Baby Food

[demetra]

As I have access to exceptional fresh produce, I've decided to make my son's baby food. 

These are a couple recipes I have found -

Apples & Chicken
o   1/3 cup chopped & cooked boneless chicken*
o   1/4 cup cooked apple (no skin or seeds), very soft
o   You can also use a 1/4 cup of Natural applesauce
Puree chicken with cooked apple in a food processor or blender until desired consistency for baby is achieved.

Brown Rice Chicken & Peach Delight
o   1/2 c cooked boneless chicken - chopped
o   1/4 c cooked brown rice
o   1 ripe peach
o   1 tb peach juice (white grape or apple juice may be used or juice may be left out)
o   1 tb milk and 2 ts wheat germ
Mix all ingredients together, transfer to blender/food processor
and puree or chop to make textured for older babies

Creamed Chicken & Potato
o   2 tsp Sweet butter or margarine
o   1 tsp Unbleached flour
o   1/4 c Low fat milk
o   1/4 c Chicken, cooked, boned and-shredded
o   1/4 Potato, baked and cubed (try using sweet potato!)
o   1 tbls Grated white cheddar cheese
Melt butter in small heavy pan over low heat.
Stir in flour and blend well and then add milk and stir until smooth.
Cook over low heat until mixture begins to thicken, then add chicken and potatoes. Stir for about 2 to 3 minutes more or until heated through. Feel free to add a few vegetables. Add cheddar and stir until melted.



Any other suggestions?

[MyFamily]

You don't say how old your child is - but your recipes raised a few flags with me - first of all, most kids shouldn't have milk before they are one.  Also, they seem  like a lot.  When I was making my kids' baby food, I just took a sweet potato, baked or boiled it in chicken soup, and mashed it.  No flavors, no spices.  At that stage, according to my pediatrician, their taste buds are not very well developed and that many conflicting flavors may be too hard for them.  And what tastes bland to us, is pleasent to them.  And if they are at a stage where they can enjoy the different flavors, then just give them what you are eating, but just slightly mashed up.  They don't need everything to be soft and blended.

[beakiebean]

Those sound yummy. I made all of DD's baby food-it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be and was so cheap to do.

We started of with just single fruits and veggies, then moved on to combos like sweet potato and apple together, and then moved into recipes and meat.

A big hit with DD was whole wheat pasta, spaghetti sauce, zucchini, and chicken. We started that when she was a little older so I didn't totally puree it-left it a little chunky.

I found that once DD has tried most of the fruits and vegetables individually she was really into the combos and the seasonings. DD was eating seasoned and spicy foods before age 1 and she still does to this day. (Our pediatrician said that if she enjoyed it and it wasn't causing any tummy troubles it was fine). The only things we stayed away from was nuts and dairy until age 1 (I was allergic to dairy as a kid.)

The book Super Baby Food has lots of neat recipes and ideas-if you have a library card it would be worth a read.

Becca

[demetra]

Thank you.  I'll see if our library has it.

[LissaR1]

Actually, it's just that babies shouldn't have milk before they're one- not milk products.  A lot of pediatricians recommend introducing yogurt around 9-10 months.  (And hallelujah, because it's one of the few things Mr. Picky will eat.)