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(More customer reviews)Once upon a time I was a 20-year-old stay-at-home mommy terrified of raising my baby wrong. Cloth diapers meant horrid diaper rash. Not breastfeeding was a mortal sin. Feeding your baby the same foods you ate meant they might have a fatal allergic reaction. Fast forward ten years and while my first born is certainly not malnourished... he's not the best eater. Sniff a jar of baby veggies and you might be able to guess why.
The idea of making my own baby food from scratch was one I knew I wanted to do before I was even pregnant with baby #2. A book I purchased about feeding toddlers when #1 was little has lingered in my cookbook collection for years. The first few sections focused on baby food & purees so I knew it was possible. I researched making my own baby food a lot before the time came and while I did go with boxed baby cereals (for the sake of time) at first... my wee one only ever eats the other packaged stuff when we pack it for those times when going home and thawing out cubes of pears isn't efficient. THAT is what I loved about BABY LOVE.
Norah and Geoff have a very realistic attitude toward making baby food. It's not as time consuming as you'd think and they break down how cost effective it really is. Finally seeing the math really made me happy to be taking the time and making the effort to prep my baby's food. In these budget concious times when organic food is the ideal it's nice to know I can give the baby what is not only healthiest, but what keeps some money around for the college fund too.
Yes, some of these recipes are very, very basic. For someone who already knows what they are doing these might seem a little too "duh". I disagree. Some of the methods I had previously used for prepping foods produced less palate pleasing purees in comparison. Case and point the Perfectly Basic Butternut recipe. In the Chef's Notes Geoff explains that by roasting the squash and creating that carmelization you get a richer, more complex flavor. The smell in my house when I tried this method was so yummy I debated setting some aside for myself. I did the same with sweet potatoes and won't go back to steaming them again. Roasting didn't take that much more time (and what does it matter since it's sitting in the oven smelling nummy while I'm reading) to do than the poaching method I had previously learned.
Another thing I love about this cookbook is that it is peppered with nutritional tips and the Chef's Notes which often are insightful and useful. But my favorite, favorite thing is that spices are used and encouraged! Spices for babies you say? Well, certainly within reason. I'm not dumping curry in my baby's food. But the introduction of spices such as ginger (Carrot and Ginger recipe on page 80), cinnamon (Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Raisin recipe page 55) or nutmeg (Creamy Butternut with Nutmeg recipe page 93) are actually very common in the later months of the first year. My baby loves a dash of ginger with peaches and oatmeal.
What surprised me more than anything considering the "big" names behind this cookbook was that none of these recipes was particularly pretentious. Just when you find one you think might be such as Roasted Red Pepper and Pomegranate Hummus you see a note about using canned chickpeas to save time or read the ingredient list only to discover how very simple and unfussy the dish is. You can tell your friends you made something like that and sound like you labored for hours when it really was super easy.
I can't believe I am saying this but after making the Peach and Apricot Oatmeal (page 59), adapting it because I only had fresh peaches, this is my favorite baby food cookbook. The next recipes I am going to try are the P.E.A. (pea, edamame and apple puree page 77) and Strawberry and Fig (page 61). I'm also looking forward to trying the three "Get Your Greens" recipes as soon as we get cauliflower introduced to baby #2's 10-month-old diet.
If you're looking for a baby cookbook with really great basics, a budget concious attitude, no pretense and just plain excellent combinations of ingredients I highly recommend this one. It even stresses that you don't need any expensive equipment (I have a food processor but used my blender for the first time making these and found I liked it even better!) or super mad cooking skill, just a desire to make yummy food for your baby. Good luck and happy cooking!
***Update: In the days since I wrote this review originally we've tried the Papaya Banana, Strawberry Fig and Strawberry Banana Pineapple which have all gone over reeeally well. I recommend a really nice creamy whole milk yogurt with some of the Papaya Banana stirred in as a breakfast alternative to cereal.
I also wanted to add on that each of these puree recipes is set to make two ice cube trays worth of puree which is just the right batch size in my opinion. When this book says you can take an hour on a Sunday night and whip up enough purees to last the week they're right! I take an hour a couple of nights a week now and make 2-3 different purees. At the moment my freezer is packed to the gills which gives us variety and saves me tons of time.
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