Moody Dude + The French Toast Hack

Friday

Friday started out very similar to Thursday; a shrieking Arthur popped out of bed just before 7, and just before his dad had to head out the door to work. After his first breakfast, the dude was fairly content, working on rocking on his hands and knees, dancing to music, and reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Since we had a long stretch of time between feedings, I fed Arthur the last two corn puffs while I did a couple of things in the kitchen. After an initial face of disgust (again!), he was very enthusiastic.

Arthur crashed hard at his 10:00 nursing session, which wasn’t a surprise; he had been rubbing his eyes for a good 15 minutes beforehand. Unfortunately, while he fell asleep quickly, he didn’t sleep for long - probably less than half an hour. I’m not sure why - I swear I didn’t sneeze this time - but it was certainly a bummer. So, I bundled him up and took him to the store.

Tante Mika declared Arthur "the cutest baby in the whole world" when she saw this picture. I think she'd feel otherwise if she had been hanging out with him the past couple of days.

Arthur typically gets an extra snack when Papa goes in to the office, so I fed him some of the Weetabix porridge I had made the previous day while I unpacked groceries and had a cup of tea. It was his snack again at his usual snack time, and both times, he ate with gusto! Weetabix is always a hit, however I prepare it.

Arthur got another shorter-than-I-would-have-liked nap in at his 1:00 nursing session, but at his 5:00 nursing, he got a good hour of napping in, so I was happy about that, despite the fact that his diaper reeked the entire time, so I got to breathe in a lovely aroma.

While his parents enjoyed frozen pizzas, Arthur got his own version: pizza egg! I scrambled up an egg in olive oil with a lot of tomato paste, along with nutritional yeast, oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, and just a little bit of chopped mushroom (a new food!) Arthur wasn’t terribly hungry, but didn’t have a problem with it, and ate a reasonable amount.

And that means that on Friday, Arthur’s menu consisted of:

• corn puffs

• Weetabix

• kefir

• mango purée

• peach purée

• apple purée

• egg

• olive oil

• tomato paste

• spices: oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder

• nutritional yeast

• mushroom (new food!)

Saturday

Arthur’s early morning streak continued with vengeance on Saturday with a 6:30 wakeup. I was very happy Miklós wasn’t working and dealt with him for an hour and a half until I was ready to nurse. Both of them were pretty frazzled by that point, and Arthur couldn’t decide whether nursing or sleeping took precedence. Unfortunately he barely did any of the latter, so was in a pretty horrible mood for most of the morning, throwing tantrums galore.

Unfortunately, Arthur’s tantrums don’t have the desired effect; it’s hard not to laugh at them. He grunts and kicks his feet vigorously, sometimes getting his whole body in on the action with some hip thrusts. It’s about as effective as the bunnies flicking their feet at us.

Anyways, at least Arthur got a nap in during his 10:00 nursing session, and then again at his 1:00 one. I think they both contributed to a happier baby, who was in a fairly good mood for his afternoon snack. I had opened up a jar of ready-made cauliflower-sweet potato purée for a recipe (more on that another time), and there was a little bit extra leftover, so I mixed that with some peanut butter and formula powder to thicken it up and add some allergens. He was extremely enthusiastic about it; I’m not sure whether he was just hungry or whether it was the peanut butter. It does seem that Arthur greedily devours everything containing peanut butter.

He was still hungry after finishing off the purée, so I fed him some more of the pizza scrambled egg from the previous day. After an initial disappointment that it wasn’t more peanut butter, Arthur ate it happily enough, so had quite a substantial lunch, or so I thought. He still had some appetite for nursing at 3:00 afterwards, though, although as we were video-chatting with Oma at the time, didn’t drink a lot.

Our first exposure to the wonders of red "rice"

The adults were having red rice with their dinner, and I figured it would be a great opportunity to introduce Arthur to the flavors of the dish! So I made him red oatmeal at the same time I prepared the rice for ourselves. I made extra achiote water (by soaking achiote seeds in hot water, rubbing the seeds to release their color and flavor, and then straining the seeds out), and used it to cook some quick oats, added a bit of onion powder and olive oil, and used the liquid to cook some quick oats. Basically the same flavors as red rice, but in oatmeal form! No pressure on Arthur or anything, but it was vital that he enjoy this flavor. While we ate our red rice, Arthur ate his red oatmeal. And I think he liked it! He was a bit agitated by that point, having not slept during his 5:00 nursing session, but ate a decent amount and kicked his feet energetically while he did so, which must be a good sign, right?

So, in addition to booby juice, Arthur's Saturday was full of:

• cauliflower

• sweet potato

• peanut butter

• formula (milk powder)

• egg

• nutritional yeast

• tomato paste

• mushroom

• spices: garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil

• olive oil

• oats

• achiote seeds (new food!)

I did try a new salmon recipe for the adults' dinner on Saturday, but I'll post about it later; I have quite a number of other recipes I've tried backlogged that I want to catch up on. Lately, I've been going down a Chocolate Covered Katie rabbit-hole. I've been making her chickpea cookie dough for years, but recently I've been trying out other recipes from her website, and every one I have tried has turned out fantastic! She's seriously a culinary wizard. I get the impression that these days she's less involved in the recipe development and testing, so I'm not sure about the more recent posts, but the older ones are brilliant. This one I want to repost isn't really a recipe but a genius hack for when you want more-or-less instant French toast. Here's how to make it:

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Instant "French Toast"

Ingredients

• sliced bread of choice (I used a protein bread - what else is new?)

• water/milk of choice

• a pinch of salt

• a sprinkle of cinnamon

• optional toppings: sweetener of choice, cream cheese/margarine, whipped cream, jam, fruit, chopped nuts/nut butter,

  etc.

Instructions

1. Soak your bread in water or milk so that it is soggy.

2. Place on a microwave-safe plate and sprinkle with cinnamon and a tiny bit of salt.

3. Microwave for 30 seconds.

4. Top it with whatever you want! I usually spread on either cream cheese or margarine and some powdered sweetener, but I bet syrup, whipped cream, or jam would also be tasty!