Anyone have receipes for baby food mostly vegitable oriented? Fruit is good too, but no meat or strawberries.

It's getting expensive at the store, and 10 month old Ruth (5 teeth) only likes squash from home. Any thoughts, info, suggestions, or receipes your kids liked?

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 01, 2001

Answers

I used to cook peas, sweet potatoes, etc. grind them in the blender, put them in ice cube trays, freeze, pop them out and put them in plastic bag. Take out a cube at a time, thaw, heat and feed to the little one. Grind up fresh apple in blender to make a sauce. Banan can be smashed up with a fork as can fresh peaches, pear when they're in season.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 01, 2001.

All you need to make your own baby food is a good way to mash it up. I used to make all of my baby food. Cook the food first and then puree it. Just remember not to season it like you would for an adult. I'd heat up a can of carrots and mash them and store the unused portion in the fridge...it had plenty of salt in it already. You might want to stay away from acidy stuff like tomatoe sauce. To make baby food out of meats it would pretty much require a food processor. Try using things like well cooked chicken livers...lots of vitamins. Ham also ought to be pretty easy to cook up and puree...just watch the salt content. It's not hard just most folks don't think that homemade is as good for the baby as store bought...which is baloney. Don't forget with bigger babies to give them melba toast and other semi solid stuff.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), January 01, 2001.

Black and Decker or proctor silex make a mini chopper its about $10.00 .I used it when they where small .At 10 months I chopped veggies and such in small pieces and they liked it better that way .What ever I had for dinner or lunch they ate with no problems.

-- Patty (fodfarms@slic.com), January 01, 2001.

Marty, there is a great old book out their called "Feed me" in the 70's we could order it from the La Leche League. It came with a small hand held food mill so you could take it with you to grind and go! I made all my kids baby food, except for the meat, I would do as what was said before, bag of carrots, very small amount of water, boil the carrots, squish the carrots, and freeze in small plops on a cookie sheet, when it was frozen, place the plops in a zip lock and keep in the freezer, as the baby grows the plops got bigger. I always bought already jarred applesuace, and also baby meats, which for years, I still bought the pureed liver to add nutrients to meat loaf etc. since my kids all hated organ meats. It's great that they do have natural baby foods out on the market now, something even in progressive Southern California, was just starting when I had my first. But don't for a second believe that introducing children to a wild variety of vegetables and foods will make them enjoy them as older children and adults! Certainly didn't work for mine! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 01, 2001.

Marty, I've been using the Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel, and I love it. Matisse (my 8mo. daughter) won't eat anything but freshly prepared foods, so this book has been wonderful for us. Some of the recipes are a little "over-the top" but I adjust them to fit our menu with no problem. THe basic recipes and meal suggestions are great! I have "Feed Me,I'm Yours" around here somewhere too, but I haven't used it with Matisse- that one got tested on my older children, and I liked that one as well : )

-- Kristin, in Central Alabama (positivekharma@aol.com), January 01, 2001.

I used Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It has a nice schedule for when to introduce various foods from the very first solids. My daughter was a very picky eater and so it was nice to give her Ruth's super porridge for breakfast and know that she had gotten a great deal of her nutrients early in the day and that anything else I could tempt her to eat was just a nice extra. (From the very beginning she was too interested in the world around her to eat and would gulp just enough to satisfy the hunger pangs and then stop eating.)

-- Lori in SE Ohio (klnprice@yahoo.com), January 01, 2001.

I also have a daughter that is in this transition table food stage and she is getting into the fussy, I have better things to do than eat stage. I bought about 3 different books and what I'm finding is that she can eat anything I do, it I cut it up in tiny pieces and/or chop it in a mini food processer if it's healthy that is. I'm trying to fix more health conscious meals than my husband and I are used to due to I was using a lot of conveience (sp) foods due to being so busy with work and a 1 year old but I am trying to get in alot of cooking on the weekend for the week a head. I try to make a breakfast casserole on the weekend and she seems to like that alot and it make me feel better when she has that in the morning and sometimes doesn't do as well with the other meals.I was going to try those gerber graduates until I saw the salt content. 420mg in a 6oz serving. Decided it is worth the extra trouble and less cost this way we can all hopefully eat healthy. Could you post the super porridge recipe. It sounds like it would be very good. Also does anyone have any suggestions for fingerfoods that are safe (choking wise) and firm enough for her to pick up. She eats alot of wheat bread because it keeps her busy while I give her a spoonful of the pureed food. I have a little one that doesn't like here hands messy and has not learned to use a spoon yet.

-- cynthia (cynthiahemenway@hotmail.com), January 02, 2001.

I will have to go upstairs and dig through the boxes to find the actual recipe for the porridge, but I remember using brown rice, lentils, wheat germ, millet, and wheat berries. I ground the stuff up in the blender until it was a powder and then made up a batch by boiling the powder in water to the consistency of oatmeal. It cooked pretty quick (10 min or so) and then I would freeze it into ice cubes. For breakfast, I would pop out a couple of porridge cubes, a fruit cube or two, a yoghurt cube, depending on her age and appetite. It was fun because we could do good flavor combinations like peach apple, or whatever. I always had to offer her this before milk or anything else while she was still hungry after sleeping all night. Then she could have the other stuff after she ate her porridge.

I recommend you find a copy of the Yarron book. There is a whole section on finger foods, and recipes for lots of little "snacks" that are really healthy stuff. One of Nora's favorites was stuffing balls - made from regular stuffing, but rolled in a ball so she could feed herself with it.

Another hint, we also did the baby sign language. I was amazed at how well Nora could communicate at only about 10 mos. using her signs. She could specify water, milk, or juice, tell us whether she was hungry or thirsty, let us know when she wanted more or had enough, and best of all, would actually tell us when she was sleepy and wanted a nap. And in spite of everyone's concerns that she would be delayed in speaking, she talked earlier than normal and was using more complex sentence structure earlier because she was already used to using language. And it's another fun activity for Mommies and Daddies to do with their very young children.

-- Lori in SE Ohio (klnprice@yahoo.com), January 02, 2001.

I have the book on sign lang. I thought my mom was a little crazy but it does work and kids do it anyway you just have to attentive enough to realize it. My in-laws now think I'm crazy. Thanks

-- Cynthia (cynthiahemenway@hotmail.com), January 02, 2001.

By that age, my last one was eating canned peas right from the can. I just put some on the tray in front of her and she would work at picking them up and eating them. Bananas were always popular. Canned pears would mash easily.

I used to get canned green beans, put them in the food processor, portion into ice cube trays and pop out what we needed. It was great for trips to town because by the time we were ready to eat, the cubes were thawed.

Once for a 2 week trip I went and bought a whole bunch of baby food. The child would not eat it. Ended up returning almost all of it. (Ok, so I like the fruit.)

I know Marty doesn't want meat suggestions but for anyone else who might....I would cook up a whole turkey (smallish one), we'd eat some it and some would be processed with just enough liquid added to make a paste and put in the ice cube trays. Worked great and was super cheap.

At 10 months most babies are not interested in combined foods and "recipes". Plain, uncomplicated foods seem to go over best in my experience.

-- Heather (heathergorden@hotmail.com), January 06, 2001.

With my first baby, I was so careful and conscientious. I had the Feed Me I'm Yours book and made all my own babyfood. She wouldn't eat anything and is still the pickiest eater in the world.

With child number two, she got "people food" some of it ran through the baby food mill but could hold a burrito and chow down at 10 months old.

By time we got to child number three, we didn't even use a diaper bag anymore. Just tucked a diaper and a small pack of wipes into a pocket and went. She ate whatever we ate mashed with a fork.

Isn't anything a baby eats a finger food? Cooked green beans with "dip" served like french fries, raw asparagus tips, too. Carrot curls, thin sliced fruit or vegetables. Cheerios or the health food store equivalent, pancakes with a fruit or nut spread (tahini and applesauce) rolled similar to a burrito. Cooked noodles............

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), January 07, 2001.