BLW food ideas

[DuskyPinkRoses]

We've being doing BLW for a few weeks as my LO refuses to be spoon fed but I feel like I'm running out of ideas. Everything seems very plain - veg sticks, strips of meat etc. The recipes in the Annabel Karmel book my MIL gave me seem much more interesting but she won't take things off a spoon so cottage pie etc don't seem poss! Please share how you make it interesting! Thanks

Fritters! Courgette and feta, oat pancakes, carrot and lentil - all handheld and easy to eat.
Roast veg, houmous and bread sticks also popular.

Thanks! Just looked up a courgette fritter recipe. Sounds yummy. But do you add salt to get the water out before making the fritter? Want to avoid adding salt but worried they'll be too wet if I don't!

I grated the courgette when I made vegetable fritters, if you grate them onto a tea towel you can squeeze off the excess water. Unfortunately DS seems to have an issue with eggs, these were really easy to make.

Nah, I just grate them and don't worry - you can add some flour if they're very soggy. Also great with mint.

You can do all the usual stuff like cottage pie... Just be prepared for mess!!

What ever is on my plate gets fed to ds - 6 months. It worked for my now 2 yr old. He eats everything including chilli and curry. Yes it's messy as he uses his hands but it's all part if the learning process. It also saves hassle as you only need to cook one meal.

Roast aubergine pasta is a good one, big chunks of aubergine that they can pick up, in a tomato sauce.

Mild curries, south or east Asian, with large chunks of veg. Ditto tagine (good for root veg).

Make interesting frittata-y omelettes with combos of veggies and cheese.

Risotto for you, turn the leftovers into arancini or similar for her.

A wide range of fruits - pineapple is surprisingly cheap in supermarkets, watermelon, kiwis (you can leave the skin on for grip, it is perfectly edible though they typically suck the flesh away, and cut into 6ths lengthways)

Cheese and Lentil Pie from the Cranks recipe book! it's fab, just leave out the salt for a baby version (and cook the lentils in stock for an adult version to make it extra tasty!)

8 oz red lentils
3/4 pint water
1 large onion
1 oz butter
4 oz grated cheese
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 egg
1 oz breadcrumbs
salt & pepper – for adults!!

Cook the lentils in the water until soft, and all the liquid is absorbed
Chop the onion finely and fry in the butter until soft.
Combine all the ingredients and press into an oiled 9? tin.
Bake at Gas 5 for around 30 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly then cut into wedges

Marking place, trying to wean DS of his yoghurt addiction.

If she won't be spoon fed, have you tried letting her feed herself from loaded spoons? Really messy for a few days but they crack it pretty quickly.

We've been blw for nearly three months and despite practicing 2-3 meals a day, DD is nowhere near feeding herself stuff like cottage pie. She's just able to pick up things like strawberries and manipulate them. It's a bit tricky until they have the fine motor skills, or at least you can't expect them to eat much!

Roasted sweet potato is a huge hit here and lots of babies love things on toast fingers - hummus, soft cheese etc

We just choose any suitable bits from our meal. For example, last night we had a fry-up for dinner, ds ate fried egg (yolk cooked through), mashed baked beans loaded onto a spoon he could pick up (they stick well when mashed!), tomato and a little bite of hash brown.