What to Feed Your Baby: Easy and Quick Recipes for Moms

Every mother wonders how to diversify the child’s menu so that it was full of useful and nutritious foods. What to feed your child – a question that every mother is guided by, choosing products in the store and, standing at the stove.

Of course, usually, mothers take into account that children like to eat, then most often cook. A little harder to cope with the task when moms have several children.

To deal with what to feed a child and what not helped famous chef Eugene Klopotenko. He advises paying attention to a few things when you cook for children.

What not to feed children: tips

  • Dry breakfasts are not really suitable, as they contain a lot of sugar and trans fats. It is better to make your own granola with good oatmeal and a little sugar.
  • Instead of fruit yogurts from the store, it is better to give your child natural yogurt with fresh/frozen/dried fruit and honey. Store fruit yogurts containing a lot of sugar and starch.
  • Sweets – acceptable in moderation and not store-bought but homemade.
  • Sweet sodas are the enemy, containing a lot of sugar.
  • More white lean meat, and less fatty red meat, because it will be easier for the child’s body.

Also, the chef advises moms not to fry, but to bake dishes for children.

In addition, we have gathered for you a few tips on how to feed a child quickly.

What to feed a baby: recipes

A somewhat gourmet dish that kids will surely like is a baby vegetable kebab. They can be fed to a 1.5-year-old child and older children.

For such a kebab you need: yellow bell peppers – 60 g, cherry tomatoes – 12 pcs (150 g) onions – 0,5 pcs. salt – to taste for the marinade: olive oil – 100 ml, garlic – 1 clove, for serving a salad leaf.

Rinse it and cut the bell pepper into small pieces. Take a small onion, peel it from the husk, wash it, and cut it into half rings. Combine the olive oil and crushed garlic in a deep bowl and stir. Put into a bowl with the onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers, and mix them well, do not salt them, cover the bowl with clingfilm, and leave in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. It is better to soak wooden skewers, on which the pieces of vegetables will be strung, in water for a while, so that they do not stick while roasting.

We take a bowl with vegetables from the fridge, salt, and mix them. String them on skewers and place them on a narrow baking dish, sprinkle with onions from the marinade, and pour the marinade over them. Then put it in an oven heated to 190 degrees for 15-20 minutes. While cooking, pour the remaining marinade over the kebab. Serve the dish on lettuce leaves.

And here you can feed a child 4 years and older with a shish kebab of chicken fillet with vegetables. To prepare the need: chicken fillet – 250 g, bell peppers – 60 g, cherry tomatoes – 75 g (6 pcs.) Onions – 0,5 pcs. salt – to taste for marinade: olive oil – 100 ml lemon juice – 2 tbsp. bay leaf – 1 pc. sugar – 2 tsp.

First, wash the chicken filet and dry it with a paper towel, then cut it into cubes about 1-2 cm. Bulgarian bell pepper (yellow) is washed and cut into 1-2 cm pieces. My cherry tomatoes, and diced onions.

For the marinade – pour olive oil and lemon juice into a deep bowl. We put a bay leaf and sugar and stir it. We do not add salt yet, but we put chicken fillets and onions in the marinade and mix again. We cover a bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for an hour, it is possible more. Take marinated meat out of the fridge, add salt and string on wooden skewers, alternating with vegetables. We put it on a baking dish, pour marinade with onions and send it to the oven heated to 190 degrees, cook it until the meat is crispy (15-20 minutes). Serve on green salad leaves.

You can also start feeding your child with curd dumplings. To prepare them you need cottage cheese – 500 g, flour – 150 g, eggs – 2 pcs. sugar – 2 tsp. salt – 0,5 tsp. After preparing the products we put them in a bowl of cottage cheese, add sugar, salt beat the eggs, and mix until smooth. At the same time, you can put water on the stove for cooking babushkas. In a bowl with the curd mass in small portions pour sifted flour. Knead the dough with a spoon, when it becomes quite stiff, put it on the table and knead a little with your hands. Then form a sausage of 3 cm in diameter, and cut it into small pieces of equal size. When the water boils, we salt it and throw the galushki. Stir them right away so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 8 minutes, after they float. We serve galushki hot, pouring them with melted butter, or with sour cream. If children want the galushki to be sweeter, you can increase the amount of sugar when cooking or serve the galushki with jam.

Mothers of very young children should also pay attention to vegetables. Here’s what to feed a 1-year-old baby – vegetables. The fact is that you can stew almost all vegetables and combine them with each other, and also with meat.

For example, stewed vegetables with mini meatballs are suitable for feeding a child 2-3 years old. To prepare them you need: potatoes – 3-4 pcs. carrots – 1 pc. tomato – 1 pc. green peas, 50 g ground turkey or chicken, 200 g of salt. Peel potatoes and carrots, cut them into small cubes, and put them into a saucepan, pour a little water. Cover with a lid and cook over medium heat. When the potatoes and carrots are soft, lightly crush them with a spoon and add small meatballs and peas. Also immediately add finely chopped tomatoes, peeled. All stir, salt, and stew the vegetables with mini meatballs under a lid for another 15 minutes.

What you can feed children at 2-3 years old

If your child is already grown up, it will require the mother to reconsider what to feed a child at 2-3 years. In particular, you need to increase the nutritional content of the menu. After 2 years, you can add lean stewed lamb, casserole, or stuffed cabbage to your child’s diet. The daily rate of meat for a child aged 2-3 years should be 90 g. It is also worth feeding a child’s liver. At two or three years, a child may well eat liver stew with vegetables.

In addition, 2-3 times a week a child should be given fish. To do this, choose lean varieties with few bones. Let it be filet, stewed, or boiled with onions and carrots.

Milk for a child in 2-3 years remains the main drink, and for good digestion, you need kefir – 200 g per day. Also, the mother should continue to give her child raw cottage cheese or cheesecakes.

Vegetables and fruits a day should be at least 250 grams, about the same amount as potatoes. You can give seasonal fruits and vegetables. In winter, go with non-spicy pickles.

A child of this age can eat any type of bread.

And porridge can be made denser, by adding less water. If a child does not like porridge, cook it with raisins, dried fruit, honey, or in the form of a casserole.

What to feed a 5-year-old child

Many moms believe that at age 5, children can be fed any food, but this is not entirely true. Children from five years should be given meat and fish, vegetables, fruits and berries, porridge, and soups.

For example, this recipe will allow the mother to feed the child quickly. For porridge, which will take 5 minutes to prepare, you will need millet – 1 cup, water – 2 cups, prunes – 1/2 cup, walnuts – 2 tablespoons, butter, and sugar to add to taste.

Soak the prunes in boiling water so that they swell. Rinse millet porridge, stir with sugar, and put to boil with water. The porridge must be constantly stirred so that it does not stick. Grind nuts and add to the already cooked porridge, stir, add butter, and stir again. Then add prunes and give them to the child.

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Written by Emma Miller

I am a registered dietitian nutritionist and own a private nutrition practice, where I provide one-on-one nutritional counseling to patients. I specialize in chronic disease prevention/ management, vegan/ vegetarian nutrition, pre-natal/ postpartum nutrition, wellness coaching, medical nutrition therapy, and weight management.

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