1 Mother 2 Another

Maddie’s eating habits are entering toddlerhood, and all I can say is, weird kid.

First off, she’s got an aversion to meat. It’s the whole texture thing, and she likes deli meat and ground beef but can’t stand cooked chicken or beef. She also won’t eat much egg, which used to be one of her favorite meals. Ditto with the avocado – now she picks at it at best.

Which creates a bit of a problem for me. See, Maddie’s not eating much dairy since we’ve discovered she seems to have a mild allergic reaction to it. So she’s not drinking milk, eating cheese, and so on. She’s pretty amenable to soy milk, but won’t drink more than maybe four ounces a day, and it doesn’t have as much fat and protein as whole milk at any rate.

So Madeleine’s living on the occasional piece of protein, some veggies, and lots of fruit. Which means she’s not getting much fat or protein, both of which are pretty important at this stage of her development. I’m not worried about vitamins; she’ll eat three or four whole pieces of fruit, such as a plum or peach or a ton of strawberries, each day.

And the good news is that she’s pretty happy with edamame – cooked baby soybeans. I buy them pre-cooked (thank you New York convenience), and pop them out of the pod right onto her plate. She eats them like jelly beans, thank goodness, since it’s one of her few sources of protein right now.

But girlie’s biggest food favorite, by far, right now is Veggie Booty. Ever tried it? It’s puffed corn and rice, coated in a delightful dehydrated mix of spinach, kale, broccoli, parsley, and carrots.

You can really taste the kale.

Frankly, I don’t get it, but baby girl loves the stuff. She begs for it while I’m cooking and it’s her all-time favorite snack, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. She’ll shove five to ten pieces into her mouth and walk around happily chomping around her rictus of a smile, cheeks distended and mouth unable to close. I think it’s how she gets around the whole “no walking around with food in your hand” thing. Then she happily prances around with the green veggie dust all over her face and mouth, making her a greenmarket menace to anything she comes in contact with.

The upside is that she’s eating a lot of green vegetables, though I’m not sure how much of the nutrients remain intact after the dehydrating process. At the very least, it’s proof that the taste of vegetables is not repugnant to her and cannot by a long shot be accused of developing her sweet tooth.

The downside is that it’s pretty low in calories; since it’s puffed rice and corn the main ingredient should be listed as “air”. So while it’s a great alternative to, say, chips or popcorn, it’s not how I want her filling her tummy at a meal. Not that I have too much say in that right now. She single-handedly (believe me, no one else in this household is wrestling her for the Veggie Booty bag) goes through a large bag or two every week. I’ve started trying to get her into hummus since chickpeas are big on protein but so far no luck.

Truly, her dream meal would be veggie booty, edamame, and a fresh peach.

Like I said, weird kid.