What to cook for my baby?

My outlook on fruits and vegetables ; baby foods and cooking.

image by Br3nda /CC BY

Before starting my post i want to admit to my readers that I am not a great cook,neither i am good in remembering recipes. pls dont expect any fancy baby food recipes from me. But still i cook everyday , three or four times a day. I believe in healthy cooking.When i started giving solids to my  baby, i started looking on various options
,..........................what to give at six months? what wud be suitable vegetables and fruits ?, How to give lentils and which one,which cereals ?,
And most important how to add all new veggies and fruits in my little munchkins diet without getting rejected (at least there won't be a lot of waste)?
how to introduce lentils ,cereals, vegetables and fruits in various way so that i can give all nutrition but has to cook less items and
And one more thing that usually never ever seemed like a problem in virtual world but yet we all mothers has to face everyday..............
What to cook for my baby at the same time cooking for family too.How to cook so many dishes three times a day?
Cooking seperate food for babies is a task
May be some of u don't agree with above statement but still some might. U will find lots of baby food recipes on various sites or books , u will read or hear about moms cooking like a pro, telling some great baby food recipes, hats off to them.
But still i am not of one them,cooking three or four items for dinner is not easy. And i feel many of u can relate with me. Though looking at ur ur baby relishing on ur homemade dish is a joy .But after coming home from work, and cooking for baby and family separate dinners is not that a joyride as it seems.
Somedays i have to cook atleast four items for dinner(if i include a soup,a filling dish for baby, our dinner roti and sabzi and sometimes desserts too)

Just look at the entire process of cutting vegetables for our dinner and lo's,steaming, mashing , pureeing or straining ,kneading flour ,making rotis, hours of sabzi cooking on stove............its long,and tiresome.......infact like spending whole time in kitchen everyday.
So now i come up with idea of being easy on myself,now i cook in a way so that i dont have to cook two very different type of recipes for family and baby,
mostly i try to cook babys food somehow related with our meal........e.g.if i want to make  clear vegetable soup for my baby, so i decide our dinner too accordingly which wud be mix vegetables. i cut all veggies together than take out some portion from it , steam, either mash it or make a soup for lo.(i don't go for rajma or chola or baingan ka bharta for our dinner that day.......................obviously not)

Local vs Exotic .................................my search for veggies and fruits




photo by rick ligthelm/CC BY

I watched a video about feeding avocados to baby as introductory food ,i loved it,there was nothing to cook but yet a delicious food for baby, whn i searched for fruit in local fruit markets...... i didn't find it anywhere, till date i haven't fed my lo avocados.It is available in mumbai and southerm india but not in local delhi fruit market so then i looked at other baby food recipes that i have downloaded from net and to my wonder , i found some alien veggies and fruits for baby food recipes.I had a list of recipes but vegetables were  either unknown or unavailable...... most of the veggies and fruits are of western word..........kale ,zuchinni,squash,leeks,lettuce broccoli, avocados, celery,blueberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, kiwis, celery.

Though these are available in  Big retail shops but not in local vegetable market , broccoli and lettuce u can find but not that fresh always and with such a high price tag,blueberries, blackberries (infact any berry, i have never seen)peaches, nectarine,s plums, kiwis ( grown Indis too but not available thruout the year )celery(its ajwain every body knows but somehow celery stalks are not available).Now reading my post some people might think i come from village or i am an ignorant one. but no i live in delhi and have studied botany. so very well know about the  flora(veggies and fruits) of my country and their nutrional value to some extent.
read here to know more about Exotic vegetables in India

seasonal fruits and vegetables are the best

seaaonal vegetables in india during winters

Once i went to a retail shop i found all exotic veggies in a corner, there prices were so high  but yet they all were so unfresh and wilted , i cudn't buy it.
i know price is nothing compared to baby's health, but freshness is something. Then i looked at the other veggies available in abundant and fresh. Why not introduce my baby to locally and seasonal grown veggies and fruits then exotic one? If u are an indian but lives abroad , it make sense to give veggies and fruits seasonal and locally grown there which we called exotic in India.
Sesonal fruits and veggies are fresh , high in nutritional value and cheaper too.
One of the question that comes to mind is why no one has suggested any food recipes with veggies like lauki , torai,fali(cluster bean), parwal, okra, palak, methi, bathua,chaulai,sarson . ....or fruits like muskmelon,mausambi,lychees,pappayas,mangoes,oranges,guava,coconut which are available easily according to the season .

Do u know about veggies native of our country and what grow in which season.( read my post on seasonal fruits and vegetables around the year

Obviously we take clues from western food sites, and try to make our los meals based on that.some of u might say these veggies or fruits cud cause allergy,but then we can't be sure of avocados,or bananas either...........they cud cause allergy too. yes whn introducing food at six month, we have to go little slow and we shud wait for some days  while giving some new veggies or fruits,........................................but by nine or ten month.....babies can eat most of the above.

One more ques did ur parents ever fed u avocados and broccolis while u were baby?.................atleast not mine  but still I grew up healthy.

yes, i know broccolis and avocados are high in nutrional value. obviously u shud buy them if they are available and feed them to ur babies  but dont panic and run to far away vegetable market  if u dont find it in local one,instead can give any seasonal veggie a try.

I dont believe in making babys food time tables.

Timetables look good  on walls but are u able to follow timetable as u have written, i dont think everyone can, infact somedays but not all days.make time tables for various food options but dont make it rigid as ur making menu of some home food service

be flexilble in it , like u can think of giving fruits in morning , cereals and lentils in lunch and lentils and veggies in dinner but which veggies or fruits u can decide anytime,and can change ur menu and order too whenever feel like.u can give cereals too in morning in place fruits if ur baby has some cold or rejecting fruits.
write various options  for  breakfast , lunch and dinner and snacks in ur timetable according to ur convenience but dont be rigid like feeding bananas only on mondays , apple purees on tuesday, avocado mash on wed only.......and so on.
it doesnt make sense always.

suppose u bought banana on sunday (obviously u cant buy just one banana u have to but at least a dozen.) ur baby tasted and liked it, what about others (u cant eat all )and banana can overripe within few days, so u can give banana again on wednesday ...............but no cause ur timetable says avocados on wednesday but u didnt get it on sunday, .....now what?either u run to market looking for avocados on tuesday eve while coming back from office  or u can feed banana again on wednesday

be flexible, be easy on urself too. r u going to be mad?and do u think ur six month old can handle this much different purees(varieties) all of a sudden?, u can give a taste of all fruits but cant expect ur baby wud like all fruit or vegetable purees without any objection. dont overburden urself with timetables.

I hate food wastage
Whn i started introducing vegetables to my baby , (i think on second week of sixth month)
i made string beans(or french beans) puree, it took quite some time time , cutting a bit , steaming, then pureeing ,though my lo liked but tasted only three or four spoons and was full.I was left with so much pureed waste, which i didnt know what to do with it?
Same with stewed apple juice , she tasted one spoon and balked out, and made faces.........again left with so much apple puree and did nt know what to do with it?
Though u can say i can freeze it , but somehow i dont like the idea of giving food taken out of freezer and giving to baby
We r indians , we cook everyday, we r not used to take out half cooked or full cooked dinners from freezer and heating and eating it
so how cud i do it for my lo.(but still i am not judgemental of mothers who prefer it, as freezing doesn't let to nutritional losses very much)and it is convenient to working moms,but with so much power cuts in our country, I can't be sure of the freshness also. 

so i was still cooking every day only either to be eaten few spoons or to be rejectd by my choosy munchkin.
then i started thinking what to cook so that there wud be less waste, less messiness more nutrition.  what to do with all that waste? so now i prepare baby food with no wastage, i use every left out after pureeing and straining in our dinner.

I like easy ,simple and quick baby food recipes
.......but yet no less in nutritional value.I want some minutes in the whole day for myself too.
though i sound selfish but yes cooking dinners takes lot of time,keeping u in kitchen while ur hubby enjoying television ,u feel like screaming on hubby to help u .too much cooking shud not make u a crazy women by the end of the day, do not let cooking put strain inur relation with ur husband(well some women r lucky , their husbands loves cooking too but not all) so i try to cook food that takes less time but provide vareity in veggies and nutrition.

I donot like too many ingredients in baby recipes.
really it puts me off, if i see so many ingredients ,i even donot attempt to make that dish for myself either , lets leave the baby dish. instead i wud give all those ingredients in two or three dishes in different meals.once i saw a US cookery show , she was teling some dish(not for babies) which can be a  lunch and dinner too, i was glued to tv but that dish was all about opening  cans and mixing the things in those canes ,only few chopping and cuttiing), putting on stove and then again opening canes and adding to main dish......and its ready.................................i was surprised by the ingredients list.
if i have to open cans and packets and do this much task , why not buy a ready to make food for dinner and take that day as off?



Mum shud eat healthy too
being a mom , its our responsibility to take care of our lo's health, diet and nutrition, but who wud take care of us?i always say mothers health is equally important as babies.if we r not eating healthy then how come we teach our babies whn they grow up a little ,not to eat the same.so i always take those healthy soups that i cook for my lo even if they r bland in comparison to readymade one.i try  munching something healthy thru out the day,like fruits and nuts and jaggeryand keep my hands off from chips, wafers, cookies or choclates and softdrink.............if i want my baby to resist tempatation of eating it, i shud too......

I am a human , i need a break too
Though some moms swear by homemade food but still it is a good idea to get ur baby used to some kind of ready made baby food. i live in nuclear family,my husband comes late from office, somedays i feel week too, or other day i might have a fever......then what to cook and how?
or if u have planned to go ut for dinner on ur marriage anniversary(still u want to end up in kitchen.......)though u can give boiled potatoes or so but feeding ready made cereals for once  is not that bad either.and yes if ur baby havent tasted it before ,he might not eat it on that very day.

All this is my viewpoint and u might or might not relate with it..............pls write what u think of this,  don't u think that too much cooking is draining off ur energy too?


next post -How I introduced solids to my LO? What to cook for six month old baby?