Baby food cook book


Top 10 Baby Food Cookbooks

1

Starting Solids

This book is a must-have for parents weaning baby and starting on solids for the first time. It’s loaded with simple, practical recipes and advice. It also does the meal-planning for you! You’ll learn how to put together ingredients, how to explore new tastes and textures and how to deal with feeding problems. From $20, Amazon

2

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

With more than 130 recipes, this guide can help you feed baby from your own plate, so don’t have to serve separate meals for everyone in the family. $16, Kobo

3

First Meals & More: Your Questions Answered

This book definitely has the baby food newbie in mind. (We’re talking about you, not baby.) It’s got 50 fuss-free quick and easy recipes, plus tons of tips and helpful hints on what kids should eat and why they should eat it. Moms love it for the advice. Babies love it for the menu! From $25, Valore Books

4

Cooking for Baby

Here’s a cookbook that will carry you through each stage of solids.  Cooking for Baby offers something wholesome, natural and fresh for every eater at each age. From grains and purées to finger foods, you’ll have it all. $20, Williams-Sonoma

5

The Petit Appetit Cookbook

Psyched about using healthy and all-organic ingredients in baby’s meals? Try this book, written by a mom for other parents who want to shy away from processed, preservative-filled foods. $17, Barnes & Noble

6

Sage Spoonfuls

We’re loving Sage Spoonful’s mix of cooking-from-scratch and using store-bought ingredients. Perfectly realistic for busy parents! This book gives details on everything from food allergies and nutrition to foods to avoid. Plus, there are hundreds of recipes that baby will love to eat  — and that you won’t get stressed making. $25, Sage Spoonfuls

7

Parents Need to Eat, Too

Author Debbie Koenig’s book is a hilarious reminder that mom and dad need to eat. It’s filled with nutritious, delicious and satisfying meals for adults (that you can make with one hand!) with instructions on how to prep baby’s food from the same ingredients. The best part? Every recipe was tested and approved by more than 100 new parents! $12, Barnes & Noble

8

Super Baby Food

Take baby from his first bites of solid food all the way through age three with this super healthy vegetarian cookbook. It’s got advice to help you get the most out of the best wholesome foods for baby (whole grains, legumes,  nuts, seeds, veggies, fruits and yogurt!). $5, Biblio

9

Top 100 Baby Purées

Nervous about making the transition to solids? This book will give you the confidence you need. Divided into sections that give you comprehensive advice on what baby should be eating at every age, Top 100 Baby Purees has informative facts on how to prep and store baby meals. $12, Target

10

The Healthy Baby Meal Planner

Start your menu planning here! Make your own baby food affordably and easily, and get healthy eating advice from infancy to age three. $4, Amazon.com

Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.

Plus, more from The Bump:

Baby-Food Making 101 (It’s Easy, We Swear!)

New Parent Feeding Guide

Which Solids Are Safe for Baby?

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7 Best Cookbooks For Homemade Baby Food Recipes - Julie Revelant

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links which means I earn from qualifying purchases. I recommend these products either because I use them or because companies that make them are trustworthy and useful.

Making your own baby food—and searching for homemade baby food recipes—may have seemed like a pie in the sky idea before the pandemic, but now that everyone has more time on their hands, they’re cooking more, and sharing family meals, it may be more realistic.

Feeding you child homemade baby food has so many benefits and it’s one of the best ways to encourage healthy eating habits from the start, particularly in light of a new study that found picky eating starts early.

Besides, as everyone has been stocking up on food and essentials, the demand for baby food has increased by 153% demand, which may make it tough to even find store-bought baby food.

So if you’re looking for homemade baby food recipes, food blogs are a great place to start. If you’re looking to have an entire guide to starting solids and infant nutrition, several recipes all in one place, and you like having a cookbook in your hands, here are 9 of my recommendations.

1. LITTLE FOODIE, BY MICHELE OLIVIER & SARA PETERNELL 

Written by baby food chef and founder of the Baby FoodE blog, Michele Olivier, and Sara Peternell, a board certified holistic nutritionist, (check out my interview with her for Fox News about infant cereal), Little Foodie: Baby Food Recipes for Babies and Toddlers with Taste is one of the best cookbooks for meal ideas.

With over 100 unique recipes for every age and stage including fennel, pea and peach—yum!—the cookbook has a ton of helpful information on nutrition and eating habits and a how-to guide to make the process easy and quick.

2. MAKE-AHEAD BABY FOOD COOKBOOK, BY STEPHANIE VAN’T ZELFDEN 

One of the best new cookbooks for homemade baby food recipes is Make-Ahead Baby Food Cookbook: Meal Plans and Recipes for Every Stage, written by Stephanie Van’t Zelfden, a Brooklyn, NY-based registered dietitian-nutritionist.

What I love about this cookbook is that Van’t Zelfden focuses on teaching busy moms how to make homemade baby food quickly and easily with 4-week meal plans for every stage.

The book will teach you everything you need to know about starting solids, batch cooking, freezing, and reheating, and includes shopping lists, step-by-step recipes, a list of the best tools, and a ton of time-saving tips.

3. THE BIG BOOK OF ORGANIC BABY FOOD, BY STEPHANIE MIDDLEBERG 

The Big Book of Organic Baby Food: Baby Purées, Finger Foods, and Toddler Meals For Every Stage, by NYC-based registered dietitian-nutritionist Stephanie Middleberg, includes over 230 healthy, delicious recipes for purees, smoothies, finger foods, and meals, as well as ideas for superfood combinations.

With a ton of homemade baby food recipes, and meal ideas for the whole family, this is one cookbook that you’ll rely on for years to come.

4. SUPER EASY BABY FOOD COOKBOOK, BY ANJALI SHAH 

If you’re a fan of Anjali Shah’s The Picky Eater blog, then you’ll definitely want to pick up her book, Super Easy Baby Food Cookbook: Healthy Homemade Recipes for Every Age and Stage.

From purées to toddler meals, this cookbook has more than 150 homemade baby food recipes, including make-ahead, puree recipes that you can batch cook, 5-ingredient toddler recipes you can whip up in 30 minutes or less, and sample menus that will help you save time in the kitchen.

5. THE BABY AND TODDLER COOKBOOK, BY KAREN ANSEL & CHARITY FERREIRA 

Gosh, I know I write about the “The Baby and Toddler Cookbook: Fresh, Homemade Foods for a Healthy Start,” every chance I get it, but it’s such a big part of my story and one of the reasons I started my blog.

With over 90 homemade baby food recipes, tons of evidence-based information, and time-saving tips, this cookbook is one that you’ll return to over and over again.

6. BABY-LED FEEDING, BY JENNA HELWIG 

In recent years, baby-led feeding (also known as baby-led weaning) has become a more accepted and popular way of feeding babies. Baby-Led Feeding: A Natural Way to Raise Happy, Independent Eaters, written by Jenna Helwig, the Food Director at Real Simple serves up a how-to guide to baby-led feeding, including essential safety and nutrition guidelines, basic fruit and vegetable prep, plus more than 100 nutritionist-approved recipes and ideas.

7. SAGE SPOONFULS, BY LIZA HUBER

With 66, easy homemade baby food recipes, plus hundreds of delicious food combinations, this award-winning cookbook has a ton of ideas for every age and stage, including no-cook recipes to help you save time.

Liza Huber, founder of the Sage Spoonfuls Baby Food Maker, also serves up a ton of information on nutrition, organic food, foods to avoid and food allergies.

Author Details

Julie Revelant

Julie Revelant teaches parents how to raise children who are healthy, adventurous eaters. Through blog posts and videos, her goal is to shift the conversation from short-term, problem picky eating to lifelong, healthy eating and healthy futures. Julie has written for FoxNews.com, FIRST for Women magazine, WhatToExpect.com, EverydayHealth.com, RD.com, TheBump.com, Care.com, and Babble.com.

The 10 Best Cookbooks for Kids

Your child has already grown up - and you are thinking about interesting activities that you could do together? We invite you to go to the kitchen and try cooking. With any of the books below, you will not only be able to instill a new skill in your child, but also broaden your horizons, and most importantly, become even closer.

1. "Castor Bakes a Pie", Lars Klinting

Somebody, but Castor the beaver knows how to inspire. Following his example (and clear instructions), kids all over the world are trying to grow beans on the windowsill and carefully work with paints. And in this book, a cute and good-natured beaver will teach us how to bake a pie. Here is a step-by-step recipe, and a description of how to organize the process, and beautiful illustrations. You will see, even a three-year-old kid resolutely goes to the kitchen to try himself as a cook. nine0003

2. “Cooking with Petson and Findus”, Sven Nordqvist

The stories about the distracted old man Petson and his mischievous kitten Findus are so charming that it is absolutely impossible not to fall in love with them. And so the book of recipes from their favorite characters, children will also like it. The recipes here are grouped by season, and each season begins with a short story about the adventures of Petson and Findus. Each recipe contains another small story from the life of heroes associated with this particular dish. There will even be an excerpt about the famous meatballs :) The instructions are all simple, the ingredients are available, the step-by-step description of the process is detailed. Older children will be able to cook on their own, and for those who are younger, join yourself, the process is exciting! nine0003

3. “Mom, give me an apron!”, “Mom, give me an apron! and pencil”, Katerina Dronova

Heartfelt recipe books that the author wrote especially for her son. She explains how to make scrambled eggs, vanilla pancakes and much more in a completely simple and understandable language. In the first book, the recipes are collected according to the principle “from simple to complex”: there is a section “Home Alone” with quick dishes, and there is a section “Attention: guests!” with more complex instructions that will have to tinker with. nine0003

The recipes in the second book are divided by season: in the summer we will learn how to bake a blueberry-raspberry pie and make green lemonade, in the fall we will learn pumpkin waffles, in the winter we will make gingerbread, and in the spring we will learn cottage cheese cake. In addition, in the book you can write, draw, color and even cut out: for example, a Nutcracker bookmark, with which we will later mark our favorite recipes. Both books have wonderful pencil illustrations.

4. “What's the neighbor's lunch”, Felicita Sala

“We are all so different” is often heard around. Different nationalities, different traditions, different habits. But what does this mean for a child? The book by the Italian artist Felicita Sala will help to explain the charm of this diversity in a very visual and fascinating way - through food. Our world is a big house in which we live together with our neighbors. From the window of each of our neighbors comes a special smell - the smell of his favorite dish. Señora Leila cooks tomato spaghetti, Mr. Singh tastes his dal with coconut milk, and Mrs. Greenpie bakes delicious mini quiches. And now it's time to go downstairs and have dinner together. .. In general, a wonderful book that not only teaches you how to cook (and the recipes here are simple and interesting), but also respect other cultures and make friends with your neighbors. nine0003

5. Little Chef. Easy recipes for the whole family, by Teri Eleanor

A small but very beautiful book of simple recipes for young chefs. Do you want to have fun with your child and cook something unusual - something that we are used to, rather, order in a cafe? Croque Monsieur in Italian, for example, or chocolate mousse. "Little Chef" will help! Each recipe has notes which of the items the child can do on their own, and in which cases it is worth calling the parents for help. nine0003

6. “Pie Science for Children”, Irina Chadeeva

Is your child not eager to cook? Give him this book in his hands, and in half an hour he himself will lead you to the kitchen. After all, inside there are beautiful illustrations, entertaining puzzles and experiments, and most importantly, the secrets of cooking all the most delicious things in the world: truffles, muffins, Potato cake and real chocolate cake! The recipes are written in a simple and accessible language, besides, the book contains a lot of accompanying photographs, very lively and cheerful. An additional plus is a description of safety precautions in the kitchen, as well as many “technical” processes (why milk escapes, how dough is made from flour, etc.). In general, a wonderful book for a great evening with a child and an oven! nine0003

7. "We eat like in a fairy tale: Recipes for every day from your favorite children's books", Tatyana Alekseeva

We offer you to add some fabulous magic to the cooking process! Wouldn't the child want to cook the same meatballs that Little Carlson treated him to? And the same orange marmalade that Paddington Bear loves? Or even the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel? All the most delicious recipes from all the most beloved fairy tales are now collected in one book. A great tool for joint culinary creativity of children and parents. nine0003

8. “Alone at home. Cooking without Mom and Grandmother, Meshcheryakova Publishing House

Another excellent recipe book for young cooks with unpretentious, “homemade” dishes and simple recipes. An older child will be able to master many dishes on their own: various sandwiches, omelettes and cereals. Others will have to be mastered under supervision: there is chicken in the oven, and meatballs in sour cream sauce, and even herring under a fur coat - for true connoisseurs of the classics!

9. “How is the food? A Guide to Tasty and Healthy Food”, Maria Mazur, Alexandra Ulatovska

Not quite a cookbook, but rather an encyclopedia of food. Very accessible and humorous, she tells the younger generation about the principles of a healthy diet, about the delights of vegetables and fruits, and the important habit of drinking water. Such an actual manual will help to navigate the abundance of food not only for children, but also for many adults.

10. "The Secret Life of Vegetables: Funny Stories, Tasks and Experiments", Alena Vodopyanova

Surely you liked this book already by its title – after all, we are talking about funny stories and experiments with vegetables, but what better way to make a child fall in love with healthy foods? A very witty, very exciting, and even beautifully designed edition with a lot of useful information (for example, about proteins, vitamins and fiber) definitely deserves attention. Assess the titles of the parts of the book: "The Case of the Dying Vegetables (investigated by Cherry Holmes and Dr. Tomatson)" and "Vacation in Borschelon". What about experiments? Get ready to dye cabbage leaves and cook purple scrambled eggs! nine0003

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8 good books about food for children and parents - "Food"

The world of books about baby food is diverse and inexhaustible. These are books for parents who want to instill in their children a love for a variety of foods and tastes from childhood, and for children who want to feel like home chefs. They can affect both baby food organization systems and cooking technologies for individual dishes, they can be serious and fun, encyclopedic and motivating, containing a lot of text or pictures. nine0003

From all this limitless variety, we have chosen eight books that we love ourselves and that our children love. With them, perhaps, you can start building a children's culinary library.

Ali Buzari Ingredients. Chemistry and alchemy of gastronomic creativity»

The book is written for adults, but in a way that any curious teenager can understand. Why stick together pasta? Why are fried potatoes crunchy? How does jelly freeze? Ali Buzari explains the fundamental principles of working with products, talks about the reactions and metamorphoses that occur with proteins, fats and carbohydrates - and he gets it briefly, but very capaciously and clearly. In addition, the book is well illustrated and even looks like a comic in some places. nine0003

Buzari proposes to consider this work as a short course on the laws preparation and consumption of food, dissecting water, fruit peel, meat fiber and explaining in an accessible language why it happened this way, and not that way. This is an entertaining chemistry and physics, and after this book, without even looking at the product, immediately you understand what you should or should not add up with and what result you will achieve: “Each substance has its own character, what he can or cannot do, his modus operandi, so to speak. I AM familiar with all these features: it depends on them what effect it has on us food, and they help me understand cooking. After reading this book, you understand them yourself and be able to answer all the questions that arise. nine0003

Buy.

Silver Spoon for Children

"Silver Spoon" - the most important Italian cookbook, first published in 1950 and has gone through dozens of editions since then. "Silver spoon for children "- it is the same, only adapted for the little ones. four dozen recipes written for kids to handle hits Italian cuisine without the help of adults - and at the same time no coquetry with the form and flirting with the choice of recipes. The book is illustrated with bright visual pictures, but it is ideal for children. school age, not younger. True, we must remember that Italian culinary traditions are freer than Russian ones, and you should not be surprised when you stumble upon a recipe fried lamb leg. In addition to recipes, the book contains the necessary rules safety precautions and there is a helpful chapter on Equipment and Cooking Utensils. nine0003

The book was published in Russian by the Eksmo publishing house in 2011 and now it is not found in stores, but it regularly appears on Avito.ru. We hope that Eksmo will reissue it.

School meals

An important Soviet book from the turn of the 1950s–1960s. Why do children eat? What do they eat? How to cook it? How are school kitchens? How do oats grow? And how to become a good person? The book begins in the words of Nadezhda Krupskaya: “You know, you need to be simpler, you don’t need to be wiser so that food it was healthy, otherwise we sometimes think, as it were, something fatter, puff something and etc., but this is not useful for the guys.” Interspersed with poems about the first of September, an article "Accounting of the body" and tables describing how much copper and zinc are contained in a person weighing 65 kilograms, options for a children's menu have been developed here. week, where on Monday it is advised to eat peasant soup, on Tuesday - boiled tongue and carrot pudding, and on Sundays pudding from cabbage. Solid benefit, the body is like the construction of the century, in a healthy body - healthy spirit, and what is most remarkable - all this is not a bit outdated. nine0003

The book can be bought on Alib.ru.

Yulia Vysotskaya "Baby nutrition from birth and older"

Like all Yulia Vysotskaya's books, this one is very personal. Articles about complementary foods and gluten are accompanied by photographs of the author's children, the captions under which intelligibly tell how the Vysotskaya family lives, what makes them happy, what and where they eat. You can't think of a better way to start trusting a book from the very first pages. Recipes are divided by age, which is convenient for confused parents who are puzzled over food for very young children and cannot make a choice. Sections are: from 6 to 9months, from 9 to 11, from a year to three, from three to six and beyond the head of the "School".

Buy.

Saida Sakharova Academy of Home Magicians

Miracles happen here every day: people are born out of nothing delicious soups, a simple dress instantly becomes elegant, and kilometers of yarn turn into scarves and sweaters. Scissors serve as a magic wand here, needle, knitting needles, ladle, brush and pencil. On the last Thursday before New year, a few leaves fly into the children's room of the Romashov family, on which the recipe for ice cream is detailed, after which a household fairy Kalinka with red rosy cheeks like Ryazan apples, and their life is already will never be the same. A dozen chapters, divided into months, and dozens of times more useful tips for boys and girls, practically the book "Housekeeping", with stories about the need to help others, with a pattern of blue shorts for the fifth-grader Leka (character of the book), with a detailed recipe for brushwood and so Further. On parent internet forums about the “Academy” they write like this: “I am 31 years old, I first read this book when I was 8-9years and still have it causes complete delight. I so wanted to fly into my window enchantress)))".

In the photo we have one of the old editions of the book, but it has been reprinted more than once, and it is not difficult to buy it in stores.

Rotraut Susanne Berner, Dagmar von Kramm, The Big Town Cookbook

This is a book with illustrations by the winner of the H.C. Andersen Prize, the German artist Rotraut Susanna Berner, the same that she drew the four seasonal books “Gorodok”, beloved by children, where meticulously the life of the townspeople is depicted at different times of the year - here is a dog frolicking in the snow, and here is the same dog lying in the shade under a hawthorn bush. "Big Cookbook" divided into seasons: spring with radish and Easter Bunny, summer - currant jam and pie "Drowned cherries", autumn - walnut pretzels and pumpkin soup, and winter, during which it is advised to cook turnip in curry and Rapunzel salad. Compiled book more intelligibly nowhere, all these are full-fledged serious recipes that are taken not from the ceiling, but collected by a gastronomic writer, nutrition expert and large family mother from Freiburg Dagmar von Kramm. And thanks to the illustrations, it is more looks like a toy, and any girl should dream of this edition, even if Haven't gotten around to cooking yet. nine0003

Buy.

Pamela Druckerman French children are not spitting food"

Objective, a fascinating and witty description of the French approach to parenting from an American woman who, by the will of fate, raised her children in France. Why are small Since childhood, the French have been eating everything, and even vegetables hated by some adults? Why are they not acting up, but literally - do not spit food? Why French unofficially considered the main gourmets in the world? All from childhood. Druckerman narrates easily and naturally, it seems, you are reading a cheerful autobiography of an American, for whose move to Paris in gastronomic terms turned out to be a landing on Mars. But by the middle of the book you realize how much useful and practical information is contained in this apparent lightness. In addition to stories about nutrition, the book contains a lot of interesting details about the upbringing of French children in general, and most importantly, the philosophy of happy motherhood runs through the whole story: a mother is not a servant of her child, but a best friend. nine0003

Buy.

Alain Ducasse, Paul Neira, Jérôme Lacressonnière "Still. Babies. Just, tasty and healthy"

The book was written by Alain Ducasse, one of the most titled French chefs, together with the popular in France by nutritionist Paul Neira. Their goal was not to create another collection of recipes, and the development of a whole nutrition system for babies from six months, which would allow you to become a real gourmet by the age of three. 100 dishes divided into age categories, seasons, types of products and cover all possible flavors (yes, even bitter), textures and colors that can be inherent in food. Each recipe comes with a commentary from Ducasse and Neir. As to persuade a child to try eggplant? Why not salt sweet potatoes? Why Gressen sticks are good for kids, but store-bought cookies are not? As make wheat delicious? Reading the content, I want to urgently run to the store for products, and then to the stove to prepare, for example, pearl barley puree cereals with pineapple and valerian itself.


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