Today Veggie Baby turns one.

On this day a year ago, the doctor held up a 9lb 20z baby to me and announced "you have one of these!"

And I'm like "what, a three-month-old baby?"

"oh, you mean a girl".

She was huge. She was a girl. And she was laying on my chest staring at me with the most intense brown eyes I'd ever seen.  I had that feeling that you can't adequately put into words, but we try with things like "connection", "deep", "profound" and "primal".

She was a dream baby. She still is. She's placid, she's serious, she's delightful, she's funny and she's adorable. 

She sleeps well, eats well and only occasionally pulls the cat's whiskers.

She's everything people say that children are, and she's brought so much to us that we never could have guessed we would be blessed with.

Cliche, cliche, cliche. They're all true.

And today she is one.

She can say "gentle", "ta", "thank you", "hello" and "dad dad".

She pulls herself up on everything but isn't ready to walk yet.

Last night she speared a piece of pumpkin with a fork and brought it to her mouth.

She likes music, and will dance any time there's anything remotely rhythmic on.

She loves swimming and baths, drawing, throwing books around and putting blocks into square holes.

She follows me everywhere I go and has breakfast with her dad every morning.

She has eight teeth and just enough hair to put in an unnecessary but incredibly cute pony tail.

She likes clapping and Giggle and Hoot.

And she is mine.

Happy first birthday, Abby Lee.

You make a lot of people happy.

xx

Veggie Baby Food - Peach Mango Smoothie

I am still amazingly surprised that Veggie Baby eats Greek yogurt. Even I can't have it unless there's honey or something to counter the sourness of it. All she needs is a spoon of fruit mixed in and she's right to go.

Recently I gave her a tub to play with to keep her quiet while we were waiting for a meal at a cafe. I thought she'd like to feel how cold it was and maybe roll it around a bit. Instead she bit through the top and sucked the yogurt out from the resulting hole. Like it was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted. Crazy.

This recipe is a bit fun, because it's pretty much what I would have in a smoothie, just a little thicker for a spoon. She loved it.

I even cut corners by using canned fruit - canned mango can be very useful!

For one serving:

Ingredients
2 canned peach halves
2 canned mango pieces
1.5 tbs greek yogurt (or more if you have a brave baby)
1/2 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp flaxseed meal
milk of your choice if you think it's too thick.

Directions

1. Blend!

Veggie Baby Food: Herbed Pumpkin and Rice

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Veggie Baby is right at that point now where I can get two spoonfuls of food into her mouth before she grabs the spoon from me and tries to do it herself. Making a gigantic mess. I let her go... she's gotta learn! And it's way cute to see her clumsily dump the spoon into the bowl, picking up absolutely nothing, and getting it to her mouth, usually via her chin. Growing up so fast.

She especially liked this pumpkin and rice concoction, which I whizzed in the blender before she started eating chunky things.

All you need is a cup of steamed and mashed pumpkin and a cup of cooked rice. Mix it all up with a pinch each of fresh basil and parsley and watch them shovel it in. YUM!

Veggie Baby Food: Pear and Apricot Puree

How pretty is this colour!

Back when baby veggie ate puree, (which went by fleetingly, to my surprise!), she loved this pear-and-apricot concoction. These days she's all about broccoli spears and whole nectarines, but I still make a puree now and then for dinners and things and when I've already changed her outfit 4 times and she's had two baths so damned if she's getting dirty again!

This one's terribly easy - peel, core and dice a pear or two and put in a saucepan with a little water. Add 3-6 (depends on amount of pear) finely-chopped dried apricots. Cook gently until all is soft. You can add a lid to help steam the apricot if you like. Puree in a processor.

And if you're funny about sulphur and dried fruit and whatever, feel free to substitute for fresh.

Yum :)

Veggie Baby Food: Spinach and Cottage Cheese Pasta

I remember thinking when I was younger that babies just ate puree and it was pretty much vegetable or fruit. Nowadays we know so much more and are getting less and less afraid to get their kids to try more adult foods early.

Back then you wouldn't have caught me eating spinach anything. If I can get Veggie Baby to eat spinach this early, then it will just be normal... right? Well, I'm going to try anyway!

This was super-easy, I just cooked a handful of pasta (doesn't matter what sort) until it was well overcooked. Easier for them to chew that way! Well, gum. In the last few seconds I threw in a handful of fresh spinach, and drained all when it was wilted. Popped it in the food processor with a spoonful or two of cottage cheese, pulsed all until it was at the soft but-bits-still-left-in stage (technical term) and it went down a treat. It does need some thinning with water if you have leftovers and want to use it straight from the refrigerator... but that's easy enough to do.

Linky bitz...

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Where it says "Name", you might like to add the name of your dish instead or as well.







I do want to know though... are you a spinach fan? I went from sheer loathing to true love. Is this normal?!

Veggie Baby Food - Carrot and Corn Quinoa

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I did not eat quinoa until I was 31. I probably couldn't pronounce it until two years ago. I had never heard of it my whole life, yet here I am giving it to my eight-month-old baby. How times have changed.

I'm really hoping that Veggie Baby likes a vast array of food, because I like cooking it. I'd be sad if she was a chips and nuggets girl... but I'd deal with it. For now though, it's so fun to try stuff and see if she'll eat it. She usually does, but we've learned our lesson with banana and parsley. If the kid had the dexterity to slap me, she would have.

Quinoa to me is just another thing to add to the veggies she eats - just like rice or lentils or beans or anything else. I know it's touted to have a vast array of health ticks in the right boxes so I'm pleased about that. It doesn't have much of a taste, but it has a little resistance when you eat it, so perfect for a baby trying new things and moving on from puree.

I cooked 1/4 cup quinoa in 1/2 cup water until done. Then mixed it with half a steamed carrot and half a steamed cob of corn. I'm a little paranoid about corn kernels, so I mashed it all and made sure they were all smooshed. It was a hit.

I do want to know, though... do you give your kid food you never ate as a child? Or things you don't eat now?

I tweet, but I'm not a twit.

When people dismiss blogging and Twitter, I get a little testy. "Oh who wants to read that you've just eaten breakfast?" they say. "Blogging is so narcissistic". As is the case with most things, once you're open to looking past the facade, there's often so much more to see.

Except if you're Ricky Gervais and you're making fun of the uber-serious internet lover "clogging up" this vast resource with home-made websites about themselves. "My name is Rupert. This is my cat... here are my favourite Cure songs in order", then this is perfectly acceptable.

But for me, blogging and Twitter have become an absolute gold mine of amazing ideas, writing, hilarity and people. When I was in the last weary stages of pregnancy, there were like-minded people with which to whine. When I'm up at 3am with the baby, there are people with whom I can chat. When I had difficulty feeding in the first few days, I had genuinely helpful advice given by mums who had been there. Even before I had Abby, people would tweet to find out if I was OK, and if it was "time" yet.

Once she arrived, even complete strangers sent well-wishes, and I can't tell you how much all this has meant to me.

The first time I heard K.Rudd was being toppled, I read it on Twitter. It's how I learned of the floods, the earthquakes and the cyclones that have happened this year. I've found some genuinely funny things from following people with fantastic senses of humour, I've learned more about other cultures, other times and other lives. And the best part is I've made new friends.

People have even sent Abby gifts... people I've never even met. People who are just generous souls and without this 140-character digital meeting place, I'd have the extreme misfortune not to know them. So for those who tweeted the love, thank you.

My friend and neighbour, Nikki from Styling You gave Abby these gorgeous little shoes just a few days after she was born. We found out we were neighbours when I tweeted a picture of my back yard, and she recognised the fence... small world!

The beautifully talented Cat, from Wouldn't it Be Loverly made this gorgeous picture, and although she doesn't know Abby or I, except what she's read, she made the most perfect present that I absolutely adore.

Miss Zoey, from Good Goog, sent Abby this gorgeous hat she crocheted herself. She didn't have to do that, she had a toddler and was very pregnant with her new goog, and probably should have been sitting with her feet up and a good book. But she took the time, and I thank her for it. Zoey also has never met me, and doesn't know me from a bar of soap.

sure it's a little big right now, but not for long... veggie baby has a massive head!

 The ever-hilarious and totally gorgeous Bern from So Now What? sent the little miss a new outfit and possibly the cutest card I've ever seen. She has three kids of her own... and a life. But still thought of me.

So I wouldn't be without Twitter. It's so much more than a selfish, indulgent time-waster. And sadly, the people I need to convince of that will never read this...

What a ride!

They say the first few months of new motherhood are a rollercoaster. Whoever "they" are, I concur. It's mostly a rollercoaster where it's fun for the first few times, then you wonder why on earth you ever decided to climb aboard, then you really regret the hot dog you had for lunch.

Occasionally you want to get off.

And you really don't want to get caught on camera with a terrified look on your face amid the beams of those around you.

But the more you ride the rollercoaster, the more you begin to anticipate the twists and turns, and the track's leaps and loops begin to feel familiar. You can hold down your lunch, you feel more and more comforted by how snug the safety bar is into your chest, and little by little, you can relax, throw up your hands and enjoy the ride.

But no matter what happens you never get to sleep...

Veggie Baby will be three months old in a matter of days. I'm told the first three months are the hardest, and sometimes it's that thought I've repeated over and over when I'm so tired at 3am I'm on the floor in her room, strategically covered in baby blankets with a cat trying to paw at my face and a baby that just can't quite get the hang of sleeping in her cot yet. Three months... things will be better by three months.

I'm pleased to say she's an awesome kid. She's happy, eats well, sleeps reasonably, smiles at everyone and generally is delightful. She's growing every day and doing things that babies do. And whether things "get better" after this week or not, I've had one hell of a ride. With a great companion.

I was totally not lying about the cat.

Where in the world has Veggie Mama been?

Abby Lee, 9lb 2oz, March 21 2011.

Having Veggie Baby!!

Sorry for the extensive gap between posts, but my last few weeks of pregnancy rendered me completely useless, and the first few weeks of Veggie's life have been intense!

She is obviously the cutest baby in the whole world, and it's safe to say we're obsessed with her. She's growing and changing every day and generally making us the happiest parents ever.

I'm still cooking though, albeit a bit less. Will post soon.... Hot Cross Buns for Easter and a whole bunch of other stuff!

But for now, back to baby. It is such a privilege being her Veggie Mama.

Crazy Vegas and the Deep Fried Pickle.

Two insanely amazing things happened to me when we were in Las Vegas last year.

I found out I was pregnant.

I ate my first fried pickle.

I blame/thank my dad for getting me started on the whole pickle train. He and I used to eat canned cucumber slices straight from the tin when I was a teeny little veggie, and I've been hooked on any kind ever since. I love the sweet-tartness of gherkins the best, but I'll eat any pickle I can find. I was never the one to remove it from burgers, instead I would eat everyone else's discarded goodness before they had a chance to throw them at the window or ceiling (what a waste!) or each other. I also remember once in high school my best friend and I went halves in a cheeseburger, and she very diligently also halved the lone pickle inside. Bestest friend ever!

Before I even made it to Vegas, we visited Disneyland for a day, where I found pickles in bags in among all the rest of the snack food one could purchase in the park. Just a pickle. In a bag. Ready to eat.

Veggie Dad was bordering on horrified, but I felt as though I was finally among my people.

The Pickle Fan in her natural habitat.

 If I thought that was amazing, I had no idea what was in store for me when I finally met the fried version. For an insatiable pickle fan, I was embarrassingly unaware it was even possible to fry them. And for them to taste so fricking good. While Veggie Dad played a slot machine in every casino, I gently nursed my little basket of fried goodness from one place to another. Bought from a random concession caravan at the last minute, and with a little pot of ranch dressing for dipping, I thought the pinnacle of my life had arrived. Nothing, surely, would top that moment when I first bit into a crazy-hot, crunchy-crumbed and golden fried spear into the sweet tang of soft pickle below.

Except the next day I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. The pickle was all but forgotten.

We took a bus through the desert. A bus. through the desert. And it was delayed due to a huge accident on the freeway. Desert. Height of Summer. Never Again.

Wasn't much cooler when we got here either. Fairly sure my shoes melted to the sidewalk.

So funny to see the small versions of tourist attractions.

The strip really was quite pretty, once you got around the Elvis impersonators, hammered frat boys with glowing yardglasses around their necks, families of 20 ambling along the sidewalk and ninety-five policemen.

Another highlight of the trip! I wanna be big!!

Sadly, the only way for me to indulge my fried pickle needs these days is to make them myself. Sometimes I just make a whole batch and sometimes I crumb and fry a few when I'm already doing a bunch of other stuff. I don't often eat fried things at home, so it's a bit of a treat.

Ingredients

1 jar dill pickles (or any pickles really, I find bread and butter pickle slices to be lovely and sweet)

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal/polenta/breadcrumbs/panko/whatever you like

1 cup milk/buttermilk or 1 egg

Any flavourings you like. I add a dash of paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. And black pepper.

Oil for frying.

Directions:

1. Slice the pickles quarterly lengthwise into spears. Dry on a paper towel.

2. Dip into the milk or egg - egg will create a thicker crumb that will stay together better.

3. Dip into mixed flour, cornmeal and flavourings to coat.

4. Fry (deep or shallow) in hot oil until golden brown.

5. Eat. Faint. Recover. Eat more.

Not just a load of old lentils

Greetings! Now i’m just as scared of tofu and tempeh and all the creepy-sounding, overly-healthy vegetarian foodstuffs as any regular person, which is why I created this site. Here you will find unfreaky food and recipes for vegetables that don’t immediately make you want to cry. Vegetarian food doesn’t have to be boring or hippy-flavoured unless you want it to be. If you do, i’m afraid Veggie Mama just ain’t for you!

I’m also considering growing a veggie baby in the near future, so sometimes the posts will focus on that. Given that these recipes won’t actually impregnate you, go ahead and eat them even if you’re a dude, or just not that into pregnancy right now. They will be delicious and nutritious and occasionally taste just like fake chicken.