Time Change + Carrots with Yogurt Sauce

Saturday

Arthur woke up around 7:40, just a few minutes before his mama. I peeped in to Arthur's room to see him and Miklós reading together on the bed. The little dude completely lit up when he saw me, smiling wide and waving his arms and legs. And when I left to get a coffee, he started wailing. I was touched, although I don't think Miklós was super happy about it.

Miklós had gone to Oisterwijk for a house viewing, and so wasn't around to take Arthur on his usual lunchtime walk. Instead, I fed Arthur an extra meal of solids while Miklós gave us a video tour of the home. I started off by feeding Arthur a bit of pumpkin purée, as I was using it to make some lactation brownies. This was followed up by the rest of the grits, and finally some avocado in lemon juice. Arthur was very enthusiastic about all three, so I was even able to have a successful video call with his dad.

Arthur decided to have an earlier afternoon nap today; I guess he was tired out from all that eating. Or maybe that triggers his nap; the past two days he ate right after his solid snack, and it was the same today, despite the solid snack being earlier in the day. It could be a food coma effect, or maybe he's less hungry after the solids and prioritizes sleeping over nursing. It'll be interesting to experiment and see if there's a pattern.

Contemplating what's on the menu

I still gave him his usual 2:00 snack, although a bit of a smaller portion than I usually give him. He had a few spoonfuls of a jarred cauliflower purée (store-bought, but with no ingredients beyond cauliflower), first on its own, then mixed with some rice porridge to thicken it up. He was happy to eat it both ways, though he actually seemed more interested in the cup I was spooning it out of than the spoon itself.

Arthur's solid dinner, again, I opted to keep easy and low-mess, so it was his favorite: Weetabix! This time, though, I had mixed it with some soy milk in addition to breast milk, to keep the allergen in rotation. It didn't seem to impact his enjoyment of the stuff - it's always a hit, and he devoured the whole biscuit, although he was in a pretty rotten. mood by that point.

So, on Saturday, Arthur ate:

• pumpkin purée

• corn grits

• ghee

• soy milk

• avocado

• cauliflower purée

• rice porridge

• milk powder

• Weetabix

Sunday

Daylight Savings Time ended (or started? I always get them mixed up) today. Whichever it was, it was the bad kind where we lose an hour, so my normal 7:45 wakeup felt like 6:45. Arthur slept in until about 8:10, but I think that's only because we were making so much noise - he probably would have slept longer otherwise. Still, it's probably for the best if we want him to adjust to this new time.

The little dude was sleep at 10:00, and napped then, but didn't nap at noon or 1:00, and I wonder if this was because he hadn't eaten any solids before then, or because of the time difference. Again, it will be interesting to if anything in particular seems to influence his napping schedule.

Flax done right

Arthur wasn't terribly hungry at his 1:00 nursing session, but he had a good appetite for solids afterwards! I started him off with some more cauliflower purée mixed with rice porridge, dried thyme, and walnut oil. He approved. After devouring the whole thing, I fixed him another portion, this time seasoned with onion powder and thickened up with nutritional yeast and a new food: broken flax seeds! He seemed to like it just as much as the first batch. And with that, we were done with the cauliflower purée, which I was kind of happy about, given its stank. And, unsurprisingly, Arthur crashed hard at the following nursing session, at 3:00.

For dinner, Arthur got some red lentils that I had cooked earlier in the day. These were heavily seasoned with Indian-inspired flavorings: turmeric, cumin, garam masala, fenugreek, garlic powder, and ghee. He was, as usual, a bit fussy by this point, but seemed to like the food, and smelled quite fragrant afterwards!

Which means Arthur's Sunday menu consisted of:

• cauliflower

• rice porridge

• milk powder

• dried thyme (new food!)

• walnut oil

• nutritional yeast

• flaxseeds (new food!)

• onion powder

• red lentils

• ghee

• fenugreek (new food!)

• cumin

• garam masala

• garlic powder

• turmeric

The usual weekend dinner duties split: Saturday was my domain! Carrots were on sale again, so I decided to make the same Moroccan carrots I cooked a week or two ago. But this time, I wanted to cook them with the yogurt sauce the original recipe suggested - I thought that might be a better combination than the bean mash. And it was! I’ll post the recipe for the carrots again, along with the yogurt sauce, which I slightly adapted (mainly by increasing quantities). Here’s how I made them:

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Moroccan Roasted Carrots with Lemon Herb Yogurt Sauce (serves 2)

Ingredients

• Carrots:

  • 1 tbsp oil (I used walnut again)

  • 1 tsp paprika

  • 1 tsp cumin

  • ½ tsp cinnamon

  • ½ tsp ground black pepper

  • ¼ tsp ginger

  • ¼ tsp salt

  • ¼ tsp ground cloves

  • sprinkle of cayenne (optional)

    
    

• Yogurt:

  • 900g Greek yogurt (I used 1.5%)

  • 1 small bunch fresh cilantro, minced

  • 6 garlic cloves, minced

  • ½ tsp salt

  • ½ tsp black pepper

  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

  
  

• Optional garnish: nuts/seeds of choice (I used ¼ cup chopped roasted 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, then toss to coat.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until a bit tender.

5. Meanwhile, make the yogurt sauce by stirring all the ingredients together.

6. Plate the yogurt sauce onto two plates.

7. When the carrots are finished, lay them over the yogurt.

8. Top with roasted nuts or seeds if using.