New foods all around

While I haven't always been into the whole legume scene, it's something I've become increasingly interested in now that we're on a tighter budget (and still trying to eat healthily). After all, meat doesn't keep as long in the fridge or freezer as canned beans do in the cupboard. I've already referenced Sweet Potato-Black Bean Quesadillas on here a few times, and we like kidney beans in our chili, but I hadn't found anything that made me want to try chick peas. I don't particularly like hummus (though I've never tried it homemade), and I'm not keen on the texture of chick peas, either. However, I made Espinacas con Garbanzos tonight, and they were quite delicious on whole wheat toast. Besides learning that chick peas are otherwise known as garbanzo beans, I also learned that if I were trying to get my husband to eat them, I should refer to them as such. When he asked what I was making and I replied "chick peas", he responded that he wouldn't eat chick peas, "only dude peas." Ha ha. Anyway, it's a good thing they worked out, because I failed spectacularly at making an edible sweet potato soup (which I've successfully made on many occasions before)! I don't know why I thought it would be wise to throw cream into a soup that's meant to be spicy.

Update on baby D: what can I say, the kid loves her rice cereal! The first feed was quite the production: I cleaned up her high chair, got her bib and dishes out, my parents came over as spectators, and we took a video of her first bites. Didn't think to put the bib on til afterward, though. Hubby did the honours of feeding her; I attempted it later with limited success. I figure I have ample time and opportunity to develop this skill, so if only one of us could be naturally good at scooping food into our daughter's tiny bird mouth, I'm glad it's him.

We've only fed her cereal once a day in the past three days, and today was the first time she had it mixed with water instead of breast milk. She wasn't as into it, but still finished a respectable amount. I think we'll introduce sweet potato next, but probably in a morning feed rather than evening, since we can more easily spot any adverse reaction during the day. It's a messy but fun job, feeding a baby solids!