I don’t have any food pictures to show you, sadly, but I’m going to try to do a better job of that in the future. For now, I just want to document the first week’s menu. The first week being my first week back at work full time, and Catherine’s first week of school. Since Catherine’s school requires us to bring lunch, and I require me to pack her lunch because I am obsessive, and there’s also dinner to think about for all three of us…and I’m working full time…if I didn’t plan ahead it would be a disaster. It turns out planning ahead makes it doable. I’m convinced the hardest time to pack lunch for a child is between 6 months and a year, when they don’t really need solid food that much and can’t really eat it anyway, but I somehow let myself be convinced by Gerber that they need peas and such…yet I don’t trust Gerber so I must mash them myself. And I feel like a bad mom if my child shows up to the nanny’s with nothing but peas anyway, so I feel obligated to add some variety in the form of pureed beets or steamed veggies sliced paper thin (to prevent choking) that will end up, every single one, scattered on the floor. Things are much better now, because Catherine can eat pretty much everything we do. I spent minimal time prepping ahead last weekend, and was able to provide a tasty, healthy, varied menu this week – and I’m feeling pretty proud. Almost like supermom, actually. Next week could be different, depending on the circumstances and my mood. But this week we got lucky. So here it is: the first week’s (last week’s) menu!
MONDAY
Breakfast: multigrain porridge with apples (this is the homemade hot cereal I’ve mentioned), fresh watermelon
Lunch: chicken and veggie quesadilla, yucca fries (discovered yucca in Costa Rica this summer and haven’t looked back)
Snack: green smoothie, crackers (seriously – half a banana, sprinkle of berries, drizzle of water, and a huge bunch of dandelion greens or kale…she LOVES it! Health nut, much? Yeah, I know, but why wouldn’t you teach them good habits early on?)
Dinner: black eyed peas, brown rice, squash and zucchini saute
TUESDAY
Breakfast: multigrain porridge with apples, fresh cherries
Lunch: black eyed peas and rice, squash and zucchini (and now you see the pattern beginning…Catherine eats a version of last night’s dinner every day for lunch. Hey – I’m a working mom now, gotta cut corners somehow)
Snack: yogurt and frozen peach puree
Dinner: quinoa broccoli cakes (HUGE hit – I use this recipe and add vegetables to mine to get more veggies in C)
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: multigrain porridge with apples, fresh watermelon
Lunch: quinoa broccoli cakes, chickpeas
Snack: green smoothie, crackers, yogurt with peaches
Dinner: Pot roast with carrots, fennel, and mashed potatoes (tip: cook in crock pot with veggies minus potatoes…but reserve some veggies to quickly oven-roast before serving. They have a little more “life” in them that way. And you can puree the crockpot veggies with the juices in the blender to make an incredible gravy for the potatoes…all in minutes, thanks to the slow cooker)
THURSDAY
Breakfast: multigrain porridge with apples, fresh raspberries
Lunch: (heh…what else but last night’s dinner?) Pot roast with carrots, fennel, mashed potatoes, peas (added the frozen peas to give it a little something extra)
Snack: green smoothie and crackers, yogurt and peaches
Dinner: smorgasbord of leftovers from the week
FRIDAY
Breakfast: apple cereal, fresh blueberries
Lunch: Sunflower seed butter and honey sandwich cut into impossibly adorable tiny triangles, steamed green beans (no nuts allowed, so we used sunflower seed butter instead of peanut or almond butter)
Snack: smoothie with crackers, yogurt and peaches
Dinner: Dinner out with Dada at La Fonda! Fish tacos, black beans and rice, avocado, and margaritas for Chris and Helen. Afterwards we walked over to the Flying Biscuit bakery for their yummy cookies. Catherine’s first taste of a cookie if I remember correctly. It was one of those evenings that was just so much fun. Spending time together all three of us, laughing, eating really yummy food… :-))) Catherine loved the cookie, naturally. It was oatmeal raisin.
Looking back over this menu I can see that there are some foods she eats every day but overall I think she’s getting a nice variety and I’m having so much fun cooking for her and watching her enjoy eating it.
Coming up…I actually am doing a better job this week of taking photos, and I’ve got the week’s menu planned and already prepped. It was easy and I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this planning in advance stuff all along. For anyone reading who doesn’t know I used to keep a food blog, you may wonder why all the sudden food talk. I guess Catherine has sort of re-inspired me in the kitchen. It’s fun cooking for a miniature person and watching her try so many things for the first time. Here’s our little munchkin below gobbling up her first muffin – a mini one just her size.
This is a great way to preserve summer. You just can’t get a fresh, delicious-tasting peach any other time of year. And around here we love plain yogurt with a swirl of fresh (frozen) peach puree!
Why I Consume Art 