Vegging For Two

So your little one is about 6 months old and is looking to try some puree! What an exciting time when you can start to introduce new flavours and foods. But remember to keep it simple at first and introduce new things slowly. Always supplementing with breast milk or formula for the majority of meal times at this stage.

Here is a quick and easy puree that you can start your little one off with. I’m using carrots but you can do it with potato, sweet potato or turnips.

Ingredients
4 medium carrots

Wash and peel carrots, then cut them into even sized slices. Steam them by placing them in a colander and set it over boiling water. Cook them until very very tender – about 15 – 20 minutes. Puree until smooth, add a little of the cooking water to get the best consistency. Serve luke warm.

These teething cookies are great to give your little one to gum on while their new set of pearly whites come in! As when giving your child any kind of small food you should watch them carefully while they eat it. These cookies are best introduced between 8 to 10 months of age.

Ingredients
2/3 cup milk
4 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 TBSP brown sugar
1 cup plain, untoasted wheat germ 
3/4 cup whole wheat flour

Beat together the milk, butter and sugar. Stir in the wheat germ and enough flour to make a dough. The dough should be sticky and harder to work with than normal cookie dough – this is normal and will result in harder cookies for baby to gum on.

Knead until smooth, about 8 to 10 minutes. Pinch off balls of dough and roll them into sticks. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until browned and hard.

Well the attention of the avocado and banana baby food was so positive that I’ve decided that maybe my baby food recipe days aren’t over… so here we go! 

Babies can have pumpkin introduced into their diet as early as 6 to 8 months old. Pumpkins are actually a fruit, and a great source of Vitamin A, beta carotene, potassium, protein, and iron. They are also very high in fiber so should help with constipation.

This recipe is made using pumpkin puree – you can buy it canned, just make sure that you don’t buy pumpkin pie mix which has added spices and sugars. You can also opt to make your own. Simply cut a pumpkin in half, remove seeds and ‘pumpkin guts’ and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until soft enough to mash. The length of time it will take should be approximately 30 to 45 minutes, but it will depend on the size of pumpkin you use. Go for the smaller ‘sugar’ pumpkins, the ones sold for baking… not for jack o lanterns.

Ingredients
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cup cooked and cooled oatmeal
Dash of cinnamon or nutmeg 

Mix together applesauce, pumpkin, oatmeal and spice. Left overs can be stored in an air tight container for over a week.

This site doesn’t normally do baby food recipes but this is one I did for a competition for the USA Rice Federation. I won second prize – and they wrote an article about the competition. Here is the information for the dish!

The mild flavours and creamy textures of avocado and banana team up in this simple mash that is sweetened with a little applesauce and fortified with cooked rice. Keep in mind that the mash does discolour as the avocado and bananas oxidize but it won’t affect the flavour or nutritional value.

Ingredients

1 cup cooked white or brown rice
1/2 avocado, mashed
1/2 banana, mashed
3 TBSP unsweetened applesauce

Stir together rice, avocado, banana and applesauce until well combined.

Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days.

Makes 8 servings.

Note: Avocado is a source of 20 different nutrients including fibre, folic acid and vitamin E, which are all essential for a healthy baby. Bananas provide vitamin B6, vitamin C, potassium and fibre which aid in baby’s healthy growth and development.

Per 1/4 cup (50 mL) serving: about 50 cal, 9 g carbs, 1 g fibre, 2 g fat, 1 g protein.