I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions. I prefer to set goals throughout the year as they come to me. In November I signed up to complete a 22 km military inspired obsticle course in June. Maybe a bit crazy, but I want my babe to grow up knowing that his mom likes to have fun, try new things and stay active.

This got me thinking about really making a concerted effort to go out and do the things that I enjoy with the people I enjoy. This past month I hit the 6-month-wall of being on mat leave, combined with lovely Vancouver January weather, I was getting an itch to be more social; spending the weekends cleaning and walking the dog just weren't cutting it.

Dine Out Vancouver is currently on, and has been a staple activity for us over the past years. Combine living in the suburbs with a baby and it's a little more difficult to pop out for a nice dinner Downtown. Fortunately this year there was a daytime food truck event. Since we missed the summer food truck festivals we decided to take advantage of a large number of food trucks in one place as well as the opportunity to catch up with our friends that live out that way. Despite the rain, headed out, stroller and all for a day of food and fun with some friends.

We tried out three different dishes from three different food trucks:
risotto balls from Street
Meet (fantastic!!), hungry man perogies from Holy Perogy (beef jerky on the perogies, um, YES!) and a bacon and havarti grilled cheese from Mom's Grilled Cheese (totally worth the long line up). It was all delicious, and the carbs, cheese and bacon were exactly what we needed considering the wedding we'd attended the night before. Can't wait for the next food truck festival!

It's Monday morning, the slow cooker is on and filled with a pork shoulder. Yep, we're having pulled pork sandwiches for dinner tonight. This is one of my favouite simple dinners. Here's why I love this dinner:
- Simple and easy. Rub pork with a spice mixture, put in slow cooker and leave it fir about 8 hour on low. Come dinner time, all I have to do is throw some dressing on the coleslaw (I like a tangy cider based dressing), shred the pork and load up some whole wheat buns. Probably less than 15 minutes of work total to make this dinner.
- Tastey!! Hubby likes to use an all purpose rub that from his Memphis Blues cookbook on all sorts of things so it's naturally what we use when making pulled pork. And really, a little pork fat make almost everything taste good!
- Economical meal. Protien can be expensive. We try to go to a local butcher and pick up our meat on sale. This particular cut of meat was less than $13 and will make us at least 8 servings.
- Delicious leftovers. Pulled pork pizza. Pulled pork tacos. Pulled pork nachos. Or even this delicious looking Pork & Potato Hash!

Memphis Blues was featured on CBC's cooking club. Check out the recipe we use as inspiration for our slowcooker version: http://www.cbc.ca/bc/cookingclub/recipes/recipe_pulled_pork.pdf

OK, so I'd been resisting and resisting the temptation to sign up for a Pinterest account. I finally caved. It's sooooo addictive, and filled with fantastic ideas. Plus it's keeping me more organized and in some ways making me set some goals; example being to try a new recipe or two each week. So far I've tested a few recipes (a Tuscan Sausage Soup and a Mediterranean Beef Stew) and started a few sewing projects. Will post some of the results!

About a week before Christmas Monkey had a few nights where he woke up to feed 2-3 times. Since he was usually good for sleeping through until about 6 in the morning, this was a bit odd, but I wasn't too concerned. By the third night of this happening, despite him nursing heavily before bed, I figured it was time to give solids a try. He was afterall, 5 1/2 months, and constantly grabbing at our plates.

I've skimmed a few books and articles on feeding baby, but as with everything else baby related, tried to avoid following any one perscribed method or philosophy too closely. I'm me. I want my parenting style and choices to reflect me. And I want reason and common sense to be a big part of my decisions.

We started him off with some barley cereal, then introduced some yams for flavour. I don't like bland food, so why would he?!  Monkey loved the yams so we figured we'd try some pear that I'd cooked, pureed and frozen this summer while it was in season. Also a hit. Not surprising as over the previous few weeks he'd suck on pieces of apple or pear as I was eating them.

I know that the current recommendation is to follow iron-fortified cereal with meats in order to prevent iron-deficiency as baby's iron stores start to decrease at about 6 months. About a week later we tried a bit of pureed turkey mixed with breast milk. Wow! NOT A FAN!

I don't want food to be an issue with him, so I figure that if he gives it a taste 3 days in a row, and it doesn't work, then we move on. No big deal. Each day, same reaction. I think it's the texture, or maybe the taste. He just sits there with his mouth open making a bad face. He doesn't even spit it out. I have to scoop out the turkey with my figer. Agh.

We cooked up some stewing beef, pureed and mixed with milk. Hmmm. Seemed like he liked the flavour a little bit more, but again, not a fan of the texture.

Am I worried? Phoning the nurse help line, scouring internet resources or attempting to collect advise from other local mommie? No. He's a few days short of 6 months. He's still nursing 8 times a day. He like the cereal and loves yams, squash, apple and pears. I think that's reasonable for now. We'll try meat again in a few more days. As for now, we'll keep adding some new veggies. Afterall, food is about fun and exploring at this point.