New Mommy with New Recipes

Being a new mother is not an easy task. Specially when it comes to the daily nutrition. Once baby starts to take solid foods, it becomes tougher. Doctors help us with the questions as what to feed or how much to feed? However if we decide to prepare baby food at home, it becomes challenging!
My story is similar to most of the mothers out there who love to cook and prepare baby food at home.
I have a 16-month-old baby girl who is adorable but also a picky eater. Primarily babies are similar to us in our likes and dislikes, when it comes to food. Hence they are little picky eaters!
In the beginning, it was easy for me to give cereals with breast milk or fruit juice. But after few months, I decided to try new recipes to make her food a well-balanced diet. My idea of preparing solid food was to take a fruit or vegetable of my choice. clean, peel and steam it. Then to puree those in a baby food maker. This puree can be used along with the cereals, rice and legumes while preparing meals. Later as my child grows old, I can go for the mashed instead of the pureed food. Steaming helps to keep all the nutrients intact; again a healthy choice. My plan seemed easy and straightforward.
My Initial Meal Plan
Solid food:
- Multi grain cereals in breakfast.Replacing cereals with legumes every other week
- Wheat cereals in lunch
- White rice in dinner
- Steamed flax seeds and cooked legumes every alternate day either in breakfast or lunch
Snacks:
- Added prune puree as a post breakfast snack, plain greek yogurt as a post lunch snack and banana wheat cookies as an evening snack
Fluid diet:
- Milk and baby water as advised by the doctor
Initially it came out well. But later I started running out of recipes. Also my little one got bored of eating same food each day.
I wanted an idea that is both practical and tasty.
So I visited nearby baby store where they have a big section of baby food & snacks from big brands. It is categorized as first foods, second foods, third foods, toddler foods, organic, baby cereals, snack and yogurt. There are a zillion choices and flavors too. Some of those even a mommy’s brain can’t imagine. I was tempting to buy those making my life easy. But as most of the parents, I decided to make those at home however tedious it may get. So, I noted the various combinations they used of fruits, vegetables and grains and came home to start making them.
My New Meal Plan
Recipe 1: Banana, Blueberry with flax seeds and multi-grain cereal.
Ingredients
1 SERVING
1 ripe banana
½ cup blueberries
½ teaspoon of ground flax seeds
2 tablespoons multigrain cereal
Preparation
- Bring water to a boil. Add blueberries and simmer it for 10 minutes until soft.
- Use spoon to transfer blueberries to baby food processor.
- Add banana, flax seeds and multigrain cereal to it.
- Process for 1–2 minutes on high speed.
- Scrape down sides to puree every 30 seconds for any blueberry peels.
- Add in water until you reach the desired consistency.
- Serve and enjoy.
Recipe 2: Butternut Squash, Almonds with Apple Sauce.
Ingredients
1 SERVING
1 cup Butternut Squash(peeled and cut into cubes)
2 silver almonds
1 and ½ cup apple sauce
Preparation
- Put butternut squash and silver almonds in vegetable steamer.
- Steam until soft and cooked. Poke it with a fork to check.
- Place apple sauce, steamed butternut squash and silver almonds in the food processor.
- Puree until smooth or desired consistency.
- Serve and enjoy.
Recipe 3: Fruit or Berry yogurt.
Ingredients
1 SERVING
½ cup berries or fruit puree
1 cup plain organic yogurt
Preparation
- Combine all the above ingredients in a jar or baby bowl.
- Serve immediately.
Homemade baby food serves two purposes. Firstly they are cost effective. Though planning and prepping takes a lot of time but once we start, it gets easier. Secondly, we know the list of ingredients that goes into it and can make changes when needed. For example, using nuts like almonds and pistachios is a good way to add flavor to homemade baby food.
So whenever we are short of ideas just go to a nearby store or internet. Look what is trending. Make an attempt. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But try new recipes. This helps us to learn and keep our little ones happy!
