Cooking for Baby

Remember this post? Well, after spending way too much time and effort trying to make my own food one weekend, I gave in and bought the puppy. And it was well worth it, if you're strapped for time and want to make your own baby food. It steams just about anything in 15 minutes or less (as opposed to the 40 minutes it took me to steam carrots on the stove), then you just drop the food out of the steam basket and into the process and viola! Baby food. The processor blade is super sharp and can get the food down to the really fine consistency that Anna likes right now (but you can also leave things more chunky as they get used to more texture).

I also bought the cookbook, Cooking for Baby, which has some really great recipes and more specific advice for introducing solids, how often, how much, etc. Everything else I had read was pretty generic (give 'em solids, they'll likes it), but this gives some specific guidelines I found really useful and some really creative recipes for developing your baby's palette, broken down by age range. For example, a few I can't wait to try:

Barley and Mushrooms
Parnsip and Broccoli Gratin
Silken Tofu and Peach Puree

There are a lot of more "normal" recipes, too, and suggestions for integrating herbs and flavor into their meals. Overall an awesome book. (I mentioned we're foodies right? Just trying to pass the tradition along. ;o)