The world is a smorgasbord

As we near the end of February, with Little Dude closing in on being one year and two months old, I just thought it would be fun to write down the large variety of foods he has tried lately, since it seems like his appetite and taste of various foods is exploding.

Recently, he has tried spaghetti and loves it. This is especially humorous to me, since he has not liked noodles in the past. Apparently he is fine with them in his spaghetti, though.

He loved the refried beans mixed with Spanish rice we introduced the night we were eating tacos. In fact, he chose more refried beans over the “rice cream” (non-dairy frozen treat – it is actually pretty good, as I ate it while I was still nursing him and had cut out my dairy) we offered him.

Mashed potatoes. He truly can’t get enough. This surprised me as well, as he didn’t like them the first couple of times we offered them to him. Now, if he sees them, he demands, by pointing and grunting, more of them. (Yes, I’ve said “potato” as we’ve fed him – that vocabulary is bound to explode one of these days.)

Shredded turkey, chicken or beef is a hit, while ground beef is okay, although he seems bored with it. The ground turkey wasn’t a hit, and we think that is due to the dryness of the meat.

He initially liked cooked carrots, but then he went through a period where he wouldn’t touch them. He’s back to liking them and cooked green beans.

I’m excited to feed him pluots again, once they are back in season (cross between a plum and an apricot), as he really enjoyed the plout sauce I created for him when he was younger.

We ordered off the menu at a restaurant, for him, for the first time this past weekend – a big novelty for all of us, since we have had to be so careful. The server was nice enough to bring me ingredient lists for the chicken strips and french fries, so Little Dude was able to enjoy his first “junk food” meal. (Yes, I made certain he had plenty of fruits and vegetables that evening, but normally, the breading on chicken strips and nuggets has dairy proteins, so he is not able to do them.) He LOVES the chicken strips and enjoyed the french fries. He wasn’t so amused when I tried to sneak a dill pickle into him, though! (That server got a big tip for helping us out, too!)

My mom found a few soy yogurts that don’t have any dairy proteins in them – a difficult task, as they aren’t sold in any of the grocery stores in my immediate surrounding area. Little Dude loved the peach version, which leads to one of his funny quirks. He enjoys peach yogurt and pureed peaches, but if you try to give him a small piece of a canned peach, he rejects it!

He loves snacking on oyster crackers and various dry cereals and cereal puffs, and has figured out how to open most of his dry cereal containers when we are out and about.

We have tried strawberries on him, and it appears he missed that allergy (insert sigh of relief here). I offered him some chunked up strawberries last night, and he seemed to enjoy them.

Little Dude’s favorite meal recently, by far, has been scrambled eggs, though. He goes crazy over them, shoving them wildly into his mouth, as he tries to spear them with a fork in the other hand. I’m thrilled he likes these, since I can even make them!

As for other new foods – hopefully we can have Little Dude’s allergy tested again at around 18 months. And, with any luck, it will be beginning to decrease in severity, if it isn’t completely gone!