A Visit from the Grands + Tasty Easy Salmon

Thursday

Well after the previous two glorious late mornings, we were due an early one. Arthur woke up at 6:30 and wailed loud enough that he even woke me up, a couple of doors down with earplugs in. He was a bit restless throughout the morning - not fussy really, just a bit agitated or something. I know we always wonder if he’s teething, but maybe this is it? Who knows.

Anyways, we had so much extra time in the morning that not only did we do a shopping run, we also had time for a morning snack while I unpacked, during which I fed Arthur some store-bought puffs since they were easy and low-mess. He was initially quite skeptical, but after figuring out that they were basically baby junk food, was more than happy to put away quite a lot of them! He also threw in a couple of mamas; the guy knows when to pull that stunt when I most need it.

Luckily, Arthur got a good nap in at his 10:00 nursing session, and was ready for a nice long walk afterwards, first with his mom, and then his dad. The weather was perfect for it! But he slept neither during his walks nor during his 1:00 nursing session afterwards. Ah well, sleepy babies probably have better appetites, right? Arthur certainly did when it was time for his snack. I microwaved and mashed up some leftover white beans from our dinner yesterday, and added in a scoop of formula powder for extra iron and allergens. Arthur’s skepticism barely lasted a mouthful or two before he was clamoring for more! After he finished off that batch, I mashed some more beans with apple-peach-mango purée for some vitamin C to help him absorb all that iron. That version was also a hit! So, Arthur’s a bean boy - I’m very proud.

I was happy that Arthur crashed during his 3:00 nursing session, so he still got a second nap in. I would have preferred three naps, but figured that would be pushing it given his second didn’t happen until so late. Instead, he was extremely restless and barely nursed at all at 5:00. But, I guess he wasn’t fussy.

Charming the pants off Nagymama

Arthur’s grandparents arrived just before 7:00, so it ended up being a bit of a late dinner and night for Arthur. For his solid dinner, he polished off the rest of the white beans, once again mashed with the same fruit purée. He was still hungry afterwards, so he also finished off the little bag of puffs from his morning snack. By the time he reached my boob at 8, he was ready for bed, and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

So, on Thursday, Arthur ate:

• puffs (made of corn flour, sunflower oil, dried carrot, and dried apple)

• white beans

• formula (milk powder)

• apple purée

• peach purée

• mango purée

  
  

Friday

It was a slightly later morning for Arthur on Friday, but not by much - he woke up maybe around 6:45. He was fairly content for much of the morning, but started getting fussy before his 10:00 nursing session - he was clearly getting tired and, accordingly, immediately crashed and slept for quite a while then.

After his morning nap, Arthur was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready for a nice long walk! He wasn’t in a mood for his usual 1:00 nap when he got home; perhaps the extra length of the previous one had been sufficient. So, the grandparents and his dad bundled him up and set off again, to let Arthur have his first restaurant lunch experience! They sat outdoors, with Arthur staying in the stroller, and Jutka fed him some puffs to keep him occupied while they ate.

Thinking deep stroller thoughts

Though Arthur was a bit fussy when they returned, he still didn’t want to nap during his next nursing session. So it was off on another walk with Papa & Nagymama! He fell asleep on this one, which I was very happy about - he desperately needed it. When he awoke, however, Arthur was pretty out of sorts and was not a happy camper. He cried while nursing and his tears escalated afterwards. Miklós and I were going out to eat for dinner while Jutka (and, technically Gyuri as well) babysat, and felt a bit bad about leaving the wailing baby with them. But, when we returned, Arthur was in a much better mood. He had gone on yet another walk with his grandmother, and she stuffed his face full of the rest of the apple-peach-mango purée, and the combination of those two activities seem to have kept him pacified for the evening.

So, on Friday, Arthur consumed:

• puffs (made of corn flour, sunflower oil, dried carrot, dried apple)

• apple purée

• peach purée

• mango purée

I didn't cook at all on Thursday or Friday, other than some yogurt dough bread rolls (but whoops, forgot to photograph those, so I'll have to post the recipe another time). But I do have a backlog of recipes I want to post, so please accept this delightful salmon recipe that I cooked last weekend. Salmon was on sale, and a cursory Google search for easy salmon recipes led me to this recipe. I followed it pretty closely, and it honestly was dang tasty, and the perfect accompany to red rice. Here's how I made it:

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Easy BBQ-ish Salmon (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 2 salmon fillets (mine were skin-on and 125g each)

• 2 tsp maple syrup (I subbed liquid sucralose)

• 2 tsp soy sauce

• 2 tsp Dijon/whole grain mustard

• salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Take the salmon out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before you plan on cooking it, to bring it to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and place the salmon fillets on the sheet skin-side down.

4. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the fish.

5. Whisk the syrup/sweetener, soy sauce, and mustard together in a small bowl or mug.

6. Coat the salmon with the sauce, and place in the preheated oven.

7. Cook around 15 minutes or so. You can tell it's done when it's opaque and white lines of fat appear at the top.

8. Optionally, coat salmon with any remaining sauce before serving.

9. Serve with whatever you want. I found this recipe to go great with red rice and some stir-fry veggies!