An easy dinner and thoughts on baby food.

 

A few years ago friends of ours were over with their 10 month old son and we were impressed with their attitude towards food with him. We were having a quinoa salad with grilled halloumi and roasted veggies for dinner. There was heaps of fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, definitely not light on flavour. He ate what we ate and we were excited that it could be that easy when we had a baby.

And here we are years later with Hannah and we followed our friends lead. For the first month or so we introduced foods slowly, steamed and mashed. Hannah got bored and we got bored. Next came the spices into her food and then one day I was making hummous with Hannah in the sling and she leaned in and I gave her some. She went wild and I changed the game plan!

We haven't looked back. She eats what we eat for lunch and dinner every day. I'll add avocado or sweet potato sticks to the mix if the food is too rich or spicy, but for the most part she eats exactly what we eat and I love it.

Tonight's dinner was an easy one. We're part of an organic food co-op through the Home Grow-In Grocer and I had peppers, onions and ground turkey.

Turkey Meatballs

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 egg yolks (no egg whites for babies!)

pinch of dried oregano

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs (or leftover quinoa)

1 green onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup crumbled feta (I use light)

splash of hot sauce

8 leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped

Mix together and form meatballs about 1.5" big. Brown in a heavy bottomed pan in a bit of olive oil and put on a plate. The meatballs will only be partially cooked at this point.

Put a splash more olive oil in the pot and add a chopped red pepper, half a chopped onion and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. Saute until mostly cooked, add in a jar of good quality tomato sauce a 1/8 cup of water. Stir, drop in meatballs and a bunch of basil chopped. Let simmer for 15 minutes and you're good to go!

We eat ours on their own, but they would be great with crusty bread or pasta too.

Hannah had two, I had three and Matt had four.