Today for dinner Ruby and I made Ping Pong Soup together. The recipe is really easy: each person alternates, choosing one ingredient to put into the pot. Any ingredient in the kitchen is fair game. Cook for a while, then enjoy! Here’s what we made:

First, I chose some leftover turkey and bones and put them in the water to simmer.

Then Ruby picked grapes. She cut each grape in half and put them in a bowl.

Next, I chose some left over fried rice. Then Ruby picked noodles — I got some penne out of the cupboard.

I chose celery, and put half in with the broth and diced the rest. Ruby took a look in the fridge and chose pickles, cutting each one in half with her knife.

Next up, I picked seasonings: a mix of salt, herbs and spices from the cupboard. Ruby’s final choice, after another look in the fridge, was eggs. She cracked two eggs into a bowl and mixed them up.

My final choice was some frozen mixed veggies from the freezer.

We took the turkey bones out of the pot, dumped in the rest of the ingredients, and let it simmer for twenty minutes while building giant bridges out of blocks in the basement. Then we enjoyed it with pumpkin biscuits we made together last weekend.

It was delicious!

Ruby’s culinary journey is progressing admirably.  She’s now got four foods under her belt: apples, bananas, rice, and avocado.  She’s particularly fond of bananas and avocado.  When I eat an apple, I give her the apple core to lick and suck afterwards.  And on our recent hike, she enjoyed eroding the end of a banana.

Her food-consuming skills have also improved to the point where she’s eating enough that she’s almost able to replace a milk meal.  She opens her mouth to receive the spoon, usually doesn’t extrude the contents back out again, and probably consumes about 1/3 of a cup over the course of a meal.  She also takes water from her sippy cup.

Now that Ruby’s food is acting as food, and not just a fun little learning activity for all parties involved, we need to start paying attention to nutrition.  As her repertoire expands I’ll have more options available to make sure she’s getting the vitamins, iron, and protein that she’s not getting from her current table foods.  I’m looking forward to adding a more wholesome grain than brown rice to her mix, some protein (beans? chicken?) and green vegetables (spinach!).  That should cover all the bases.

Of course, she’s still getting five square meals of breastmilk (or formula, occasionally) every day, so we don’t have to worry about tinkering with her nutrition too much for the time being.