26th July 2006
Funnily enough we haven't given her that much pasta yet, principally because I like it with a tomato-based sauce and she isn't supposed to be eating tomatoes yet. Also it does sometimes cross my mind that we are overloading her with gluten (what with the Organix Moon Biscuits and the constant rounds of toast) so if we're not eating pasta I'm certainly not making it specially.
I read somewhere that Farfalle and Fusilli are good for babies to hold onto, so that's what we have in the cupboard at the moment. She likes it with pesto, parmesan and asparagus, that sort of thing...


Update 4 March 2007

Nine months on from my first post and I am killing myself laughing about my po-faced 'we're not eating much pasta'... Babybear would now eat it morning, noon and night if I let her. We mostly stuck to Fusilli as the Farfalle were a bit gaggy to begin with (although she's fine with it now, obviously). I really want to recommend Conchiglie though, because the sauce gets stuck inside the shell so it becomes a dinky little parcel of veggie, carb and protein. We rarely have spaghetti as  both Babybear and her father find it irritating, but the conchiglie are perfect for a spag blog.

Babybear eats A Lot of the three Ps, pesto, peas and pasta. It's our never-fail meal, to be honest. Sometimes I'll stir in some cream, creme fraiche or soft cheese if there is some in the fridge. Sometimes I'll whack in some fried bacon as well. Oh yes, we know how to live round our house, let me tell you...

Ladies and gentlemen, if it's good enough for Apple Paltrow-Martin, it is good enough for my daughter...

I should, of course, be making this delicious mix of chickpeas, sesame seed paste, garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil myself but I'm afraid that a month of baby-led weaning has left me reluctant to approach the Magimix. Perhaps some day...

Actually, I have made it before but I do prefer the shop-bought stuff. It's creamy-licious. The baby has it on toast, rice cakes (more of which elsewhere) or banana if she's feeling adventurous and I am too frazzled to clean her up between courses. It does go everywhere but it's quite benign really, thanks to the pale colour, and easily wiped off.

Now, some people might want to shy away from hummus as the sesame paste can be a trigger for allergies but neither my partner (he's actually my husband but that makes me feel so OLD) are allergic-y and we eat a lot of Lebanese food so we've decided to go for it. We were in a cafe today enjoying a spot of meze and Babybear was perfectly content to suck hummus off some flatbread. The pickled, hot red pepper that the Husband handed her by mistake was another story...

PS Marks & Spencer has just brought in a couple of new hummuses (hummi?).
There's an organic one, which is tasty and whatnot and only available in the smaller size. But the real stroke of genius is their idea to package three tiny little pots (say, two sandwiches worth) so that you don't have to keep throwing out unused hummus after three days. Wonderful, wonderful work. Although only available in Reduced Fat and containing maltodextrin, which is a bit of a bummer.

Ye Gods. This is a rather delicious recipe that the Husband and I frequently enjoy but even I wouldn't just have handed it over to the baby... he had no such qualms.
She loved it, of course.