Culinary Creations

Ben is a really good eater, as you can probably guess from looking at his size. Lately he's been very interested in making his own little food concotions, as well as asserting his independence in preparing and choosing his meals. This can sometimes be frustrating when he wants his oatmeal absolutely drowning in syrup, but we've come up with a solution where I fill a little dairy creamer with milk and a cup with brown sugar or syrup and then he gets to parcel them out himself until they're gone. I wish I could claim the brainwave, but thanks to my mom for the suggestion to avoid a needless power struggle. Ben's oatmeal sandwich. Basically his rice bread sprinkled with dry oatmeal. Looks pretty bland to me, but he ate it all. Granted, he did need a big glass of milk afterward.

Leaf stew. Ben made this on his birthday and I think he might have gotten the idea from Papa Bear's woodland stew in one of his Berenstain Bears books. The ingredients are: Leaves (of course, the more variety the better), broccoli, water, salt, pepper, and a strawberry. Maybe our monster from a few months ago will eat it.