For the love of food...

Produce Delivery Bin

 George W Bush once said, "I know how hard it is to put food on your family" Truer words have never been spoken. Unless they are very tiny and you can hold them down long enough to apply the food, putting food on your family is very difficult. Even more difficult is putting food IN your family. That is not entirely true, getting the food in is easy, getting the food period can be the hard part. I already mentioned in an earlier post about our monthly family menu and how much that has changed our eating habits. The difficult part for us has always been just figuring out what the heck we were going to eat. Jesse had a hard time understanding how long certain things would take to make and when I would ask him what he wanted his answer usually was "enchiladas" or "roasted chicken". At this point it was always 7 or 8 at night and we were already famished. Not exactly quick and easy meals. Then I would get Hangry (anger caused by hunger) and snap at him for picking stupid food. And eventually we would just go out. Well, not only was this pattern not healthy for our relationship but it was hell on our health in general. Here in Bellingham we have the luxury of having a lot of quick and healthy take out options. But nothing really beats a home cooked meal. All the more reason why this monthly menu was so helpful.

I'm not going to lie, as amazing as this menu is we totally stopped following it about a month ago. So why? Why do I keep going on about how amazing it is? Why did I just waste an entire blog paragraph babbling about it? Because it's structure and it's presence help us organize our meal thoughts. If we can't think of something, or we're just too tired to be creative, we can look up at the menu and say "hey! it says here that it's BLT and salad night!" done. Another reason we ended up not following it exactly is that we started getting organic produce deliveries every other week. This alone has dictated so much of what we eat, in a similar way as the menu has. By limiting our options we actually opened up our options. It's a lot easier to look at the week ahead with a suggested menu in one hand and a fridge full of produce and make decisions. We haven't had take out in over two weeks, and the last couple times we ate out were breakfasts because they are fun and they have pancakes. Plus, breakfast is always loud! Families just pouring all over the place, we fit right in! Pancakes on the floor! Blueberries in our hair! Just like everyone else! It is a really good way to make sure Bean gets out and gets comfortable with restaurants without disturbing other diners date nights.

Lyla's relationship with food is very important to us. Be it getting comfortable with restaurants and understanding how they work, to knowing that meal times mean the family sits down together and eats together, to knowing what whole foods taste like, and that there is a world of flavors and it's all hers if she wants it! And most importantly that food is energy AND it's fun and my hope above all hopes is that she has a POSITIVE relationship with eating and food. A very different experience than I have had in my past. For as much as I love food my relationship with it has been very dysfunctional. A lot of weight issues, a lot of guilt attached to food. Blech. Some really horrible feelings that I hope my daughter doesn't have to encounter.

For me, with all of my anxiety and control issues, food was something I felt I could control, for good or for bad. In my early twenties this manifested as eating disorders, in my adulthood it's manifested as a love for cooking. Thank god for cooking. It may have saved my life. Nothing feels better than spending a few hours in the kitchen, all of the stresses slip away and I feel a sense of power and of calm. It is especially rewarding when I get to feed my family. So when it came time for Lyla to start eating solids I couldn't wait to get in there and start cooking. I have such little control over anything anymore, a big lesson for me to learn, and one I am welcoming with open arms. I can plan and plan and plan and in one second all of that will have to change. It's freeing, but it can also still be difficult at times. So once again I take solace in the one thing that I can take charge of and that is food.

Snack time!

For Lyla her food story has only just begun. The most we can do now is give her as wholesome food as possible, and try to introduce as many interesting flavors as well.  There is A LOT of information out there regarding what and how and when and wha wha wha to feed the baby. It can be overwhelming, contradictory, and incredibly stressful. But what we figured is that while we are in charge of what goes into her body, if we can just give her the cleanest and best and most flavorful and most nutritional stuff that we can, then maybe when it's her time to pick and choose what she eats she'll make the right decisions, and maybe even enjoy all the wonderful things a life filled with good food can bring...sigh...that is the hope anyways.

Mint Carrots, frozen for later

Just this last week we decided to introduce some meat into her diet. She is mostly sustained on breastmilk with a couple of other meals thrown in. We try to do a fruit and grain in the morning and a protein and veggie in the evening. We also try to have her eat when we do, family meal. I have made some easy foods that we keep in the freezer. This way we always have something fast and baby friendly, but still healthy and interesting. No processed anything. She loves her kale pesto whole wheat pasta (so easy to make a big batch of pasta and sauce and then freeze in individual servings for later!), and her mint carrots. We also keep organic frozen broccoli, peas, edamame, and corn, on hand. They heat up fast and provide a really good finger food. We toss them with different herbs and spices, or throw some tofu in the mix and do a little stirfry for her. Since I am gluten free she also will snack on some of my gf toast in the morning with her plums, blueberries, or whatever fruit came in the produce bin that week!

Turkey Party Patties

Kale Pesto Pasta

She's growing up so fast and already is showing us that she'd like to eat more and more solids on her own. This is why we decided to go ahead and throw in some meat. I went and got some ground antibiotic free etc etc turkey and beef. What I wanted was to make some sort of patty that could serve as kind of an all in one meal. So I decided to add some of that baby cereal, the Earths Best Whole Grain cereal, and I pureed broccoli, chard, kale, onion, carrots, and garlic in the food processor and added that too (I strained some of the liquid out). So I made two batches, one of turkey and one of beef.  I formed them into little patties and baked them until they were well done. I threw the cooked patties into a freezer bag (separated by a piece of parchment paper). I prefer to thaw them in the fridge, but the microwave works wonders. She devours them and it's pretty cool that they are filled with all sorts of good stuff for her.


Oh, and don't worry guys. It won't be ALL tofu and kale for this babe. Look at her parents. I mean for reals, her dad has been known to devour an entire sleeve of Oreos in one sitting. And I haven't met a pizza I didn't fall in love with. We're just tricking her now into loving all the good stuff, we'll let her grandparents show her the goooood stuff.

Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. -Robert Redford

 If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart. -Cesar Chavez