The Basic Baby Food Cookbook

Foreword

If you were looking for a gourmet baby food cookbook with long complicated recipes…close this book and walk away. This book is filled with simple recipes made with basic foods. However, after mastering this simple process, you will be able to create and imagine hundreds of possible “gourmet” meal combinations and menu ideas that will not only be healthy for your child but flavorful as well.

The driving idea behind this little cookbook was to empower and encourage all parents to make simple, nutritious, time and costsaving meals for their children.

As a new stay-at-home mom, I was overwhelmed with all the information and choices on how I should feed my baby. Recommendations came at me from baby food manufacturers, magazines, television, the web, parents and friends. My daughter’s pediatrician even had the nerve to suggest I try making baby food at home. With my preference for cooking meals in twenty minutes or less, I seriously doubted my cooking experience was up to the task. And … with a new baby … where was I supposed to find the time?

However, I was curious so I did a bit of research. I read about homemade baby food on the web and talked to other moms. What I discovered stunned me!

Making homemade baby food:

•     is easier than I ever imagined;

•     allows me to control exactly what goes into the food and thus, what goes into my baby;

•     actually saves me time, energy and money.

I found that one cooking session could provide a month’s supply of fruits and vegetables! Even my husband got into the act, helping plan our children’s menus from the variety of baby foods I had made. My children loved and thrived on the food. Today, at ages 6 and 3, they are good eaters and happily sample new foods.

Whether you live in a rural area or an urban environment, you can make nutritious, affordable meals for your infant and toddler, even if you have no cooking experience. Each of the recipes in this book gives precise, step-by-step instructions and requires only ingredients commonly found at home.

Try a couple recipes. Compare them with the commercially jarred product. Don’t hesitate to make a veggie because you don’t like it. You may discover that the squash, or peas, or beets, you hated as a child didn’t taste anything like the fresh veggies you prepare with the recipes in this book. You will notice that your homemade food has a brighter, truer color and tastes better than commercial baby food because it was quickly steamed in a small batch without added sugars, starch, salt or preservatives. You will understand that the very best food for your baby is the food you make yourself. If I could master this process, anyone can.

                                                                    — J.H.