The answer to the question "What is your baby's favorite food?" is root vegetables. Beets, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, yams, yuca ... if it grows underground, our daughter loves it. Carrots are ubiquitous in the "first foods" category, but since parsnips are similar to carrots in texture, appearance and availability, I introduced both foods to her diet around the same time.
Unlike fresh beets, raw carrots and parsnips are very easy to clean. Carrots are available year-round and I find that the best parsnips are available in the fall. Both foods store well as uncooked ingredients in the refrigerator, so it is easy to always keep them on hand. When I introduced these two foods to my daughter as purées I introduced them individually. Shortly after those introductions, I would make individual batches of each at once time and mix a portion of the batches together to add a little variety to her diet. In other words, this one task produced three types of meals: carrots, parsnips and carrots + parsnips. Of course you can also prepare carrots and parsnips all in the same pot. I make my preparation decision according to how much time I have. Making them in one batch saves a little time, but yields one type of meal as opposed to three (i.e. carrots, parsnips and carrots + parsnips).
Puréed Carrots and Parsnips
Nutritional Information for parsnips: This food is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. It is also a good source of potassium, and a very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin C, folate and manganese. Source and more info.
Nutritional Information for carrots: The carrot gets its characteristic and bright orange color from β-carotene. The benefit of β-carotene is that it's both a powerful antioxidant protecting cells from free radical damage as a carotenoid and has the ability to convert to vitamin A (and like this post, it's a real twofer!). Carrots are rich in dietary fiber, antioxidants, and minerals. Carrots do come in colors other than orange (like purple) which can be fun for your child as there aren’t many other purple foods! Source and more info.
Don't be nervous about your baby turning orange as a result of "over eating" foods rich in β-carotene. Unless you put your baby on an all-carrot diet, you run little risk of carotenodermia. If baby loves carrots, indulge. After all, according to Bettina RD nurturing a carrot fiend's habit is a lot healthier than encouraging a juice box addiction.
Equipment:
Large sauce pot with lid
Steamer insert
Food processor
Vegetable peeler (I think Y peelers function much more efficiently than traditional swivel peelers, but suit yourself)
Silicone ice trays – I use silicone because the food is easier to pop out, but you can use an ice tray made of any material.
4 oz. small single-serving containers. Good for storing fresh food or frozen food that you want to take with you. Ice trays aren’t great for to-go situations.
Ingredients:
Raw carrots (one bag) and/or
Raw parsnips (2-4)
Water or low sodium stock
Instructions:
Wash and peel the carrots and parsnips. Cut off and discard the ends. Cut each root vegetable into one inch cubes. Try to cut the pieces into uniform sizes so that they cook evenly.
Add water to the bottom of the saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Drop the washed, peeled and cut contents of the carrot bag and/or the parsnips into the steamer insert. Cover and steam for 7-10 minutes. Use a fork to check the done-ness. If the fork easily pierces the bigger pieces all the way through, your vegetables are ready. If not, cook for another 2 minutes and check again until fully cooked. To achieve highest nutritional values try to minimize the steam time as the carrots and parsnips will lose nutrients if overcooked.
Allow the steamed vegetables to cool. Drop batches into the large bowl of your food processor and purée with the large metal blade. Add a small amount of reserved water from the bottom of the steam pot or low sodium stock to thin the mixture for a purée for a younger baby. Don’t over-fill the food processor bowl as it will make it difficult to achieve a fully puréed result. You may purée these vegetables individually or mix the two in one batch. The flavors work well together. If you’d like to add a little zing grate some fresh ginger root. According to Mark Bittman, you can freeze ginger root indefinitely. I believe him, so I peel and cut mine into "individual size" pieces before I freeze so that I can grate or chop fresh-frozen ginger root for recipes in a snap. Grate ginger root very finely -- I use a Microplane and it takes about 10 seconds. Ginger can be quite strong -- a little goes a long way! When you introduce this dish, start with plain unadulterated vegetables first, and layer flavors in a little later after your baby has developed an affinity for these tasty roots.
If you like the purée a little thicker, add a spoonful of baby rice cereal. This will give it your purée a nutritional boost. I love and continue to use Happy Bellies brand (available at diapers.com and Fresh Direct. It is a very powdery probiotic that mixes beautifully into purées, milk and formula.
Spoon purées into ice trays, cover with freezer-wrap and freeze. Our daughter started eating ½ a defrosted cube at a time, then progressed to one cube. When she moved to two cubes, I started making and freezing more than one vegetable at a time so that she would have a little variety at each meal. I did not use a microwave to defrost frozen cubes. I would simply take a cube out the night before and put it (or them) in a 4 oz. single-serving container and let the cube defrost gradually in the refrigerator.
If you are an on-the-go type of person or send your child to day-care, you’ll want to have some meals saved in the single-serving containers so that they are easily packed up. The ice trays are handy, but not so practical for when you are out and about or need to pack a set of meals for day-care! I also advocate not freezing a small batch and storing the food you plan to serve your child for that week in single-serve containers. That way baby will get super-fresh foods (that have never been frozen) and as a side benefit, you can easily monitor the portions served during mealtime.
Now that our sprout is older and has about a dozen teeth, I continue to use this recipe except I do NOT add liquid at the end and I pulse the carrots and parsnips a few times to achieve a chopped texture. I call these meals “chops.” Chops and purées are versatile for mixing into eggs and tofu scrambles. More on egg dishes and tofu scrambles another time!
Posted via web from citybaby
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