Food! Glorious Food!! I love making my own baby food for my little guy. Sure, I have a few jars from the store on the shelf in case of an emergency or if we are on the road, but otherwise, my mini food processor can be found on my counter with the latest mixture whirring away. A lot of times it is what the big kids (Mom and Dad) are eating, but I love experimenting with new flavors for my little guy. 500 Baby & Toddler Dishes, by Beverly Glock, with Bailey Koch is just the book I was looking for to keep me mixing and experimenting to my hearts content! Beverly Glock is a regular food writer for parenting websites and magazines. She lauched Splat Cooking Parties in 2001 and now has a team of party organizers, cooks, and chefs offering cooking parties, workshops, and after school cooking clubs around England.
Beverly lives in Bukinghamshire with husband Peter and three children who regularly star in her cooking features. Bailey Koch is a registered and licensed dietician, certified in Pediatric Nutrition we well as Nutrition Support. Bailey has experience with multiple facets of pediatric nutrition, including working with Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. Bailey is president of Atlanta Pediatric Nutrition, Inc. I was really impressed at the knowledge and skill that is in this book! All the recipes fit the most up to date recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics for each stage of development, so you can rest assured that you are giving your baby the right food for his age!
The book is broken down into stages of development: babies first foods, moving on: 6-9 months, pre-toddler: 9-12 months, toddler foods: 12 months. It is organized really great so you can easily flip to the section you want! There is also a great introduction that gives guide lines about what babies can and cannot eat at certain stages as well as tips to make feeding go more smoothly. One that I found really interesting is to coat slippery fruit pieces in ground up cheerios or oatmeal so baby can hold it easily! LOVE THAT!! It also talks about food restrictions and what foods to avoid until when.
It goes beyond the universally known milk, peanut and honey allergies, which is very helpful! Now for the recipes! I am super excited to get into this book! I have already tried a couple simple recipes….scrambled eggs and toast fingers… yes, a no-brain-er I know, but I hadn’t thought of it until I got to that recipe! So many of the recipes are simple and only require a couple of ingredients!Also, many of the recipes can be modified to feed the whole family and give appropriate adjustments for increasing the servings. There are so many unique ideas in this book… I can hardly wait to try them all! Final note… I bought my first rutabaga… EVER…. and will be using it to make an awesome puree!! Happy cooking everyone!
