Making Baby Food From Peas

Making baby food from peas is easy peasy. The good news is that one cup contains more protein than a tablespoon of peanut butter. They also contain calcium, vitamin A and C and Iron. They also contain potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc.

The best time to introduce peas into a baby's diet is after the baby has turned six months old. One of the nice things about peas is that they are not a toxic food that is treated with loads of pesticides. Look for ones with a bright green color and that look fresh. Buy medium sized pods because if they are too large it means that the peas are too mature.

To make the fresh peas extra tasty cook them in homemade vegetable, chicken or beef stock. You can also use frozen peas but fresh ones just taste better.

A very tasty recipe for making a big batch of Creamed Pea Baby Food and Meat involves combining the following ingredients –0
• 4 cups peas
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt pepper
• An ounce of chicken stock or beef stock
• Bite sized pieces of chicken, pork or beef
Melt the butter in a saucepan and whish in flour. Slowly add milk while whisking to prevent lumps and then add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the mixture thickens and add meat. You can serve this warm alone or with rice.

Another nice version of this combines scallions, chicken broth and instant brown rice along with chopped fresh mint into a sauce pan. You can puree this mixture after cooking or if the baby is older than 18 months, serve it to them as a rice and pea mixture.
Other foods that mix or puree great with peas are apples, carrots, green beans, white potatoes, sweet potato, squash, lentils, mushrooms and tofu.

Some babies really love it when you mix a can of tuna with peas and then add a little grated cheese and warm it up. Another variation of this is to cook up some Kraft Dinner, add tuna and peas and then puree it in a Baby Bullit or a blender to make a spectacular babyfood mix.

Here is a final helpful tip. After cooking the peas you will achieve a smoother texture after pureeing them if you plunge them into a bowl of ice cold water afterwards.

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Getting the Kids to Eat

Cooking for kids so they will actually consume enough can be a challenge. This is true of my kid at home now who is almost five but is eating only bananas and tomato soup unless I am very clever with it all and do my best to try and get him to eat something different.

Problem is he is really picky and what he thinks is great one day is yucky the next. Remember how much I told you he loved pesto last year. Well he is off it now. It looks like green yucky he says. I tried putting less garlic in it and that didn't' help.

Of course he is so stubborn and I am wondering if he is getting the right nutrition. His eating patters waver from being massively hungry to eating like two peas a day. I have also figured out that most kids his age are more like grazers rather than really chow it all down in one sitting. It is also hard to get him to see eating as being fun sometimes.

All you can do is try to get them some nutrition through the foods you know they love. A good example is macron and cheese. In fact my kids would eat that every single day if they could. Of course one can't live on Kraft Dinner alone so I add my own cheese for added calcium and protein.

I also make sure they get calcium by adding chocolate to the milk. Right now he likes that Strawberry Quik stuff. I am always thinking – whatever makes you healthy. However when I buy these mixes I make sure there is not too much sugar in them.

Calcium is also found in vegetables, ice cream, pudding and yogurts. Cherries also have it so cherry flavored yogurt is a very good idea. However watch it with yogurt as if it is not sweet enough the kids will always turn their nose up at it.

Another thing to remember is that kids do have sensitive taste buds. Like us they have tastes. They may like some foods and not always. They may have real opinions about what they want to eat and what they don't want to eat.

I try to encourage them to help me cook in the kitchen as much as possible. This helps to get them used to different foods. If they have tried a food and don't like it then you should just trust the kid. No sense forcing them to eat something they really don't like. It's frustrating but I believe in treating a child with as much respect as possible and as much like they are humans with tastes and preferences like the adults.

At any rate, I have found that kids who have a hand in cooking are more likely to eat the meal without whining. It is because they feel they have created something.

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