Tags: Baby Purees Healthy Kids Hidden Veggies Little Foodies Taco Tuesday

Welcome to confessions with Jillian. We’re here today to talk about little foodie mistakes and how to avoid them. There are two mistakes I made with Liev:

1) I didn’t introduce spice and now ketchup is too spicy for him.

2) I didn’t make meat-based purees for him and missed out on introducing him to a few essential proteins and nutrients. He was basically a vegetarian until he was two.

*Let me preface this conversation by saying that bringing up baby vegetarian is not “wrong” in my book. I have vegetarian friends who have gone that route and I’m all for it…that’s just not the path we wanted to take with our kids.

I knew our kids would be meat-eaters because we enjoy meat so much. Unfortunately, I was still very new to making my own purees and while I knew meat purees could be done—Gerber had a chicken and a turkey one I had seen in the shops—I was too nervous to attempt it myself. First of all, HOW? How in the world do you puree meat smooth enough to feed to baby? Won’t it be grainy? How much “stuff” would I have to add to camouflage the yucky fowl flavor of chicken and turkey? Can their little systems even handle meat so young? Will he end up severely constipated? Between all the questions and “what if’s” I decided it was better to just skip right over meat until Liev had a full mouth of chompers.

When Silas came along, I didn’t even think about meat purees. Liev was three at the time and eating meat perfectly well. So, if it ain’t broke…right?! When Silas was five or six months, our pediatrician asked if we had plans to introduce meats. I explained what we had done with Liev and he said it was fine to wait, but that we were missing an opportunity to give our little guy a handful of essential proteins and nutrients. I went straight home and started doing my research.

My meat purees have come a long way, and I’m sorry to say that Silas was guinea pig for some truly awful experiments, but this chicken and peppers is a winner in our house. Chicken breast cooked in stock and pureed with roasted sweet peppers and a little cilantro…it’s basically pureed chicken fajitas. How yummy does that sound?! Now, meat purees ARE different from fruit and veggie purees so read through my notes below and, as always, make sure to talk to your pediatrician if you want more information.

NOTES:

• Always ALWAYS buy organic/free-range/non-GMO meats. I’m flexible on my fruits and vegetables being organic, but traditional farms pump so much “stuff” into their animals, and that’s definitely not something you want for baby.
• For chicken: you’ll be using quite a bit of your cooking liquid (I was right about chicken being grainy) so make sure you use sodium-free stock when cooking.
• The organic preference should also apply to your chicken stock…buy organic.
• Occasionally, an opportunity to add a “good fat” comes along when making little foodie purees and this is one of them. Toss the peppers in a little olive oil before roasting.
• You DO NOT want to risk giving baby uncooked chicken so make sure you cook it through completely. I’d rather err on the side of overcooked than under-cooked. When in doubt, give it an extra 3 minutes.

CHICKEN + PEPPERS + CILANTRO

• 1 chicken breast, chopped
• 4 cups sodium-free chicken stock
• 1 sweet bell pepper—red, yellow, or orange (no green, they’re unripe peppers and not as sweet)
• 2 Tbsp cilantro, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 425° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Pour your chicken stock into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Add the chicken, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until completely cooked through—about 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, chop your bell pepper and toss with a little olive oil. Place on prepared baking sheet and roast in preheated oven for about ten minutes.

Place cooked chicken, roasted peppers, cilantro, and 1 cup of the chicken cooking liquid into your food processor and pulse until smooth.

Keep adding more cooking liquid until you reach desired consistency. This puree requires quite a bit of liquid to reach a smooth consistency so don’t be surprised if you use most of your liquid.