cereal or dry snacks for babies?

[mama_at_home]

: mamas! I am VERY new to traditional foods and I just got my Nourishing Traditions book in the mail. I read that dry cereal is really bad for you because of the way it is processed so I am needing some alternatives for my babies. I have 10 months old twins and we are very slowly starting on solids. So far they have tasted (all fresh and organic) pears, bananas, avocado and sweet potato. Wonderful, healthy foods but they are so messy! I just want to give them something dry and less messy to eat like cheerios or bread or something but I want it to be really healthy. Any ideas? I just need something healthy I can give them when we are out and they want a snack to eat while the grown ups do that does not require a bib. Thanks!

[Tcarwyn]

Dried unsulfered mango slices... Both my girls loved those.

also celery sticks...they cant really eat them but love gumming them

and you could make your own teething crackers with soaked flours.

Good luck

Tanya

[natmommy]

my dd loves the arrowroot cookies from this recipe collection

http://wss.nourishingconnections.org...%20Recipes.pdf

[mama_at_home]

Great! That arrowroot cracker recipe sounds wonderful. I can't wait to try it!

[kbchavez]

A healthy portable baby snack is my holy grail. My sister and I want to write a book on feeding babies and toddlers the NT way, so I've been experimenting with different things. I tried that arrowroot cracker recipe twice, and it came out REALLY oily. Not bad tasting, but not practical for an on-the-go snack because greasy handprints would get everywhere. Was yours that way, natmommy? or did I do something wrong?

I make a cheese cracker out of sunflower seeds and cheese that's a good portable snack, and also a cracker out of sweet potato or arrowroot flour and ground crispy almonds. I don't know if you're ready to do nuts and seeds yet, but I tried the cracker without the almonds, and they were like bricks! If you're interested, I'll post the recipes tomorrow. Jerky made out of ground meast soaked in kefir is easy to make and easier to chew for little ones than regular jerky. You have to use a trusted source for the meat, however, since ground meat is always dicier raw.

You can buy at some Whole Foods (not in CA) a cracker made out of casava root that babies really like, called Casabe crackers. You can order them online as well.

When you're ready to introduce grains, I have a sprouted flour cracker recipe that's good, and the cracker recipe from NT made from sprouted wheat berries is good, too.

Somewhat greasy, but my DS loves natural german salami from WF, which is a good portable meat, and soft and easy to chew and swallow.

[puppeteermom]

Originally Posted by natmommy

my dd loves the arrowroot cookies from this recipe collection

http://wss.nourishingconnections.org...%20Recipes.pdf

Wow! Thanks for that link! I am printing off everything and look forward to doing some experimenting. Glad this thread is up with baby #2 on the way any day now...

-Heidi

[RootBeerFloat]

Hi, dd is 19 months now and I'm still looking for easy, low mess NT friendly snacks, especially for being on the go! It's hard, but so worth it to choose natural foods. I feel like I introduced grains way to early with dd and I really regret it. With my next child, I will strive to hold off until a year.

That being said, the crispy pancakes recipie from NT (it's the sourdough pancake recipie dehydrated in the oven) is fabulous and makes a great low mess snack. I use oat flour instead of the flours she suggests and I've soaked it in both buttermilk and yogurt and it comes out wonderful. If you want to add something sweet, you can put a little maple syrup into the batter. I cut the hard pancakes into triangles and it's great for on the go.

Have you done eggs yet? Less messy than veggies but not so great for trips are scrambled eggs or, even better, scrambled egg yolks. I usually don't add anything to them, although they're really yummy with a bit of raw cream, scrambled in butter. You can also mix a scrambled egg with a little cooked, mahsed sweet potato or butternut squash to make pancakes. Yummer.

There's a recipie for sweet potato cookies in NT that might also be worth checking out.

[natmommy]

Originally Posted by kbchavez

I tried that arrowroot cracker recipe twice, and it came out REALLY oily.

Mine was also a little oily...so the next time I made it, I baked it a little longer. Also keeping it the fridge seemed to help.

I am looking forward to trying the crispy pancake recipe.

I recently tried scrambled eggs with shredded zucchini and carrots. My dd loved it. You can add some arrowroot to help bind it and thicken the egg. I fried them in a little coconut oil and they made little "egg-veggie" pancakes. I think the recipe is on that site I posted.