Dadadada + Zucchini Protein Brownies
- Apr 3
- 6 min read
Wednesday
Arthur woke up at 7:15, and was a bit of a grump. Still, at least he took a nap during his 10:00 nursing session, and again at the 1:00 one.
We decided to postpone our trip to Hungary by a couple of days, so we can monitor and medicate Stella. So the new plan is to leave Saturday afternoon, instead of today. Which meant that the baby food I’d been rationing out wasn’t going to last us. I decided to bite the bullet and open another jar of the horrid fish purée. I thought I’d mix it with some other things to thicken it up and dilute it a bit. Of course, that also means it stretches the jar out, but I just didn’t want to deal with the purée on its own at the moment.
Since we still had a bit of the pea purée/coconut flour/nutritional yeast dish in the fridge, which had thickened up into almost crumbles overnight, I stirred it into the fish purée, and fed some to Arthur. He was pretty meh about it at first, but did end up taking to it more after a while, and ate a pretty decent amount. And I have to say, the fish was nowhere near as awful-smelling as the previous time. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I mixed in other things, or if the jar itself had a less rank batch of fish mixed into it or what, but I was very happy about that.
We followed that up with some more practice drinking (Arthur loved it, and giggled quite a bit during), and then a major cleanup, which Arthur always finds hilarious. I particularly love how much he cracks up when I wipe down his neck.
He was in a pretty goofy mood for much of the afternoon and early evening, despite not sleeping after his 1:00 nursing session. He also had quite a lot of energy, and was shrieking and screeching his new favorite dadadadada sound repeatedly throughout the day. He had a lot of fun twinging my bra strap as he nursed during his 5:00 feeding session, so there’s a new game for him. At least it wasn’t as bad at the other activity he occupied himself with then: scratching and clawing at Mama. Maybe it was his way of telling me his nails need clipping (it worked).
The usual choice applied to Arthur’s solid dinner: something easy, low-mess, and hyper palatable. So he got the rest of the egg from a couple of days ago, and was pretty happy about it!
So, on Wednesday, Arthur’s solid diet consisted of:
pea purée
coconut flour
nutritional yeast
white fish
spinach
rice
egg
sesame oil
olive oil
Thursday
Arthur woke up at around 7:15 or so again. He was pretty hungry by the time he got to my boob at 8. After his first breakfast, Arthur charmed his pops by shrieking dadadadadada repeatedly. I almost wonder if he knows what it means, because he did squeal it at one point when Miklós entered the room. In which case, I am very offended. He refers to his mom and nagymama as hoes.
Anyways, Arthur had a nice nap at 10:00, after a bath. His next nap was very short, only 15 minutes or so at his 1:00 nursing session.
For his afternoon snack, we made some more progress with that fish purée. Once again, I mixed it with the remaining pea purée-nutritional yeast-coconut flour crumbles to thicken and dilute it. When he finished that off, I mixed some more of the fish purée with oatmeal. And finally, gave him a few spoonfuls of the purée itself; we need to finish it off tomorrow before leaving to Hungary! At least Arthur seemed to enjoy all three variations of the dish, even the really bizarre one. He certainly isn’t a picky eater! We did do some more practice drinking out of the cup afterwards, but it wasn’t as successful, and I don’t think Arthur really drank anything. At that point he was getting pretty tired, I think.
Arthur did nap a bit towards the end of the following nursing session, although he was rudely awaken by his parents talking. Luckily, he followed it up with a longer nap during his 4:00 walk with dadadadadadadada; I think he needed the sleep.
At dinner, I gave him some inoffensive oatmeal, so that he wouldn’t turn his parents off of their appetites. I did mix in some walnut oil and peanut butter to get some more allergens into his day, but at least those don’t smell bad. And the little dude was quite a fan of the dish! He was actually super sweet and smiley throughout dinner and afterwards, though he kept getting distracted and wanting to play during his booby milk dinner, which made it challenging to nurse him. Ah well, at least he was a very sweet little bugger, so I’ll take it.
Which means Arthur’s Thursday solid intake consisted of:
pea purée
nutritional yeast
coconut flour
white fish
spinach
rice
oatmeal
walnut oil
peanut butter
Friday
Arthur woke up at 7:00 this morning, but Miklós held off on picking him up, and after 5 minutes, he fell back asleep again until 7:30. He was a bit grumpy until he had his breakfast, after which he was back on the dadadadada bandwagon. Unfortunately for him, said dada was off to Tilburg for a home viewing, and would be gone for most of the day.
Sooo, Arthur got an extra solid snack time around noon! And made a lot of progress on the fish purée, even though I diluted it with oatmeal. I wonder if that contributed to him taking a long nap during the 1:00 nursing session following his first snack, despite having already slept quite a bit during his 10:00 feeding. Either way, I’ll take it!
Arthur’s usual snack time around 2:00 was a bit chaotic, as I was video-chatting with Miklós during a viewing. Still, Arthur managed to finish the fish purée off, so we successfully made it through another jar of fishy nastiness! The second time around, instead of mixing it with oatmeal, I decided to mix the dish with some powdered formula. I had been trying to think of allergen-ish ways to thicken it up, especially ones fortified with iron. And all the baby porridges here just are not! But then I thought why not use his powdered formula, which we need to use up anyways, because it’s really only meant for babies up to 6 months. It contains milk (yayyy, allergens!) and is iron-fortified, so it’s a win-win! I mixed some into the fish purée, along with a little bit of tahini to get yet another allergen in. He seemed to like the weird combination fine - I have to say I question the little dude’s sense of taste. That being said, he wasn't quite as enthusiastic about it as he was about the oatmeal-fish purée combination. I think it might have been more due to being less hungry (having just finished a nursing session) than the food itself.
In addition to dadadadaing, Arthur seems to be developing a knack for sort of whistling. He was especially excited when I whistled back at him; the guy loves to interact! Another activity he’s discovered and been enjoying today? Sucking on the rim of his high chair tray. I’m not sure if it means he’s still hungry and is hoping to suck up some spillage or what.
Arthur got an additional extra snack of some fruit purée that I was trying to finish off before we leave to Hungary. We had opened up a pouch of apple/pear purée to hide some medicine for Stella (who, by the way, seems to be doing great) in, and so I gave him some before his 5:00 nursing session. At that point he was getting a bit tired, so was kind of fussy and not terribly interested in the purée, but he did eat a bit. And then at dinner, I gave him the rest of the oatmeal, just plain, which he nearly finished, so I was pretty happy with that.
So, on Friday, Arthur consumed the following solids:
white fish
spinach
rice
oatmeal
sesame oil
powdered formula (milk)
tahini
apple
pear
Anyways, the past three days we’ve had either ready-made meals from the store, or dinners I’ve already posted on this site. But I did try out a new snack: zucchini protein brownies! I had an extra zucchini leftover from earlier that I needed to do something with, and since I’m always trying to fit in more protein to boost my milk supply, this recipe seemed intriguing. And it wasn’t bad! It wasn’t really, although that’s not a surprise, given the ingredients. But it was very filling and chocolatey, so I very well might make it again! Here’s how I made it:
Zucchini Protein Brownie (makes 1 large serving or 2 smaller ones)
Ingredients
1 cup zucchini purée (this was one smallish zucchini for me)
6 tbsp cocoa powder
1 scoop vegan protein powder (I used unflavored pea protein, but I think any vegan powder would work)
1/4 cup granulated sweetener (if using an unflavored protein - reduce/omit if using a pre-sweetened powder)
splash vanilla extract
sprinkle of salt
Instructions
Peel and chop the zucchini into pieces. Boil in water for 10 minutes or so.
Remove from heat and drain. Use a regular or stick blender to make the zucchini purée.
Preheat oven or air fryer to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix the zucchini purée with the other ingredients and transfer to a small oven-safe dish.
Bake in the oven/air fryer for 30 minutes.
Enjoy warm or cold. I actually think it’s better after chilling in the fridge for a few hours!
Comments