Sack the chef!

On the whole, Baby Led Weaning has resulted in some good meals in our house. I've been cooking properly; we've had fewer ready meals or jarred sauces, and the fruit and veg content of our diets has shot up.

But this week we had an unmitigated disaster!
Saag Paneer, a supposedly mild curry from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook.

I don't blame the cookbook by the way - we've had some fantastic meals from that. I think it's more likely to be because I substituted some spices for others as I didn't have everything and I didn't actually properly measure out quantities; but I still maintain that anything which looks like this is never going to be top of my favourite foods list:

Mmmmmm, yummy!!!
I haven't seen anything that green and runny since a newborn Bean had a tummy bug! (TMI? Sorry! :-))

To be fair, Baby Bean didn't bat an eyelid! While me and my other half eyed our plates with trepidation and a fast retreating appetite, she picked up handfuls of green slime and rice and started eating. Well, she picked up 3 handfuls, and then stopped. And looked disappointed. After all, normally green things are yummy in Bean's book - peas, green beans, broccoli and cucumber have been favourites from day 1. But this really, really wasn't!! It was grainy, bland (yet with a sort-of-spicy kick), and generally just a bit odd.

She picked at it a bit, looked around, asked for water, picked at it again. Then realised it wasn't going to get tasty and started throwing it on the floor! Couldn't blame her really - I would have done the same given half the chance! And it wasn't because she didn't want to eat because when I replaced it with plain rice she ate loads more, and demolished the blueberries in yoghurt that came afterwards.

So the moral of the story? Sometimes you might want to be Popeye and eat spinach because it's good for you. But if you think a meal might be a risky one, always have a back up ready, just in case you're right!