PonyTales

Alphabets pasta cooked with milk, carrots and broccoli

Since Zoe started solid, I have found good use of my kitchen. Before she was born, our cooking condiments, gas tank and even dish washer can last a year and still more than half available even after a year. Yeah, I wasn’t really into cooking when there were just the 2 of us. Eating out was much more nicer, cleaner (no mess in kitchen) and conveniently easier for us.

When Zoe was about to start solid feeding at 5 months, I knew then I have to feed her well, no matter how lazy I am. I started doing lots of research online, at the book store and asking some experience mothers on how to prepare meals for babies? how much to eat? what to eat?

The information was overwhelming and I foresee busy weekends preparing meals. It was then that I decided I will prepare Zoe’s food daily, thou the Nanny already said she is going to do it without extra charges. When I relate this to some other working moms like me, it sounded silly to them. But I have made up my mind. I want Zoe to eat healthy food and food she recognise is prepared by me. I don’t think that is a really silly thing to do…I think it will made a difference in the years to come…

The initial stage of feeding Zoe is challenging (puking after feed, the distorted face when the food/taste is new) but with my Nanny’s help, it wasn’t very long till I see her excitement when she see food. I think every babies need time to adapt to solid food. It is also a very rewarding experience to see Zoe enjoying the food I prepared. Now, she tails me to kitchen daily and have this longing eyes looking at me, sometimes uttering a word or two and opening her palm to me as if she is asking me, "What is cooking!? I wanna eat!…" I love these moments! (knowing all the efforts of preparing food daily, woke up 5am to cook and weekends marketing, washing, storing, packing are not wasted). I am still doing the same today, althou Nanny have taken over the cooking but all ingredients still comes from me - washed, cut, packed and just need to be cooked.

Some of the food that Zoe is taking and lovin’ it!

Porridge with:

• Cod fish/deep sea ma yau (also know as sun fung yue) or chicken (these have to be bought weekly at the wet market so its fresh - washed, cut into serving sizes and freeze in individual sealable portion bags. It is better to store all the sealed bags into plastic containers - cleaner and easier to take out.
• Dry scallops and ikan bilis (only given after 1 year old).
• Carrots (washed and chopped), broccoli (washed, soaked and cut), spinach (washed, soaked and take only the leavy part).
• French beans or long beans (washed and cut), corn, sweet peas, holland peas, tomato

Other foods she take:

• Sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin (washed, cut and steamed before being cooked with other ingredients)
• Apple, pear, banana, papaya, mango, orange (these gotta be cooked and puree when she is 6 months till about 8 months) Previously, one portion is a meal add into rice cereals, now is more like a snack to her and no need to be cooked after 1 year old. When I was working in KLCC, there is this fruit shop nearby the LRT that sells really juicy and yummy fruits. I usually bought the fruits there.
• Oats with milk, cheese (given her Baby Bel, Krafts and Laughing Cows cheese - she loves it!), yogurt (I let her eat on her own, thou messy but she enjoy it a lot!), tofu, egg yolks, baby biscuits (her all time favourite snacks)
• Pasta, spaghetti, rice with soups, bread and toasts.

Before I started cooking for Zoe, I do not experiment with cooking much. I never knew that chicken, corn and carrots rice porridge is really yummy and fragrant without any seasonings! It really open up my imagination a lot to cook nice tasting stuff without seasonings as it is not good to feed baby with salt or seasoning before 1. I think I learned a lot about the basic taste of food and about blending the taste together to get a meal that is yummy (or edible!) - another valuable lesson in the journey of motherhood.

Nowadays, I do add a few drops of soya sauce to her porridge. I guess its alright to slowly introduce some salty stuff to her now that she is 14 mths. I can see that she is very delighted with the new taste of her porridge with a little soya sauce. She seems to want more even after a full bowl! Ahhh….the power of soya sauce…hahaha!

I am today more "market-wise!" (new word! hahaha!) What I am trying to say is I am more experienced shopping at the wet market than before. I used to get very lost in the wet market..shame!!
I knew the name to some of the veges I used to eat but have never bother to know its name! I knew that a kilo of deep sea ma yau at RM55 is too expensive (RM45 is about ok). I knew that a kg of cod fish can fetch up to RM70, a slice which is 1 week supply for Zoe is about RM25. I knew that Australian carrots are juicier, bigger and sweater compared to those sold in hypermarket in packets (mainly from China and sometimes from Australia). Generally, the food in wet market are fresher and of a higher quality compared to hypermarket, thou it is slightly more expensive. Being a frequent customer now (every Sat morning), I am beginning to enjoy discounts from the folks in the wet market. This is good as they usually round down the figure I need to pay or gave me some free stuff (extra tomato or vege) or some extra meats at no charge!

Yet another life lesson being a Mom and not that boring as I would have imagined 5 years ago