The first solid food we gave baby girl was sweet potatoes, and she was seriously obsessed with them until the last few months. Suddenly she’s started fighting me every time I make them for her. At first I thought it was just because she was sick of eating purees now that she thinks she can eat all the food, but it turns out it also applies to mashed sweet potatoes as well. As a person who tends to be quite the picky eater myself I really want her to be less picky than me and willing to try things. Because of this I have made huge efforts to buy fruits and vegetables that even I had never tried to let her get a taste for them. You guys I literally tried to make eggplant baby food one time, so I think we can say I was determined. Both of us took a bite of that nasty stuff and I threw it all out, I mean I figured if I’m making her try things I should try them too and it was not a winner. If you have an awesome eggplant recipe that you can convince me to try, go for it, but I do not recommend making it into a pureed baby food.
Last night I cooked up a tiny little sweet potato in the microwave and tried to put some toppings on it and give it to her. She had us cracking up so hard at the table because every bite she got she would eat everything but the sweet potato and just let it roll off of her tongue and onto her tummy. What is a girl to do?
I still had half a sweet potato left when we woke up for breakfast today so I decided to try to make a sweet potato pancake. I mashed up the leftovers, added some egg white to the bowl, and mixed it all up until I felt like it was pancake consistency (the reason I only did the egg white was because I was pouring the egg in slowly and before the yolk could come in there was enough liquid). Then I just heated up my frying pan and cooked up one little pancake. I gave it to her without anything on it because that’s how she eats regular pancakes. I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out a way to use them, until to my dismay she took one bite and tossed it on the floor. I don’t think she hated it, but it was a kind of spongy texture and I think that bothered her initially. I decided I would rather have her get the nutrients from the sweet potato with a little dollop of maple syrup to dip it in than to not eat it at all. You will be happy to know that our maple syrup saved the day and she ate the whole thing! Girlfriend learned how to dip food last week and she’s a big fan (also yes I definitely picked up the pancake off the floor because it was the only one, so let’s just pretend I mopped yesterday). I’m sure I’ll be making these again in the near future as I have a big bag of sweet potatoes on my counter, so I will add pictures the next time I make them and possibly keep adjusting until I can find one she doesn’t throw. The site linked below is where I found the idea to be able to make such a simple healthy pancake, so give it a read for the actual recipe.
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WELL BALANCED 