Not Fancy, Just Healthy.

            I'm astonished by how many people have commented on what I feed our baby lately. Hmm….breast milk and real food, ya know, the kind that you and I eat? (Well, as real as we try to eat anyway… a topic for another day). I’d like to preamble, by announcing that I make zero attempts in coming across snobby or that I have the only way to do things but merely to provide an alternative should it be of interest. I honestly thought that most mamas were aware of the simple solutions to baby food- but the recently provided puzzled looks and inquiry that presents itself when I whip an avocado out of my purse tells me differently.

            Raw fruit is a given; bananas, avocado, oranges, and so on. Not hard to prepare, carry or serve those (avocado even has it's own built in dish!).Veggies however, may seem a little more daunting and for meat lovers, even more so. I do see how it seems easiest to grab a jar of beef and peas (or whatever) in the grocery store. Dump it, heat it and spoon it in. An alternative approach is that your baby can eat what you eat. When you’re preparing your meal, just make a  little extra or a variation of what your eating. As example, tonight we had huevos rancheros wraps (gotta eat all these eggs somehow!)  and baby had tomato, a hard boiled egg and cooked spinach. It wasn’t any harder to add her meal to my cooking than it would have been to heat something in the microwave. All the same ingredients, same knives that cut, same pots on the stove. For lunch we both had toast, mango and cottage cheese and for breakfast a banana and puffed wheat. Puffed wheat, by the way, is my (and baby’s!) new found favorite- there are zero additives as opposed to other cereals.

            It may become tricky when you’re out because as I’ve found people (restaurants and friends) don’t always serve baby friendly food. Ordering for the baby in a restaurant has become my last resort as I like to avoid paying $2.00 for them to boil and egg or toast one slice of bread. Making your own portable baby food is as simple as pie. As you're cooking supper, just boil some of your kid’s favourite veggies (carrots, beets, spinach, beans, broccoli, etc). When you’re ready (it can wait until the cutie is in bed) drain the veggies and toss them in the food processor. The adult sized food processors are the best; I wouldn't want to do up a bunch of stuff in the tiny Baby Bullet although I’ve never tried it so I’d be open to reviews. If it needs extra liquid, I'm a big fan of using the water you boiled the veggies in to retain the nutrients. Once the veg. is ground to the desired texture pour the veggies into ice cube trays and set to freeze for 12 hours. After frozen, place the cubes into a freezer safe storage container and mark with the date. These delicious little portable cubes are good in the freezer for 8 weeks!  Take a second to think about it; doesn’t 8 weeks in the freezer seem like a more realistic shelf life for a fruit or vegetable than the 1-2 year expiration date on the baby food jar? (And I don’t even want to think about the meat).

 

            Although our family is not huge on meat, when we do eat it, we just chop up bite sized bits and put it on the high chair tray for the baby. Depending on their age, babies can have lamb, turkey, chicken (6-7m), pork, veal, beef, liver, salmon & other fish, bison (7-9 m), tofu, seafood, cold cuts, canned fish (12m +). If you’re cooking meat for your family, perhaps set aside an unseasoned cooked piece that you can keep in the fridge for your child for the next couple of days. For example, we had pulled lamb in the slow cooker the other day but before coating it in delicious sauces we saved some in a container in the fridge so it was good to add to the baby's meal or toss it in the diaper bag to go!

            There are a lot of recipes out there, and a lot of baby food cook books. These will be useful to some, but if you’re like me they are used for the once-in-a-while-feelin’-creative times. Baby food doesn’t have to be fancy, just healthy. Enjoy!