Literally.
A while back, I mentioned that we (I say ‘we’, but you’re to read: Claire) had been busy making pre-made food for Jack.
Well, this hasn’t really stopped. Mass food production for Jack increased slightly, in that we had been making bigger portions for him as he grew, but since then, we’ve been making food for Oliver now too. Some are some of the old favourites that we used to make for Jack when he was a baby (and still do but in a bigger form), but in addition, there’s a few new recipes too.
But in case you’re thinking this is mushed-up, gunky, bad-tasting baby fast-food, I can categorically assure you that this is not.
The meals that Claire’s been making are absolutely fantastic meals that an adult would enjoy. The only obvious difference, is that for Oliver being a young ‘un with only a few front teeth to chew with, they’ve been blended to make it easier for him. Jack’s food is part-blended, but only to mix the stuff together thoroughly after cooking.
Other than that, the Salmon Surprise, Beef Stew, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Thai Green Curry, King Prawn Korma and Spaghetti Carbonara are fantastic meals with quality, fresh, ingredients. No crap here.
Admittedly, the recipes are modified slightly such that there’s no added salt or sugar in them, but I’ve tried almost all of them along the way, and I would certainly eat them.
Basically, the food is cooked en-mass, and then divided up into portion-sized bowls or ice-bricks and then frozen. All we need to do then, is get them out to defrost in-time for the boys, and re-heat them before each meal in the microwave. It makes a *huge* difference, as when they’re getting hungry and ready for food still at the table, we’ve got them some great, healthy and nutritious meals out that they can have in front of them in seconds. Otherwise, we’d be scrambling to give them something to tide them over until we’d manage to rustle up something each meal-time, with breakfast being no different.
Here’s a quick photo I took just the other night when I was getting their food out for the next day:
Top left, is Salmon Surprise and Potato, in larger portion size for Jack’s evening meal. Directly below this, is a portion of Apple, Pear and Blueberry for Jack’s evening dessert.
In the middle at the top in the green bowl, are three ‘bricks’ Beef Stew and Sweet Potato for Master Oliver’s evening meal, with the orange bowl to the right having two bricks of Peach, Pear and Strawberries for his dessert.
Centre-shot, is Oliver’s lunch, which is one brick of Salmon Surprise and one of mixed Potato. His dessert for this meal was not shown, but was two bricks of Apple and Rhubarb.
At the bottom of the photos, the two bowls side-by-side have a single brick for each Jack and Oliver, of Summer Fruits – these are the fruit bases that we then add their breakfast, such as muesli, Weetabix or other basic cereals to. Oliver is still having full-fat milk with his breakfast, whilst Jack has progressed onto semi-skimmed. Additionally, with their breakfast, the boys will have a small pile of raisins – Jack will mix his into his breakfast whilst Oliver currently chews some, slimes others and flings the rest across the kitchen floor.
As we feed Oliver first, due to the sheer noise he makes as a young Rigby, he’s pretty much done when we’re ready to eat our meals, whether it’s breakfast, lunch or tea. In this case, we give him more food that he can feed himself, such as cut grapes, strawberries, blueberries (his current favourite), raisins, chopped apple or pear, or even cherries, but these are a bit more tricky as we have to de-pip them first.
We are most certainly happy that they’re eating good food. Yes, some, if not a lot, gets wasted. Some gets slapped sideways onto the kitchen cupboards by an over-excited 1 year old, (Oliver, I’m looking at you here) and some just gets left. But as we’ve got personal investment other than money in the food that they’re eating, we’re keen that they eat this first. If Jack is still wanting more food after his meal, then we’ll certainly allow him treats, knowing that he’s eaten well first. But he’s more than aware that if he doesn’t eat his first meal, then he’ll not be getting anything else, which was a problem initially, but not any more.
