Annabel Karmel - opinions please!

[HugoTheHippo]

DD is seven months and so far I have been giving her purées / mashes and a bit of finger food (as she likes feeding herself). I'm trying to get a bit more adventurous and have been reading a few AK recipes for inspiration.

Quite a few of her recipes include butter, stock and things like onions, and I was looking for some thoughts on the benefits of using her recipes as opposed to just giving the foods - for example, is it better to give her http://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/potato-carrot-and-sweetcorn-puree carrot, sweetcorn and potato mash recipe or just plain mashed carrot, sweetcorn and potato? Is there any benefit to baby in adding butter or onions? Or is it just to make her recipes sound fancier and not like something any old parent could think up and help her sell books?

Hope that makes sense!

[HugoTheHippo]

Oops, link fail: //www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/potato-carrot-and-sweetcorn-puree

[SlackRopeWalker]

disclaimer: I have no actual knowledge. But...
I would imagine that butter and onions would make it taste a lot nicer! mashed potato etc without butter is pretty vile.

Nutritionally the fat from the butter is good, but then presumably your baby is getting that from milk anyway.

[MinesAPintOfTea]

Babies do need some fat, and the onions increase the veg content don't use stock cubes in baby food though

Young children need a higher-calorie diet then we've been conditioned to think of add healthy for adults.

[islingtongirl]

You can buy low salt stock cubes designed for making making baby food - boots and heinz do them that I have seen.

[MilkRunningOutAgain]

We still eat some recipes that started out from Anabel Karmel though the dcs are older now. I still make her Spanish omelette, a chicken loaf and a sweet chicken curry, and savoury pancakes too. My dcs liked strong flavours when very young, dd was happily eating curry at about 10 months, onions, butter and low salt stock are all fine to use. But there's nothing wrong with plain veg and simple recipes either. At 7 months she could have a go at most things.

[HugoTheHippo]

Thank you. Yes, good point about the fat, although I do give her yoghurt and cream cheese (and yes, she is still breastfed). I suppose I was just thinking if DD will quite happily eat puréed carrot and sweetcorn, does she get any extra benefit if I 'Karmelify' it?

[OsMalleytheCat]

I use an AK recipe book for DC- whether it does him any good or not I don't know, but it does tell you what's good/what's best for your vitamins and it gives me lots of ideas which is great for me as I seriously lack in imagination!

[maui50]

Hugo, if she's happily eating plain food then you might as well try and introduce some flavour as per AK or other recipes. DS is 7 months and prefers finger foods; today we had sandwiches and cooked carrot sticks with hummus (made with a sliver of garlic, a good bit of tahini, a little lemon juice and of course no salt) and he loved it.

I'd be less worried about the fat content - it's more about introducing them to foods that increasingly taste 'normal', as in the kind of foods you'll be eating as a family anyway in a few months' time.

[MigGril]

You know you can just go straight to family meals as long as they are low in salt. Especial if weaning from 6 months as there is not much they can't have.

I personally found AK recipes fidily compared to normal versions.

[Blueberrybaby]

You don't have to use AK recipes, but it makes sense to give her food that's appealing to eat and that has some flavour. Just because she is a baby doesn't mean she can't eat regular food and flavours. Plain vegetables is pretty boring. I used a few of her recipes and used baby stock cubes and spices and DD really likes it, her favourite is sweet potato and spinach curry. Try something's out, your baby will probably respond well.