Ellie had been living on a steady diet of purees for months when I knew she was ready to start eating more of our food. Even though she was ready, I was not, because I had no idea what to feed her.

I started by slowly including her in our dinners. When I made our weekly meal plan, I chose things she could eat. Ellie often got the deconstructed, Top Chef version of our meals. For example, when we ate fish tacos, Ellie had fish without the spicy seasoning, small pieces of tortilla and bits of mango and avocado.

We started to get the swing of dinner pretty quickly, but lunch had me stumped. Like most working adults, lunch is kind of an after thought for me. Picking up food or relying on boxed meals was how I survived, but lean cuisines weren’t going to cut it for her. And, now that I work from home, I was responsible for feeding us lunch five days a week, which seemed pretty daunting.

I finally sat down and actually developed a list of things I could make in 15 minutes or less. Everything can work as a finger food for Ellie, but is also something she and I would both like.

I’m guessing I’m not the only person looking for quick and easy meals, so I’ve added a new section to the site called “Feeding Your Family.” You can still find info on making your own baby food there, but I’ve added a page for “Big Kid” recipes. So far, it includes recipes for chicken nuggets, quesadillas and pita pizzas, and I plan to keep adding to it. Even though these are labeled for kids, I offer tweaks and options for more adult palates, so please check it out even if you don’t have any little ones at your house.