Tonight was the night Simon ate the first real table food I made for him. I’ve been waiting eagerly to introduce Simon to more complicated food and have him join me at the table, and I’m very excited that our gustatory adventure has begun.
For the past month, Simon’s breakfast (oatmeal or muesli with fruit) and lunch (applesauce, yogurt, ricotta and fruit) hasn’t been too different from my own. But he’s gotten plain fruits and plain vegetables in the evening, and that just does not seem dinner like to me.
Two nights ago I decided it was time to break out the more interesting food, so I fed him the Plum Organics red lentil vegetable stew. He liked it ok, but struggled a bit with the slightly chunky texture. Last night he got the same thing and loved it. I hadn’t seem him kick his legs so much since the first time he got yogurt or spinach with mangoes. That inspired me to check out the ingredient list on the label, get out my cook books, and make a lentil stew myself.
So at around 10:00 p.m. last night, after we finally got Simon to fall asleep, I busied myself by heading down to the kitchen, looking through cookbooks, and throwing together a stew of red lentils, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and bay leaves while WFPK’s “country gentleman” Berk Bryant entertained me with the final hour of his Sunday evening bluegrass show. (It’s the “shortest, fastest, bestest three hours in radio”. Take Berk’s word for it.)
Tasty! The only difference between this and what I’d make for myself is that I left out the salt and then mashed the whole thing up in a food mill. We trotted it out tonight and Simon eagerly lapped up every bite. I couldn’t feed him fast enough. Fingers crossed, it’s official. Simon is ready to quit the boring single ingredient baby food stuff and join me at the table. I can’t wait to trot out the baby risotto and baby polenta. This promises to be great fun. Bon Apetit!