Fast Food for Baby

Swapna requested a post on homemade Indian foods for baby, so here's a quick post listing some of the foods that Lila has enjoyed since she started eating solids. A few are specific to Indian cuisine and others are not. This post comes with a giant disclaimer. I have no expertise in children's nutrition and write this only as a parent with limited experience (sample size = 1). So consider your child's needs, your doctor's recommendations and your own instincts when using this information.

Lila started eating solids little by little at 6.5 months of age, and now at 13 months, she eats almost everything we do, including 3 sit down meals a day. We've fed her using a combination of purees (spoon-feeding) and offering her chunks of soft food to eat with her own hands, which is often termed baby-led weaning.

Banana pieces: Fast Food for baby

1. Two instant foods that need no work other than cubing or mashing are banana and avocado. I was always leery of buying avocados because more than half the time, I'd end up with one that was brown and yucky inside and cringe at the waste. Then  I started following this tip when shopping for avocados and I've enjoyed perfect avocados since.

2. Whole-milk yogurt, whether homemade or store-bought is another instant food. It can be mixed with cereal. It can be eaten by itself. Best of all, it can be stirred into any ripe fruit puree (peach, banana, berries) to make a delicious fruit yogurt.

3. Sweet potato can be cooked in the microwave in 3 minutes or so. It can also be steamed or pressure-cooked while you're cooking something else.

4. Home-made applesauce: Peel and chop apples, cook with a small amount of water until tender. Break down using an immersion blender for a smooth puree or a masher (the kind we use to make pav bhaji) for a chunky puree. Season with a little cinnamon or apple pie spice if you want. I also make pear sauce and a pear-apple sauce the exact same way.

5. Breakfast Oatmeal: I cook apples like above, then add old-fashioned oats in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Mash to make a delicious breakfast. I make 3 or 4 portions at once and refrigerate. If a little fiber is needed in the diet, add a chopped dried prune- you'll get quick results every time if you know what I mean.

6. Khichdi: I cook rice and moong dal together with lots of vegetables. Lila has always enjoyed tasty food and I season the khichdi with some combination of the following: curry leaves, turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin. Using different combinations of vegetables and spices, you can make a hundred different khichdis using the same basic method. I serve this with a generous dollop of homemade ghee.

7. Vegetable soup: Another family favorite and can be made a hundred different ways using different vegetables and flavorings. My standard combo is {carrots, onion, potato, tomato}.

8. Upma and idlis are two other Indian dishes that can be shared by the baby and the rest of the family.

9. By now, Lila is eating everything that we are. In fact, most of the time she wants to eat it directly off of my plate. I am not making separate meals for her. Instead, I make our regular food but make sure I go easy on the salt and chilli powder. We grown-ups can always add more salt to our portions and eat some pickle or hot chutney on the side to amp up the flavor if necessary (in my case, always). Here's an example of what I made last night: chickpea curry with sweet potato. I scooped out chickpeas and sweet potato pieces onto Lila's plate and she fed herself.

Recently, I came across these guidelines by a nutritionist: Ellyn Satter's Division of Responsibility in Feeding Children. They nicely articulated what I think is my general philosophy for feeding my child. Children change all the time so I'm taking it one day at a time and offering Lila what I believe are tasty, wholesome foods and hoping she enjoys them.

I was a very poor eater as a child and I remember a fair amount of scolding, blame and tension at the dinner table until I finally grew out of it as a teenager and now it is quite obvious that I am the exact opposite of a poor eater. So if you have a picky eater at home, take a deep breath and know that it is entirely possible that he/she will grow up to enjoy every vegetable that grows on this green earth and maybe write a food blog as well.

If you have meal ideas that your babies have enjoyed, please add them in the comments!