Finger Food for Babies Mini Meat Balls
It is fun and interesting to begin experimenting with recipes for baby finger food, once your child is ready to begin self-feeding and experiencing new flavors and textures.
Mini meat balls are a great recipe for your child to practice eating figner food and ingest a variety of vitamins and minerals important to their growth and development.
This recipe suggests poaching the meat balls in stock or a sauce in order to keep them from drying out and being difficult to swallow on little throats.
Meat balls make great finger food with added vegetables making them delicious and nutritious. For adult sized portions, simply make the meat balls larger and they can be fried, browning all over, before adding to a sauce
Ingredients
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef or turkey or a mixture of both
- 1/2 carrot grated
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- 1/4 green bell pepper, finely diced
- 1/2 t ground oregano
- 1/2 t ground thyme
- 1/2 t ground basil
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1/2 C bread crumbs
- 2 C low sodium chicken stock
Method
In a frying pan over medium high heat, heat olive oil until shimmering.
Add onion, carrot and bell pepper and ground herbs and sauté until softened, about 4 minutes. Re move from heat and cool.
Place ground meat in a large bowl and add vegetable mixture, egg and bread crumbs.
Mix with your hands to form a large ball.
Place covered, in the refrigerator for about a half an hour.
In a deep skillet or frying pan, pour chicken stock and bring it up to a simmer.
Meanwhile, move meat from fridge and form into small finger food sized balls, rolling small portions of the meat mixture between your hands and place them on a plate.
Once stock is simmering, add meat balls. Stock should come about half way up the meat ball. Turn gently and frequently.
As meat balls are cooked, remove from the stock with a slotted spoon and place on a plate to cool.
Serve mini meat balls as finger food to baby when cool enough to touch.
Meat balls may also be poached in tomato sauce or reduced sodium beef stock
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