food, nutrition and nora

I learned a lot about how and what to feed kids when I was studying to be a dietitian at UBC a few years ago. I was really interested in it because I knew I wanted to start a family soon after finishing school, but also because I was keen to start my private practice and counsel parents on feeding their families.
It was all just theory, research and anecdotal evidence until last year when my daughter, Nora, started eating solid food. Now I'm waist-deep in my own personal anthropological experiment!
Before Nora started eating solids, I was so excited and couldn't wait to start feeding her. But, I quickly became overwhelmed with the extra work on top of an already busy life with a 6-month old. There was the time it took to make food, to feed her, to clean up afterwards and then sometimes she wouldn't even eat anything! I had to consider food allergies, appropriate textures, the right nutrients, flavour, keeping her interested, keeping her regular...the list seems endless.
I really wanted her to eat mostly homemade food for a few reasons:
1. You know what's in it.
2. It's way more affordable.
3. It can be as close to nature as possible.
This last one is one of my overall philosophies for food and eating. It basically means eating foods that are processed as little as possible and so have less 'non-foods' added to them (for example, using steel-cut or plain, rolled oats instead of a package of instant, flavoured oatmeal).
Back in school, I had read a lot of the research on how to feed babies, especially the work of Ellen Sattyr (www.ellensattyr.com) , who talks about needing to offer a food to a baby more than 10 times before determining they don't like it. I definitely believe in the idea that the parent decides what foods and when to offer them, but the baby decides if they want to eat and how much.
But what we didn't learn in school and despite practicing as a dietitian and talking to parents, I had never had any experience preparing homemade baby food. Although I had a couple of kids cookbooks, I also ended up consulting a fabulous website (www.wholesomebabyfood.com) that gives great recipes for making simple baby foods like fruit and vegetable purees, cereals and teething biscuits.

So, throughout this blog, I hope to pass on my experiences, my recipes and my tips that I have developed over these last 6 months feeding Nora. She didn't start out as a great eater and I went through moments of frustration, worry and momma-meltdowns (e.g. my husband comes home to Nora and I on the kitchen floor, covered in peaches). Now, it's all paid off and she's doing really well with eating these days. It helps that we're reaching that 1 year marker when more foods can be introduced and she can mostly eat what we eat.
Tonight, for example, I made an amazing fish recipe (Snapper with Lemon & Capers), a barley pilaf and a green salad with cheddar and avocado. Nora ate it up! Even my husband gave it a perfect 10...

Snapper with Lemon & Capers
serves 3

1 lb snapper or other fish
salt and pepper
3 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
zest and juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsps capers

Wash and dry fish, season with salt and pepper and place in a shallow dish. Whisk together oil, vinegar and lemon juice, then pour half of the mixture over the fish, reserving the other half. Marinate the fish in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.
Place dinner plates or a platter in the oven to warm. Heat a large skillet on high then add fish and turn down to medium. Cook 1-2 minutes then flip and cook another 5 minutes, unless very thick and then may need a little longer. Remove fish on plates or platter and cover with foil.
Turn skillet to medium-low and add remaining oil mixture and capers. Cook until reduced by half then pour over fish. Garnish with lemon zest.

Nutrient Information (per serving):
220 Kcals
31 grams Protein
9 grams Fat
2.5 grams Carbohydrate
0 grams Fibre
238 mg Sodium
52 mg Calcium
0.5 mg Iron
4 mcg vitamin B12