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The Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook provides more than a hundred recipes rich in color, flavor, variety, and nutrients that demonstrate how to make your baby food from natural, safe ingredients with flavors you know your baby will enjoy.
Beginning with some explanations of why you should slow cook (it’s easy!) and how (buy a slow cooker), it then moves on to some recipes for home-cooked pureed food (stage one) and meals (stage two) than anyone, including me, could make.
If someone were to ask me what the one small appliance is I would recommend to others, I would say my slow cooker because I use it frequently for slow-cooking stews and meat joints, but I will admit that I had never made pureed food before reading this book. Instead, I opted to purchase jars and pouches, which are ultimately more expensive than making them myself. I am pleased to announce that I am now confident in making my jars (which I continue to use for desserts even though my son is now on stage two foods) and that I will be using the apple puree recipe to make apple sauce for Christmas dinner.
Why should you prepare homemade baby food?
As the parent of three children ranging in age from preschool to adolescence, I realize how important and easy it was to feed my children when they were infants and toddlers. I had considerably greater control back then. I was responsible for their meals, and every morsel of food entered their bodies. They were too young to approach the school snack bar or be influenced by their best friends; they rarely ate meals that I had not prepared.
It has been demonstrated that children from long-lasting preferences for certain foods and flavors based on their earliest eating experiences and that infant are more open to trying new foods than their toddler and preschool-aged siblings. These are good reasons we should feed our babies fresh, delicious, real food as soon as they can grasp a spoon.
Fresh homemade baby food made from only whole foods is generally more nutritious and tastier than commercially processed baby food. When prepared in bulk, it is less expensive than commercial alternatives. In addition, when you make your food, you have control over the quality of the ingredients. Homemade baby food appears to be a no-brainer.
Oh, that takes time! True, but, as with any meal, homemade baby food is preferable to none. Try making a small amount and observe the results. Mashed fresh avocado or banana would make an ideal first course that requires no cooking.
How will you determine if your infant is ready for solid foods? According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, she may be prepared if she displays an interest in the surrounding solid foods, can sit up with support, can turn her head to refuse food, and has doubled her birth weight (usually at about 4 to 6 months). Always consult a pediatrician, as infants develop at varying rates.
The Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook Recipes
The recipes begin with simple one-dish meals, such as slow cooker apples, easy apricots, and blueberry puree. Secondary stage one foods include fruit-and-vegetable combinations, allowing you to begin experimenting with your baby’s tastes. This included combinations I would not have thought to combine, such as black beans and apples, butternut squash and peaches, sweet potatoes, and spiced pears. As the book progresses, the recipes will include spices such as cinnamon and vanilla, increasing the variety of flavors your baby will experience.
Best Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook
1. The Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook
The Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook: 125 Recipes for Low-Fuss, High-Nutrition, and All-Natural Purees, Cereals, and Finger Foods
★★★★★ Amazon.com
Slow-cooking our food has been around for centuries–and feeding babies, well, that’s been happening even longer. In this book, we combine a fabulous and convenient way to cook (in most cases, just add a few fresh ingredients to a slow cooker, set the heat level, and walk away!) with new and wonderful ways to feed babies as they transition from a diet of breast milk and/or formula to the amazing, tasty world of solid foods. Now you can prepare, puree and store a batch of foods and meals easily when you cook with the slow cooker. Cook baby and family meals during the day and prepare the meal later on.
You can then store meals in the fridge or freezer for easy access to future meals. From purees and fruit sauces to cereals, spoon and finger foods and meals the whole family will enjoy!
2. What a Good Eater!
What a Good Eater!: Baby and toddler recipes with healthy herbs and spices to add flavor and broaden your baby?s palate
★★★★★ Amazon.com
What a Good Eater! is a baby and toddler cookbook filled with wholesome, family-friendly recipes designed to promote a well-rounded eater right from the get-go. It is written by two moms who believe that introducing flavorful foods using herbs and spices and exposing children to a variety of colors, flavors, and textures while they are young encourages openness, minimizes picky-eating habits, and sets the stage—and table—for positive future family meal experiences.
Created with the careful guidance of pediatricians, nutritionists, registered dietitians, and naturopaths, recipes include a variety of powerhouse foods, such as kale and salmon, soothing herbs and spices from cardamom to rosemary, and a glossary of herbs and spices with potential health benefits. Parents are guided on how to feed their babies and establish healthy eating habits from the start. With chapters dedicated to frequently asked questions and helpful tips, such as troubleshooting picky eating and staying away from “food ruts,” you’ll find answers to many feeding questions not often answered during pediatrician visits.
3. Instant Pot Cookbook for Babies
Instant Pot Cookbook for Babies: Delicious and Nutritious Instant Pot Recipes For Your Baby and Toddler
Amazon.com
This Instant Pot Recipes Cookbook For Babies and Toddler includes simple and delicious instant pot recipes for unforgettable experience and yummy meals! Save time with this Instant Pot Recipes Cookbook by Diana Dilan and get the dinner ready just in time for your baby and loved ones. This book is suitable for both beginner and experienced cooks, and it’s a great tool that will help moms have a less stressful Lifes. Using this instant pot recipe book, you not only cook quickly and healthy, but you will also enjoy juicy meals that are perfectly cooked.
This instant pot cookbook will guide through all the way from giving birth to seeing your baby become a happy and healthy kid.
4. First Meals Revised
First Meals Revised: Fast, healthy, and fun foods to tempt infants and toddlers
★★★★★ Amazon.com
Completely revised, this updated cookbook bursts with dozens of new color photographs and more than 200 recipes to entice even the fussiest baby or toddler. This classic cookbook covers the essentials, from flavorful first purees, winning lunchbox combos, and easy-to-make family meals to finger-licking picnic and party noshes, all while delighting the eye and providing hardworking information on nutrition, preparation and cooking times, freezing instructions, and tips on how to handle food allergies, additives, and tricky eaters.
The link between the food that children eat, and their physical and general well-being is widely recognized today. Armed with this easy-to-use cookbook, you can be confident of preparing enticing food that will give your child the best nutritional start in life. From first foods for weaning babies and delicious snacks to tempt toddlers with tiny appetites, to imaginative and nutritious meals that the whole family can enjoy. No household with young children should be without this cookbook.
5. Baby Nosh
Caring for a baby or small child with food sensitivities is never fun—especially if you have no idea what the culprit is. Meet Jennifer and Tanya: two modern mamas with a combined seven children and twenty-five years’ worth of experience in navigating the problem of what to feed a baby with an uncooperative digestive tract.
Written in frank, humorous language displaying a boisterous passion for real food, this book schools’ readers on what some common food offenders are, why food sensitivities are more prevalent now than in the past, secrets to assembling the perfect pantry, and how to cook one meal that will nourish anyone from six months to sixty years with simple, wholesome ingredients.
Here are fifty plant-based, gluten-free, easily digestible recipes that are not only nutritious, delicious, and kind to your little one’s gut, but are also appropriate for the entire family. There are even a handful of natural food remedies for teething pain, fevers, cold and flu, and more.
6. Baby Food Universe
Baby Food Universe: Raise Adventurous Eaters with a Whole World of Flavorful Purees and Toddler Foods
Amazon.com
Cultivate adventurous eaters right from the start, when your baby begins eating solid food, with some help from Baby Food Universe. This guide is filled with instruction, timelines, recipes and more. Starting your baby on solids is such an exciting time. But where do you begin? Are some foods better to start with than others? Is it easy to make yourself? And when can you start combining different foods to develop your baby’s palette? Learn all of that and more with Baby Food Universe.
7. The Big Book of Organic Baby Food
The Big Book of Organic Baby Food: Baby Purées, Finger Foods, and Toddler Meals For Every Stage (Organic Foods for Baby and Toddler)
★★★★★ Amazon.com
DISCOVER ORGANIC & EASY RECIPES FOR EVERYONE: Cooking as a parent can be difficult. Discover a giant collection of natural, organic, and irresistible baby food recipes to nourish your baby from infancy through the toddler years and beyond. From single-ingredient purees to complete meals that the whole family will love, you will learn how you can create nutritious baby foods with ease.
A VARIETY OF RECIPES FOR EVERY LIFESTYLE: Filled with tasty dishes like Sweet Potato Puree, Maple-Glazed Salmon, and Roasted Green Beans, this baby food cookbook offers tons of healthy and wholesome recipes designed to accommodate a wide range of tastes and needs, from weight loss concerns and diets.
8. Bébé Gourmet
Bébé Gourmet: 100 French-Inspired Baby Food Recipes For Raising an Adventurous Eater
Amazon.com
Move over mushy carrots and peas: The French teach their children to appreciate new flavors, ingredients, and textures from the first spoonful. No one knows this better than Jenny Carenco, mother of two and founder of leading French baby food brand Les Menus Bébé.
In Bébé Gourmet, Jenny shares her popular recipes from Carrot and Cumin Purée to Baby Beef Bourguignon, along with cooking tips and organizational tricks to help you awaken your baby’s taste buds and encourage healthy eating habits. Recipes for lunches, dinners, and snacks are organized by the major stages of development: 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months and up.
9. The Instant Pot Baby Food Cookbook
The Instant Pot Baby Food Cookbook: Wholesome Recipes That Cook Up Fast – in Any Brand of Electric Pressure Cooker
Amazon.com
Use your Instant Pot—or other electric pressure cooker or multi-cooker—to make fresh and flavorful, safe, and natural, fast, and convenient foods for your baby! Parents everywhere are turning to do-it-yourself baby food making. They do so to ensure that the food they feed their children is all-natural and free of additives. They do it because, in recent years, pediatricians and dietitians have been recommending that a baby’s diet feature a wide variety of ingredients, well beyond what you can buy in jars at the supermarket. And nothing to sneeze at, they do it to save money. How do they find the time? It is not always easy.
Enter the wildly popular Instant Pot, along with other brands of electric pressure cooker, the perfect solution for time-crunched moms and dads. Pressure cooking is skyrocketing in popularity in large part because of its speed. You can cook up a batch of baby purees, fruit sauces, or cereals in a matter of minutes.
10. Baby Food Maker Cookbook
Baby Food Maker Cookbook: 125 Fresh, Wholesome, Organic Recipes for Your Baby Food Maker Device or Stovetop
★★★★★ Amazon.com
From the blogger behind Sweetphi, this is the first cookbook for the popular baby food maker device, with 125 delicious, wholesome, nourishing recipes that will take baby from first purees to solids and beyond. Every recipe works for each of the popular models of the device and is adaptable for the stovetop plus a food processor, as well! Blogger and new mom Philia Kelnhofer are an expert at cooking up simple and nutritious meals for on-the-go families. But when it came time for her to introduce first foods to her baby, she was surprised by the challenges presented by seemingly simple purees.
After making a mass batch of sweet potatoes that mostly went to waste, she tried out the baby food maker device, which steams and blends in one canister to make small, baby-sized quantities of food.
11. Instant Pot Baby Food and Toddler Food Cookbook
Instant Pot Baby Food and Toddler Food Cookbook: Wholesome Food That Cooks Up Fast in Your Instant Pot or Other Electric Pressure Cooker
★★★★★ Amazon.com
Harness the power of your Instant Pot—or other electric pressure cooker or multi-cooker—to make fresh and flavorful, safe and natural, fast and convenient foods for your baby or toddler! Parents everywhere are turning to do-it-yourself baby food making. They do so to ensure that the food they feed their children is all-natural and free of additives. They do it because, in recent years, pediatricians and dietitians have been recommending that a baby’s diet—and especially a toddler’s diet—feature a wide variety of ingredients, well beyond what you can buy in jars at the supermarket.
And nothing to sneeze at, they do it to save money—sometimes lots of money. How do they find the time? It isn’t always easy. Enter the wildly popular Instant Pot, along with other brands of electric pressure cooker, the perfect solution for time-crunched moms and dads.
12. Starting Solids
Packed with simple, practical advice for the initial stages of weaning, this is the perfect introduction to first foods for Canadian children. Featuring first-month menu planners, Q&As, and helpful tips for parents to encourage their babies to explore new tastes and textures, this helpful resource also addresses feeding problems, such as allergies, fussy eating, weight concerns and messy eaters. Includes an updated Canadian resources section.
13. It All Begins with Food
It All Begins with Food: From Baby's First Foods to Wholesome Family Meals: Over 120 Delicious Recipes for Clean Eating and Healthy Living: A Cookbook
★★★★★ Amazon.com
It All Begins with Food. That’s the Love Child Organics motto, a philosophy that was born of the desire to provide delicious and nutritious foods for babies and children and to encourage a lifelong love of healthy eating.
Leah Garrad-Cole’s cookbook expands on this mission, providing simple-to-make, healthy recipes for everything from baby foods to baked goods, and finger foods to family meals.
You’ll find inspiration for preparing the everyday essentials–breakfast, lunch, and dinner–and innovative ways to create healthier versions of processed foods and celebratory treats for special occasions, as well as tips on stocking your pantry so you’re ready for anything.
Leah’s own experiences as a mother and special education teacher have taught her how and what kids like to eat best. With an unwavering focus on replacing ingredients that have little nutritional value with ones that are nutritionally dense, the book includes a range of delicious recipes, from Cheesy Veggie Mash, Roasted Sweet Potato Fries, Mini Baked Frittatas, and Chunky Chicken Noodle and Superfood Soup to Overnight Strawberry Cocoa Oatmeal, Omega Monkey Milkshake, and Raspberry Vanilla Heart Cookies.
Leah also provides recipes for supermarket favorites, like Cheesy Little Crackers, allowing families to consume homemade versions of everyday staples without having to spend too much time in the kitchen.
14. Cooking for Baby
From celebrated children’s-food author Lisa Barnes, Cooking for Baby is a fully illustrated, gorgeous, four-color book that takes parents through the basics of preparing nutritious, delicious (and easy!) meals for your child, from six to eighteen months.
Parents today know that one of the best ways to give a baby a great start in life is with wholesome, homemade foods. While ready-made baby food is a convenience that any new parent can appreciate, feeding everyday fresh foods is the best way to teach a child healthy eating habits and an appreciation for good food from the cradle onward.
15. The Everything Organic Cooking for Baby and Toddler Book
The Everything Organic Cooking for Baby and Toddler Book: 300 Naturally Delicious Recipes to Get Your Child Off to a Healthy Start
★★★★★ Amazon.com
Parents want the best for their children, starting with what they eat. This book includes both information and recipes so readers can educate themselves about organics and prepare all-natural meals for their children.
Readers will discover how to know if foods are organic, prepare natural baby and toddler meals at home, grow their own organic produce, make delicious dishes like Apple and Carrot Mash and Potato-Crusted Vegetable Quiche, and more! This book gives readers all the tools and know-how they need to shop economically, find the best organic foods, and prepare the perfect meals for their little ones.
Best Slow Cooker Baby Food Cookbook – FAQs
Using a slow cooker makes baby food preparation a breeze. Even if your baby does not have teeth, you can puree the vegetables, which preserve the nutrients much more effectively than boiling.
Slow cooking is also a very healthy method of cooking. Slow and low cooking in a sealed chamber helps retain the food’s moisture and nutrients. It also prevents the formation of compounds that cause cancer, such as lipid oxidation products (LOPs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs).
Cook the carrots for 15 to 20 minutes in a steamer set over boiling water. Alternately, place the carrots in a saucepan, cover with just enough boiling water, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender.
Since bananas do not require cooking, you can carry them while traveling and, whenever the baby is hungry, peel, mash, and feed them immediately. Bananas are a rich source of nutrients and make excellent first foods for infants. Banana puree can be introduced as a solid food between 4 and 6 months of age.
Steaming softens fruits and vegetables to the point where they can be pureed while allowing them to retain a high percentage of their vital nutrients. However, steaming can be time-consuming and does require a few specialized tools (such as a steamer basket or food steamer).
Why is steaming baby fruits and vegetables an excellent choice? Most fruits and vegetables should be boiled before feeding until approximately eight months of age. Some harder, firmer foods, such as apples, require cooking only to soften them sufficiently to be puréed.
Conclusion
Here is what I offer you. Consider this my contribution in lieu of writing an entire book on the subject, which is not possible for me. If you have questions, please post them below, and I will do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction to find the answers you seek. I am aware that you may not agree with the decisions we have made for your child. That’s fine. Let’s work out a deal. You won’t judge me, and I won’t judge you, so we’re good.
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