Last Couple Days at Home + Eggplant Crumble?!
- May 13
- 6 min read
Tuesday
Arthur woke up at around 6:45 on Tuesday, so we were back to the early mornings. And it was my day home alone with him. Still, the little guy was in a pretty good mood throughout the morning. Since we had such a long stretch between our two morning nursing sessions, I gave Arthur a morning snack. He started off eating another quarter of a bell pepper, sliced into strips. His opinion of the vegetable hasn’t changed. We followed it up with more of the curry orzo-split pea-lentil dish, although this time I mixed in a bit of almond flour to get that allergen in there. He seemed to like it more than the bell pepper.
Later in the morning, while I was holding him, Arthur started pawing at my boob and trying to drink from it, folding his body sideways to access it. I figured that meant it was time for another nursing session, one which he, blessedly, napped during today, though not for nearly as long as I would have liked.
Arthur was a bit restless and grumpy during the rest of the morning, probably because he had had an early morning and only a 20-minute nap. Still, he tolerated a grocery trip and devoured a bunch of puffs when we arrived home, so I was happy those are still a hit - I’m banking on them for our upcoming travels. And, luckily, the bug got a nice long nap in during his 1:00 nursing session.
After his nap, it was time for his regular afternoon solid snack! We kept it simple and went with the curry dish and bell pepper combination again, although this time I mixed some formula powder into the curry. Same reaction: bell pepper is an uncertainty, whereas the curry is a delight. I also gave him a little bit of steamed broccoli I had been making for our dinner. It was hard to say what he thought of it; I’ll have to try again later.
It was pretty cute; Arthur managed, once again, to accidentally (or maybe on purpose) press Sonja’s foot to make her sing, and he was so excited. He kept looking at me and beaming, to see if I would recognize this exciting accomplishment. I sure did! We also had a nice long conversation consisting of blowing raspberries at each other. As his Tante Kaila said, I’m teaching Arthur all the important skills.
The skilled individual took another nice nap during his 5:00 nursing session, which I wasn’t going to complain about. He seemed to be pretty beat, and napped for well over an hour - yay, Arthur!
Arthur’s dinner was some scrambled egg that I whipped up earlier in the day. This particular version had some chopped bell pepper, broccoli, and spinach purée mixed in, was seasoned with garlic powder, turmeric, and paprika, and cooked in garlic-infused olive oil. Like all the egg iterations I’ve served him thus far, he was very happy to chow down on it.
Anyways, that brings Arthur’s Tuesday very solid solid intake to:
bell pepper
puffs (made of corn flour, sunflower oil, dried carrot & dried apple)
green split peas
red lentils
whole wheat orzo
ghee
tahini oil
sesame seeds
almond flour
spices: garam masala, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, paprika, onion powder
formula (milk powder)
olive oil
egg
broccoli
spinach
Wednesday
I think Arthur may have been as antsy about the upcoming trip as Miklós and I are; he woke up at 6:30 on our last full day at home. According to his dad, he was actually pretty chill during the morning, although he was pretty tired by the time he reached Mama’s boobs, and fell asleep during his first nursing session. Of course, this meant he didn’t nap during his 10:00 nursing session like he usually does, despite it being a post-bath experience.
The morning was largely spent packing for our big US trip coming up, and running a couple of last-minute errands. We also tried out Arthur’s hiking backpack! As in, a hiking backpack to put Arthur in, not for him to wear. We had gotten it from Omi while I was still knocked up, but hadn’t tried it yet, as it was meant for 9 months and older. And what do you know, Arthur will be hitting that milestone on the day we fly! We thought it would be a good alternative to the stroller and baby sling combo for traveling, as it will enable us to keep our hands free and, when we are in Friday Harbor, access hikes and beaches we wouldn’t be able to with the stroller.
Anyways, after a bit of an initial struggle, Arthur adapted to the backpack well, and seemed content in there, as long as the backpack was actually on his dad’s back, and not being propped up on the floor. It’s the highest vantage point he’s had yet, as it brings his height almost level with Miklós’s; the baby carrier I usually wear with him keeps his head just under my chin. And I think he enjoyed being up there!
Anyways, after testing the backpack out, Arthur had a walk in the stroller with his pops, and then came home for a breast milk lunch on me. He was really fussy for the first fifteen minutes or so of it, not drinking a lot and restless. I’m not sure if something was going on with him, but I think he may have just been tired, having not napped during his 10:00 nursing session like he usually does. Luckily he eventually did fall asleep, so was in significantly better spirits for our afternoon snack together.
We still had some curry and bell pepper to get through, so that’s what Arthur had for his snack. I keep mixing up (literally har har) what allergen I “season” the curry with, and today it was time for more peanut butter! Arthur certainly wasn’t complaining about that. The bell pepper is still a bit “meh” for him, and I ended up mixing it in the curry, but at least we finished it off. I also fed him a bit of broccoli and had him polish off the soy yogurt, which I mixed with formula. The broccoli seemed intriguing to him, and the soy yogurt, as usual, delicious.
Arthur didn’t nap during his 3:00 nursing session, which wasn’t a surprise, but he did fall asleep towards the end of his 4:00 walk with Miklós. Which meant he only slept 10-15 minutes then, and didn’t nap on me during his 5:00 nursing session. I wasn’t thrilled about that.
Still, Arthur was reasonably well behaved for dinner, which consisted of more of the scrambled egg dish I had prepared the previous day. It’s still egg, so he still likes it. The boy is a real egghead.
So, I managed to fit quite a few solids into Arthur's last full day at home before our trip:
bell pepper
green split peas
red lentils
whole wheat orzo
ghee
tahini oil
sesame seeds
peanut butter
soy yogurt
formula (milk powder)
spices: garam masala, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, paprika, onion powder
olive oil
egg
broccoli
spinach
I did actually cook some yummy new dinner recipes for the parents on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but I have a backlog of other recipes I've been meaning to post, so here goes one: eggplant crumble! We had an extra eggplant leftover from a kung pao eggplant dish I made last week (which, I realize, I also need to post the recipe for), so I figured I'd make it into a snack for myself. It's hard to think of snack-sized recipes utilizing an entire eggplant, but I remembered that years ago, I used to make a really good eggplant French "toast," and figured why not try another sweet dish with it? And so I turned it into an eggplant crumble. It's pretty much the same as any fruit crumble/crisp, just needs a little extra sweetener to make up for the lack of natural sweetness in the eggplant. But the neutral flavor of the eggplant worked well here, and it had a great consistency! I'll definitely remember this recipe for the next time I have extra eggplants. Here's how I made it:
Eggplant Crumble (one large snack serving)
Ingredients
1 small-medium eggplant, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp granulated sweetener
2 tsp lemon/lime juice (I used lime, because that's what we had)
spices to taste: cinnamon, cloves, ginger (I probably used a tsp or two of cinnamon, and just a pinch of the other two spices)
a tiny splash of vanilla
Crumble topping:
2 tbsp rolled or quick oats
1 tbsp flour of choice (I used oat flour)
1-2 tsp granulated sweetener
½ tbsp butter/margarine/ghee, melted
sprinkle of salt
little splash of vanilla
Instructions
Toss eggplant in sweetener, citrus juice, spices, and vanilla.
Mix all the crumble ingredients together in a small bowl.
Sprinkle the crumble over the eggplant.
Cook in the air fryer (I didn't preheat mine) at 175 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes, or until topping is crisp and eggplant is soft.
Enjoy warm or cold (I usually like my crumbles cold for some reason).
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