Mums and Babies

weaning

Try this six day menu to give you some ideas in variety for your little ones. Remember, if you want them to try a variety of food one way of doing this is to give them the same dinner as you and your partner have, but pureed. Try risottos, curries, shepherd’s pie and other varieties of food to vary their palette. Make sure everything has the minimum amount of salt in and try and make things from scratch as much as you can.

An easy way to make a puree, any puree, is to peel and chop the vegetable or fruit and place it in a steamer until tender. Then, puree with a hand blender or mash with a fork depending on the age of your baby. You could thin this out with a little water or breast formula if needed.

Please remember that all babies are different, and what your friends baby likes might not necessarily be what your baby likes. If your baby doesn’t like something, wait four days and then try again.

All recipe quantities have been left blank for you to use as much or as little as you need.
Weekly menu:
Day one:

• Banana baby porridge
• 2 ice cubes spinach, carrot, pea puree
• Caribbean pork casserole
• Carrot/cucumber sticks as finger food if still hungry
• Feeds/formula as necessary.

Recipes:

Banana baby porridge: Mush up a banana with the back of a fork. Add this into your normal baby porridge mixture. You could also use baby rice and make it into banana rice pudding.

Spinach, carrot, pea puree: Steam the carrots and spinach until tender. It is easiest to use frozen peas, so blanch these in hot water for 5 or so minutes. Blitz everything together. You could also add something like a sprig of mint.

Caribbean pork casserole:

Cooking time: 20 minutes, Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Pork, onion, sweet potato, courgette, carrot, apple juice, tin of chopped tomatoes.

Method of Preparation:

Use about 200g of each vegetable and 500g pork. Use 150ml apple juice.

Lightly fry the onion in sunflower oil. Add the pork until browned. Finely chop the rest of the vegetables and add back into the pan.Add the tomatoes. Cover with the apple juice and simmer until the other vegetables are soft. Serve with baby rice.

Blend to a puree or a lumpy mixture.

Author is an expert article writer contributes for Free Indian Recipes and other recipes.