How to Feed a Henry

Today’s recipe isn’t really a recipe. It’s a collection of recipe ideas for baby food purees. As you know, we taste tested baby foods this week. It was a fun experiment but our family is done with jars and pouches of commercial baby food. I still have a small stockpile in the cupboard, so I tried to come up with creative ideas for how to use it up. Henry really does prefer finger food to puree but he would like to keep the spoon. He re are a few options if you find yourself with extra baby food purees. Stir fruit puree into plain yogurt.   Layer purees in popsicle molds and freeze. Spread veggie puree on a deli sandwich or grilled cheese sandwich. Mix fruit or veggie puree into a morning muffin mix. Freeze fruit puree in ice cube trays. Add one or two frozen cubes to a glass of drinking water for a dash of color and flavor . Add veggie puree to soup or pasta sauce. Blend fruit or veggie puree into a smoothie. Henry and I taste tested an apple puree mixed in...

We’re back with a few more baby food reviews . This time I thought we would sample a few of the new baby food pouches since they seem to be all the rage . I picked four types that combined fruits and vegetables in one mixture. I noticed that although the label often lists a vegetable first, the actual order of ingredients always starts with a fruit. The Blueberry, Pear and Purple Carrot from Plum Organics was quite tart. Daddy did not like this flavor but Henry even preferred it to his morning toast crust. I think this puree has potential as a homemade popsicle. It was bright purple and would make a very colorful frozen treat. Henry slurped down the purple puree. Next on our tasting adventure was the Carrots, Apples and Parsnips from Ella’s Kitchen. This orange blend was not a particular stand-out. Henry did pass his spoon back to me for a second scoop, but then he moved on to his roasted vegetables without looking back. Henry gave was not as excited about the orange...

Continuing with the food by spoon theme, I thought we should taste test some baby food purees. I have a small assortment of store-bought jarred baby food from the baby shower that we might as well use as research. Since Henry eats what we eat, I figured that the opposite applies too. Daddy and I would taste test the food along with Henry. Since I already know what plain peas taste like, I picked out a few of the combo purees to try. Our first jar was Spinach & Potatoes from Earth’s Best Organic. It seemed like a promising flavor with spinach, potatoes, carrots, barley flour and brown rice. Unfortunately, Daddy and I agreed that this mixture was completely bland and tasteless. It had a strong spinach smell, but the flavor was quite plain and unappealing. Henry did not seem impressed either. He made a very disagreeable face when we gave him a preloaded spoonful. Someone in the company’s test kitchen should rethink this blend, as this is exactly why jarred baby food gets a...

This week’s Tuesday Tip for Picky Eaters: Try the taste test rule. As I wrote about last week, we let Henry decide how much to eat. If he is done with a meal, then we do not pressure him to continue eating. We do, however, encourage Henry to taste each part of the meal. I have found that offering foods to him on my fork sparks his interest in at least a bite or two, and presenting him with a food via chopsticks is even more intriguing. Henry examines a spoon after trying out yogurt. As Henry gets older, we are planning to implement a taste test rule. Basically, Henry should try everything on his plate at least once without complaining . I have heard of several variations on this rule. Some households ask that children sample at least one or two bites, while others increase the number of bites to match a child’s age . For example, a five year old should try five bites of each dish. Requiring kids to join the clean plate club can backfire , so don’t worry about whe...

Before we completely discount spoon-feeding, I thought we should give it a try. Some foods are just too runny to eat without some sort of utensil. Yes, I can smear yogurt or applesauce on a piece of toast for Henry, but with that method he ends up getting a lot of bread. So this week, we’ll be testing out foods by spoon with Henry. Some of Henry’s first toys were plastic baby spoons. We had them in a rainbow of colors and they were easy for him to grasp and bang around. Until this week, however, he had not used spoons as an implement for eating. Of course, he has seen Daddy and me using flatware but I’m not sure he really gets what we are doing. Brightly colored plastic spoons were one of Henry's first baby toys. There are two approaches to giving food to a baby by spoon: conventional spoon-feeding and preloading. With conventional spoon-feeding, an adult scoops the food onto the spoon and puts the spoon in baby’s mouth. The Baby-Led Weaning model recommends preloa...

We’re celebrating World Kitchen Garden Day by enjoying fresh produce from our backyard. We grilled veggie skewers with homegrown tomatoes and zucchini from our kitchen garden. Yum! Veggie skewers on the grill. Try the zucchini. It's delicious! Take some time today to savor fresh, locally grown food. If you don't have a kitchen garden, take your kids to visit a community garden or tour a local farm. There is so much delicious produce in season right now. What is your family harvesting from your garden today?