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Beyond Baby Food: Create Family Meals Using Your Infant's Food
Using leftover baby food to create flavorful, nutritional meals for the entire family! Tips and recipes for baby food meals.
Admit it—you've sampled some of your baby's food before. Whether you buy your baby's food or make it yourself, there's something soothing about pureed peaches or chunky rice pudding. But baby food isn't just for babies. You can use leftover baby food in meals for the whole family. It's not only convenient, but you'll be surprised how good baby food-inspired recipes can be.
Changing Your View of Baby Food
"I don't like the term 'baby food'," explains Lisa Barnes, mother of two and a member of the American Personal Chef Association (APCA). "Baby food for many people conjures up the image of [food in] jars." Barnes adds that many people think that baby food—especially the store-bought, jarred varieties—is bland and unappealing. This isn't necessarily the case. (Check out these new palate-expanding baby foods as proof!)
Barnes, the author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby & Toddler, explains that you shouldn't consider baby food as separate from what the rest of the family is eating, but instead simply think about it as the same food made age appropriate. You eat an apple; your baby eats an apple that has been pureed until the consistency is right for her.
Making Baby Food Convenient
Before you start preparing baby food-inspired meals, make it easier on yourself by having plenty of choices on hand. Julianne E. Hood, mother of two and the author of The Basic Baby Food Cookbook, buys fresh fruits and vegetables in season and prepares them for storage by washing them and pureeing them in a food processor. Hood then pours the puree into ice cube trays and later stores the frozen cubes in freezer bags so they're ready to use.
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- Article: Raising Happy Kids in the Country
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