Yum, yum, yum – yum, yum, yum – yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Cooking for children

Psychologists advise not to deify your children, but to love them. And not to kiss and mash, but to communicate, to give warmth and care. Baby food manufacturers care about our kids, too, and yet mom and dad can do it better.

Twist and snap

It would be absurd to call to completely refuse from ready baby food, because its quality is strictly controlled by producers, and we live in such a high-speed century, in which the formula “open and eat” sometimes helps to save both time and nerves. So why cook it yourself??

– You choose and process the products yourself and can independently monitor their quality, freshness and purity.

– You will use those ingredients that you think are necessary and refuse additives that you consider harmful and to which you do not want to accustom the baby sugar, salt, starch, citric acid, etc. . quite often present even in expensive baby food .

– You will be able to observe the important principle of gradually introducing new foods into your baby’s diet by adding a new ingredient in tiny portions, increasing its content in a dish over several days and observing the reaction of your baby’s body.

– You will independently control the consistency of the dish and the presence or absence of harder and coarser fragments in it, depending on the age of the child. In this way, you’ll help develop chewing skills, and your baby will learn to eat a variety of food consistencies: not just pureed soups and mashed potatoes, but also food with chunks.

– The child will quickly get used to a common table: you and he will have fewer problems when he goes to kindergarten, goes to grandma for the summer, or just be a guest. In addition, it is necessary to develop your child’s taste and accustom him to different foods – vegetables, meat, cereals, different combinations of products: this helps to overcome all kinds of “I don’t want – I don’t like” in the future.

– You will save a lot of money! Judge for yourself: 71-g can of imported mashed meat is almost 70 Dollars ie, the price of 1 gram – about 1 ruble , so the price of a kilogram of meat for this jar – about 1000 Dollars, ie, 3-4 times the price of natural products. Even appliances purchased to prepare baby food will pay for themselves in literally weeks of use!

“Armed” means fortified

The main misconception is this: you just need one chopper for baby food. We do not dispute that a blender, food processor or even a simple grinder are the main helpers in the preparation of “food of the gods,” but this is not all. Juicing, reheating, freezing and thawing, boiling and baking – that’s what you’ll be doing in the kitchen.

Which appliances do it all deftly and quickly? A kind of hit parade of the most thrifty moms’ preferences and dads, too, by the way ! you can make up by studying opinions and reviews on parenting forums on the Internet. We not only found out what exactly parents use in their kitchens, but also what requirements they have for the functionality of the devices: what is useful and necessary in such equipment, and what is not, or not needed at all, just for the preparation of baby food.

I Place: immersion blender

It is the undisputed leader in the preparation of mashed vegetables, meat, fruit. The appliance allows you not to prepare separate meals for your baby over a year of age in most cases. It is enough to put a small portion from the “common pot” in a separate bowl and grind it with a blender. The choice of a hand blender rather than its stationary “counterpart” with a glass is explained by two main reasons: the ability to cook directly in the child’s plate and not to dirty additional dishes and still good tactile contact between hand and device: you will feel and see the degree of chopping and quality of work.

In addition, the food for the baby is always prepared fresh and in small portions, and every time to assemble, disassemble, wash a stationary blender is impractical. In addition, quite a significant portion of small portions remain on the walls of the jug and on the knife.

Mom’s choice: multiple speeds and turbo mode pulse mode multiple attachments included such as a whisk quiet operation.

Not fundamental: battery operation wireless blender .

Place II: centrifugal juicer

Everyone who cares about a nutritious diet for their child has a “silver medal winner” in the parents’ list. Vitamins is what moms and dads are trying to get out of this appliance.

Mom’s choice: wide throat with the ability to load whole fruits easy assembly and cleaning stable base and storage space for the cord in the case quiet operation.

Not fundamental: interestingly, parents of babies are the least demanding about the quality or rather, dryness of leftover fruit after squeezing. The reason is that the wet cake is very convenient to use for vegetable and fruit mixes: for example, it is quite difficult to grate raw carrots just as finely to add them to fruit puree without causing outrage from the baby, who does not like carrots.

Place III: the steamer

Many good things have been said and written about steaming, but often, when it comes to ourselves, the steamer is left out. When we cook for a child, we take it out of the back corner and gradually get used to steaming our own food. Meat, fish and vegetables get perfect nutritious, dietary and taste properties in the steam cooker.

With this method of cooking oil is not used if necessary, it can be added to the finished product , more vitamins and minerals are preserved, the products remain tender, juicy and become just an ideal base for baby formulas.

Mama’s choice: ability to cook frozen foods design that allows cooking several dishes simultaneously without mixing odors protection against turning on without water ability to refill water during cooking stable base and storage space for the cord in the body.

Not a big deal: electronic control.

Place IV: microwave oven

No, no, people prefer not to cook baby food in microwaves – apparently, affected by prejudices, inspired by the controversy and rumors about microwaves in the previous issue of “Household Appliances” we went into detail on the processes that occur when cooking in microwaves and dispelled the false fears to the best of our ability . But it turns out our mothers really like to defrost pre-prepared frozen baby food in the microwave.

Self-cooked ready-to-eat portions are a great alternative to canned food if there is no time or opportunity to prepare fresh. You only need to choose the correct defrosting mode in your microwave oven, and remember to freeze such portions, using a fast freezing mode in the freezer: so the food will retain maximum nutritional value.

Mom’s choice: multiple defrosting modes convection mode steam cooking function self-cleaning mode.

Not a big deal: the presence of a grill.

V Place: food processor

A properly selected food processor is able to replace several devices, and if it is purchased due to the need to cook for the baby, it is necessary to take into account all the needs of a child’s chef and not to make a mistake with the choice of functions. In addition, it is especially important for mom in the kitchen that all the attachments of the device can be stowed inside, and the combine itself is easy to assemble and takes up little space – modern ergonomic models meet these requirements.

Mama’s choice: storage of attachments in the body simple and clear control availability of a blender or a good chopper with a small bowl for pureeing, a centrifugal juicer, a meat grinder even not an auger, but to prepare “pate meat” – children just want it the quietest operation, so as not to wake or scare the child a stable base, retractable in a special “socket” wire.

Not essential: citrus juicer, dough mixers, extra large bowls and maximum number of nozzles and knives.

VI place: multicookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers

We were surprised, but moms quite actively use all kinds of devices for boiling and baking. The explanation is simple: for cooking in these “magic pots” is not necessary to watch, the food they get always delicious and rich with the maximum preserved nutrients. These units are exceptionally good for making porridges and cereal dishes, vegetables, and the meat is so tender that it can be given to a baby after one year of age without additional grinding. It’s also great that such healthy meals can be cooked for the whole family, introducing them to healthy eating.

By the way, when in our magazine we conducted an editorial test of such devices, even the most skeptical of porridge “fellow adults” kept coming back for more. Importantly, some of these models are able to heat, bake and steam, that is, replace a lot of other devices.

Mama’s choice: easy-to-clean, non-stick bowl, baking function, steam cooking function, intelligent safety systems – such as protection against “no-load” or heating the device without a food container.

Not important: large volume, “stewing” mode – long cooking time at low temperatures.

Seat VII: Electronic kitchen scale

Many moms, accustomed to measuring out ingredients for everyday meals, prefer to use an electronic kitchen scale when cooking small portions of baby food. This is especially handy if there is a strict recipe for cooking a mini-meal or a diet food for a child.

Mama’s choice: precision to 1 gram, removable and easy to clean work surface or bowl, battery power, charging indicator.

Not important: a lot of maximum load.

Place VIII: the meat grinder

Actually not the right choice for making baby food. The fact is that it’s quite difficult to perfectly wash all the metal parts, and it’s both inconvenient and unprofitable to forge out the grates and scrape away the leftovers from the auger of an already small portion. The device should be used only for cooking minced meat, which will then pass a serious heat treatment, and is not recommended as a universal chopper, because no matter how we wash lattices and knives, they do not guarantee us complete hygiene: rust, oxidize. And in fresh fruits and vegetables, steel parts unless it’s stainless steel destroy vitamins.

Mom’s choice: availability of plastic augers and grates for processing fruits, berries, vegetables reverse function stable base a place to store the cord in the body of the device.

Not a big deal: maximum power.

Why there will be no recipes?

Because, no matter how much we would love to share our experiences and in our editorial board works a lot of moms with experience! , to prescribe food for a small child should be a doctor. But above all we want to talk about small kitchen appliances, which will help in this difficult task.