Our new favorite finger food!

So, I am fairly obsessed with finding foods for my 12 month olds to eat;we're still doing MANY bottles a day and I'm trying to transition them. We've discovered that they really like flavorful food (read: anything with garlic and salt!) - it's hilarious, they'll eat chinese, indian, thai - stuff that is way spicier than even i'll eat (but i'm a supertaster wuss, so perhaps i'm not the best benchmark).

It's really funny to watch them 'eat' beef with broccoli; they will take a whole piece of broccoli and gnaw on the stalk part (great for teething gums) and just suck all the sauce off. Then they chew some of it and most of it comes back out (my mom calls them the Human Food Mills). then they'll eat rice wth flavorful sauce but- really from a quantity standpoint I worry.

The other day i bought one of those pre-cooked, vacuum packed packages of lentils. Now, at $3 a package are they WAY more expensive than just buying lentils and cooking them? YES - and as far as i'm concerned, a great three bucks to spend: they LOVE them. And watching them pick them up one at a time (o seven at a time if, for example, my dh is too, um, time-pressured to separate the lumps) and actually EAT them is such fun!

One of these days i'll get to buying dried lentils and cooking them - until then, this is my new favorite food to give them.

 

Some of my kids' first finger foods was noodles. We did butter with some garlic and parmesan cheese on it alot. And french toast. And frozen peas has always been a hit, they are fun and feel good on teething gums.

 

Mine love shredded cheddar cheese and mixed vegetables.

 

Mine love Pepperonni, Canadian bacon, black olives, tomatoes (can you tell I was making pizza one night ). Their favorite snack is Gerber fruit snacks for toddlers. I admit they also love puffy cheetos, not the healthiest thing ever!! Any kind of cheese is also a big hit. Toast, pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs (except scrambled), sausage, ravioli, any kind of fruit, prunes chopped, raisins, graham crackers, animal crackers, nilla wafers, celery stalks (also great for teething gums!!), tortilla shell, ground brown beef, canned meat (we can our own venison... so yummy and tender!) oh and the list goes on and on.

 

Nutri Grain cereal bars are by far the biggest hit at our place. Most meals they reach a point where they're sick of whatever else I'm trying to feed them, they smack it away, look at the pantry door, and yell BAR BAR BAR BAR until I get up to go get them a cereal bar, at which point they start laughing and giving each other knowing looks like they just scored big time. We've already taken to spelling it out, b-a-r, if we're not ready to give them one yet because if we say it they're instantly all giddy looking at the pantry.

 

Here's a tip for the dried lentils, put them on to soak before you go to bed, then in the morning (after soaking all night) they will cook in like 10 minutes. I do large batches, then freeze them in small containers, just move a container freezer to fridge in the evening for the next day's meal. I think dried lentils are like 29 cents a pound! And packed with nutrients.

How about some other steamed veggies? Mine loved coliflower, carrots and asperagus in addition to broccoli at that age.

My girls also like spicy food--they LOVE crutons, but those came after their first molars.