What do your babies love to eat?

Hi Everyone,

A recent post inspired me to start this thread. Some of you are great cooks and others, like me, are less inspired. I thought if we shared ideas it might give us all some new inspiration. So, what do you love to cook for your babies and what do they love I eat? This can be a meal for the whole family or just them.

I'll start with proteins. My babies love meatballs! I make a huge batch of turkey meatballs made of just ground turkey and sweet potatoe. Then I add things like chopped up red pepper, fresh basil or other spices. I make them bite size for the fellas and freeze a whole bunch. That way I can just thaw and add them to dinner. They are always a hit!

What are your favs?

 

My 9-month old twins really like a simple crock pot meal I make.

It's basically just black beans, frozen corn, a jar of mild salsa (I use a chunky one), and a couple of chicken breasts. Cook on low for about 6 hours, shred the chicken, stir in some shredded cheese and it's a great meal for little hands. Easy to grab and full of protein. Chicken in the crock pot is so easy for little ones to eat, even my DD who has no teeth. I sometimes add avocado chunks on their tray with it.

The rest of us either just eat the same thing, or we put it tortillas and eaten as a wrap (I like to add sour cream and DH likes to add hot salsa to his).

My kids like turkey meatballs too!

 

I stand with the less inspired cooks! mostly because i get bored and then don't go looking for new ideas, so this is a great thread for me. I am going to try some of the things mentioned!

My breakfast casserole was the latest hit!
3c cubed french bread
1/2 lb sliced ham (but i use hamburger meat for kids, less salt)
10 oz (or less) packaged cheese (swiss is a good low salt option)
mix:
3 Tbs flour
1 Tbs dry mustard
1/4 c melted no salt butter
4 eggs - beaten
3 c milk

layer in greased pan
bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes YUM!
** easy to reheat, makes a lot i usually cut recipe in half**


dinner their favorite of the moment is probably meatloaf and sweet potatoes!

i often make them a fried egg in the morning. lately i have been throwing something else in with it... spinach, or bits of tomato, they love the extra color
and yellow squash i cook at the same time but keep separate

 

Does anyone have a good bread stick they like? i was thinking something like a fat pretzel with no salt. i haven't been able to find anything like that.. ideas?

i want to start dipping with them. so far it is a big mess but lots of fun! i got these bibs
that help a lot. Thanks to the suggestion from Michelle cheezewhiz (i think)

 

Yeah, I put A in the garbage bag bibs- they work pretty well!

Annabelle loves bread. And ham- of which I only give her one piece due to the salt. But man she adores it!

http://www.laurenslatest.com/fail-proof-pizza-dough-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-sticks-just-like-in-restaurants/

This is the best pizza dough recipe I've ever made and its pretty darn easy. When I make it I cut off a string of dough and cook it next to the rest of the dough- she hasn't had cheese yet - and it makes a good breadstick.

 

I can't get my youngest to eat meat to save my life! But he will eat the crap out of broccoli, green beans, strawberries, grapes, bananas, apples, peas, potatoes, cheese, pasta

 

I love the black bean recipe J-Squared! Gonna try it out!

My twins are grain free, but eat basically everything else these days. Tuna, eggs, chicken, meat, they really like salad now-diced cukes, tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese with vinagrette on top. I was surprised, but they gobble it up lol.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for good finger foods? One of our daughters, Adira, will eat anything that you put in front of her on a spoon, but Lilah is another story. She'll tolerate us feeding her yogurt but that's about it. She's happy as a clam, though, if she can feed herself. So I give her crackers, puffs, banana pieces, peas, and cut up green beans but I'm drawing a blank on other good finger food to give her. I'd like to avoid crackers and the like as much as possible and feed her stuff with more nutrients. I also need to send finger food with her to daycare and would love any suggestions of things that would keep well. It's much easier just to drop off some icecubes of fruit, veggies, etc!

 

Hey Jen, ours are very close in age and my DD sounds like yours - refuses anything I give her, but will pick up food herself. I feed her pretty much the same things you've had luck with but but I have also had some luck with pieces of mandarin oranges (the oranges in the can) and shredded cheese. The cheese I bought was shredded too thin so I may try the thicker shredded or chunks of cheese from a small block. I also got the idea from someone on here (can't remember who) to put fruit puree on toast and cut into small pieces - they both like this. She loves club crackers but like you I try to limit that. sadly my twins love puffs the best!

 

Cut her fruit/ veggies (that you currently feed her in ice cube form) into sticks- apples, cucumber, lightly steamed carrots or green beans, broccoli.... Make sure they are at least a couple of inches long so she can grab them and still eat them.

 

Mine really like toast pieces with puree on them (or apple sauce). Shredded cheese works great too. I will admit that I struggle with finding good finger foods. They can't always eat the meals we are eating (although they both loved cut up pieces of chicken korma and rice last night--it was very mild!) because not all of them are conducive to being picked up. But my DS2 is off purees and spoon feeding now. He will only eat what he can shove in his mouth by himself and he's HUNGRY so I'm feeling extra stress to get healthy finger foods into them that are satisfying (it's not always easy to find avocados here or even good fruits).

I buy pre-cooked frozen chicken strips (unbreaded), fry them up in the skillet and then cut into pieces. They are tender and the babies love them--and it's easy because it only takes about 5 minutes to heat them up. Thus far, they seem to like anything chicken-related. Mine still don't really have any teeth so pretty much everything has to be steamed/soft or chewy in order for them to eat it.

How do you all feed your kids eggs? I tried hard boiled and they just crumbled but they seemed to like eggs (it took me a while to introduce eggs--I was fearful of an allergic reaction even though eggs and allergies are not an issue in our house). I'm thinking maybe scrambled?

Miriam: when you say tuna is it canned tuna? Do you just put a heap on their plates?