Tag: meals

Wobbles When Weaning

Lydia | April 9, 2013

Before long you will have mastered the art of weaning your baby with pureed fruit and vegetables. After a couple of months of puree your baby will be ready for the next stage of weaning, eating foods with more texture.

Adding texture is an important stage in weaning and development for your baby. It helps to strengthen jaw muscles, encourages the development of speech, helps to ensure healthy teeth and prepares your baby for chewing food and eating family meals.

The best advice I received when I was introducing texture to my baby was to take things slowly. There’s no need to get anxious or frustrated if your baby spits out the lumpy bits or refuses textured food altogether.

You may find your baby takes to textured food straight away or it could be some time before your baby is happy chewing and swallowing lumpier food. Either way, there are things you can do to help make this next stage of weaning as easy as possible for both you and your baby.

Tips for the Smooth Introduction of Texture

1. Until your baby is at least ten months old they should be able to easily mush any lumps in their mouth, with or without teeth.

Lumps in food need to be small, soft and manageable for your baby.

2. Begin by slowly adding texture to the foods your baby likes.

Introducing texture to your baby’s puree will most likely be met with a surprised face! You can start by adding grated fruit, mashed vegetable or finely chopped food to your baby’s puree which is a subtle way of encouraging your baby to eat thicker and lumpier food. Introduce new food textures one at a time.

3. Keep baby interested in texture.

When your baby is happy with some texture you can start to vary the texture you give by adding baby pasta shapes or grains such as couscous into their favourite meals.

4. Offer your baby finger foods if they’re developmentally ready.

Babies will often eat lumpier foods if they’re feeding themselves.

5. Don’t force your baby to try something if they don’t want to.

The key is to keep things relaxed and fun so your baby looks forward to mealtimes. This helps to avoid fussy eaters later on.

Initially, I found my baby was happy to eat food with a thicker consistency but she didn’t enjoy food with lumps in it. She would spit the lumps out or refuse to try what I was offering. I took my time and continued to give her food with texture for several weeks until one day she just ate the spoonful of lumpy food as if it were the most normal thing to do!

Lydia Oliver – Nutritional Advisor Only Best For Baby

This article was published in the April 2013 edition of Mummy and Me Magazine.

I offer one to one nutrition programmes for breastfeeding, post pregnancy weight loss, weaning, weight management and health. Contact me.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Feta

Lydia | March 28, 2013

Welcome to my series of weekly family meals. I’ll share my favourite fresh, nutritious, easy and quick meals for the whole family to enjoy. Where possible, we always eat and cook with organic ingredients. I like to buy the freshest produce for my family to ensure we’re getting the essential vitamins and minerals we need through our food.

This week’s Family Meal is Roasted Root Vegetables with Feta. It’s a tasty way to give your family lots of healthy veg. It’s a delicious combination of root vegetables served with beetroot, broccoli and crumbled feta. Serve warm or prepare in advance until the family is ready to eat.

Serves 4

Prep Time 15 minutes. Cooking Time 25 minutes.

You’ll Need:

8 cloves of Garlic
2 Red Onions
3 Carrots
3 Sweet Potatoes
4 New Potatoes
1 Courgette
1 Sweet Red Pepper
1 Head of Broccoli
250g (1 packet) of Organic Cooked Beetroot
100g low-fat Feta
A dash of Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil for the light dressing
Sprinkle of Dried Herbs (I use an Italian mix)

Let’s Make Roasted Root Vegetables with Feta

1. Wash, peel and dice the root vegetables (Carrots and Potatoes) into cubes. Boil until soft and drain.

2. Peel and cut the Onions into quarters.

3. Wash and chop the Courgette and Red Pepper.

4. Add root vegetables, Garlic, Onion, Courgette and Pepper into an oven roasting pan. Pour a drizzle of olive oil over and stir gently in the pan to partially coat the vegetables. Sprinkle the Dried Herbs over the veg. Cook at 180 degrees Celcius on fan bake for 25 minutes or until vegetables start to brown slightly.

5. Wash the Broccoli and chop into bite sized pieces. Boil for 40 seconds and drain.

6. Remove vegetables from oven and transfer into a salad bowl.

7. Crumble the Feta over the vegetables and add a splash of Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil as a light dressing.

8. Add the Broccoli and roughly cut Beetroot into the bowl of vegetables. Mix gently.

9. Ready to serve and enjoy!

Veg ready to go into the oven.

Lovely roasted root vegetables with the Courgettes and Pepper.

In the salad bowl all the delicious ingredients are mixed gently with the Feta and a light dressing of Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.

Serve warm or keep chilled until ready to eat.

Looking for ideas for nutritious and quick Family Meals? Try my healthy recipes:

Savoury Muffins

Mild Veg Curry

Simple Fish Pie

Mild Vegetable Curry

Lydia | March 20, 2013

This week’s family meal is Mild Veg Curry. It’s healthy, quick and delicious.

Serves 4

Prep Time 10 minutes. Cooking Time 25 minutes.

Ingredients

1 Onion
3 cloves of Garlic
2 Sweet Potatoes
2 Carrots
Head of Brocoli
500g Passata
Patak’s Mild Curry Paste
Wholegrain Rice

I love Waitrose Organic Passata and Waitrose Organic Whole Grain Rice.

The Passata is made of 100% organic tomatoes and provides a smooth and tasty sauce to which you can add herbs and spices as you please. I always use whole grain brown rice instead of white rice for it’s nutty full flavour and health properties.