Fish fingers, chicken nuggets etc ok for 13 month old?

[sunshine_sieben]

Danniellabella, as I mentioned, i don't think giving a 13 month old fish fingers and chicken nuggets occasionally is going to harm them. So don't feel guilty about it
(and just so everybody knows, i never meant to imply that I'm super-woman. The mountains of washing in the laundry clearly show that I am not. But I have always enjoyed cooking. It's cleaning that I neglect. And DD never liked any of those "baby foods", not Rafferty's Garden either. So I didn't have the option of not making it myself.)

I don't know what you and your DH eat most nights, but at 13 months, your child should be able to eat most table foods. We love steak and salad for example. I just cut the steak for DD up quite small. Same with cucumber and tomato. Maybe add some cheese.
Lasagne can be cut up, too. Most pastas will be fine, actually. The larger ones like bow-ties can be cut into smaller bits.
Stir-frys should be fine, too.
Meatballs are great, too. Or Rissoles. You can get a bag of mixed frozen veges and serve some of that on the side.
Baked Beans. Sometimes I add a fried egg to that for some extra nutrients.
minestrone soup is also a good one
If you get a roast chicken, she can eat some of that meat, too.
Sides could include some chopped up beetroot (from a can), frozen peas and corn, tomatoes, cooked carrot, potato or sweet potato pieces, pureed spinach (i like to add some garlic and cream)

I don't know what kind of foods your daughter has been used to so far. Obviously, if it has been pretty pureed, introduce the chunky stuff slowly and with caution. But even without molars, kids can eat that type of food, as long as it's soft-ish and the pieces are small.

Just trying to think of some more table foods your daughter can share. Whether you make these things or buy them ready made is up to you.
And i totally agree, it is sooo much easier if your child can eat the same foods that you are eating. I also found that DD ate a lot more when having dinneer WITH us. So we try to do that most nights. Of course it doesn't always work out (some nights DH and I don't eat until 9pm), but she's definitely much more interested in her food (and in trying new things) when she's not eating alone.

Sasa

[Nadine216]

OH heck no, hun, sorry ... I did not mean it like that!!!! I only mean that we are ALLL superwoman, some of us just are plain lazy (that is me sticking my hand up here) and some of us are really, really busy!!

[Nadine216]

Just to add

I hated that phase where I had to make three meals (me - diet, DH - fatty and DD - kidsmeal)
It does get better. ATM we all eat the same

[sunshine_sieben]

I would say, most of us are really, really busy.
And count me in on the laziness. As I said, cleaning is not my strength. I wish I could be a good housekeeper, but I'm not. As long as it's not a serious health hazard, I'm happy - lol.

By the way, i do totally take my hat off to mums like DB who work full time. DH and I have our own business but these days I only really do the books. And I can only imagine how hard it is when you come home from a long day's work and you want to spend some time with your kids. But at the same time, there are dinners to be made, lunches to be packed, clothes to be washed, kitchens to be cleaned. Then it's finally the weekend but I'm sure there's still more housework waiting.Oh, and you might want to spend some time with your spouse, too. And then there are friends and family. I honestly don't know how you do it. and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Sasa

[danniellabella]

By the way, i do totally take my hat off to mums like DB who work full time. DH and I have our own business but these days I only really do the books. And I can only imagine how hard it is when you come home from a long day's work and you want to spend some time with your kids. But at the same time, there are dinners to be made, lunches to be packed, clothes to be washed, kitchens to be cleaned. Then it's finally the weekend but I'm sure there's still more housework waiting.Oh, and you might want to spend some time with your spouse, too. And then there are friends and family. I honestly don't know how you do it. and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Sasa

Yep, my nights are busy.
I get home and usually because DD is so clingy because she hasn't seen me all day I just give her tinned baby food rather than making her wait while I cook and getting annoyed with her because she's grabbing my legs and getting too close to the oven, besides, often we eat dinner at 6:30 or 7 or 7:30 and DD is hungry for dinner as soon as we get home from daycare at 5:45 because I've asked the day care lady to not give her any food after 4:30pm so I can give her dinner and spend some time with her. She has her bath at about 7pm and I try to get her into bed by 7:30/8pm. Then I have to get the washing hung out, pack her bag for daycare the next day, pack my gym bag (I have a gym at work so I go at lunch time everyday), make sure DH's shirt is ironed, unload the dishwasher from the night before and load the dirty dishes and run the thing, have a shower, have some idea of what I want to wear the next day, do a bit of cleaning, catch up on the forums and facebook, try to squeeze in a bit of reading, usually that's done during a toilet trip...my 5 mins alone

[Kazbah]

Danni, I know you're having to take on a lot of your household load, but surely your DH can iron his own shirt?

A really, really quick & healthy meal is some cooked pasta (10 mins in the microwave - fill a microwave bowl with kettle-boiled water, chuck in some pasta and nuke on high for 10 mins) and stir through a tin of flavoured tuna, and some grated cheese. My Pip loves it. Another easy snack for toddlers is cooked pasta, cold. Cook some up and put it in the fridge, sealed. Just give it to Jazz to snack on. Fresh fruit is easy to cut up for her to snack on, and if you give her the food to nibble on while you're preparing the main meal, she'll really enjoy it - put her highchair in the kitchen and just pat her head etc each time you go past.

For really nutricious toddler frozen food, try organic bubs (that's the company name - google them) - they deliver to your home / work etc and are really good value.

Do what you need to to work full-time, enjoy your little girl and that's the main thing. Do it your own way, you'll work it out for you.

[Counting Days]

Danni you sound like my type of woman, I also worked full time
homemade really who has the time I tell you only SAHM's if they can do it good luck to them
as for the rest of us we are doing our best and if that comes in a packet of chips nuggets or anything else a couple of times a week then so be it

we do it because we want to / have to
want to be part of the working world

[Girl-23]

Hi Danni,

You are a Super-career-mum-woman. Obviously you are trying very hard to provide for your daughter's future. Having said that, my daughter is 10 months, I recently started feeding her homemade chips (fries). I peel the potatoes and chop them. She loves it. Of course I don't do that everyday but probably once a week. Have you thought about preparing food the night before? And perhaps store it in the freezer or fridge? For example, marinate chicken, fish or meat night before. You can serve it with vegetables, rice or pasta. Whatever tickles your fancy? You can do that instead of ironing your husband's shirt, unloading the dishwasher. I understand you want to spend time with your DD but 30 minutes of cooking something healthy and nice for her is also good. I think its fine feeding her nuggets, fish fingers, etc.

[Lulu]

homemade really who has the time I tell you only SAHM's if they can do it good luck to them

Preparing a big batch of meals on the weekend was how I got through working full time with three children on my own, and it wasn't that hard in the end.

DB, that bloke can iron his own bloody shirts!

[sunshine_sieben]

I agree, I would always prefer cooking a meal over ironing DHs shirts. He can do that. And he can also unload the dishwasher while you bath DD (or the other way around). You're both chipping in to bring home the bacon, so you can both chip in when it comes to running the house. You are not super-woman. You don't have to do it all and sing a song while doing it.

And putting a steak in the pan while boiling some veges seriously doesn't take any more time than putting fish fingers and chips in the oven. If you don't want to fuss with crumbing chicken strips, you could just put some lemon pepper (or my favourite, piri piri seasoning) on them and stick them under the grill or into your oven. They don't need to be crumbed.
I spend less than 15 minutes on about half of our meals during the week (the other meals are a little more time consuming, but it's rarely more than 1/2 hour. Pasta sauce is good, because it just bubbles away while you do other stuff. Same goes for stews. I know a lot of people who work full time and they just put stuff in the slow cooker in the morning and when they get home, the house smells like food!
And I also agree that just as with boxed convenience foods, you can make the freezer your best friend. I always cook for about 10 people (when making things like Pasta, Curries, Soups, Stews etc.). Most goes into individual containers for DH to take to work, but I also put about 2 dinners into our freezer to have over the next couple of weeks. So if I can't be bothered or am running out of time, I always have a TV dinner waiting for me. And as mentioned, freezing food for DD in ice cube trays makes it really easy to quickly reheat something for her. Actually much quicker than cooking chicken nuggets. Only takes a minute or 2 to reheat a few ice cubes worth, then add another couple of minutes for it to cool a little.
If she's so hungry when she gets home from day care, how about giving he a little snack? Or some milk to tie her over? I often give DD some fruit or a few cheese cubes in the afternoon. Not too much to spoil her dinner, but just enough to give her a little "entree". Or a handful of sultanas?
Cooking doesn't have to be time consuming, tedious and boring. Nobody expects gourmet 3 course dinners every night. And it doesn't have to be every night either. Maybe a couple of times a week to start with.
And you know what? You could even ask DH if he could cook one day a week.
It seriously saves soooo much money.

Sasa