Conference turris::cooks

    	Cheryl,
    		Another place you may want to check for these recipes
    	or ideas is in the parenting notesfile. HELPME::PARENTING
    	They also have parenting V2 and V1 available, this is explained
	in the READ ME FIRST entries from the moderators.
    
    					Rick Starek    	

    Cheryl,
    
    I used to do all my son's baby foods. For the meats, try adding either
    some stock or water to make it smoother. Stock makes it taste best -
    you can use premade or make your own. Premade does have alot of salt
    and preservatives but you really only need the smallest amount. Try
    using hamburger instead for steak for beef - it purees faster and
    easier. Make sure you don't overcook beef that way you will have some
    juices left from the meat. Also, don't be afraid to use the extract
    that cooks off the meats after you skim the fat off. 
    
    As for veggies - different veggies have a different water content. I
    really found no trick except to drain as much water off before they
    were ground up and then try to drain them after if they are to watery.
    Carrots, beets, potatoes, etc (roots) work the best. Things like
    zuccini can be disastorous. 
    
    Another thing my son loved was my beef stew. It's so easy. Just make
    your favorite recipe of it (I just cut down on the onions) and it will
    blend up very nicely. You get your veggies and meat in one shot.  And
    you can freeze the rest for the other family members.
    
    Andrea                                          

    I used one of those baby food grinders.  It came
    with a cookbook which I no longer have but I have
    seen it in the Marlboro Library.
    
    Generally I used to take what we had for dinner
    and grind it up.  Occasionally, you need to add
    some additional liquid and the liquid depends
    on what you are grinding.
    
    Tuna casserole has a milk base, I added extra milk,
    Roast Beef, add some gravy
    Mashed potatoes add milk
    Macaroni and Cheese add milk
    Spaghetti and meatballs add extra sauce or if it is
    to spicy add water.
    Fish, add some chicken stock or better yet mix the
      fish with a veggy.
    Turkey, mix with gravy or mix it with squash and potatoes.
    
    Meats work the best when mixed with veggies!
    
    I always kept an ice cube tray full of leftovers for 
    lunch and for those times when it was inconvenient to
    prepare something.
    
    Remember that sometimes these things don't look great to
    the adult eye.  The sitter did not care for the look of black
    bananas and the macaroni and cheese but they were my daughter's
    favorites.
    
    Judie
    
    

    Cheryl,
    
    I forgot to add with my reply that I used the Black and Decker Handy
    Chopper to do the grinding. Since it is a smaller food processor, it
    was great for preparing that one meal, which I did like the previous
    reply (whatever we ate, he ate). Since you will be doing your cooking
    on the weekends, I assume you're talking volume. Use a standard food
    processor for the big jobs.
    
    I did not like the baby grinder at all because it didn't grind things
    up fine enough when my son first started on foods. I used to have to
    run things through it a couple times (including bananas) to get it a
    very smooth consistency. The Handy Chopper was well worth the $20 I
    spent (it is still a life-saver in the kitchen!!)
    
    Andrea

    Hello Cheryl,
    
    generally in Italy we never buy already made food for children,
    but we make our own. I also have a 10 years old son and a 20
    months daughter.
    
    What I think is a good idea is to prepare some vegetable soup
    with; carrots, celery, spinach, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce,
    peas, green beans and everything you want. You just put the 
    vegetables (cut in small pieces) in the water (not too much)
    and let them cook until the potatoes and carrots are cooked.
    If you overcook the vegetables, some of the vitamins go away
    with the vapor of the water.
    
    When the vegetables are cooked you can put them aside and every
    day blend a little part with a piece of meat, some fish, one egg,
    one piece of soft cheese, some lamb ....
    
    In Italy we boil the vegetable soup and then put some little 
    pasta in it, but I can understand american children are not used 
    to this.
    
    This way you just cook once, but every day your child has a different
    taste in the food. You can do the vegetable soup enough for three
    days.
    
    Hope this helps.
    
    Ciao
    
    Marinella
     

    Spanish children are very much like Italian... I never bought any type
    of food for my three kids, but I used the blender to dilute our same
    type of food to feed them.  Irish stew is wonderful for kids, (made
    with beef, potatoes, carrots, celery) I blended it with an extra part
    of milk to make it very easy and smooth and I used to feed this to my
    kids since they were 3 months old... (I nursed them for 3 months but
    each one of them ate solid food since they were about 2 months old...
    I started on cereals "for first course" and mother's mild for "dessert"
    at about 1 month old and GRADUALLY I added a cereal at a time to make
    sure that it agreed with the baby, about 2 weeks latter I added a new
    vegie... and by the time they were 6 months old they ATE everything
    under the sun.  None of the three are "picky eaters at all" they eat
    anything I, or anyone, serve and I guess it has been due to the fact
    that I fed them everything that joung.  All three were always very
    "regular" in their habits, I almost "knew" their needs before it
    happened and as a result they were extremely "clean" babies, no messy
    at all... remember that in those times there were no disposable
    diapers...