The lunch box fairy delivers

Juju received a very early birthday present from a friend last week (her birthday is not for 3 more weeks but I am sure she appreciates that the celebration has begun!) that is totally blog-worthy.

First let me say that my friend Pegah, who gave us the gift, is actually partly the inspiration for my blog and the fact that I try to serve Juju healthy foods.  I met Pegah when we were both pregnant and I liked that she took a natural and calming approach to pregnancy, birth, and everything that came after.  She gave me ideas on what books to read and what kinds of food to feed my baby and her healthful attitude helped me form a lot of my current opinions on what to feed kids.

Pegah was one of the first people I met who was also reading Ruth Yaron's book Super Baby Food.  While I think Yaron is a little bit insane and goes too far on a number of levels, I think she has some fantastic ideas and Juju still eats the Super Porridge from that book more than 2 years after I first introduced it so Ruth must be on to something.  I remember being at Pegah's house when our kids were about 9 months old.  She was making food for Juju and her son Kiki (brown rice and carrots) and served everything in beautiful glass bowls.  There was a certain refinement to everything she put on the table that inspired me to go home and add some ceremony into what I cooked and how I presented food to Juju.  I continue to get great food ideas from Pegah and I am glad I can now give some back to her.

So, it's no surprise that Pegah gave us a beautiful set of kid's flatware to dress up our dinnertable for Juju's 3rd birthday.  I have admired the set at Pegah's house and Juju is now enjoying using them at ours.  My favorite part about the Knuddle set (besides the fact that it's way nicer than anything else in Juju's dinnerware drawer) is that it comes with a large spoon which is perfect for soup or cereal.  We don't have anything else like this spoon and it came in handy today when a sleep-deprived Juju demanded cereal and milk in the middle of the day.  I think we'll also love it when it gets cold and I start making kid-friendly soups again.

Thank you Pegah for the wonderful gift and for all of your inspiration!  If you want your very own WMF Knuddle set you can find one on Amazon here.

Containerization - stoneware edition

There are so many more food containers, plates, and flatware I want to blog about.  In this post I will focus on some non-plastic, non-glass, non-stainless steel options.  What's left you ask?  Basically wood and ceramic or porcelain stoneware.

I don't use a lot of wood or bamboo around here.  When Juju was small I had a few forks and spoons made from bamboo but now that she is older, she finds them dissatisfying.  They are mostly handcarved and are pretty to look at but don't work so well to stab a strawberry or hold a reasonable amount of yogurt.

Wood bowls and plates are really expensive and annoying to clean as I don't know if they are all dishwasher safe.  We have a few wooden bowls from salad sets but since I only bring those out on special occasions with adults, I never think to use them on a daily basis with Juju.

Instead, we have been using a great dishware set I got at Ikea.  I think it's technically a "play" dish set but it's food safe and is the perfect size for Juju so why not?  I got the idea from a friend after Juju ate off of the plates at her house.  The set is called Duktig and includes 4 plates, 4 mini plates, and 4 bowls in pink, blue, yellow, and green for $9.99.  Here is a special dessert Juju had in one of the green dishes (it's moosetracks ice cream with chocolate covered sunflower seeds topping for those interested).

 

I started serving Juju on the Duktig plates at around 20 months when she was more responsible with her tableware and was no longer throwing things on the floor.  Well, she was probably still throwing some food on the floor but she was not bothering the dishes by that point.  I love how pretty the dishes are; they really dress up her table and make the food look appealing.  I also like that they bring some refinement to otherwise very unrefined meals.  The size of the plates are perfect for toddler-sized portions.   I am hoping using stoneware now will help with the transition to adult plates at some point.  The photo below is of the whole set but it doesn't really do them justice, the plates are pretty adorable.  You can see one of the larger blue plates in the breakfast I made here.  They are also dishwasher safe which is a huge plus (I try not to put plastic plates or bowls in the dishwasher but it's just too tempting. . .).

When Juju was older, I started serving her beverages in very small Ikea glass cups.  I can't find the exact set we have but here is another set of 6 for $2.99 (I actually think ours were 6 for $1.99 if you can believe it).  It's hard to trust a young toddler with glass so make sure yours is really ready before trying it out.  We also use the play flatware set (also called Duktig) which gives you 16 pieces of stainless steel flatware for $6.99 and comes with it's own drawer organizer (yes, I realize the organizer is plastic).  The pieces in the set are 4 forks, 4 knives, 4 large spoons and 4 tea spoons.  We only really use the spoons but they are worth buying the whole set for.  The larger spoons fit perfectly with creamy things served in the Duktig bowls and I like that they don't overwhelm Juju.  When she gets a little bigger, she can use her old dishes and flatware for her dolls.

While we're on the subject of porcelain, I should mention that our friends Dave and Michelle got us the cutest 3-piece Peter Rabbit Wedgwood dishware set when Juju was born.  We used it at Thanksgiving this year along with fancy china for everyone else and it was an adorable complement.  I am afraid to use the set regularly (it's not as easy to replace as the Ikea Duktig set) but I suppose it's not as much fun sitting on a shelf.  Wouldn't you like your morning Cheerios and coffee served in these?