what this kid eats

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, after nay made a comment on my post about K eating her little shirasu fish with rice, and asked what I feed her.

well, it is really a big old hodge-podge of anything and everything, because that is what WE eat! lol. When I started K on solids, we started with Farex baby cereal that I picked up when in Oz. We also started on sweet potato, because it was in season then, so it seemed like a good thing to start off with.
Now that K is over 1 year old, her diet has expanded, to include lots of veges, meats, fish and dairy.

A lot of the food I give her is obviously influenced by the fact that we are living in Japan. I give her tofu a lot, and also use tofu to make little chicken meatballs or mixed with mince to make sausages. She LOVES rice. I reckon she could eat a whole bowl of it with nothing else and be happy. I was getting worried for a bit last month, because it seemed that rice was ALL she was eating. So I started making roll sandwiches (with cream cheese or cottage cheese mixed with pumpkin or spinach) which she loves cause she can hold them in her hand. I also made a little quiche for her yesterday with tomato and chicken, she lapped that one up too, so I think she is back on track for "aussie" food.

I guess, the main thing is that I want K to be able to eat with the family whether she is in Japan or in Australia, so I have to keep trying to introduce her to lots of different foods and styles - not just the rice!! But rice is just SO EASY, it does tend to be the staple food that she eats nearly every day. I try to find some recipes on the internet, and I have a good little book that has Japanese food in it, but I don't get around to making interesting stuff everyday - so we have our regular of rice with "something". sort of like a 混ぜ御飯 mixed rice.

Also, the commercial baby food here is really different from home, and has a lot of fishy meals, or japanese flavoured meals. So I think she is used to these flavours - I don't give her commercial food all the time, but I do make sure that I have a few in the house all the time, as J is prone to announce things like "lets go for a walk to the shops 30mins away(usually said 20mins before K's lunch time)" or "let's have sushi-ro (sushi train) for dinner(usually said after we have been out all day)" or my favourite, "lets go camping for 2 days, and let's leave in 5 minutes" at the drop of a hat, and pre-made food is really a must to have! And bananas and avocados - they have really got me through a few meals on-the-go with K!

So today's menu for K:
breakfast - baby muesli with milk
10am snack - baby senbei(rice crackers); drink of milk
11am snack - banana
12 lunch - cream cheese roll sandwiches; drink of water
:
3pm snack - maybe some tofu (think 冷奴): drink of milk or water
4 or 5pm - probably another senbei OR rusks (toasted bread crusts)
6pm dinner - rice with carrots, peas and corn and home-made sausage: drink of milk

As for me? I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwhich for lunch (yum). Dinner is probably going to be ginger pork (bought for half price at the supermarket at 8pm last night - J needed to get something so we all trapsed down to the supermarket for an "outing" before K's bedtime) and something with bamboo shoots in it, cause I bought a bamboo shoot yesterday, but didn't know for sure how to cook it, so I asked J what to do - apparently I can simmer it in the left-over water used to wash the rice. hope it turns out ok.