New Experiences + Broccoli Garlic Pasta
- May 24
- 7 min read
Thursday
Arthur slept in until 6:45 on Thursday, so he is definitely getting on a more normal schedule! He ate a few blackberries while waiting for the boob to arise, then had a nice big second and third breakfast and a bit of a nap.
For our late morning excursion, Miklós, G-Dawg and I took Arthur to False Bay, an open mud flat of sorts that extends pretty far out when there's a low tide, which today there was. We walked in the mud with Arthur in the backpack, peering at the crabs and other critters scuttling around our feet. Arthur seemed interested in the mud as well, and peered at it keenly from his perch. He’s his grandfather’s grandson.
We ended up stopping by a little beach by the side of the mud flat, and Arthur got his first experience with sand! We sat him on the shore, and buried his feet and fingers in the sand. He seemed interested in grabbing it, and also experimented with putting other goodies he found on the beach in his mouth, such as lichen, pine cones, and drift wood.
The little bug started falling asleep as we were walking back towards the car, and resumed his nap after a few minutes of fussing in the car seat. Impressively, Miklós was pretty much able to extract him from the seat still asleep, and held the dozing dude in his arms before transferring him to me and my boobs. Clearly, Arthur was exhausted. So at least he got a good midday nap in!
Apparently all that napping worked up an appetite, because Arthur was hungry for solids afterwards! I started him off by introducing him to a new food: spaghetti squash! I served it to him plain at first, and he seemed to really like it. Afterwards, I decided to add another new food in, and mixed a bit of soft truffle-infused goat cheese into the squash. It had quite a strong flavor, but Arthur still readily ate the squash, so he doesn’t seem to have a problem with truffle! He was still hungry afterwards, so I cooked him up a small portion of malt-o-meal mixed with peanut butter and a few blackberries. Arthur devoured the entire thing, and probably would have eaten more if we had offered it. As it was, he had eaten well over half a cup of food, and we called his meal quits for the moment at that point. Then he went off on another walk with his pops during which he got a nice long nap in!
Upon his return, Arthur was put straight on the boob. Then, well-fed and rested, Miklós and I left Arthur with his Oma to babysit while we went downtown to explore a bit and pick him up some baby toothpaste and a toothbrush! He was with Oma for a good hour, and was apparently great the entire time. She fed him a few tiny slices of raw rutabaga while we were gone, which he apparently liked, but otherwise mostly just hung out and chatted with him.
Arthur had a big solid appetite for dinner as well! He ate the same thing as everyone else: leftovers of a veggie chili that his G-Dawg had cooked the previous evening, along with white rice. My parents don’t use salt in their cooking, so it’s mostly pretty suitable for Arthur. And he was very happy to down quite a bit of the dish. It was kind of funny, though; he really was looking to me to get his bites of food. Oma tried feeding him multiple times, but he kept trying to reach for my own bowl, and wouldn’t look at the spoon she was shoving in his face. Eventually I ended up leaving the room so he would accept dinner from her.
Arthur had a bit of a nursing session afterwards, and then it was time for his first toothbrushing ever! Oma volunteered to do this, an offer I was happy to take her up on. Arthur seemed to like his “fruity fun flavored training toothpaste” - I mean, he mostly chewed on the toothbrush, but that was pretty much to be expected. At least it didn’t seem to bother him, so brushing his teeth should be bearable.
So, our little bug consumed the following on Thursday:
blackberries
spaghetti squash (new food!)
goat cheese with truffle (new food!)
Malt-O-Meal (wheat, barley)
peanut butter
rutabaga (new food!)
chili (with zucchini, tomatoes, pinto beans, bell pepper)
white basmati rice
Friday
Arthur slept in until almost 8 on Friday! It might have been my fault, too - I went into the room to brush my teeth, and I think that’s what woke him up. It was pretty amazing, though. We had a good morning; Arthur had a booby breakfast, and then a big second solid breakfast (he ate the entire half of a large avocado!) from G-Dawg while he and Miklós were having their breakfast.
After all that food, it was time for a hike! We headed off to Jakle’s Lagoon for a nice cliffside and forest stroll. Arthur started off the walk with a nice nap, then got a bit of a nursing session in by the shore, and was in high spirits for the trip back to the car, giggling like crazy as I played a game with him involving first looking away from him and then at him.
Upon our return, Arthur got a bit more susu followed by two new foods: melon and millet! The millet was in the form of a spaghetti which also contained brown rice, and Arthur seemed to like it. The melon was a bit less appealing to him, but he did eat the couple of small bites I gave him.
Arthur got a good long nap in during his afternoon walk with his pops, and was content alone with his Oma for a while before he started wailing for his parents. I fed him a bit of rehydrated prune as a pre-dinner appetizer, as well as in the hopes of speeding his bowels along. The past couple of days he’s seemed a bit constipated, straining quite a bit but only producing little nuggets. We’ll see if the prune helps.
Arthur’s dinner was the same as everyone else’s: brown rice millet pasta with a sauce made of onion, garlic, soy milk, and nutritional yeast, along with a few pieces of cooked zucchini and broccoli. He liked it, but was even more excited about playing with the plastic bowl it came from afterwards!
So, on Friday, Arthur ate:
avocado
spaghetti made out of millet (new food!) + brown rice
melon (new food!)
soy milk
onion
garlic
nutritional yeast
rehydrated prune
zucchini
broccoli
Saturday
Arthur woke up around 7:00 on Saturday. He was pretty content throughout the morning, having two nursing sessions and a substantial solid breakfast (another full avocado half, along with some melon and cheddar cheese) all before 10! The boy is clearly having a growth spurt.
Arthur got a little mini nap in on me during his second breakfast, and then we left him with his grandparents. Apparently he was great the whole time, and took a very long nap in the backpack. He slept the last 10-15 minutes while being carried in the backpack through the neighborhood. More surprisingly, he continued napping in the backpack for a long time after my parents got home; my mom brought him and the backpack into her bedroom, and Arthur continued dozing there for well over an hour. More indications of that growth spurt!
For his afternoon snack, Arthur ate an entire prune (in the hopes that it would improve his constipation), followed by some leftover soy milk/nooch pasta from the previous day, which I mixed some tahini into for the allergen exposure. Arthur ate a decent amount of it, but wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about it. He was a little more excited about the apple I was eating, so I shared a bit of that with him as well.
Then the little dude got more babysitting time with his Oma while Miklós and I went on a walk without him. He was, apparently, very relaxed and chill the entire hour and a half we were gone, and didn’t fuss at all! He was starting to fade by the time we got home, however, so I popped him on the boob and he fell asleep pretty quickly.
Oma is pretty enthusiastic about the idea of getting Arthur to try 100 foods before age 1, so she has been buying some new fruits and veggies for him to try. At dinner, she cooked up a stew that included three foods Arthur had never tasted before: scarlet runner beans, chayote squash, and kale, and I gave samples of all three of these to Arthur. He enjoyed eating all of them, as well as a serving of the same pasta dish from his lunch and the previous day, which I mixed with a bit of peanut butter for additional allergens. His good appetite continued throughout his solid dinner as well as his susu dessert!
And that brings Arthur’s Saturday solid intake to:
avocado
cheddar cheese
melon
prune
millet and brown rice pasta
soy milk
nutritional yeast
garlic
onion
tahini
zucchini
broccoli
apple
chayote squash (new food!)
scarlet runner beans (new food!)
kale (new food!)
peanut butter
I cooked dinner for everyone on Friday, and it was a double portion of a meal I had recently made for Miklós and myself. It was based on yet another Chocolate Covered Katie recipe, one that's pretty flexible and modifiable. I made it with coffee cream and Parmesan cheese when I made it for MIklós and myself, but a vegan version more compatible with my mom's diet on Friday, with soy milk and nutritional yeast. While the dairy version was tastier, both were nice - it's a good combination of flavors. Here's the basic template for the two-person version:
Broccoli Garlic Pasta (serves 2 hungry people)
Ingredients
250g pasta (I used a red lentil pasta the first time and a chickpea pasta the second)
3 ¾ cups milk (we were trying to clean out the fridge before leaving, so I ended up using ¾ cup coffee cream + 3 cups water; at my parents' house, I use soy milk instead)
around 3 cups chopped broccoli florets, steamed (about one small head, or a 1 lb frozen bag)
1 small onion, finely diced
2 ½ tbsp minced garlic
scant tsp salt (I would add more next time - maybe 1 ½ tsp - especially if using nutritional yeast)
olive oil, for cooking
40g finely grated Parmesan (or ¼ cup nutritional yeast + optionally a squirt of lemon juice or ACV)
pepper, to taste
Instructions
In a large pot, sauté the onion, garlic, and a sprinkle of salt in olive oil for 3 minutes or so, until they become translucent.
Add the milk, scant tsp salt, and pasta.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, then keep simmering for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent clumping.
Turn heat to low, and cook another 2-3 minutes, until sauce has reduced and pasta is al dente.
Stir in the broccoli, Parmesan, and season with pepper.
Serve warm!
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