A Laid-Back Mother's Day + Nacho Cheese Hummus

Sunday

Arthur really synced with me for Mother’s Day morning - the second I walked out of my room, he started stirring. The little guy wasn’t terribly hungry for breakfast, but was pretty chill for most of the morning; Happy Mother’s Day to me!

Feeling pretty during afternoon snack time

After a morning bath, Arthur crashed quickly and hard. Following his nice long nap, Arthur brought his parents to the Bisschopsmolen for their Sunday vlaai fix, then extended his walk with his dad. Despite the morning’s adventures, Arthur didn’t nap during his 1:00 feeding session. I think he’s working on dropping that nap and switching his evening nap to earlier - at least that seems to be the pattern these past couple of days.

After his 1:00 nursing session, Arthur had a solid dessert! We started out with soy yogurt, which he is still a big fan of, followed by slices of yellow bell pepper. I’m not sure that he sees the bell pepper as a food, exactly; he likes playing with it and babbling with it hanging out of his mouth, which is pretty cute. He does eat it, just more as an afterthought than an intent. Arthur also tried a new food: raspberries! I smooshed a couple and fed them to him on a spoon. And they must have been sour or something, because each time Arthur registered the taste, a shocked expression sprung onto his face. He did keep accepting the spoon though, so either he’s not too smart or didn’t completely hate the raspberries.

Unfortunately, Arthur didn’t nap during his 3:00 nursing session either, which I had really been expecting him to. But he did nap on his subsequent walk with his pops.

Arthur’s dinner was a bit fancy. I mean, it was Mother’s Day after all. I had cooked up quite a concoction earlier in the day, consisting of green split peas, red lentils, whole wheat orzo, ghee, oil from a jar of tahini, sesame seeds, garam masala, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, and fenugreek. The little foodie seemed very happy with it, and ate quite a bit!

So, Arthur’s Mother’s Day feast came out to:

• soy yogurt

• bell pepper

• raspberries (new food!)

• green split peas

• red lentils

• whole wheat orzo

• ghee

• tahini oil

• sesame seeds

• spices: garam masala, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek

Monday

Arthur synced nicely with me on Monday, waking up a little before 8. He was super sweet all morning, but showed no inclination to nap during his 10:00 nursing session, which was really unusual for him. I don’t know if he was just so well-rested he wasn’t ready for a nap, although he was yawning. So he probably could have used one.

Post-pooping bliss

Anyways, after his non-nap and nursing session, I trundled him off to Lidl. Then he helped his dad do some more shopping, and finally, blessedly, got some sleep in at his 1:00 nursing session, so he was in fine form for an afternoon snack! I fed him more of the same curry lentil-pea-orzo dish from yesterday, mixed with some formula powder, along with some strips of bell pepper for the vitamin C. The bell pepper he remains ambivalent about, but the curry dish was a hit! The boy may grow up liking Indian food. Afterwards, he had fun practicing drinking from his cup, although after playing with it for a few minutes, he decided it would be more fun to drop it over and over again and make Mama pick it up.

Anyways, Arthur wasn’t terribly hungry or sleepy during his 3:00 nursing session, but he got another solid nap in at 5:00, which I was not going to complain about. So he was fully ready to chow down on his solid dinner, which was pretty much the same as his lunch. The only difference was that I chose to mix his curry dish with peanut butter instead of formula powder this time. I’m pretty sure this only made it more appealing to Arthur.

Which makes Arthur's Monday solid intake fairly similar to his Sunday one:

• bell pepper

• formula (milk powder)

• green split peas

• red lentils

• whole wheat orzo

• ghee

• tahini oil

• sesame seeds

• peanut butter

• spices: garam masala, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek

I didn't cook dinner on Sunday or Monday, but I do want to post my new favorite hummus recipe. Or maybe it's more of a chickpea dip. Anyways, it's another Chocolate Covered Katie recipe - this is the one that made me decide she's a genius. I was highly skeptical when I first saw the ingredients, thinking there was no way it could taste like Nacho Cheese Doritos, but oh my goodness, it actually does! I followed her recipe pretty closely, with just one or two adaptations mostly because my blender has a bit of trouble handling the original recipe. Here's how I make it:

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Doritos Nacho Cheese Hummus

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas, drained (mine was 265g drained)

• ⅓ cup tomato paste

• ⅓ cup water (the original recipe calls for ¼ cup, and that would probably be good, but my blender could barely handle the ⅓ cup I put in)

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• ¼ cup nutritional yeast (add this after the rest is blended)

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 ¼ tsp crushed garlic (I subbed ½ tsp powder once and it worked perfectly fine)

• 2 tsp onion powder

• 1 tsp salt, or to taste

• optional pinch cayenne

• optional MSG (I added this as usual)

Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients except the nutritional yeast to a blender. If you are using a food processor or high-power blender, you can probably add the nutritional yeast as well.

2. Keep blending, scraping down the sides as needed. Depending on your blender, you may not be able to get it completely smooth. Mine ends up being a little chunky, but I like it that way!

3. Mix in the nutritional yeast if you didn't already, and pulse the blender a couple more times.

4. Enjoy!