Lunch and dinner ideas...

Itsa - posted on 10/29/2010

BE VERY CAREFUL with whole wheat pasta for babies and toddlers under 18 months as they are VERY high in GLUTEN which babies find difficult to digest, especially when they're young and susceptible to Coeliac disease (means they cannot eat ANY food with gluten, causes severe stomach cramps and they become malnourished because their bodies cannot digest much when gluten finds its way into their tracts. AVOID ALL GLUTENOUS FOODS UNTIL YOU'VE CHECKED WITH YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT COELIAC DISEASE!!!!

Dara - posted on 10/28/2010

They make a lot of the pastas in wheat now or whole grain so they are better for the babies. They also make smaller versions of bow tie pasta and things of that sort. You can put just about anything you want on it really, just plain tomato sauce even, my girls loved it. And with the variety of pasta's it makes it a bit more interesting for them. Also try Quinoa if you haven't already tried it, I'm pretty sure that is the correct spelling you can find it with the health foods, it's similar to rice and kids love it. You can even serve it for breakfast with a little brown sugar on it.



What else is good?...grilled cheese is always a hit and you can mix that up with putting some turkey on it as well and tomato works too. Chicken breast is another good one, not sure if she has any of her chewing teeth yet though. Oh and meatballs, you can make those out of turkey for a healthier alternative or just regular beef and they are soft enough for the younger ones to eat. Sorry if I've rambled a bit. I'm sick and tired and should probably be in bed but I know how hard it can be to find new things. Just had to respond. Hopefully I'm been at least mildly helpful!

Itsa - posted on 10/27/2010

My son loves regular or sweet potatoes (or combination) mashed up with some sour cream and steamed mixed veggies (corn, green beans, carrots, peas, etc) and either chicken, beef (mini meatballs) or ham cubes with cheese (I still have to blend up his food but we have little hand-held food sacks and we put meatballs, etc in them and he eats like that sometimes). He also loves pasta. I puree up steamed cauliflower and use that as my creamy sauce for all cream based recipes (steam the cauli, puree till smooth and then for sauce for 2 adults and 1 toddler I use 2 soup ladles in a pan then add milk to desired consistency, then when warmed add handful of cheese and stir till melted, serve over pasta for healthy creamy sauce) and he'll eat that pureed with chicken, ham, etc. He loves spaghetti and meat sauce too.

I also make steak and feed in the food sack and serve pureed veg and mash or rice (all pureed though).

He loves tomato soup! I make from scratch with roasted red peppers and roasted tomatoes then puree with milk and butter and black pepper... He could eat the whole pot in a few meals lol! And soup is a great way to get extra veg into them, add crackers to thicken.

Sara - posted on 10/27/2010

--Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake them at 400ish for an hour or so. Let them cool a bit in the foil after you remove them from the oven. Unwrap them and the skin will just peel right off. Mash or blend with enough water to give them the right consistency for your baby.
--Cut peaches in half. Remove the pit. Bake them cut-side down in a baking dish with about an inch of water in the bottom, at 375ish for maybe an hour. Remove from oven and let cool. Use a paring knife to remove the skin (much of it will peel off). Blend the same way as with the sweet potatoes

Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal. Cut and core four golden delicious apples. Place them cut-side down in a baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until they puff up. Remove the skin. Meanwhile, cook oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats, but next time I'll just use the plain one-minute-cooking ones), enough to make 2 cups. Blend (or use a food processor) the apples and oatmeal together with a teaspoon or two of cinnamon and water if necessary.


a blender even a small food processor work great! Just boil and blend use some of the water to thin it out let cool and freeze in ice trays. Best foods are green beans, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, even berries. Once baby is old enough to eat meats include chicken in the blender