A Visit to Eindhoven + Easy Protein Pesto Pasta Salad
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
Saturday
Arthur woke up around 7:00 on Saturday. To satisfy the bottomless pit as he waited for the boobs to wake up, Miklós fed Arthur half an avocado, a peach, and some Cheerios. Then it was time for a liquid breakfast and two trips to Albert Heijn, first with Mama and then with Papa.
Afterwards, we quickly packed up and ran out the door to catch a train to Eindhoven; Arthur’s Tía Kata and Gábor were flying out of the airport there and wanted to meet up for coffee. Arthur was in pretty good spirits on the ride over, happily babbling on his dad’s lap for most of it. He did nurse a bit, but didn’t fall asleep, despite it being his typical napping time.
At the coffee shop, Arthur continued to be pretty laid back, and munched on some Cheerios while the adults chatted. We didn’t spend long there; after half an hour or so, Kata and Gábor were off to catch their flight, and we were off to catch a train home.
The train home was about an hour and fifteen minutes, and the parents spent most of it discussing and planning our move and the layout of our new home! Arthur spent a good chunk of it eating Cheerios; he really wanted to grab full handfuls of them from the jar and stuff them in his mouth, which naturally led to an awful lot of spillage. We probably won’t be allowed on the train again. Although I have to say, the ticket inspector was quite taken with Arthur, and even gave him a little train key ring!
Arthur fell asleep while nursing on me on the train at around 1:40 or so. It was his first nap of the day, and he clearly needed it; when we transferred him to the stroller 20 minutes later so we could disembark the train, he remained conked out. So his pops took him for a little walk to finish up that nap (he got abut 45 minutes in total) before it was time for home and susu.
Arthur was in a pretty good mood throughout the afternoon, crawling around all over his parents and going for another walk with his dad. He didn’t nap at all for the rest of the day, but was still reasonably civil until around 6:30, when he started to lose it. He grunted frantically throughout his solid dinner, even when there was food in his mouth, and went through the other avocado half from his breakfast, an entire (very small) sweet potato, some cream cheese, and a peach and a half. And despite all this, he still had a good appetite for a liquid dessert! I guess that’s what happens when you skip your usual afternoon snack.
So, on Saturday, Arthur ate:
avocado
peaches
Cheerios
sweet potato
cream cheese
Sunday
Arthur woke up very bright and early on Sunday morning: at 2:30 or so. Instead of settling back to sleep on his own, as he usually does during his middle-of-the-night wakings, Arthur sat up and started escalating, so Miklós ended up having to rock him back to sleep. Apparently, he did fall back asleep almost instantly in his dad's arms, so clearly he just needed some soothing or something. We're pretty sure something is going on with him right now, though, whether it's teething or a sleep regression or a growth spurt - I dunno, but he was in a fussy mood all morning as well.
The guy woke up a for the second time bit after 7:00, and Miklós fed him some Cheerios and a peach as his first breakfast. Then it was a susu breakfast, a lot of fussing, a bath, and another susu breakfast, which he spent most of sleeping.
The little dude was in a much better mood after his nap, and deigned to accompany his parents to the Bisschopsmolen and grocery store. It was a hot day, so when he got home, Arthur was certainly thirsty for susu! He chugged quite a bit, then, but, as usual, still had quite an appetite for a solid snack after! He started out with Cheerios, followed by a couple of servings of a ready-made coconut curry baby food purée, which contained carrots, pumpkin, onion, sweet potato, coconut milk, milk powder, potato flakes, rice meal, and canola oil. I mixed one of the servings with some peanut butter, which of course made it even more of a hit! Then it was another peach and some cream cheese, both of which he continues to enjoy immensely.
Arthur seemed a bit tired when I nursed him at 3:00, but resisted napping, choosing instead to repeatedly bite my nipple and peer at me to see how I reacted. So I stuck him on the floor, let him play with the books on my bookshelf, and tried again 15 minutes later. This time, he was much more amenable to going down; he slept for nearly an hour and a half on me. At one point he seemed to be waking up, but when I shifted him to the other side, he went right back down. In the end, I had to wake him up so I could use the toilet and have some vlaai; I have no idea how long he would have napped if I hadn't. I really do think there's something going on with him; the little guy was exhausted.
Arthur's dinner was an omelette I made earlier in the day; I whisked egg with turmeric, paprika, and onion powder, and cooked it in garlic-infused olive oil. The filling was puréed spinach mixed with formula powder, hemp hearts, and nutritional yeast. Honestly, Arthur didn't seem terribly hungry for it; while he did end up eating about half the omelette, he was more interested in playing with it. He also very deliberately dropped piece after piece over the side of his high chair. Ah well, I'll still call it a successful dinner, and at least Arthur seemed to enjoy the experience.
Which brings Arthur's Sunday eats to:
peach
Cheerios
Mamalette (garlic-infused olive oil, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, egg, spinach, hemp hearts, formula powder, nutritional yeast)
coconut curry baby food purée (carrots, pumpkin, onion, sweet potato, coconut milk, milk powder, potato flakes, rice meal, canola oil)
peanut butter
cream cheese
As for the adults? On Sunday, Miklós made gazpacho! And on Saturday, I tried making a protein pesto pasta. I like pesto pasta, but the thing is it has so little protein in it, so it's usually not terribly satisfying (or helpful for my milk supply). But when I saw this recipe, I was inspired! I love me some plain cottage cheese pasta already, so combining it with pesto made sense. I didn't really follow the recipe, which calls for blending the cottage cheese and pesto; I'm already used to eating pasta with un-blended cottage cheese, so I didn't see the point in doing the extra work. Nor did I pay much attention to the quantities; I just used the amounts of cottage cheese and pesto that were in the store-bought containers, and they seemed to work well! I think you could probably change the quantities of each a bit and it would still be good; it's a really flexible recipe - more of a template, really. I opted to add in some sun-dried tomatoes, a roasted red bell pepper, and some fresh basil instead of the chicken in the original recipe, but I think the add-ins are totally flexible and all sorts of things would work here! It's a super easy recipe base that I'm pretty sure I'll be coming back to. Here's how I made it:
Protein Pesto Pasta (serves 2 hungry parents)
Ingredients
250g dry pasta (I used a protein penne)
200g cottage cheese
90g pesto
salt & pepper, to taste
optional additions (not in the original recipe, but they worked well here: a handful of sun-dried tomatoes, a roasted red bell pepper, some chopped fresh basil. Other ideas I didn't personally use would be roasted tomatoes, eggplant, onion, or other veggies or some sort of veggie meat)
(Barely) Instructions
Boil a pot of salted water on the stove.
Add the pasta, reduce to a simmer, and cook until al dente.
Rinse under cold water until pasta is cool.
Add in the cottage cheese, pesto, and salt & pepper to taste.
If using any of the optional add-ins, mix those in as well!
Eat immediately, or stick in the fridge to marinate (I left it in overnight).
Enjoy cold!
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