Serves: 4                        Prep time: 5 minutes                        Cook time: 0 minutes

1 sleeve Ritz Crackers

1                                   banana

½ c                                    peanut butter

½ c                                    strawberry jelly

8 raisins

Slice the bananas into ½ inch slices. Place the Ritz crackers on a plate winding them in the shape of a caterpillar.  Spread every other slice with peanut butter. Spread the remaining slices with jelly.  Top with banana as desired. Use 2 raisins at the front of each caterpillar for eyes.  Grab the book and it’s snack time!

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So what’s a Mom to do in order to avoid another dreaded morning spent at the house of the dirty mouse (otherwise known as that virus spreading quarter stealing home of disgusting overpriced pizza) Ooooh, I know!  Costco!

So I empty out the extended trunk of my monster SUV and throw the kids in the carseats and head out the the super store.  God knows I could use some diapers, peanut butter, and a lifetime supply of Ritz Crackers.  Once I get the boys through the parking lot without being run over by a Mercedes driving, cell phone gabbing, fake boob displaying, clueless soccer mom, we wrangle a cart drop two of the kids into it, and bribe the third with untold candy riches to walk alongside it…and we’re off.

Now the fun really begins, first we pass the DVD section, strategically placed right next to the toy section and the Christmas section, where you can get all your holiday needs, in August.  Once I’ve put back the 32 titles the kids have grabbed and thrown into the cart, and curbed 4 tantrums due to Diego and his newest clubhouse playset, we’re off to the bread aisle.

Quick detour to the wine section, come on, it’s Wednesday, and we’re passing the butcher shop.  Now is where the fun begins.  It’s almost 11 am and here they come.  The sample staff.  They stand there with their hair nets and gloves, at the red and white checkered tables, slinging their samples for all to savor.  Here is my chance…feed the kids free lunch AND give them new stuff to try.

After dodging hip checks from every senior citizen this side of Leisure World we hit every stand, the new sweet smoked sausages with artichoke and pineapple, Macaroni Grill’s new take home bag o’ fettucine and spinach (did Keegan just really eat spinach?  He did!  He did!  We’ll take 5, at $10 a bag!), sundried tomato hummus with whole wheat pita chips, pomegranate and blueberry juice, granola bars, fiber cookies, chicken pinwheels….

Somehow we stumble toward the checkout line, pay for our enormous tub of peanut butter and make it home again.  Our bellies full we unpack the car and settle in for the afternoon.   How full?  Check out Cooper…

Another Wednesday dealt with and in the books.  Damn, I forgot the diapers.

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So anyway, after we shopped (uh, first things first and Mommy and Auntie Taryn needed some Nordstrom time) we let them crawl around and play for 30 germ infested minutes in the mall play yard for the under 42 inches crowd.  They had a blast.  After we disinfected them thoroughly, hey I’ve seen far too many Datelines, we decided to grab some lunch.  After one look at our food court choices, don’t get me wrong I used to chow down on Sbarro slices like a champ but I was about 20 and it took at least a day or two to hit my hips, we came up with a plan…

The Nordstrom Cafe!

Brilliant, we are ladies who lunch, and we will dine on dark wood tables with silver and cloth napkins.  Uh oh, then we realized we were manning the stroller brigade.  We discussed, both sets of our older children were tucked away in preschool for the morning, nobody is screaming for hot dogs impaled on sticks, this is our chance!  But neither of us brought along any baby food!  Ah, screw it, we can find something to eat for the little ones…let’s do it!

So in we roll, literally mind you with our gigantic Bob jogging strollers and almost every head in the place turns and glares in our direction.  When did old people get so mean?  They certainly didn’t mind poking their hands into my infants’ car carriers in the grocery store as I stared on in horror grasping for the Purell and squirting it indiscriminately in their direction.  Now I’m invading your turf?  I’ve stepped over the boundaries bringing a 10 month old to lunch at 11 am?  Do I have to assemble the Sharks and the Jets and we’ll throw down in a old fashioned rumble?  Well screw you, we’re hungry, we’ll try not to hit your oxygen tanks on the way to our table.

So of course this is a tasting menu day and everything they are serving is super chic and there are absolutely NO SUBSTITUTIONS.  Oh crap, we can’t give up now, we will not surrender!   What are we going to feed these two?  And thus began my new venture, thanks in part to the stares of the blue hairs, the beginning of Coop’s Culinary Adventures.

Check these cool cats out…

Cooper and Carlin dined on a tasty meal of Asparagus and Pea Saffron Risotto, Maine Crabcakes, and crusty San Francisco Sourdough bread.  No purees here!  They couldn’t have been happier and Coop hasn’t had a puree since.   They sat happily for over an hour as my SIL and I caught up on all the latest.  It was a blast.

Almost everyone of those blue hairs stopped on their way out to tell us how adorable the boys were and how they were so impressed with their behavior, yadda yadda yadda.  All except the one set seated next to us.  Have no idea what their deal was but they gave us the ol’ stink eye the entire time.  Til I kicked one of their canes on the way out…kidding…but I wanted to.

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because he simply won’t let me feed him anymore!  It just becomes a ridiculous match of tug of war resulting in Coop getting fussy and me getting covered in baby food slime.

Sadly, much like Brady was at this age (and I can’t tell you how much this scares me) Cooper likes to do everything himself, especially when it comes to feeding himself.  So today at lunch I didn’t really plan ahead so I went to the fridge for inspiration, and came back…

…with leftovers.

Yes I know, this is hardly exciting, just some green beans and pasta but here comes the exciting part…no food processor!!!!  Watch this…

…Voila!  Cooper food!  With nothing but a cutting board and a knife.  Yea!  No more constant steaming, no more blending, no more food processoring (I know, that was a stretch) and no more spoon feeding.  Simply drop some on his high chair tray and let him go to town.

See?  He likes it.  I like it.  And guess who really likes it….

…Guinness knows just where to park himself to get the good stuff.  So Cooper is a huge fan of the big boy food and I can retire my blender from baby food prep and put it back to good use, to what God intended for, making Mommy margaritas.

So stay tuned to see what falls off of Coop’s tray next.  God knows Guinness will!

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This particular day was his first taste of blueberries, fresh from the farmers market I might add.

Now with my first two boys I was very careful to stay true to all the books and all the doctors advice.  I made their food at home, carefully picking organic produce, washing it endlessly in hot water, steaming it, pureeing it, on and on and on.  With Keegan, my 4-year-old, we made it to 6 months.  We had successfully gone through most of the veggies…beginning with sweet potato, moving on to broccoli, butternut squash, zucchini, he loved them all.  We went through the fruits next, peaches, pears, apples.  We sailed right through.  I spent whole days making trays of food and freezing them, but it was worth it right?  I mean, this was my first baby and all.  Then we tried an avocado and the world came crashing down.  I must have missed a tiny speck and a slightly larger piece went into little Keegan’s mouth.  What we didn’t know then was that Keegan suffered from acid reflux and has an incredibly sensitive gag reflex.  He gagged on that little piece of avocado and proceeded to throw up.  Being a first time mother I freaked out, called my hubby, rushed Keegan to the ER certain he was on the brink of death.  When we got into the car he started to do what all babies do when they get in a car…he started to doze.  Well I just lost it screaming like a lunatic all the way to the hospital, “Stay with me, Keegan!”  It was like a scene out of Terms of Endearment.  Uh, yeah, I was that Mom.  Anyway, four hours later we are on our way home and my hubby forbids me from ever home making food for the baby again.  So, what’s a girl to do?   I switched to premade baby food…uh yuck.

When Brady came along I once again returned to making his food.  I was going to make it work this time!  I followed the same path, marking down all the same foods (neither of the first two liked fresh melon) and progressing in the same manner.  Brady made it past avocado with ease!  ”Yea,” I thought, “we did it!”  It’s all smooth sailing now.  Brady is still a relatively good eater but I fell into the same trap with him that I did with Keegan.  It just got easier to grab a jar of baby food and throw it in the diaper bag on my way to meet the other Mom’s.

Then came the worst day in my children’s food history.  The day when we finally got to order off the kid’s menu.  At first I was so excited.  I thought it was adorable!  Look at all these little portions they make special for you guys.  They even give you crayons to draw with while you wait…

for your cute little plates…

loaded with calories…

and fat…

and sodium…Yippee!

I destroyed them.  My good eaters who enjoyed a vast array of fruits and vegetables became obsessed with fried foods, fluorescent orange macaroni, and animal shaped processed chicken products.  All my careful planning out the window faster than you can say, “You want fries with that?”

With Cooper, it’s been different.  Yes I still faithfully made his food, and I’ve only resorted to the jars a handful of times, but I will not let this one get away from me.  Cooper eats what I eat.  Now granted sometimes it’s a bit out of the ordinary but I realized with the third kid, anything goes.  You will not eat off a children’s menu and you will learn to love good food, just like you do now.  This was the epiphany I had while out to dim sum with my good friend, Ashlee, and I realized that I had absentmindedly handed Cooper a fortune cookie that he had been happily munching on for about five minutes.  Now of course most kids would love a fortune cookie, but Coop was only 6 months at the time…ahhhh, such is the life of the baby of the family.  Now Coop is my most adventurous, at only 11 months he’s a world traveler as far as his cuisine.  Ranking highest on his list, Japanese, Chinese, and Greek, though don’t get between him and one of my homemade meatballs!

So this section of my website will be dedicated to my little gastronomic masterpiece.  I will report on all of Cooper’s culinary conquests as we travel the road from kid menu to full blown foodie as I vow to avoid the ubiquitous chicken nuggets I’m so desperately trying to break the other two of.

Today was Dad’s favorite…Chicken Pot Pie.

Coop’s assessment, a big thumbs up, the dogs didn’t even get bite!

Stay tuned…

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