Easy meals for babies

Here are some ideas for easy meals for babies who are just starting out on solids as well as older babies and toddlers.

While it’s tempting to buy baby porridges and jarred purees, I’m of the opinion that fresh food is always better – they contain more live nutrients.  But making a baby’s first foods doesn’t have to be complicated.

Remember that it’s the parent’s responsibility to be aware of and check for food allergies, and what are age-appropriate foods for their babies, so that always needs to be kept in mind when feeding a baby new foods.

Also, don’t add salt or sugar to baby food.  Too much salt can harm their kidneys because they are not yet able to process large amounts of salt.  Babies also have a “clean palate”, in that they haven’t become accustomed, as is the case with many adults, to overly sugary or overly salty foods.

Banana

Mashed banana is probably always a winner with babies, but it doesn’t always have to be a lonely banana…here are some things to mash into the banana to change it up and add a bigger variety of nutrients:

• cinnamon
• coconut oil
• oat flour & coconut oil
• plain greek yogurt & raspberries (reserve the dairy until after 1 year old)
• papaya
• desiccated coconut

Steamed

Steaming veggies (or fruits) is one of the healthiest ways of cooking and preserving nutrients.  And easy as well, as the risk of burning the food is basically zero 🙂  Just steam and mash.

• butternut with cinnamon or cumin
• apple with cinnamon
• pear with ground cardamom
• potato – after steaming, mash in avocado
• butternut/pumpkin, sweet potato & baby marrow