Whenever I prepare the ingredients for Yui’s food, there’s only one phrase I have in mind – only the choicest of ingredients. So I was really thrilled when I saw this “baby leaf” package in the store. Only the choicest of leaves for our baby. With ten different salad greens.

Each leaf is already quite small actually but I still cut them off in halves before steaming to avoid Yui’s choking on them. I steam a batch, store and get a portion to match with a serving of another batch of dish that I made. One example, this minced pork-tomato-potato-onion-natto dish.

Yep, there’s natto on it – that sticky, stinky but very healthy fermented beans. The first time I served natto to Yui, she had it with tofu and rice cereal.

Did she like it? Just look at that smile.

Now, I really wasn’t a healthy eater. But buying all this healthy stuff for Yui makes me think of making healthy dishes for Hubs and me as well. So even if we’re not babies, I also had the baby leaf for us adults.

I added in tomatoes, bacon, cottage cheese topped with onion dressing.

I sometimes vary our salad and put in boiled eggs and yellow bell pepper instead. Still with cottage cheese and onion dressing.

Last weekend, I decided to let Yui taste ampalaya/goya/bitter melon. As I wasn’t sure how Yui would like it, I added the ampalaya/goya/bitter melon in this asparagus-minced beef-tomato-string beans-cottage cheese-bean sprouts dish, all of which Yui had before in different mixes.

When Yui tasted it, her eyebrows were at first furrowed. But as she chewed on, a smile slowly crept on her face until it became this.

And since of course I only use up a portion of the vegetables I buy for Yui’s food, Dad and Mom had the remaining vegetables. I decided to have a goya champloo.

We had a superstition on the Philippines – that if you cook ampalaya/goya/bitter melon and it doesn’t taste bitter at all, you will have kind in-laws. Now, I’m really blessed with the kindest in-laws. Suffice it to say that my goya champloo absolutely didn’t taste bitter. 🙂

I’m not a medical professional so what I know about health and nutrition I only got from our doctor, books and Internet. But having had read extensively thus far, I am quite sad and surprised that some doctors in the Philippines still advise that milk is still enough to provide nutrition for toddlers. Toddlers and preschoolers definitely need more than milk for optimum growth. Let’s do our best Moms and Dads!