citybaby basics

My goal is to update citybaby once a week each Thursday.  If you are reading along (thank you!) and want to follow a recipe, this will give you a day or two before the weekend to gather the ingredient(s) I've covered.  If you're just starting out, you may want to cook on weekends when you have a little more time, energy and help from your other half.  I found that the bouncy seat was one of my greatest helpers during meal prep time until our daughter was about 12 months old.    
  
Most of the foods I write about are vegetables and fruits.  Once my daughter moved to two cubes per meal, I started pairing vegetables and fruits with a protein like tofu then plain whole milk yogurt (cow, goat, sheep or Greek) then ham, turkey or chicken.  RE: tofu -- I always have organic silken tofu on hand.  Sometimes when I'm feeling extra motivated, I go to the Japanese market and buy the single-serving packaged silken tofu.  I find it is easier to store and pack.  RE: yogurt -- I only feed my daughter plain yogurt and she loves it.  The fruit-on-the-bottom varieties are loaded with additional sugar and that is too much sugar for my tiny little person.  On a side note, there is a drawing of a cute sheep on the sheep's yogurt I buy. When I feed this to her she points at it, laughs and says "baaaaa!"  

I try to provide a little nutritional information and consult with a registered dietitian for each blog post but these notes are not even close to comprehensive.  If you want to be extra super sure that you are feeding your child a balanced diet, by all means talk to your pediatrician or consult an RD who specializes in pediatrics.  

Ingredients in the posts link out to Fresh Direct.  These links are meant to help you get your shopping done (just add to your cart!) if you are following a recipe and live in NYC.

We have a small shelf dedicated to our daughter's meals in the fridge.  I set it up that way so it would be easy to find and organize baby meals and snacks.  Anything found on that shelf is fair game to feed our baby for any meal situation including to-go packs and baby-sitter instructions.  This saves me from always being the only person who can put a meal on the tray or pack it up in the bag. 

It is possible that you will make a dish (or several) and your child doesn't embrace the new flavor.  Don't fret.  That's what the freezer is for.  Wrap up your batch of fresh cooked food, freeze it, give it a week or a month and try again.  Eggs also come in handy.  I can mix nearly anything into a scrambled egg and my daughter will devour it.

Making baby food is easy.  I'm hoping I can use this blog share some tips with you and help make it as easy as possible for you to try at home.  

Come on, give it a shot.

Posted via web from citybaby