Finally Fish + Moroccan Roasted Carrots

Wednesday

Arthur woke up a little after 7, so he actually slept in past his mom. Not that I had a choice; construction began in the street in front of our house at 6:40. I was not happy about it. Meanwhile, the neighbors continued their own renovations opposite us, so it's been pretty loud around here. At least we had a bit of quiet around 1, so Arthur could get a nap in.

A beautiful day for removing our sunnies

Miklós took the day off work to go view another house in Den Bosch, one we were excited and optimistic about. So he was able to take Arthur off my hands for a bit in the morning, and help me give him a bath, before he headed out a little before 1.

I was super excited to find a ready-made baby food purée containing fish at the grocery store the other day. It's the only common allergen Arthur hadn't yet been exposed to, so I bought the final four jars in the store (they were on sale). So, after a bit of avocado, Arthur continued his afternoon snack with this, which, in addition to "white fish," contained spinach and rice. And he seemed to like it quite a bit! It might have also helped that I think he was pretty hungry by that point, but after the initial hesitation and faces, he kept grunting for more! Which I'm very happy about, but the stuff definitely had a fishy smell, a smell this dude still has, despite a wipe-down and outfit change afterwards. Oh, the things I put up with for his wellbeing.

I gave him some more of the purée at dinnertime, and I have to say, I already kind of regret buying so much of it. Ah well, at least it's very healthy and good allergenic exposure. I just want to get some baby breath mints for afterwards. But oh man, he was in a weird mood afterwards - super squirmy and giggly and, as Miklós put it, acting like he was drunk. I wonder what the heck this "white fish" was...

Our fishy foodie thus consumed the following on Wednesday:

• white fish (new food!)

• spinach

• rice

• avocado

Thursday

The morning started off pretty much the same as the previous one; construction started around 6:40 and woke me up, and Arthur synced with me and woke up right as I went to the bathroom, around 7.

The most stylish baby on the block

We had a nice long stretch of time in the morning, so I shoveled the rest of the jar of fish purée into Arthur while I prepped some other things in the kitchen. I was anxious to finish off the jar and get it and the smell over with; I figured we could spend the rest of the day eating less offensive foods. I didn't put a bib on Arthur or anything; I actually kind of wanted him to make a mess so I would have an excuse to change him. The weather was finally warm and sunny enough for us to wear matching jumpsuits I bought back in December, and I was very excited. Technically, it's a little girl's outfit, but Arthur and I don't care. It's still a little big on him, and he looks kind of hilarious in it. In other words, it's perfect.

Crazy news of the day - we won a bid! We had assumed there was no way our bid on the house would win - we had only bid 15,000 euros above the asking price. We didn't really want the home, but by placing a bid on the website, we would eventually be able to see all the other bids, and thus get a better idea of the competition and future bids. But of course, this was the one bid we won. So we had to pull out, and that was really awkward. However, it's encouraging that we can afford something in Den Bosch. And the house itself seemed great; it's only the neighborhood that felt icky. Hopefully we'll find the right thing at some point.

Arthur had a big appetite for his afternoon snack. Maybe he was just so relieved to be offered something besides fish that he went all out. We started off with a bit of pumpkin purée, which I seasoned with ginger, a new spice! He was more excited about it than I've ever seen him about pumpkin. At first, I thought it might be the ginger, but I think he was just hungry, because the enthusiasm continued through everything he ate. I made him some soft scrambled egg, seasoned with garlic and onion powder, and cooked in a mixture of sesame and olive oil. He devoured that as well. We ended the meal with some mashed sweet potato that I had saved from Miklós and my dinner the previous evening. As usual, he loved it, and I think he could have eaten more, but I wanted him to have some appetite for his next nursing session, so we ended snack time there.

After such a big snack, Arthur finally got a nap in (on me, of course). This long nap, which stretched my bladder to its limits, was the first proper nap he'd had that day, but he'd been in remarkably good spirits beforehand, despite the lack of sleep. He was smiley and goofy, and seemed to actually enjoy the crawling tummy time exercises I did with him! And after his nap, his good spirits continued.

I decided to vary his diet even more at dinner, and made up some rice porridge with breast milk, peanut butter and walnut oil. He was, surprise surprise, a fan. And I was pretty proud of the day's menu, which included 6 of the 9 common allergens! I guess the only things we were missing were shellfish (ughh no), gluten, and soy!

So, Arthur's very varied Thursday menu consisted of:

• white fish

• spinach

• rice

• pumpkin

• ginger powder (new food!)

• garlic powder

• onion powder

• egg

• sesame oil

• olive oil

• sweet potato

• rice porridge

• milk powder

• peanut butter

• walnut oil

I made more of the sweet potato lentil shepherd's pie that I posted a while back for the grown-ups' dinner on Wednesday (yes, sweet potatoes were on sale again!) And on Thursday, it was more of the bean mash, although this time I served it with roasted baby carrots, another sales item. I loosely followed this recipe for the carrots, and served them over the mash. They were super yummy! I think next time I would serve them over a similar yogurt sauce like the one in the recipe, as it would likely complement the flavors better, but I was still quite happy with the dinner. Here's how I made them:

---

Moroccan Roasted Carrots (serves 2 as a topping over mashed beans)

Ingredients

• 500g baby carrots, halved

• 1 tbsp olive oil (I actually used walnut oil, since we had some, and I thought it would complement the carrots nicely - it did!)

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp cumin

• ½ tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp ground black pepper

• ¼ tsp ginger

• ¼ tsp sea salt

• ¼ tsp ground cloves

• pinch of cayenne

• optionally nuts/seeds to top (I used chopped toasted walnuts)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius.

2. Place carrots in a parchment-lined baking tray.

3. Sprinkle carrots with oil, then spices.

4. Bake in preheated oven for around 30 minutes, or until a bit tender.

5. When carrots are done, serve them over bean mash or a savory yogurt sauce (I might try this another time), and top with optional nuts or seeds if using.