Feeding the masses

I recently started following Hattie Garlick's blog about raising kids without spending too much cash.  I love the idea of cutting out processed food aimed at kids, cutting down on the grind of continuous baby and toddler groups and enjoying each others' company more.

In general, I try to cook from scratch for just about everything.  I have even started making my own bread since I discovered that it's easy and produces something much tastier than you can buy in the supermarket (though I still think that Blackbird Bakery makes the best bread in the world, but the Northcross Road market is no longer so accessible for me).

When Itsyboo first started eating, I started to fall into a trap of cooking separately for the baby, for the toddler and for us.  There were several days that I was cooking eight different meals (Miss A ate the same breakfast as us, but from there on it got more complicated.  At that point it was pretty tempting to seek respite and start buying baby food in pouches and frozen toddler meals.

After a few weeks of this, it dawned on me that things didn't have to be so complicated.  It's embarrassing to admit this hadn't occurred to me before, but I felt locked into Annabel Karmel age-appropriate meal-planners and the idea that recipes had an age limit.  Yes, there are ingredients that shouldn't be used at certain ages (eg, salt and honey), but I could work around it.

Based on friends' recommendations, I invested in a couple of cookbooks: the River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook and Fay's Family Food.  Fay's Family Food, particularly, was surprisingly good.  I know Fay as an actress so was pretty sceptical that her cookbook would be worth buying but I use it weekly.

And I got a little creative.  I reinvented my student staples to make them nourishing meals for the whole family - I have become the master of fried rice.  I started using my slow cooker.  I put extra vegetables into everything.  And dude, I bake a lot of snacks.  Something I never thought I would say.

There are still things I have to do a bit extra to for them to be "Istyboo-ready" - pureeing or chopping.  Miss A's food often requires an even coating of grated cheese.  Sometimes she doesn't make it past the cheese layer, but I figure if she's hungry she'll eat more.

And I hardly even notice the lack of salt in my food any more.  When I cook for just C and I, I only add a tiny pinch - almost to say "look, this is not for children."

I still (tiny voice) give the kids fish fingers on Fridays so I can cook something slightly romantic to celebrate the weekend when C gets home, but I totally embrace the "no kid-specific food" philosophy.  Let's all eat like healthy grown-ups!