baby dahl, irish mash and best (guilt free) pancakes ever

These are so easy it is almost embarrassing! You can freeze all of them, yay! The puree's work well frozen in a silicon muffin tin or one sprayed with vege oil then popped out into a freezer bag.

Baby spinach dahl, about 6 serves (adapted from Good First Foods by Sara Lewis)

Bring to boil and simmer for 25 mins:

3T red lentils

2T white rice

1t oil

pinch ground coriander

pinch turmeric

1c homemade vege stock or water

You may need to monitor this and add a touch more water to stop it from sticking. 

Add 1 tomato, without skin and seeds

1 bunch spinach chopped, without stalks (you could use silverbeet too)

and cook for further 2 mins

Puree or mash to desired consistency.

Champ-cannon, 12 serves (adapted from River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Nikki Duffy)

3 med-large potatoes

1/4 cabbage

a few spring onions

3 large stalks of silverbeet
Bit of natural yogurt

Peel and cook the potatoes and steam the very finely chopped greens above.

Puree or mash to desired consistency with yogurt and a little of the cooking water.

Whole Grain Pancakes, makes so many baby ones so make some for you too. (recipe lightly adapted from Chef Michael Smith but taken from the blog Poppytalk)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat or almond flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through to salt. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until well blended. Pour the wet into the dry and use a wooden spoon to lightly stir the batter smooth, being careful to not over mix. Let sit for 10 minutes so that the baking powder can do it's thing.

Heat over medium-high a large cast iron skillet or heavy pan and use a little butter or oil to grease the pan. Spoon batter into skillet - large pancakes or small pancakes. When you see bubbles rise on top and start to pop leaving holes, it's time to flip. Remove onto a plate covered with a large bowl to keep warm while you cook up the remaining batter. Babies enjoy these plain but serve yours with maple syrup, fresh fruit or jam and dig in. 

11 months

I love the number 11, I think of it as pretty and interesting. At the moment thought we are on the big countdown to the number 1, so Ada being 11 months old feels a bit penultimate. Nevertheless each week brings new tricks and personality to our wee button so 11 months deserves a wee post.

First piece of news is that chase has become the best game ever and Ada loses it giggling. So. Much. Fun.

Ada stood by herself for 5 whole seconds the other day and then sat down, stood back up and raised her arms in the air. Very much a LOOK AT ME moment.

She continues to be on time with milestones, not really early and not really late. Ada loves her trolley and activity table where I tell her to play DJ and make some music. She pulls herself up on everything, especially friends and sliding doors. Walking is next. Oh. My. We are not there yet, surely?!

After 4 months of signing a few baby sign language words to Ada she used two unequivocally in two days when we were down at Hayden and Emily's wedding in Wellington. Ada was being looked after by a friend and I came back to help put her down for a nap. After changing her nappy she was on my knee and signed food. I said "but it is bedtime" and Ada burst into huge tears. So I stood up and told her we would go get a banana and the tears stopped. She ate the whole thing and went happily to bed 3 minutes later! A whole conversation with a 10 month old. So cool. 

The last achievement this month is that she ate what we had for dinner last night, Moroccan meatballs sans chili. Wahoo, cooked tomato is on the menu. Phew. Onwards!

to work or not to work?

I have been intending to write more than captions for photos on here for the longest time. Two months ago I told myself that I would write something on average every two days. I published 4 coffe blogs that day and that was it. Yesterday a dear friend said if I wrote a baby book she would be a follower. Too kind! Trouble is, I don’t really write! As an aside said friend would be an amazing writer and have you glued to her life and her insights, she is a quiet hero of mine.  

My general demeanour is happy go lucky with a dose of charming complaints. I don’t get angry or depressed often, what you see is what you get. However, when I process big thoughts they usually simmer under the surface, waiting patiently until I get the right opportunity to discus with a good friend. I can usually draw this process out until action is required. Trying to capture big thoughts when they happen is a lot of the reason why I blog. Having to finish the thinking process before I press publish helps me to be disciplined with finishing what I start, I need this to write and I often need this to think things through. I get distracted easily, sometimes by a cute baby waking up, more often by FB or Trademe. 

who me?

For the past few months I have had some low level background dissatisfaction with myself or with life. The simplest answer seems to be a job, I sort of want one for the money and for the variety. Do I get a fill the gaps job, put my very wonky career on hold? Do I dig deep and figure out my next step on the path to my perfect job? I haven’t really been willing to look this in the eye because I am grateful for the opportunity and support from Cam to care for Ada full time and want to make the most of it. To name aloud that I am unsatisfied makes it bigger and more problematic, when day-to-day I am really happy with things. 

When we returned from Canada and I was 5 months pregnant getting a full time job was not on the cards. When Mum friends discuss going back to work I feel like my position is moot as I don’t have a job to go back to, the decision is made for me.  Even though I have spouted all these thoughts here I haven’t come up with an answer, just said the question aloud. Work is only a small part of what may be the solution and I am not sure of my next step at all. I am finding it a bit disconcerting, like I said, this has been on my mind for months, my abilty to put off thinking these big thoughts has been rather accentuated by my ongoing baby brain. As it stands I am not figuring this out yet, I am going to enjoy Ada's first year without worrying about this. I am waiting until January to see what I come up with and plan on booking in some soul searching over the holidays.