Cool Baby, Marinated Tofu
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Monday
A rough 6:30 wakeup for Arthur. Miklós fed him some more of the puréed couscous dish to keep him satisfied until I woke up. And, shockingly, he fell asleep on me pretty quickly after I latched him on for his second breakfast.
Arthur was quite a hit in his new stroller set-up, which, since a blanket doesn't work very well with and involves more sun exposure, "requires" him to wear his bear outfit and sunglasses. My favorite comment was one an international college student made to his companion: "That is one cool baby."
For his afternoon solid snack, Arthur finished off a jar of sweet potato purée in the fridge (he loved it), followed by a bit of crumbled firm tofu (also loved it), followed by the rest of the couscous purée (more love from Arthur). So he had a big appetite, and it ended up being quite a substantial snack. Although he didn't speed up the process by repeatedly dropping his spoon on the floor. I swear he was doing it on purpose, although I think that's to be expected at this age. He also giggled up a storm when I was wiping down his neck (as usual) but also when I was cleaning his hands. Then he wanted to play tug-of-war with the cleaning wipe, and got a kick out of that. He's a funny little bug. But he did seem a bit constipated after all that food.
Arthur's dinner consisted of an egg scramble I whipped up while I was feeding him snacks. It was quite basic: egg, mashed tomato (yes, I mashed it in the garlic press) and sesame oil since I figured we might as well get an allergen into the cooking oil. And Arthur devoured it, grunting for seconds and thirds and fourths.
Which means that on Monday, Arthur had:
red lentils
carrot
zucchini
fennel
wheat
tomato
rapeseed oil
sweet potato
tofu
tomato
egg
sesame oil
Tuesday
Arthur woke up a little before 6:30, and since Miklós had to go into the office, I was on duty from the get-go. It was clearly going to be a long day. I really can't complain, though - he was very chill and waited patiently for me to empty the dishwasher, brush my teeth and wash my face, and make myself a coffee before feeding him. By then, he was pretty darn hungry, and nursed very well.
But because I started nursing him an hour earlier than usual, we had another hour to kill in the morning, so I ended up giving him an extra solid snacking session while I did some things in the kitchen. We started out with some homemade yogurt I had made the previous day. Unfortunately, it was low-fat, as it was part of a batch I had made for my high-cholesterol hubby. Arthur wasn't crazy about it at first, but he did start grunting for more and more later on, so I'd say he was ok with it. We followed it up with a bit of pumpkin purée, which he seemed more enthusiastic about than usual, and ended with something new: green beans! I had opened a jar of them the day before, and upon noticing they were salt-free, saved a couple for Arthur. They were really soft as well, so I could just mash them with my fingers and give him a taste. He wasn't very into it at that particular feeding.
Arthur had a very productive afternoon snack. We started off with more green beans, and he was more interested this time. Then I gave him a bit more tofu, which he still loved, and followed it up with yogurt. He seemed to enjoy the yogurt more this time, even when I modified it to become absolutely nasty.
Since shellfish are a big allergen, I saved a shrimp from Miklós’s frozen dinner last night, and today, I chopped it into little pieces, nearly gagging while doing so. This, I have to say, is the true love of a mother. I can deal with the explosive poops, no problem, but cooking shrimp for my little guy was a whole new level of devotion. I cooked the pieces in a bunch of sesame oil, figuring it would mask any shrimp smell and get in another allergen at the same time. Then, I mixed a couple of the cooked pieces into Arthur’s yogurt to create a 3-allergy parfait! He was totally fine with it, and we were able to successfully introduce our penultimate allergen, and the one I was most apprehensive about. Only fish left! Though he did spit up some shrimp on me afterwards, which I was not terribly happy about.
We also had a more successful time drinking water! I took the top off the lid of the sippy cup this time, and just held the open plastic cup to his mouth, and he knew exactly what to do, sipping by instinct and swallowing. He even wanted more! So we’ll have to keep doing that.
He was super adorable when I went to change him; he was making hoo noises with his mouth, and when I mimicked him, started cracking up. He wanted to continue this serve-and-return game for quite a while, giggling up a storm when I responded to his sounds. It was so dang sweet.
But Arthur was really distraught when he woke up from his 5:00 nursing/napping session. I don't know what was going on with him; he seemed freaked out and couldn't even handle a diaper change. Maybe he had had a nightmare or something. He calmed down after half an hour in the sling though, and was in good spirits by the time his dad got home. While his parents ate their dinner, Arthur enjoyed the rest of the scrambled egg from the previous day.
Our little foodie thus consumed the following on Tuesday:
homemade low-fat yogurt (new food!)
pumpkin
green beans (new food!)
firm tofu
sesame oil
shrimp (new food!)
egg
tomato
I had a tutoring session Monday evening and Miklós went into the office on Tuesday, so we just had ready-made meals those evenings. But I did marinate some tofu for a meal later this way in my favorite marinade. It's a bit like fina'denne' sauce. Here's how I make it:
Yummy Marinated Tofu (serves 2 as the protein component of a meal)
Ingredients
325g firm tofu, cut into slices
6 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp white vinegar (probably rice or even apple cider vinegar would be good here too)
1 tbsp maple syrup/equivalent in any other liquid sweetener
2 green onions, chopped (I omitted them this time because we didn't have any, and it was fine)
1 tsp dried chili flakes
2 minced garlic cloves (optional, unless you're a garlic-head like me)
Instructions
Mix everything but the tofu together in a glass container.
Add the tofu slices, and let them marinate overnight, or longer!
When you're ready to serve them, you can air fry them until they are crisp, or let them simmer in the remaining marinade until it evaporates, or just serve them as is - all are delicious!
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