Again, not something for those younger babes but handy for older children. I was feeling a bit uneasy about the amount of raisins Babybear was eating when we were out and about as, well, they're basically not that different to sweeties at the end fo the day. So as soon as those pre-molars started appearing a few months back (say, 16 months or so) I started to give her pumpkin seeds. Raw, not toasted, and in fact I leave them hanging around for a bit so that I know they're a bit soft.
Watch out when you buy them, though, as the quality really seems to vary. I got some lovely ones in an Asian grocers, great big green things, but at Sainsbury's I came away with poxy little yellowy things without noticing and they do taste a bit horrible.

See, I don't know if I should even be mentioning these as obviously Babybear has long since 'weaned' but I wanted to tell the mums of older children about my latest healthy snack 'discoveries'. Check me out, I'm like Columbus sailing the ocean blue here...
Anyway, I love a Brazil nut, I think they're pretty healthy, zinc and all that kind of stuff, and I probably started giving them to Babybear when she was about 16 months old. She did take fairly big chunks of them to begin with (not that she choked but I was understandably watchful) but the more molars she has, the better she's got at eating them. Plus they are quite soft as nuts go, because they're so oily.
They're easy to get hold of in Boots and M&S nowadays, as well as yer general supermarket, which means that as an 'oh my god we're out and I've got NOTHING' standby they're pretty good.

Now obviously you've all been doing this since the clock struck six months but I've only just realised today that if you cut a pitta in half to make a pocket, slide some thin slices of cheese and a bit of chopped tomato into it and then stick it in the toaster then it makes a pitta melty thing that can then be left to cool down a bit (a bit? they're thermo-bloody-nuclear) and cut into fingers. It was great as it wasn't too messy so could be eaten standing up, which is how Babybear likes to lunch these days. A stick of carrot in one hand and a pitta finger in the other, very virtuous. And so very quick.

Okay, tell me. Am I the last person on earth to realise that this is a quick and easy lunch? what other things could we jam into the cheesy mixture that wouldn't then fall out? Spring onions? Do they actually have any nutritional benefit?

Post Script

Oooohoooh, these are really coming into their own now that the sun is out. Which as you may be bitterly aware, means over the last two days in the UK.

Now as you may know I'm not a huge one for the whole disguising of vegetables thing, but one of my favourite sandwich fillings ever is grated carrot, hummous and raisins. I think it would be revolting in these, needless to say.

However, grate one carrot and some cheese into a bowl (I used the Microplane grater but a fine setting would do the trick) along with some spring onions and a half teaspoon of either cumin or sweet paprika and they are lovely, all cheesy and melty and sweet from the carrot. You could add tomato too but Babybear seems to have an allergy so they're off the menu for us for the moment.

You're not tricking anyone, I promise, but if you do have any reluctant veg-eating siblings in the family I'd have to say that you can't tell there's carrot in there once the cheese has melted around it. And for BLWers like myself who sometimes wish to cut down on the amount of cheese and 'up' the veg, they are great. My husband has eaten them for lunch for the past two days, if that's any indication. Made them himself and everything...