Avocado, the ultimate baby fast food

With virtually zero prep time and a bowl provided by Mother Nature herself, the avocado is the Ultimate Baby Fast Food. Its smooth, creamy consistency makes it one of the first fresh fruits a baby can enjoy.

Avocados are a surprisingly complete food, with abundant minerals to stimulate growth, including iron and copper for your blood. And, due to their mono and polyunsaturated fat content, they are a great substitution for spreads and food rich in saturated fat. These unsaturated fats are known to be important for normal growth and development of your baby's central nervous system and brain.

One-fifth of a medium avocado has about 50 calories and contains nearly 20 vitamins and minerals making it an excellent nutrient choice. Vitamins in avocado include A, several B-complex, C, and E, as well as phosphorus and magnesium. They’re also a great source of antioxidants like vitamins E and C.

No recipe required: simply halve a ripe avocado and remove the stone. Serving the avocado right in its own skin, use the back of your sterilised spoon to mash the ripe fruit into a soft puree consistency and offer small spoonfuls at a time.

When your baby is older and enjoying finger food, spread ripe avocado on toast fingers alongside fruit slices for a healthy mid-morning or afternoon snack.

You Say Zucchini...

...Kiwis say courgettes! These little green wonders are another baby fast food as they steam so quickly. From the chopping board to spooning the fresh green puree into your mumi&bubi premium freezing trays takes less than 15 minutes.

If bubs is sleeping and you set the stove burner to low for a light steam, you might just get a shower in. As a work-at-home Mum of a 3 year old and a 6 month old, I have to take these opportunities as they come along :)

That's the great thing about making your own healthy homemade baby food - you do it while you are doing other things, not instead of. With mumi&bubi, making your own baby food is really easy to fit in to your day or evening. Not only is it best for your baby but it doesn't take up a lot of your precious time which is just as important for busy parents these days.

Recipe for Zucchini/Courgettes:
2 medium courgettes to make 7 cubes or fill 1 row;
6 medium courgettes to make 21 cubes or fill 1 whole tray;
-wash, top and tail the ends, then slice evenly
-lightly steam or place in a saucepan with 2-3T boiling water and simmer gently with lid on until tender
-mash with a fork for older babies or puree smoothly if bubs is 6-7 months old
-allow to cool either before or after spooning puree into your mumi&bubi premium freezing trays before freezing

Nutritional Information for Courgettes:
Courgettes are a good source of protein, Vitamins A and C (which are both immune boosters and potent antioxidants) as well as potassium and calcium.

Baby Fast Food - banana

Bananas are the ultimate baby puree fast food. This entire process takes less than 5 minutes. You don't even need electricity or any fancy gadgets, just a simple masher. And the more you mash them, the sweeter they seem to get.

Today Isobel was meant to try a new food but I have been very busy the past couple of days and hadn't cooked anything new for her. There is some kumara in the pantry hopefully not getting too old for tomorrow's baby food batch. Luckily, I had 2 ripe bananas so I was all set.

This spur-of-the-moment banana baby puree was enough for a lunch taster for Isobel and also filled 9 cubes in the tray which will be delicious mixed in with her baby organic rice cereal at dinner.

Recipe for Bananas:
I don't think this qualifies as an actual recipe, but you simply put your bananas into a bowl and mash away until you get a somewhat smooth and runny consistency to the puree. 1 large or 2 small bananas should fill 7 cubes or 1 row; 3-4 large bananas to fill the whole freezing tray. The next time I mash bananas I will take a more scientific approach to my quantities and update this recipe.

Nutritional Information for Bananas:
Bananas are a naturally sweet tropical fruit. They are a good source of fibre, Vitamins A, C, B6 and potassium. They are a great energy food for baby's rapidly growing body.