going to my weekly mother's group meeting with a notepad in hand, ready to ask my fellow mothers of slightly older babies what kinds of food I could give my baby. So that's when I found out about all kids being different, and how hard it seems to be to feed a toddler properly?!?!
I went home quite disheartened, but I've always loved to cook, so I was waiting for some sort of culinary epiphany to hit me. And it did! Wait, she likes pasta, so how about Cous Cous? So I tried making her some with lentils, and she liked it. Then I did it again, but cooked the Cous Cous with Chicken Broth instead of water, and she LOVED it. I added leftover meats, and she liked it. I sneaked in some other veggies, and she liked it! And then I tried a Paella inspired dish with veggies she usually wouldn't eat individually, and she liked it! Next thing you know, I came up with Quinoa dishes as well, and I was able to let go of nutritional worries.
One day I was sitting in my kitchen bagging up portions of a whole month's worth of food I had just finished, when I remembered one of my mommy friends down the street who was very worried about what to feed her toddler son Theo. He was a picky eater and she was having trouble coming up with stuff he would like. So I called her up and offered her portions of what I had just made, to see if he liked it? She came by, went home, and an hour later I got a call that the Paella dish was a hit. "Cío-Rice" he called it. The next day he tried the Beef Quinoa with Veggies and I got the funniest e-mail from his mom describing the feeding experience; how he refused at first, but she forced him to have a spoonful and next thing you know his face lights up, he says "yum" and can't finish the dish fast enough!! About two weeks later another mommy friend was running errands in my neighborhood and dropped by just as I was feeding my daughter some Veggie Cous Cous for lunch. Her daughter was hungry, too, so I offered her a portion of the Cous Cous, and yes, another hit! Word got around and several mommy friends tried out the recipes with their toddlers. The general vote is "yum, yum, more!". The best part (aside from happy moms and toddlers) is that my pediatrician loves these dishes, and my daughter hasn't had a single cold or infection because she's getting everything her immune system needs. In my pediatrician's words, "she's the picture of health".
I grew up in Spain on the Mediterranean diet. We've always cooked everything from scratch, and in Spanish cooking it is less about spices and more about combining ingredients that blend into wonderful flavors through the cooking process. This is the trick I use when creating dishes for my little girl. She won't eat carrots all by themselves, but blend them into a dish with green beans, fish, rice & saffron and she'll keep opening her mouth for more. I am by no means an expert in diet and nutrition, but I've always been a healthy eater and have always enjoyed cooking, having been taught by both my grandmothers and my mother. My husband is also a cooking aficionado, and meals at our home are always an event. We take our time to enjoy the cooking process as well as the time spent at the table. I use common sense to create meals that include carbohydrates, protein and vegetables. And hey, my husband thinks these "toddler" meals are yummy, too! So feel free to increase portion sizes and make it a whole-family meal. Enjoy and stay tuned for more recipes!