Weaning made easy in the thermomix - Stage 1

It's always fun when you get round to that baby stage of weaning!

I remember reading an article that was circulating Facebook a while back that described weaning a baby something like this:

1.  Make some holes in a watermelon and empty out as much of the fruit as you can.
2.  Fill 'said' watermelon with some kind of green mush (keeping some aside for feeding).
3.  Hang 'said' watermelon from the kitchen ceiling and swing it.
4.  While dodging flying green mush, attempt to put some of the leftovers into the holes in the moving watermelon with the smallest spoon you can find.
5.  Stand back and admire the mess you now have to clean up (3 times a day).
6.  If you were successful then you are ready to wean your baby!!

This did make me chuckle as I can whole heartedly relate to the mess!!  I've got to the stage now where I am starting to give Miss L some bits of food and (semi) control of the spoon so she can start to feed herself.  She's just over 8 months now and I probably should have started to do this a while ago, but I'd got feeding her with a spoon without any mess down to a such a fine art that I've really had to dig deep to give her control of the spoon!!!!

Since having my thermomix I have found the process of weaning  SO MUCH EASIER than I did with my other two.  I can remember having every chopping board out and every single pot and steamer going all at the same time just to get one meal cooked.  Then the worst bit was the 'blending'.  Mashing all the cooked fuit and veg down into a puree without either burning myself or splatting it all over the kitchen was impossible!!  And then I'd have to wash it all up and start again, just so that they weren't eating the same thing three times a day for a week.  Oh and those weeks just fly by too.  That sense of achievement you get when you have filled the freezer up with lots of little pots of pureed food only seems to last a couple of days before the freezer starts to look empty again!

With my thermie, I've been able to make just about anything I want in less than 30 minutes from start to finish without even taking a pot out of the cupboard!!!!!!!  Yes, it really is my kitchen princess!  The only problem I've had is finding good thermomix recipes for making 'baby food'.  So I have decided to make some of my own recipes and share them with you all.  I have taken a lot of my inspiration from Annabel Karmel, who is, in my eyes, the guru of baby cooking and weaning.

Here is a great all rounder that my miss L just loves!

Sweet, Creamy Vegetables
This could be made with any combination of vegetable that you have in the cupboard, but this is what I used:

Ingredients
1/2 onion
75g carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
150g sweet potato peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbs olive oil
200ml water
40g sweetcorn (frozen or tinned)
35g frozen peas
50g formula milk

Method:
Add the onion and chop on speed 6 for 3 seconds
Add the oil and saute for 1.5 minutes at 90 degrees on speed 1
Add sweet potato, carrot, peas and sweetcorn and chop on speed 6 for 5 seconds

Add the water and cook for 20-25 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.

Drain out all excess water using the thermomix basket.

Add the formula milk and blend by turning the dial slowly from 1-10 for 20 seconds.

You can easily alter both the speed you blend at and the length of time you blend for to give you different textures from very very smooth to more lumpy.

Transfer the puree to a bowl and leave it to cool for half an hour and put them in your pots ready for the freezer.  Give the thermomix a quick rinse and you're ready to start the next meal!!  EASY PEASY!!  For a bit of variation you could also add 70g of grated cheese just before you blend or 150g of steamed fish which you can cook in the varoma at the same time as your veggies.

As a general rule, I have found that mixing two to three fruits or vegetable together always works.  If your baby is not so keen on veggies, try adding two veg plus one fruit together.  Here are some great basic combinations for puree's that I have made :

Apple and pear
Pear and blueberry
Banana and Mango
Apple and carrot
Sweet potato, carrot and apple
Broccoli, pea and pear
Butternut, sweetcorn and spinach

All veggies I cook at 100 degrees on speed 1 for between 20-25 minutes and fruit I tend to cook at 90 degrees on speed 1 for between 10 and 15 minutes.

A bit blurry but she was jumping up and down and waving her arms around so much it was nearly impossible to get a good shot!

Next I will be venturing onto cooking some proteins.  I have not yet started Miss L on meat, but that is my next project.

Do you have any fabulous baby puree recipes??  I''d love to hear from you as I'm always looking for new, exciting things to cook for the kids.