February 8, 2014, my life was turned upside down and inside out and topsy turvy in the most wonderful, amazing, happy way possible — I had a little baby girl, Zoe. Since then my every waking moment has revolved around my sweet little baby.

As a food lover, it’s really amazing to see how Zoe’s diet and awareness of food has grown and developed over her first year. At first she nursed constantly, and I was torn between being thrilled that I gave birth to such an enthusiastic eater and being exasperated that she just never stopped demanding milk, milk, milk and more milk. It was exhausting.

And then at 6 months Zoe was able to eat solid food, and the real fun began. My favorite new hobby became making baby food. Each week I filled my shopping cart at Whole Foods with tons of organic produce (apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, frozen peas…) and then spent a day or two steaming, pureeing and freezing it all into cute little cubes of yummy food. She devoured it like a champ, gaining tons of weight (going from 0.5 percentile to 25th percentile). Go girl!

Now, as of February 2015, I’m a mother of a one-year-old with two little teeth, a voracious appetite and the green light to eat everything. I baked her banana birthday cupcakes to celebrate. And now, in theory, I can start cooking like normal and feeding her family meals. I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since I started eating an eclectic diet while pregnant to prime her taste buds for my food-lover’s lifestyle.

Only thing is, I’m not sure what’s normal anymore. I’m going to have to revise my arsenal of meals to include what I’ve been thinking of as “mom meals” — healthy, simple, not-too-spicy fare that can be pureed or cut into small bits. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you follow along as I share some of my new recipes here. Continue reading →