Weaning

The NHS weaning page is an excellent introduction to weaning essentials, and Nikki Duffy’s River Cottage Baby & Toddler Cookbook includes a thorough and thoroughly useful chapter on weaning, nutrition, different approaches and the benefits of doing-it-yourself rather than relying on shop-bought. I also highly recommend First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson, a…

Easy cheesy pasta

An incredibly quick version of macaroni cheese that owes something to the Greek dip tzatziki. It might seem a bit odd to have warm cucumber, but it works somehow. For babies this can be spoon-fed or just plopped onto the highchair tray for grabbing. Freezer friendly Ingredients 3 tablespoons full fat creme fraiche Leaves from…

Beetroot hummus

Babies love this beautifully coloured dip spread on fingers of toast, or eaten off a spoon. It’s flavoursome enough for grown ups though: if you’re making it just for adults add a pinch of salt. As ‘hummus’ is the Arabic word for ‘chickpeas’ this is not technically hummus, but we all know what we mean……

Sugar-free apple cake/muffins

Sugar-free is misleading, of course, as dried fruit is high in sugar – but unlike refined white sugar (or agave syrup, artificial sweeteners or processed honey), it also contains fibre and vitamins. Anyway, come on – what’s life without a bit of cake? As well as being good for very little ones (make sure you…

First foods: mackerel pate

It’s worth the mess: this pate can be served up from six months, and will hopefully surprise you with its popularity. It’s a great way to tick off their weekly portion of oily fish, makes a good finger food when spread on toast or scooped onto cucumber, and as ever is flavoursome enough to share…

Chickpea and broad bean falafel

Falafel is a star food: cheap, healthy, easy to make and good for snacks, a starter, finger food for babies, a quick lunch or as part of a salad for dinner. Goes excellently with tzatziki of course: de-seed and grate cucumber, squeeze out the water, then mix with plain yoghurt, a little crushed garlic, a squeeze…