Last Week's Menu Plus Baby Entrees!

I've started feeding D a variation of what we eat for dinner on most nights or throwing something together for him from what I already have in my pantry. So now in addition to the menu we followed last week, I'm also going to include what I fed the baby. If you are in a solids rut with your infant, check out some of my suggestions and look for a post coming up of what I've been feeding D that's NOT made by Gerber - it will include breakfast and lunch choices.

But for now, here's what we ate last week and my reviews:

Chunky Fish Fingers w/ Pea & Mint Puree: I decided to make this one for 2 reasons; First, cod was on sale and second, I wanted the baby to try fish and this was my first venture into feeding him table food. I thought the puree would be a nice touch. But man, was it a pain in the ass. Breading the fish was a pain and I didn't think worth the end result. The pea puree was pretty, but also kind of bland. My husband salted the shit out of it and then said it was "Okay." I gave D the puree straight up and cut the fish into very teeny tiny pieces, but otherwise made no adjustments. He wasn't too excited about it either.

Edamame Succotash: **vegetarian option** This is one of our favorite Cooking Light recipes and was the first dish we tried edamame in. I served it with the recommended French baguette and neufchatel cheese. To make this dish vegetarian just omit the bacon and use oil instead to cook the veggies. I fed D the edamame and pieces of the bread with cheese for his dinner. Here's a picture of the succotash after finishing it in the pan:

YUMMY!

Chicken Souvlaki w/ Tzatziki Sauce: See my previous review and photo of this dish here. I took a few pieces of the chicken, zucchini, and red pepper and stuck it in the Cuisinart for a few seconds to make it smaller and gave it to D with the sauce on the side and some brown rice. He seemed to love it. 

Turkey Sausage Gnocchi Soup: This is the third time I've made this dish since I started posting weekly menus. See the original review here. Again with this one, I stuck some in the Cuisinart for a few seconds to make sure everything was in small enough bits and just fed it to D straight. He definitely loved this one - luckily even the "hot" turkey sausage isn't really hot by most standards.

Beef, Cheese, & Noodle Bake: The last time I made this, A suggested I use more veggies the next time. So this time in addition to the carrots I included peas, red pepper, and green beans. It definitely made it more filling, but I didn't think it added anything special. I think next time I'll keep the pepper and the peas and skip the green beans. Either way, it's still a great substitute if you're craving Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni but are trying to watch your sodium intake. We cut this one up by hand for the baby and he inhaled it. He also enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day. 

Homemade Macaroni & Cheese: No link for this one because it's my recipe. Made using whole wheat rotini, broccoli & green beans, light semisoft garlic & herb cheese, cheddar, gruyere, and whole wheat bread crumbs, it is delicious and with no unnecessary fat or sodium. Gave it to the baby pretty much straight, just watched for big pieces and cut the rotini as we fed him. YUM!

Thai Chicken Saute: This was my first time making this one. I had actually never used fish sauce before and thought I was going to gag as I put it in the chicken marinade. But despite that, it was pretty good and I served it as suggested over rice. However, I didn't think it was anything special and neither did A, so I doubt I'll make it again. For D's dinner, I was concerned about the heat in this one, so I actually gave him some silken tofu cut up into manageable size, mixed it with some rice, added some marinara sauce and sprinkled with parmesan. 

Black Bean Quesadillas w/ Corn Salsa: The quesadillas were good, but the salsa was AWESOME. The tortillas got a bit too browned under my broiler though, and since I usually bake quesadillas I think that's what I would do next time. Other than a few stray black beans and some bites of cheese, I fed the baby the same thing as the night before - tofu marinara with rice and cheese.

Happy Cooking!