MOVING BEYOND MUSH:

She sits at the end of my kitchen table in a tidy clip-on highchair. So far she sports an adventurous appetite. Tonight's spinach dahl may have been too much too soon, however. She ate a fair few spoonfuls, while giving me odd looks, but soon grew grumpy and smeared the red lentil dahl around her face and shouted to be removed from her highchair.

We're moving beyond mush. I want to share with her the many interesting flavors and textures of food. I don't want bland to be the norm. But salt is no good for babies (and that includes salty foods). Nuts are controversial. Butter is out. Sugar is a no-no. Spicy is a bit scary.

I aim to have her eating (almost) everything we eat within a year, when she will be 19 months.

Tasty, healthy and affordable meals will be created to inspire both adults and babies. If not in one mouthful, at least with similar ingredients. Billie is not yet digging into my various versions of vegetarian lasagna, but she loves munching on the chunks of roasted courgette, pumpkin and kumara.

Bon Appetite

Sarah