EVEN if you have a super-eater like Hunter (totally not bragging -- it's the only thing he's really good at! haha) it's a challenge just to come up with healthy, inventive, easy menus.
Once he proved ready for table food I decided to HECK with making a separate meal for him -- he would eat what I eat. Except I was eating like a typical mom -- cereal and milk for dinner -- PB&J for lunch -- you get the idea.
I resolved to start cooking -- which aligned with Trav being home more often anyways -- and these days I really enjoy not only cooking what I know is good for him but eating like a real person instead of a college student. :)
I use all organic ingredients, as long as they are available, and most of what we eat is Vegetarian though I do make some meat for Trav & Hunter.
To give you an idea of what Hunter eats, this week's breakfasts consisted of a spinach and havarti omelette, scrambled eggs with cheese, pancakes, and oatmeal (all different days of course). With breakfast he always eats one banana and sometimes some additional grapes or a sliced orange if he's still hungry.
This week's lunches and dinners were spinach linguine with pesto and parm, sticky rice and curried shrimp, roasted red pepper soup, and a black bean and cheese quesadilla (again all different days). With lunch and dinner he will also have either a fruit (sliced pear, cherries, etc) or veggie (carrot sticks, cucumbers, etc) and some crackers or cookies (like Annie's Bunny Grahams). He really enjoys eating dessert (a little too much) and since I've been craving desserts and baking every day, Hunter has sampled banana bread and carrot cake this week as well.
Since he eats so well, I didn't at all feel guilty about giving him his very first PB&J on whole wheat this week. He LOVED it. It was too cute. He had peanut butter all over his face and preserves stuck in his hair. I monitored him closely to make sure no allergic reaction sprung up but after reading all of these articles recently about how withholding peanuts could cause allergies, I felt like I shouldn't keep him from my all-time fave snack any longer.
Just writing this post, though, confirms what I was fearing while I made him his sandwich...I actually DO feel guilty for not cooking him something! What is with this Mommy Guilt?
Is it not enough that we carry them for 9 months, go into labor, have c-sections, nurse them, feed them, stay up all night with them, lose our lives for years at a time to focus on raising them, spend our days trying to teach them the alphabet and watching musical cartoons, forget what our pre-baby bodies even LOOKED like, .... etc .... I could go on .... but the point is, we do it all for them. Selflessly. Without a second thought. Because we LOVE them and want our babies and children to be happy and healthy and have nourished bodies and souls.
So when I make a friggin Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich I should be HAPPY that I am not spending an hour on lunch while Hunter is napping. And I shouldn't have to justify my decision to you other Moms either but here I am. :) It's uncontrollable, this Mommy Guilt, and I need to reign it in before Kingston arrives because I think it'll just double with 2 kids, won't it?
Or maybe I'll be one of those tried-and-true Moms that lets everything slide and starts making Kraft Mac & Cheese 4 nights a week just to get a 15 minute break to watch a celebrity gossip show. Maybe I'll just go straight to solids with Kingston so I won't have to bother with nursing, pumping, and formula.
But -- oh -- who am I kidding? I already cleaned out the Medela Pump In Style and the BabyCook is on the counter, waiting for its first batch of organic carrots to steam.
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