feeding claire

I love these! Plush hambones and pork chops from Sweet Meats. Yum!

(via BloesemKids)

When I first decided that I wanted to make Claire’s baby food, I didn’t really know where to begin. I thought that it shouldn’t be that hard. I eat, too. It’s not a completely foreign concept. But there are always so many things to consider with a baby that are unnecessary for an adult. It has become another new way for me to look at food. Where do I start? What can a baby eat? Are there things she shouldn’t eat? Granted, I wasn’t completely clueless and I do have commonsense but wanted a guide. I started by looking at the baby food aisle in my grocery store. Most ‘Stage 1′ foods are basic: sweet potatoes, carrots, applesauce, pears, prunes, bananas, cereal. I was sure there was more although these are a great start.

Claire’s pediatrician mentioned Super Baby Food and I thought I’d give it a try. It is written by mom who had a premature baby with health problems. She decided that diet was a way to help her baby and swears that her food helped her child become healthy (I don’t recall her mentioning what health problems the child had…). The book is obviously written by an untrained cookbook author; it is sloppy; it often reads like your mother is telling you what do to; and it’s biggest fault (for me) is that it’s a little over the top. There are charts for making sure that your baby gets all of the necessary nutrients. Those are probably good; but, I am not into charts (anymore – a long and not very interesting story). For me, food is not just about nutrients. (Our obsession with nutritionist eating is a whole other post altogether.) That is part of it; but, if you eat well-balanced meals then you should be assured that you are getting all of the nutrients that you need. At one point in the book when describing her recipe for Super Baby Porridge, she even admits that it doesn’t taste good at all and she can’t believe that her toddler still likes to eat it. I want Claire to love good food not eat because she has to. Eating should be an enjoyable experience not a means to an end. You have to eat everyday many times a day for your entire life. You might as well enjoy it.

That being said, this book is helpful in so many ways. First, it breaks down what your baby can eat at each month starting at 6 months up to toddler years. Each month Yaron lists new foods that babies can try as their digestive system matures. This was very helpful and exactly what I was looking for in a baby food book. Second, there is an appendix that outlines how to choose, store, cook, and potentially freeze all of your baby food. It is broken down alphabetically by food. If you want to know how to cook, puree, then freeze, say, pears, cauliflower, or even okra, it’s there.

This book is great for basics and some how-to’s but there is a lot of filler that I found unnecessary for my style. I wish she published an abridged version that just noted the ‘essentials’ of her Super Baby food.

I recently purchased Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I was just browsing Amazon when I saw this book and decided to try it out. Again, I am no chef, so I need a little help in getting creative in the kitchen. Karmel’s cookbook does just that. I will say that this is a real cookbook, with fancy photographs and beautifully designed layouts. I am often taken in by such packaging but I really enjoy the recipes, too. As I read them, I thought to myself, “That sounds really good!” I knew that these were exactly the kind of recipes I was looking for. Karmel lays out interesting recipes that are not only nutritious but also delicious (the recipe for ‘potatoes, leeks, carrots, and peas’ is adapted from her book).

The downside to this book is that it does assume that the average person knows a lot about what foods to feed your child and when. This may be a cultural difference since this book was originally published in the UK or maybe I’m just overly cautious in feeding certain foods too early (like fish and acidic foods, like tomatoes). At any rate, if nutritional facts are more important to you, this book doesn’t cover them. Also, this book makes no claim to be super-convenient. This book is about taste. I’ll admit some of the recipes do seem a bit time consuming (there are still a lot I have to try yet) – there is a recipe for braised beef that takes about 2 hours. But I would love braised beef and if I can make it for dinner when Claire is 7 and she loves it, then I know it was worth it!

Despite the cons to both of these books, I highly recommend them to anyone who would want to try to make their own baby food. I have limited skills in the kitchen and these books make homemade baby food even easier.

Claire has not been a big fan of peas. I’m not sure I blame her. It took a long time for me to open up to the wonderful world of sweet peas and, even then, I like them best when mixed with other veg. (Try sauteing some shallots and mushrooms in butter and then add peas and corn and you have a sweet veg medley.) So I decided to give peas another go with the help of some other veg that I know she likes: potatoes and carrots.

I started out with some leeks, which I find to be a beautiful veg: the way the green fades into white.


So, everything gets a good chop and then into the pot it goes with a little chicken stock.After about 10 minutes you add some peas (I used frozen – and, yes, you can refreeze them).


Simmer for another 5-6 minutes and it’s ready for the food pro.


It’s hard to tell from this picture, but this puree was delicious – like a potato velvet soup. I ate the remainder for lunch!

Some of my favorite books to read to Claire are by Eric Carle. I think my all time favorite is Little Cloud, where Little Cloud changes into many different shapes. Today Google celebrates the first day of Spring with The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

Also, Eric Carle is profiled at the Guardian.

I’ve been cooking like a mad woman this week. I wanted to try some new things for Claire and it all started with my previously mentioned chicken stock. I love making chicken stock despite the fact that it makes our house smell like a grandma’s house (ok, maybe just my grandma’s house, which used to smell a lot like cooked meats – that, and cigarettes – no matter what time of the day it was) for a little while. But I can get over the smell, which I tend not to notice until I leave the house. At any rate, on Tuesday with chicken stock made, I was ready to really get cooking.

I’ve been doing the food cube method of making food for Claire for some time. Generally, I take a fruit or veg, cook it, then blitz it in the food pro. Into the freezer it goes by way of these really cute ice cube trays that make Claire’s meals into perfect frozen squares. Already in the freezer we had:

• sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots
• cauliflower
• sweet potatoes
• broccoli
• carrots
• apples
• pears
• peaches

This week I was determined to make meat cubes. On Wednesday night, we had chicken for dinner, so I got down to it.

I started with boneless, skinless, chicken breasts cut into chunks. I sauteed them in just a bit of butter for about 3-4 minutes. Then, I added: 1 sweet potato (peeled and chopped), 1 carrot (peeled and sliced), about 3/4 cup of leeks (chopped), and about 1 1/4 cup of homemade chicken stock. After bringing it to a boil, I let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I am disappointed I didn’t get pictures (or that the Internet doesn’t have ‘odorama’) because it looked good enough to eat! Into the food pro it went to be converted into delicious frozen chicken cubes.

Last night they had their big debut. Claire was being a bit fussy at each meal for whatever baby reason she had but I was still expecting her to be thrilled about her new tasty dinner. Alas, she was not into eating dinner at all – chicken or not – so it didn’t go quite as planned. She liked it but fussed through half of it, which was all she ate. (Somedays she eats as much as me and then there are days where she barely eats. Thankfully her size doesn’t allow me to worry about her self-regulation.)

Each Sunday, Aaron and I like to have a Sunday Supper. It’s a proper dinner meal usual served sometime between 1-3 pm. It’s great. We cook all morning and then relax all afternoon. The meal is usually large enough that we don’t have dinner later in the evening, maybe a snack (or something sweet if we’ve baked – I made chocolate chip cookies). On this Sunday, I decided to roast a chicken. It’s one of my favorite meals to make. It’s quite easy – easier than I had ever expected in my pre-cooking days – and it leaves another one of my favorite things: leftovers. Now we’ve got mashed potatoes and chicken in our fridge that will soon become a potato/leek soup and chicken stock.

A few weeks ago I introduced meat into Claire’s diet. She’d taken to chicken and turkey but not so much red meat. I was a little nervous about introducing meat into Claire’s diet so I relied on the jarred food. Gerber makes organic chicken dinners and so does my local supermarket brand. She likes them. I was surprised. She seems to gravitate towards fruit and cereal. I had tried, once, to put an ‘adult’ chicken dinner in a food mill but that did not go over so well. (Her face squinches up and she gives me a looks that says: ‘Why, Mama? Why would you give me such a thing to eat?’) So I stuck with the jars. But then I tasted them. I try to taste most of the food that she eats and the Gerber meals with poultry are terrible. They taste like chalk. I’ve read the ingredients numerous times. They seemed innocent enough: chicken, veggies, and usually a grain. Something just doesn’t seem quite right. I was reminded of childhood days of Chef Boyardee: lots of saltiness and color. That’s about it.

I’ve decided to start making chicken dinners for Claire. That’s my food challenge this week. I’ll start by making homemade chicken stock – a good staple for any kitchen. Let’s hope she likes my dinners as much as she likes the store-bought.

Saturday morning I decided would be a good time to try a new food for Claire. Today would be plain yogurt. I had some blueberries and bananas on hand and thought I’d make banana blueberry yogurt – a smoothie of sorts but a little warmer. I put some blueberries on the stove with a little water to break them down. After about two minutes I had a lovely blueberry sauce that made wish I had been making pancakes (another Saturday, I suppose). Instead, I sliced some bananas and turned on my handheld blender to make a puree. This was the first time I used the handheld for Claire and I realized how poorly it works compared to my food pro, which is a beautiful machine but not always practical. I’m whirring and whirring as Claire is whining and crying because now I am really taking a long time for breakfast. The whirring, whirring, whirring continues but there is still pulp. I am cursing this machine in my head trying carefully not to let one slip. I’ve got to strain it. Into the strainer it goes and, finally, I’ve got blueberry banana puree.

Next, I mix everything together with a little plain yogurt. It looks good. If Claire wasn’t still screaming at this point, I would have taken a picture. (I’ll have to try to be more prepared.) But I am satisfied with my new breakfast for Claire. She, on the other hand, is determined after about three very reluctant bites that she would be having no more of this breakfast.

I am not deterred, however. I will have to try again when she’s a bit more settled and not wielding her hunger at me.

For quite some time I have become particular about what I eat. I can’t say it’s an obsession because that has the connotation of real discipline. I enjoy food. I like to eat. And I like to eat good things. This was not always the case. I didn’t grow up eating good things. Good food just wasn’t part of our family’s culture. It was a means to an end; we ate because we had to. Yet, as I got older, my tastes matured. The meanings of ‘food’ and ‘meal’ matured. Now, eating, for me, is about sharing a meal, being with my family and friends, and it’s joyful. My husband and I always enjoy the time we spend together making meals and we decided early on that we were going to continue to make time for meals.

When I was first pregnant with Claire I decided that I would be even more conscious of what I ate. I enjoyed thinking about what choices I had to make and why I was making them. After a while I became preoccupied: with gaining over 50 lbs(!), I was making many, many food choices a day – admittedly not always good ones; cravings for ice cream in the last few weeks became very, very strong. As I continue to breastfeed Claire, food choices are still important. Claire is now almost eight months old and I am making choices for her that – I hope – will help her make good food choices as she gets older. (Yes, she will be allowed to have ice cream – maybe not every night and maybe not until her first birthday.)

As a family, we opt for good, honest food. That doesn’t mean we don’t like to enjoy ourselves from time to time. Living in South Philly comes with lots of sausage and cannoli. The difference is that these sausages and cannoli are homemade. When I can see the butcher and the baker, I know I am making a good choice – in moderation, of course. When it came time for Claire to start eating solid foods, I did not hesitate to consider making my own baby food. She’s been eating solids for some time now and she’s eaten both homemade and store-bought. I am committed to continue making homemade baby food for various reasons but mostly because it’s good, honest food. She can see where I bought it and how I made it. Living in the city makes it somewhat hard to show her where everything comes from (especially meat) but this is a good start.

But I am no chef. I’ve only just started cooking a few years ago (thanks to my husband and some unemployed days watching Jacques Pepin). Thankfully, I’m not too bad at following a recipe. That being said, I will learn as I go (just as I do with being a mom), armed with fresh veg, fruit, and my food pro as I document my adventures in feeding Claire.