freezing food for a six month old

[mummytojames]

okk heres one i hope you can help me with been weaning my son for over 2 months now done the jar and packet thing done the puree and i know 2 freezable recipes that he likes sweet potatoe with chicken and tomatoe and basil and chease potatoe pie he will eat most things apart from plain potatoe and mince meat now i got the problem of finding different recipes i can make up for him and freeze he dont mind the same thing 2 days running but you try and give it to him for the third he will take one mouthful and then look at you as if your stupid i tryed doing sweet potatoe one day and cheesey mash the next wich went fine for a week then he refusd to eat either hes on three meals a day breakfast is easy porridge oats with one of three fruits (apple appricot or peach) or he has one of his baby cereal tea is usualy angel delight once a fortnight fruit mix (apple with appricot or with peach) he loves that or farleys rusks which he seems to be happy with at the moment its just im sick of having to go out and buy jars when i know he loves home cooked and would rather home cooked but that seems the only way i can get a variaty into his diet because i cant think of anything else i can freeze PLEASE HELP THIS USELESS WOMAN

I used one of the Annabel Karmel books (The New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner) - she tells you which recipes can be frozen and which can't. However, some people criticise her recipes for being a bit complicated - which a lot of them are, TBH. These days I just cook a casseroles or pasta sauce for all of us and freeze some down for ds (e.g. bolognese sauce, chicken and veg. casserole, beef casserole, chicken with white sauce and grapes plus potatoes and veg., vegetable lasagne etc). Until he's one you shouldn't give him salt though so you may want to cook separately for him or add salt to your portion once you've removed his. On the whole, he can eat the same things as you can by now so just cook what you'd be cooking for yourself - after all it's better to get him used to the food you are cooking for yourself anyway.

HTH.

thanks ginger i was wondering if you could give them normal pasta blended down and im definately going to try that chicken casserole and i havent got to worry about the added salt i hate salt have since i was a small child if im cooking i wont even put it in with my veg now stupid questions any good sauces to put with the pasta and how do you make a chicken casserole is it the same as home made (beef )stew

Yes, you can give normal pasta blended, or you can give soup pasta when he can manage small soft lumps. Sauces for pasta - I do a tomato one with mushrooms, courgettes and sweetcorn, and a bit of cheese melted in. Annabel Karmel does a mushroom one and a spinach one (neither of which my ds would eat), then as I said bolognese. Chicken casserole I do very much like beef - fry onion and chicken (usually cut into small pieces) to seal it, then add flour to soak up juices, add liquid (whatever you use - these days I use low salt stock cubes as ds is over 1) and mixed veg - whatever I have in the fridge (e.g. carrots, leeks, peppers, courgettes, celery, sweetcorn (frozen)). Add seasoning (pepper, herbs) then simmer for 40 minutes or so (these days I tend to cook it for longer to make the lumps nice and soft for ds who is 2).

You can make your own stock if you want to avoid salt - simmer chicken with veg for several hours in 3 pints water. The chicken and veg can be pureed down for your ds and the extra liquid frozen down as stock for other dishes. It's easier to do veg stock though - again, simmer some mixed veg and freeze liquid afterwards.

HTH and makes sense.

Mummytojames - I found that you can mush up and freeze anything for babies (obviously excluding salt etc).

Whenever I was cooking I used to do extra veg for dd, bung it in a microwave dish with a little water and zap for 6-8 mins until cooked. Then I'd add whatever else I was cooking (fish, meat etc.), and a little oil usually for texture and whizz it all up. You need to taste it - if it's sour add peas or other sweet veg, if it's tasteless add a few herbs or a bit of stock. But anyway I then used to freeze in little pots (ex coleslaw tubs or whatever was around). After a few days you have a variety in the freezer so you don't need to give the same thing 2 days running. If I had some spare time, I'd look at the ingredients on a nice-sounding jar and copy it.

However there's nothing wrong with using jars occassionally!

Hello Mummytojames

I have same age baby and I've just frozen a batch of chicken and rice.

I sweated a teaspoon of chopped onion in olive oil, added rinsed white rice, coated it with oil, poured on water and cooked until very mushy. Then I added the shredded meat from a roast organic chicken leg. I added a little boiling water and blended the lot til completely smooth, frozed in ice cube trays.
Proportions are about 8 parts rice to one part chicken, will increase as he gets older

I mix it with cubes of pureed veg, roots like potatoes parsnip and carrot mixed together and also pure butternut squash

hth

thak you thank you and thank you thatsto the three of you i asked my mother and she said she couldnt realy help because of all the new rules and regs as she used to give me tinned veg soup or homemade no aslt though as she cant stand salt either and she wasnt shaw if you can give all veg like sweetcorn too babies now and she didnt belive in a blender she said the fork was the best way to relieve tension if she had had a bad night with me and suzy wrong i think im going to do a batch of the chicken and rice for me and my partner as that sounds lovely but i wouldnt be able to do parsnip with it or plain potatoe it will have to be sweet as he hates the two of them plus what does butternut squash taste like i have never tried it.and senora i agree there is nothing wrong with giving jars now and again he has them whenwe go into town once a week and if were visiting family twice a week it just mainly when were at home and ginger nut he can already manage small soft lump as hes got his chewing action down brilliant my fault though never blend the food down enough so he learned to chew his food also we are going on a holiday (THANKS MUM) fully inclusive in spain i know they serve weetabix as part of there breckfast buffet but were not sure what they serve for tea or dinner as the menus change so we got to take jars for those to be on the safe side cant take homecooked because theres no fridge or freezer to keep them fresh in (taking a ice bag with freezer blocks to keep his tins as cool as posible)but whats worrying me is after seven days of jars will he be willing to go back to the simpler home cooking or is this going tosend be back to square one where he would pull some of the funniest faces because of the different texture to jar i know im worrying to much