Cooking Family Meals to Satisfy Babies, Toddlers, and Parents

Baby Stage: Pureed Carrots

Baby Stage: Pureed Carrots


Toddler Stage: Diced Veggies and Chicken

Toddler Stage: Diced Veggies and Chicken


Preschool and Beyond Stage: Hearty Vegetable Chicken Noodle Soup

Preschool and Beyond Stage: Hearty Vegetable Chicken Noodle Soup

When our kids were babies, I simply pureed a portion of our food for them. As toddlers, they eat what we eat, except the pieces were smaller and they often used hands over utensils. Now that my older son is a preschooler, we finally order him his own meal at restaurants but at home, he still eats the same food we do. I involve him in the kitchen as much as conveniently possible and once a week, we even have ‘cooking school’. I cook and eat at home more now than before we had kids. Cooking is part of our daily routine and we have a different outlook now, making the whole process less of a time strain and more of a family activity of sorts.

I make a lot of one-dish meals. Soups are the perfect dish to satisfy everyone in our family. One our favorite is chicken vegetable rice/noodle soup.

    Ingredients:

  • One whole chicken
  • one yellow onion
  • 5 or more carrots
  • 5 or more celery stalks
  • rice or noodles
  • salt and pepper
    Directions:

  • Boil a whole chicken in salted water for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding more water as needed.
  • With half an hour left, add the onion, quartered, to the stock.
  • Transfer some of the stock to a smaller pot, set on high. Add more water to the big pot.
  • Dice the carrots and celery and add to the small pot.
  • I cook in two pots so I can simultaneously make a large batch of stock while cooking the veggies. Alternatively, you can add all the veggies in with the big pot.
  • Cook rice or noodles. I usually make rice in the rice cooker the first night and the second night, I make homemade noodles.
  • Transfer a small amount of veggies into a heatproof container, such as a measuring cup. Puree with a handheld blender. Forget the baby food mill. They’re hard to use and a pain to clean.
  • Remove the chicken and combine the pots.
  • Peel the meat off the chicken. If it’s too hot, let cool or peel under cold running water.

For inspiration on hearty soups that also make delicious baby food, I often look to French provincial recipes. I love the combination of flavors and many of the soup recipes are pureed, making it ideal for babies.

 

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