Easy Lunch Ideas for Kids (Nut-Free)

For reference, Luca will be 4 years old on September 25th! These are the easiest kids lunches we’ve found to make so far. To get started, here are the products we use when packing his bento box lunch:

• Bentgo Lunchbox – 5-Compartment Lunch Box – Ideal Portion Sizes for Ages 3 to 7.
• Pack It! freezable lunch bag – you freeze this whole lunch bag – it comes with liners that are built-in freezer packs! I place the Bentgo lunch box in this bag.
• Silicone muffin liners – to keep some of the foods easier to take out of the lunch box compartments – like raisins or nuts, for example!

I like to pack a school lunch in 5-10 minutes, never longer than that. I usually divide this into compartments – Main and Sides – because I find that helps me mentally compartmentalize as well. Here are some ideas on how to pack the lunch box:

“Main” –  I always try to choose a protein first and then I build the whole lunch around it

• Ham and cheese (in a tortilla or on bread)
• Turkey and cheese roll-up (in a tortilla or on bread)
• Quesadilla (cheese, black bean, chicken, or ground meat)
• Cream cheese & jelly sandwich
• Sunbutter & jelly (Wowbutter doesn’t have the best ingredients, but it’s the closest in flavor to regular nut butter)
• English muffin pizza
• Tortellini or other pasta salad
• Hot dog cut up or in a bun, sliced into manageable sections
• Blender muffins or muffins of any kind
• Veggie tots (from Inspiralized & Beyond)
• Leftover pizza!

“Sides” – I try to add some vitamins and some more nutrients so the lunch box has more colors:

• Roasted veggies – broccoli, string beans, sweet potatoes, peas/carrots
• Raw veggies – carrots, celery, cucumbers, sliced tomatoes
• Fruits – apple slices, berries, grapes, stone fruits, banana
• Cheese sticks
• Yogurt tubes
• Crackers and cheese slices
• Annie’s chocolate graham bunnies
• Meat sticks/jerky
• Hard boiled eggs
• Granola bars or other nut-free bars
• Pretzels
• Sweet potato fries or potato fries/wedges
• Cereal/O’s

These school lunches are quick, easy to make, and full of nutrients. They would work great for school, kindergarten, or camp. Remember, the key to a successful school lunch is variety and keeping it fun. Get your kids involved in the lunch-making process by letting them choose their favorite ingredients. It’s a great way to encourage them to try new foods and make lunchtime an exciting part of their school day!

I’d love to hear some of your easy kids lunch ideas! Drop a note below. Thank you in advance!

The post Easy Nut-Free Kids Lunch Ideas for Camp or School appeared first on Inspiralized.

It’s important to expose your child to these whole form vegetables, so that they can understand their true flavor, their texture, and visually recognize them. The idea is that after 30+ exposures, one day, they’ll pick up that familiar vegetable and say, “Okay, let’s see what this is all about.” Recently, that’s worked for me with salmon. He’s probably been served salmon 20 times and he hasn’t eaten it since he was 10 or 11 months old. The other night, he decided to have a forkful and then ate half of a 4oz piece of salmon! While it was hard those other 20 times to watch him ignore the salmon on his plate, it was all worth it when he ate it!

So yes, it’s important to serve vegetables (and other foods) whole, but this blog post is what to do in the interim, while your toddler is being picky and you still want them to eat vegetables!

My Favorite Ways To Add More Vegetables Into Toddler Meals

1. Make this broccoli grilled cheese (you can use peas too!)
2. Make a cheese quesadilla with chopped up vegetables (Luca likes spinach or finely chopped peppers)
3. Make my blender muffins!
4. Make a pasta dish or something with veggie-packed marinara sauce.
5. Grate zucchini into oatmeal and stir well.
6. Add vegetables to baked goods, like these sweet potato loaves.
7. Use vegetables in place of lasagna noodles like with this enchilada bake.
8. Make these English muffin pizzas with broccoli or peas.
9. Add very finely chopped vegetables into burgers (turkey burger example here) or meatballs.
10. Make any pizza with lots of veggie toppings, just put them underneath the cheese!
11. This turkey, veggie and brown rice bake – the vegetables are in the rice and mixed with meat.
12. Smoothies with spinach or kale!
13. The Any Veggie Tots from Inspiralized and Beyond (I love using carrot, because it’s a hard vegetable for me to get Luca to eat!)
14. Cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe’s (hey, there’s cauliflower in there and it tastes like pasta!)
15. Finely grated carrot into applesauce (bonus points: hemp seeds too for protein!)
16. Spiralize vegetables and sub them for spaghetti!

Your Favorite Ways To Add More Veggies Into Your Toddlers’ Meals

Over on Instagram, I asked you what your tricks were for squeezing more vegetables into your kids’ diets and here are some the great ideas you shared:

1. Scrambled eggs with vegetables.
2. Shredded carrots and zucchini into marinara sauce with pasta.
3. Shred vegetables into cookies.
4. Mac and cheese sauce blended in with pumpkin/butternut squash/sweet potato.
5. Cauliflower rice in regular rice.
6. Spinach in waffles.
7. Zucchini and potato hash browns.
8. Freeze cubes of zucchini and add to smoothies.

What are some ways you squeeze more veggies into your child’s diet?

The post Creative Ways To Add More Vegetables Into Your Toddlers’ Meals appeared first on Inspiralized.

Baby Led Weaning Basics and Cooking Tips

In just two short months, I will be beginning the journey of solid food introduction with Roma, my 4 month old baby girl. Since I did baby led weaning (BLW) with Luca, my 2 year old son, I will be doing the same with Roma. I couldn’t be more excited – not only to see how Roma reacts to those first nibbles, but to experience BLW now that I’ve been through it once before and have more tools in my toolkit.

In the spirit of the back-to-school season, I’m sharing my top tips for baby led weaning, my favorite meals, and, in partnership with Simply Organic, I’ll be sharing my favorite ways to infuse approachable flavors into foods to please both adults’ and babies’ palates while neither overwhelming baby or underwhelming the adults.

Baby Led Weaning Basics

But first, let’s talk about baby led weaning basics. What is it? Baby led weaning (BLW) is a way to introduce foods by skipping purees and instead, offering solid foods that are cut and cooked appropriately for baby. Most importantly, BLW encourages self feeding, so you’ll never put food into the baby’s mouth, the baby will choose what he/she wants to eat and how much of it. There is NO spoon feeding in baby led weaning. You simply present the food in developmentally appropriate ways for baby to self feed. For example, you’d give oatmeal on a preloaded spoon or a kidney bean on a preloaded fork. You’d cut pancakes into long strips so that baby could grasp with their whole hand.

BLW was single-handedly the best parenting decision I’ve made to date, because it not only has made our solid feeding journey more fun, it’s made it less stressful. The other foundational idea is this: what Mom or Dad eats, baby eats. Thus, no short order cooking at dinnertimes (which can be time-consuming and stressful!) Again, meals will have to be presented differently to babies, in order for them to developmentally self-feed. That may mean that you’re having enchiladas for dinner, so you’ll have to separate the enchilada stuffing from the tortilla and serve the guacamole topping on a preloaded spoon. It may take an extra 30 seconds of preparation at dinnertime, but that’s better than preparing an entirely separate meal. No baby cereals or hours of bulk-pureeing vegetables.

There is so much more to learn and understand about Baby Led Weaning (especially proper safety precautions and food preparations), and I highly suggest taking the Feeding Littles online course for Infants and reading more about the philosophy behind this feeding method in the book Born to Eat. Other than that, make dinner and enjoy it alongside your baby, starting at 6 months of age!

Why baby led weaning (for me)

The way you choose to feed your baby is exactly that: YOUR way. Whatever works best for you and your family, is best for your baby. Simple as that.

As for me, here are some of the reasons why I went with BLW:

• Research shows BLW-eaters end up having better table manners – they sit and eat with you, instead of you having to feed them separately and then expect them to wait for you to finish eating.
• Research shows that BLW-eaters are less picky eaters. Now, while Luca loves his grilled cheeses like any other toddler, he also enjoys seasonal squashes like kabocha, veggie-packed muffins, and curry.
• BLW helps develop baby’s motor skills early on.
• BLW is easier for the family – you don’t have to prepare anything “special” (like a puree) for baby – I love to cook, so this was a huge deciding factor for me!
• BLW is restaurant friendly – you can simply offer the baby the food you’re having and they can eat alongside you, instead of having to bring pre-made baby food everywhere you go.
• BLW lets the baby practice intuitive eating – they eat until they’re full (like with breastfeeding – they’ll never overeat.) With spoon feeding, you may want to get that “last spoonful” in or finish a jar of puree, when in reality, your baby is full, they just can’t tell you. Studies even show due to this intuitive eating, babies who are BLW-ed are less likely to be obese!

What really put me over the edge, was the research showing that baby led weaning starts building a healthy relationship between the baby and food at an early age. Instead of “having” to eat a certain food, baby gets to choose what baby likes and eat until they’re full. There’s no games (like a spoon airplane-ing into your mouth) to get you to eat, it’s this: here’s the food, eat what you’d like until you’re full. I LOVED that principle, and it was what finally brought me to the decision to start baby led weaning with Luca and now, continue with my next child, Roma!

Favorite Foods and Flavors

After having been through baby led weaning with Luca, I have a yummy list of his favorite foods and tips for infusing flavor into meals without having to use fancy or expensive ingredients. When I started BLW with Luca, I simply started with 1-2 meals a day and gave him a new food to try. For Luca’s first week of baby led weaning and the foods we started off with, you can read this post.

Spices

First off, there are certain spices the basic cook should always have in their pantry, for making basic meals tasty. I love using Simply Organic spices, because they’re packaged minimally for easy identification in my spice drawer and I know their herbs are organic and of premium quality, which always makes me feel better as a mother. I know the Simply Organic brand commits to producing their spices in the best possible way, sustainably and ethically speaking. If you can, spending a little extra on basic pantry items like spices can go a long way. For instance, Simply Organic commits to helping the food insecure through their Simply Organic Giving Fund (which you can read more about here.) Thus, by supporting these brands that have strong values, you’re inherently making a better decision for your family and the world you live in. Here are my go-tos:

• Garlic powder: I use this all the time, but especially when roasting vegetables with olive oil and some salt and pepper. My favorite vegetables to prepare for my family with this seasoning are Brussels Sprouts (with some balsamic vinegar), green beans, white potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, and squash.
• Oregano: I use this when making fresh batches of veggie-packed marinara sauce, add tablespoonfuls to vegetarian or meat chilis, and use it to season roasted vegetables like zucchini.
• Cinnamon: there’s something nostalgically sweet about cinnamon, and every time I roast a vegetable with it, Luca is more likely to try it – the smell alone is inviting! I roast it with carrots and beets in coconut oil, and also with sweet potatoes in olive oil. For any baked goods, like my go-to Spinach Donuts, I love adding a teaspoon in for that extra cozy flavor.
• Red pepper flakes: I’ve been using this (sparingly at first) with Luca since he was 6 months old and now, he doesn’t shy away from spicy flavors. What’s great about red pepper flakes is that you can add more at the end of a meal for the same great kick of heat, for the adults wanting more spice.
• Curry powder: aside from making curries, curry powder is one of my favorite spices to use when roasting vegetables, especially cauliflower and delicata squash.
• Cumin: this spice goes with everything – sprinkle a little into a cheese quesadilla, use in a curry, and season a vegetable for roasting, it’s very versatile.
• Chili powder: this seasoning is necessary for so many dishes, from enchiladas to chili. It’s an easy way to add a hint of spice.
• Paprika: this is my favorite for when I am making at-home fries from sliced sweet potatoes or just want to add a little flavor to a roasted vegetable without overdoing it.

There are many other Simply Organic spices I have in my spice drawer, but if you are looking for a “starter list,” the ones above are my must-haves.

Go-To Meals & Foods

After he was introduced to all these basic foods, we started giving him parts of our meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner.) He ate everything we ate! Now that he’s a toddler, he’s a bit pickier, but when he was under 12 months of age, he ate everything and these were his favorites:

• Ground meat with quinoa, broccoli and marinara sauce – this is an easy one to make that’s great as a packable lunch for older kids and adults. With this, the seasonings come through when flavoring the ground meat and making the marinara sauce. Cook ground meat (turkey, chicken, or beef) in olive oil, add finely chopped broccoli, peas or other vegetable, stir in cooked quinoa, fold in marinara sauce and stir well until combined.
• Garlic and spinach quesadilla – Luca loves chicken quesadillas on the weekends, so I try to switch things up by making these spinach-packed quesadillas during the week. Wilt spinach and chop it finely. Season lightly with garlic powder. Place a tortilla in a skillet, top with mozzarella cheese, sprinkle on chopped spinach, top with more cheese, and cover with another tortilla. Cook, flip, cook, and enjoy.
• Blender Muffins – these are potentially my most popular recipe on my entire website! They use ground cinnamon, oats, eggs, flaxseed, and a vegetable (beets, spinach, butternut squash, carrot, etc) to form perfectly fluffy and flavorful muffins that are portable.
• Chicken sausage and broccoli pasta – one of our household favorites, this easy pasta dish is packed with flavor, thanks to red pepper flakes, oregano, and garlic powder. You can grab the exact recipe here.
• Cheesy taco pasta – turn tacos into pasta with this dish, making a spice blend from scratch, using cayenne, chili powder, paprika, oregano, onion powder, and garlic powder. What I love about this dish is that you can double the spice blend and have it on hand for other taco-themed dishes. Find the exact recipe here.

I hope you found this post helpful and that it helps you with your baby led weaning journey! Spices and herbs are an integral part of making whole ingredients taste exciting and delicious, and is an easy way to open up your baby’s palate to new flavors like curry, whether it’s a full-blown curry dish or a curry-roasted carrot. No matter what route you choose for your baby’s introduction to solid foods, have fun!

Note: This post was sponsored by Simply Organic, although all opinions are my own, always.

The post Baby Led Weaning Basics and Cooking Tips appeared first on Inspiralized.

What a week of meals looks like for our family

Each Friday, I make a meal plan for Saturday through the following Friday. With this meal plan, I plan out Luca’s meals: two snacks and three main meals. We try to stick to this, in an effort to minimize food waste, ensure a balanced offering of nutrition and food variety, and to keep some sanity!

When you don’t know what your next meal is and don’t have a plan, it can get overwhelming and you end up reaching for convenience foods over and over again and thus, not offering a lot of variety and ultimately spending more money.

Now, we don’t stick to this meal plan 100%. Sometimes, I don’t have time to cook something, so I’ll pull something out of my freezer and reheat it, OR we may go out for a meal that we didn’t intend on going out for and thus, have to switch things around.

Where I build my meal plans

I keep it simple. And since, like I said, I switch things up all the time, I love to have a virtual meal plan that I can swap around, copy and paste, etc. Thus, I use Evernote. I also use Evernote, because this is where my daily to-do list lives, so it’s all in the same place, so while I’m working off of my to-dos, I have our meal plan to reference easily.

Basically, each Friday, I build a new “Note” in my Daily To-Do “Notebook.” In this Note, there is an outline of the meal plan, which looks like this:

I build this for the week. Then, usually on Monday, I’ll drag the old meal plan Note into an archive of Meal Plans (so I can reference back if I’m ever stuck for ideas!) and just have our Monday through Friday to work off of. Then, again, on Friday, I build for the next Saturday through Friday.

A few things to keep in mind

While dinners are always enjoyed together (my husband is not home yet, but I always sit down and have a mini portion of our dinner with Luca), all of the rest of our meals are not the same. On the weekends, we all eat breakfast together, and about 50% of the time, during the week, Luca and I have lunch together.

Sometimes, we have the same lunch, but to be honest, my work days are unpredictable and I can’t always sit down with Luca and I’m often grabbing something outside of the house or defaulting to the same type of sandwich or meal, later on in the day (and Luca eats at 12:15pm everyday.) This is something I want to get better at – being present at his lunch times, so we can eat the same things, together. When we are able to be together, I make sure at least one of the things on his plate is the same as on mine. For example, if I know I’m eating something later, I’ll just have some steamed carrots, if that’s what’s also on his plate. I’ll basically have a snack.

As for breakfasts, since I work out in the mornings, I usually just have a PerfectBar or something snack-ish before my workout, and of course, Luca has his own breakfast. I usually sit with him (unless the morning is hectic) and sometimes I’ll take a bite off his plate or give him some of my bar, but breakfast is such a slam dunk meal for him (he eats SO much), that I don’t worry too much about us eating the same thing or me eating with him.

So to clarify: this meal plan is what Luca is offered each day, and we (Mom and Dad) also eat the same dinner as him. On the weekends, we eat more similarly, but on the weekdays, because of work, we eat separately from Luca for breakfast and lunch.

On the weekends, our schedules are a bit unpredictable, and I find us eating out a lot or using up what’s in the freezer (convenience foods like Spinach Littles and leftovers.) I tend to plan those days more loosely, because I’ve found that when I plan to cook and buy groceries accordingly, there’s a lot more waste.

Reoccuring dinners on my meal plan

There are a few dinners that I like to make each week for our family, because I know they’re hits with Luca and we love them. These include:

• Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Pasta (recipe coming soon!)
• Turkey Bolognese with Zoodles (I also do this with spiralized sweet potatoes or broccoli and couscous to switch it up)
• Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Pizza on Simple Mills crust (usually a Friday night tradition!)
• Cauliflower Curry (no butternut squash noodles)
• Roasted Salmon with Green Beans and Sweet Potatoes (Luca usually only eats the sweet potatoes, but it’s a meal we love and can eat together with him, because he’ll at least eat those.)
• Pressure Cooker Salsa Chicken
• Turkey meatballs in Rao’s Tomato Basil sauce with a veggie (broccoli, brussels sprouts, string beans, etc.)
• Burrito bowls (I’ll usually also make a family style serving of cheese quesadillas, because I know Luca loves them and it’s a fun treat for us, since we rarely eat quesadillas!)
• Veggie Raviolis with Rao’s Tomato Basil sauce and a veggie (broccoli, brussels sprouts, string beans, etc.)
• Margherita Broccoli Slabs with roasted potatoes and white beans
• Pork and Green Bean Stirfry with Sweet Potato Fried Rice (we switch up the protein – sometimes it’s chicken or shrimp, for example.)
• Lentil Meatloaf from Inspiralized & Beyond

Sample Weekly Meal Plan

Now, of course, Luca doesn’t eat all of this food at each meal time, but this is what’s offered. And we don’t stick to it 100%. Sometimes, for example, if I have a lot more blog leftovers, I’ll swap one of his lunches for that. Or, if I can’t get my stuff together for a dinner, I’ll pull together something easy from the fridge – or just some Mac and Cheese, with veggies stirred in.

But having this meal plan “set” for the week takes off a LOT of pressure and allows me to grocery shop quickly and not stress out about that aspect of our busy lives. Most importantly, it lets me look at the week ahead and make sure I’m offering him a balanced variety of fruits, veggies, proteins, whole grains, and dairy products. And we can plan leftovers better!

The post What a week of meals looks like for our family appeared first on Inspiralized.

It’s just not possible to spend an hour in the kitchen every time you prepare a meal for your little ones (or yourself, for that matter!) While we’d all love to make a fresh chicken cacciatore for dinner, it’s not going to happen most nights. During the week, we’re all exhausted by the time dinner time comes around, we’ve already assembled a couple meals and a few snacks, and we just want to get something on the table that’s well balanced and edible. Right?

Even though I’m a food blogger by profession, there are so many nights where I open my fridge, stare at all the fresh veggies and meats I bought for the week and just don’t have it in me. So, what do I do in those situations? Using the tips below, I can whip up healthy, nutritious meals in a pinch (usually under 15 minutes!)

Tips for Making Your Family Quick Meals

1. Have a well stocked freezer

Now, this is my #1 tip that has helped me tremendously to cook quick meals for my son (who is now 15 months old.) I utilize the freezer so much that I bought this extra mini freezer to freeze breast milk and my son’s food. It has saved me so much money!

Now there are two ways to stock your freezer: prepped homemade meals and pre-packaged foods you buy from brands.

For the prepped homemade meals, I can’t suggest this enough. Having these prepped homemade meals helps you use the pre-packaged foods as a complement and vice versa. For example, I can combine some freezer foods with other freezer foods and some fresh foods from the refrigerator or just some pantry items. More on the fridge and pantry later, here are some of my favorite premade meals to freeze include:

• Cauliflower biscuits from my Inspiralized & Beyond cookbook
• Chicken, Kale and Lentil Curry from the Inspiralized Littles eCookbook
• Veggie Tots from my Inspiralized & Beyond cookbook
• Meatballs (like these Pork, Apple & Cheddar Meatballs)
• Veggie marinara sauce – my #1 most used freezer food
• Turkey meat sauce
• Chickpea flatbread

For some of my favorite pre-packaged foods that I have in my freezer include:

• Frozen vegetables (I always have peas, corn, a pea/carrot mix, broccoli, green beans, shelled edamame)
• Frozen fruit (this is really just great for making smoothies, like my go-to Family Smoothie in my Inspiralized Littles eCookbook)
• Frozen raviolis (I’m loving The Ravioli Store right now, because their ingredients are mostly real and they taste great, but I also love KiteHill’s vegan raviolis)
• Frozen meats and seafood (right now, I have a bag of frozen wild caught salmon because freshly caught wild salmon is out of season!)
• Frozen waffles (for breakfast, I love Birchbenders!)
• Frozen Veggie Burgers from Hilary’s
• Frozen Millet Medleys from Hilary’s, made with a little chicken broth for extra flavor and to make it nice and creamy and thick (like a porridge), easy on a preloaded spoon
• Frozen Veggie Sausages from Hilary’s – great for eggless breakfast options, served with buttered toast and fruit!
• Frozen Veggie Bites from Hilary’s

I love Hilary’s, because their ingredients are real and wholesome, they come in multiple flavors that can satisfy tastebuds of every family member, AND they work for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When I introduce a pre-packaged frozen product like Hilary’s to Luca, I make sure to serve it alongside whole foods, such as some frozen veggies or freshly roasted veggies. I’m always conscious of the sodium levels I’m giving Luca and we go out a lot on the weekends, so I love having the quick and easy option of Hilary’s to pair with some of the fresh foods I have on hand.

And if you want to try out Hilary’s, here are some key retailers that carry Hilary’s products across the US (they also have a helpful Store Locator on the website where you can enter your zip code to find the closest grocers in your area):

• Whole Foods
• Sprouts Farmers Market
• Kroger
• Wegmans

2. Have a well stocked fridge

Are you seeing a theme here? It seems simple, but honestly, if you have just a few key foods in your fridge, you can throw together meals in 10-15 minutes, especially if you have a well stocked freezer to complement with! Here are some key foods to have you in your fridge:

• Fruits (bananas, cuties, berries – raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, kiwis, grapes etc)
• Cheese – a fresh block of cheddar or a bag of shredded Mexican cheese can turn into many meal options!
• Avocado
• Butter (babies/toddlers need a lot of fat in their diet!)
• Dips (hummus, spreads and dips like black bean, premade guacamole – I love Trader Joe’s brand)
• Basic vegetables that you don’t need to prep and be safely eaten raw, like cucumbers, carrots, broccoli etc.
• Condiments (ketchup, etc)
• Bread
• Eggs
• Spinach (for chopping up finely and stirring into pastas or making my Spinach Donuts)
• Precooked beets (love LoveBeets)
• Yogurt (we use Stonyfield’s Whole Milk plain Greek yogurt)
• Deli meats (Luca actually doesn’t like deli meats, but many kids do and these are so easy to make meals and snacks with!)

Now, we can start building! You can serve a Hilary’s Frozen Veggie Burger with sliced cucumbers and hummus with some cooked frozen carrots or peas! Literally, that meal will take you no longer than 10 minutes.

3. Have a well stocked pantry

Okay, I promise this is the last one of the stocking! My pantry gets a lot of use – don’t think of pantry as ‘processed food storage.’ It isn’t that at all – it’s a place with essentials for building quick and easy meals. Here are some of my favorites:

• Spices (my favorites for cooking with Luca are chili powder, curry seasoning, cumin, oregano, Italian seasoning, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil and parsley)
• Boxed mac and cheese – combined with some frozen peas or chopped up broccoli, you have a veggie packed meal with starch, fat, protein, and veggies!
• Beans (I always have Black Beans, Chickpeas, and Pinto Beans on hand)
• Coconut milk – full fat or lite, depending on your family’s needs, but little ones need the fat! Great for making super easy curries (put some carrots, green beans, and edamame in a skillet with coconut milk and curry seasoning and you have an easy veggie packed curry! Pour over rice and voila!)
• Rice
• Nut butters (sometimes if I’m pressed for time at meal time, I’ll make Luca an almond butter and banana sandwich)
• Cereal (we use Cascadian Farm’s Purely O’s) and snacks – here’s a list of my favorite toddler snacks and honestly, if I only have 5 minutes, sometimes I’ll just give him a bunch of snacks with fruit and a slice of bread with almond butter or hummus!
• Canned tuna – Luca hasn’t been a fan of canned tuna yet, but for those kiddos who are, it’s a convenient protein source.
• Broth – for cooking frozen veggies and adding more nutrients and flavor
• Pastas – I love pastas made from lentils or beans for added nutrients

4. Never throw away food, even if your kid hated it – repurpose it

This is something I learned through trial and error. If I made Luca a food (say, some roasted brussels sprouts) and he didn’t touch them at meal time or tried them and hated them, I would just eat them myself. But that’s a waste of your energy! Instead, now, I save these foods and repurpose them. Here are some examples:

• Roasted bell peppers  chop them up and use them with some black beans as the stuffing for a cheesy quesadilla
• Steamed broccoli  finely chop the broccoli (literally, so small) and stir it into mac and cheese or in marinara sauce with pasta
• Chicken  bake it into egg muffins or a rice casserole
• Grilled cheese sandwich  save it in the fridge and serve it as a snack a day later!

If it’s freezable, I’ll freeze it and give it to Luca a couple weeks later, to see if he’s in the mood for it then. You never know with toddlers!

5. Batch cook some basics once a week

Whichever day of the week is kind of your “start” of the week (usually a Sunday or Monday), try an easy batch cook that day. I’m not saying cook all of your meals for the week, I’m just saying stock your fridge with some essentials to making simple meals when you’re in a pinch.

Here are some of the foods that I’ll batch cook:

• Cook ground meat in oil on the stovetop (but don’t season it a specific way, so you can use it different ways, like in a marinara meat sauce, a rice casserole, or a chili.)
• Roasted vegetables – roast some vegetables, like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, delicata squash
• Quinoa and/or rice
• Steam vegetables – I like to steam some cauliflower because Luca loves it with marinara sauce and it’s great to stir into curries
• My blender donuts/muffins – whether you use these for breakfast or snack time, they’re a guaranteed way to get veggies and protein into your baby’s diet every single day.
• Make sure there’s enough Veggie Marinara in the freezer for the week

Easy toddler meal ideas

Those are my top tips for saving time in the kitchen and still making healthy and well balanced meals for your kids! Now, let’s build some easy meals together using the tips just mentioned:

Hilary’s Veggie Burger + Cubed Avocado + Black Beans

Hilary’s Frozen Herb Millet Medley + Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Hilary’s Apple Maple Veggie Sausage + Toast with Almond Butter (or scrambled eggs!) + Raspberries

And here are some other basic ideas:

• Grilled cheese + Green Beans in Butter (from freezer) + Cucumbers in Hummus or Ranch
• Freezer ravioli + Carrots and Peas (from freezer) + Steamed Cauliflower in Veggie Marinara Sauce (from freezer)
• Quinoa with chopped broccoli (fresh or frozen), marinara sauce (freezer), and ground turkey (I’ll just serve this in an EZPZ Happy Bowl)
• Cheesy Taco Pasta using black beans and spices from the pantry and corn from the freezer
• Carrot Veggie Tots from Inspiralized & Beyond (from freezer or batch cooked) + Roasted Sweet Potatoes + Guacamole from Trader Joe’s
• Pasta with Pesto from Trader Joe’s + Green Beans (from freezer) in Marinara Sauce + Roasted Delicata Squash
• Pizza English Muffin (Veggie Marinara Sauce + Mozzarella cheese) + Carrots from freezer + Edamame from freezer
• Chicken Sausage sauteed until browned + Roasted Potatoes + Peas in Butter
• Pasta in butter sauce + Pork and Apple Cheddar Meatballs from the freezer + Sliced precooked beets

I hope this post inspired you to get in the kitchen and make cooking for your little ones a LOT easier!

Note: Although this post was sponsored by Hilary’s, all opinions are my own, always.

The post Tips for Making Your Family Quick Meals appeared first on Inspiralized.

There’s something about putting together snacks for your toddler that can be tough. We’re so focused on getting healthy meals on our kids’ plates, that we often have no energy left for snack time. We turn to the same snacks for our kids over and over again, just because that’s what’s easy and saves time.

I felt the exact same way up until a few weeks ago, when I started looking at snack time for my toddler differently. I remembered a principle from the Feeding Littles Toddler Feeding Course (use code INSPIRALIZED for $10 off!), which was this: think of snack time for your kid as a time to squeeze in any missing nutrients from meal time. That is, say you gave your toddler Yogurt, Fruit, and Waffles for breakfast. However, the toddler didn’t eat the yogurt. You’re missing calcium, fat and protein, so try giving your toddler some dairy at the next snack – cottage cheese or string cheese.

Also, the Feeding Littles team says to make snack time for your kids like mini meal times – you don’t necessarily need to give “snack food” to your toddler. You can use leftovers from a previous meal. As you’ll see in my list below, one of my go-to snacks for my little ones is a leftover Blender Muffin from the day before (assuming he didn’t have them for breakfast that same day.)

Now, I’m not going to share a bunch of toddler snack ideas I found around the Internet. I’m sharing all of the snacks that actually worked with my toddler. Thus, this isn’t a complete list of possible snack ideas – it’s just what works for our little one, and I hope it works for yours! Luca’s only 13 months old at the time that I’m writing this post, so things will definitely change (they always do!), but for now, this is what’s working for my toddler!

Toddler Snack List

• Mini bagel or English muffin spread with Kitehill Cream Cheese + Fruit
• Leftover roasted veggies with hummus and pita bread (hummus is hit or miss with him)
• ThinStackers rice cakes with tuna salad (can of tuna + Greek yogurt + dijon mustard + a little lemon)
• Mini PB&J – I use mashed raspberries instead of jelly and vary the nut butters I’m using, sometimes sunflower seed butter.
• Avocado toast (I use guacamole, because he refuses to eat mashed avocado or cubed avocado) on a ThinStacker or slice of bread
• Banana sushi (rolled in Siete tortilla)
• Veggie quesadilla – black beans and bell peppers sautéed in oil with chili powder and cumin and spread out on one tortilla, melted with shredded Mexican cheese.
• Banana bites with almond butter and iron fortified cereal
• Whole grain waffle strips with nut butter or butter and side of fruit
• Yogurt and fruit
• Freeze dried fruit and string cheese
• String cheese and mini HappyBaby rice cakes (see list below for the ones I use)
• LARA bar with edamame puffs (see below)
• Leftover blender muffins with iron fortified cereal
• String cheese and fruit and Annie’s Bunnies
• English muffin pizza (veggie marinara sauce spread over a toasted English muffin and topped with mozzarella cheese, popped in the toaster oven until melted)
• Smoothie (recipe in Inspiralized Littles eCookbook)
• Cottage cheese with clementine
• Cauliflower Biscuits from Inspiralized & Beyond
• Veggie Tots from Inspiralized & Beyond
• Vegan Pumpkin Oat Muffins from Inspiralized Littles eCookbook

Packaged Snacks

I try to keep these to a minimum, but they’re great for on-the-go and when we’re in a pinch or traveling with your toddler! Here’s a complete list of the pre-packaged snacks that I give Luca – I’ll pair these often with whole foods like fruit and cheese:

• ThinStackers rice cakes
• Little Duck Organics freeze dried fruit
• Trader Joe’s Crispy Broccoli snacks (hit or miss)
• Annie’s Whole Wheat Cheddar Bunnies
• Cascadian Farms Purely O’s cereal
• Happy Baby rice cakes
• Crunch-a-mame organic edamame puffs
• Little Duck Organics Fig Bars: Blueberry + Kale
• Made In Nature Cranberry Pistachio Figgy Pops
• Annie’s Organic White Cheddar Squares
• Peeled Snacks Peas Please
• Sprout Organic Curlz Broccoli Baked Toddler Snacks

Hope this helps you in your feeding journeys with your little ones!

The post Easy and Healthy Snack Ideas for Your Toddler appeared first on Inspiralized.

It’s finally here! Inspiralized Kids has teamed up with Feeding Littles to bring you our eCookbook, Inspiralized Littles: Healthy and Delicious Recipes For Baby Led Weaning That Parents and Kids Will Love, Too!

It can be yours for just $5.99 (and use code LAUNCH today only for 10% off your purchase!)

First, let’s talk about why I decided to write this mini eCookbook. I’m calling it mini, because it’s only 14 recipes, but the recipes are all ones you’re going to love and incorporate into your weekly meal rotation!

I wrote this cookbook, because I couldn’t find a good resource for making meals that truly satisfied all palates, from parents to babies. What I found was many cookbooks for kid food – food that, yes, adults could eat too, but not that we’d want to eat! The seasonings weren’t exceptional, the ingredients were boring, and they weren’t even full meals (I can’t just eat a fritter for dinner!)

I wanted a cookbook with meals that were geared towards adults, but with instructions on how to plate and feed it to a baby. That didn’t exist – but it does now! Since I am not a nutritionist or an infant feeding specialist, I didn’t feel comfortable writing recipes without that expertise, since there is a lot of safety and nutrition concerns involved in feeding little ones.

That’s where the Feeding Littles team come in! Feeding Littles is made up of two incredible women: Judy Delaware, an Occupational Therapist and Megan McNamee, Registered Dietician and Infant/Toddler Feeding Therapist! Between the two of them, they have you covered with everything you need to know about safely and healthfully feeding your little ones.

I’ve got the recipes, they’ve got the expertise in feeding little ones! Together, we’ve created a delicious and informative resource for baby led weaning, that parents and kids will love, too!

Inside, you’ll find:

• 14 healthy and delicious recipes (divided between breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
• Photos of every recipe PLUS a photo of a suggested way to plate the recipe for baby
• Tips on each recipe from Feeding Littles (infant and toddler feeding specialists!)
• Brief introduction to baby led weaning by Feeding Littles
• Starter list of vegetables and fruits

What are you waiting for? Download today – it can be yours for just $5.99 (and use code LAUNCH for 10% off today only!) You’ll be able to download it instantly after purchase.

And make sure to use the hashtag #inspiralizedlittles when you make meals from this eCookbook!

The post Inspiralized Littles eCookbook: Healthy and Delicious Recipes for Baby Led Weaning appeared first on Inspiralized.

I’m excited to share a video with a special guest star today: Luca! It was so fun to have him on set, he was adorable and loved the attention! I think if he had been scared of the cameras or all the lights and people, I would have never filmed this video, but he totally loved it.

In this video, we’re going through all of my favorite products for feeding the baby at home (and you’ll see Luca using them, too!)

For all of my baby favorites, click here.

And for all of the products featured in this video:

• High chair for at home (and high chair for on the go)
• Splash mat for under high chair
• Bumkins Baby Bib
• OXO Tot Bib
• EZPZ plate – small and large
• EZPZ bowl – small
• Bumkins Baby plate
• Numnum GOOtensils
• Grabease fork and spoon
• Baby Bjorn cup
• Munchkin 360 cup
• Thinkbaby straw cup

In this new video, watch me go through all of the above items and talk about them more in detail – and most importantly, watch Luca use them!

The post Favorite Feeding Products for Baby appeared first on Inspiralized.

If you are working on weaning a baby, you know that breakfast can be one of the most difficult meals to prepare. However, during the first three months of weaning, it’s important to start each day with a healthy breakfast that the little one enjoys and can palate. I’ve compiled the master list of the best breakfast recipes to serve baby during the first three months of baby-led weaning.

These recipes below are designed to introduce baby (and you!) to new flavors, textures, and ingredients. Use this list for baby breakfast inspiration to keep things interesting and help you break out of a rut.

Plus, these recipes accommodate all diets and aversions. See breakfasts with and without eggs, with fruit, vegetables, grains, and more. There’s something for every palate!

How I Prepare for Baby-Led Weaning

In my experience with baby-led weaning, my goal is to try as many different shapes and sizes of foods (as long as they’re not a choking hazard size, of course). This way, I could see what Luca and Roma liked best. Plus, meals become an opportunity to work on dexterity and fine motor skills!

The recipes below are all meals that I’ve made for 6- to 9-month-olds that both my kids love. You can find photo examples of all of these kid-friendly breakfast ideas on Instagram @inspiralizedkids. Plus lunch and dinner ideas.

What is Baby-Led Weaning?

Baby-led weaning, Or BLW, is how I’ve weaned both Luca and Roma. Essentially, it’s a method of introducing foods to babies that they eat themselves. Instead of spoon-feeding baby food purees, you go straight to finger foods that the kids can hold themselves. You can read more about why we’ve used BLW and how it works here.

The most important thing is to choose foods that the babies can hold and eat, and all of these breakfast ideas fit the bill.

Best Breakfast Ideas for Weaning Babies

These are the breakfast foods that I’ve had the most success with feeding both Luca and Roma as they weaned off of breastfeeding and started eating solid foods on their own. I’ve included tips to help make raw ingredients more baby-friendly and easy to pick up. Often, just a bit of help with grip is all your baby needs to start feeding him or herself.

Egg-Free Breakfast Ideas for Babies

Because it’s so easy to fall back on eggs at breakfast time, I’ve put together my family’s favorite eggless recipes to switch things up:

• Chia seed pudding. Make dairy-free chia pudding with almond milk. Top it with nut butter for healthy fats and plenty of fresh fruit (smushed berries or chopped bananas) for fiber.
• Vegetable sticks made with a crinkle cutter. These can be dipped in applesauce. It’s a great way to get your baby to eat more veggies.
• Boiled or roasted beets. Slice the beets into quarters or strips. They’re sweet enough for breakfast.
• Roasted purple sweet potatoes with cinnamon and/or yogurt.
• Orange or grapefruit slices with part of the rind still on for gripping.
• Banana with part of the skin on. You can rub this with nut butter or dip it in a smoothie for more nutrients.
• Oatmeal with swirls of nut butter, breast milk, or fruit (smushed blueberries, chopped banana, etc).
• Healthy Cheerios. Eating dry cereal helps with pincer grasp.
• Avocado quarters sprinkled with almond flour or unsweetened coconut flakes for gripping.

• Toast strips with mashed avocado, KiteHill almond cream cheese (vegan), thinly spread nut butter, or mashed raspberries.
• Peeled apricot slices, served on a Grabease fork.
• Peeled and halved large grapes. I also smash them a little bit with my fingers.
• Roasted or steamed veggies cut into sticks with a crinkle cutter. I love using carrots, zucchini, kabocha squash, sweet potato, butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, parsnips, etc. You can also top them with some Greek yogurt. Or, season them with whatever seasoning your little one likes – cinnamon, curry powder, cumin, etc.
• Fruit cut into strips – melon, tomato, kiwi, mango, etc.
• Applesauce preloaded on a GOOtensil.
• Berries. halved or quartered. Especially blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
• Energy bites. I flatten out the mixture and cut it into strips/squares for easy grabbing (example here.) They include dates, nuts, and coconut shreds.
• Whole milk Greek yogurt swirled with nut butter, coconut, and mashed berries (example here.) Preloaded on a GOOtensil.
• Potato toast dippers
• Egg-free oat muffins. This is the recipe I use and Luca loves.
• Waffle strips. I like Birchbenders!

Baby-Led Weaning Breakfast Ideas with Eggs

If your little one loves eggs, then try these recipes for breakfast too:

• Hard-boiled eggs, sliced into quarters or strips.
• Egg donut or muffin. These are my favorite way to serve veggies at breakfast. I add any leftover roasted/steamed veggies from the week into the blender. I’ve tried: kabocha squash, parsnips, sweet potato, carrots, and beets!
• Egg and banana pancake strips – you can make two-ingredient pancakes. Then slice them into strips OR use the same batter from the egg donuts and muffins and just pour into a skillet like you would cook a pancake and then cut into strips (example here).
• PB&J Oatmeal Bake from my cookbook. This is probably one of Luca’s favorite breakfasts. I cut them into grabbable pieces. This is how I serve it.
• Veggie omelet strips. Simply make an omelet with veggies like spinach, bell peppers, etc, and cut it into strips (example here.)
• Scrambled eggs with homemade basil pesto. Just make sure the scrambled pieces are big enough for your baby to grab.

Drinks to Serve Babies at Breakfast

I give Luca sips of water after his meals. I rotate between a cup and a straw cup!

Baby-Led Weaning Resources

If you’re new to baby-led weaning or curious to learn more, here are some other helpful resources to check out:

• Our first week with baby-led weaning (Luca)
• Baby Led Weaning Basics and Cooking Tips
• What a week of meals looks like for our family (Luca)
• Inspiralized Littles eCookbook for Baby Led Weaning
• Baby Led Weaning With Roma: Feeding Update
• Inspiralized Littles eCookbook: Healthy and Delicious Recipes for Baby Led Weaning

The post Breakfast Ideas For Baby-Led Weaning (6 to 9 months) appeared first on Inspiralized.

That’s right! He’s no longer drinking just breastmilk, now he’s starting to eat solid foods! Well, he doesn’t really swallow or get much of it in his mouth, but he’s practicing everyday.

I’m going to talk all about what baby led weaning is, why we chose it, my favorite resources for it so far, all of the feeding products that have gotten us through our first week, and of course: what he ate!

And if you’re not following along on Instagram already, make sure you follow @inspiralizedkids!

What is baby led weaning?

Baby led weaning (BLW) is a way to introduce foods by skipping purees and instead, offering solid foods that are cut and cooked appropriately for baby. Most importantly, BLW encourages self feeding, so you’ll never put food into the baby’s mouth, the baby will choose what he/she wants to eat and how much of it. There is NO spoon feeding in baby led weaning.

It’s INCREDIBLE. In his first week, Luca tried so many exciting foods, from quinoa to spaghetti squash. I watched him as he curiously grabbed ahold of a piece of toast with peanut butter, led it into his mouth, and gnawed on it – and then went for seconds!

There is only ONE major drawback of baby led weaning: having to struggle through your baby gagging. The gagging is a good thing – it shows that your baby is learning how to chew and swallow foods, which is so important (and inevitable anyway, whenever your baby starts eating solid foods)! Choking is different – choking is when their airway passage is blocked, but gagging is completely normal.

It’s tough, though, watching your baby gag – but after the first few times, I started trusting Luca more and more. He started to learn, “Ok, I can’t take in this big of a piece and if I do, I have to gnaw on it some more.” Plus, unlike adults, baby’s gag reflexes are on the middle of their tongue (instead of the way back), so although they’re gagging, the food isn’t really near the back of their throat! That’s why they gag so much – the gag reflex is right there!

How do you feel more confident and power through the gags? Get CPR certified! It’s the best thing Lu and I ever did, because I feel confident now that in the event that we had a scare, I’d know how to handle it. However, I’d never offer Luca a choking hazard (like a full cherry tomato or a whole nut), so actually, research shows that the risk of choking is the same between baby led weaning and purees!

There are a few rules on when to start BLW-ing, but basically, the baby has to sit unassisted for at least a minute and be at least 6 months old. There are other preferred requirements, but those are the two big ones.

And to clarify, Luca is still breastfeeding as his main source of nourishment – he probably eats a teaspoon of food a day IF that, right now it’s just an exploratory activity for him! Luca will eventually eat more, discover that food can fill his tummy, and then he’ll start drinking less milk. For now, he nurses 4-5 per day. I usually feed him 30-45 minutes after a breastfeeding!

Why I chose baby led weaning

Before I explain why I chose baby led weaning, let me say this: if you chose to do purees with your baby, I’m not judging you. I’m simply sharing MY personal beliefs and why I believe BLW to be the best for ME. FED is best, always. And, if Luca didn’t take to BLW, I would’ve then tried purees, so I’m not “against” purees, I just found a way of feeding my baby that I believe to be the best for our family and is working so far. And heck, I was formula and puree fed, and I turned out just fine! Please don’t take offense to any of my opinions, they’re just opinions, and I’m open-minded, I expect you to be too. Do you! 

There are really three ways to feed your baby: purees, baby led weaning, or a combo. After doing all of my research and knowing myself, my husband, and my baby, I chose baby led weaning.

Here are some of the reasons why I went with BLW:

• Research shows BLW-eaters end up having better table manners – they sit and eat with you, instead of you having to feed them separately and then expect them to wait for you to finish eating.
• Research shows that BLW-eaters are less picky eaters – think about it, Luca has already had curry powder roasted cauliflower, quinoa, brussels sprouts, and a lentil loaf! His tastebuds are already evolving!
• BLW helps develop baby’s motor skills early on.
• BLW is easier for the family – you don’t have to prepare anything “special” (like a puree) for baby – they just have what you eat (just sliced a little differently). I love to cook, so this was a huge deciding factor for me!
• BLW is restaurant friendly – you can simply offer the baby the food you’re having and they can eat alongside you, instead of having to bring pre-made baby food everywhere you go. It’s just like the boob, which is what I am used to!
• BLW lets the baby practice intuitive eating – they eat until they’re full (like with breastfeeding – they’ll never overeat.) With spoon feeding, you may want to get that “last spoonful” in or finish a jar of puree, when in reality, your baby is full, they just can’t tell you. :/ Studies even show due to this intuitive eating, babies who are BLW-ed are less likely to be obese!

What really put me over the edge, was the research showing that baby led weaning starts building a healthy relationship between the baby and food at an early age. Instead of “having” to eat a certain food, baby gets to choose what baby likes and eat until they’re full. There’s no games (like a spoon airplane-ing into your mouth) to get you to eat, it’s this: here’s the food, eat what you’d like until you’re full. I LOVED that principle, and it was what finally brought me to the decision to start baby led weaning with Luca.

My favorite resources for starting baby led weaning

I am NOT an infant feeding expert by any means. My baby has been eating for a total of ONE week. I have been researching and reading for months in preparation for this, so I feel informed, but I am not trained nor an expert.

There are three major resources that I’ve read/studied for this food journey with Luca and they are:

Feeding Littles Infant Feeding Course

The Infant Feeding Course by Feeding Littles (a resource started by two women – an occupational therapist and a registered dietician) The best $59 you can spend for your baby (and because they are amazing ladies, they offered me a discount for my readers – code INSPIRALIZED gets you $10 off the course!)

I can’t recommend this course enough. If this is all you do, you’re set. It literally takes you step-by-step through the entire baby led weaning process. There are printable cheat sheets along the way (I have the choking hazards one taped to the inside of my cabinet right now) like suggested meal plans, how to prepare food safely for baby, suggested foods to start with, and more.

After taking this course, I was fully confident that I could safely and healthfully feed baby Luca through baby led weaning, and I wouldn’t have felt this way if I hadn’t discovered the course. Thanks to my friend Jamie for recommending them!

And I fully intend on taking the toddler course, once I’m done with baby led weaning as an infant!

Book 1: Baby Led Weaning

The first book I read on baby led weaning is literally called Baby Led Weaning. This is the book that “sold” me on baby led weaning. The book gets into logistics (what to feed the baby, how to feed the baby, etc), but more importantly (and what I found of most value), was the background and philosophy behind baby led weaning – why it’s the best way to feed your baby if you want a child with a long-lasting healthy relationship with food!

It was a super quick read, I basically read it in two days! I read it when Luca was about 4-5 months old.

Book #2: Born to Eat

I’m still reading this book Born To Eat, even though I’m well into baby led weaning with my son. It’s FASCINATING! It’s such an enjoyable read, and puts a lot into perspective. I really recommend it, not only as a starter guide to baby led weaning, but as a supplementary read to understand more about foods and your baby’s health and development. There have been so many “aha” moments in this process. It also shocks me at how marketing can convince us we need to do certain things, even though centuries of history tell us its not necessary! From Amazon:

For thousands of years, humans have thrived without “baby food” (which was invented in the late nineteenth century). Think about it: the human race has made it this far largely on whole food. Only in recent decades have we begun overthinking and over-processing our foods, which has led to chronic dieting, chronic disease, disordered eating, body distrust, and epidemic confusion about the best way to feed ourselves and families. Eating is an innate skill that has been overcomplicated by marketing schemes and a dieting culture. It’s time to leave the dieting culture behind for the whole family. It starts with the baby’s first bite!

Favorite products for baby led weaning

You actually don’t need anything to start baby led weaning, you could literally sit your baby upright in your lap and put food on the table for baby to grab. BUT, since that’s not convenient and doesn’t really help with the good table manners thing, there are a few products you’ll want to buy to ensure a seamless experience.

Here are the products that I’m using and loving so far:

4Moms High Chair – this high chair has a magnetic tray which is easy to pull on and off to get the baby out quickly (which is important if there’s ever a choking situation) and the entire seat is extremely easy to clean. I love it and have zero complaints!

Bumkins bibs – these bibs are the best, they’re so easy to clean (I just rinse them in the sink with soap and water – but they’re also washing machine safe), come in cute patterns, and go on and off easily with velcro.

Bumkins sleeve bibs – for the really messy meals, these are AMAZING. They cover him entirely!

Bumkins floor mat – baby led weaning is certainly messy and the older they get, the more they throw food. Luca accidentally throws things on the ground now, and I love how large this mat is – it catches everything, is waterproof, and thus, easy to cleanup. And I love the cactus print, of course!

ezpz Mini Mat – this suctions right onto the tray on my high chair and is adorable. It helps me portion out my meals, since offering 3 types of foods to start is recommended. They’re easy to clean and Luca can’t peel them off (yet!)

NumNum spoon set – these are great and Luca already loves them. You’re supposed to encourage baby to eat with their hands at first, but offering them spoons here and there helps to familiarize them with forks and spoons. There are two in the pack – one is for thin foods like applesauce and the other is for thick foods like oatmeal or hummus.

Baby Bjorn cups – these are the cups we’re starting with and so far, they’re great. It’s amazing how quickly Luca is getting the hang of cups! Now, when I put out a cup, he tries to sip from it like his cup! It’s the cutest.

What Luca ate in his first week

For the first few days, I was taking it easy (it’s nerve-racking and exhilarating all at the same time!) and wanted to start Luca off with one food at a time until we both got the hang of it. On the first day, we tried banana. On the second day, avocado. And on the third day, sweet potato and broccoli. After that and seeing how well Luca responded to food, I got more creative!

And aside from choking hazards, the only thing you can’t give babies at this age is honey and salt.

Fruits

• Banana – with peel on, cut off so baby can hold it (like this)
• Avocado – sliced into spears
• Strawberry – halved
• Blueberries – squished
• Apple spear
• Pear spear

Veggies

• String bean – steamed
• Sweet potato – roasted with olive oil
• Brussels sprouts – roasted with olive oil, garlic powder, balsamic
• Mashed cauliflower “potatoes” seasoned with garlic and onion powder
• Steamed crinkle-cut carrots
• Roasted spaghetti squash with salt-free homemade, veggie-packed marinara sauce (recipe coming soon!)
• Bell pepper spear
• Cucumber spear
• Broccoli – roasted with olive oil, garlic powder and also steamed
• Potato toast dippers with mashed green-pea avocado (from my next cookbook)

Proteins & more

• Hummus mixed with quinoa, offered on the NumNum spoon
• Lentil loaf from my next cookbook
• Ezekial toast sticks with thinly spread peanut butter
• Hard boiled eggs
• Scrambled eggs
• Oatmeal with bananas

And that’s it! That’s everything Luca tested in week one. Of course, he didn’t eat all of this food – 95% of it (or more) ended up smashed on his face, in his hair, caught in his bib, or on the floor.

We had SO much fun! I’ll be sharing monthly updates and in the meantime, posting everything he eats on @inspiralizedkids!

The post Our first week with baby led weaning appeared first on Inspiralized.