Mill City Mama

Thank you to Brittany at A Healthy Slice of Life for once again hosting Munchkin Meals! You can also see what Ada ate at 7 months.

Okay, let’s be honest…this is a “make-do” sorta week. We just got back to our place yesterday after a few days at my parents’ house across town (Tom traveled to the Rose Bowl with his family so I needed some back-up) and our fridge has slim-pickings.

Moreover, Ada is going through some crazy developmental period which causes her to sleep like a newborn (heard of the Wonder Weeks?) so I am a walking zombie. Sometimes I just throw a steamed veggie or two in front of Ada and call it a meal. So, this isn’t necessarily the most creative of food days, but it sure is a real one!

In the past couple of weeks, our baby-led weaning efforts have gotten a lot less messy…alleluia. Ada is much more into eating than playing with food and gets down a considerable amount. Her pincer grasp totally took off in about a week (she even practices it in her sleep). She’s also into various spices and herbs.

In addition to solids, Ada breastfed 4 times today:  7:40 am, 11 am, 4 pm, and we’ll do once more before bed. (She’s also been doing a middle-of-the-night feeding lately as we’ve been going through this sleep twilight zone.)

8:30 am – Breakfast:

Ada’s baby crack, gluten-free strawberry puffs (this chick can eat about 30 in one sitting), almost an entire banana, and one of my favorites, CocoYo from Tula’s Coco Kefir. This is a local product that is cultured coconut milk, so there’s lots of probiotics and nothing weird in it. It’s pricey, so I just give Ada a couple of spoonfuls (local mamas – I got it at The Wedge Co-op and have seen it at Linden Hills Co-op as well).

12:30 pm – Lunch:  

We had some leftover brown rice penne from last night, so I sprinkled it with the teeniest bit of Herbamare for Ada. I also steamed up carrots and lima beans (great for the pincer skills). I’d say Ada ate 75% of what you see here — about just as much pasta as I ate!

6:30 pm – Dinner:

Going with our “making-do” theme, I improvised some millet yam cakes for dinner. I’ve enjoyed myself a millet yam cake or two from the co-op from time to time, and I had the ingredients on hand to get creative and figure out how to make them for Ada.

I combined roasted/mashed yam, cooked millet, green onion, Dijon mustard, chickpea miso, and pepper and Herbamare to taste. They turned out a little crumbly, and in the future I might make them co-op style with some maple syrup and pecans. Ada also had steamed carrots and applesauce with peach for dinner.