baby led friendly dishes

As busy moms, there may not be enough time to make meals from scratch every single day. At the same time, you don’t want to be serving up processed food from tins and jars just to keep the baby fed. These baby led weaning food ideas are meant for moms like you, who don’t want to compromise on nutrition even on those busy days.

Sometimes you are too tired or lazy to cook an entire meal. That’s okay, you deserve a break too. Or maybe you want to enjoy some takeout from your favorite restaurant. Whatever the reason, your baby can still have a good home cooked meal without you taking too much trouble.

All of these ideas are suited for babies 6 to 12 months of age. For similar inspiration, on toddler meal ideas you can check my post on weekly meals my toddler eats.

Before I get into the baby food ideas, I want to add here that your house needs to be stocked with basic groceries in order to quickly whip up some of these meals. A few basic items to always stock in your pantry are;

1. Lentils (Dals)
2. Rice
3. Pasta
4. Onions, tomatoes, potatoes
5. Quinoa
6. Foods to help boost nutrition on any plate and easy for baby to eat–bananas, avocados, nut butter, and eggs.

BABY LED WEANING FOOD IDEAS FOR BUSY MOMS

Healthy baby food Idea 1

Dal rice khichdi: Served as fist-sized balls for 6-12-month-olds. To add more color to the plate you can quickly steam whatever vegetables are available in your fridge. Pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower. This won’t take more than 30 minutes to whip up, even lesser if you already batch cooked dal and stored in the fridge.

Healthy baby food Idea 2

Breakfast for lunch: No time to cook, no worry just make a yummy breakfast porridge for lunch. A mommy trick to make plain old boring porridge yummy and nutritious is by adding your child’s favorite fruits, like berries, mango, figs. And to make it healthy add nut butter, roasted flaxseed powder, and hemp seeds.

Some of the porridge flavors that are favorites in our home;

1. Oats Porridge cooked with berries and topped with almond butter, and flaxseed powder.
2.  Oats Porridge cooked with bananas and topped with hemp seeds, peanut butter, and flaxseed powder.
3. Oats porridge with apple, cinnamon, and flaxseed powder.

Get more oats porridge recipes for babies here.

Healthy baby food  Idea 3

Baby led weaning-friendly pasta: Sautee onions and tomatoes in butter or oil. Then add cooked pasta to this and mix well. Season with salt-free oregano flakes.

Pasta is best suited for babies 8 – 9 months and up, and one of the easiest finger foods you can offer.

Healthy baby food  Idea 4

Pancakes for baby: Pancakes are easy to offer the baby when in a rush. I keep a wheat and ragi flour mix ready in an airtight container and add a banana to the pancake batter as a natural sweetener. For more pancake recipes you can check my post on baby led weaning breakfast ideas. Serve with nut butter or regular salt-free butter.

Ragi pancakes for baby led weaning.

Healthy baby food Idea 5

Quinoa egg omelet: If you have leftover cooked quinoa give these quinoa fingers a try. These are an amazing finger food for babies. Best suited for babies 9 months and up.

Start by whisking 1-2 egg yolks in a bowl. Pour this egg yolk mixture in a pan and let it cook for a half a minute. Quickly follow this step by adding cooked quinoa and mixing it evenly in the egg mixture. Once the quinoa is coated, cover the pan and let this cook for 5 minutes. The end result should look like a quinoa and egg omelet. Cut into finger sized pieces and serve. It’s a complete meal that doesn’t compromise much on the nutrients and tastes yummy.

Healthy baby food Idea 6

Build a plate with Leftovers: There have been days when we are running out of groceries and I literally use whatever I find in my fridge and pantry to make a meal.

Examples of how to prepare these individual elements to help build a plate.

Eggs – make scrambled eggs, boiled egg, egg omelette add veggies like spinach to the omelette.

Avocado – slice into pieces, make a guacamole, or baked avocado fingers.

Pasta – plain boiled pasta, drizzle a little olive oil or coconut oil.

Fruit – to be served on the side

Sweet potato – bake or boil

Taro root– bake or boil

Cooked beans – smush and serve as a side

Leftover boiled dal – Dal can be cooked in batches and stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. Use this boiled dal to make dal balls.

Veggies – any leftover veggies can be steamed or roasted in the oven and offered as a side.

Leftover boiled chicken or fish pieces – can be shredded and served as a side on the baby plate.

Boiled potato – can be stored in the fridge and can be used as a side or to make a quick potato chicken patty or potato salad for lunch.

Homemade yogurt – as a side

Here are a few examples of “build a plate” lunches made out of random ingredients from the pantry or leftovers.

1. Brocolli florets, rice, sweet potato
2. Sweet potato and avocado
3. Dalia (sprouted/broken wheat porridge and sweet potato)
4. Beans (cooked until soft and mushy) and rice
5. Scrambled egg yolk, the fruit of the day,
6. Slices of avocado, boiled egg (egg yolks for babies under 1), cooked quinoa.

So the next time you are wondering what food to offer your baby on a lazy/busy day head to this post for ideas. Even better, jot down these ideas on a piece of paper and stick it up on the fridge. No matter how simple these baby-led weaning food ideas sound, I know from experience there are days you are staring at the fridge which does contain options to use and yet you think you have nothing to feed the baby.

What are some of your lazy day go-to baby-led weaning food ideas to offer your baby? Do comment below.