Weaning Wednesday: One Meal to Feed Them All

One of the main reasons I wanted to do some or all Baby Led Weaning was the promise that baby could have what you were also cooking for your own dinner. 

This saved on weekends spent concocting purée meals for L to fill our freezer. It would also mean we started as we meant to go on. I was brought up with the philosophy that you ate what was offered or went hungry, we had no special meals cooked for us. 

When we started weaning I admit we did not always give L what we were having, she would have a baby friendly muffin and veggies or fruits. But as we have become more confident in L's abilities and in what she can and can not eat we now regularly sit down to a meal for three.

Here are some of our more successful meals to date.

Mac and Cheese

I make ours with cherry tomatoes or broccoli. If I have any left over bacon which needs using I will fry this and chuck it in also, leaving this out of L's serving. 

I use a mild cheddar and spirals of pasta rather than traditional macaroni pasta shapes just for ease of pick up ability. L sucks all the sauce of the pasta, eats the insides of the tomatoes and nibbles pasta.

Casseroles

The slow cooking of any meat makes it perfect for babies as it is easily gum able. I use an old faithful Jamie recipie requiring you to chuck everything in and fry before covering in tinned tomatoes and cooking.

I usually make dumplings to go on top and serve with mash potato. We give L loaded spoons of potato and she self feeds everything else. If I add any stock I use a low salt alternative.

Roast Dinners

Lamb, turkey and chicken have been enjoyed. The great thing about a roast is their components, L will have her meat, potato and veggies. She doesn't have gravey. She will happily sit and join in our roast dinners, and did so at Christmas. 

She has also enjoyed Yorkshire Puddings. The components are all pick up able easily and with a slight change in how I prep veg, match sticks rather than circle or semi circles, it means L can easily self feed.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

It is messy, be ready for the mess and enjoy the photo opportunities. We strip L down to her nappy usually when we are having spag bowl. L is better at picking up the mince now and uses two hands to pick up and keep the mince in her mouth to eat. 

I use a low salt stock cube, lots of tinned tomatoes and minced up veggies. My Magimix Mini comes into it's own on spag bowl day and I can whizz everything up quickly. 

Lamb Rissoles with Salad and Chips

L has always been a fan of lettuce, not your obvious favourite weaning food. So serving anything slightly naughty like chips alongside salad makes me feel better. As it went L didn't even eat many of the chips. 

The lamb rissoles however, resulted in dances of delight! They were heavily herbed with fresh mint and rosemary, but no salt. And the adults certainly did not miss the salt. They were moist and incredibly yummy. 

I made my rissoles using left over roast lamb again whizzed in my Magimix. Binded with egg and bread crumbs I will certainly be making these again with left over roast lamb.

If you would like to share a weaning post, new or old, on Weaning Wednesday please email me at r.morkus@gmail.com. We would love to hear about your weaning experience be it Puree, BLW, product reviews, favourite recipes or top tips.