Your most used weaning recipe book? Particularly Annabel Karmel and dairy free

[BakeOffRewatch]

Which weaning books do you actually go back to? I’m not looking for a recipe on how to purée different mixes, but actual recipes for finger foods and so on. I’ve made one of the free Annabel Karmel recipes online and really liked it. A friend loaned me the Ella’s Kitchen purple book, but it’s just steam and puree, not much I’d actually make from it.

I’ve borrowed Annabel Karmel’s “Weaning Made Simple” from a digital library, which had loads of recipes. Before I take the plunge I thought I’d ask here what’s the book you always return to. Want something I can flick through and mark pages.

The recipe everyone loves is this one www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/mini-tomato-cheese-muffins/

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MNHQ

I used "What should I feed my baby?" by Suzannah Olivier (sp?) with mine.

she builds up the food choices based on avoiding dairy & gluten (obv can substitute if they want to) and has weekly menu suggestions broken down by age groups and when new foods she recommends to be introduced.

I only bought one and it was so rubbish I never bought another one 😳 I bought the whatmummymakes book - biggest waste of money ever, apparently no one ever proof read it, loads of mistakes, often listed stuff as ingredients that then didn’t have them in the actual recipe, and everything was pastry and cheese orientated.

We generally just cooked normal home cooked food and gave baby whatever we were having, just making sure to exclude honey before one. Also was dairy free too, we had lots of pasta, fajitas, roast dinners, paella, stew, whatever really

Not weaning specifically, but I still use Fay Ripley's first book. Family recipes with tweaks in them for babies too.

I had multiple weaning/finger food books with DD1 and, at 13, she is the world's fussiest eater. DC4 got what was available and lives on hummus and veg.

Am not convinced my early efforts were entirely helpful

Hello @ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba waves. I think I’ll ask the Q in the after party chat thread too. I’ll have a look at that book.

Thanks @IDontDrinkTea, I’m specifically looking for recipe book recommendations that are worth putting the £ to. Want lots of recipes not so much the nutrition advice, as I know what I can/can’t feed already. I’ll avoid that one!

From memory I think the AK one was most used (got it cheap in Aldi!) And then later on I've also used the What Mummy Makes one, she has some nice variations of things, and the Baby-led weaning cookbook. Not a big lover of the Ella's books although the app is handy.

I generally prefer a physical book for cooking so quite often I get them on Kindle and if I use them enough I buy the real thing. Feeding Your Baby day by day is a nice book that I picked up second hand but maybe a bit late as we were well past 12 months by then, will probably us more with second baby.

The AK chicken balls are nice enough that we all eat them 😂

oh hey Bakeoff!
😘

Had a look at a friend's copy of Wean in 15 and couldn't see anything I hadn't already seen in another book but I guess the range isn't infinite.

The Made for Mums weaning app is quite nice for more recipes to flick through.

Which AK one did you have @8dpwoah? Me too for physical books, I like to sit down in armchair and read and make shopping lists from them.

I just want some nice recipes that are scaled time and ingredient wise for baby sized portions. The mini muffins I linked are fantastic, just cook a batch and hand them out on days where we’re out. And I eat the remains cos they’re so tasty! Or DH takes remainder to work. So looking for more of the same.

They've put a different baby on the front so I got confused 😂 but it's the AK Weaning one, I might treat second baby to the meal planner book in time!

Annabel Karmel baby and toddler planner

Little Dish family cookbook

And my absolutely number one favourite:

Cynthia Lair, Feeding the Whole Family

The best thing about the Cynthia Lair is that she will have a recipe to make for the whole family and there will be a step where it says - now take out a portion of what is in the saucepan for your weaning baby before you put in the salt/chili/lemon/small choking hazard food, to be served to baby while rest of the family eats the main recipe. So you only cook one thing, you just take out stuff for the baby earlier on in the process. It's fantastic and saved my sanity when I was on the brink of cooking 3 different meals each night for parents, toddler, weaning baby.

Thank you put so much @Xiaoxiong, the Cynthia Lair book is exactly the kind of thing I want. I tend to portion up baby’s food then finish whatever she doesn’t eat so want it to be tasty for me too!

Oh great, I hope you like it!! There are a couple of recipes in there I still make regularly even though my kids are nearly 10 and 8 - eg. there was a greek prawn and feta stew with dill with a tomato base that we all love that came from there originally, also three sisters stew (with beans, corn and squash) that the kids loved. At first glance it's a bit 1970s right-on california whole foods, but it's all really healthy and loads of veggie stuff as well which my kids genuinely liked.