When Ethan was being introduced to pureed foods, like most families we occassionally enjoyed our grown-up meals out in a restaurant. Since I made all of his pureed food and froze it, just before leaving for the chosen restaurant, I put the frozen cubes into a microwave-safe bowl with a lid. When we ordered our meal, I would ask the server to warm the cubes. I quickly found out from a server that restaurant microwaves are much more powerful than ours at home, so I asked them to reheat half the time than I normally did at home. While we waited for our food to be prepared, Ethan happily ate. By the time our food arrived, he was satiated so that he would play with a few toys in front of him.
The first time we gave Claire brown rice cereal, we all happily noshed at one of our favorite Thai restaurants.
While both kids were in the stage of eating some pureed food to eating pieces of food, we traveled to Mexico. Claire was a bit younger on that trip, so I needed more pureed foods than I did with Ethan. I made a couple batches of her favorite frozen puree combinations for breakfast and lunch time. I packed the zip loc bag in a small cooler with ice packs for travel. We had no trouble getting through TSA checkpoints and it arrived in Mexico still frozen several hours later. I supplemented her pureed food with freshly mashed avocados and banana pieces in our condo. Travelling with small babies in Mexico was for the most part very easy. It didn't matter where we went to dine, I could always find something on the menu she could eat: fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, refried beans, quesadillas, grilled vegetables, etc. Usually if you asked they had fresh fruit, too.
Most importantly, make meal time fun for your little ones. From 6-9 months, meal time isn't so much about eating but rather the experience. Tastes and textures while watching your queues are the developmental milestones they learn. The majority of their nutitional intake still comes from your breastmilk or formula. At 9 months and beyond, they flip flop.
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