Baby Recipes

Princessa

Hey,
I know there is already a thread for recipes for kids which i had a read through but i'm looking for recipes suitable for babies of around the 5 month mark.
I want to prepare all her meals myself so im just hoping for some other idea's. She loves:
Pureed Bananna
Stewed Pear and Apple then pureed.
Pureed Potatoes with two veg a variation of turnip, carrots, broccolli and butternut squash.
Would appriciate any more ideas or recipes that have worked for ye.
Would like to introduce a wide variation of food to her over the next few months.
Thanks in advance.

Khannie

If you have a decent blender (even a hand blender) we just used to blend up whatever we were having for dinner (within reason). Sometimes you'll need to add milk or gravy or whatever to it for consistency. Our little one *loved* beef stew pureed.

Chuchu

Hi Princessa... glad you posted this, we're the same, have 6 month old and really doing our best with the homemade food and as I'm back to work next week want to whiz up a ton for freezer before it all gets mad hectic!! Interested to see you're already doing broccoli, have you tried parsnip yet? Our little one LOVES it, on its own or with carrot, also butternut squash and pear is a lovely combo ours loves too... really want to do porridge soon for breckie read somewhere here that putting spoon of jam in helps, but not sure when we should go from 2 to 3 meals, just taking our little one's lead at the mo and she's only upping her solid intake at 11am and 3pm over the past week or so... any idea if making porridge with cows milk is ok yet? sorry for hogging thread, will post as we introduce any new grub if you wanna do the same? or anyone else at roughly same stage...

deisemum

I recommend Annabel Karmel's site for lots of yummy recipes. She's got a lot of books too but you can see recipes on her website.

http://www.annabelkarmel.com/

Princessa

I just got the Tesco Baby Magazine in the post and there's a few recipes i am going to try soon, thought i would post them up for ye too.

• Bananna and peach.
• Apricot, apple, pear and vanilla.
• Butternut squash with sweet potato puree.
• Sweet potato with spinach and peas.
• Apple, pear, blueberries with 1/2 crumbled rusk made with breast or formula milk.

If i think of anymore i will post them up....

LashingLady

It sounds like your little one has already had lots of different tastes. To be honest unless you absolutely love cooking I wouldn't stress out too much about different recipes. I found that once he hit the six months and could eat meat there were about four dinner recipes that I did for him and it was plenty of variety at that age.

I did a spag bol which he absolutely loved, chicken casserole which was a chicken breast and a load of veg like you are already given all piled into a casserole dish with some baby stock from Boots cooked in the oven and then blended afterwards you would get about 2 weeks worth of dinners out of that. Another one was some fish (Birds Eye fish fingers are 100% fish fillet so I kinda cheated and used these) mashed with potatoes and peas and a little milk. He also loved cauliflower cheese and a butternut squash risotto (Annabel Karmel recipe) whch I used to give for tea.

You can get loads of recipes for different ages and stages on mumsnet.com in their food section too, but honestly it sounds like you are already doing brilliantly. If you are back to work soon then I think simplicity is the key!

Ickle Magoo

Khannie wrote: »

If you have a decent blender (even a hand blender) we just used to blend up whatever we were having for dinner (within reason). Sometimes you'll need to add milk or gravy or whatever to it for consistency. Our little one *loved* beef stew pureed.

We did the same, or I took some of the food out before adding anything spicy and just gave it a whizz in the blender with some milk...

livvy

Have any you blended cooked pasta or rice and mix with veg / meat for 7 month old? I find potatoes are grand but must get a bit boring. any of the baby books ive read usually go with spud and never mention pasta / rice.

Ickle Magoo

Yep, rice, pasta & cous cous went down well in this house. :cool:

smelltheglove

We had a lot of trouble getting our youngest to eat veg, we still do, she is quite like us. I couldnt find any veg combination she would eat even if it was a sunday roast blended with some veg she would refuse to eat it point blank. We married when she was 1 and in the lead up to the wedding we ate dinner at the hotel quite often. She would deavour the veg soup there and only there, we triend her on various veg soups but to no avail so eventually we asked the hotel manager could he get the recipie for us because at this stage we were starting to worry as she would only eat fruit or meat and mash blended.

It was a very simple veg soup, carrot, broccoli, green beans, cauliflower and actually chicken stock rather than a veg stock cube. 2 years later and she still loves it, so much so that when her nanny tried to take a bowl home a couple of months ago she lost the head and had a tantrum because it was her soup and nobody elses.

Princessa

I am going to try Avocado, i read that apparently it is the healthiest of all fruits.
Has anybody heard of babies having allergies to strawberries, i had massive craving for strawberry on her and i was going to do a summer fruit puree kind of thing for her....

smelltheglove

My eldest has a reaction to cranberries, she vomits if she has cranberry juice pretty much straight away. Shes ok with strawberries though, any other berry as far as I know.

deisemum

One of the easiest ways to work out if a baby/toddler has food sensitivities is to keep a food diary whenever a new food is introduced.

I'm a childminder and my mindees will normally eat whatever I cook or serve them including a number of foods that they will not eat at home for their parents.

When I make meatballs I usually get some mushrooms and courgettes and finely chop them in the food processor so they're really fine and then just mix the veg in with the minced beef. I normally put the beef in the processor for a quick blast just to get a finer consistency for my gummy mindees. They don't see the vegetables in the meatballs.

cbyrd

nothing to do with cooking or recipies but a little known fact that kids have a built in protective thingy that kicks in about age 2.. they won't eat their greens..it goes back to the cave and it's the brains way of making sure they don't eat anything poisonous that's green.. :eek:
Crazy i know but true the taste changes for them to a sour bitter taste so they spit it out..:D

livvy

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

Yep, rice, pasta & cous cous went down well in this house. :cool:

just wondering what way did you blend pasta (with water / milk) or just blend with veg and meat and add liquid at end (for 7 month) - thanks.

bogtotty

Princessa wrote: »

Has anybody heard of babies having allergies to strawberries, i had massive craving for strawberry on her and i was going to do a summer fruit puree kind of thing for her....

Try her with a really small piece of strawberry first. It's rare, but a strawberry allergy can be quite severe. There is usually a family history though, so if you have reason to be worried maybe avoid them altogether until she is over a year old.

Re. cow's milk - again it's not recommended for kids under one to drink milk, but a little used in cooking doesn't usually do much harm after 6 months. My own lad (7 1/2 months) seems to be a bit intolerant to it though, he had quite bad constipation after I used it once or twice. I stick to using expressed milk now, or a bit of formula if I've been lazy.

deisemum

livvy wrote: »

just wondering what way did you blend pasta (with water / milk) or just blend with veg and meat and add liquid at end (for 7 month) - thanks.

If I were blending it I'd just put all the dinner in together and then blend but would start gradually introducing slightly lumpy food. They soon get the hang of it.

You can get tiny pasta such as the pasta used in soups alongside the regular pasta plus some baby food companies also have some on the market. I remember getting tiny pasta that was rice grain shaped when my lads were small. I'm sure it's still on the market.

Princessa

Ive read that you should avoid giving milk to babies under one, but a lot of recipes ive read for babies between 6m - 9m contain cheese which is a form of dairy product... Has anybody included cheese in your little ones meals like cauliflour cheese, or pasta with pureed tomatoes and cheese is another recipe ive read....

deisemum

It's recommended to wait until baby is a year old before introducing cow's milk as a drink but it's ok to give yogurts, cheese etc from around 6 months onwards.

Here's a link with the reasons.

http://www.growingkids.co.uk/IntroducingCowsMilk.html

Moylaragh

My ds loves...

lamb, kale, patoto and carrot.

Get lamb pieces from the butchers.. one portion is less than 50c worth.
Put it in the oven for 20-30 mins on 200 degrees.

Boil the rest together and blend, always a great one when I need a handy day.

Also ds loves avacado and pear. It makes it a bit sweet and a nice texture.

He took an awful reaction to kiwi though. It frightened the life out of me. Something I honestly didnt know was allergy prone.

His absolute favorite though is mango. Its very high in calcium and vit c and it goes great with yoghurt.

For weaning I have found risotto rice great. Still creamy but with a bite.

Ickle Magoo

livvy wrote: »

just wondering what way did you blend pasta (with water / milk) or just blend with veg and meat and add liquid at end (for 7 month) - thanks.

Blended a little of everything and added some milk to make it more of a thick soup and then slowly worked up to having bigger lumps with less and less milk...:D

Princessa

Made Avocado, Pear with a splash of fresly squeezed orange today, went down an absolute treat. Apparently Avocado has the most nutrients of all fruits. Just thought i would post it up for fellow users, my little one loved it anywho.