Does baby have to miss out on summer salads and picnics galore, whilst Mammy and Daddy have all the fun?
Absolutely not!
As a parent you're super careful when preparing baby's meals, taking care to minimise choking hazards, and being mindful to give nice soft foods for gumming. You can't exactly hand your baby a bowl of raw veg and chickpeas to munch on... But you can blend it all up into a tasty puree and give your baby the benefit of all that beautiful fresh nutritious planty goodness!!!
Raw carrots, skin and all? No problem! Raw butternut squash, raw broccoli, peppers, cherry tomatoes, spinach...? Yes please Mama!
Ingredients (I strongly recommend organic for babies):
1/3 raw carrot
Small chunk raw butternut squash
Handful spinach
1/2 avocado
Small chunk red pepper
Small chunk raw zucchini (courgette)
1 banana
A few cherry tomatoes
Handful chickpeas*
Millet / Quinoa / Amaranth / Couscous (optional)
* I always have a stash of cooked-from-dried beans in little jars in the freezer, which is super handy if you do a lot of vegan/vegetarian cooking. Please see my suggestions on the easiest way to batch cook beans.
Chop the carrot and butternut squash into small pieces and put into a blender with a little bit of water (to help it blend up nice and smooth). Blend these first, as they're the hardest and we want to make sure it's thoroughly pureed and no small hard pieces remaining.
Add the other ingredients and blend to a beautiful smooth puree.
You can either leave the puree as it is and feed to the baby, or if they are old enough to handle grain you can mix some in.
Serve it in your baby's favourite bowl!
Now baby can enjoy a nutritious raw salad whenever you do!
Eat at home... or take out in the fresh air for a picnic...
At least it gives baby a much tastier alternative to sand...!
Many thanks to @lenasveganliving for continuing to host this wonderful weekly contest! For inspiration and details how to join in, please see Lena's post here.
To find out what my "Make It Healthy Project" is all about, and how you can be involved in growing this project, please click here.